Total Celebrities

I know that Camiile just did a blog post about this, so for those of you who read both of ours, I'm sorry you have to read about it again! I'm a little slower at updating than Camille, I guess. Anyway, here goes...

A few weeks ago, our school basically volunteered us to be the judges at a high school English competition in Yangxin. Yangxin is a village (really a town) about an hour from Huangshi. They told us it would just be 15 students giving a short speech in English so it wouldn't be very long. We said we would do it, thinking it would be low key, classroom, just a few students, just a couple of hours, no big deal!

As it turns out, the whole day turned into complete celebrity mode starting with being picked up in a nice car to be driven to Yangxin. Sounds nice right? Well I should mention that we were picked up at 7 in the morning and it was raining that day so Camille and I are looking rough to say the least! They stopped and treated us to breakfast...noodles of course! Then, we get to school and 15ish teachers are standing there waiting to greet us. They walk us to the auditorium, where to our surprise, there are hundreds of students sitting, waiting for us and the competition to start! The picture below is literally what we saw as we walked in...

Because this is a village, most of these people had never seen a foreigner before so they erupted into clapping and cheers for Camille and me as we walked in! The picture taking started immediately!

The competitors came up one at a time and gave a short speech on their dream in life. I was surprised and impressed at how good everyone's English was. After each speech, all of the judges would give them a score. 

Camille and I at the judges' table, sitting front and center! Diana sat next to us and also Zhu Ming. Zhu Ming is the daughter of one of the teachers at our school and she came with us to Yangxin for the day. Diana and Zhu Ming acted like our bodyguards for the day, always keeping close to us and speaking Chinese on our behalf! 

After all of the competitors had given their speech, it was time for awards. They asked Camille and I to go up on the stage to hand out each award and congratulate the students and pose for pictures! We said sure, thats easy, we can do that! We thought it was over and went to sit down, but oh no, we weren't finished yet!

Then they asked us to give the closing speech, ON THE SPOT! Why they couldn't have given us a heads up, I have no idea! So the two of us walk up on stage, microphones in hand, with no idea what to say. Basically, we just thanked them for inviting us to their school, said we enjoyed the competition, and congratulated the competitors and encouraged them to go after their dreams! Ok, speech done, that should be the end right? Of course it isn't. Now it was time for the Question and Answer session, in which students could come to the front and ask us a question. What?!?! They asked all of the usuals about boyfriends, how to improve their English, could they please take a picture with us, etc. The last girl came up to ask if we had QQ, the instant messaging system in China. Camille immediately replied that yes we do, and then she immediately regretted her statement! We walked off the stage and were mobbed but at least 50 students, handing us books, napkins, and scraps of paper to sign our name and QQ number on! I wish I had a picture showing Camille and I in the middle of the mob. It looked like we were signing autographs! I literally would sign a paper and then pose for a picture! Below are a bunch of the pictures taken by a teacher in Yangxin. Remember, picked up at 7 am!!! :)

Yep, this actually happened, she actually kissed me on the cheek! I know what it feels like to be Justin Bieber!

Finally, Diana came up to me and said "Ready to go superstar?" Haha I laughed and said yes! 

The teachers then treated us to a fancy lunch at their school, with our body guards remaining on either side, of course! Its not that we needed body guards, but more that it is more comfortable sitting with people you are familiar with who aren't constantly taking pictures of you!

And then it was time for the teachers to take pictures with us! We thought this was pretty funny, because they acted like the students were being outrageous with all of their cameras and phones and QQ numbers, and then just a short hour later, here they were doing the same thing!

It was a crazy day experiencing the lifestyle of a celebrity, but all in all it was pretty fun! This past Monday, Camille and I were asked to judge another English competition at the university in Huangshi. We've been feeling a little burnt out by all of the extra jobs we've taken on recently, but were asked by a friend and didn't want to turn him down! The university competition was way more intense and 3 HOURS LONG! We were assigned jobs when we got there and Camille got to be a judge along with the other teachers. I had to be the Question Master! After the students gave their speech, I had to ask them questions related to their topic! I was so nervous, that I made Camille help me write down question ideas before the competition started! But then I remembered that there were only 4 native English speakers in the whole room ( Camille, a couple from New Zealand who work at the university and me) so only these people would know if I messed up! I could do it! It turned out to be easier than I thought, but my palms were still sweating the whole time! After the competition ended, once again, we had to hand out awards and pose for several pictures! 

THE END.