Chinese Team Building

So we were told by our boss that we would have to go on a team building retreat for school. 2 days and 1 night about an hour and a half south of us. There were only 8 western teachers that went, the others having legit excuses not to, and then 40 Chinese teachers. Having absolutely no idea what to expect, I was fairly skeptical heading into it. Waking up to thunder and heavy rain did nothing to help quell my feelings. After the bus ride, we approach a compound and walk into the main area. We are told this is boot camp, and we will come out of this as a great team, and glory for the school and some other ridiculous mantra that always sounds that way when translated to us. This was translated to us by our boss, who was laughing along the way at how ridiculous it sounded, so we knew it wasn't going to be like this. We get broken up into teams and handed cammo outfits to put over our clothes, then go off and do a few standard team building games. The highlight of which being we had to climb straight up this rickety pole, 8 meters high, and stand on the top of a pedestal at the very top of, then jump off onto a trapeze pole. We were strapped in and everything to be safe, but I couldn't help but keep thinking to myself, I'm still in China. That night, we had a big barbecue with everyone, and a big fire where we played these ridiculous games that would never fly back home. It was pretty hilarious actually, much help coming because the western teachers were able to find the beer reserves. Very fun night

Having spent the previous night wrapped in two sleeping bags on a couch because Pat and I couldn't put together our tent, we were beginning to feel a little cabin fever. The next day we did some more team building games that were much less engaging, but was capped off by the best lazer tag game of all time. This came out of nowhere, these soldier looking guys laid out all of these huge guns and told us the rules and the boundaries and the teams. We had helmets and vests that violently vibrated when hit, and played in this area with cabins and ravines and hills. The scene was straight out of a war movie, accept replaced with a few random white people and 40 Chinese girls. I got to have the sniper rifle for my team also, which was awesome. Anyways, when it was finally said and done, the Chinese team building was a very good time, and definitely worth doing

Another thing:
Young Chinese couples can be seen everywhere in Hangzhou, which isn't unlike any city really. What I find strange is that they often wear matching t-shirts, like literally his and hers, and hold hands when out. It's as if you can go to a store and buy them together. One t-shirt that I noticed just had matching colors, but for the guy's, in big letters over the front of it, it read "This is my Bitch." What's funny is that I'm positive he had no idea what it meant