My first day in uniform

I write his now as my host father flips through the channels trying to find what program the family will watch tonight.  Over the past few weeks, we have been watching a lot of the Cricket Championships in Sri Lanka (my take on cricket will be saved for another post), a show called Little Masters, which can best be described as an American Idol-esk show with 8 year old dance contestants all done with a Bollywood twist. My favorite competitor is a boy who does all his dancing in slow mo, it’s called ‘the cockroach dance’ no clue about the origin of the name. Oh and how could I forget Bollywood films! The one that we have been watching while I write has had a shootout fight scene that has been long enough and with enough death to rival the opening of Saving Private Ryan.

Due to heated debate between the teachers' union and the Ministry of Education, the teacher uniforms have been purchased, but no one has been allowed to wear them yet. But today, I was instructed to wear my uniform for the first time to school. I already attract enough attention on my walk to school without wearing a two piece pinstriped suit; but thanks to today, I am pretty sure I am known by everyone on my route to school now.  I arrived to school all decked out only to realize that I was the only teacher who was wearing his uniform. I spent the first two periods of class doing photo shoots with the teachers.

 For some unknown reason, they didn’t seem to like my California twist on the suit and sent me during 3^rd period to buy some dress shoes to replace my Chaco sandals.