-^-for posterity-^-

i remember middle-school gym class vividly. our teacher was loud and blew his whistle often. the walls were padded with blue foam and the floor was grey. the gym doubled as a concert hall.

today we were the referee’s for the first official english football league in long xuyen. each year had their own team and we watched two teams play each other. tomorrow we will do the same. we (jack and i) stand in the sand with a whistle and a red and yellow card. we start the game, call the fouls and listen to everyone chant. oh, and they do chant.

at the beginning of both games each side was cheering in vietnamese. (yes, they are english students and we have tried to break them of the habit but they continuously speak vietnamese.) they were saying “(insert class name) try!” and that was all. by the end of each game, when the winner was obvious, the teams changed their cheers to, “(insert the name of both classes playing) try!” so, it turned into a community cheer. they stopped rooting for their own side when they saw who was winning and began rooting for the entire operation. in fact, at one point, we had a cheer, “jon and jack, try!”

and try i did.