In America - one of the safest places to seek refuge when going out on the town was a bar. Even if students would sneak in - if they saw you they would quickly disappear so as not to alert the bar staff to their underage presence.
As with most things in China - its much different here - particularly in that regard. Last night, myself and five of my teacher friends went out to a bar in Shanghai. Now Shanghai is one of the largest cities in the world, with over 20 million people and countless bars - so I felt pretty confident that I could enjoy a drink and some good conversation at this place while remaining anonymous.
However - about 20 minutes after we arrived, as we were sitting on two couches enjoying beers and talking - I heard a voice behind me say, "Mr. Held - is that you?"
I didn't immediately recognize the voice - but it didn't matter. Only a few people in this world call me Mr. Held, and I really did not want to see any of them at the moment. Unfortunately - that was not the case. I turned - and standing in front of me was a group of 8 students from my sophomore math class. Suffice to say - it was awkward. My friends and I were staring at my 15 and 16 year old students, most of whom had a drink in hand, a few of whom were smoking. A couple lines of small talk and they scattered to the far corners of the bar - but my night was over. I finished my drink swiftly and we headed out to another location as quickly as we could - knowing nothing really good could come from lounging in the same bar as my students. My decision was confirmed as I was passing through the door and I heard, "Wait - Mr. Held - do a shot with us!"
The students can be brazen like this because there is no enforcement of the minimum drinking age in China - so a good number of kids start drinking when they enter high school as freshmen. I guess you know you are in a different country when instead of offering the teacher an apple, the student orders an appletini.
1 comment:
Yikes, talk about awkward! I guess that'd be like us going to the Mustang and seeing Sodergren or Homan there. Of course, Homan probably would have be the one to say, "Hey you guys want a shot?"
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