April Fool

If you've known me for very long, you probably know that I don't enjoy mean or pointless jokes and or pranks. And I really hate feeling stupid (though I don't know of many people that do enjoy losing face). The 22 years that I lived in America I never thought much about April Fool's Day...none of the people I hung around with ever cared about it. And until this year, I didn't think people in China cared about it either...well, I was wrong. I guess you could say I was "fooled". I got a text message from a student early in the morning with a fairly innocent sounding request. This is what it said: "All of us are very interested in foreigner's festivals. So how about have a conversation this night in our learning room?" (The freshmen have study hall in an assigned room every night from 7-9). So I agreed and asked which holidays she wanted me to talk about. During the day I kind of wondered if they were planning on doing something to me when I got to the classroom, but I convinced myself that in China they didn't celebrate April Fool's. So I spent about 45 minutes looking up information on different holidays and actually found out some cool things I didn't know before. Then I went to their classroom and spent about 45 minutes telling them about the holidays. They seemed to really enjoy it and I had a good time with them and left feeling happy.

Well...the next day I teach that class and during the 10 minute break I was talking with the girl that had asked me to come and talk the night before. She said something to the effect of, "You know I was just joking yesterday right? I wasn't really expecting you to come, so I was very surprised when you walked in." I was taken aback a bit, and told her that no I didn't know that she didn't really expect me to come. I said, I could only know that if you told me that I needn't come, it was just a joke. I was pretty mad inside and felt like a complete idiot for having done that. I guess that's the odd thing about April Fool's Day and the reason I hate it... the goal is to make others feel stupid. Why make a specific day to celebrate that when all of us (including me) want to do that naturally? We don't need any encouragement to do that! But anyway, it's ok now. She was sincerely sorry and saw that she had wasted a lot of my time. I told her not to worry about it and that I forgave her...after all, I've been forgiven for all the wrong things I've ever done!

Some of the foreigners here were also playing some jokes on each other that I didn't like. But they weren't directed at me, so it was easier to deal with! All that to say, of all the "holidays" in the world, April Fool's Day is my least favorite!