Parallel Universe

The weather is changing. It's getting warmer. That's great, except that means the kids are getting sick. Every kid needs a mask.

At lunch time, the masks are next to the bowls as the students are hurried to finish their rice and vegetables, interrupted only by getting up to take a tissue to dam the constant flow of snot.

One by one, they finish and bring their bowls to my co-teacher for soup, then take a piece of fruit.

"If you're sick, you don't eat the fruit," she orders. Caught off-guard by that statement, I glanced over at the tray of fruit. It was orange slices...

I proceeded to ask about why, when the kids are sick, they are to be deprived of oranges, or any fruit for that matter. I got a brief lesson in how cold fruit when you are sick is bad "chi," which apparently trumps any scientific proof about the nutrition of an orange.

So the healthy kids eat oranges, and the sick kids finish their soup and the masks go back on.

I scratched my head over this for the whole day, and pretty much forgot about until the next morning. The breakfast tray came into the class and it was full of cake. Each student got a slice of cake that had some sort of pudding filling.

Once I was reassured that the kids needed to drink some water after they finished their cake, I confirmed with my co-teacher that they weren't going to be eating any fruit that day.

Amazing...