2018's Formal Kickoff

January 2018:

The first month of the second semester began with an old, tried-and-true activity--intramural football--and a first-time, never-been-done-before social event--the 1st Annual Kunming International Academy (KIA) Senior High School Winter Formal--and fun was had by all!

High School Intramural Football League:

The KIA high school only has approximately eighty students, so creating activities--one-time or weekly--can be difficult, as our students tend to spread themselves thin to cover academics and a host of extra-curricular activities that are civic (Model UN, Student Government Association), artistic (orchestra, music club, writing club), and athletic (basketball, volleyball, football, track).  However, January, because of its close proximity to the long Christmas/New Year Break and the Chinese Lunar New Year (Chun Jie) Break, tends to be a rather relaxed month, with very little going on, except for academics.  That means that January is an awesome time for high school intramural football, every Monday and Thursday.

Picture 1:  Timothy (Korea) attempts to dibble out of his own end against Ian (U.S.).  The KIA high school intramural league consisted of five teams, each with six athletes.  We played 3 v 3 on a field approximately 30 x 20, with small goals (no keepers), each inside a no-play arc (the orange cones).

Picture 2:  Katherine (right, South Africa) meets some aggressive resistance from Grace (Australia).  The intramural league is co-ed, and each team must have either two males and a female or two females and a male on the field.  The only exception is if the team is absent male or female athletes, in which case they play with only two athletes of the same sex, until such time as the missing sex arrived to play.

Picture 3:  Naturally, because KIA is an international school, our intramural league features some rather racially and nationally eclectic teams.  The five athletes pictured above represent Austria, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and the United States.  Nathan (Canada, Taiwan, United States) looks to advance the ball against Harmony (Philippines, United States).  By the end of our month-long season, Nathan's team, "Swiper" (as in "Swiper, no swiping! Swiper, no swiping!"), had managed to separate themselves from the rest of the league.

1st Annual KIA High School Winter Formal:

Picture 4:  The grade-12 students (my homeroom) decided to host the first ever KIA Winter Formal on campus and used a very generous potluck buffet to feed all participants.  The goal of the winter formal was to provide a low-key social event to mirror the more formal and more established Spring Banquet formal event (aka. Prom).  Thus, all high school students--not just juniors and seniors--were automatically encouraged to participate, and the cost per person was approximately one-quarter the participation fee of the spring event.

Picture 5:  The banquet was served alfresco, which did become a bit cool after the sun set and the breeze picked up.  However, the daytime highs were in the low- to mid-20s (low- to mid-70s, Fahrenheit), so the overall comfort level outside was quite bearable.  Furthermore, with warm noodles, warm fried chicken, warm lasagna, warm kim bap, and generally warm food all around, the conditions outside were very pleasant.

Picture 6:  As nice as the weather was, this was still meant to be Winter Formal, so we tried to have some "winter" activities, like building "ice castles."  Participants were randomly organized into teams and given a plastic bag full of building materials--paper plates, plastic cups, string, tape, popsicle sticks, construction paper, and more.  The goal was to create the tallest free-standing "castle."  While none of the structures ended up being very "free-standing," the teams had fun laughing at their own creations, especially when they each began to quiver, lean, and crumble.

January was a fun month at KIA and owed much of the credit for that fun to the intramural football league and the winter formal event.  Hopefully, just as the intramural league has been around at KIA for a decade, the winter formal will continue to be a tradition for our students.