Explosions!

How do you say "exploding radiator" in Chinese? OH! That's right, you say "my classroom on Sunday."

(There were no children sitting next to the radiator in question, so no one was hurt at all and no one even got wet except maybe their shoes when they were trying to climb out of the rapidly flooding room, so it was just funny and startling and y'all shouldn't be worried)

"Exploding" is too much, really; it didn't exactly explode. There was a pop and a bang and something came flying off and water came rushing out and we evacuated the room to finish class sitting on the steps in front of the school (this was Sunday middle school class, not regular high school). Coming back 20 minutes later to look at the room, steam was pouring out the windows and water was pouring out the door. It was misty and warm and really was like a sauna; we couldn't see more than a few feet.

Sunday classes are somewhat divided by ability and somewhat by age - the Book 11 kids are mostly sixth graders, and the middle school kids are mostly middle schoolers, but there are some younger kids in both those classes. Bart is in the middle school class, and it took a while before I realized how young he actually is. He's just barely tall enough to reach the blackboard. I think he comes up to my elbow. All the kids think he's adorable (or at least it seems that way), and it turns out he's only six or seven. His English is pretty much excellent, but he's definitely not a teenager (or even a preteen) in the way some of the others are. A couple weeks ago, he ran up to my desk, gave me a corn-flavored candy (it really did taste just like corn), and ran away to hide. This week during break, he kept writing "CLASS" on the board, erasing the C, giggling, erasing the L, giggling, and starting over again.

Birthdays in China are celebrated with fireworks at noon, something we noticed earlier when our 4th period classes were always interrupted at the end by the sound of firecrackers. Weddings are also celebrated with explosions. There's a car that drives through town sometimes with large rockets on its back end (they're probably each about four feet long and maybe six inches across or something). When the rockets go off, there is flame shooting out the end and the sound is like thunder when the storm has maybe gotten a little too close and really you ought to go back inside now, only much more terrifying because it is unexpected and accompanied by fire and explosion. We've never managed to get a picture of this car because whenever it's around we tend to want to drop to the ground and cover our heads (or at least dash into the closest store to hide), but I'm including a picture I found on the internet that is kind of similar.

(really the car is much smaller and not military-looking, and although the rockets are probably about the same size as in that picture, they just shoot flames and are terrifying; the rockets don't actually go anywhere)