One of the most interesting tournaments I've ever seen has been the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens. Every year around March, Hong Kong is overrun with drunken, obnoxious, and hilarious rugby fans that see the tournament as secondary to the party that comes with it! This year it was March 25-27.
This is the first year I have been in Hong Kong during the Sevens. The first time I ever heard of them was when I was living in the Philippines. My high school was pretty big into rugby and some of the kids actually flew to Hong Kong just to see the sevens (this isn't actually as huge as it sounds, Hong Kong is about 2 hours away from Manila and Cebu Pacific has ridiculously cheap airfare). Whenever anyone brought up the sevens, I just assumed that they were a) into the sport and b) into the beer. While I knew that it's always fun to have an excuse to drink at a sports tournament, that was all there was to it.
Little did I know... I didn't buy tickets to see any of the games since I had to work on Friday and Saturday and by then there only would have been Sunday. Plus, as fun as I find grown men mutilating each other (this sport is MUCH more entertaining than American football), I didn't really want to spend around $100 for a ticket.
Friday, I was pretty oblivious since I have to wake up around 7 am on Saturday for work. Well, my work day was rough. My biggest pet peeve is when kids are disrespectful and I had one little cretin start waving his paper in my face and saying, "Miiiisssssss CICIIIIIII!!!" After I gave him a frowny face (I have developed a highly complex system of smiley faces and frowny faces in order to determine which children get stickers and which do not), he completely refused to understand why he had misbehaved and I spent a good 10 minutes before he finally acknowledged his rudeness. Then, when I talked to his mother about this issue, she pretended to be upset by his behavior while doing nothing to correct it...
My second biggest pet peeve is when a student shuts down. Now, when I am really furious, I tend to go silent in an attempt to calm myself down and rationally be able to explain why I am upset. I developed this method of coping because when I was younger, I used to fly off the handle and become cruel in my anger. I intensely disliked this personality trait and have worked really hard to move past it. I understand that my silence can be infuriating but it is much less hurtful. I think that sometimes the traits that we dislike most in others are ones that we ourselves possess. Which brings me back to this second student. I asked him to think of just ONE thing that has been memorable or special. Anything. Birthday, trip, game with friends, game with family... He couldn't think of anything and what's more, he just sat there staring at me. At first I thought maybe he didn't understand, so I started giving examples. He finally offered up a birthday but only said that they had cake and it was only with his family. Nothing else. Then he proceeded to relay a story about recess at school and how one day he played but then he went inside and wrote his homework and then a girl played and then he played. This was a painful class, not the least because he is usually quite a prolific writer. Finally, I called it a day, finished a grammar worksheet, and played Uno.
After this frustrating day, I was in no mood to go out. I did want this fabulous strawberry rhubarb pie that they serve at the Blue Smoke BBQ in Lan Kwai Fong. For anyone in Hong Kong reading this, you HAVE to try this pie, it is ridiculously amazing. On the way to devouring the pie, I went through the rest of LKF and suffice to say, I was bitterly upset that I hadn't brought my camera. LKF is the party district in Hong Kong. There are rows of bars and it's a bit less seedy than the girly bars on Lockhart Road in Wan Chai. Again, I thought that during the sevens, people just drank but in reality, they dress up in the most wonderful and, at times, disturbing costumes! If you have ever had the desire to see a whole bunch of middle-aged European bankers make fools out of themselves, then this is the place to be. There were men in bikinis, men in gaudy dresses and heels, men in Mao uniforms, people wrapped in American flags, and characters from the Mario world.
You'll also see plenty of drunk international school high schoolers and tons of foreign tourists out to celebrate the fine sport of rugby by dressing up in the most hilarious costumes. I managed to get a Carlsberg hat in order to blend in with the crowd. Here are some photos I found since again, I didn't bring my camera:
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| http://goldsea.com/803/29pm-rugby.html |
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| http://www.thebirds.us/2008/04/hong-kong-rugby-sevens.html |
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| http://www.thebirds.us/2008/04/hong-kong-rugby-sevens.html |
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| My hat! |
So, to any of the people reading this who are big party people, make sure to stop by Hong Kong during the spring for the spectacle that is the sevens.
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