Sittin on my Couch After a Free Chat

I'm sittin on my couch, looking around my empty apartment that was just filled with a bunch of giddy, laughing sophomores.

Some students from one of my favorite classes came over to hang out and practice English.  I suggested we make cookies.  They were all for it.  We ate the cookies.  They suggested a game.  I was all for it.

The game they suggested turned out to be a Chinese version of Truth or Dare.  The first girl chose "dare" and had to do 10 animal poses.  I'd say she spent about 10 seconds posing and about 10 minutes giggling between poses.

The next few kids chose "truth."  Here were the questions they had to answer:

• "What are the characteristics of your ideal husband?"  (Answer: mature and masculine)
• "If you could only marry one of the four boys in this room, who would you choose?"  (Answer: Henry, because he's single.)
• "What was your first kiss?"  Shot down by the crowd -- too personal.  Changed to: "What is a love story you've heard that you liked?"  (Answer: a couple from her hometown where the husband is even nicer to his wife than before now that they are married)

A few more silly dares came up.  One of the girls had to carry a guy piggy-back for ten steps, and another guy (the class monitor) had to do a sexy dance.

Everything they did was just edgy enough to be really funny, but innocent enough that I wasn't too concerned.  At one point, Manny leaned back on his chair and it broke into three pieces.  Hilarity ensued.  They fixed the chair.

And now I'm sitting here on the couch trying to remember how many teachers I ever invited to play "Truth or Dare" with me and my friends when I was a student.

I'm thankful for nights like this when I get invited into their lives for real.
I'm thankful (for once) that blogspot is blocked in China so I can blog about my students without embarrassing them.
And I'm thankful that the truth-or-dares never got around to me. :)