Chopsticks Olympics

CHOPSTICK OLYMPICS

This is a series of games I play with various student groups each year. Try it out and have fun!

A few rules about chopsticks you should probably know (at least from the house I grew up in)-

  1. NEVER put your chopsticks straight up and down and stick them out of the rice in your bowl- you will get smacked by the elders. This mimics a custom of placing incense at a funeral or when paying respect to the ancestors. By doing so, you’re wishing death on someone at the table or insulting someone who has passed on; for most cultures, this is considered rude.

  2. Don’t suck on the chopsticks and do your best to not put your chopsticks directly in your mouth. It is generally considered gross. The only exception to this is if you’re shoveling rice into your mouthhole. Note 1: In some countries you should not shovel food into your mouthhole- Japanese rice tends to be sticky and easy to pick up, so you wouldn’t need to. Note 2: In some Asian countries, it is ok to not be as careful about the chopsticks touching the inside of your mouth, but they shouldn’t linger.

  3. Don’t play chopsticks like drumsticks at the dinner table. This is just plain obnoxious and it’s just as annoying even when you’re doing it with forks or spoons. Unless, of course you’re really adept at playing the spoons, in which case, you’ll be required to do a rendition of I Turn My Camera On by Spoon. The only acceptable time to bang your plateware with eating utensils is at a wedding reception and the entire party is trying to get the married couple to make out in front of everyone.

  4. Don’t move food around on the communal plate. Look at the piece of food you want and take it. If you can’t get it without fishing around for it, then you don’t deserve it.

  5. On that note, don’t use your own chopsticks to get food from the communal plate- always use the serving chopsticks. If you didn’t get a pair, then ask the Asian person you’re with for extra chopsticks. If you’re white, the waiter will probably just bring you a spoon or fork regardless of what you ask for.

  6. Don’t point with your chopsticks. This is just more aggression than we need at dinner. If you get into a discussion about politics, then resort to more passive-aggressive methods to get your points across or just scream.

  7. Don’t stab at food with your chopsticks. That’s just weird. Get a fork if you really need to get your stab on.

  8. Don’t cross your chopsticks. This is usually a symbol of death, it is only acceptable if you’re about to fight a vampire (wood chopsticks only obviously) or you’re trying to mark a treasure spot.

  9. Don’t pass food from chopstick to chopstick. It’s ok to be served, but the food should be served onto your plate. After placing food onto someone’s plate, it is customary to yell, “YOU GOT SERVED!”

  10. Don’t move plates or bowls around with the chopsticks. Rude people do this. It’s considered overly aggressive and also kinda gross since you’re eating with the chopsticks and touching objects with it (which is why lazy susans are so prevalent at Chinese restaurants!). It’s kinda like reaching across the table for something instead of asking for it to be passed. The other option is to just silently stare at what you want until it becomes awkward and someone embarrassingly moves the plate towards you. 

Now that we’ve gotten some etiquette basics out of the way, here are some games to try at your next clam bake.

EVENT #1 MOVEMENT CHALLENGE

Move Beads from one plate to another. In my house, we use community chopsticks to move food from the main dishes to our plate. If you can’t do this successfully, you’ll be dropping food everywhere and be embarrassed and lose face. 

Equipment:

  • Beads or some type of small round shape like a jelly bean or m&ms.

  • A large open container to hold all the beads- a plate or bowl should be good.

  • Transfer bowls

  • Chopsticks for each team

Instructions:

  • Two plates that are 5 feet apart on two different tables for each team. 

  • The athlete will then move specifically colored beads from one plate to the other (color will be predetermined by the host).

  • After a minute, the top score will be the healthiest because they were able to get the most food on their plate. 

  • 3 points for 1st place, 2 points for 2nd place, 1 point for 3rd place

EVENT #2 ENDURANCE CHALLENGE

Equipment:

  • A bean bag or some sort of object that can be held in chopsticks

  • Chopsticks

My dad can eat big giant chicken drumsticks without using his hands without ever putting it down until all the gristle and fat has been extracted from it. This takes dexterity, but also endurance in your forearms. 

Instructions:

  • At the start, all contestants will pick up a weighted bean bag with their chopsticks- you cannot place the beanbag in your chopsticks!

  • Object or bean bag cannot be resting on the chopsticks and should be held between them.

  • Hold your arm straight out- no bend in the elbow.

  • To shorten the length of time, you can have the athletes stand on one leg or perform other tasks like tap on their head with the other hands.

  • 3 points for 1st place, 2 points for 2nd place, 1 point for 3rd place


EVENT #3 CHOP PUT

How far can you throw a beanbag using your chopsticks? This skill is important to help determine who the strongest eaters are. The further you can throw, the more you can eat. 

  • All athletes should stand at the line. 

  • The bean bag should start on the ground in front of them. 

  • Countdown and then the contestants will pick up their bean bags with their chopsticks and throw them as far as they can. 

  • The athletes will have 10 seconds to pick up their object and chuck it as far as they can.

  • 3 points for 1st place, 2 points for 2nd place, 1 point for 3rd place


EVENT #4 RELAY RACE

Equipment:

  • Variety of objects that can be picked up with chopsticks. For example; pens, pom poms, yarn, bean bag, candy, ping pong ball, buttons, etc.

  • Chopsticks

Instructions:

  • Set up a start station and an end station. Place all objects in a bowl for each team. Each member of the team will pick up their objects and then walk it over with their chopsticks to the end station. Run back and pass the chopsticks to the next person. Keep going until all items have been transferred. 

  • 3 points for 1st place, 2 points for 2nd place, 1 point for 3rd place

That’s all I got for now! May all of your meals be filled with joy, love, and community! Peace!

Zentangles and Letterforms studies

Playing with Zentangles and Letterforms. Thinking about line, fill, shape, balance, symbols, motif, design & pattern, size, and placement.

Privilege, hybrid learning, teaching, and Covid-19

“We’re in the same storm, but we’re not in the same boat” is something I read somewhere that really resonates with how I’ve been thinking about this.

My school's response so far highlights the systemic issues of inequality in our school system. Many of the families we serve are rich and white; they believe that they deserve a better education for their kids regardless of whose lives are endangered or who gets left behind. I struggle to understand this perspective. Wealth should not be a determining factor for who gets to benefit from a quality education or to live a fulfilled life. Pushing to open in the face of a pandemic that has negatively affected Black and Brown communities disproportionately acts as a reverse vise grip that widens the equity gap along racial and socioeconomic lines. My school's motto calls on us to commit hearts to compassion and lives to the service of humanity, but instead, what I see is a selfish and greedy effort to forge ahead, leaving the less fortunate and underserved behind. What would it look like if the affluent community I work for sought to care for the health and well-being of those who continue to be left behind, rather than worrying about how we can best move forward without them?

In the school I teach at, we have students who are struggling during remote, but we also have staff members who are fearing for their health, their lives, and the well-being of their own families; our impatience to reopen schools only serves to exacerbate the suffering of both of these groups by enabling and advocating for an already unhealthy obsession with speed and advancement. Instead of only asking how we can move forward, why can’t we also define what community is; and if the words empathy, care, justice, healing, and love aren’t a part of the answer, then we have some serious soul searching to do. None of what we’ve done is in the service of anything that resembles social and emotional learning. What we’re demonstrating is that we need to ignore trauma and hurt so that we can prioritize academic content and industrial engagement- both of which are important, but what is the purpose of being educated and engrossed in production if we’re not directing it towards compassion and kindness? As an institution we’ve shown more concern for data and numbers instead of heart and self-care and that speaks volumes about who we are more than the words that we like to brag about.

I don’t really know what the answers are, but one thing is clear, we’re all struggling. We’re all caught in the pandemonium of school reopening plans and stay-at-home orders. If your gut doesn’t check or your heart doesn’t sink while reading about death rates and the breaking of the society that has been built by grit, sacrifice, and compassion, then this letter isn’t for you. It’s for those who still believe that we can still grow in a pandemic, just in a different way, and that the measure of our humanity isn’t in what colleges we’re accepted into or how high our test scores reach, but in how we looked to each other and cried for each of our losses, and held each other’s health and well-being as the priority of our efforts.