Would you like some beef and wine before class?

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised any more by the questions that I'm asked over here, but this one surprised me a bit. The week before New Years we had several things on the agenda in terms of celebrations for the New Year but there were no plans (at least to my knowledge) that involved drinking large amounts of wine at school before class. We, the teachers, had arranged to do a gift exchanged amongst ourselves and order pizza on the Friday before the New Year. Classes were canceled in the afternoon so that the students could have their own little parties and hang out before the long weekend. This was our plan - the director of the English Program had other ideas. On Thursday, I don't teach in the morning, but I do have several afternoon classes. I had gone out to get coffee in the morning and read and came back at about 11:00. As I approached the office, I smelled what could only have been bar-b-que but that didn't jive with where I was - there shouldn't be bbq at school. Much to my surprise, I walked into the office and there is our director grilling up some beef with several bottles of wine on his desk. The other teachers wrapped up with their classes and came back to the office and we're told that this is his New Years party for us. So we obligingly started to eat and drink. He had brought a good amount of beef and three bottles of wine. Despite our protestations that we had to teach later in the afternoon, he kept our glasses full and we all enjoyed some good wine and beef. About 50 minutes later, I headed off to class sucking on a mint my director so thoughtfully provided for me. And so that's how I ended up drinking a good bit of wine before class - all in the name of celebrating New Years.

The following we came back to school and had our official party and the students got time in the afternoon for their parties as well. I brought my camera for these festivities and took a few pictures. Here's the album that I made from our New Years parties.