THE DISH WARS

Tonight was absolutely awesome!

After a great meal of chicken quesadillas with a side of ranch beans, Mike (the Russian) was jokingly complaining about doing the dishes. Everyone groans when it's their night to do the dishes. I used to wash the pots, pans, plates, cups, and silverware every single night. Let's just say I got tired of that real fast. So, at the recommendation of others I created a Dish Duty chart. Each student washes dishes one night out of the week, and I do any leftover days. It works beautifully and I wish I had started it earlier. It's the only chore I ask of the students.

As I was putting my plate in the sink I heard Daniel (the Swiss) and Mike talking about a competition to have the loser do the winning man's Dish Duty of the week. At first I thought they were going to play Rock, Paper, Scissors for it, the good old fashion way. But no-- this is the 21st century now, folks!

They played a Wii tennis tournament, best three games out of five. As the two students geared up in the living room, the rest of us gathered on the sidelines to cheer them on. We cleared out the coffee table, maximizing the maneuvering space for the two tennis champions. These European have been training hard the past two days since I purchased the almighty Wii, and now their skills were going to be put to the test.

The tension in the air was palpable. Shouts from the spectators echoed off the walls of my Lilliputian living room. The Russian pulled through for the win in the first match. The Swiss took it for the second match. There was a minor upset in the third match as Daniel's controller turned off in the middle of the game. Officials have yet to determine if the cause was an errant thumb on the power button or faulty batteries. Either way, emergency batteries were retrieved from a functioning flashlight and placed in the sweaty Swiss boy's remote.

The score was two to one, the Russian in the lead. He only needed to take one more match to spare himself the terrible chore of washing dishes for 15 minutes...

In the end, smiles were had all around. The Russian won. Daniel washed the dishes quickly while I soundly whipped Mike in another round of games.

I'm beginning to think the Wii was a wise investment. And maybe I can get out of doing the dishes this weekend.