Try It

Yesterday was British Culture Day at school. Forgive me if I skip over the highlight of the day which was two of my colleagues acting in a Harry Potter skit as a 6'7" Harry Potter and a 5'4" Hagrid (yes, the kids chose Harry Potter as the theme). I mainly have to skip it because I was forced by teaching duties to miss it. I can only hope to catch the reruns as they play on the monitors laced throughout the school.

In honor of British Culture Day, we had a visiting contingent from Reading School in none other than Reading, England. The teachers were strong-armed into a meet-and-greet tea-and-biscuits-that-aren't-really-biscuits session. And, it's turning into fall around here, so I was chilly.

I got up to replenish my tea when I saw a glass bottle of something in the staff lounge. I was waiting for the tea to boil, so I picked it up and looked it over. It had a picture of a fruit on it. It looked like it might be a syrup of some kind. Or a wine. Or a liquor. And it was opened and about a third of it was gone. Just then, my Chinese principal walked into the room. 

"What is this?" I asked her?

"Oh, it's a wine or a, um liquor. You should try it."

At 9am on a school day in the staff lounge. She said that to me. Seriously.

No, I did not quaff the bottle, although I did take the tiniest taste just for curiosity's sake. And it was pretty nasty in a sweetish, alcoholicish, assish kind of way.

I set the bottle down and went back to making tea. After I'd rinsed out my mug, of course.