You Don't Know What You Have...

Lately, as we have been dusting off our feet and getting ready to head back in the direction of America, we have been getting pretty anxious to move on and see what's next. This has left us wondering about what kinds of things we will miss from this year in Taiwan once we're back home. This will probably include things we take for granted now like how cheap eating out is, how easy it is to travel around and just how entertaining life is in general over here.

These wonderings bring to mind the old and often-true saying that you don't know what you have until it's gone. On our recent trip to Singapore we experienced this saying...but in a bit of a reverse. As you've heard us say time and time again in this blog, Taiwan has some really great things about it and some less-than-stellar things as well. These less-than-stellar things, you quickly learn to grin and bear and they no longer become (too much) of what you notice or think about.

On landing in Singapore and walking around the first day the very first things that we were aware of were how quiet, how clean and how orderly it was. It certainly didn't feel like we were in Asia, at least the Asia we knew! We had ceased to notice the lack of quiet, cleanliness and orderliness in Taiwan but we were suddenly blindingly aware of how nice having these things is as the prevalence of them in Singapore caused them to take center-stage in our minds. The whole time we were there, we were continually amazed at how bright, shiny and calm everything was.

This seemed mainly due to the abundance of laws and fines imposed. There were signs everywhere informing citizens and visitors of what to do and what not to do and how much you would have to pay if you did. Living in Taiwan, most of the time you actually expect people not to follow the laws (especially when it comes to driving), but here laws were in place and abided by and added a nice, orderly feeling to the place that we had been missing (in spite of all the adventures we've had in Taiwan).

The other thing we noticed and loved about Singapore is that it was truly a multi-cultural place. In one block of walking down the street, you would see at least five to ten different ethnicities and all manner of skin colors ranging from the whitest of white to the most beautiful dark chocolate shade of brown. In Taiwan we're used to feeling like a minority and get our fair share of stares and here it was nice to blend into a crowd where nobody blended in at all.

After a busy couple of months at work we vowed that we would spend the whole first day resting and lounging around the pool, but alas our curiosity took over and we spent the whole afternoon exporing the central part of the city on foot...a very easy thing to do since there is an abundance of wide sidewalks! In spite of being 85 miles from the equator, it felt surprisingly pleasant. Here are a few pictures from that first day.

This is the Arab District, which actually turned out to be our favorite place. It had a big mosque, lots of beautiful fabric for sale and sidewalk shopping to do and outdoor cafes to eat at.
The next thing we stumbled upon on our walk was the Fountain of Wealth, apparently the biggest fountain in the world.
After that we walked to the marina and got a different view of the skyline as well as some other pictures of that area.
Also, here is Singapore's famous "Merlion." Not quite sure what its significance is but it did take me until the last day to put two and two together and realize that it was a lion and a mermaid combined. Go figure. ; )
Our hotel was in a pretty great location, right on the river and across the bridge from the center of eating and nightlife in the city. The eating we were into of course, and the nightlife not as much.
We had read that Singapore had a Chinatown so that night we decided to head over there and try and find some dinner. Once there, it all started to feel a bit too familiar and we left, scratching our heads as to why we had come to this area in the first place when we were so relieved upon entering Singapore of all that was trying about Taiwan. We shrugged our shoulders and laughed, feeling like the "food hunt" was calling and we just had to embark on it because that's what we do. Never-the-less, Chinatown, like the Arab District, had some great old architecture that they had taken the pains to preserve. Go, Singapore!
The next day was our beach day. So, we headed over to the island of Sentosa, connected to the main island by a monorail. Here was the point of contintental Asia closest to the equator.
And, one of us...
But, please, beware of....PEACOCK ATTACKS!!!
The next day we ventured into Little India and came across this Hindu temple.
Once you stepped out of the MRT station in Little India, you were instantly enveloped in the heavy scent of incense mixed with flowers and curry. There were big garlands of flowers hanging everywhere and sidewalk markets selling every size and color of sparkly bangles. Unfortunately we don't have too many pictures as we didn't spend too much time here and preferred the wide open sidewalks of the rest of the city. This probably only being because we were enjoying a break from the always-congested sidewalks of Taiwan.

Our last night we decided to check out the Singapore Flyer. In addition to boasting the largest fountain in the world, Singapore can also claim the largest giant observation wheel in the world. For the price of what it costs to go up in the Space Needle in Seattle you get a 3o minute ride in a large capsule with floor to ceiling windows that is placed on the outside of a giant ferris wheel.
Singapore was a great place with tons of great food, variety of things to do as well as being very reasonable and easy to get around. We couldn't help thinking that it could be a good place to go if we were in need of another international adventure at some point.

The next morning we packed up our things and hopped on a plane back to Taiwan. Instantly, we were greeted with the familiar sights and smells of this place that has become our home over the past year. While anxious to go and explore more places, we will still miss many things about this place and may even mourn for some of those things once we're gone. So, as always, we are trying to focus on the present and not get too ahead of ourselves and into the next thing before one is finished. : )

Dance, Monkey, DANCE!

There are certain defining moments in our lives. These moments are often at the apex or climax of some sort of series of difficult, yet possible to overcome obstacles. Hollywood has taught us to embrace these moments with the realization that the reward awaiting us is well worth the toil. When I was a child, one of those rewards was summer vacation. No matter how tedious or boring school was, I knew that if I could just persevere I would find myself on the other side with the sun on my face and seemingly endless days ahead to run and play.

In a rather dramatic sense that has been a picture of our Taiwan experience, and in another way that is how we have begun to see our recent endeavor: The Jubei Branch 2 Kindergarten Performance.

To begin I must be clear on my terms. Namely the word performance. What does performance mean in a discussion about 3- 6 year olds? Well here in Jubei it means an English play(complete with full costumes, memorized lines, dance routines, props, sets and in some cases sound-effects and a soundtrack), a separate musical show with its own costumes and dance numbers as well as instruments, and a climatic finish with the entire school dancing to a song lead by the Japanese teacher. That's right folks, 3 hours straight of entertainment and an insistence upon no dead air or dead time. But more on that later.

The entire process of why and how this show came to be is beyond the scope of this simple retelling, but I will say that the scope of the project seemed to grow larger and larger the more we got into it.

As we began writing our plays we realized that simple costumes would not be seen as enough. We needed to have props and backgrounds for the kids to interact with or our the show just wouldn't look up to snuff. So the task of building began. This mainly consisted of many hours spent cutting, taping and arranging various cardboard boxes and heavy paper into the appropriate shape. At one point Katie had considering making 406 individual apples for her students to stack on their heads, but thankfully she found another way.

Here are some of the props lined up in the proposed order during a rehearsal:
We spent most of our lunch breaks and a few Saturday mornings working on our props and as they came together so did the plays the children were learning. It was at this juncture that we saw how much these children could do and that, at home, children were not being asked to do enough. These kids were memorizing a 10 -15 minute show all in a second language that was memorized! Do I know a 3 - 6 year old at home that could do that? I don't know, no body ever asked them to.

As the day neared, rehearsals began to take over entire English classes and eventually we were marching out to various venues to practice. These practices involved all of the children (around 120 kids altogether) sitting around for 3-4 hours waiting to practice one of their 3 different shows. The highlights of these practices are as follows:

1. One of the younger kids fell asleep on stage during the music show performed by the small classes (3-4 year olds).

2. One of the kids began to throw up because it was too hot, he was given a plastic bag and asked to keep on going.

3. One of the staff at our branch was less than gentle with many of our props and some (like Katie's surfboards) were all but completely destroyed, erasing many hours of work.

4. At one of the venues (an outdoor stage), the director began to yell at our manager demanding that we pay her for the time we spent there. We paid nothing, but we did not go back.

5. The confidence of many kids in our classes began to shine and many had little trouble reacting to the large stage and learning to use the props.

6. One of the music teachers in a less than kind voice, demanded that the children smile more and try to act cute. That is: more cute...we need more cute!

7. We got to see the kids on the actual stage and were amazed at how large the production was and yet how they seemed to manage it just fine.

All in all, after many sweaty hours the dress rehearsal arrived. Here are some shots from that day:

On Sunday, July 5 we woke up early and made our way to the stage. It had been almost 2 months since we had done anything else other than think about all things performance and now the day was at hand. I am happy to tell you that, we weren't nervous...in fact we were ready. 500 people would be in attendence and we were confident that they would not be disappointed.

Here are some shots of the children in their costumes. They were given full make up as well as the costumes specially bought or made for the occasion.
This is Brian. He just informed me that this traumatic and stressful experience has turned him into a dinosaur...or "Teaher Luke...me...is dinosaur!"

The show went off with out a hitch. For me a highlight was at the beginning of my Elephant class' rendition of "The 3 Little Pigs" one of the narrrators forgot the opening lines of the play. He squinted through the many layers of hot stage lights and when his eyes met mine he began to shake and cry. Yeah kid...that is a lot people. Thankfully his co-narrator said his lines for him, squeezed his hand and the show began and went just fine.
All in all the show went very well and it was well recieved by the parents as well as the staff we worked with. In fact, it felt almost anti-climatic considering how much work and worry we had put into it. All the hours of trying to figure out dances and how to make the blocking on the stage work were just eclipsed by the kids doing their thing and then almost as soon as it was over, we tore down everything and left since the stage was being used by another school a short time after ours was finished.
So what was the defining moment for us? I'm not sure, I just thought it was a good intro and since your reading this far it worked.

So long for now...