My favorite part

This was the choir of Aboriginal children. They were marvelous. It took my breath away! I find it hard to pick words to describe it, so I recorded a sample with my camera. I'm trying to get it online to put a link to it on this blog, but it seems tricky. Anyone have tips on where I could upload a wav soundfile?

Cute Dragons

Another entertaining portion of the Anniversary celebration. These are some of the grade 3 and 4's doing a dragon dance.

Bell Tower Dedication

Well, yesterday was the celebration of the 60th Anniversary of Fu-Hsing Private School.

The first activity of the day was the dedication of the new bell tower. Now, the bell tower has been there since I came in August, but the bells are new. They were imported from France, and were very expensive. Fu-Hsing can now say they have the tallest bell-tower in Taiwan. To celebrate, there were drummers, fireworks, dragon dancers, and balloons!

All eyes tuned!

It's hard to understand, but the school decided to keep the kindergardeners in class, instead of letting them join in the festivites. Some of the teachers tried to keep the kids in their chairs, working. But others stacked the tables next to the window so the kids could watch. They were fascinated.

Heh- Laugh at us!

We, the 'Foreign Teachers', were asked to do a brief presentation, and make it funny. The whole thing was a bit of a fiasco, I'm glad it's over. However, I found a quote on another blog that helped me have a better perspective of it:
It is a curious thought, but it is only when you see people looking ridiculous that you realize just how much you love them. -Agatha Christie.

The carnival

It was one crazy bazaar. The rain was only drizzling, but people still felt the need to carry umbrellas and poke me in the head! I don't like crowds at all, but since they were all my students, I stuck around. Each class had their own food stall, and they got to keep the profits, so there were some very agressive salespeople. I felt that it was my obligation as a teacher to buy lots, so I did. The first time I didn't feel guilty 'wasting' money on small trinkets!

Funny Food!

Kathy, holding up two of the food products my students convinced me to buy. Funny shaped waffles, and some sort of rice triangle wrapped in banana leaves (which is still sitting in the fridge).

Fu-Hsing's Birthday

One little Taiwan tradition I quite like involves giving birthday gifts. We quickly discovered from our students that when it is someone's birthday, that person gives gifts to everyone else. We've heard that Taiwanese people plan their own big birthday parties, invite everyone and pay for it all! It's Fu-Hsing's 60th Anniversary on Saturday, April 2nd. They gave all the teachers gift bags with a massive souvenier book that's bigger than a yearbook. It also included a crystal heart clock, you can never have too many of those.
I'll put up all the pictures from the Anniversary Shindig tommorrow.

Amaroni's

Friday night we were invited out to a company dinner, intended to 'boost morale' I believe. Amaroni's is most-likely the nicest Italian restaurant in Taipei, quite authentic. I highly recommend it, next time you're in the Taipei area. The decor is very warm, with giant portraits, vintage Italian advertisements, and all kinds of chandeliers.

Venice or Taipei?

We had a lovely dinner at Amaroni's. Using my best rose-coloured glasses, it felt like dinner in Italy. It was a much smaller than the other parties we've been to at Amaronis, and I'll take any excuse to get dressed up! Of course, I felt so gross after dinner, because I'm not used to eating big, heavy meals here, and my stomach was shocked. Ah, the perils of fine dining.

By any other name

One thing I love about living in Taiwan is the absence of Wal-Mart. Consumer peace. So yesterday, I went to the bakery for my morning bread, got my orange juice from the guy doing the fresh-squeezed thing on the back of his truck, went to the coffee shop for my coffee, the clothing store for a new shirt, and the flower stall by the subway stop for a new bouquet. See, celebrate diversity! Down with Wal-Mart! But I'll by-pass the rant and just show you this lovely rose from my new bouquet. I am quite proud of this shot, I didn't have to do any edits (other than compensation for the florescent lights).

"Tiny"

It was a cold rainy night when I was walking to the gym, and passed this scene. I love how seriously the little girl is considering the puppies. I call it "Tiny" for PhotoFriday.

News of Note

*I forgot to apologize for not blogging on Monday. I was in the middle of reading "The Time Traveler's Wife" and everything else took a back seat. It was one of those all-consuming books, the kind that come along so rarely. I agreed to go to dinner with Kathy, but only if I could bring my book. I came home from work at my lunch break, just to read. And I sat it aside at the end of the last page with a small sigh, sad it was over. Mmm. The whole thing only lasted three days, but it was a real reminder of how much I love reading, and how silly it is to sit down to watch a movie instead! And I do recommend it, one of the most original books I've ever read. Of course it's orginal, how many legitimate works of fiction out there are seriously about time travel?

*I wanted to link to a fascinating article I found on an emerging church website. It's called "To clarify this 'journey'" and it does a very good job of explaining some of the driving forces in the desire for a different kind of 'church.' I personally felt that the author, Brother Maynard, hit on all the things I was having trouble categorizing, what specifically I am looking for in a church. Not that agree with all of it, but most of it.

* I am now off to face a grade 6 class, then grade 7 boys, and grade 8 boys. By the end I will likely loose all motivation and just stare at the board blankly. But after the hard Thursday afternoon comes the promise of the weekend, and this weekend is going to be a doozy!

Notes of News

* A year ago, we had just finished performing Love's Labour's Lost, at the little Charlbury Baptist Church in Charlbury, Oxfordshire, England. Can you imagine, less than a year ago and it seems like worlds away in so many different aspects. For those of you who don't know, I spent last spring, my final semester of university, studying abroad at Oxford University. (Well, sort of). My limited acting ability made me ideal for the minor role of Holofernes, the schoolmaster. Too bad I don't have my pictures, you could see production in all it's glory. Very fond memories.
* We just finished watching the first series of The Office. Hilarious. Really, truly funny. Which just makes the fact that NBC is making an american version all the more outrageous. It actually makes me laugh to think that they have the audacity to think they can copy it. Americans doing British comedy? As if. The whole reason the office works is the very British concept of humor used in it. Next the Americans will try to steal "Royal Canadian Air Farce" from the the Canadians. The United States has many wonderful forms of humor perfected, Adam Sandler and the Simpsons are two that come to mind. To each country their own. Enjoy the diversity and don't steal! (An interesting article from the CBC on why the new Office doesn't work.)
* I had fresh strawberries with milk pudding (a Taiwanese thing, I believe) for desert tonight. Yummy.

NEVER!

I found this postcard at the bookstore, and it sent a chill down my spine. Let this be a cautionary warning: "Daisy and Lily are twins. And real true friends. They will never part. Never."

Hey, this is Kathleen! Here's a picture of my bedroom (my Mom wanted to see it). It's definately a mix-matched style, I made the curtains myself and I bought the cheapest fabric available at the market. My favourite part is the netting: I've wanted on for as long as I can remember. So there it is! 

Happy Easter - Post #3

I thought I'd post my little "make-your-own-church" plan.
The 'cyber hymnal' came through,
and I even enjoyed the tinny, computer generated rendition of Christ the Lord is Risen Today. The lyrics for all ten verses are there, too. I also had to look up my other favorite hymn: Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing and Here is Love, from the Welsh Revival.
Then you can listen to good old James McDonald, from Harvest Bible Chapel, the church that Kathy went to in Chicago. There's a whole archive of his sermons, and he has a three part series on Easter.
And here's a prayer from the Church of England Easter vigil:

God of glory,
by the raising of your Son
You have broken the chains of death and hell:
fill your Church with faith and hope:
for a new day has dawned,
and the way to life stand open
in our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Disappointment

Urgh! Kathleen and I got to church ten minutes early - walking in and found a sign that said there were special Easter service times. Uh-huh. The Enlish service had started an hour before. Did they think to put this little nugget of information on their website or in the newspaper? No. You're supposed to be a mind-reader, I guess. So we walked in late, missed all the hymns listed in the bulletin (including Christ the Lord is Risen Today) and were just in time to sit through the lengthy, cliched Easter altar-call sermon. I was so upset I almost cried.

Lesson learned, if I ever get to help plan an emergent church (as I hope will happen sometime in the future) I will do three things:
1. Sing Christ the Lord is Risen Today at Easter.
2. Update the website with all pertinant information, including times and services details, every week.
3. No sermons! (Teaching is fine. There's a big difference.)

Finally, I hope all of you have found a place to worship this Easter, and if you got to sing Christ the Lord is Risen Today, don't rub it in, k?!

Christ the Lord is Risen Today!

These are the azaleas (I think?) blooming right outside our door, and I've christened them my easter flowers because I hate lilies. The pink blossom was surrounded by glowing white ones and it made me stop to appreciate the beauty. Well, Happy Easter to you all. Kathleen and I are going to the Baptist church this summer, solely in the hope of singing Christ The Lord is Risen Today. I think our chances are best with the baptists. That is my second favorite hymn, and I think the last time I sang it in church was as an adolescent at Bayview Glen. I'm REALLY hoping we get to sing it today. Kathy says if we don't I can just go to cyberhymnal.org, but it's just not the same. I'll let you know.

326 Peace March

Today was the 326 Peace March protesting the Anti-Succession Law that China passed a week or two ago. I thought I should put up some pictures with my thoughts, just to do that whole blog - news first hand thing.
So I taught Saturday class, went to the gym for BodyPump (Huh! I am strong!) Then a lovely relaxing lunch reading the paper on the Starbucks patio. Then I heard the sound of loud speakers and chants. The march started, and was still going almost 2 hours later. It was a steady river of people. I will be very interested to read how many people were there, it was supposed to be more than a million, and it certainly looked it. I had a sweet old man hand me a flag on the way past, so I got to wave my little 'peace, democracy' white flag. I was half tempted to join in the march and experience the feeling of being part of something bigger than myself, but I really hate crowds. (= I do still support the cause, and the idea that peace and democracy need to be protected. I hope that this rally gets the worldwide publicity to help bring attention to Taiwan's position.

I was interested to read a small sidebar item entitled Tube Woman Hype Continues about what they called "the hyped-up US media frenzy." I find it fascinating to think that it is dominating American news coverage, and yet it seems so insignificant from an international perspective.