3 Concerts in 3 Weeks!

These past three weeks I have rung in the holiday's by going to three Christmas concerts!

I attended my first concert at the National Concert Hall with my host mother and our neighbors. We listened to a French violinist play many classical songs. It was very interesting! Not my kind of music, but I take every opportunity to experience something new, and make the best of it. Sometimes I had to envision an orchestra behind him and then maybe Adele belting it out in front of him, but it was still good!

The second concert I attended was with my friend from Thanksgiving, Sister Mary Beth. We listened and watched many Taiwanese choirs, and famous performers.  We enjoyed Christmas tunes with some added Taiwanese twists! It was really nice to sing-a-long to the songs I knew in a great Christmas setting. Being with a great friend made the night even better! So thankful for Sister Mary Beth and her company on this night!

My third and last concert for the month of December was a fun one! I attended the National Concert Hall again, this time with five of my exchange student friends - France, Germany, and the U.S.. We watched a German and Cuban Percussion band called the Klazz Brothers. It was so much fun! There were five guys in the band, playing the piano, the bass, drums, and two Cuban men on the bongo's! Christmas meets Cuba - good classic Christmas songs with the cha cha cha of Cuban music. These men were fun and funny.  Being surrounded by a Taiwanese audience was all that more funny! Dancing and singing along to this great music was great and a unique way to try and get into the Christmas spirit.

I really enjoyed all three concerts and I am so happy I experienced them! Thank you to all who came along and included me these nights!

Coming of Age Ceremony!

An INCREDIBLE day! The Coming of Age Ceremony is a traditional ceremony that the Taiwanese take part in during their teenage years, symbolizing entering into adulthood and leaving childhood. On December 9th, District 3520 Rotary Youth Exchange students were given the opportunity to experience this full on! Pretty cool!

My day started at 8:45 a.m. at the Confucius Temple here in Taipei. We practiced our dances once in the morning and then we were able to take a tour of the beautiful temple and another one near by as well. Our tour guide was great and made understanding the beliefs and traditional values of Confucius and Taiwanese people very easy. The history dates so far back, and it goes deep, making it all a bit hard to grasp. However, being at Confucious' Temple, and reading his philosophies and principles first hand, along with the tour guide who was able to break it all down for us was incredible! I am now able to better understand and actually see his philosophies and principles in my host families and the other Taiwanese I have encountered. It was neat to make that connection.  I was able to look back on my time here in Taiwan and be able to say that I have talked about or experienced first hand various philosphies and principles actions with the people here in Taiwan!

After trekking through the rain with our umbrellas, we made it back to the ceremony location. We ate lunch and then began getting dressed in our traditional outfits. The girls wore red and the boys wore gold! The outfits made it all more real for all of the exchange students.  It felt cool to be fully engaged in the day!  Rotarian's, the US ambassador for Taiwan, and host families began to take their seats, and the ceremony began!

The Coming of Age Ceremony begins  by participants walking through the temple doors and washing our hands in a fountain made of banana leaves. Washing our hands symbolizes washing away childhood and having clean hands for entry into adulthood.  The RYE's were then seated and listen to remarks from the Rotarian's.  After the remarks, we begin to dance. For the past four Fridays, I have been spending my afternoons practicing traditional Chinese culture dances with the other RYE students. We practiced the Dragon dance, Weapons dance, and a famous Taiwanese hip-hop dance that our choreographer added some Gangnam Style to! The Dragon dance involved carrying the big dragon around and lifting people at certain times in the dance.  So, this dance was bested suited fot the the strong boys. The Weapon dance involves a lot of grunting noises.  I just couldn't pull this one off.  However, the traditional hip-hop dance, with a mix of Gangnam Style - was their pick for me! We shared the day with another Rotary District, so we had two more Fan dances from that District as well. The dances all went smoothly and it was both funny and so cool to see all the exchange students dancing a traditional dance in Taiwan after just four days of practice! One thing we exchange students seem to have in common -  we give it everything we have!  We roll with anything, and we love to smile and laugh!  This made the entire day even better!

When we finished with the performances, we began the actual Ceremony itself! We walk with our frame that includes our dreams, and our parents dreams for us. Then one by one, we slowly walk under a table and  pause while under the table, then,step out. Once this is completed, you move up to the stage where the girls hair is pinned by their parent and the boys are given their hat. Of course, we are in Taiwan, so there are thousands of pictures after!

The whole proccess was really unique.  I am so happy I was able to experience this ceremony! Thank you  fellow RYE students and District 3520 for making this such a memorable day!

Speech Competition

On December 1st, I participated in a Mandarin Chinese speech competition. I had signed up, not in hopes of winning, but rather to build my vocabulary, practice speaking Chinese, and continue in the Rotary way of becoming even better in future speaking engagements.

I was given a list of eight topics which I could choose from when I signed up, all having to do with Taiwan or Rotary International! My topic was "Why I chose to come to Taiwan for language study?" Writing my answer to this question came easy.  I am passionate about my desire to learn the Chinese language and it is one of the reasons I chose Taiwan for exchange!  However, translating this into Chinese, with the help of my teacher, and learning the pronounciation and meaning of each sentence, was incredibly difficult. There were a couple of times during my speech preparation that I questioned my desire to come Taiwan and learn this incredibly difficult language - which may not be the hardest language to learn, but quite possibly is one of THE hardest languages to learn in the world! Ha! The passion I have to learn and speak Chinese has paid off!

My speech went smoothly, although I was just a bit nervous! I was competing against foreigners from all over the world and also Rotary Youth Exchange students in Taiwan! I didn't place 1st, 2nd, or 3rd.  However, the judges and audience members told me my pronunciation was impeccable and they thought my content was great. What an honor!  I won 600NTD for my effort. This will buy me a a couple days of MRT rides and a treat - which is nice!

I am so glad I entered this competition and cannot wait for the next competition so that I can see my improvement!