Hello Taiwan

We began our 2+ travel day at 4:30 am to get on a bus and head to the JFK International Airport in New York City.  We checked in at China Airlines, which was incredibly busy in addition to the 100 students, luggage, and tech equipment that we carried with us.  It took our group so long to check in and get through security that we delayed the flight by 45 minutes.  Our flight departed at 3:30 pm and we flew non-stop 16 hours to Osaka, Japan.  I watched four movies during the flight and took a brief snooze, but surprisingly, the flight went rather quickly.

From Japan we got off the plane, went through security again, and boarded the same plane to fly two hours to Taipei, Taiwan.  By the time we landed, I had no idea what time it was nor what time my body thought it was back home.  All I know is that it was dark when we got to Taipei.  From Taipei, we took a two hour bus ride to a temple near Erlin, which is on the central west coast.  Our first night in Taiwan was spent sleeping in a beautiful temple.  The boys slept in one room and the girls were in the other.  The room was basically two long bunk beds made of wood.  Needless to say, none of us got much sleep the first night sleeping on wood.  However, the experience of sleeping in a temple was worth the restless night.

The next morning half the group went sightseeing, while the other half participated in a press conference and mini show.  I had the opportunity to go sightseeing and we visited a massive Buddha that overlooked the city.  We then went to a Lions Club, one of our sponsors, and had a special tea ceremony.  We learned how to properly drink tea-you first smell the tea, then you take a small sip, and then you must finish the tea in two more drinks.  We met up with the other group for lunch at a bicycle museum and had the chance to explore the museum for a while and ride some of the bikes.

After lunch, we headed to another temple in the center of Erlin and watched children perform a dragon dance in the street.  We then headed inside the temple to watch a special ritual and offering to the gods.  From the temple, we headed to a facility to meet our host families and eat dinner with them before heading home.

For the next two weeks, I am roomed with Miguel, a student from Mexico and we are staying with a wonderful host mom and dad that we call mama and papa.  They live very close to our facility for the week in a very nice four story home with a rooftop walkabout that overlooks the city.

On Thursday we had our first community impact day in Taiwan.  I was in a small group that visited a nursing home.  The nursing home was an hour away so by the time we arrived, the residents were just finishing lunch and getting ready to take an afternoon nap.  So, our group just talked until 1:30 when the residents woke up.  We began by taking some of the residents outside for a walk.  Kelli, one of our Education Coordinators and I were working together in one building and one employee, who spoke English, asked us if we would sing a karaoke song for the residents.  Kelli and I both had a little panic attack, but decided it would make the residents happy.  By the time we finished the song, the employee had wheeled all the residents from their room into the lobby where we were singing.  The rest of our hour was spent performing karaoke on the machine in front of 15 residents who did not speak English.  Kelli and I have very limited options for songs in English on the Karaoke machine so we ended up singing our hearts out to Happy Birthday, You are My Sunshine, Doe-Re-Mi, and Jingle Bells.  One of the employees even decided to select some songs for Kelli and I to sing, which we had never heard before and since we were on a roll, we just made up the tune of the songs and pretended we knew exactly what we were doing.  As horrified as I was in the beginning to sing at the nursing home, I had the time of my life putting smiles on the faces of the residents.  

Thursday night Papa took Miguel and I to a small city nearby to see a beautiful temple.  He was not able to explain to us who the temple honored, but I felt like I had stepped back into ancient times with bright, beautiful colors and the intricate details on the walls and ceiling.

Friday we traveled to Yuanlin, two hours away, where we set up for our first show.  The theater was an incredibly beautiful auditorium that made me feel like I was in the Kodak Theater in Hollywood looking out into thousands of seats.  

That evening, Mama and Papa took us to Tzu Chi, which at the time, Miguel and I had no idea what it was.  We now know that it is a huge non-profit international organization that cultivates sincerity, integrity, faith, and honesty within while exercising kindness, compassion, joy, and selflessness to humanity through concrete actions.  Papa, who speaks enough English to communicate, took us to see Mama, who can barely speak English.  Mama was performing at Tzu Chi where she sang and did sign language.  When we entered the Tzu Chi temple, we had to take off our shoes and Papa explained to us that every morning at 4 am, employees clean the entire complex from floor to ceiling.  There was not a speck of dust to be found anywhere in the huge building.  We entered this massive complex, with auditoriums, both inside and outside, and made our way to the main room.  When we walked in, everyone watched us and several people escorted us to special seats.  After a few minutes, several photographers came over to take pictures of me and Miguel.  Miguel and I had no idea what was going on so we just smiled.  Soon after, a woman who seemed rather excited to see us, came over and told us that she wanted to interview us for a documentary that would be shown around the world.  Miguel and I immediately began to panic because, at this time, we still had no idea what Tzu Chi was.  However, we agreed to the interview and followed the woman over to the corner of the room where we sat down to first have tea on the floor.  After our tea, the nice woman took me out in the lobby to interview me.  She asked me questions about volunteering and why it is important to me.  It was a pretty easy interview until she asked me what I thought about Tzu Chi.  All I had to go off of was the concert that was taking place inside the auditorium so I proceeded to say "I think Tzu Chi is a wonderful organization and is doing a lot to help the world.  I think the music is beautiful."  Although I somewhat made that statement up at the time, after the fact, it seems to be an accurate statement.  It was a chaotic whirlwind night with many unknowns, but I sure had a great time and a memorable, humorous experience.  

On Saturday morning, we headed back to Yaunlin for our first show in Taiwan!  I spent the morning working with three other cast mates on a presentation that we have later on next week about poverty and hunger.  Members of the cast are selected to be a part of a series of presentations called Global Series where we, as students, are given the opportunity to present information about global issues to the cast.  Nirite from California, Linnea from Denmark, Annelies from Belgium, and I have been working on our poverty and hunger presentation for several weeks and we spent the morning trying to finalize the presentation.  

In the afternoon we had a full run-through of our show since we were on a new stage without our own familiar equipment.  We did not bring most of our tech equipment with us to Asia that we used for our tour in the United States, so we rent the lights, sound equipment, and stage equipment.

Our first show in Taiwan was a success and was well received by the Taiwanese people.  They especially loved our two Taiwanese songs that we added to the show for our tour in Taiwan.

Sunday we had the opportunity to attend and participate in an International Culture Fair at a university.  This was a really unique opportunity for us because the university students had spent four months preparing their booths and it was our job to join their booth and share with people about our cultures with the information and games they had prepared for us.  Throughout the day, we had the chance to visit other booths and appreciate all the time that the university students put into the culture fair.  The fair was full of people all day long and it was a huge success.  The Up With People students spent most of their day dancing to the international music that was playing and, I must say, the international culture fair was one of the most fun days that I have had with the cast on our tour.