From Rural Taiwan to Urban Taipei

From Erlin, the cast headed to Taipei located three hours north on the coast.  We arrived in time for lunch, but then some of the cast left to go rehearse for a special celebration performance for the Taiwanese Independence Day.  Up With People had been invited to perform for 8000 people in a massive arena for the 10/10 celebration in which the president of Taiwan would be in attendance. Additionally, this celebration was filmed and shown on national television across the country as well as to any Taiwanese people abroad.  I was already incredibly excited to perform  for such a large audience on national tv, but once I walked into the arena, which holds 20,000 people, I lost my breath and could not believe where I was.  The arena was so large that I could barely see the seats at the top. The stage was massive and looked like it was made for a professional performance.  We were only allowed to perform for 10 minutes, so we only performed four of our songs that highlighted our diversity and international aspect of the organization. Because this was such a large performance for the country and we were one of many other performance groups, we were only allowed to rehearse on the stage for 30 minutes. 

That evening, we met our host families.  Back in Denver during staging, one of my roommates was Linda from Taiwan, who is a promotional representative and sets up the cities before we arrive.  During my week in Taiwan, I had the chance to stay with Linda's cousins.  My roommate for the week was one of my closest friends, Miguel, our dance captain from Tucson, Arizona.  Two girls, Kelli, one of our education coordinators, and Vera, from the Netherlands lived with another cousin of Linda's and they lived in the same building. 

Because Taipei is so large, most of the housing in the city are small apartments.  Our host family lived in a nice cozy apartment and Miguel and I shared a room where we slept on the floor on top of a comforter.  

Tuesday morning we had to be at the Taipei Arena very early to prepare for our performance that afternoon. Our performance was live for the president and 8000 people, but it was taped to be shown the following day during the actual celebration.  When we arrived, we immediately began rehearsing our songs until we were called to the stage for a final dress rehearsal.  Once we had our final run-through on stage we immediately went back to rehearsing in our assigned room. We fixed every small detail from our hand positions to our facial expressions since this performance was first and foremost a television performance and the camera would be right in our faces at any given moment. 

At 2:30 we began getting ready for the show and took time to silently prepare mentally and physically.  The silence allowed me to process the special opportunity that I have been given and prepare to give my all during the 10 minute show.  

By 3:00 it was time to head back stage to wait for our turn.  I can remember standing back stage and looking out behind the curtains at the endless sea of people and being excited to show the audience who we are as Up With People. As I stood on the steps waiting to run out on stage all I could think about was how blessed I am to be a part of Up With People and fortunate to have such special experiences. My heart was racing and I was not sure if my legs would allow me to even run on stage. Then, I heard our music play and I ran to my spot with the biggest smile on my face. I was extremely nervous until I heard a familiar sound in the audience. It was the cheers of excitement from the rest of the cast in the audience. Once I heard those screams, all I wanted to do was make my cast mates proud of me. Suddenly, I was no longer performing for 8000 people on national television, I was performing for my closest friends.  

For this performance, I danced in a gypsy dance, which is a physically exhausting, high energy, flirtatious gypsy party dance.  I gave it my all and took in every moment on that stage until my final pose where I was dripping with sweat and trying to catch my breath. 

Once our performance ended, we could barely contain our excitement.  We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and watching the other performers from a monitor backstage. Just when we thought our day was about over, we heard word that the President of Taiwan wanted to meet us and take a photo with us. We were running around our dressing room trying to get ready to meet the president and look our best in our show costumes and international costumes.  We all got into our usual Up With People pose, which consists of levels allowing for 100 of us to quickly pose for pictures. You'd be surprised how good we are at taking group pictures these days.  Once we took our positions, the president walked out, greeted us, and stepped into our neatly leveled pose.  I don't think we have smiled so big in any other group pictures as we did when we were standing with the president.  It was certainly a special day and I made many memories that I will forever cherish. 

Wednesday afternoon we had a regional learning day where we had the chance to choose where we got to explore. I chose to go to the Taipei 101 building, which used to be the world's tallest until the Burj Kahlifa in Dubai was built.  Taipei 101 has the world's quickest elevator and you could feel the pressure on your body and your ears pop as we went up. One neat thing about the building's structure was that it had a 620 ton damper at the top of the building. The damper is a ball that is suspended by a series of intricate pulleys and it absorbs 40% of the buildings shock. Because of this damper, the building is able to withstand strong forces due to wind or earthquakes.

That evening Linda took Miguel, Vera, Kelli, and me out to a toilet restaurant where you sit on toilets and the table is a bathtub. It was basically a restaurant that made eating anything unappetizing, but it was such a unique restaurant and we had many laughs throughout dinner. 

Thursday, we had a community impact day and I had the opportunity to visit a nursing home.  In Taiwan, some nursing homes are funded by the government and the residents get paid to live at the nursing home if they meet certain requirements. Because it is funded by the government they often need help cleaning the large home. 

In the morning, the 20 of us at the home divided into two groups and I was with the group that got to work out with the residents.  We stood by the residents in their wheel chairs and helped them stretch and move around a bit. I had the chance to help a blind man work out and it was one of the most special moments.  Half way through the workout, the man grabbed my hand and pulled me close to him to give him a hug. Every time I got close to help him, he had the biggest smile on his face. When we had finished our workout, he did not want me to leave and he kept holding on to me.  It was a very memorable moment.  

That afternoon we played international bingo with the residents.  Instead of calling out numbers, we called out how to say hello in many different languages. The winners received an international gift that we brought to give them. 

That evening, Linda took me, Miguel, Vera, and Kelli to her house to light lanterns. It has always been on my bucket list to light a lantern, so I was so excited to have the opportunity to do it with some of my closest friends.  I expected the lanterns to be pretty small, but when Linda showed us, they were as tall as I was. She explained that each color represents something different and I ended up choosing a lantern that was red and white, which symbolized health and my future.  Before we lit the lanterns to send them into the sky, we wrote wishes or prayers on our lantern regarding the color. We then decided that it would be special to write prayers for each other on one another's lantern.

One by one we lit our lanterns.  We lit the oiled paper and watched the lantern illuminate and slowly begin to rise.  All I could think about while I was watching my lantern lift off the ground was how blessed I am to share this experience with such special friends.  Eventually, my lantern began to rise quicker and quicker until I was struggling to hold on.  I was afraid to let my lantern go, but once I let go, I felt this sense of peace and comfort.  My lantern floated away, and as it did, it twisted in a beautiful spiral into the starlit night sky.  I watched my lantern float away until I could no longer see the flickering light.  Lighting the lanterns will always be one of my most cherished memories during my semester.

Saturday was our final show day in Taiwan and it was at a beautiful venue. We performed for 2500 people in an outdoor amphitheater in a park down the street from the Taipei 101 building.  It was extremely hot being outside, but it was such a memorable performance.  It was extra special because my host family from Taipei was there was well as my host brother, Oskar, from Erlin who came to see the show one more time.

After the show and strike, at 11, Linda and our host family took me, Miguel, and Vera to a fancy club for some dancing.  As exhausted as I was, we danced the night away and did not leave until 3:30 am.  We met several cast mates at the club and had a blast tearing up the dance floor.

On our host family day, we went to Linda's grandfather's 80th birthday celebration.  I have never been to a bigger birthday party.  Linda's house had been transformed and there was now a giant circus tent in her driveway.  In the tent were 200 of Linda's closest relatives and friends.  There was a stage at the end of the tent with karaoke and performers dancing.  Each table was filled with platter after platter of lobster, shrimp, crab, rice, noodles, and every kind of food you can imagine.  Our host family wanted us to try some of the delicacies at the party and decided to have us try chicken testicles, actually just tasted like chicken with a very odd texture. Vera, Kelly, Miguel, and I decided to sing karaoke to Linda's grandfather, so we sang karaoke to happy birthday.  It was fun to spend the afternoon with Linda's family and experience a Taiwanese party.  

That evening we had an all-cast sleep over because we needed to leave for the airport to head to the Philippines at 3:30 am.  It was a very short, hot, and restless night sleeping in a large room with mats on the floor for four hours.

It was difficult to say goodbye to Tony and Wimma because we had such a great week with them.  At the beginning of the week, Wimma was very shy and did not say much, but halfway through the week, she sat down with me and told me how happy she was that we were staying with and that she will always be my friend.  Tony wrote me a note saying that we will always be brothers and I have a place to stay  in Taipei.  When we had to say goodbye, Wimma started crying.  After they left, Tony called Linda and she gave me the phone.  He wanted to tell me once more that we are family and that he will miss us very much.  I treasure my experience in Taipei and the unbelievably kind, caring, and loving family that I had the privilege of living with.