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.

A Home Away from Home

Monday a small group of us went to ---- two hours away from Erlin to perform a mini show for the students. When we arrived we had the opportunity to participate in a workshop with the students about what it is like for us to communicate within a group of 100 students from 20 different countries and the importance of understanding cultural differences.  The students were very shy at the beginning and hardly spoke up. However, once we performed for them, they could not stop screaming and taking our pictures and autographs.

Tuesday the entire cast headed to Taichung, 90 minutes away, to work with university students and set up the stage for our show the next day. When we arrived, we were paired with several students that helped us translate in the classrooms and take us around the huge university.  We played interactive games for an hour with the students.  Like the previous day, the students were incredibly shy until we started laughing and having fun with the games. Once we made them laugh, they were more excited to participate and ending up having a blast. We went to two different classrooms and each time, it took us 20 minutes to leave because every student wanted pictures with us. We were rock stars and you could tell the students were very anxious for our free show for them the next day.

That evening mama and papa took Miguel and I to the night market down the street. Papa wanted to take us to the market on the scooters so I hopped on mama's scooter and Miguel got behind papa and we sped down the street to the market. It was somewhat frightening because there do not appear to be rules of the road. Scooters and cars drive on whichever side of the street seems most convenient.  Furthermore, the scooters wiz through all the cars on the street.  It was a fun adventure making our way to the night market. Once we arrived we could see and smell all the various foods. We passed tables selling sushi and others selling chicken feet. We passed a table selling squid and rather large frogs. One woman was chopping up cat fish and shoving them into a pot to cook. Papa bought us a traditional dish to try known as stinky  tofu. The name alone does not do the smell of the tofu justice. The smell and taste of the tofu taste like the first day of cattle season...  Papa wanted us to try tacos and Miguel and I got excited for a familiar meal, until we found out that the tacos we were eating were fried octopus balls.  Miguel and I had fun exploring the night market and just when we thought we were going home, papa told us that we had been invited to their neighbor's house who was hosting a cast mate.  We were losing our energy fast, but the two kids at the house wanted Miguel and I to play the wii. I've never been a big gamer, but Miguel and I could not figure out how to play the game so we just pushed buttons while the kids laughed at our attempt. After a while we finally headed home and I jumped into bed.

The following morning I worked on my global series presentation with Linnea, Annalies, and Nirite. It has been difficult for all of us to prepare our presentation because only two of us had access to Internet at our homes in the evenings.  As much work as it was to prepare, we were very excited to share our information with the cast. In the afternoon, we had rehearsal in the auditorium. This stage was the smallest stage we have performed on this far. The band and mic group singers, who are normally in the center of the stage, had to be moved to the floor to make room for the cast to be on stage.
Our partners that we were paired with the precious day came back to watch us during rehearsal and they were all extremely interested in joining UWP after spending the day with us. About 100 of the students took a back stage tour and listened to a presentation on how to be a part of a future cast.
The students went wild during the entire show. Every time we finished an energetic dance number, which is about every other song in the show, the students roared with cheers and endless applauding. I took picture after picture and signed so many autographs after the show with the students. We even had 60 students interested in more information about traveling, which is a great accomplishment.  After our two days at the university I am now up 25 Taiwanese friends on facebook and the number keeps growing daily.  And I am not quite sure I really officially met all of the students who added me on Facebook but that just contributes to making me feel even more like a rock star.

Thursday was our regional learning day where we got to explore the area.  We started the morning by visiting a rice castle, which was basically a museum of rice in a building that looked like a castle. It was difficult to understand our tour guide's accent, but I think I understood the process of growing and picking rice from the pictures. We even got to try some pop rice (pop corn made from rice) which was very good. From the museum we headed to the largest temple in Taiwan for lunch. I felt like I was at the imperial palace in Beijing because of its magnificent size. After lunch we visited another beautiful temple that was small in comparison. We then headed to the harbor for seafood snacks at a restaurant.  I have never been one to enjoy anything seafood but I had some clams, baby fried shrimp with their eyes still in-tacked, and a fried baby fish-bones and all.  After our snack we headed to a glass museum, which I am still trying to figure out its significance. It was a museum that had mirrors, windows, vases, and every animal imaginable made from glass.  Although I did not fully understand the importance of all of the sites we visited, I had a blast spending the day exploring with my friends.

Friday was the day of our hunger and poverty global series presentation.  The three girls and I spent the morning going over our presentation and finalizing our PowerPoint and information.  During lunch, we had a hunger banquet, which was an educational workshop that led into our discussion  on poverty and hunger. During lunch the cast was divided into three groups representing the three socioeconomic groups. I was put into the middle group-middle class.  The first class group represented 15% of the world's population. The middle class represented 25% and the lower class represented 60%. Our dining area had been changed into a gallery with heartbreaking quotes and pictures of poverty. It wasn't even three minutes before there were tears in my eyes. The first class group sat at a fancy table and was served course after course of catered food. My group sat in a circle of chairs and had to serve ourselves the rice that we were given along with water. The lower class had to take their shoes off and sit on cardboard on the floor surrounded by trash and was given an insignificant amount of rice and dirty water.  My group had to watch the first class lavishly dine while watching the lower class scrape every last bit of rice from the bowl.  It was a very eye-opening activity and it made me remember how blessed and fortunate I am to have three meals each day. It also made me decide that I will no longer complain about the food I am served. Whether or not I like the food I am given, I should be grateful that I have food on my plate.

After the hunger banquet it was our turn to present more information on poverty and hunger.  We spent the first 30 minutes discussing how poverty is defined, where it exists, and why it exists.  We then played a complex game with the cast that the four of us have  worked on for four weeks. The girls and I developed a Hunger Games activity that represented poverty in an interactive and competitor way. The cast was divided into districts and each district was limited by something related to poverty. One district was limited by their education and could not read or write. Another district was limited by technology. Each of these limitations would in turn, affect the districts participation in the activity. Each round the districts would send two competitors to the capital to compete in a game. However, not every district could play each round due to their limitation. As the game progressed, participants and districts died as a result of their limitation.

To make the Hunger Games activity more fun, we dressed up like people from the Hunger Games trilogy and treated the cast as though they did not matter. The cast had a blast playing the game, but began to get frustrated when they no longer had control over when and if they were able to participate. Once the game had ended, we spent 45 minutes debriefing the activity and I was amazed at how involved the cast became.  Our goals was for the cast to understand that there are so many factors that contribute to people living in poverty and most times, it's almost impossible to escape. There is often very little that people living in poverty can do to escape. We wanted the cast to realize that making a difference will have to come from someone on the outside who is willing to lend a hand. We head to The Philippines soon, a third world nation, and we challenged the cast to find their own unique way of making a positive difference in the life of someone while we are in The Philippines.  It was a very successful presentation and it was so nice to hear such positive feedback from our cast mates.

Saturday was our show in Erlin and for our host families. We had so many people want to see our show that we, unfortunately, had to turn away 100 people. It was another great show and the audience went crazy after every big dance number. Mama even bought me and Miguel flowers. Mama and papa's son, Oskar, lives and works in Taipei, came home to see the show and he pulled me aside and could not stop saying how much he loved the show. He said "thank you so much, you have no idea what you have done for this dying town."  It's times like this when you realize that Up With People has a gift to share with the world and its not about changing the world all at once-the change starts with one person.

Sunday was our host family day and we headed to Taichung again, but this time to explore the city. Mama, papa, and Oskar took me and Miguel to Top City for lunch, which is a brand new large shopping center. For the for the first time I saw familiar franchises like Baskin Robins and Cold Stone. My heart skipped a beat when I found a Dunkin Donuts. Because we got so excited at the donuts, papa bought us some to try and they tasted like a piece of heaven.  After lunch we went to pick up Oskar's sister and grandmother and walked around a nice park in the middle of the city.  Across from the park was another mall that had foliage growing on the outside of the building as well as inside, so we went to explore the mall.  Later  papa took us to an electronic store to see if we wanted to buy any electronics because they were cheaper than in America.  We headed to the biggest night market in Taichung for dinner. Miguel and I enjoyed a nice potato with toppings as well as some more stinky tofu, which does not taste nor smell better the more you eat it.

We ended the night by going to get haircuts and I must say there were many firsts with this haircut.  We got our haircuts in a place that papa compared to Costco or Walmart. It was a tiny room inside this building on the second floor. The first new experience was paying for the haircut which consisted of putting a bill into a machine and receiving a ticket. I felt like I was at a vending machine putting my money in and out pops a new haircut. When I sat down to get my haircut I gestured that I only wanted a little bit cut. The next new experience was getting my haircut while my hair was still dry. The lady started snipping away and I'm pretty sure there was a look of fear in my eyes. Five minutes later she was done and in order to get the cut hair off my head, she used a vacuum-another first.  All in all, I left with a new haircut and many new firsts under my belt. It was an exciting way to end a great day.

I do not even know where to begin to explain how wonderful and generous mama, papa, and Oskar were to me and Miguel.  One trait that I value above all others is kindness and if I could raise my children to be half as kind as my host family is, I would be a proud father.  Although it was not as easy to communicate verbally, mama and papa continued to shower us with their love and made me feel like I was their own son.  Mama did not let us leave until we understood that she will always be our Taiwanese mama.  One thing that I couldn't quite seem to understand was why we stopped to take pictures in front of buildings that seemed to have no significance.  I'm fairly certain we took well over 800 pictures in ten days.   It wasn't until our final day that papa explained that we take so many pictures because they want to remember every experience with us. Papa and mama want to be able to show their grandchildren our pictures and tell them about how wonderful of a time we had together.  I am so blessed to have a place to call home and people to call family in Taiwan.