Hairspray: The Finished Product

Opening night was on Tuesday. A good time was had by all.


How Taiwan does "black"... a little awkward?:


An ensemble piece, "I can hear the bells," with the "plump" Tracy (she's wearing padding):

I worked with the guy who played Seaweed on the English in his lines. I was a little concerned and confused by his flat delivery when he practiced with me. Imagine my surprise when this is who he became on stage:

Us with the cast after their first show. I'm on the far left... don't confuse me for the girl who played Amber wearing the intensely blonde wig!

Hairspray: Say what?

Last Friday afternoon, I ventured to 大仁科技大學 in 屏東 with a few Fulbright colleagues to help with their student production of Hairspray (the musical). We didn't really know what to expect. Basically, it was a class worth of fourth-year students who major in English rehearsing the musical. They've spent the academic year thus far studying and understanding the musical, and their performances start tomorrow night.

大仁 is called a "technical college," which is something we don't really have in the U.S. According to wikipedia...

Students enter five-year junior colleges after graduating junior high school and passing a national exam. The curriculum is similar to that of vocational schools with the exception that 5-year junior colleges run for two additional years. Students graduate with the equivalent of an associate degree and are ready to enter the workforce. Some students may choose to continue their studies at a two year technical institute or apply to transfer into a four year university.

Our purpose was to help the students better understand and pronounce the English lines. Hairspray is a difficult musical with difficult dialogue for native English speaking theater majors, so their performing this play was quite impressive. We watched them perform act II, divided up the main characters and each gave them some tips, and then watched them perform it again. I worked with Seaweed (Ben), Little Inez (Sonia), and Prudy (Sharon). My favorite part was teaching Sonia how to say, "Say what?" with proper intonation.

Here, Little Inez and Seaweed flank Motormouth in the center:

Here's a picture of Wilbur (left, played by a petite girl) and Edna (right, played by the tallest Asian guy I've ever met), who stole the show humor-wise:


And now, a brief clip I caught on my camera during rehearsal. Remember that they are not theater or music majors, so watch it with a grain of salt. Sorry, my better-quality clips are too big to be posted.

Before you judge, think about how well your freshman Italian class would have done putting on a full opera. Which raises the question, would an academic year be better spent teaching useful vocabulary (conversational or academic), or having something fun to show for it? It was painful for us to realize that, though the show involves so much mature language, some of the students didn't understand many of the lines they'd memorized, and they were uncomfortable conversing with us in English.

Anyway, I'm going to see their opening night performance tomorrow, where I'll hopefully get some better pictures/videos. And the question will finally be answered: how does a show with central themes of racial integration and acceptance of different body types translate into a culture that has zero diversity of either skin color or body type? Stay tuned for the answer.

Edit: managed to post this longer, more amusing video to youtube. Enjoy!

The Jon visit, in summary

When Jonathan visited in October, as you may recall, he was here for over two weeks and we spent almost all of that running around Taiwan and Kaohsiung's famous spots. This time, as this was his vacation and I still had to work, we didn't do nearly as many interesting things. Or at least, we didn't do nearly as many interesting things that I haven't already done and blogged about.

We went to Lotus Lake...

..but this time, rented some C-bikes to ride around the bike paths that border the lake:

We took the MRT and I made Jonathan take a picture in one of the fancy MRT stops:

We walked around 西子灣 ...

...while wearing the colorful Taiwanese hats I bought... (Jon is pleased)

... and went to the British Consulate there...

...where I took a picture overlooking Kaohsiung Harbor in the same spot as the rest of the tourists.

We also ate 蛋撻 from KFC, drank fresh fruit juice and milk, went to a Canadian bar, watched all three Lord of the Rings movies in one night, and spent a lot of time with Milo, whose energy levels can only be matched by Jonathan's desire to run all the time. A good visit was had by all... especially Milo.

Brains...

As I biked to work on my usual route this morning, I was behind a slow-moving scooter for a few blocks (slow-moving enough that its pace matched my bike's). The scooter had a big box/cart attachment on the back. Fortunately (for me, anyway), there was a plastic cover over the contents of the cart. But hanging on either side were several, um, animal parts. I can't tell what animal they came from, but I recognized raw, dried muscle on bone, and brains. Just hangin' out on the scooter.

What's weird is, it took me a few minutes to notice it, and even longer to realize I should probably be (would normally be?) grossed out. Thanks to Taiwan's special pick-something-and-fry-it carts pervasive at night markets, I apparently have become immune to the sight of animal brains hanging off the side of a scooter on my morning commute.

Sorry, no pictures. Biking + photographing + Taiwan traffic = certain injury.

A night of culture?

Jonathan is still visiting, so I still don't have serious time to spend on blogging. But I thought I'd upload another video from walking Milo around the Cultural Center (right next to my apartment) tonight. Just a typical Saturday night at 文化中心... crafts on sale, dancing, aerobics, kids on light-up rollerskates... the usual.

Sorry for the poor quality, but it's the best I could do with my little point-and-shoot camera with no natural light.

Take me home...

If my current itinerary works out, I'm going to be back in the US on 1 July, 2009.

These are the things I've had undeniable cravings for and cannot wait to eat:

• pancakes
• Cinnabon
• turkey club sandwich
• good bread
  
• brownies/cookies/banana bread
  
• brown rice (the family recipe)
• lasagna
• pizza (Taiwanese pizza doesn't cut it)
  
• cheese steak
  
• anything else that can be made in an oven

I'm not really an unhealthy person, but come on, how often do you crave vegetables?

Jonathan is currently visiting me in Kaohsiung, so sorry about the silence on the blog. Yesterday we were walking Milo through the Cultural Center by my apartment and there was this tea festival going on, vendors and performances and all. We had to stop and watch this one. Particularly relevant for Office fans:

Spring Scream

As I mentioned briefly in my last blog post, last weekend (Thursday to Sunday) I was at something called Spring Scream. Basically, it was a three-day outdoor concert by the beach in Kenting. I like live music and I like the beach, and ever since I saw 海角七號, the big Taiwanese hit released this fall, I thought Spring Scream looked like a fun time.

If I ever get the opportunity to go to Spring Scream again, I'm not sure I'd choose to camp outside in a tent next time around (apparently North American hippies are alive and well and living in Taiwan). In any case, the whole tenting thing was certainly an experience. Maybe waking up at 3, 4, and 5am to the sounds of a drum circle is a rite of passage into adulthood?

Anyway, I had a good time watching dozens of different bands in probably the most beautiful concert setting I'll ever see.

Saturday afternoon, before the action started:

I also got to use the awesome backpacking backpack that I had gotten as a going-away present (thanks Aleecia!).

I'm supposed to be "pointing to adventure"? Or maybe I'm about to rough up some hippies.

As you can see, in embracing the obnoxious fashion trends of Taiwan, I procured a very neon hat and a very pink fanny pack. (Okay, fanny packs aren't even a trend here, I just found it awfully convenient not to carry anything around. Why bother to blend in when you already stand out anyway?) You can also see evidence of the removable tattoo on my arm, which served as the three-day concert pass.

Faux glamor shot by the beach to showcase the ridiculousness of my hat, fanny pack, T-shirt, and tattoo:

Here is one poor attempt at photographing a music act from far away in the dark. I like the three girls in the foreground wearing matching light-up red devil horns. (I later purchased blue ones.)

There were also some new experiences, like visiting the southernmost point of Taiwan...:

... and drinking wine in a can:

And the staple beach experiences, like watching the sunset over the water:
So I was once again reminded that Taiwan is a very beautiful place. I guess I can't really blame the hippies for coming here, then, can I?

A trip to the mountains

For Lauren's last (and only) full weekend in Taiwan, we took a trip with several other Fulbrighters to the mountains. 阿里山 is one of Taiwan's most popular tourist spots, particularly during this time of year when the cherry blossoms are in bloom. We got there right at the tail end of the cherry blossom season, which means slightly fewer cherry blossoms (but still as many tourists).

Anyway, because it was peak tourism season, we (read: Rebekah and Gered, our awesomely 辛苦 trip organizers) had to creatively put together the trip without actually staying in 阿里山. So we left early Friday and took the train to 嘉義, hired a driver to take us to 瑞里, and promptly napped on the "traditional Asian floor, as we said in HCAP-Seoul. (You get a couple blankets and lay them on a wooden floor and that's your bed.)

After a lunchbox lunch at our 山莊, we decided to go see the sites in the mountains and were off.

Lunchbox satisfaction level:

View from the balcony:

The forest/mountains were really pretty, and there was a lot of bamboo:

We hiked several kilometers to find a batcave (or "bat grotto," as some signs called it). Apparently all the bats have left the area because of tourism. Oops:

We then spent a lot of time looking for a waterfall. First we thought it dried up:

But eventually, we found it:

There were a lot of steps. We definitely ended up walking (hiking?) further than we had intended, which resulted in a long upward climb to the top:

But at least it was pretty along the way:

That night, we had a big family-style vegetarian dinner at the 山莊, saw some fireflies with some very enthusiastic young hotel guests, ate some roasted sweet potatoes, drank some floral tea, and went to bed by nine.

The next day we were up at seven (I opted out of the 4am sunrise trip). We had another family-style breakfast at the hotel, and when we weren't psyched about eating pickled radishes for breakfast, the 老闆 reassured us that we should try it even though it's not like "美國的漢堡." Then we were in a car to 阿里山 by 8.

Unlike 瑞里, 阿里山 was full of tourists and we were not full of energy. So we took a few trails, took some pictures of the cherry blossoms, saw some giant trees, and called it a day.




At 3pm we took the famous Alishan Forest Railway to our hotel in 奮起湖, yet another mountain town. The Alishan Forest Railway is the third most famous mountain railway... or something. I'm not sure. It was a very pretty ride though, and every once in a while we'd pass a crazed tourist snapping pictures of the train from the forest.

The train approaching the station at Alishan with cherry blossoms and mist... too much 特色!

Lauren and Katie aboard the Alishan Forest Railway:

Our stay in 奮起湖 wasn't entirely eventful; we found a good restaurant for dinner, hung out by the 7-11, and saw the staff of the hotel we stayed in exactly once from check-in to check-out. Then we were up and off at 8am for a long and nauseating busride back to 嘉義 where Lauren and I parted ways at the 高鐵 station. She headed off to the airport and I headed back to Kaohsiung.

And there ended Lauren's visit to Taiwan... Now that I've caught up with blogging, I'm headed out to 墾丁 for three nights and three days of Spring Scream. I never did the multi-day, camping-out concert thing back in the United States, so I'm sure I'm in for an experience.

Back on Monday!

An afternoon at Lotus Lake

Lotus Lake, or 蓮池潭, is one of Kaohsiung's more famous and more scenic attractions. I'd managed never to really go there until Lauren's visit prompted me to find something nice and also representative of Taiwanese (or more broadly East Asian) culture. My prior visit to Lotus Lake was in August when we were touring the various co-teaching schools, and Chiou Cheng Elementary is right by Lotus Lake. In August, however, Lotus Lake was totally dried out in order to make it deeper for World Games trials and competitions. So as you look at these pictures, imagine sports like competitive waterskiing, wakeboarding, and canoe polo taking place on and around these tranquil waters.

That's about all the description I can give. Lotus Lake: a lake with nearby mountains reflected in the water and picturesque temples set on and around it. Now take a look at the pictures.

The Dragon and Tiger pagodas:


Views from atop the Dragon pagoda:

(The land)

(The lake)

The Spring and Autumn Pavilions (I think?):

Me being Asian by a Buddhist deity:

Lauren stands by the least scenic part of the Confucius Temple at Kaohsiung (the rest of it was closed for the day):

And that's it for Lotus Lake! Up next: a weekend in the mountains. Stay tuned!