Another Potluck

Another month, another potluck!

A few things:

• I have yet another calling: ward choir piano player (I prefer "piano player", I despise the word pianist).  Anyway, so they switched their rehearsal times so that I can have the calling.  So it's now an hour after church every week.  It's me playing for Chinese singers.  It's quite comical.  But fun.

•  I spoke in church on Sunday (and accompanied, and conducted one song...long story).  But speaking here is difficult because you have to stop every sentence.  I'm used to just getting up and talking with no script, but it's easier for the translator standing beside you if you have the entire thing written out and read a sentence at a time.  I bored myself speaking because it's hard to show personality or start with a cheesy joke that way...BUT, however, it still went well.

• I love church here!  The people are amazingly friendly.  Like, craaaaazy friendly.  One foreigners baby started crying in Sacrament meeting (her husband was away on business) and immediately five women stood up to go over to her and helped her with her other kids and one even took her baby out to the lobby for her so she could enjoy Sacrament meeting, no questions asked, nothing was said.  I've never seen anything quite like that before.

This wasn't everyone at this potluck but a good bunch of them.  

The bishop is the man standing farthest to the right.

Sanyi & Wood Carving

The weather is no longer devilish so that means more weekend travels.

This weekend I read about a small town on the internet called Sanyi and decided to go there.  It's pretty much a one-street town but is famous for its wood-carving factories.  I read about one factory called the "Wood-Duck Factory" that is famous for letting you buy your own carving and then paint it right there.

Information from online: 

"Sanyi is the wood carving hometown and has gathered the most skillful wood carving Masters in Taiwan. "Shuangfeng Wood Duck Factory" has been famous for its wood ducks since 1963. If you used to have or still have a “Wood Duck” decoration at home, it might have come from here, since this factory used to be the largest and first wood duck manufacturer for the US, Europe, and Japan."

The train ride was only about a half hour south, so not bad.

Once you're out of the train station you walk down a short street, turn left, and you're pretty much in the whole town. 

I really liked this orange and blue bridge.

You can see people fishing below out of the river.

It kind of reminded me of downtown Salinas.

 (another walking away picture...I know)

(for my dad)

So it was semi-difficult to find the "Wood-Duck Factory" - but after asking a few locals using pictures on my iPad...the correct direction was finally made clear.

But eventually, all you had to do was follow the ducks set up across town.  It was fun using them as clues to eventually find the factory.

Found it!

The factory was pretty cool.  Some info:

"Due to the high-rise of the labor and material costs, “Shuangfeng Wood Duck Factory” was no longer exporting their products. In 2002, with the government and local organizations’ supports, it was re-organized, opened its door, and became a tourist and family leisure place."

They had a shop of wood-carved creatures all over the place where you could buy ones that they already painted.  They focused mainly on ducks though.

Information from online: 

“Wood Duck” was made to trap the ducks in the western countries. During hunting, hunters let the painted wood ducks float on the water to attract the real ducks to come down. Besides the trapping purpose, “Wood Duck” was also a collectable item by wealthy families in the west."

But they also had an awesome building where you can buy pre-painted wooden animals and paint them yourself: all for $10.

Also, the main manager spoke fluent english. Win!  And he helped us get all set up and led us where to go and what to do.

So I picked a frog.

They had a bunch of tables set up where you sit and paint.  All the paint was provided.  It looks empty but ten minutes after getting there four huge tour buses drove up and dropped hundreds of tourists off.

Before.

 (after)

After you're done with painting it has to be sprayed with sealant and then put on a conveyer belt and gone through the oven.  Overall, it was a fun afternoon and very cheap.  Something like this would definitely cost more at home.  And you go away having completed something.

In this case, a painted frog.

(I guess you can say I've been obsessed with frogs lately...)

Parent's Day

It's fall time on the northern hemisphere of the planet...thank goodness.  I can now blink without sweating and go outside longer than two seconds before needing another shower.

Also, it's Halloween time and the school has started to act accordingly...

...which is funny, because they don't celebrate Halloween in this country.  

I asked my older students (10-year-olds) if they were excited to go trick-or-treating and I was shocked at their disdain toward the very idea...

Apparently, it's rude to go trick-or-treating here, as it has been explained to me...unless the age of the trick-or-treater is kindergarten age, and in a big group.  So my school is going trick-or-treating on October 23 (???) during the afternoon to pre-warned apartment complexes.  I don't even know...

Anyway, on Saturday the 6th we had Parent's Day where all the parent's get to come and watch a performance given by all the students.  I didn't get any pictures and/or footage of the actual performance because a) I was either in or hosting part of the entire thing, and b) everyone was too busy during it to take pictures.

But I took some "before" pictures...

 This is the entrance gate to the school.

There were 4 parts of the show and Kristi and I were in charge of part 3.  We had to do a performance with the students that revolved around their independence day, which is called "Double Ten Day",  as it falls on October 10th.

So, out there, on many parental video cameras, is footage of two white Americans teaching Taiwanese people about their own countries rise of freedom.  

Our performance involved two groups of kids: one representing the "Qing Dynasty" of China and one representing the "Wushang Uprising".  In 1911, the latter ultimately conquered the Qing Dynasty (which was the last empire of China) to establish independence and democracy.

...and that's as far as we got with our history lesson (there's a ton of more drama, obviously, in researching the real thing, as China is now a communist country, and Taiwan remained free...but China doesn't even recognize Taiwan's existence...seriously, DRAMA).  So we had little battles on stage between the two groups: (i.e. rock-paper-scissor, who can stand on one foot the longest?, and a dance battle...), and made sure the "Wushang Uprising" group won each time.  Then they all left the stage chanting, "Double ten! Double Ten!"

 View from the outside into the courtyard where the performance was.

All the students folders and books were on display for parents to see.

 Chairs for the elderly.  There were millions of people standing though.

Early morning rehearsal.

 Your honorary M.C.'s.

The entire event is semi-hilarious because we practice for these things for months and months (literally...and we're already starting the Christmas performance this week...it's mid-October) and all for parents who can't understand a word their child is saying and/or anything us teachers are saying.  It's predominantly just a huge show to show parents their money is being well spent...and that they have American teachers.  But it was overall fun and successful...

...and hey!, people hanging out by my frog mural!