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!