No need to explain.This weekend took us up north, to Hualien City. The annual English Competition for our county is held each year in a group of schools in the city. The performance include singing, readers theater, and dramas. Having four different schools, and having my hand in the preparation and organization of four different performances, it was a busy day to try to see them all. In the end I only saw two, one drama and one readers theater. No results yet, other than the readers theater performance that placed 5th (of more than 30 schools). This is awsome, they did awsome, and the kids are totally impressed with themselves. Good for morale, and it shows the kids that their hard work payed off. Lots of time spent tweaking, writing, changing, listening and rehersals on our, the teachers, part payed off as well. In the end, its the kids up there, doing their best. And they did. Im proud of them!
English drama performance from one of my four schools. It is the story of the betel nut. I have reservations of this topic, it is like our children performing a story of how cigarettes became so absorbed by our culture (betel nuts are primary causes of mouth cancer, throat cancer, ruin your teeth with a deep red stain and degrade the teeth themselves and smell/look/taste horrid). However, this was a well done story.
Afterwards, we had a Hualien evening, dinner and such (and apparently we have made a name for ourselves at one of our secret and frequented spots by the ocean...the owner was chatting about who we were, where we lived, etc and when we finally made the connection that we had been here many times she exclaimed "oh, your the people who always want peanuts!")
Sunday...to the forest! We scottered up the mountains to the trailhead for an amazingly secretive trail. People who know it, know it. the rest...its hidden. I heard fro mmy old principal that this trail existed and that there was also a road that cut right over the mountains, connecting the trail to the ocean. We had hiked it before, but it is so pretty, a good 4 hour slog and we were in the mood for some exercise. What cant be expressed with words....biodiversity. I know, I know....more about the bugs and such. But it is totally humbling to stand quietly among the shrubbery or in the forest or in the flower fields and see ho wmuch stuff is alive there. So much. All different. You see countless critters, and countless genera of critters. And countless families of genera, etc. It goes on. It is stunning. Anywho, we hiked in the blazing sun, through the woods and made it back to the trailhead in good time. Then to the ocean via the mysterious cross-mountain road that we were told of...across a landslide and a few sunken roads...and to the ocean. We made it! And we were greeted mightily with...rain. When we saw the ocean, off in the distance, it looked cool and blue. When we got there...the horizon was a blanket of water. Vertical water. not just low clouds, but an ocean standing on its end. heading towards us.
Drive! Drive!
Too late. We stopped in a tunnel, donned our rain gear and kept on going. To the train station, returned the scooter, grabbed some dinner and slumped in exhaustion in our seats on the train. Two hours to read, drink our tea and - done with extreme anger - confront a smoker and demand that she put it out while on the train. I even went as far as to grab the smoke from her, pinch it out and have a subtle tug of war with her...I wanted to toss it on the ground and smear it into oblivion, she wanted to smoke it. I won. Well, she kept it, but I watched her go back to her seat and put it back in her pack. Trevor - 1. Random train smoker - 0.
