In Pursuit.....

A big chunk off my plate—I performed my recital at Chinese Culture University! It kind of evolved into a lecture-recital! At first, they told me that I would perform a regular recital. Later, they asked if I could introduce each piece before I performed it. Eventually they asked if I could use Power Point since it would be helpful for those who didn’t know English—they’re REALLY into Power Point here! So I ended up frantically preparing a Power Point presentation! In all my professional experiences in Asia, I have found that everything morphs into something else, and all you can do is go with the flow and see what happens! In a week I will conduct a formal master class with some piano students performing solo piano repertoire. So far my primary teaching duties have centered on chamber music, and the pianists I have been working with have been in the context of chamber music literature, not solo literature. I’m getting the feeling that the pianists need more time with their solo literature and didn’t want to embarrass themselves by playing for me too soon—keep in mind they started school in the middle of September, and it takes at least a couple of months to get a piece ready!

Although the lecture-recital went very well, I usually find speaking and playing problematic. I prefer to do one or the other—perform OR talk, and I’m not too crazy about doing both. When I speak and play, it’s more difficult for me to completely focus on my performance and I’m afraid of getting distracted by talking and running the Power Point! In other words, I have to switch gears quickly, and I’m fearful that my performing will suffer as a result! But I actually had a terrific time—the audience was very responsive and seemed interested in what I had to say, which makes everything much easier! AND John was extremely kind enough to come to my recital and support me, which means I put him to work and had him change the slides for me! That helped IMMENSELY!!

The saxophone teacher at Taipei National University of the Arts, Kenny, arranged for John to give a saxophone master class at Shi Chien University this week. Kenny is extremely friendly and amicable, and has even invited us to his wedding in December! Anyway, Kenny offered to drive John to Shi Chien University and Kenny was lamenting that full-time saxophone jobs in Taipei were non-existent. As a result, he is an adjunct lecturer at 7 different schools—colleges and middle schools. He was also not pleased with the pay as an adjunct lecturer. So John is thinking, “ok, he’s probably going to be driving me in a Ford Escort!” Well, you can imagine John’s surprise when Kenny’s car turns out to be a LEXUS! MAYBE the pay as an adjunct lecturer is not that bad?

As much as John has enjoyed conducting the band at Taipei National University of the Arts, he has found that SOME things are universal—the trumpet players talk too much! AND they give a BIT of attitude! For those of you who are not musicians, brass players, ESPECIALLY TRUMPET PLAYERS, are notoriously obnoxious—I apologize to any brass players out there, but hey—YOU KNOW IT’S TRUE. Musicians jokingly call them “brassholes!” So John has encountered this stereotype in Taipei as well! If this band were HIS band, he would absolutely know how to deal with this—he’d completely annihilate them! John is laid-back about everything--EXCEPT matters concerning music. You don’t MESS WITH JOHN when he’s in the process of preparing repertoire that means a great deal to him—he takes it VERY seriously and is ULTRA committed--more so than I am. SOOOO, when he encounters ANY type of obstacle during the pursuit of his musical goals, it IRKS him—it’s like he takes it PERSONALLY! BUT the problem is that he’s a GUEST—this group is NOT his! So he’s not quite sure how to handle this. He’d love to just throw them out during one rehearsal, just to make a statement! And they’re not really that bad—he just wants to nip this in the bud NOW! In addition, he’s not quite sure what is culturally acceptable! So right now he’s pondering his options…..and trying to find out what IS acceptable….

Auntie Yin delivered my mom from Hsinchu and my mom stayed with us in Taipei from Wednesday until yesterday—she just left for the U.S. My sister-in-law, Violet, was here visiting her family, so we decided we should all get together for dinner. Violet came up with the idea of meeting at Taipei 101, presently the tallest building in the world and perhaps the no. 1 attraction in Taipei. This building is considered one of the Seven New Wonders of the World and Seven Wonders of Engineering, and contains the world’s fastest ascending elevator. Taipei 101 has numerous shops and restaurants, and we dined at a Japanese grill restaurant in the food court. In the picture of the four ladies: me, Violet, her mom, my mom. Afterwards, John, my mom, and the kids went up into the building. We were allowed to explore the 88th, 89th, and 91st floors—the outside observatory was on the 91st. The views were absolutely incredible and the kids had a fantastic time! I tried to get a night shot from the observatory, but it came out a little blurry!

I decided to take advantage of my mom’s visit and assigned her to read through all of Lauren’s papers from school! In the U.S., I was CONSTANTLY OVERWHELMED by the HUGE amount of papers I’d receive from Lauren’s school. Well, as you can imagine, it’s even MORE OVERWHELMING when the papers are ALL IN CHINESE! I also arranged for her to speak with Lauren and Luke’s teachers so I could get a better idea of how things are going. It seems that things are fine, but as expected, Lauren does have issues with the language barrier. Two days a week, a student from the university tutors Lauren individually and helps with her homework. I try to do what I can, but I feel like a loser because I can’t do the homework! So yes, I feel a bit inept! But it seems Lauren is hanging in there with all those over-achieving Taiwanese kids! And the other kids just LOVE her—she’s a especially a hit with the older kids—they all want to play with her!

I also took my mom shopping for DVDs. One of the reasons she was very enthusiastic about visiting here was because she wanted to add to her collection of Korean DVDs. She and her Chinese friends in St. Louis are COMPLETELY addicted to them. My mom has been quoted as saying, “Those DVDs are my LIFE!” We tried a couple of places—an area called Guang Hua Plaza, which is an electronic geek’s paradise! We had a few issues getting there. After asking for directions about 5 times and being directed the wrong way 5 times—at one point, we crossed one particular intersection back and forth around 4 times—we finally found the place! You see, I thought it was just me—whenever I ask for directions, I always get LOST! I just assumed it was my pathetic Chinese. But even my mom, who speaks fluently, had a hard time!! So it’s not ENTIRELY my fault! Well, but then it is my mom and me…very similar to the blind leading the blind—we’re both pretty horrible with directions! Fortunately we found the area, and even though we found some DVDs, Guang Hua Plaza is really a place to buy digital equipment—it doesn’t appear to be a DVD place. But we also ended up finding some DVDs at Carrefour, the Taipei equivalent of Wal-Mart.

We had terrible weather this past week-end—very rainy and windy--so it was a mall week-end! We went back to Taipei 101 and browsed around some more and we also went to another shopping area called the Breeze Center. Both places were WAY out of our price range—mostly designer stuff—but they both had awesome food courts! Really, the food courts in the U.S. CANNOT COMPARE to the ones here! We did break down for the kids one time—they did have Subway one time! But at least I made sure to have something Chinese! AND another time we had hot pot! VERY tasty! One of the pictures is of Luke and Lauren looking exhausted after eating hot pot!

I don’t know when, but I VERY much want to take the family to Yangmingshan, and John and I are DYING to go to the National Palace Museum!

Next up….shopping for kids’ clothes, getting my hair cut, getting ready for John’s recital, my piano master class….MAYBE Yangmingshan???