Sing with the Mayor of Kaohsiung!

Kind of.

As a Fulbrighter in Kaohsiung, the Kaohsiung International Education Resource Center (Bureau of Education) foots half of my paycheck. So, sometimes we get an email from them asking us to participate in certain bureau events, but without really asking us. It's like when Mom used to volunteer me to help out with random high school events or to decorate her offices at the hospital. That is, its really hard to turn down one of these invitations. This turned out to be a great opportunity, actually, because our carrot was that we were going to learn a song in Taiwanese and then sing it with the mayor, Chen Ju. She happens to be one of the most prominent members of the Democratic Progressive Party of Taiwan, the pro-Taiwanese independence party. As Americans, I think we can all appreciate independence. Anyways, living in Kaohsiung, you get to hear a lot about the DPP and her in particular. Thiswas going to be a really big moment for me.

Rehearsal for Taiwanese song

Of course I jumped at the opportunity to SING with the mayor and hang out in the background of her endorsement of these educational things that are going on in the city.

Pictures with Director Cai, the boss of Kaohsiung Bureau of Education

We learned the Taiwanese song, and then an opportunity arose to learn a Mandarin song that would be sung in a small group, and I thought, hell, what's one more song? Here's the mandarin song, the time swims a bit, but all in all, solid shaking.




Sadly, Mayor Chen couldn't make the date. She's being sued by the Kuo Min Tang (the Chinese Nationalist Party) for negligence during Typhoon Fanapi, because she went to her house for a few hours during the beginning of the typhoon. It's a political stunt, elections are this 27nd of November, so it's just a distracting allegation, AND it made it so I couldn't meet the mayor.

But, I've only been here 3 and a half months, I'm not giving up yet!