Doe, a steer, a female steer

As a Westerner in a small town in Taiwan, I guess I'm bound to be treated like a celebrity now and then. Such an incident happened this past Sunday night. (I'd been meaning to discuss it here much sooner, but some all too real world issues got in the way before I could.)

The father of one of my kindy students is the conductor of Taiwan's army band. How that band came to be based in Longtan, I'm not really sure; but it's here. They gave a concert in town on Sunday evening, and all of us teachers were invited. Only three of the five of us ended up going, and it was quite the event for all of us.

The emcee (who apparently was the conductor's mother and thus little Emily's grandmother) interrupted her Chinese introduction to wish us welcome in English, and of course everyone in the modestly sized audience turned around to play Spot The Caucasians. Some of my fellow teachers don't care for that sort of thing, but it's never bothered me.

Then it was on to the concert. The army band is fond of medleys. The setlist included what was billed as a "Latin revue" which turned out to be a medley of "La Bamba," "Hot Hot Hot," "Conga" and "Livin' La Vida Loca." I must admit that one had me clapping so hard Trina had to pull my hands back from each other at one point because I was making her ears hurt. Oops. Other highlights included "Danny Boy," and even some Taiwanese music.

During the intermission, the conductor sent his oboe player to our seats to thank us again for coming, in perfect English, and then he later came by himself. I had occasion to tell him I was looking forward to hearing "76 Trombones," which was listed on the bill for the second half, as Iowa is one of the half dozen or so states that can make some claim to being home for me. He seemed quite touched by that. (Additionally, "The Music Man" played a bit part in the beginning of Trina's and my relationship: when we first started exchanging e-mails, I often closed mine with "Good night my someone, Dave." After a few times, she asked where I had heard that phrase, and was then inspired to rent the movie. Of course, there was no time to share that tidbit with my friend the conductor!)

Well, as you might expect for a local celebrity like myself, back on stage after the intermission, he dedicated "76 Trombones" to "my best friend, Dave." It's enough to move a guy to tears, y'know? The show then finished with two more medleys: one of songs from "The Sound of Music" with vocals (hence the title of this post, which was one of a couple of verbal gaffes in the performance - their English was great, but when they made a mistake, it was, well, an amusing one!), and one of disco songs. Yes, Trina and I did do the arm motions on "Y.M.C.A." I left the concert hall feeling about ten miles high.

It was the sort of scene where, when it happens in a book or a movie, you know that the zenith is about to give way to the nadir. That did in fact come perilously close to happening on Monday, astoundingly enough. But things appear to be back on track, which is why that concert will now live as a wonderful memory instead of a horribly bittersweet one. I'll probably discuss the events of this week in more detail on my next post. Right now I'm still working out what to make of it all and what exactly I want to share publicly. Suffice to say Trina and I both might be trading up to a better work situation fairly soon. In any case, things are all right for now.

And I've got one more beautiful memory to take with me to whatever comes next. Thank you for the music!