When you come to this country, you enter a strange and wonderful land. When you teach English in this country, you become a strange and wonderful part of it.
This post will be quick - I'm leaving for Laos and Cambodia tomorrow! It's gonna be amazing, but that does mean one more awesome trip that I have to procrastinate posting about.
Meanwhile, let me tell you about Teacher's Day, which was this day two weeks ago that was basically set aside for nothing but fun. Instead of work and classes, the students and teachers spent the whole day playing games together, like...
musical chairs,
water balloon toss,
hula-hoop-and-ball race,
mango-peeling race,
and futsal!
The students also put on impressive demonstrations of Tae Kwon Do and Silat, which made me feel very safe in case of an unexpected ninja siege. The Tae Kwon Do club concluded by breaking several boards, then letting the teachers try one.
I managed to remember enough about side-kicks to bust it on the second try!
There was also a drama show put on by each form, in which the students good-naturedly made fun of school, the teachers, and themselves, and ended by thanking their teachers for everything. One of these performances even parodied speech choir, ripping off the script and exaggerating all the movements. I forgot how much talent and energy high school performances can have, especially when the students are making it all up on their own!
The student band also put on a great performance, managing to pull off "Rock Around the Clock" in the same program as "We Are the World".
The student emcees then took the opportunity to award cute little plush hearts to pairs of students and teachers who share an uncanny facial resemblance.
And I got to try out the gamelan:
As teachers, we were inundated with gifts from the students and prizes for the games. I am now the proud owner of a small washcloth, a cute mug, a notebook, some very short-lived chocolate, and a very respectable glass baking tray. We ended the day with dinner at a seafood restaurant on the beach, where a huge heap of prizes were awarded to teachers whose names were pulled from a hat. In reflection, I'm glad I didn't have to bring any more swag home; I'm quite satisfied with my baking tray!
Wow, so, I just discovered the "Stats" portion of my blogger account, and I gotta say, I'm super flattered that there are people from places like India and the Philippines looking at this thing. Hi guys! :-D
I'm posting late now because I just spent the last ten days in a whirlwind of exhausted traveling. I almost forgot what it's like not to be in sleep-debt. My awesome college friend Caitlin came to visit from Japan, where she's teaching English with, I kid you not, the "Peppy Kids Club." She was here for two weekends, the first of which, we went to Singapore for ETA Nou Chang's bachelorette party. Then we came back to my school for two days while she helped me out with classes, then we spent the rest of the time being tourists in KL.
Singapore was everything we were promised: it was clean, well-organized, full of amazing architecture, and ridiculously easy to get around in via public transportation.
We saw a live band at a jazz club, traipsed through a great many shiny malls, and partied for Nou at a dizzyingly fancy club shaped like a ship at the top of a hotel. It served cuisine-style appetizers and featured infinity pools that blended into the Singaporean skyline across the distance. On the way back down the elevator, I couldn't stop marveling, "Multiple infinity hot tubs. Multiple. 57th-floor. Infinity hot tubs."
The only real downsides to Singapore were the prices (rich city = expensive city) and the fact that the swing dancers seemed to be in hiding. I got very excited about dragging Caitlin and Elizabeth along to a social dance I could have sworn was scheduled for Sunday evening, but when we got there, the studio was just closing because of a national holiday. Oh well, at least we got some KL dancing in later that week! Caitlin came and took the beginner lesson, and I practically exploded with happiness from dancing with everyone there.
Between Singapore and KL, though, me and Caitlin made a quick two-day pit stop in Terengganu (far too quick, we later agreed). I showed her around my school, and she helped out with a few of my classes, and we had dinner with Meg Perry and her turtle researching colleague. The Chinese food we had was supplemented by the most hilarious menu I've ever seen in real life:
Engrish.com, here we come!
Back in KL, we became tourists extraordinaire. We saw the Batu Caves, the Bird Park, Chinatown, the Petronas Towers, KL Tower, a small jungle-walk park, and the movie Con Air ("how could I live without you..."). We also spent a dorky amount of time browsing through the bookstores in malls, showing each other videos online, going out dancing with other hostel visitors, and playing cards.
Sunshine Bedz Hostel, by the way, was fantastic - the manager/owner hung out and joked around with us all the time, and pulled some hilarious pranks on those of us who joked back.
So, that was my week. Now it's back to plotting, I mean planning programs and activities and hanging out with the kids. Later this week all the ETAs will be going to KL (again) for a MACEE mid-year enrichment program. I hope that after this I can settle back down and start fitting in some weekend activities.
Since speech choir finished, I've had a lot of extra time on my hands, and I've also decided that I don't know my students nearly well enough yet. I've taken to coming to their classrooms during prep time to just hang out and play games with the ones who don't have homework, or to help out the ones who do. These have been some of the most entertaining times I've had on campus, and I've even invented a game or two on the spot, like Olympic Hangman (competitive team Hangman in two languages).
But, the more comfortable I feel here, the more I still seem to miss home and all of you there. Yes, I do mean you, reading this blog: I know that if you care enough to check up on me, I care enough to miss you right now. Please send me an email or a message, and I'll try to call you as soon as I can.
"Wait… What exactly is a speech choir?" I must have asked this same question at least three different ways when I was first told that I would be in charge of one.
Various people went to a lot of trouble to explain. The head English teacher, Madam Azimah, showed me video clips, competition rules, and a sample script or two, and the students who had been in previous years' speech choirs were called over to answer my questions.
Everyone seemed very confused by how confused I was, and I didn't really get less confused the more they talked. However, the competition was only two months away, and since I at least know how to run auditions, run them I did. I spent almost six hours sitting and listening to student after student reading the same short passage aloud and singing the Peace Round for me.
I whittled the list down to the 34 students with the best ability to project their voices and stay in key, posted the results, and almost immediately started holding practices. To my dismay, none of the other teachers had the time to help out, beyond giving advice when I needed it.
For the first week of practice, I was more or less flying blind by the seat of my pants. Some of the students had had experience with small speech choir shows and choral speaking (a similar concept), but this would be the first year that our school entered a full-fledged inter-school speech choir competition.
I had no idea where our performance script was supposed to come from, so we didn't have anything to practice on. Instead, I practiced looking like I knew what I was doing. We chose a name for the group (the Bright Stars), and we chose a conductor from among the students, as per competition rules. We sang the Peace Round in four parts; we practiced reading book passages aloud in unison; we discussed how to arrange the choir on a stage.
When eventually Azimah told me that I was expected to write the script myself, I got some practice in panicking. I can write essays, research papers, poetry, and even some slightly decent prose, but speech choir was a genre I was totally unfamiliar with. Thirty-four students and a supervising teacher were relying on me now to produce eight minutes of cohesive, inspiring, and informative performance material!
I finally broke down and stopped acting like I knew what I was doing. I came to practice that night empty-handed and simply admitted to my choir that I just didn't know how a speech choir script should go. Could they help me?
Indeed they could! That night, we decided on a topic - globalization - and spent the whole hour brainstorming ideas for it. I agreed to write a short and simple essay - at last, something I knew how to write! - provided that a small group of the students could help me turn it into a real script.
Over the next few weeks, the students worked with me to transform the content of the essay into something fun and engaging, with choreographed movements, song excerpts, solos, and mock conversations between different parts of the choir. [In the picture: the evolution of our Globalization script]
And for almost two months, the Bright Stars met for a solid hour of practice every day. We practiced while the script was still evolving, while attendance was decimated by conflicting activities, while the rain poured and the sun beat down, and while our practice space was invaded by bugs, cats, martial arts, and mass medical procedures. We practiced even when the conductor was not available, and I came to learn the rudiments of conducting myself. We practiced yet more as the competition approached.
A little over two weeks before the competition date, we were told that our script - which we had fully refined and memorized at that point - was breaking some of the new rules for performance. We had to totally rewrite parts of it, make up new words to three popular songs that we had included, and have the entire choir re-memorize it. And still we soldiered on.
At last, the morning of the competition arrived - Monday, April 25. Our school was hosting the event, so the Hall was packed with chairs and decked out to the gills with fancy skirting. Bus after bus slid through the gates, unloading the uniformed choirs of ten other Elite and Premiere schools, from all around three districts of Terengganu.
I was happy to see a couple of the ETAs with their schools: Kelley Whitson and Lynn Elharake!
The Hall was filled, the judges were seated, and the welcome and introduction were read out. First place would be awarded RM1500, second place RM1200, and third place RM1000; and two of the top three choirs would be eligible to perform at the state level - in front of the Sultan of Terengganu!
The Bright Stars were slated to perform fifth out of eleven. We watched nervously as each of the first three choirs displayed increasingly impressive performances. We then ran outside for some last-minute, knee-shaking preparation, and finally we heard the call to the stage. I hurried to the back of the Hall to stand with a crowd of supportive Lembah Bidong students, and we watched our choir file serenely onto the risers.
The Bright Stars outshone themselves. They smiled wide; they spoke with enthusiasm; they moved in unison. They projected their voices with clarity and confidence, and they sang more in tune than I had ever heard them sing. After each song, the crowd of students around me erupted in applause. I could have burst with happiness and pride.
I ran and met them coming off the back of the stage, and we celebrated with relieved hugs, cheers, and high-fives. We then settled down again hopefully to watch the rest of the choirs do their piece. There were some incredible performances (Lynn's school did great, and Kelley's school was amazing!), but I didn't spend time worrying about our chances - I knew that my team had done their own absolute best.
The prize-giving ceremony opened with the obligatory long speeches, followed by the awarding of consolation prizes to the eight schools who didn't place. When the last of these schools was announced, and we realized that we hadn't been called yet, my choir shrieked and hugged each other: our school had made it to the top three!
Later, we gathered on the stage to hold up our bronze medals in front of the cameras, grinning from ear to ear. We may not have gotten first place, but we rocked our performance beyond all expectation, and we represented our school with pride. For a first-time choir coached by someone who had just recently answered the question "What exactly is a speech choir, anyway?", I'd say we did pretty darn well!
UPDATE (JULY 18, 2011):
Finally, here's the video! Presenting the Bright Stars' performance of the original script "Globalization", at the district level competition (unfortunately, it's rather noisy):
And, in an unexpected plot twist, the speech choir's story is not over!
There is a lot of hand-vs-food-phobia among Americans, and although I understand why, I'm of the opinion that it is totally unfounded. Therefore, I've decided to draw on my experiences in Kenya and Malaysia and provide this simple introductory guide to eating with one's hands. Don't worry, guys, people do this all over the world! They're not dead yet!
Step One: Wash your hands. Thoroughly.
Step Two: Sit down and look at your plate. I have decided to serve you a fairly common Malay dish: nasi ayam, or rice with chicken. Your meal consists of a piece of fried chicken still on the bones, a heap of yellow rice soaked with broth, a few raw vegetables, and a small pool of sambal (or spicy chili sauce). You also happen to have a slice of melon and a glass of soy milk, but I don't think you'll be needing assistance with those.
It all looks delicious, and you can't wait to put it into your mouth!
Step Three: Commit to the fact that you will be putting this food into your mouth with your hands. In the process, it will get all over your fingers and your fingers will get all over it. Please fully accept this. There is no going back now.
Step Four: Look around at the others eating nearby, and realize that eating with your hands does not consist of grabbing handfuls of food and cramming it into your mouth. There is a method here, and when you're good at it, it's not messy at all.
Step Five: Put your glass within reach of your left hand. You will be using your right hand, and only your right hand, to touch your food. Sorry, lefties.
Step Six: Touch that food! Using your thumb and fingertips, push a small amount of the broth-soaked rice to one side of the plate and shape it into a lump. Now form your fingertips into a rough scoop shape and use your thumb to push the lump onto your fingers. The broth should more or less hold the rice together, so that the lump is the consistency of, well, wet rice.
Step Seven: Put the food in your mouth! Raise the scoop to your lips and use the back of your thumb to push the lump off of your fingers and into your mouth. It's okay to let your lips touch your fingers - you don't have to aim blindly or anything.
Keep in mind that since this is your first time, it will probably be a little messy and some rice might fall down. That's okay! Keep trying!
Step Eight: Dig into that chicken. Pinch and tear off a small chunk of the meat from the chicken bones. Now form your rice-and-broth lump against this chunk - you can use its shape to make the lump more stable. Now it's the same deal again: scoop the food onto your fingers, lift to mouth, push in with thumb.
Step Nine: Spice it up! If you feel like using a bit of that sambal there, push some rice or a piece of vegetable into it, then mix it into your next lump. I'd go easy on that stuff if I were you - it's probably hot enough to burn your esophagus off.
Step Ten: Keep going till you're done. Use your left hand to drink from your cup, use your right hand to touch your mouth and anything on your plate, and use all that food to fill up your belly. Don't be shy with that chicken, by the way - chances are it's not a drumstick, and there's usually plenty of meat hidden between the bones.
There you go! You have now successfully eaten a meal in Malaysia, using 100% less the number of utensils than usual!
A few extra points:
- Cooked vegetables accompany most meals. These and any sauces can be mixed in with your rice lumps to help them hold their shape.
- If you ever find yourself eating a meal that involves some sort of flat, flexible bread, like chapatti or naan, you can use this bread as a utensil. Tear off pieces of it - with only your right hand! - and use them to soak up sauce and pinch/scoop up whatever else is on your plate.
- You may find yourself eating a whole or half fish at some point.
There are some places in America where this is not really big news, but there are a lot of people in other places who would never even consider eating something that still has its scales, fins, head, tail, and bones. These are the people that I would ask to take a quick look at what science has to say on the matter:
To eat your whole or half fish, be careful when pinching the meat off - try gently scraping and lifting it off from the center outward, so that it comes free without taking a lot of bones with it. Make a small pile of the bones that do come off on the edge of the plate. When you're finished with one side, remember to flip it over and get the other half.
It took me months to get used to eating with my hands when I first started, but now I actually prefer it. You have a chance to get to know your food before it goes in your mouth, and you can really customize the makeup of each mouthful. It could be that I've simply come to associate this eating method with some really darn good food over the past couple of years, but I like to think that the method itself is about as basic, natural, and intuitive as it gets.
The students also put on impressive demonstrations of Tae Kwon Do and Silat, which made me feel very safe in case of an unexpected ninja siege. The Tae Kwon Do club concluded by breaking several boards, then letting the teachers try one. 
There was also a drama show put on by each form, in which the students good-naturedly made fun of school, the teachers, and themselves, and ended by thanking their teachers for everything. One of these performances even parodied speech choir, ripping off the script and exaggerating all the movements. I forgot how much talent and energy high school performances can have, especially when the students are making it all up on their own!
The student band also put on a great performance, managing to pull off "Rock Around the Clock" in the same program as "We Are the World". 
cute little plush hearts to pairs of students and teachers who share an uncanny facial resemblance. 
As teachers, we were inundated with gifts from the students and prizes for the games. I am now the proud owner of a small washcloth, a cute mug, a notebook, some very short-lived chocolate, and a very respectable glass baking tray. We ended the day with dinner at a seafood restaurant on the beach, where a huge heap of prizes were awarded to teachers whose names were pulled from a hat. In reflection, I'm glad I didn't have to bring any more swag home; I'm quite satisfied with my baking tray!
