Christmas comes with a song and a dance

The weeks leading up to Christmas have become a time for us to teach and coerce our students to sing Christmas songs. Not only is singing required but dancing as well. In fact, I'm starting to notice that we don't teach our students a single song that isn't in some way choreographed, the doings of my boss. And so, each year the Christmas season arrives at my school with a song and a dance. The older students are counting the days til Dec. 26, but the younger kids are usually excited or at least amused by the sight of the teachers acting a fool.

This year the teachers at my school are actually catching a break from the holiday madness that generally surrounds this time of year. Last year my school's Christmas party was a big to-do open to the public and featuring a musical performed by our Bible class students and performances by a group from Taipei. This year, however, we're holding a low-key food centered celebration that will include turkey. The downside - it's being held on Christmas because it's just another school/work day in Taiwan. Though I did manage to get the day off of work, I plan to drop by for the party to hang out with my students. Yes, a bit sad, I know. I'm not married to my job, really.

Also this Christmas my co-workers and I have been relinquished from our duty of performing a Christmas show at an area elementary school. This has been done for the past several years as a ministry outreach that many parents and educators view as free English exposure. Last year our Christmas song and dance routines, as well as a puppet show, were performed for nearly 2,000 kids in a chilly school courtyard over the course of several mornings. I think by the end I was the only one with any amount of voice left (due to performing in the cold and being sick) and therefore got stuck doing the voices for about 4 different puppets. Boy did things get a little interesting trying to keep character voices and accents straight, as well as the confusion of holding conversations with myself. Thankfully I still had only one puppet to man.

A Christmas memory from that event that I had totally forgotten about until a reminder today was the dvd that was made and distributed to the school's classes. This was done to familiarize students with the songs (and dancing - can't forget the dancing) prior to our visit. It was so funny to be recognized from the dvds and thus greeted by students with expressions of "hey, I know you." We were instant celebrities further immortalized by several photos that were taken. Following the shows we had some time to interact with the kids and a friend's photo was taken while using her monkey puppet to talk to students. The photo has been used on the cover of that elementary school's student communication books for the past 2 semesters.

In other song and dance news, a Taiwanese co-worker roped me into a bit of early morning tap dancing last week. I danced for several years as a child but not since. It was a fun workout. She taught me the steps to a Christmas number for a show she's in this season. Following our morning session she came up with the brilliant idea that we should perform a number together next year if the school returns to its annual Christmas shows. Umm, no. I tried to distract her from the idea, but apparently my efforts were in vein. When I went to work later that day, one of my older students told me she couldn't wait for next Christmas to see said co-worker and me performing a dance show. Oh, brother! Now pondering if I should resolve to move before next Christmas rolls around.