I gave my final speech of the Spring semester on Friday + have one week left to go before the semester is over! I am looking forward to a break from class, but sad that most of my friends in the program will be leaving Taiwan over the next two weeks. But then my best college buddy, Christian, will come for a visit! After a few days in Taiwan, we go to Hanoi, then Bangkok. I can’t wait for our Southeast Asia adventure!

Anyway, I am still sometimes surprised by how much Chinese I have been able to learn in the last five months. In January I would never have been able to write a 5 minute speech in Chinese, + today I can with relative ease! My speech topic this semester was about the fact that I did not expect to find acting work in Taiwan + did, nor did I expect to meet such a smart group of writers to collaborate with here. The speech went as follows:

大家好！ 上個學期我告訴你們我在紐約是一位演員也是一位寫劇本的人。可是我今天會說在台灣我是一位演員也是一位作家！

我本來覺得在 ICLP 念書的時候我不會做表演的工作。可是我現在每個周末在好幾個台灣的城市表演。我們的表演是一個教孩子英文的表演。表演的時候我們都在唱歌也在跳舞。我跟小孩子都覺得這個表演很好玩。

我來台灣以前， 我也不知道我會認識這麼多又聰明又有辦法的作家。可是今年一月我的同學泰春請我跟四個朋友寫詩歌也演出一個說唱的表演叫〝韻家旮旯。〞每個月我們用英文跟中文寫新的詩歌，做新的表演。我們都可以寫四個人物，可是我常常寫 Music 跟 Jezibelle。Music 是真的愛，Jezibelle 是欲望 。

因為我寫 Jezibelle 的故事是一點都不可以在演講說的，所以現在我要告訴你們一個短的 Music 的故事：

我本來覺得愛是男朋友跟女朋友或是太太跟先生的事。我現在知道愛是我昨天下大雨的時候看見的爸爸跟女兒。爸爸穿著紅雨衣，騎腳踏車，女兒坐在爸爸的後面，在他的雨衣裡。我只能看得到他女兒瘦瘦小小的腿，只聽得見他女兒小小的聲音。我聽不到她說了什麼，可是看見他們以後，我覺得真高興。他們真特別。我現在知道每個時候都會有愛。

要是我的故事你們喜歡聽，你們應該來看我們明天的表演！謝謝大家！

Since my friend (+ classmate), Disha, was discussing Indian culture + preparing the Indian street snack panipuri for her presentation, I decided to don a Saree along with her. I had never worn one before, had two from my Singapore trip with my mom + I love to dress up! Our teacher decided that it would be fun if I taught the room full of teachers + students Disha’s favorite dance, “Changing the Lightbulbs,” before we gave our speeches. It was!

changing the light bulbs/iclp, taipei/may 24, 2013

me, probably forgetting what i was talking about…/iclp, taipei/may 24, 2013

i definitely win the “cutest powerpoint” award/iclp, taipei/may 24, 2013

disha’s sidekick/iclp, taipei/may 24, 2013

disha prepping panipuri/iclp, taipei/may 24, 2013

me prepping to eat the panipuri/iclp, taipei/may 24, 2013

dish feeding me the panipuri/iclp, taipei/may 24, 2013

that’s a look of enjoyment, in case you wondered/iclp, taipei/may 24, 2013

We had so much fun presenting! Disha’s panipuri were delish, + I think all of the students + teachers who watched enjoyed themselves, too!

the ladies/iclp, taipei/may 24, 2013

I will end this one with one of my favorite M.I.A. songs. The sample for the beat is from an old Bollywood movie, so sort of apropos!