After finishing teaching, we walked downstairs to some food stalls and bought some milk tea for Rod and fresh watermelon juice for Jean--to hold us over until our dinner. Rod was to participate in the IoT team's presentation, explaining how to improve your English. Then Rod and Jean sang a song for the audience. We chose an old American folk song--"I've Been Working on the Railroad". And Jean was asked to sit on the judging panel and then be the spokesman at the end, reporting which teams came in 3rd, 2nd, and 1st. We later were told this was the first competition of this kind so there were a few "bugs" to work out. Also, they have never had foreigners attend/participate. We don't have photos of our musical performance, but there were many cameras snapping us on stage. Later on I'll add one if I can.
There was quite a variety of talent, and for a culture where the norm is to stay in a group with no one standing out--this was a unique opportunity to try something and be vulnerable. I think for a first time venture, they did quite well. Of course, there is room for improvement, too.
At the end, Jean was asked to proclaim the winners...but she had not seen the tallied scores by all the judges. She was supposed to make some kind of comments about the performance, but had not been told that in advance. And when she was given the results, they were handwritten in Chinese. As you can see, Jean took it in stride. :)
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