A Week In Taiwan, Part 2: Synergy
August 4, 2008In Taipei, at the underground tunnels leading to subway stations, one can often see pedestrians - wearing busy if not dour expressions - walking briskly and fast, like they’re bent to, without delay, go someplace. Brummagem wares are ignored, bums are not spared any penny, and street musicians are paid no mind. But on one Sunday, July 27th of 2008, something strange happened inside the tunnels. Suddenly, people were not dashing out as fast as they could; but they were converging on a particularly noisy spot. They looked fascinated. They were watching singers and dancers from Utah who had come to perform all over Taiwan. Songs are sung, dances are danced, hands are clapped, and cheers are yelled. Synergy, as the group is called, was on a mission to inspire everyone with music, and this was the first day.
08 Set the Night to Music (Synergy)
I was one of the audiences, but what set me and another three apart from the rest of the spectators was that we travel with Synergy. We were their tour guides. Okay, a more accurate description is “Those other three are Synergy’s tour guides; Nightdreamer came along to pretend to be a tour guide like being a tour guide was a walter-mitty fantasy of Snoopy.” Meanwhile, I also felt stupid about myself. Yin Chu, tour guide #1, earned a magna cum laude in her college years, and she works in a UN-subsidized organization while moonlighting as a piano teacher. Barry, tour guide #2, is an international school graduate and is also a singer, and he is just about to go to New York University for college. Perlette, tour guide #3, is a singer/model/pianist and, despite being child of a French and a Taiwanese, can speak Filipino. Nightdreamer was tour (mis)guide #4 who, on most occasions, felt like hiding behind curtains; his greatest musical achievement is his playing a perfect “Mary Has a Little Lamb” with the 1-2-3 keys of a tone-dialed telephone (the lone audience of that performance is his own left ear). I was the only nonmusical person among the guides and the travelers. In a completely mediocre way I stood out!
Barry
Perlette
A random nobody posing with Yin Chu
The days went by like this: sightsee at daytimes, perform at nighttimes. We took Synergy from the north to the south of Taiwan, stopping to let them perform on venues that were both formal (like National Concert Hall [the Carnegie Hall of Taiwan], Sanchung Society Center, Churches of Latter Day Saints in Taipei and in Kaoshung, Sun Yat Sen Theater of Tai Chung, Yun Lin Theater, and in a Kaoshung’s park) and informal (like in an underground tunnel, outside the Shinkong Department Store of the Xinyi District, in a school of Kaoshung, and at a crossroad of Ximending). We also sent them to tourist spots like the Shilin Night Market, Taipei 101, Xinyi District, Ximending, Feng Chia Night Market, Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall, National Palace Museum, Long Shan Temple, Sun Moon Lake, and Holiday Jade and Flower Market.
Sorry for the name-drop overloads. I’ll atone by pictures!
THERE ARE A LOT OF PICTURES IN HERE! YOU’RE READY FOR THAT? THEN CLICK “MORE”!
(Note: Pictures are not in chronological order.)
Longshan Temple
Singing in Ximending
A Stroll in Ximending
At Xinyi District
They’re about to sing
Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall
A Church of Latter Day Saints
Shilin Night Market. It’s too crowded here on Saturdays.
Shilin Night Market
Inside Long Shan Temple
Long Shan Temple
Err, there are easier ways to remove that pillar
Stairway to Sun Moon Lake
DJ
Sun Moon Lake Temple
Vanessa
Vanessa
Umm…
Lindsay S, signing autographs
Randy making shrieking fangirls happy
Lindsay D and Randy
Randy and Katie
Natalie
Natalie
Michelle
Michelle
Lindsay D
Lindsay S and Colton
Laurel
Laurel
Kyle, Perlette and Yin Chu
Colton and Kyle
Some passerby with Bergandee
Kim. He’s their conductor.
Katie
Jonathan
Jesse
Jared
Our photographer, DJ
Dave
Dave
Dantzel
Dantzel
Our bus driver, saying goodbye to us
Bergandee
Benjamin
Barry and Yin Chu
Allie
Alexi
Bumming in the bus
Bumming in the bus again
Boat made of money
Guanyu’s Altar
Mountain Trail
Stairway out of Sun Moon Lake
Sun Moon Lake
Temple atop Sun Moon Lake
Singing in the airport
At Kaoshung’s Park
Kim asking Yin Chu to translate what he says
Choir from Georgia who joined us in our tour
Inside a school of Kaoshung
Further proof that girls today dig the dorky types
Vanessa
Jesse
Practicing their dance
Sun Yat Sen Theater
Inside a mormon church
All the ladies in the hauz!
All the boyz in da hood!
Despite being so thoroughly out-of-place among both the tour guides and all members of Synergy, I loved hanging around with them. They were so nice! How nice, you ask? Like, a person like me who most of my readers think is one of the most angst-ridden guys on the side of Holden Caulfield, would and did travel halfway of Taiwan just to reunite with them (I went my own ways for a day when I needed to take care of travel document burdens). Not a strong enough testimony? Okay, how about this: they managed to make a surly bus driver - who acted as tempestuously as a fairly tale’s antagonist - become amiable.
While they were being endlessly fascinated by Taiwan’s culture, I was being endlessly fascinated by their talents, and by the heart they put to the songs they sing. I’ve not felt so inspired for a long time. Even if I was a mere hulking excess baggage to everyone, I was treated like a brother, and by the time we parted ways, their goodbyes sounded like “could cry”. I miss them very dearly now that I’m back in the Philippines and with only their pictures and their letters as memorabilias.
Vacation days always go by too quickly. They’re like boats driven by the currents borne toward ceaselessly to a waterfall. If Synergy ever decides to come to Philippines I’d be thrilled to accompany them. And then I bet the days will run like athletes on steroids, again. To me, it didn’t matter that I didn’t buy a lot of stuff in Taiwan. What’s more important to me is my being able to meet people worth having long-lasting friendships with. How does consumerism even compare to that?
Previous Comments
I miss you so much! I can’t even stand how sad this blog made me! I want to cry…..I blame you
Cry me a river!
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Posted by nightdreamer at August 9, 2008, 7:46 amif soo lin chu doesn’t get on flight 97 and buckle up, i’m going to have to find her myself. And it WON’T BE PRETTY!!! DEAR DEAR CHRIS, you aren’t forgettable at all. you are a part of tiawan that i miss the most!! you were always smiling and making me feel loved! and we love you too!!
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Glad you had fun! You needed the break angsty boy!
Posted by Ria Josr at August 5, 2008, 3:54 pm