Raindrops on some other type of flower

This morning the head English teacher at one of my primary schools asked if I would come adjudicate for their English Singing Competition. It fit into my schedule, and I could think of far worse things to do as work, so I agreed. Today was the 4th, 5th, and 6th grades. Tomorrow I will get to witness grades 1-3. This means some of the children I teach will be up there tomorrow.

Some of the fabulous renditions included: Justin Bieber's "Baby," Taylor Swift's "Love Story," "Do-Re-Mi" from the Sound of Music, "Auld Lang Syne," and "Jolly Old St. Nicholas." They were cute and managed to work well around a few technical difficulties.

As I was sitting in the gymnasium watching kids file in and get organized on tiny benches, I realized I was the only white person in the room. In fact, I believe I was the only non-Chinese decent in the room. It's not extremely unusual for me to be the only white person, but today while I was waiting I was thinking about how minorities in the U.S. must feel, especially Asians. When we say 'minority' in many American social circles, I feel like we automatically think of African Americans, but there are many other different minorities. Even among Asian Americans, we often make the mistake of categorizing Japanese-, Korean-, Malaysian-, and other Asian decent Americans as all being Chinese. There are far less Asian-Americans and Asian-American support organizations in American than African Americans and African-American support groups, which is one reason I thought specifically about our roles being reversed today. Asian-Americans experience racism and the feeling of being outcast, perhaps at a different level than African-Americans, but they also have less of a similar-race community in many areas throughout the U.S. So, to the point, I don't pretend to know what it's like to be in an Asian American's shoes, but today I thought maybe I got a little taste of it. Of course, I also had the semi-language barrier to deal with as all the introductions and speaking parts were done in Cantonese and not all the teachers I attempted to talk to spoke English well enough to converse. I didn't even know what they said when they introduced me, I just heard Ms. Hall (or Ms. Ha?) and waved. Overall the experience was very enjoyable and quite comical.

And like I often live through memories, the 'Do-Re-Mi' of today reminded me of my dad. After all, the Sound of the Music was one of the first movies he ever saw in theaters. I think only he and his brother got to go with his parents and it was black and white at the Palace Theater. (Am I getting this right, dad?) Now that I've shared more family history you may or may not have actually cared about, here are pictures:

I've told you before about the different uniforms they have. The picture above is the 'I have P.E. today uniforms,' below is 'I am looking snazzy because I'm not getting sweaty today (aka no P.E.) uniforms'

One of the classes brought flowers to each of the judges as part of the actions behind their songs. I guess that means I got a flower from a boy today--we won't mention he's less than half my age. haha. So I guess instead of 'raindrops on roses' we say 'raindrops on whatever type of flower this is (anyone know).' An appropriate song as it did in fact rain once again today.