The Big Day

I didn't get much sleep because of my excitements! It was after midnight when I walked into my bedroom thinking of the Regensburger Domspatzen (RD) coming my way on the CI62 somewhere above the clouds in China. At ten past five, I was waiting in front of the Gu-Ting Elementary School for Ms. Joaan Chang to pick me up to welcome the world's oldest boys' choir at the Tao-yuan Airport.

At seven o'clock sharp, the little boys of the RD first showed up, followed by the big boys. None of them showed any sleeping eyes! Maestro Roland Büchner greeted Earth Choir Artistic Director Chylin Hong and her grandson. The Choir manager Christof Hartmann gave me a big smile and said hello to me. Herr Hartmann and I had been writing emails to each other since last November. Finally I got to meet with him in person. He looked a sweet and soft man, not like his name "A Hard Man".

After the group photos, we rushed to Tainan on two charter buses. I was in charge of Bus A for the little boys. Mr. Wu was in charge of Bus B for the big boys. Mr. Wu was exited to converse with his big German boys in German before his German got rusted. He came back to Taiwan in March this year after his advanced studies of Piano in Hamburg for three years.

As a beginner of the German language, I could only say a few greeting words in German. Then I gathered my courage to sing a children song "Lightly Row". After a couple of phrases, I passed the microphone to the little boys sitting in the front rows. In the end, all boys sang along and we finished together the first ice breaker choral song of "Hänschen Klein" in German.

It was a 3 and 1/2 hours journey from Taoyuan to Tainan. I exerted myself to smile most of the time on bus. I tried my best to entertain the questions of the little German boys in ENGLISH. I didn't know how much they could understand me, but I kept talking, about the pronunciation of four tones in Mandarin, about the Chinese Zodiac in a 12-year cycle, about the Legend of the White Snake, about the religions in Taiwan, about everything to my knowledge.

As a curious linguist, I wouldn't give up the chance to conduct a small experiment about the language ability of the little boys to distinguish the four tones of Mandarin. As I had anticipated, all little boys could distanguish the four tones without any difficulties, maybe because they were small children, they could learn fast. Maybe because they were musicians, they had sensitive ears. Or maybe both.

To me, numbers are the hardest part for a foreign language acquisition. But after I taught the little boys the numbers in Mandarin, in less than ten minutes, M. I. could count from 1 to 99 in Mandarin. His fast mind on numbers were impressive! Wow, I told him he would be Bill Gates when he grew up.

It was a smooth journey from Taipei to Tainan with a short break at Taishan Rest Area to get rid of the biological waste and to replenish the hydrogen dioxide. We arrived at the Tayih Landis Hotel one hour ahead of time. Before 12 noon, everybody was dressed up to wait for the host of the luncheon party at La Mode Cafe'. To be honest, I could eat a horse after a long bus journey. I was so hungry when we could finally start our luncheon waiting for the host to come. I believed the boys felt the same way, too. We started with soup, salad, Spaghetti, followed by coffee and cake.

The Press Conference featuring the Tainan City Mayor started at two o'clock at the lobby. Dr. Shane Wang, Director of the Earth Choir, explained how happy he was to invite the RD to Taiwan after two decades. The RD sang three songs, "Sing we and chant it", "Zu Regensburg auf der Kirchturmspitz", and "Kommt ein Vogerl geflogen".

After the press conference ended at 3:30PM, it was free time. I told the kids to use the hotel facilities before dinner. It would be better for them to stay awake to get a good night sleep to adjust the jet lag as soon as possible. M. E. was in the lobby and he helped me take a videoclip of congratulatory message for the 10th anniversary of Kyoto Toastmasters Club at the Hotel Tayih Landis Tainan.

At 6PM, I was all dressed up in my bling bling yakata to enjoy the Japanese cuisine at the big and fancy Yamato Restaurant. We were treated as the honor of guests with sashimi, sushi, and many exquisite seafood dishes, but the kids were not excited. They were simply too tired to appreciate any luxurious and exotic food on their first day in Taiwan.

I didn't go to bed until until after midnight. It was a long, but fruitful day. My job of the RD concert tour was to make the boys feel happy, feel at home, and to make the boys be at their best condition to break a leg on stage at the six concerts in Taiwan. I pledge to do it well till the kids return to their sweet homes in Regensburg!