Student Talent Night

Thursday evening the International Education students put on a 2 hour talent show and invited us--the foreign teachers--to attend and to do something as part of the program. About 200 students attended in the Student Union about a block from the foreign faculty housing.

First of all, the four of us (Tyler, Serg, Katy and Tyler) walked away from the event very impressed with the talents and creativity all of the participants showed. The floor manager did a great job keeping the pace of all types of singers--from a band to solos, duets--muscians including a traditional Chinese string instrument, clarinet, guitars--and all sorts of dance numbers.

It's hard to describe the variety since there were so many...one that really stands out were 5 guys who did impossible balancing, dancing with basketballs...the Harlem Globetrotters should be scared since they did some amazing tricks.

All the students showed great talents; the four of us faculty were the untalented portion of the event.

Asked to participate the day before, the four of us met in my apartment the night before and shared a bowl of popcorn to decide what to do. With little preparation--clearly the students had done a tremendous amount--we decided to bring the Yule Tide season to Wuhan. As we took the stage with microphones in hand we broke into our quartet number: Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. They gave us polite applause and encouragement, but clearly, the students were the ones who showed talent and alas, we teachers showed our lack thereof.

We all had a grand time!