Sometimes I worry that by accepting my Fulbright grant the first, and also the second time, that I have pushed my dream of going into production away. Instead, choosing another path akin to a gap year. However, in taking a step back I try to remind myself there is more than one way to reach a goal. This past week was one of those times that I glimpsed a chance to get back on the path of production through Fulbright.
A couple weeks ago, the Taipei Fulbright team sent an email to the extension ETAs on events taking place in the upcoming weeks. Of the activities and changes announced, the team mentioned a new monthly newsletter that would include not only ETA stories to do with a common theme, but also a video to keep the new ETAs joining us in January updated. I reached out, albeit a little anxious, to see if there was any way I could help assist the team creating the videos. I forgot about my email for almost a week, caught up in the festivities that happened in the last couple weeks. Once school came back in session I saw that Fulbright responded and actually asked me to create a video of “a day in the life” of an ETA. I took the video as my chance to show the Fulbright director and team what I could bring to the table. I took videos of my commute to school with a GoPro on my scooter helmet, and took the GoPro to school with the intention to get shots of classes. However, the second the students saw the GoPro, the students changed. Not focused on the lessons and fixated on the camera, I learned early on my idea of filming class on the GoPro wasn’t going to happen and the reaction would probably get worse if I brought my actual camera. That left me with one other option, to film on my phone. For a week I captured class when my LET was leading the class on my iPhone. After 8-9 hours of work I had my video, complete with a personal voice over. To be honest, I don’t think the video is my best work. I wish I could’ve used a regular camera instead of my phone, but I am also typically hyper critical of my videos to begin with. Usually I would sit on an edit for an extended amount of time to clear my head and return to it for some more tweaking, but I felt that 2 weeks after accepting the project for a short video might be seen as too long by the Fulbright team so I shared the video.
I didn’t hear anything for 2 days and in that time my mind kept thinking that I might’ve misinterpreted their instructions or goal of the video. Three days after I submitted the short video, Ina, my local coordinator, approached me. She asked if I was interested in making a small film documenting the volunteer hours some of the ETAs spend at County Hall teaching government workers English. It was through this interaction that I found out that the Fulbright team liked my video and were already discussing plans for the next one I could potentially make which is why they took so long before emailing back! I have now been officially asked to create a longer video on County Hall that will include a long list of desires from Fulbright. Fulbright wants 6 professional interviews, videos of the class, and even asked that Ina and I appear on camera as “hosts” in a way, directing the film through our narrative. This is going to be a big undertaking. When I had a meeting with Ina to sit down and iron out the demands for the video, I couldn’t quite wrap my head around what they were asking. I crunched the numbers when I got home and estimate the project will take around 9 hours to just film everything I need, not including editing and the translation of the entire video.
Despite working full time as a teacher and trying to continue filming for my personal project on the LGBTQ+ community, I accepted this film proposal. I think that it will be a great opportunity to perfect my interview skills solo before doing the interviews for my own documentary. Fulbright has also agreed that I will own the rights to whatever I produce, but that the video will be shown at both Fulbright conferences in the winter and will be shown as promotion to other local governments across Taiwan! The pressure to create something really good is huge, but I am excited that I might be able to have something professional in my production reel! I will keep you up to date on the progress of the project. I begin filming B-roll this week.
Outside of filming, my classes have been pretty well. The 8th graders finally got to “board” their flight to Japan this past Friday. My LET has been hyping them up so much that when I came into their regular English class they asked if they were getting on the airplane that day. I take that as a good sign. I planned this class from the very beginning of brainstorming the International Communication project. I wanted to make a puzzle where the students had to figure out which gate number pertained to their flights by checking a Departures Board that I made on PowerPoint. From there, the students had to go outside and find their gate. I had originally planned the gates to be located closer to the school in the courtyard, but my LET was a little hesitant to have the students so close to other classrooms in case we distracted students. As a result, the gates were farther from the school reaching all the way to the other side of the field. I didn’t think anything of it until I was in the field taping up the signs for the gate when a group of stray dogs from the arena were getting really close. I hadn’t noticed how far I was from the school. I didn’t really know what to do. I kept thinking about my student last year that happened to get bit by a stray and had to get a bunch of shots. I did not want that to happen to me. I slowly started to back away and never turned my eyes away from the dogs. I attempted to growl at them in response to their barks and then when I got close enough to the stairs leading up to the courtyard I booked it with the dogs running after me. To say I was freaked would’ve been an understatement. I am not afraid of dogs, but these dogs were a different breed.
The director happened to see the very end of my interactions with the dogs as I sprinted away. He checked in on me and if I hadn’t been at school I could’ve easily cried. I was so shaken up. He assured me that they would never bite me, but just like to scare people. I don’t care if they would probably never bite me, the option is still there. I didn’t even finish putting the signs up. Sun Wei, one of my other LETs, accompanied me after I calmed down a little bit so I wasn’t alone if the dogs returned. To top off the whole event, the 9th graders heard the barking and I’m pretty sure saw my sprint to safety. Glad nothing really happened so I could just say I’m fine and leave it at that. My question is, why did the LET have me put the signs so far into the field if the dogs every so often go into the field? Do you really want your students running around in that field?
The dogs added a little bit more to the activity than I originally bargained for, but the students did seem to enjoy it. They were running into the field trying to find where they were. The laughing on their faces made up for the dogs. I do not plan on returning to the far side of the field nor do I plan to ever come in contact with the dogs again.
After the eventful Friday I wanted a calming and relaxing weekend. That’s what Peter’s Half Ironman provided. Peter is the 3rd year ETA in Taitung. He is ingrained in Taitung county community. He is known for his running primarily and for his useful food blog, Bergman Bites. It’s Peter’s encouragement that led to me running the half marathon last year and to have 2 races on the calendar for this semester too. I thought an Ironman would give me a great chance to practice my camera settings on fast moving objects, and give me motivation to get out of the house even though the weather wasn’t the best. I hadn’t imagined the crowd of athletes to be that big. So many people were participating in the race. I snapped so many pictures of the runners. I was so busy looking through the camera view finder I didn’t even realize one of the runners was Peter until his friend from Taichung cheered for him and sure enough looking at the last picture, I took I recognized him.
Seeing as Iron Man races, even halves such as Peter’s, take so long I left after the swimming section to go to breakfast with Kendra, another ETA. There wasn’t much point in staying for the biking portion of the race because they biked all the way up the coast with the highway down to one lane. I returned with 15 minutes to spare before Peter started his run. I am usually not one to enjoy cheering from the sidelines, however, I had a blast getting to cheer Peter on. Every time he passed, he somehow found enough to smile and give us a thumbs up in thanks. I can’t imagine how he was feeling, but I hoped our cheering made finishing a little bit easier. With all of our support, Peter finished as the 3rd in his age group, 4 minutes off of his goal time. Couldn’t be prouder of his finish and to think next month he has another triathlon to try to beat that time.
Messing with my camera and catching up with friends and family this weekend made the days a little less dreary. I could almost forget it looked like it was going to start raining at any second.