Clips from my first week in Vietnam
Since I used my week-3 blog to detail my giving back opportunities, I really want to take the chance to share my experience for week 3 before week 4 ends! And what a crazy week that was! On top of having 2 tests in one day, I had numerous amounts of group projects, and I even had to interview strangers in Japanese! For this week, I only had 2 excursions; chado (tea ceremony), and taiko lessons. Fortunately, the taiko experience immediately became my favorite excursion to date!
As you may know, taiko is a type of traditional Japanese drum. Because my dad is a drummer, this excursion was much more significant for me. The taiko lesson was an hour and a half, so I had plenty of time to practice! For my lesson, I had 2 instructors, and they were REALLY skilled! The students and us split into groups of 3, and shared a drum to practice. In order to get a louder sound, you had to spread your legs far apart while playing. In addition, playing required a lot of movement, and switching, so it was a little tiring! However, it was really fun! We learned two songs from the instructors, and after copying their rhythm numerous times, we got to perform by ourselves!
After the lesson, we students were fortunate enough to be treated to a performance by the instructors! The song they played was a war song (though I can’t remember the name in Japanese), and it was quite powerful! The instructors’ movements were so graceful and technical, and watching them made me realize even more how amazing taiko drumming can be!
So while this week was super busy and slow as far as excursions go, I’m so glad that the taiko lesson was here to highlight not only the week, but my trip!