School's birthday celebration

Every school in Taiwan has a celebration each year. For elementary schools, it's a huge event and most of the parents attend. Our celebration was this past Saturday - and it's safe to say that it was beyond a huge event. As foreign English teachers, we were asked to host the event so that the parents could have the chance to see and hear us. We were also asked to do a ten minute performance, which we chose to do a silly game show. This ten minute show took almost a month of preparation and weeks of rehearsals. The week before the celebration, all the school staff were running around frantically preparing for Saturday. It wasn't until I arrived on school property that I realized just how overblown this celebration had become. There were beautiful flower arraignments decorating the school yard, 20 brand new bikes that would be given away, along with several other wrapped gifts that would be given away. On the stage in the center of the school sat "very important people" dressed in suits and treated like royalty.
The day began and we read our lines for hosting the event. First, there were student clubs that performed for the "important people on stage." There was a karate team, the Djembe African drum players and dancer, a bei-gwan temple drumming team, etc.... Next, were speeches by the principal, the pta, and others that I had never seen. Finally, each grade performed a dance in the middle of the field. After that was our game show and some track and field competitions. After the scheduled events, it was a time for parents to spend time with their children, classmates, and teachers until lunchtime. This was a very boring time for me. Note that I was very sick, but covering up my being uncomfortable to give parents a good impression. I walked around to each classes' tent and visited with the children and teachers. most classrooms showered me with snacks and drinks! They were so happy to share. After I met with every class I waited around for about an hour for lunch to be served. The other ENglish teachers were also bored, and we spent the hour in the teachers office. Lunch was not very good, considering they had to feed 1000 parents along with their families and grandparents. I wasn't in much of a mood for eating, I was feeling very sick at this point and just prayed 3 o clock would come sooner. Luckily, Natalie offered to take me to the doctor so we could sneak away from school for a while. There really was no need for us, but we were required to be at school. She said after 1:30 we could go, because she promised to watch a student in the 100 meter dash. 2 o clock came around and I couldn't find her, so Chiang Bird (the Djembe drum teacher...crazy guy!) offerend to take me. I wanted to wait for Natalie, but by 230 I didn't want to wait any longer, so Chiang Bird took me to the doctor. So, I didn't get to leave that much earlier than the rest. The beginning of the day was a lot of fun, when there were organized events and shows, but once there was no organization, or "free time" it became rather boring and strung out.
I have to say that it is nice that the parents are so involved and interested in their childs' education.