Friday, August 31, 2012

Huge update 1: Dragon Boat

First, I have neglected my blog long enough. I haven't written for a while for a few reasons, all July I was traveling around in Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. The other reason for the neglect is that I was just being lazy for a while.

This blog will span about 4-5 blogs. First I want to talk about the end of the semester and the beginning of the summer. Blog number two will be Vietnam, then three Cambodia and four will be Thailand.

The end of the semester wrapped up nicely, I got all great grades. Grading in Taiwan is different than in the US because no one, and I mean no one will get higher than about a 92%. But I got lucky and got all A's and B's (which was expected). Chinese, which I wasn't sure if I was going to even pass was passed with a solid B.

After the semester ended we were getting ready for a big event that takes place every year in Taiwan: The Dragon Boat Festival. This event has a history, that might be botched by me but from what I understand is this: Long ago there was a man who drowned in a river (or lake, something) and the people didn't want the fish to eat his body so they raced out and dropped 粽子(zhongzi) down into the water. 粽子 are a rice dumpling that is wrapped with either a bamboo leaf or seaweed, in Taiwan it is traditionally bamboo leaves. The dumplings then are steamed and have a mix of meat, rice and egg inside. I don't like them too much but I know many people that do, the only problem with them for me is that I don't like egg that much. But after a while these dumplings were no longer thrown into the waters they were just eaten as tradition. But nowadays the tradition has steamed into a race where teams from all over the country and all over the world come out and race in boats up a river, or lake. 

My good friend in the middle 阮柏緯.
There are a few dragon boat teams at my university but the one that I became the most friends with was the 文山 (WenShan) dragon boat team. I had a couple international friends that joined the team so I began to hang out with the team at a bar nearby and other places that they went. I was sort of adopted by the team and they were my first large group of Taiwanese to hang out with, I also kind of became their camera man as well. 

Fast forward a bit to race day. I watched them race two times and needless to say, it was extremely hot outside. I hung around with the team while they waited for their race to start and they were very kind to allow me to sit around with them, they even 'force' fed me. I didn't want to impose on the team because they were the ones racing not me, but even the elder team members told me I should eat with them. This is how Taiwanese are, they are always helpful and kind. To me, this race went very well, but they did not end up winning. It has to be said though that this race was a worldwide race, so people from all over the world participated and I got to see the Mayor of Taipei along with some representatives from other countries

That night they all went out to eat at a really nice place and, of course they dragged me along. It might sound like I am making excuses but they really did want me around which was so nice of them to keep inviting me places. 

The next day was race number two for them. This day was even hotter and there was little to no shade anywhere. But the day was beautiful and I got there a few hours early to hang out with the team and take some pictures of them warming up and they again, fed me and watered me. After a few hours they were up to bat and their first race went extremely well, they won but did get disqualified for dropping their baton in the water. Not only did the baton fall in but the person at the head of the boat did too because the bot actually broke. But the first races video is here:


The second race everyone knew was going to be a difficult one because they were racing against the Taipei firefighters. The firefighters had one rule while being at the race, they could not talk. They could not talk even to each other in the tent. They were dead silent from the moment the day began. This was their strategy to mentally be strong and put pressure on other teams. They were successful in looking powerful because everyone was talking about them all day. But the race began and once again the 文山 team were doing amazing and racing their hearts out. But in the end they did end up not winning that race and the firefighters did win. The second race video is here:


To talk for a moment about the sport itself and compare it to other sports I will say this. The fans, the teams, the players are all extremely respectful. These races do give people a lot of money and that is an incentive to do well. But one thing I noticed, and maybe it is because I am not close to many athletes in the US or have met the wrong ones, there is a little tension between the teams like there should be because everyone wants to win but there isn't a lot. If I can compare it to a sport it would be like major league sports in the US, the players all respect each other, sure there are some exceptions but for the most part they do. Everyone wants 'their' team to win and that is where the fans can be obnoxious at times, but here at these races, the fans just cheer on their teams and always congratulate the winning team and never have hurt feelings or be angry, even if the team is from Mainland China and the team advocates to take back control of Taiwan, which one team was. 
Gilberto and Emmaida, couple of my Mexico buddies

After the second game everyone just went to the bar that we have become accustomed to going to and had some drinks and just talked.

About a week later the team invited me to a KTV with the team, which is where I coined the phrase 'but I am not on the team', whenever they would do something nice for me. It was all in joking fun because I knew they wanted me around and I wanted to be around them. Like I said before, I was adopted by them. This KTV was funny because there were no English songs but 'Happy Birthday' and 'Hey Jude'. This didn't stop those who don't speak Chinese well from having fun though. So we still ate, drank and had a blast listening to drunk Taiwanese sing and have fun. It was a great experience and one that I won't forget.  

Overall, if I was planning a travel guide to Taiwan, which I am sure some people might use my blog for, I highly recommend seeing the Dragon Boat festival. No matter where you are in Taiwan, there will be one near.

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