One of my best experiences in Taiwan so far. The Dragon Boat festival is a traditional Chinese holiday (we got off school) that includes eating traditional Chinese rice dumplings and racing these boats with huge dragon heads at the front. It's awesome. Our Fulbright team had been pracitcing three times a week, from 6 AM to 7:30 AM, since May 1. I felt like I was in "Remember the Titans." We had a really motivating coach who knew the sport in and out, and we also had a team makeup that was unique: 2/3rds of our team are girls. Our first race was against another "co-ed" team: 18 guys and 1 girl who didn't even row. In Dragon Boat, you have the rowers, a drummer to keep the time, and someone who leans out over the boat to grab the flag (that's the finish line). It was heart-racing. It was a test of strength. It was a trial by fire. We won! We were all goin crazy. We faced a couple more teams, many composed entirely of grown men, but and we finished a respectable 5-3, the best record in Fo Guang University history (not a high bar, granted).
The team got close, and afterwards we had an all-you-can eat vegetarian team dinner to celebrate. Here's some pics and a video here. Jia you! (means "lets go!" in Chinese, literally, "give it gas!").
cheerleaders
pep talk from coach. can you feel the intensity?
dudes. from left: tony, Jack, Joseph, B, Kerry.
sweet, sweet victory. delicious
Dragon Boat festival performance
team pic
we raced fro Fo Guang University, which is a Bhuddist school, so the monks came out to support us. very sweet women, all of them
stretching between races
group photo
dudes. from left: tony, Jack, Joseph, B, Kerry.
sweet, sweet victory. delicious
Dragon Boat festival performance
team pic 
stretching between races 
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