World Games Begin!

July 16

There are aboriginal dancers in this picture, they are just hard to see

What a day! It was easily the best day that I have had since arriving here. In the afternoon, Wenzao brought in a Chinese yo-yo group. They are also known as diablos (the spell check wanted me to change that to diabetes). I saw a group a while back that came to a church. I was expecting a similar performance with these guys. Little did I know that these guys in Taiwan are the best in the world. The tricks that they performed were nothing short of spectacular. For example, one of the tricks that I liked was essentially an around the world where he only held one stick and swung around the other. With a normal yo-yo, the trick is not impressive. However, when the yo-yo is not attached to the string it becomes much better. Other tricks they did included wrapping around body parts and swinging the diablo like a mad man. After that, we were able to try it ourselves. I found out that I'm actually kind of decent with them. I am considering bringing a set back with me because it would be a fun activity to do in my free time.

While that alone would have been the highlight of pretty much any day here, it still cannot compare to the Opening Ceremony of the 2009 World Games in Kaohsiung. We were able to attend through the Wenzao program. We didn't have to pay a dime for the tickets. The show was amazing. After learning so much about the Taiwanese culture being here for this long it made the show even better. They highlighted the aboriginal groups as well as did more modern things. I liked when they did the part where a bunch of people on scooters came out because it really is part of Taiwan. Whenever I see a scooter from now on, I will instantly think of my time in Taiwan.

My favorite part was the walkout with the athletes. Since the US was one of the last countries to be called, I was very antsy to cheer for them. I was able to get an American flag through security (that's another story, I was very close to not getting it in because it was too big) and was standing up and cheering throughout the ceremony. When the US was called I screamed as loud as I could and waved the flag. I can't even count how many different people that have pictures of me doing this, because there were a lot of people that turned around and took pictures. But it was still a lot of fun. Considering how short this post is to others is kind of weird. It's just hard to describe. But it was still spectacular.

More pictures here. A slide show taken by a professional is here.