In Tainan(and in most Taiwanese cities) there are Dragon Boat races. In Tainan, almost any school or organization that can get 20 rowers can sponsor a team. At the Cheng Da Chinese Language Institute we sponsored 3 teams. We has a few practices and our teams are made up of a very international groups. My team had maybe 5 Frenchmen, 5 Spanish speakers, 4 Americans, Koreans, Thais, ... Outside of class we all revert to our mother language instead of Chinese. So our boat could have been called "The Boat of Babel".
We had tons of fun and that was the main point. We won our first heat against two other boats. But I have to report that one team was a high school girls team( their high school boys team was good) and a team from Japan(they had good looking outfits). On the second day of competition we were smoked. The other two teams were boat lengths ahead of us at the finish.
Here's the equipment.
Looks like it was fun and it looks like you are loosing weight. Is dragon boat training good exercise?
Reply DeleteHow much longer will you be gone? I've enjoyed hearing all about this adventure.
martha
I don't think the dragon boat training had much effectas we only had 2 practices of 1 hour and 2 races. More effective is just walking. In Tainan, I have no bicycle, no motorcycle, no car. I walk everywhere, it's good daily exercise that has an effect, I think.
Reply DeleteI fly back to the US June 15th, that will be the last blog entry. It's been fun.