A few of us outside the arena stadium (see inflatable teletubby-look-alike behind us?)

Dear friends,
Yesterday I went to the opening ceremony of the Taiwan National Athletic Event. It was very interesting because the mascots for the Athletic Event look like teletubbies. These inflatable teletubbies were hilarious. They bounced around, bumped into each other, and if they fell on the floor, they flailed their arms and couldn't get back up. Although the dancers during the ceremony were pretty cool, I  think the highlight of the event was just watching these little teletubbies bounce around. Some couldn't get through the arena doors and some even deflated! And of course, the event wouldn't be complete without flying teletubbies...

Yep...flying teletubbies that seemed to only be held by their costumes

The National Athletic Event was a little bit like the Olympics because these teletubby-like things escorted the athletes into the stadium and then they all lined up in the middle like so:

And then, there were fireworks:

The Kaohsiung Arena Stadium

You can find more pictures in this album here. After the opening ceremony ended, all of us went to eat and dance at a Mexican restaurant in Taiwan.

By the way, I got my hair cut. You'll notice in the pictures that my hair is much shorter. I will say more about my hair cut in another post =D.

Dear friends,
Last night I went with my school's basketball coach and some Fulbright English Teaching Assistants (ETAs) to watch a baseball game. It was so much fun! This was probably the first time I actually payed attention to a baseball game for the entire nine innings. Back in the States, I usually get bored after the fifth inning and want to leave because the game is taking so long. But this time was much more exciting. I think it was more exciting because at the baseball game, the fans had organized cheers. The teams that played against each other were the Taipei Elephant Brothers (yes, that's their full name) and the Kaohsiung La New Bears. Taipei's colors are yellow and black and Kaohsiung's colors are teal and white. We initially thought we were going to cheer for La New Bears because it was Kaohsiung's home team, but apparently Taipei has a larger fan base.

The crowds had organized cheers and would wave their little yellow horns/sticks that make noise. Taiwanese baseball games are pretty noisy, but I think that's a good thing because then people like me don't fall asleep! I enjoyed the cheers very much. There were a lot of cheers that involved saying "Chuan Lei Da!" for "Home Run!" In the end, the Elephant Brothers (Taipei Team) won by one point.

A popular player on the Elephant Brothers team, #23, scored three home runs at the game prior to the one we watched. #23's nickname is Cha-Cha. At last night's game, we saw one home run made by #52 whose nickname is Electric Fireball. It was pretty sweet.

Outside the baseball stadium after the game

Kate, me, and Coach Pao

Kate, Selena (remember her from my previous posts? Her brother owns the Modern Toilet Restaurants), and me

You can find more pictures of the baseball game here.

Dear friends,
As promised, here are the basketball cheers I do with the Hua Shan Elementary School basketball team every Tuesday. I practice with them once every week and I finally got the girl's and boy's cheer down. Take a look at the little movie I made of their cheers =D:

Hua Shan Elementary School
Basketball Cheers (Boys & Girls)

BOY'S CHEER:
Leader: He-Xio!
Teammates: He-Xio!
Leader: He-Xio!
Teammates: He-Xio!
Leader: Hua-Shan [our school name]!!
Teammates: Jia-You! [literally, "add gas!" or "Go!Go!Go!" in Chinese]

GIRL'S CHEER:
All team members: Hua-Shan [our school name]!
--Clap--Clap--
All team members: Hua-Shan!
--Clap--Clap--
All team members: Hua--Shan--Guo--Xiao!!
--Clap-Clap--Clap--Clap---Clap
--Clap-Clap--Clap--Clap---Clap
--Clap-Clap--Clap--Clap---Clap
--CLAP!!

Dear friends,
As you know, every Tuesday afternoon I play basketball with the Hua Shan Basketball Team. I've been waiting a long time to write this post and have been putting it off because I did not have a picture of them. But, I just got a great picture of these enthusiastic, talented, and cheerful basketball players today!

I'm standing in the way back. Can you find me? You can't really see everyone because we haphazardly had everyone stand together and we were goofing off =D.

I'm planning to go to the Hua Shan Basketball Team's games in November. At first I thought I would not be able to go to their games because their basketball games are during the day, but I realized I only have to work half days during those times. I'm going to try to bring the other Fulbright English Teaching Assistants (ETAs) to those games so we can all cheer the girls and boys basketball teams. I know the girl's cheer so I know we'll at least be doing that cheer during the games =D. If anyone knows of any other basketball cheers, please contact me. In the future, I'll make a YouTube video of the girl's and boy's cheer, so all of you will know what I'm talking about when I speak so highly of these cheers.

Also, here are pictures of the basketball team's most recent game. They also have a website you can check out. These are pictures of their swim meet.

So when I talk about the basketball team, I'm actually talking about the "Sports class." Hua Shan has a special budget to fund a class especially devoted to sports. These kids do all sorts of sports from swimming to basketball to a 10-person, 11-leg race (like the 3-legged race but more difficult). It's very impressive.

To the Hua Shan Sports Team: GOOD LUCK THIS YEAR IN ALL OF YOUR SPORT EVENTS. KEEP UP THE TEAM SPIRIT AND JIA YOU! 祝你今年好运！保持团体精神！加油！