[blog from Taiwan]

Woot - I found this small post. I thought all of it had been accidentally deleted!




Ten pounds of goji berries: $10. Asking if it's "pork" by sticking your fingers on your head and making pig noises: priceless!

We were standing right next to the ring, just ten feet from the famous wrestling referree, that gray-stubbled Russian what's-his-name you se on TV. I stood awkwardly and tried to blend in; the two Aussies, Carlie and Rob (blog, pulled this off perfectly by taking a seat in the chairs up next to the ring. I sat, and whispered, "It says "Reserved for Sumo Athletes and Coaches Only." "Well, we ARE athletes." In this way we managed to get a so-close-you-can-feel-the-ground-shake seat at the light-weight and middle-weight Sumo Wrestling finals, midst the small circle that enclosed the ring itself, and in view of the hundreds of Taiwanese watching from the stands. (You can see my head in the bottom right corner of the TV, in the semi-finals match between the light-weight female Ukrainian and short, gray-haired Russia.)

Hungary won the men's middle-weight finals - the fight was EPIC!

I met a lot of athletes here. There's a big team from South Africa the competes in the sport of "Life Saving" - basically, saving mannequins from the water (there should be more of these people, I think).