bits and bobs

I don’t know if anyone still reads this, but I’ll put something up for memories and search engines.

1. The World Games came and went. It was a bit of a fiasco in terms of organization (at least, according to the foreign community) because so much of it was only in Chinese – ticket sales, commentary, the opening and closing ceremonies, most of the volunteers. Get this: there was one native Russian speaker for the entire event. One! A couple of beginner Taiwanese students, but anything more than, “Can I help you?” and “Please stand over here,” and they were shaking with nerves. It didn’t help that the Russians were rather surly – they reduced a number of Taiwanese women to tears. Everything finished fine, but I think Kaohsiung will not get the international reputation it desired. People will talk about the fun they had and how nice the people of Taiwan are, but they will also laugh about the Chinglish and the frustration they felt when no one could answer their questions. Christine was a volunteer for Spanish-speakers, but all of the foreign-language volunteers were confined to helping people deal with insurance – not one was allowed to help anyone at a venue, even if the team spoke neither Chinese nor English. There was a lot of that sort of thing going on.
2. I enjoyed the games a lot, hitting 12 events in all and wishing I had seen more. Korfball was by far my favourite – it’s like basketball and ultimate put together. You can check out some pics on flickr.
3. I drove by a pet store the other day with a brand of dog food for sale called V-1 DOG JISM. Ew.
4. There have been three discernible earthquakes and the worst typhoon/flooding to hit the south in fifty years in the last month. It’s been OK in the city here, but outlying counties have been hit hard by the typhoon (the earthquakes have not cause any damage, luckily). Chris and I have been out a wee bit helping and both of us just constantly shake our heads and wonder what we would do if this happened to us. It’s the closest I’ve ever been to a humanitarian tragedy and it’s….hard. And I’m not even affected! The people of Taiwan have been so good to us, I just feel that it’s unfair. Is it ever fair?
5. We went to Penghu this summer, as well as a trip down south to the beach town of Hengchun, and I did a big hike to an area that probably won’t be accessible for some months or even years now (due to the aforementioned flooding and typhoon). The hike is up on flickr, as are the beach town pictures (sadly without any beach, it was a rainy weekend) and the Penghu pics will be up very soon. All were very enjoyable in their own ways. I’m enjoying seeing the island more this time back.
6. I’ve had two photography exhibitions this summer. Both had a fair number of people come by, one had mild financial success (and would’ve been better if a tropical storm hadn’t blown through opening night) and the other faired pretty poorly. Ah, win some lose some.

Alright, that’ll do for now. I hope to get back here more, even short little posts more often instead of big, long, highly irregular ones.