World Games 2009!!

The World Games 2009 started last week - never heard of them? Well you don't live in Taiwan then. They're being held in Taiwan (Kaohsiung which is in the far southwest of Taiwan) and are highlighting a very "Eco-Friendly" games. Call it the "Secondary Olympics" if you must, but it actually has some of the original Olympic sports such as tug of war and fistball. There are also sports such as Parachuting, Billiards, Bowling, as well as lots of Martial Art sports. It is a big deal since this is the first international competition to be held in Taiwan. The Chinese are participating, but they boycotted the opening ceremony last Thursday which of course dominated the news. The tension continues!! Go check it out on Wikipedia for all the sports that are being held. No, the US aren't participating, but many other countries are.

What's cool about the games though is that they are using the stadium that has almost 9000 solar panels that generate 1.14 million kwatt hours of electricity per year! That's a LOT! They sell it back to the country and it gets dispersed around the island. Taiwan is trying to do more and more with the solar panel revolution since it gets SO HOT and so much sun here. So far I've seen a lot of roller blading racing (very similar to watching speed skating at the winter Olympics), and even watched the Taiwan Women's Tug of War team bring home the gold medal! It's actually cooler than you'd think watching Tug of War would be.

I'm still screwed up from Jetlag - taking 3 hour naps in the afternoon doesn't help, but it has allowed me to watch a lot of this past weekend's British Open (aka Watson's final chance at age 59). What a great Open to watch! Too bad he didn't win but was still good for the sport of golf!

I know it feels like Fall in the US, but it's damned hot here in Taiwan. And very humid.... I'll probably complain about it every day till I come home. Which is now 42 days away.