Then you kick.... bum

This is officially my favorite Taiwanese holiday. I mean, Moon Festival had fruit hats, and Lunar New Year had sweet red envelopes, but dragonboat festival is better than all the rest.

As I previously mentioned, we had two races during the preliminary races on Saturday and we had an unusually bad seed in the tournament, but it was awesome.

First race (Runs 1 and 2): Chinese Language Students (FOREIGNERS) vs. The Iron Barbies of Ilan University
We didn't get to warm up on the water, so this first run was kind of like our warm up, only it counted.

(Our boat is the one with the blonde girls) The team that rows together...

Wins together. Suckas. We beat the Iron Barbies on both runs, by a larger margin on the second run. My students, Chinese teachers, co-teachers, haircut family, and the rest of the cohort were there to cheer me on, and they really made all the difference!

And this is where we gave it our ALL. We were against a team with a ten-year history and a tradition of doing very well. Last year, they won second place in the entire race. But on our second run against them, we had them, as recounted by a bystander, "So scared, poo was coming out their bottoms." We lost by about two feet.

Despite the killer headwind on our second two runs, our race times improved with each race. (Down to 2:28 on our final race run-- race times can be slower than practice times because you are also fighting against the water the other boat is sloshing around)

And we ran into the shore on our turn-around after the race.

My friends tell me that I should send this picture to any potential employer as a simple statement of "THIS is what you could have. THIS kind of effort and row-till-you-almost-puke energy."