So I ended the last blog saying I would mention something about the Spring scream trip, so as promised here is a brief story of it or at least the bit i can remember haha jk. Well I was able to catch a ride to Kenting with some soccer buddies here Ollie (from England) and Leigh (from Canada). They picked me up after they finished teaching Thursday April 3rd around 9:30pm to drive down to Kenting (thankfully they had a car and not a 100cc scooter). It took about 2 1/2 hours or maybe a bit more since leigh made a few wrong turns but we got settled in and looked forward for a nice day on the beach before the Spring scream crowd came in that friday night. Well it wasn't as nice as we planned since it was cloudy and raining pretty much the whole time, but we still sat underneath an umbrella drinking some beers and watching all the taiwanese people run around taking pictures wearing full clothing on the beach. So for us, it was quite funny to see people with really no idea of what to do on a beach except take pictures and dare each other to go in the water (the majority of taiwanese people can not swim, not sure why). They even have a ghost month in august or september where people are not allowed to swim because they are scared ghosts will pull them under the water. That means that all the pools are closed and no one goes in the oceans, except foreigners. Anyways after the beach we had dinner and met up with some more soccer guys at the hotel to get ready to go out for the night. So we all got home around 7am after the sun was rising from walking down the strip where there are lots of food stands and partying on the beach where Ollie burned himself or (someone burnt him he says) with a large candle they sell at 711 that sticks in the sand to give the since of a mini bon fire. I forgot to mention what Spring Scream actually is. Spring scream is a huge spring break party that is once a year where around 3000 bands play over the weekend at different venues. The next day was spend on the beach again, but with much nicer weather and the same dinner routine and then this night we planned to go to a concert to actually take part in what the whole Spring scream was about.
So I split up from Ollie and Leigh since they went to a Techno type venue and i went with Ollies brother Anton and another soccer buddy Dave to the Rock Show venue since that is much more my style. A friend of mine in the IMBA program plays in a band and was playing that night so I kept a close eye on my watch to make sure we didn't miss it. The venue was awesome, it was a large park type lay out just near the ocean at the Southern most point of Taiwan and the Light house. The only thing I would complain about was they did not serve beer inside the park so each beer run we made (about 4) we had to walk all the way back to the very front (my friend andrew played on the last stage furthest away) well just before Andrews band was about to play we wanted one more beer run so we could each have about 2 beers to watch his show. It was Anton's time to buy and note there was only 3 of us, we asked Anton to get 2 beers a piece (3x2=6) and he comes back with 12 beers in a bag. Just dumbfounded we laughed and didn't mind drinking the extras and made our way to the stage.
Back at the stage I saw some more friends from my IMBA program and they road their bikes from Tainan to Kenting. Yes, that is correct, the trip i made on a scooter that took 4 hours and destroyed our butts, they biked on bicycles for 15hrs, it showed on their faces b/c they were all pissed off from the ride and complaining from most of them so i felt the need to give a couple of beers to them to sooth their pains. All in all the bands were great, well some really good and some really terrible, but it was a fun event even though the price to get in was quite high.
I was back home the next night by 10pm with a bad hangover and looking forward to get ready for class the next morning.
The next section of the blog talks about the Big soccer tournament our team hosted April 11th where 16 teams from all over Taiwan met to battle for a championship cup and the right to be called the Champions of Taiwan. The first round of games was on Saturday April 11th which fell on my SOM class day so i was not able to play the first 3 games of the tournament where we finished with 2W and 1L. The next day i was there bright and early to warm up and get ready for our first match against the Black Star. It was a evenly matched game with us missing 3 great chances to score by Ken (from Japan) headers which none of them found the back of the net and we ended with a Tie 0-0. Our 2nd game was on the rugby pitch which was a terrible field to play which looked more like a cow pasture. It was hard to control the ball and to get a good shot off, but our opportunities came when i would throw the ball in. The first time i through the ball in, I was able to hear the fans in the stans all "gasp" with aww's as i was able to throw the ball about as far as a corner kick towards the back post. The first throw did not give us a goal, but with less than 5 minutes left from the other side of the field this time, my throw was knocked around in front of the goal until our player was able to finish it giving us the win.
To get to the finals we needed to win our next game by more than 1 goal and pray the other teams lost or tied making our chances quite slim to move to the championship round. Well once our team buckled down and started finishing our shots, I had another long throw in that was headed in by our player giving us a 3-0 win and could only wait to see what results came about after the other teams played. Sure enough the team keeping us from going to the championship did not win or score enough goals so we squeaked by and were in the Finals. This was going to be our 4th game of the day so everyone was tired (especially since everyone played 3 games the day before) but they were 25min games and the final was two 20min halves.
It was a back and forth game with neither team able to capitalize and finish a goal, so it came down to the 1 10 minute over time they still left the score 0-0 and went to a PK shootout. Their team shot first and our keeper Eric (who i bought my scooter from) had an amazing first save which boosted our teams energy as our guys went on making all of our shots and won the Championship cup with beers being sprayed over everyone and lots of hugs and hand shakes to go around. It was a great day to celebrate with the team and our fans with a few beers and a after party at the Armory bar (where i met Nina on Halloween :) ). The next day after the excitement wore off i realized i had 4 midterm exams all in one week just 10 days away. So it was a boring week and 1/2 studying and trying to stay sane, but in all the midterms went over better than i expected.
Now with the midterms behind me, I actually had another soccer game yesterday sunday April 26th that we won 5-0 and i finally scored a goal from a header. Its now April 27th and Nina's Bday is only 2 days away. Since i have a night class we decided we would go out to dinner tonight since it would be to late wednesday night. She wanted an English dictionary for her bday so that was the first thing i got her and i just went down the street to a 85deg coffee shop that sells cakes and picked up a cute bday cake to have for desert before or after our dinner which ever she wants to do. I will try to find another gift for her soon as well as a card, but hopefully i can get that to her Wednesday on her actual bday when she will be turning 20yrs old.
I have another soccer game next saturday in Kaoshiung which is just a 40min train ride south of Tainan, and May 10th i am going up to Taipei to visit the App State study abroad group and spend the day with them. It is the same study abroad trip i went on 2 years ago and look at me now, im living here and going to school :). So it goes to show that you never know what the future will hold, since for me, i ended up on the other side of the world meeting amazing new friends from all different countries and trying to grow up and be a better person every day.
I will be home in just under two months and i know the time will fly by for me and i hope it does for everyone back home too. I can't wait to see everyone and here about all of your stories as well as share some more of mine. If you have Skype and you want to stay in touch, just look me up as Logan.Reittinger
Love Always, and thanks for reading my Blogs,
Logan Reittinger
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