10-10-10

Taiwanese people have something with numbers. The 23^rd of January (123 day) is a vacation day, and so is the 10^th of October – Double Ten Day. The day is used to celebrate Taiwan’s independence and is considered Taiwan’s national day. As we now happen to be in year 2010, this year’s national day was celebrated more than normally. The other Rotary exchange students and I were a part of the celebration too, joining a 4.8 km long parade with big balloon figures, music, lot of costumes, 35 floats and about 20 troupes. Incredibly many people watched this huge parade – attendance estimates ranged from 100,000 to 500,000! Everybody were happy, both participants and audience, and the other exchange students and I totally ruined our voices by screaming 我們愛臺灣(Wo men ai Taiwan = We love Taiwan) to the applauding audience. My camera unfortunately ran out of battery, but here is an article about the parade. In some days I will probably be able to find something about it on Youtube as well, as the parade was followed by all of Taiwan on the television!

Love it!

Julia :)