Andrea Dalton
NCAA Guest Blogger

Having jet lag setting in, I found waking up extremely difficult—like, hitting-the-snooze-6-times-before-my-Monday-8am-class hard. Nevertheless, I got up and met Lori, Delise, and Travis for breakfast.

What’s on the menu? Raw fish, noodles, dried fruit and vegetables and tofu.

Thankfully I found a relatively American-friendly station and made myself a peanut butter and jelly (as you can tell, I can’t get over the whole food thing–typical American.)

I was, however, excited to get the day started. After we ate, we attended the opening ceremony.

Our idea of a fantastic athlete is Lebron James, Hines Ward, Maya Moore, and Michael Phelps. After seeing the students from Taiwan’s University of Sport and Physical Education, I think my perceptions might change a tad.

The incredible performances these students put on and the ways they used their bodies was unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Truly remarkable.

If allowed, I’ll send the video I took. You have to see it to believe it.

The keynote speakers spoke on leadership as a platform for sustainable development and we had the opportunity to workshop after their presentations. It was an eye-opening experience.

Hearing how few countries have the opportunity to actually compete in sports and how little their governments run their initiatives is mind-blowing. Some Asian countries are only exposed to sports in school at the age of 14.

As Americans, I think we sometimes take advantage of our own system. We don’t realize how privileged we are to have so many opportunities to play multiple sports at such a young age.

We ended our evening with a welcome dinner at an offsite location. There we enjoyed a 12 course meal (I was bound to find something I like.) It was a great way to end our first actual day of forum!

By Travis Misner
NCAA Guest Blogger

Today started off by getting up early and going to a buffet style breakfast. So far, it’s been tough to adjust to the different types of food.

I haven’t strayed too far, only eating PB&J and Cocoa Puffs at breakfast because I’m not the biggest fan of eating things that still have eyes. I have tried some new foods, but not too much.

We had our opening ceremonies after breakfast where they had the Taipei College of Physical Education perform some really cool balance and gymnastics routines that brought the energy of the room up and excited everyone.

They walked in the flags from each of the 67 countries that are represented here. I was expecting somewhere between 15 and 20 countries, so it was a shock to see every country that is here.

After hearing a presentation on sportsmanship and its ability to help development, we broke out into our workshop groups and had a really successful discussion on growth and development through sportsmanship and university sport as a whole. After a short break, we boarded buses and went to our welcoming dinner, which consisted of 12 courses, none of which I had ever heard of.

It wasn’t too bad, I was feeling adventurous so I tried a little of everything. The mayor of Taipei was there to welcome us, and each country received a plaque for our attendance.

It has been really nice getting to know some of the other students that are here, it has been a culture shock to say the least.