By Travis Misner
NCAA Guest Blogger

Today was another great day outside, low 70’s with not a cloud in the sky. We had the opportunity after our group breakout workshops to visit the National Palace Museum which holds the largest collection of precious items that date back to the 12th century.

The tour guide told us that the museum puts something like 3,000 pieces on display at any one time, but they have over 600,000 pieces in total. She went on to say that if you wanted to see every piece the museum has, you’d have to come back every 3 months for the next 20 years.

It was really interesting to think about how old these intricate treasures really are, and it made me realize how young the United States is. It really began to set in today how different cultures are across the globe.

The view from my room

I was discussing with my roommate, Rob, who is from the Cook Islands in between New Zealand and Australia, how to play baseball. He told me that he saw his first ever game on TV the other day and was confused by it compared to cricket.

This was shocking to me because baseball is just second nature for me and it is such a big part of our sporting society in America. I think the best part of the conversation was the fact that he was playing his ukulele the whole time.

Thus far the trip has been everything I’ve imagined and then some, I could not have been completely prepared for the differences I’ve seen. Tomorrow we get to visit one of the largest buildings in the world, Taipei 101, hopefully the weather stays the same.

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Andrea Dalton
NCAA Guest Blogger

The twelve hour time change is definitely taking a toll. I didn’t realize how tired I was until I had to be up for breakfast at 8:00am.

After eating a hearty breakfast of peanut butter and jelly and pork sausage (yes, I realize how uncultured this breakfast sounds) we gathered in the lecture hall and listened to keynote speakers discuss sports as a sustainable ground for development. After the speakers presented, we had the opportunity to break out into our groups and discuss this topic with other countries.

I prefer listening in these groups, not so much because I don’t have anything to contribute, but I am so intrigued to see how other countries view athletics within their communities. After listening to representatives from South Africa and Israel, I completely realized how incredibly fortunate athletes in the United States are because of the opportunities presented to us.

I think a lot of athletes take advantage of the system; we sometimes believe it is our right instead of our privilege to be university athletes. In some Asian countries, students are not even introduced to sports until the age of 14.

The United States is almost virtually the only country in the world that has university-sponsored athletics. Lucky is an understatement. I like to think that we are blessed for having so many choices and opportunities.

Once the forum was complete for the day, we were shuttled to a Chinese museum of artifacts and treasures. We just so happened to pick the busiest day of the year, so we weren’t able to see much. But it was nice to see a tiny part of their traditional history up close.

If today is any indication of how the rest of the week will play out, I am confident that I will be taking a lot away from this experience!