Competitions

A few weeks ago, I began to see, around the Shida campus where I am, flags hanging on lampposts announcing a intercollegiate sport competition that would start yesterday and finish on May 6 —I also saw them later in the main Shida campus and in Taida. Weeks, or even months before, there had been works to renew and improve the athletic track and the nearby sport facilities, or to repair the sidewalks and roads of campus.

I could see the last details being taken care of this week and, from Thursday, rehearsals of an orchestra, of the people that will have to guide visitors, cordoning off the parking places, etc. In fact, it was even scary to see the groups of boys, dressed in dark suits, and girls, in purple dresses, marching up and down, forming small groups, rehearsing whatever thing they probably had to do.

Oh, I must not forget the official mascot of the competition.

A turtle with a watermelon as its body. I was told that they chose it because it plays with a similar pronunciation in Taiwanese of the words for turtle and watermelon, and in a month they will celebrate the Watermelon Day, a day were watermelons are given as as a token of friendship or love. A reason as good as any.