What is the Study Tour anyway???

(from the official manual)

"The goals of Overseas Chinese Youth Language Training and Study Tour are to assist overseas Chinese youth to increase their ability to use the Chinese language, to understand Chinese culture and history, and to see first-hand the achievements of the Republic of China."

The Study Tour was basically just a program to learn mandarin and enhance cultural awareness for anyone age 18-23 of Chinese descent from all over the world.

The reality:

(excerpt from the 1997 Study Tour newsletter)

"Love Boat is an environment that isn't natural or even exists in the real world...Love Boat is six weeks of the most intense roller coaster ride in any young Chinese person's life. Ups and downs, good and bad, but different to say the least. The feelings, bonds, and relationships that are formed from Love Boat can never be attained anywhere else. Non Love Boat participants cannot understand the emotions and feelings one gets from going on this program. Your long-time friends tell you, 'Get over it!! You've been back for 3 weeks now!! Shut up already!!' They don't understand. The only ones who do are the ones who live too far away to make you feel better."

Love Boat was the best experience of my life. I couldn't stop thinking about all the events that occurred for at least two months afterwards. Right now I'm back to my normal mode, but on occasion, I'll start thinking of Love Boat, how much fun I had, and all my friends. I miss everyone, and I miss Taiwan. I know that nothing else in life will ever replicate this awesome experience. I highly recommend everyone to go! I know those of you who haven't gone are probably snickering at what I'm writing right now, but you really just don't understand until you go, and come back. I'm not usually the type of person who "travels in islands" (you know, I was never into the all-Asians scene), yet it wasn't like that at all. So, I've created this page on my web site for my Love Boat friends, so that you all can reminisce and feel nostalgic, as well as for any other Love Boaters who happen to chance upon my site.

Fond Love Boat Memories

(This a list I compiled, I got some of them from a forward I got from someone from this year's tour, and I made some more of my own...enjoy!)

You know you are at/in:

-TAIWAN when there’s a 7-Eleven at every corner
-TAIWAN when you fear your life just crossing the street
-TAIWAN when you’re sweating just standing in the shade and you have an awesome collection of water bottles
-TAIWAN when McDonald’s becomes your favorite restaurant and Super Supau your favorite beverage
-TAIWAN when it suddenly starts pouring cats and dogs for 15 minutes and it’s still friggin hot
-TAIWAN when there are cars called Nissan Cefiro, Honda City, and Toyota Corona
-TAIWAN when the garbage trucks play ice cream truck music
-TAIWAN when the ratio of people to scooters is 1:1
-TAIWAN when you see all the natives using umbrellas in the sun
-TAIWAN when your foreign skin becomes a magnet for mosquitoes
-KISS when 4 gay Brits jump on stage and try to rap
-KISS when it’s Wednesday night and it takes an hour to get on to the dance floor, and an hour to get out of it
-@LIVE when the beat of the music pumps 100 times faster than your own
-@LIVE when you have to pay like 20 bucks to get in
-FEVER when you walk in and you think you stepped in a swamp. (or you walk out and your pants are all dirty)
-2 KINKY when you see a bunch ABC hoochies dancing to "Ghetto SupaStar" and drinking Sol Cerveza
-2 KINKY when there’s some random movie playing on the screen without sound
-2 KINKY when all the songs played are rap songs except for "Bizarre Love Triangle"
-CASHBOX when you see a bunch of Love Boaters humming to the Chinese songs since they can’t read the words
-O.D. (OPIUM DEN) when you've never heard of it, seen it, or gotten in
-LANGUAGE CLASS when you see every passed out
-CHIEN TAN when you see signs in the bathroom that say "Please do not frush toilet paper down the toilet"
-CHIEN TAN if the 3rd floor stinks, the 4th floor stinks, the 5th floor stinks, hell, any floor with the guys on it stunk
-CHIEN TAN when you have to hang your clothes all around your room cuz the dryers suck
-CHIEN TAN when the detergent looks like cocaine
-CHIEN TAN when the train (MRT) says "Chien Tan" in like 5 languages that all sound the same
-CHIEN TAN if the security guards and the counselors tell you how to sneak out, and the Orientation Counselor sneaks out with you
-CHIEN TAN when the security guard is passed out as you walk in the front gate
-CHIEN TAN if fifty million people are crammed in the lobby at all hours
-CHIEN TAN when you see Baby Boaters playing cards in your lounge
-CHIEN TAN if the front desk ladies give you an attitude when all you want are postage stamps
-the 3rd floor of CHIEN TAN when you see 75 other people all dressed up and nowhere to go (until 12:00 a.m. that is)
-OCEAN when the cockroaches are the size of rodents
-OCEAN when you take a shit in a hole and have to bring you own toilet paper
-OCEAN when you have to walk 10 miles just to eat
-OCEAN you see two disease ridden, half starved, sickly looking black dogs without fur passed out on the porch
-OCEAN when the gym is 2000 freakin degrees
-OCEAN when you hear the Chinese music playing at 6 in the morning
-6th floor at OCEAN when you want to watch TV but all you stare it is a blank wall with a few metal bars and a bunch of screws
-9th floor at OCEAN when there’s an old T-Shirt and a pair of jeans hanging in the bathroom for years
-OCEAN when you practically break a limb just trying to climb down from your bed
-OCEAN when one elevator talks and the other one never works
-OCEAN when the dining hall rules say "No alcholic allowed"
-OCEAN when you see people playing Mahjong till 3 in the morning
-OCEAN when you have to wear caps in the swimming pool
-OCEAN when it takes half an hour for something to load up at the computer lab
-OCEAN when you go to the beach and...I mean you go to the rocks next to the shore...
-NINE DAY TRIP when your bus driver is drunk and talking smack about you to the other bus drivers in Taiwanese
-NINE DAY TRIP when you don't know what day it is, what time it is, or where the hell you are
-NINE-DAY TRIP when you are forced to wake up to sing "Zhu Fu" or "Zeng Ai"
-NINE-DAY TRIP when you don't know how to sneak out, or you get caught five times in one night trying to do so
-NINE-DAY TRIP when you are forced to wake up just to watch water move upstream
-NINE-DAY TRIP when you see the girls waiting hours to use the bathroom (or, the stalls with holes in the ground)
-LOVE BOAT if you get sick of saying your name, where you’re from, and what school you go to
-LOVE BOAT and using a CYC bag when half of it rips off after the first day
-LOVE BOAT and using a CYC umbrella when half of it rips apart after the first day
-LOVE BOAT if you keep thinking, "NEE AI TA, NEE AI TA, NEE AI TA!"
-LOVE BOAT when you went to the Night Market and bought a laser for dirt cheap
-LOVE BOAT when you spend like 5,000 NT on developing film
-LOVE BOAT if you've taken Glamour Shots
-LOVE BOAT if you know like 10 Mike’s and 10 Jenny’s.
-LOVE BOAT if every other person you meet is from L.A.
-LOVE BOAT if you hate the song "Wo men do shr hao peng yo"
-LOVE BOAT when as soon as you get over your cold, you get sick again
-LOVE BOAT if you’ve met people from every top 10 school in the U.S.
-LOVE BOAT if it takes an hour just to take a group photo
-LOVE BOAT if you spend all your time trying to contest demerits you never got
-LOVE BOAT when you start using umbrellas in the sun like the natives
-LOVE BOAT when you have developed an intricate efficient system to get rice and water for all 10 people at your dinner table
-LOVE BOAT when you can’t get The Penguin Song out of your head ("Left, left, right, right, go, turn around, go, go, go!!!")
-home from LOVE BOAT when you're looking at your yearbook and pictures everyday and trying to come up with tacky lists like these
-home from LOVE BOAT when all your friends ask you, "So, didja hook-up with anyone?"
-home from LOVE BOAT when all your friends tell you to shut up and get over it

"Garfield & Friends": The Crew of 2907

(this is just a list of fond memories I have, I made it when I had just gotten back from Taiwan and was still lovesick and dreaming over it...you'll only understand it if you were part of my posse!!)

-Christine’s nickname, "Ja Fe Mao" (and the shirt she bought!)
-the FENG SHUI of Room 2907
-Anita’s big alarm clock
-Christine’s bedtime stories (Afreda & Dedo the Gorilla)
-roommate showers
-hanging up our dresses to unwrinkle nights before any "semi-formal events"
-singing New Order in craft-making class with Mike and Ivy
-losing Alan when signing up for the heritage class by the zither line
-Anita’s weird sleeping habits
-not letting boys in our room when all my unmentionables were hanging up to dry since all the dryers were full
-nicknames for our favorite people (Tap Dancer, Starbucks, Big Brother)
-Anita & Dedo scavenging for guava
-decorating our room with the crafts we made
-switching my cheap umbrella with Dan because he didn’t want to lose his manhood
-Agnes’ pun on Dedo’s name
-our television debut at Super Sunday
-our basin of mysterious liquid on the floor (it was only water guys!!!)
-making eye signals with Christine to pass food at dinner
-Christine’s various cuts and bruises
-the really awesome birthday cake my friends bought me (thanks guys!!! I loved it!)
-meeting a fellow West Covina person on the last day
-watching the moon and the stars on an upper balcony in Kenting
-Fanny’s $15 blue nail polish from New York
-waving "hi" to Agnes, Yi-Fung, and Tony through the bus windows
-Anita’s milk tea Pocky Sticks
-Yi-Fung and I both hitting our elbows on the bridge at San Shen Tai
-my Cyrix nametag string sparking conversation with computer nerds (just kidding guys!)
-Tommy’s best line in the Talent Show: "Don’t worry baby, I’m the room leader!!!"
-Mike using up Yi-Fung’s calling card to call "Edna" every night
-Fanny’s American magazines
-telling riddles to kill time (i.e. Alan’s albatross story)
-Christine saying "Okay, I’m going upstairs!"
-"Oh Jenny, you’re back from the shower!" (when I almost missed bedcheck because I went to go see ‘Armageddon’)
-Fanny’s "wedding" glamour shots
-Angela’s "Ta ge ta" (cell phone)
-singing "Nothing’s Ever Gonna Change My Love For You"
-the natives helping us take our Bus B pictures (only took an hour!)
-Dedo falling asleep in my bed and flashing Anita
-the big roach that died next to Kevin’s fan
-falling asleep watching "The Full Monty" at MTV.
-my hunt for mango popsicle sticks
-Tony getting locked out and sleeping on cushions by the elevator in Taichung
-sorry attempt at riding tandem bikes at Tung Shan River Park
-buying squid strips and mochi at the stops
-listening to each others CD’s on the bus and falling asleep anyway
-me thinking that Alan had already graduated from MIT
-Bus B practicing for 2 hours only to get 5th place
-obsessing over the IPIS dance
-getting dumplings and passion fruit ice
-"drinking coffee" (American and French)
-Mike’s really bad Taiwanese (and us telling him to shut up...j/k, Mike!)
-learning how to eat in cooking class
-doing action shots and other crazy poses
-the sorry attempt at watching the sunrise from the roof at Ocean
-Dedo’s stamp picture (which he never stamped in my book in the end!)
-the strange phenomenon that Yi-Fung and Tony met 6 years before and forgot
-Bus E’s "Meet the Girl" song was really cute
-looking for spelling errors with Anita, and criticizing the artists on MTV
-our long walk all over the city just to go to Sizzler
-15 people cramming into our little room 2907 every night
-telling ghost stories all night
-playing Mafia (and innocent Alan was it the whole time!!)
-singing Toad’s "All I Want" with Dedo at Cashbox
-Will & Mike saying "Yesse!!" (instead of "yes")
-Bus B - "Buzz Buzz"
-Wren's impromptu "Bust-A-Move" rap
-Meow Mix and our successful "talent"
-saying goodbye ten million times and then going out again the next day

**Okay that's it for now. I hope you enjoyed the list and it brought back pleasant memories. If you think of anything else you want me to add, please feel free to email me, okay? I love you guys and I miss you a lot!!! Please keep in touch! Just think of the words for "Zhu Fu." Take care!!!

Official Study Tour Site

Charles Chang. The Canadian....Bus B all the way!

Tony Wu. The guy from my hometown (West Covina!) and all-important Bus A Leader.

And so concludes my Love Boat page for now. One day...some day...I'll put up my pictures!!!