Location: Taipei, Taiwan

WOW.

Today was so much fun. So. Much. Fun.

A group of us hung around the hostel chatting away and playing darts all morning before the big parade. I didn’t properly explain, nor fully understand that this is the first Asian country to legalize gay marriage- so this years parade was an absolutely massive deal. People from all over the world showed up to celebrate, with an estimated 300,000 in attendance. We all opened a beer at noon and took to the streets, donning rainbows on our cheeks and colourful stickers.

At first we watched the parade from the sidelines, but a float rolled by playing loud music so we hopped in the mix and followed along. For four hours we danced and followed this truck, screaming and singing and cheering. I’ll be surprised if I still have a voice tomorrow! All in all I think I danced for twelve kilometres today. TWELVE. It wasn’t leisurely walking OH NO. It was crazy running and dancing and screaming. The whole entire route was lined with heavy walls of people wearing rainbow flags, or people in drag, or just bright crazy scandalous outfits.

I feel very proud to have been a part of this particular parade- it’s monumental. At the end, a few girls from the hostel and I grabbed some take out dumplings and rushed home for a shower. After four hours of dancing we all needed a quick rest and a clean up, since it sounds like the party is gonna go late into tonight.

I’m excited to see how tonight goes, it’s gonna be a long one!

Sav

P.S. shoutout to Liv, Carolan, Thomas, Jack, Tal, Helena and everyone else in our little dance crew!

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New People:

• Carolan (Caro)- Montréal
• Liv – Australia
• Tal – Israel