The Study Tour Newsletter- Volume 7, Issue 1
A former Loveboater & counsellor
writes about her experiences
The Top 5 lists: silly excuses, broken
rules, things to do, top
clubs in Taipei, and most memorable Songs
Pei-Ming Chou's perspective on the
Loveboat experience
Where are they now? Loveboat Alumni who are making it big in the world!
Brought to you by the Study Tour Alumni Association Winter 1999
1999 Wrap-up By: Evie Lee 1996
Group C student; 1999 Chien Tan OC (Group D, Bus D rules!)
The 1999 Overseas Chinese Youth Language Training and Study Tour
marks the last “Loveboat” before the turn of the century. Although
it was only 6 weeks long, it created memories that will last a lifetime.
The tour began with three days of Check-in where swarms of students
flooded into the small auditorium for the Briefing. The Briefing
consisted of the basic rules and regulations, a description of the
upcoming events, and a chance to choose a cultural heritage class.
The students were informed that they were to take a diagnostic Chinese
language test to determine their level of Chinese language skills.
After the briefing, a student came up to me and asked, “Do you mean
we actually have to go to class?” Of course they did, but the Loveboat
still lived up to its name.
The next few days were filled with many events. The first event
was the Opening Ceremony where everyone had to look their Sunday
best and one of the directors of the Study Tour mentioned that students
in the past met their soul mates on the trip. Then he encouraged
all of them to make “close” friends. The auditorium filled with
uncontrollable laughter and I knew then and there that this was
going to be the best summer ever! The events that followed brought
all of us close together. We had the Orientation which was an hour
of detailed rules and regulations, but it was topped off with a
fun-filled Welcome Party icebreaker.
The counselors were introduced to the students and four bachelors
and four bachelorettes came up with witty answers during the hilarious
Dating Game. The hardest question to answer was “Does size matter?”
During the next few weeks that followed, we went on various day
trips.
We went to the National Palace Museum, Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial
Hall, Fu Hsing Kang Military School, the Fine Arts Museum, Taipei
Zoo, and Formosa Waterworld to name a few. We went to those places
to capture some culture and in order to also capture the moment,
some students took pictures like they never took pictures before.
The nights were even busier, although students were not allowed
out after bed check. No one ever seemed to need sleep? The night
market was the place to be after hours, so I heard. It was a great
place to get bargains and the bao zi was phenomenal. Kiss La Boca
and ID4 were the most popular nightclubs (though I wouldn’t know
because no one really “saw” me).
When students first arrived to Chien Tan, they complained about
the heat and humidity and the mosquitoes and cockroaches. Many students
lived in eight person rooms and had to fit their belongings into
small lockers. (For girls that is no easy task.) Who would have
ever thought that we would have called a place like this home? Over
time, the barriers were broken between the rivalries: East Coast
v. West Coast, Northern Californians v. Southern Californians, and
Americans v. Canadians. We all became one big happy family. Reminiscing
of all the good times I had makes me teary-eyed..............(sniff,
sniff). Although we have moved on with our lives, we should still
maintain the Loveboat spirit by going to the reunions and keeping
in touch with our friends, you know who you are. (hint, hint)
Top 5 excuses for missing bed check:
1. I was stuck in traffic on the way back from the night market
(how do you get stuck in traffic walking?)
2. I was in the shower (to go clubbing)
3. the swing dancing lessons ran over
4. I was in the lobby buying my Ramen noodles (you mean the dining
room food was no good?)
5. I was in the really long line waiting to call my parents (yeah,
right!)
Top 5 rules broken on the first day (and repeatedly):
1. no person is allowed in a room of the opposite sex
2. bed check is at 11 pm
3. “no name tag, no service”
4. no slippers in the dining room
5. no smoking in the building
Top 5 unforgettable things to do in Taiwan:
1. take glamour shots (fun for both guys and gals)
2. listen and especially sing “dui mian de nu hai kan guo lai”
(how can you not remember this song?)
3. drink Bubble Ice Tea (otherwise known as Pearl Milk Ice Tea
and Tapioca Ice Tea) (everyday)
4. get demerits (hey, it’s worth it if you have a BIG hangover)
5. get a henna (fake tattoo) from xi men ding (it’s less painful
than a real one)
1999 TOP 5 CLUBS
1) ID4
2) Kiss
3) All Relax
4) @live
5) Opium Den
1999 TOP 5 SONGS
1) Dui Mein De Nu Hai Kan Guo Lai
2) Peng Yo by Jacky Cheung
3) Boom Boom Boom by Vengaboys
4) Automatic by Utada Hikaru
5) Baby Don't Go by Alex To
>Back to Top
A Study Tour Perspective
By Pei-Ming Chou - 1994 Alumni
At the young and impressionable age of 18, I left the safety of
Orange County in search of something grand and life-changing. I
chose the infamous Chien Tan “Love Boat” Study Tour as my avenue
to my first-ever adventure.
One of the first things that I recall from my excursion on the
Love Boat is the quantity of the food. Being Taiwan-born and blessed
with the stomach to withstand endless varieties of food, I was able
to fully enjoy the exquisite cuisine on the dingy streets of Taipei
(Does anyone remember those slightly soggy and questionable chicken
nuggets we used to fight over at the Chien Tan cafeteria? And the
ramen! Nothing beats Taiwan ramen!!!). I am a firm believer in the
potential that food has to act as a catalyst for good conversations.
Needless to say, with Taiwan’s incessant supply of food, there
was a lot of bonding going on…late night conversations over steaming
bowls of ramen, daily trips to the night market in search of more
palatable sustenance, treks to Church’s Chicken in the middle of
a typhoon to satisfy cravings for “American” food…On top of all
that food, you add in drinking (since the legal age for drinking
in Taiwan is 18) and you’ve got friends for life!
For a good number of us, Taiwan was the farthest we’d ever been
from home and the first true test of our independence. It was a
chance for us to see a different side of life, to experience a culture
that is in some ways wholly different from our American culture,
and perhaps to awaken the ethnic side of our identity that had been
buried for so long (i.e. use our Chinese that we refuse to use in
the States). In short, the Love Boat provided the perfect environment
and opportunity for profound personal growth.
There is something to be said about living through typhoons, flying
cockroaches, crazy taxi drivers, and overwhelming language barriers
in a foreign environment with no one to turn to for help except
a bunch of strangers. Those strangers become your best friends in
a blink of an eye and although it may not necessarily guarantee
that you’ll be best friends for life, there will always remain a
sense of closeness as a result of this shared experience (and the
fact that there were so many stories to use for blackmail).
To this day, I still run into Study Tour alumni on a regular basis.
Regardless of whether or not I knew them previously or what year
they went, I feel immediately a sense of familiarity whenever someone
mentions that they’ve attended the Love Boat. For many of us alumni,
the Love Boat has inadvertently created a networking through which
we are able to explore the dichotomy of our label as Chinese-Americans
and what it means to us professionally and socially. It is this
sense of commonality that draws us to each other years after (not
to mention every alumnus’s love for a good party!).
The Love Boat was my first stepping stone in building my social
and professional network and it retains its influence in many aspects
of my life. The Love Boat community continues to grow each year,
and each year, I make new contacts and new friends as a result of
a 6-week excursion I took 5 years ago. Although “grand and life-changing”
wasn’t exactly what I found on the Love Boat, I did get my fair
share of adventures and a life-influencing lesson on eating, drinking,
and being merry.
The best part, however, is that my adventures have never ceased
since the Love Boat. Each new connection brings a new adventure
and a new friend to share a hot bowl of ramen and a heart-warming
conversation.
>Back to Top
Alumni Sightings……
1999 Alumni – Evie Lee (1996 student; 1999 OC) is now working
for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter in Oakland.
Albert Lin is now at NYU Medical School.
Shien Chang (1995 student; 1999 OC) is finishing up at UCLA.
Barron Sun (1997 student; 1999 OC) is finishing up grad school at
NYU.
Diane Lee is now at San Francisco State.
Janice Leung is wrapping up her final year at UCLA.
Alex Ko graduated from USC and is now working in Los Angeles.
Sebrina Chen is finishing up at UC Davis.
Roger Jao has just started at UC Irvine.
Danny Lee moved from Vancouver to work in San Jose.
Clinton Ma is a web stud in Vancouver.
Emily Wang is a web designer/developer in LA.
Kwan Chau was looking for love on the show Blind Date
Andrew Cheung is at UT, Austin.
Lily Tong is a mad scientist at Georgia Tech.
1998 Alumni – Lang Lee is now in Los Angeles running the
Study Tour Alumni Association organization.
Brad Wu just graduated from UCLA.
Jason Wang is now working for an investment bank in NYC.
Joanne Lee is now at UCLA grad school getting her masters in English.
Congrats to Allan Wang who just got into the University of England.
1997 Alumni – Jason Lee is now in his third year at UC Berkeley
studying Mechanical Engineering.
Elaine Yang is now in Los Angeles modeling and acting.
1996 Alumni –Larry Tsai is working for Viant which recently
went IPO in the SF Bay Area.
Teresa Shen is wrapping up at UC Davis.
1995 Alumni– Howard Hsieh is now working for allsport.com
in Los Angeles, CA and is engaged to marry Anita Chang (1991) this
spring (Congrats!!!).
Eddie Yen is now wrapping up law school at Loyola in Los Angeles.
1994 Alumni - Pei-Ming Chou is now working at L90; internet
advertising solutions in Los Angeles.
Cora Lee is now working at Etoys in marketing.
Sandra Yu is now working at drugstore.com in Dallas, Tx.
Mike Yang is finishing up his masters degree in the Chicago area.
Lily Chen is now teaching 4th/5th grade in Stevenson Ranch, CA.
1993 Alumni – Ray Wang is now engaged and working at Oracle
in the SF Bay area.
1992 Alumni – Rich Yu is working for SAP in Seattle and
just got engaged.
1991 Alumni – Alan Tien and Dennis Yang are now part of
the executive team at Worldprints.com.
Shirley Yu is with GTE in Dallas, Tx.
After graduating from MBA school at UT Austin Don Chin is now working
with Dell.
1989 Alumni – Janey Yu is working with Sina.com in the
SF Bay area.
Stephen Liu has started his new online venture called reelplay.com.
Other Notable Alumni from years past:
Judy Chu is Mayor of Monterey Park.
Noel Lee is CEO of Monster Cable.
Michael Woo is former candidate for LA Mayor.
... and Garrett Wang is on the Star Trek series and also one of
People Magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful People in the world!
>Back to Top
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