Hippie Fest, Yay!

I'm going to this music festival this weekend, out in the jungles of Taiwan. I'm pretty excited, since this will be my first chance to really get out of the city. I did have a chance to go to the beach last month, but that was only a day trip.

Having lived overseas amongst the English teaching community, I'm well aware, however, that I will likely be the only Republican in attendance. Wait, scratch that, I will be the only person at the entire festival with any inklings toward liberty and freedom.

If there's one thing I've learned while living over here it's that there are only about four kinds of English teachers over here. The first type is the Vegan/Enviro/Leftist who has a strong disdain for their home culture, and an intrinsic infatuation with Eastern culture. The second type are those who truly want to teach English. These are the ones who wanted to join the Peace Corps, but actually wanted to make some money. I think it goes without saying that these people are almost to a man, leftists. The third type are the ones who just want to do something different, didn't want a normal job after college, or just want to travel for an extended time. These guys run the gamut from strong leftists to ambivalence. Every once in a while you will find a right winger, but they are always Ron Paul types. Then you come to the fourth type. This is the category I fall into. These are people who came here for strategic reasons, usually to learn the language and culture and parlay that into future career opportunities. These people also come from all parts of the spectrum but it is only in this group that you will find center right people.

So, needless to say, political discussions are quite common over here. There is no common sport that everyone can talk about. North Americans have their sports and European/Australian/New Zealanders have theirs. Everyone comes from a different country so local, non-political events can't be discussed. People often talk about their travels, but once you've heard one guy's story about Kho Pangan, Vientiene, or Boracay, you've heard them all. So every discussion comes back to either politics or what's happening in the country you're living in. And I think it goes without saying that the English teaching community is not exactly enamored with the US and any form of liberty.

So you just have to learn when to hold your tongue and when you can have a proper discussion with someone. I know that at this hippie fest I'm going to have to hold my tongue, a lot. But that's ok, it's nothing new to me.