TAF2010: Daily Recap MONDAY

Newsletter coordinators Nicole Hsieh and Erica Lee give us an preview of things to come from North Manchester, Indiana!

And here we go!

Today TAFers studied the different classes and species of the animal kingdom, as well as observed animal attitudes and behaviors. Results may or may not be published in Nature sometime in the future.

They also learned that Force = mass x acceleration. See parents! We DO teach math here at TAF!

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure

Nick and Victor meet for the first time at Sunday dinner after a year of separation.

Communication skills:


Send TAF happy 30th birthday video messages!

As you may know by now, this year is TAF’s 30th birthday! Even though you may not be at TAF right now, help us celebrate by sending us a short video telling us who you are, what years you went to TAF, and some quick birthday wishes and we’ll feature them on the blog!

You can upload them to your own account or ours on youtube:

user: tafshare
password: what the “t” in taf stands for!

Email us at tafhelp@tafworld.org.


Survey Time: What’s your favorite Taiwanese soft drink?

Hey TAFers! With TAF 2010 less a week away, it’s time to take a survey!

This year, we will be playing TAF Family Feud again and we need to survey YOU — current and alumni TAFers alike — for your help in generating the top answers for each question.

Please complete the survey by Monday, July 26 — and pass the word on to other TAFers! Thank you for your help and see you very soon!

>> CLICK HERE TO TAKE THE TAF 2010 SURVEY <<

And use this link to pass the word along: http://tafworld.org/survey2010


TAF 2010: Love Out Loud

postcard

*** UPDATE: Regular registration deadline is now July 10, 2010! Register Now >> ***

Hello TAF Family! It’s almost July which means the countdown to TAF 2010: “Love Out Loud” is well underway — and the deadline for regular registration is right around the corner! We are very excited for this year’s theme of Communication and look forward to learning and developing our skills together on how to communicate with oneself, friends, family, and the community at large — and all the different ways we can do so with the technologies of today.

We hope the “Love Out Loud” theme name helps us communicate our hopes for everyone to not hesitate in openly expressing themselves at TAF — and to use this year, like we strive for every year, as an opportunity to practice opening our hearts to our own eyes and share our experiences with each other. Only louder, because we want to bring to the world a new meaning to the term “LOL” 🙂

This year is also special because we will be celebrating TAF’s 30th birthday! Join us in celebrating how TAF has grown and changed over the past 30 years — but shhhh! It’s a surprise, so you will have to come see for yourself what we have planned for everyone. And if you can’t join us, make sure to stay tuned to our blog for daily updates and recaps on the week’s activities!

See you very soon! And don’t forget to LOL!


tafLabs 2010 update: another year of “Realizing Awesome”

As we look forward to another year of TAF, we will also be entering our second year of the tafLabs program, headed up by program directors Jon Lee and Kevin Yau! You may remember last year’s amazing slideshow among other fun projects by the tafLabs team members, and this year we look forward to a growing tafLabs family by introducing a new function and welcoming back a former TAFer — Andrea Hong as our Marketing Director!

You may be asking yourself: “What does this mean for TAF and for me?” For starters, it means that as an organization, TAF is continuing on its way to empowering everyone in our family to help us grow and fulfill our mission and vision through more and more awesome projects. If you would like to be part of action in helping TAF grow — and learning from each other in the process — then tell us what you can see yourself doing to help and/or what projects you hope we can accomplish in the near future!

Tell us why you want to join tafLabs — fill out this form by July 1, 2010: http://tinyurl.com/taflabs2010


TAF 2010: Save the Date!

collage

Photos from TAF 2009 courtesy of Eddie Huang

TAF 2010 is already right around the corner! Can you smell the Manchester halls and taste the soft-serve ice cream? Do you remember your favorite ice breaker games? How about the name of your big or little ‘sib’? If you need help jogging your memory, just check out the daily logs from TAF 2009 in the posts below!

It’s never too late (or early) to start thinking about all the laughter and memories ahead of us, so save these dates in your calendar now:


TAF 2010: July 25 – August 1


Whether this will be your first time at TAF — or second, third, fourth or more — we all look forward to another year of profound and unique experiences! Join us in celebrating our dual heritage as Taiwanese Americans and building lifelong friendships from around the nation! Invite your relatives and your friends — the more, the merrier as always!

Online registration will be available soon, so be sure to check back here again!

In the meantime, 2010 Staff Applications are now available, so if you are interested in applying to be a Youth coordinator (for Youth campers only) or a counselor for Juniors, Junior High, or Youth, please fill out the form by May 15, 2010.

We will be back with more updates — but for now, this is your “2010 TAF Team” saying “see you soon!” and signing off for now:

– Juniors Program Directors: Emmeline Kuo and Elizabeth Wang
– Junior High Program Directors: Howard Chen and Michelle Hsu
– Youth Program Directors: Jessica Fu and Ming Young
– tafLabs Program Directors: Jon Lee and Kevin Yau
– Executive Director: Karen Lin


Viva Love Forever

What an epic mashup. Thanks to a car ride with Jeremy Chen and Andrew Lo through the cornfields of Indiana on our way to North Manchester, IN, the possibility of mixing Coldplay’s megahit “Viva La Vida” with arguably the two biggest TAF classics, the old school ” Bizarre Love Triangle” by New Order and the timeless “Forever Young” by Alphaville was discovered.

To download the official tafLabs live recording of Viva Love Forever, click here: tafnight09-vivaloveforever (right click and Download File As or Save File As to get it on your hard drive). And then proceed to rock out on your iPods!

And for those aspiring musicians at home, here are the chords and lyrics to Viva Love Forever to release your inner TAF Night performer!

Viva Love Forever
(Viva la Vida + Bizarre Love Triangle + Forever Young)

Standard tuning, capo on first fret.

INTRO: C – D – G – Em x2

(Em) C D
I used to rule the world

G Em
Seas would rise when I gave the word

C D
Now in the morning I sleep alone

G Em
Sweep the streets I used to own

C D
Every time I think of you

Em G
I feel shot right through with a bolt of blue

C D
It’s no problem of mine but it’s a problem I find

Em G
Living a life that I can’t leave behind

(Em) C D
I used to roll the dice

G Em
Feel the fear in my enemy’s eyes

C D
Listen as the crowd would sing:

G Em
“Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!”

C D
There’s no sense in telling me

Em G
The wisdom of a fool won’t set you free

C
But that’s the way that it goes

D
And it’s what nobody knows

Em G
While every day my confusion grows

C D
I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing

G Em
Roman Cavalry choirs are singing

C D
Be my mirror, my sword, and shield

G Em
My missionaries in a foreign field

C D
Every time I see you falling

G Em
I get down on my knees and pray

C D
I’m waiting for that final moment

G Em
You’ll say the words that I can’t say

C D
I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing

G Em
I get down on my knees and pray

C D
Be my mirror, my sword, and shield

G Em
You’ll say the words that I can’t say

C D
Every time I see you falling

G Em
Roman Cavalry choirs are singing

C D
I’m waiting for that final moment

G Em
My missionaries in a foreign field

C – Em x3
(bop your head convincingly!)

D x2

C – D – G – Em x2

(Ohhhhh Ohhh Ohhh)

C D G Em
Forever young, I want to be forever young

C D G Em
Do you really want to live forever, forever, forever

C D G Em
Forever young, I want to be forever young

C D Em G
Do you really want to live forever, forever, forever

And stay tuned to blog.tafworld.org for the release of a rumored studio version of Viva Love Forever…wink.