Nerds!

So I went out with my girlfriend for after I came back to Taipei for what I was thinking would be a nice stroll on the campus of National Taiwan University since they are on vacation for Chinese New Year. Instead, we started seeing people dressed funny. More and more we began to see these people dressed in comic or anime costumes. Now I love anime and comic books just as much as the next person (not at all) but I was shocked to see this.

It was nerd central! Every comic book fan in Taipei was there with some dressed in costume. Below is a complete stereotype, but it's funny.


There were tons of guys with cameras there. They hadn't been out of their parents apartments or seen real women for ages judging by how rabidly they were snapping pictures of the costumed ones. It was such great fun to make fun of all of these people in English--just that made it worth it. I mean it was almost like a super nerd competition in which the prize was completely ruining any and all future chances of marriage.

Some of the costumes these people were wearing were pretty ornate.

I also learned if you dress like a comic book character you have to wear boots with HUGE heels. The bigger the better. The two girls below had comparatively standard heels. I kept wondering how much fun it would be to "accidentally" bump them and see if they could keep their balance.

To give credit where credit is due, I must say that some costumes were pretty good. Case in point was this girl dressed like Avatar.

Like all of the characters or mildly attractive girls (nerds loved them). There were packs of nerds surrounding them to madly take pictures (and hopefully get an email address to send them the pictures) while they posed. It was a symbiotic relationship. People with no hope of finding a boyfriend/girlfriend because they are so involved in comics dress like characters and then have their pictures taken by people who have no hope of finding a boyfriend/girlfriend since they are so involved in comics.

I kid, but only a little

All of these pictures are from my girlfriend's cell phone. I was dumb enough to think, "Camera, I'm just going for a walk. Who needs a camera?"