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Okay, it’s over but, of course, we would be deceiving ourselves if we think that would mean all the troubles of the previous year were gone by some magic barrier of time or something. So, I’m just going to recap all of the positivity that happened this past year. Because there was enough of the bad news already, right?

First off, Qiaoru announced their happy news at the beginning of the year. Many friends and fans sent them well-wishing. It was indeed a shocker to some, but all in all, it was a piece of hopeful news for the beginning of the year. (Click here for specific translations of the news.) Oh yeah, for all Qiaoru fans who stuck it through, we got bragging rights, eh? LOL! (Kidding!)

Then right on April Fool’s Day, Ehlo chose that eventful day to tell us that he got married like in 2018 already. Congrats to him for dodging the paparazzi for so long. Leave it up to him to announce it on his birthday, right? Ehlo’s wife is Cai Yi Zhi (蔡ㄧ支). According to her profiles, she’s from Hawaii, but I can’t confirm other information, lol. They’re sooo cute, by the way. I saw some of the interactions he posted and I laughed so hard. They’re a match made in heaven all right. Also, they’re one of those people who created an Instagram account for their dog. Not judging, lol. I enjoyed the posts, lol. They adopted the dog in 2019—according to the profile information and named her Bao Zhu (寶珠). The funniest thing was that Jacky had called Ehlo “Yu Rong Ge” in his congratulation clip to the blissful couple. I know we all know Jacky’s younger than Ehlo. But for Jacky to not try and gain an upper hand with Ehlo? Was it the effects of 2020? Or because I missed something?

By June, news broke that Ming Dao had become a father. He, of course, got married already. He also hid it well from the paparazzi. Team 183 Club 2, Paparazzi 0. To be honest, I didn’t know about the news either. But Leon posted a congratulations message on his page, so I went hunting for news, lol. I went to stalk the other 183 Club members too and they also congratulated Ming Dao, of course. Jacky even bragged about how his prediction came true that Ming Dao was the first one to have a kid. Anyway, Ming Dao got married in 2019. His wife is Wang Ting Xuan (王婷萱). She was a member of a band called KISS. I went and searched around a bit and saw that the group disbanded already. Oh yeah, to be fair, the paparazzi did catch them before and asked if they were dating and they replied that they were just friends, lol. I’m all for people who deceive the paparazzi. So, my previous declaration about the scores stands. Regardless, congrats to them once again!

Aside from those, Jun Ya launched his YouTube channel to share his various adventure trips called Sergeant Will Take You There, which was a reference to his role in Rookies’ Diary. (It was a while back but I just didn’t have time to go check it out yet.) They’re both informative and fun to watch. For example, there was a segment where he filmed with some of his close friends, which included Ehlo, Derek Chen, Kurt Chou, Kai Hsu, and Liang Zhe. (Click here, here, and here to check out the clips.) What was really funny about the first clip was them performing the intro to “Enticing Trick.” The final reveal was Ehlo because he had his back to the camera initially. It was a funny one because they messed up on the band’s name when they tried to introduce themselves. Derek scolded them for getting it wrong. It was hilarious and brought back a lot of fond memories of 183 Club in general. Also, it was really funny that when they introduced themselves, they were disclosing their heights. Kurt even disclosed his weight. Derek made a comment about how he should just disclose all his measurements as well, lol. (Probably hinting at how they would disclose their measurements during beauty contests, lol.) What got everyone hysterical was how Ehlo said he was an actual member of the 183 Club band, but he was only 178 cm. (Again, I love him! But that was hilarious!) Everyone picking on Kai because he was the youngest, lol. Not really, but Jun Ya was making a comment about him being young and being able to beat the challenge, lol. Hey, it wasn’t Kai was going to take it from them, because he called them “elders” at various points of the segment. (Click here if you want to watch the whole challenge at one go from Kai’s channel. Since it’s his channel, he would be the main narrator of the clip. Also, he misplaced his GoPro during the third waterfall jump and had to go back and retrieve it later. If you watch Jun Ya’s version, you couldn’t tell the difference except there was a pause and they were yelling about it and weren’t able to find it. He went back later with another diver and they managed to locate it at last but, of course, since the GoPro sank already, he wasn’t able to record some of the later events after his own jump.) The weather was cold the time they were there hence their jackets. Jun Ya disclosed Ehlo’s marital status in the second clip, but I guess if anyone who watched wasn’t paying attention, they didn’t realize it or thought the guys were joking. This clip was loaded in December 2019, so it was before Ehlo announced it in April. (Someone has a bigger mouth than Jacky, lol.) Anyway, those were really fun episodes to watch and I won’t spoil it anymore. So enjoy!

Regarding YouTube channels, Derek Chen had launched his awhile back (Xiao Lie’s Cook Show) but I didn’t bother updating so this is a back update for several of them. It’s a cooking channel, mostly, and the first video was loaded six years ago, but I think he either forgot about it or the circumstances of last year hence him getting back into it more actively. (Go here if you want to check it out.) He and Jun Ya are actually closer than some of the others so there was another outing that they did together. (Go here for Derek’s version, here for Jun Ya’s version, and here for Xiao Fei’s version. The other guy talking during the challenge is Xiao Fei, he has his own channel also. They were doing another cross show. It was another fun watch.) Anyway, I remember a clip that Jun Ya shared like awhile back and how passionate Derek was about cooking and his pro tips. So both guys not only shared their adventurous side but also their cooking skills. Jun Ya referred to Derek as “Chef” on many occasions, so it was his own acknowledgment of Derek’s talent. (Of course, it was so obvious that Derek did most of the cooking during their waterfall challenges, and how on one occasion, the guys were all agreeing on how Derek had to survive or they would starve, lol.)

Jun Ya’s cousin, Henry, also launched his YouTube channel to teach English with his daughters called Learning With Henry. There was an episode where they did a crossover with Jun Ya and it was really funny. (Go here for Henry’s version and here for Jun Ya’s version.) What’s the difference between the versions? Henry’s focused on the English part while Jun Ya focused on the journey outside. Jun Ya’s nieces were so cute though, lol. Their sass was also to-notch, especially the questions, lol. Then I wondered if they got influenced by their father or Jun Ya’s attitude at times, lol. Anyway, not to troll but it was supposed to be teaching English after all, they spelled “sergeant” wrong. They were several other mistakes also, but I think overall, the humorous take of various local cultures was worth it. You learn more about Taiwan if you didn’t know before. Oh yeah, Henry apologized for his terrible singing at one point and then proceeded to end the episode with more terrible singing, lol.

I think the rest of the year sort of deteriorated to the point that I didn’t bother to keep up anymore although I did follow some projects that some people were working on. Yet once again, I want to keep this post on the positive side, so I will stop at that. I would also want to save the drama-related news for future updates.

Side-Note: I will not be doing tags update for this year since my lack of updates for last year sort of said a lot that they barely moved.

*Images Credit: from the Facebook pages of Calvin Chen, Joanne Tseng, Ehlo Huang, Leon Jay Wiliams