A year after graduation

It is hard to describe my feeling after suffer this much torture and pressure in this job. At first, I thought I can do well and told myself I can do it. A year after, now, I found I hardly like this job. It's not possible to convince myself of keeping this job anymore. "So, what's the next step?" I asked myself.

作品評析會-Coming soon!!!

各位朋友大家好!
SCBWI 預計在9月份於雲林斗六辦一場繪本作品評析會，
如果有意參加的人，現在就可以開始整理自己的作品，攜帶作品參加者，可想報名優惠哦!
如果目前沒有創作作品的人，也還有約3個月的時間可以準備，
暨時我們會邀請專業人士以專業的眼光給大家建議，難得的機會，希望大家踴躍參加!

So that’s why…(The last post)

Today I read an article named “Deafening Asia” in “Reader’s Digest.” At the very beginning, I was curious about the title “Loud Asia” and then I read through it. It reveals the extent of Asia’s noise epidemic. To be frankly, I have not been aware of this problem or say I’ve never taken this phenomenon seriously before I read this article. The editor said when he moved to Asia 15 years ago, he was struck by the noisy environment we lived. (I don’t know if Chris felt that way as well.) However, then he thought maybe it’s just him felt that way because he didn’t hear any comments or complains from Asian. Few years later, he heard about few people in Hong Kong and Bangkok actually complained about the noise in public space, he filed this thought away.
It’s true that many young people turned their MP3 players very loud that I can hear the music clearly from two seats away. Many younger people are damaging their ears this way and I had been one of them before. Luckily, I don’t do this now. I remember that while I commuted to school, I always used my MP3 to listen to Studio classroom almost every morning when I was a high school student. I think I was the one as the article mentioned that turning the volume loud enough to cover the background sound so that I could hear the conversation in MP3 very well.
In this article, I found the answer why I haven’t noticed this phenomenon before. It said because we are losing our hearing little by little in this kind of noisy environment as we don’t think it’s bothersome. I was shocked that many of people in Taiwan may not be aware of this problem. After reading this article, I began to pay much attention to my surroundings. Surprisingly, I found from tiny clothes stores to public transport, the noise really makes me uncomfortable. One solution that can solve the problem is to make the public aware. Maybe we can improve it by demanding some stores turned down their music or we need to pay attention to how loud a sound lasts and limit our exposure in our daily life. In this way, we can improve noise pollution or the future generation may suffer it as well.

Speech Contest

These days I was busying in preparing the speech contest, since I only had five days to prepare it. At first, I was very nervous and worried about the contest especially I saw Chris was one of the audiences as well because this is my first time to join this kind of contest in college. However, Ellie accompanied me, I felt much relaxed. At the beginning of the contest, I received my mom’s message, she told me don’t look down myself and she believe me can do the best job. I was so touched that my tear was nearly rolling down my face. Therefore, I tried to tell myself to calm down and took a deep breathe. When I stepped on the stage, I brought myself to look all the judges and the opponents and finished my speech.

This was a wonderful but scaring experience that I beat my fear and did a good job! By the way there was one thing worth mentioning that was Ellie and I were admired “Jay” very much, who is the senior in our department. I know that she is very good at English and she won many competitions. I like her personality since she is very independent. I don't know her very well but at least it seems like that. Therefore, Ellie and I sat behind her when I finished my speech, then I touched her shoulder and we asked for her MSN. Oh, Jesus, I can hear my heart beats! Well, it’s so interesting but weird. No matter how stupid she will think we are, we are friends now!

Time flies

I don’t mean to be clichéd but it is the truth. About one month after, it will be the end of the semester. I begin to cast back what I’ve done and learned this semester. My sophomore year has been half year past, I know I will be a junior student after soon because time flies. All of the course I took this semester I like advanced reading class most. In this class, I learned by sharing opinions with other classmates. Teacher gave us enough time and space for us to express our thoughts. She also taught us moral and always inspired us to read more to be thoughtful people. She cheered me by her words, maybe she had forgotten what she had said to me, but as a student, I really appreciate her very much. This semester, I took Basic Japanese as well. At first, I don’t know why I chose this class since its characters is so unfamiliar to me and hard to memorize. However, through weeks’ study I can understand some basic sentences and I felt excited although I did not really do good job in the recent two quizzes. I know I can do it better! Teachers and my mom once told me that Japanese is important if I want to apply for a better job in foreign company or in Legislative Yuan in the future. Therefore, for this ugly reason, I think I will keep going study Japanese. This semester I learned one thing that is being independent. I know that if I always rely on someone, he/she may feel annoyed. What’s more, I think everyone has its private space that does not want to be bothered. I hope I am improving not only my English but also my thinking in this semester. I think it’s much important than get an A++.

Movie: The PURSUIT of HAPPYNESS

In Interpersonal Communication class we watched a movie called “The PURSUIT of HAPPYNESS” yesterday. The movie depicts poverty in America and the man whose name is Christopher Gardner’s struggle for life. At first glance at the name of the movie, I wondered why the title written “HAPPYNESS” instead of “HAPPINESS”. After watching the whole thing I found it’s the misspelled name of the son’s daycare in the movie. It’s interesting!
I love the quotes which Christopher Gardner said in the movie. Here are the following quotes and my reflection:

Christopher Gardner: (to his son) Hey. Don’t ever let somebody tell you… You can’t do something. Not even me. All right?
Christopher Gardner: (to his son) You got a dream, you gotta protect it. People can’t do something themselves, they wanna tell you that you can’t do it. You want something? Go get it. Period.
These two quotes inspired me a lot. I do not know exactly what I want to do in the future. But I got my dream and now I decide to keep that in my mind and pursuit it from now on. In literature class Chris told us that studying in English department not means earning high paying job but for the wealth in our mind was much important. At that moment, I couldn’t agree with him more. Yet, after I watched the movie, I started to wonder and worried about my future. I do not want to have the tough and miserable life like him since I am not sure if I have the courage and perseverance to keep going on like him did. Some people like to tease others by saying opposite words to make them feel depressed and make them lose their confidence. Therefore, I think ignoring their fleer and believing in ourselves and do what we want to achieve is fairly significance.
Christopher Gardner: (to himself when he encounter the toughest time in his life) It was right then that I started thinking about Thomas Jefferson on the Declaration of Independence and the part about out right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And I remember thinking how did he know to put the pursuit part in there? That maybe happiness is something that we can only pursue and maybe we can actually never have it. No matter what. How did he know that?
I think the quote has something to do with the title. He put “pursuit” on emphasis and actually when Thomas Jefferson enacted the declaration, he did not promise people they will have it. In my opinion it’s a pessimistic thought but in some situation it’s true. We cannot possibly own everything in our lives even we make great effort. Like “Matilda”, she couldn’t get her parents’ love therefore she gave up it and chose books instead. In the end, she received teacher’s love and her magic power and lived a happy life ever after. Therefore, I think every one can pursue their happiness and can get it as long as they content and cherish what they own now.
After thinking deeply of the movie, I have some critical comments.
Firstly, the movie shows race issue. For example, it was the rich white guy failed to pay the fare, but the taxi driver asked Christopher for the whole money. Secondly, isn’t it too facile that hard work lead to rewards? In my opinion, it’s happened only in the movie. Compared to true life nowadays, it’s too successful. Thirdly, the movie may chastise black men who abandon their children in an ironical way. In the movie, I am very impressed with the love between the father and the son, Christopher is a wonderful dad who works hard to raise his son. It’s a great model for all of us. In Taiwan there are many parents abandon and abuse their kids as well.
In a nutshell, using different perspectives to think about the movie can make me learn more than my expectation.

University Education-Things I've never thought before

I read this article in Commonwealth Magazine, it point out many important issues and problems that I have never noticed before in Taiwan’s educational system. Before I read this article, I only know that the quality of today’s students is not as good as those before. However, looking deeper, it is not all students’ fault, including the Ministry of Education and the central government’s Educational Reform Council, should shoulder the responsibilities.

This is a heavy problem that cannot be solved at a small period of time. Therefore, we students should demand ourselves to advance our professional knowledge to compete in globalization society. According to the survey, it states three significant qualities, independent thinking, a positive character, and the problem-solving ability are included. These three ideas stirred me loads of reflections.

In the past, I hardly thought about this. But now, I know even if diplomas are sill the guidance of employers’ first priority, owning these three abilities are equally essential. Thinking independently is difficult for Asia’s students for we are lack of this kind of training since we entered school. Consequently, cultivating this ability while in university is necessary.

I learnt a lot from this survey and it also inspired me about my personal evaluation. After reading this survey, I think I should learn as much knowledge as I can to fit the fast changing world instead of complaining about our education system. Taking practical action is better than blame each other all day long. As to diplomas matter, there is no denying that our society consider possessing a university degree is extraordinary valuable. I remember when I was senior high student, our principal, my teacher, and my classmates all told me that getting into a good college means getting a better job. As a result, there is no surprising that forty-three percent of parents directly stated that their children ought to attend university. This is the social custom that students in Taiwan cannot avoid. Thus, all we can do to survive is keeping acquiring knowledge that benefits us.

Spend it or save it?

I have a part-time job since this semester, which is Eve and Fiona recommended me to interview with a cram school teacher. After I get the job, I have seven hundred dollars a week. My parents told me to save the money I earned; however, I just cannot do it! I desperately want to save money for future using but somehow I always spent all of them on something that I couldn’t remember now. It’s kind of ambivalence, when I bought things, I thought it’s necessary at that moment. However, when I saw the empty envelope, I felt sorry about it. I don’t know what to do especially now my two envelopes are empty; it means 5200 were gone in two months. Ellie said I should limit the expense I cost in 100 every day. Well, one thought flashed my mind was “poor like a beggar again!” However, I agreed with her. I really spent too much money these days and I have to make some changes or I will become a real beggar one day. I think I’d better learn how to manage my money or I will regret when the third envelope is gone again.

Feedbacks

After giving some feedbacks for Chris, I think I have to change my learning attitude. When I said I don’t know what I can write in my blog since life is that boring, another thought of mine pops up. “I should do something meaningful for myself therefore I can write wonderful materials in my blog.” I said my writing have no progress, then I should read more to make my article perfect. When I said I do not know the reason why Chris played old movies in class, I think maybe it is part of American culture. I realize that I cannot narrow my horizons, for instance, if I know Frankenstein, it would do me well in making friends who are also interested in Frankenstein. In the future, if I want to be a diplomat, my conversations cannot just be “The weather is good, uh?” If I know much about western literal art, then I can have good conversation with people who know it as well. In all, I think I have another view of my English learning through this event. I do not want to limit myself in certain areas, what I should do is making myself more knowledgeable and sophisticated.

Too much

Sometimes I feel like shouting out when other people interfere my business too often and too much.This is a strange feeling. Knowing that to be cared is the most blest thing in the world. But sometimes just want to say, I want my personal space! It doesn’t mean that I am an uncompanionable person. I think no one have the right to interfere another one’s privacy. Appropriate intimacy is perfect, but too much can make situations totally sucks. When the bad feeling knocked my heart again, all I can do was talked it out to my friends. After a long complaint, our conclusion was that: we can not stop a person acting and being strange and weird. This is life; this is what we called interpersonal relationship. It at first is not simple, and it always being complex at the end. Thinking this way, my mood feels better again.

A place to escape?

Life can be wonderful, but what if it becomes doleful and bluesy? Sometimes I really want to go back to the days in Malaysia, Saba, to see the beach, the wide sea and relaxing life there. When I first jumped into the sea, I could not find a word to describe it. It’s just so unrealistic and marvelous! I tasted the sea water there the first time as well-it’s salt and bitter mixed together, not delicious at all. (ha…) I floated on the sea and looked upon the sky which was clear and blue. The stress were dashed all of a sudden.
When I felt depressed, I always told myself it’s not necessary to be sad and think about some people who were living in different places and doing different things happily. So, what’s not to be happy?
I believe that sea can bring me happiness and so does the air. When I felt sorrowful, I always took a deep breathe and strolled with my boyfriend then I can feel much better.
It is unavoidable that people must have negative emotions in our life or we won’t know the value of happiness and cherish it. Once I know that bad feeling must exist in our life, why do not just accept it and use another way to view it?
When I thought this way, I could get better soon.

Unforgettable Memories

Recently, when I was alone, I always recall of those good and bad days in my senior high life.There were lots of things that hard to express, but I wanna say: I miss H301!Now, all I remembered entirely are the excited, wonderful and fun things.Vicky, Jay, Janice and I always like to eat snacks on class deliberately.Ha, it was really interesting and excited. Because once we were found eating foods on class by teachers, we would get punishment.
We were single sex class. I don’t think it’s bad since it’s convenient to discuss differentiations between boys and girls. Of course, we can talk loudly and smile crazy!Most of us loved English class the most, we liked to play jokes on Meiling who was our English teacher, and it’s really interesting. Meiling never get angry, she said: ok, if it can reduce your pressure, I can sacrifice a little. Yeah, I think it was really stressful, anxious, upset and depressed when we had to face another turning point in the third year of senior high. College entrance examination was a big and endless nightmare. But also, it was the most valuable year of my life. All our teachers tried their best to help us do well in this big exam. I like history teacher as well, she was very strict, but when we encountered some problem, she always took up for H301.When it comes to the most influence teacher, there is no denying that Meiling cared, comforted and helped me the most. Without her stimulation, I won’t beyond myself. I feel an immense gratitude to her. I admire her passion for learning language and teaching. I love H301 for all the stupid and joyful memories we made.　

My favorite season

Falling on December, it is my adored winter. There are three big events in this season including Christmas celebration, New Year’s Eve, and the most exciting one, the legislator and president’s elections. Every year, Christmas celebration in Dong High University which is located in Taichung is the most thrilling and giant feast. Lots of college students from far and near are looking forward the day’s coming every year. Although Christmas celebrations in Taiwan cannot compare with some western countries, we still have good time participate the big events.
On December 31st, I want to join the count down party of the New Year with my friends. I never have been to; therefore, I thought I have to enjoy the fantastic feeling with thousands of people. Maybe it will be a fabulous memory or the crowd will make me stuck; anyway, I have to try!
I like to hear people’s opinions and complaints of the coming elections, that’s why I like elections. It always has plenty of scandals and deceitful news will be reported in this period. However, many people will come to my home and discuss the tensity; I like to observe their thoughts and insensible comments. Usually, I will appreciate the comments but sometimes I will tease their stupid gossip secretly. Opinions and comments have obvious and great diversities in TV news and political discuss programs. In TV news, reporters just interviewed people’s opinions, but usually they just vented and shouted out their anger and that’s it. Conversely, in political discuss programs, I watched them how to analyze one event from different point of views. It can inspire me to think more and my thoughts and horizons won’t be blocked by the TV news. In the course of time, I can tell right from wrong without others' telling or reminding. In my opinion, as a citizen of Taiwan, I have the obligation to understand candidates’ politics and personalities.

Society spot

I’ve heard “le-sheng “(樂生) from one of my friend in Dung-hai university. It’s kind of shocking thing that I have never noticed before. As a university student, I think we cannot just fool around all day long. We should at least care things which is happening and affecting our society now. When some groups of people are fighting for their right, I really hope I can do something for them. In my opinion, I think not only our government should shoulder the responsibility but all of us also should. I still remember last time I went to Focus (a department store in Tainan.) My friend and I talk to the clerk about le-sheng. Surprisingly, she didn’t know anything at all about this big issue. I think our media always report political issues or some arguments that our parties are arguing. I have to say; sometimes it’s really meaningless and useless. Only few people care what is worth caring. Form this event; I learn that men who have more power are greedier. And I learn we should not discriminate those who are disabled since everyone in the world should have their own right and should be treated fairly.

Advice when most needed is least heeded

I think this proverb is absolutely right. These days I received some comments and advices about my learning condition from my parents, I felt depressed and sometimes I got angry. Even though I knew they were just telling the truth, I still felt bad. Therefore, I appreciated Jessie very much; she said she likes students to challenge her. She didn’t feel bad when students tried to advance their opinions, in the contrary, she thought it’s a good phenomenon, it meant we were thinking, not just sitting there and looking at her. She likes to know what are our opinions and thoughts and has great interaction with us. She is large hearted who likes to receive lots of opinions. I hope I can as large-hearted as her does. Then I can learn more and make progress.
One of my friends is the student leader of their department said to me that it’s difficult to express her opinions in one group since others would feel irritated. Therefore, she chose to shut her mouth up no matter how awful she felt the decisions they made were. I felt sorry for her and at the same time I thought of what’ve happened to me these days. I think everyone has the right to speak out their opinions and others should have the tolerance to hear different sound. It would make not only themselves but also the whole group great progress.

A bad week

I’ve been getting rather absent-minded lately. It was because I’ve suffered from migraine and period pain all week. It almost drove me to death. There were times that I almost vomited but I refrained from it. I didn’t want to make my dormitory full of disgusting smell. Goodness, it was the most difficult period to pass by. Actually, I’ve been suffered from migraine for almost ten years. When I was young, my mom took me to hospital and had brain scan. Yet, there was nothing wrong with my brain. No one knew why I got migraine constantly. After I became aware of that it was useless to see a doctor, I bought Panadol in the pharmacy instead of going to see a doctor. I’ve heard variety kinds of versions that explain migraine; it seems no medicine can cure it completely. Therefore, I just have to grin and bear it. One of my friends once told me don’t overdose the pills. She said it may lead much more health problem once I become old. I said I know but I just cannot help it. I hate migraine and period pain since as long as I got them, I can do nothing except fooling around. I can neither concentrate on my study nor exercise as I do every day. I were often kidding that if I could get rid of those two kinds of pain, I am the most healthy person in the world!

Reading

Recently, I am reading Roald Dahl’s books. I like his books and have the strong desire to read through all of them. I adore his imagination and humor. Sometimes I cannot totally understand what he wanted to express, but after taking a second look, I can feel his words. Whenever I enjoy his books, I always think good that I have English. I like Matilda’s subtle mind devises suitable punishment for her poisonous parents. The funny and scary descriptions of witches make me imagine what I will do if I were the boy in the story. Meanwhile, I love Quentin Blake’s unique illustration! Our teacher Jessie once said that stories can make people imagine more and prevent them to crime because they can release their pressure by books. Then, I will read all of his books to my children in the future. It’s true for me that I got pleasure when I absorbed in books. Who would hate reading those interesting books like Roald Dahl’s ?

True love

I count myself lucky enough to receive my families, my friends, one of my teachers, and my boyfriend’s tremendously love, care and tolerance and have no doubt about it.

I am glad I have wonderful parents who always phoned me when I didn’t go home. My dad is like most of traditional fathers in Taiwan. He never said he loves me or expresses his love to me directly. However, I am not sad about it at all since he teaches me his philosophy of life by what he experienced whenever I got into trouble. I know this is his way of loving me. My mom always gave me what I wanted and shared her feeling including trivial things that happened in her daily life with me on the internet or by phone when I am not home. My sisters always think of me when they got good things such as books, cookies, clothes, music and etc. They did nothing without consulting me. We discussed school lives together; sometimes I pretended my mom and told a little lie to help my sister took school off. Ha, it’s kind of horrible and nerves when I spoke in a severe voice to the teacher. I did it because I know the feeling of pressure and tiredness to face those intense classes in senior high school every day. My little brothers are very naughty and always make me angry. Yet, they are very considerate. I remember once a time, they gave me their pocket money when I went back to school because they felt since I went to college, I became thin. Ha…… they were so simple-minded. Although it was a small amount of money, I was touched by the two sweeties. I know they love me unconditionally. When it comes to my friends and boyfriends, luckily, I have true heart friends. We talk about future and pressures in our lives. We discuss homework together. We help and support each other when either of us have problems. We sometimes have argues and it did make us disappointed but we tolerate and forgive each other after communicating. I believe there are true loves in everyone’s life.

My Saturday

Today, after coming off work at cram school, Ellie and I decided to sports’ supplied store to buy volleyball. It cost us NT$300. We were satisfied to have this volleyball because we can play it together whenever we want. After making the decision that jogging around the playground one hour a day, we came up with another idea. We can play volleyball in volleyball court at night, this way we can exercise without getting suntan. I cannot wait Monday’s coming!

Tonight I went to night market with my friends. I am not quite interested to go to places like that. It was smelly and crowded. And most of food there was not healthy yet delicious. However, I convinced myself that night market must have something interesting and charming that I haven’t discovered or there will not be so many people in Taiwan like night market.

Ants everywhere!

These days, I think it’s the weather getting warm again; therefore there were ants everywhere on my desk and my bed AGAIN! That’s really pissed me off! I was fed up with they crawled around on my desk and regarded my water as their swimming pool. How disgusting they were! My roommates and I tried to apply some pesticide on the wall and tried to poison them. It looked work in two or three days but the following days they just appeared again. Even worse, my bed crawled with three or four ants when I was sleep. Oh my goodness! I cannot do anything except poison them. I hope winter will come soon, and then there will not be so many insects in our dorm.

Martian poetry

Today in writing class, teacher instructed us a new writing style called “Martian poetry”. We have to pretend we were aliens and describe things we saw on the earth to our alien friends. I think it is much similar with that I used to write when I was an elementary student. Teacher told us to write one poem about daily objects and describe its shape, color, smell, and etc and guess what it is in class. (Of course it was written in Chinese) I don’t know English has the same thing like Chinese. I like it because it’s interesting and make me imagine more.

The following is my description of alarm clock:

I have never seen a little metal ball like that
It is covered by a piece of see-through paper on its surface
and wears two little round- mental like hats on both side of its top

Strange enough, it has many eyelashes on it
There are three sharp needles which are only circling around

Suddenly, it cries like babies and no one can stop it
till someone slam its head

It jumps up and down like it’s out of control
Sometimes no one found it
it just cries and cries till it is exhausted and silence down

Children’s imagination

Today my little brother sent me a picture that he drew yesterday. At first glimpse, I was reluctant to look the messy picture. However, after my brother’s explanation and a clear look, I found it was interesting.

The name of the picture is “The earth was attached by undefined flying object”. The black part is the universe. The rounded shape is definitely the earth. The white spots surrounded the earth are UFOs (we can know that on my brother’s perspective, the shape of UFOs do not necessarily be round). As a child, he has no sense about every continent on the earth should be displayed. Therefore, he drew out the earth that he thinks should be. It includes Taiwan (the smallest green spot on the above right-hand side of the earth), the Pacific Ocean (the blue area aside Taiwan which wrote a Chinese character”太”), the Dead Sea (the blue area on the above left-hand side which wrote a Chinese character “死”),and the Bermuda (the blue area on the below of the earth which wrote a Chinese Character”百” ). And the thick and thin black lines are the beams aliens used to attach the earth. I appreciated his masterpiece. It let me understand him more about his thoughts and the knowledge he gained in school or on his reading. It seems all the children at his age like to imagine earth are attached or controlled by something and believe it is true. It’s really interesting!

Boring

Today was very boring. Somehow I felt school life was bland without something new and exciting. The same schedule, food, streets, people and place made me felt bored. I wondered why I had to take those boring courses which were not related to my major. An inspiration suddenly flashed through my mind that was I need to do some useful efforts to make my major professional. I really had to change everything as before now.

Today I am in my home

It has been three weeks I have not gone home. Since I got a part-time job on Saturday, I rarely have enough free time to go home. In the morning I was very excited in the Children English cram school. I really missed my mom and my sisters. In evening, my mom went to the train station in Shin-ying to take me home. On the way to my home, my mom told me that she prepared lots of delicious seafood, curry and my favorite vegetable. I love my mom! She always treats me so good that I feel like I am a doting child. I chatted with my sister the whole Saturday night. She told me about her college dream and she has been studying very hard for next year’s college entrance examination. I encouraged her try to do her best and God will bless her. Afterwards, my grandpa asked me to message his arms and the back as he has been aching all over his fatigue busying his farming work. In the living room, Dad watched discovery channel and drank tea as usual. I told him about my job, and my feedbacks. He told me to save the money I earned for future using. I promised him although I was not sure I will save whole money that I earned. When I was in home, I always appreciated the love that my family gave me. I did not know the exactly time that I’ll go back home next time. But I really love my home! It brings me warmth and family love that school dorm cannot do.

Characterization

Yesterday in writing class, teacher taught us about characterization in stories. It let me know there is another way to appreciate stories I read. There are two examples that I come up with.

Matilda applied superglue on her classmate’s chair during the break. She thought it was pretty interesting to see someone whose ass was stuck on the chair. Unfortunately, she was seen by one of her classmates while she was doing this evil thing. After school, teacher asked Matilda to her office and started to teach her morals. But Matilda didn’t pay attention to the teacher instead; she pissed in front of the teacher and laughed loudly deliberately. That really annoyed the teacher. We can say that Matilda is a naughty girl.
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Today is the first day of the semester. There is a new comer this semester. His name is Richard. He is very tall and shy that seems no one want to talk to him. Linda noticed that he sat alone in class and had no idea about the school at all. What Richard knew was that there was a 7-11 in their campus. He almost bought food every day. Linda thought that was quite unhealthy. Therefore Linda tried to talk to him and invite him to come to her home having dinner. Linda explained all the details about their courses. Linda told Richard they have swimming class this week so Richard can prepare the swimming suit. What’s more, Linda called Richard to play volleyball together on the weekend then he will meet more people in their class. Richard appreciated Linda very much. Without her, Richard cannot get familiar with the new environment in such a short time. We can say Linda is such a considerate, good-minded and easy-going person.

Japanese culture

Today in writing class, Fiona, Ellie and I were trying to pronounce the Japanese words. Teacher asked us why so many Taiwanese people love Japanese culture. It’s really a strange phenomenon. I think about it and try to come up with some answers.
In my opinion, although Japan had been occupied and controlled Taiwan for nearly fifty one years and took plenty of advantages from Taiwan in the past, we need to know their culture well. First, we can realize why their culture is so powerful and mighty to against America and other mighty counties at that time. Second, for geographic position, it is one of the nearest countries to Taiwan. It is the same for many European can speak at least two languages that near them and understand their culture. Furthermore, Taiwan, Japan, China and Korea cultures are influenced each other deeply. I think those are main reasons for Taiwanese are fond of Japanese culture.

An inconvenient truth

This is a documentary film. The former American Vice President Al Gore explains all the myth and science evidences about global warming by illustrations and statistics. He won the Nobel Peace Price by it this year (2007). I learn a lot from this film and highly admire Al Gore. Maybe there are some comments said that he has a political purpose, however, I think he just describes the facts. The whole climate is changing; we can see those big changes by observing our nature environment. Especially in the northern hemisphere now it’s summer time. The glaciers are melting, if the warming continues, we can expect global sea levels could rise and devastate the low-land counties. As a result of heat, droughts and wildfires will occur very often. Plants and animals are forced to die or leave their habitat. Some maybe survive, but most of them will die out. As Al Gore mentioned in this film, we have the power to make differences. He said:” Small changes to your daily routine can add up to big changes in helping to stop global warming. ”There are many ways that are easy to do in our daily life. For instance, firstly, we can turn off electrical devices while leaving home. Secondly, we can use recycled products more. And also, we can plant trees to absorb carbon dioxide. I am glad to have the opportunity to see this great documentary film. Hope everyone can learn some good knowledge from it.

Gossip

(This Soviet war poster conveys the message: "Don't chatter! Gossiping borders on treason" (1941).) I’ve read an article that discussed “gossip” in a magazine. It said gossip is not always bad for it makes yourself introspect what you have done wrong. It can normalize your behavior to fit in a social community. But, frankly speaking, I really dislike others backbite or speak negatively about people without any constructive purpose. Don’t believe all the gossip you heard and use your judgment to identify right and wrong among all of the rumors.

National celebration

Today is our national day, although there are many political issues between Taiwan and Mainland China which have been bothered Taiwan for many decades, our government still held some programs to celebrate it.
The birth of the Republic of China can go back to 1911 October 10th. Sun Yat-sen, the main leader of Xinhai Revolution, finally overthrow the Qing government and ended 2000 years of monarchy. It was a remarkable success for Han Chinese.
In Taiwan, in order to memorize this meaningful day, we commemorate Xinhai Revolution as Double Ten Day. Many overseas Chinese held the celebration in Chinatowns across the world. These years, due to the political issues between the Republic of China (ROC) and People’s Republic of China (PRC) many people forget the original value of this day; even many politicians amplify it with their election. I wonder when the issue will stop firing and have a happy and peaceful national day!

Literature class

I like today’s literature class. The story affords much food for reflection. It’s interesting and thought-provoking. At the beginning when I read this short story, I think it was hard to understand. However, when I read it the second time, I put more patience in reading it and found out I could understand more. It felt so good when doubts had been dispelled and explained by teacher in class. Especially once I saw the picture of Fortunato, all the doubts about what he looked like on earth had been dispelled. I think I can get used to teacher’s way of teaching as long as I pay much more patience and efforts to read and imagine them. Today is a wonderful day!

New knowledge that I learned

Today I read “Business Weekly” magazine, they interviewed Jane Goodall who is the best famous for her study of chimpanzee social and family life. However, in this interview, she chose “sustain development of our earth” as the theme for discussion. And she made her point to the diet that human eat has significant effect on our earth. She mentioned that in order to produce more meat, people consume plenty of water and lots of grass and crops to do it. It causes energy crisis and destroy the earth. Her philosophy of this phenomenon is wise, she said human attach importance to eating nowadays is due to life’s meaningful things become less. And eating is a way of prompt contented to fill the vacancy. She thought modern diet condition can damage the environment. I think what we need do is to spend more time considering the food we eat. In Taiwan, we have some supermarkets that import variety of seafood, beef, pork, fruit, vegetable and many kinds of exotic sauce and spice. Although food globalization is quite convenient, it wastes lots of energy to transport those foods. Meanwhile, emissions of those harmful gases that airplanes, cars or ships discharge when they transport those foods are the killer of our earth. This is one of the reasons for global warming as well. In fact, Jane Goodall said, we are not selfish on purpose, we are unthinking. We never spend time thinking that why we have to eat exotic food that come from miles away from us. It is not necessary to say that we can not eat exotic food; instead, we can learn from realizing the culture of food or its history. It can make them become meaningful instead of just eating them. I appreciate Jane very much. She made me to observe and think more about the unusual things that seems normal happened in our daily life.

A passion for volleyball

“The sweat drips into my face.

Continuous pleasure flows.

Not feeling exhausted.

Cooperating bits the opponent.”

This is the best picture in my mind. Volleyball to me is no longer a kind of sport. It contains trust, cooperation, tolerance, strong will, patience, accomplishment and the most important one: happiness. I have played volleyball since I was in the fifth grade of elementary. It keeps many memories. For me, it is part of my life rather than a sport. When I play with my teammates or say my friends, we can understand each other with a light eye expression. Even the weather was bitterly cold, scorching hot or torrential rain, we played volleyball as usual. What volleyball gave me were not pieces of medal, I gained friendship and trust. I think this is the best treasure thing God gave me.

A present

Today is a meaningful day. It’s my mom’s birthday. Since I attend college, I hardly have the time to go home and talk with my mom. Therefore, my younger sister and I planned to buy a comfortable rope sandal for mom. Because my mom donates herself to the whole family and never complained a word, we decided to make money by our own and bought this wonderful shoe. As a result, we find a part-time job in a sea-food restaurant as waitress. It’s not as easy as we imagined. We were exhausted after a twelve-hour working. At that restaurant, we had to mop the floor, washed dishes and stood all day long. We seldom do that housework at home; hence, our hands and legs were aching all over with fatigue. Although we hate doing that stuff, we gained experience from this work. We realize the importance of studying hard. Our reflection is that: we’ll NEVER do this again! It makes me thought of the idea that cultivating our competition in society is significant. After this experience, we know and understand that earning money by our knowledge instead of labor is much easier. And finally, we receive two thousand dollars. We went to the department store and searched for the unique shoe. Wearing rope sandal is extremely comfortable in the hot summer day. I saw the big smile when we sent this present to my mom, I know the “fag” we did today was worth it.

Losing weight

Recently, I had no idea about what to eat as my meal every day. Then I started to eat junk food such as cookies, French fries, and bubble tea instead appropriate meal. That’s extremely unhealthy to my health. Then I got constipation. What a miserable thing! And my mom found my belly was like a balloon. That really upset me! Therefore, I decided to exercise to prick my balloon. (Ha)

PE class

Today is the first PE class of the new semester. I’ve been looking for it the whole night since I would like to play volleyball with my boyfriend and his classmates. When we played volleyball I felt like burned but due to the passion for volleyball we played it till noon. The whole volleyball court were merely 12 people, yeah, it’s us. However, people may consider we are numb; I like the feeling of exciting and united. I think I am a half –boy girl because nowadays most of girls regard ultraviolet as fair-skinned killer, only few exceptional girls as me like playing balls under the sun. After class, my friend and I went back to the dorm, and found out we got serious sun tan! What a miserable thing to know! But truly speaking, I had a very wonderful and super time.