Journal-Let’s go “Shrimping”!

It was Friday night, and we decided to go shrimping in Chayi city almost on impulse. Although shrimping is not a popular activity among young people nowadays, we still want to give it a try and see if we can have fun.

I have gone shrimping once ten yeas ago, and the only thing I remember was that I pulled the pole too hard that it hooked to the ceiling and I got nothing but dust. This time, I learned the lesson, and changed my strategy: First of all, be patient. Gently put your bobber down and watch carefully what the origin height your bobber is on the water surface. Second, wait until the bobber goes down below the water surface. Third, the most important of all, you can’t pull it immediately once the bobber goes down. It is better to count to three, and in the meanwhile, slightly pull the line to feel the tension of shrimp, but watch out for the situation that the tension might be so subtle that you can hardly feel it. You have to shrimp the shrimp with your heart.

After two hours of waiting, I won the second prize among we six people. However, honestly speaking, the total amount of shrimp isn’t very much so we didn’t have much to eat. I murmured as the other two “shimpers” holding their “shrimp hill” passing by. They heard me and felt pity for us so that they granted us some shrimps! It was so nice of them! (In fact, even the boss granted us a dish because of our poor technique.) It was really a interesting and special experience about going shrimping. Shrimping not only entertained us but also fed us well. We really have a lot of fun and enjoy ourselves very much.

Journal-English Majors Cup@ National Taiwan University

FLLD girls’ basketball team was collapsed last year; however, after we won the second prize in CCU freshman cup, we ten girls decided to recombine the team. In other words, we are all rookies. And it was what everything started.

As soon as we knew there was an “English Majors Cup”, we didn’t hesitant for a moment but sign up for it immediately. We all know it would be a great opportunity to make progress. Therefore, we speeded our practice up and sometimes we even practice at six in the morning!

Our first opponent is Huafan University, we beat them off by 19:9; nevertheless, in the afternoon, we faced off with National Taiwan University, who was the home team of the game. During the game, I was too nervous that I didn’t have a clear thought and had a lot of turnovers. Moreover, National Taiwan University played a hard game that they relied on their home court advantage and put out elbows frequently. We not only lost the game but also got several “souvenirs” from the game-bruising, scratching, strains, sprains…and so on. Although it hurt, we still strived for victory: we all know the true meaning of sportsmanship and the right attitude to play the games. Our third opponent was National Chengchi University. We supposed to win this game but we lost our feeling of shooting ball, and it turned out to be another defeat. It was not a glory record, but we learned a lot from the failure. Is it what the proverb goes, “a newborn calf is not afraid of tigers”? Well…there’s no positive solution. However, it was commendable to have such courage to participate in the game, and we were proud of ourselves.

Besides the game in the daytime, we went shopping in the nighttime. My aunt in Taipei played a great host that she treat me a lot of famous and popular local snacks to show her hospitality, and I really think I was bearing a food baby because of that. LOL~

Anyway, I had a wonderful time during these three days; I improved my basketball skills and bought a lot of things at the same time! I think I just “kill two birds with one stone”!

Journal-Two days one night in Tainan

On 2/27, 2/28, 2010, I and my five other friends (including two locals) bounded for Tainan to celebrate Lantern Festival. It was the first time I traveled to another city with motorcycle, and it was truly a special experience.

Our first stop was Tainan train station, we had our lunch “Chou’s shrimp roll” and “Anping tofu pudding” there, and rest for a while since we sat on the motorcycle‘s back for two hours long. These two are two of Tainan’s most famous snacks, and I think the reputation is well supported by the fact. Then, we paid a visit to “Anping Old Street” to experience the sense of nostalgia, but it was so hot and jam-packed there, so we didn’t spend too much time strolling around. Later on, we bought another snack which is a innovate one, called” Elate Pudding” to “Mo Niang Lin’s park” to watch the sunset. It was tranquil when we lay down on the meadow seeing people flying kites and cute dogs running around. In the end of the day, we chose “Garden night market” as our finally destination because it is elected by the ballot as the top night market in Taiwan. There were no doubt million of faces swarmed into the spot, you don’t even need to move on your own feet-people would push you automatically. After a “drastic battle”, we returned one of the local’s home fully supplied. As soon as we settled our packages, my friend’s grandpa played host to us hospitably with shrimps and crabs and a lot of sea food he bred by himself. He even took out his aged wine to treat us! We chatted till midnight and went to bed with satisfaction.

On the second day, we slept till the sun baked our ass (LOL) and then we set out to visit several temples and went to Luerhmen to see the ceremony of “whipping the spring ox” and to see the fireworks. The fireworks were beautiful, but unfortunately, an accident happened while we were watching it-the fireworks exploded right beside my feet! And I got hurt at the moment! It was quite unforgettable to have such an interlude in almost the end of our journey. Although it hurts, the scar has proved the colorful memory I had in Tainan.