Journal-Big triumph!Top 10 in ICRT speech contest

This Sunday, we 5 girls went up to Taipei for a speech contest held by ICRT and Gram English. It was not my first time having this kind of competition, but we are the only one from a thousand miles away.

Before the contest, we practiced in front of our classmates, receiving their comments and revised our drafts again and again. Finally, we presented ourselves on the stage and happily got in the top ten. It is wroth mentioning that this time I am myself one the stage. I had a lot of experiences of participating in speech contests, but I simply deliver the speech, not saying something from my heart. Or I would stand there making affected gestures. However, I took a risk this time, a risk for being who I really am. I change my style to a more natural and conversational way. Luckily, it is exactly what the judges’ want. It was like a gambling game and I made a right bet. Thanks God I got the third prize! But it is not the end. There would be round two at the coming Sunday, and I should be careful and work even harder to keep my place. Congratulations to Chung Cheng girls, we 4/5 girls are in the top ten, and we are going to “fight” again!

Put the serious part aside, we went shopping on Saturday to let out my stress. I got several “loots” such as a pair of shoes, jeans, some clothes and so on. Although I felt a little guilty, but it truly was a great sense of satisfaction. (LOL)

It was a great experience to challenge ourselvers, but the final contest is at the coner, we have to work hard together first!

Journal-We are the Champion

After FLLD cup @ NTU, it is Kaoshiung’s show time! This time, the basketball game was held in my hometown, Kaoshiung, surely I have to show my hospitality of Kaoshinug people and a hostess. I offered almost everything asking for no reward, I know it is happy to help others, and I am really proud of being Kaoshiung people!

However, we had 3 games in the first day, and unfortunately, I caught a cold and was during a period. I worried about it a lot, but I pay no attention to it during the game. The only thing I saw in the game is my teammates and the basket. In the first game, we took the opponents over by 32 points, 11 in the second game, and 20 more points in the third. It was a big victory ever to all of us. As the saying goes, “well begun is half done”, I took them to the night market as a celebration, and we all went home exhausted. On the second day, we beat our opponents by 53:18. What’s next? Championship! We got the fifth trophies in the first year in CCU! Then we went to Qijin to eat seafood and ice, but it is totally in a rush. It is a pity that we can’t step on the sand and feel the passion of Kaoshiung.

This champion is meaningful to us because first of all, there are two seniors just joined us-it might be the last game for them in their university life; second, we just changed a new coach; third, we never continuously won that many games. We all love the feeling of striving together and wining together. Although the practice before the game was harsh, the progress was tiring, the result is wonderful! Everything just paid off, not to mention the encouragement given by our friends in Chaiyi and family in different cities. There’s always something except victory we can get through the games, such as a better relationship with teammates and experience toward either victory or failure, and I think these are definitely more important than wining games.

Joural-You are my sunshine

I woke up 5:30 am this Saturday to go to Tzuchi Hospital for taking care of the children who have some problems with their family or economical situations. The camp is called “Little sunshine “, and it is held once every month.

At the beginning, I have no idea about the camp; the only thing I know is the background of those children, I never think of it as a camp held by the belief totally on the contrary of mine. Honestly speaking, I feel resisted when I knew the fact, but I have already promised to help, there’s no way to get cold feet of it.

Yes, I confess the songs and the videos were difficult for me to accept, but I tried my best not to involved charity with religion. As soon as I have the thought of this, I started to lead the kids with pure love. The kids responded and reacted with me pretty well, and followed as I said though they didn’t obey at the beginning. I saw the improvement of them and felt the sense of achievement from them.
We taught them to be grateful that time, and I really think they will apply it to their lives. No matter how bad the situation is in their family, I want them to feel the love from my ”God” and me one day.

In the end of the half-day camp, one of the little girls came to me and asked me if I’ll come next time, I was so touched that I decided to come for her anyhow. After all, I learned the love regardless of religion and the way to comfort children. And I was also surprised myself about the patient I got for the children- I belittle myself! (LOL) Most important of all, I woke up 5:30 am this Saturday not only see the sunrise but also see my sunshine.

Journal-so called, spring break

Due to the time-off of school anniversary, we had a six-day spring break, which is much more than most of the universities. Although the custom of sweeping the tombs and the concept of mourning ancestors are not as common as it used to be now, I still choose to accompany my family more. After all, study in another city from my hometown indeed decreases a lot of time for the whole family to get together.

I spent my spring vacation with my family in the first and the last couple of days, we chatted a lot, and we don’t mind to tease each other; we went to “eat” luxurious afternoon tea, where I think I had a food baby; we went to the new-opening department store to go shopping …and so on. I love the intimate atmosphere we had when we are together. Laughter is everywhere. And most important of all, I feel totally at ease and unrestrained at home, or in front of my family. I am not ashamed even if I am naked! (Just kidding!)

I also spent a day or two with my friends; I spent a day with my senior high school friends: we went to the bank of love river and merely talked about our collage lives for a whole afternoon. It was relax, comfortable and joyful to realize there’s nothing changed after we have been separated since we are in different schools. On the other day, I went shopping with my collage friends. The feeling was different from spending time with senior high school friends, but both of them were great and full of happiness.

However, most of the time I slept during my spring break. After the tiring tasks in CCU (Dancing, basketball, academics works, and so on…) spring break is really a break for me to rest. It was not special to sleep 12 hours a day every day in these six days! I indeed got the sense of happiness and satisfaction from sleeping!

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.