A Date With My Sister

Today my sister and her husband came  to Taipei because they were invited to their friend's girlfriend's personal concert. This friend was their groomsman who took the whole day off and rushed back to their wedding from Japan. So my sister promised him she would attend his girlfriend's concert a month ago. Before the concert, my sister and I decided to hang out to cut our hair. The funniest thing was that my sister accidentally dyed her hair purple which I made fun of her the whole day. After the concert, my brother-in-law treated me to dinner. Then we went to 師大 night market to buy some clothes. However, all good things must come to an end. They had to come back to Taichung. It was a wonderful day and I am a sensitive person as well, so I began to cry on the way to my dormitory. It happened all at once that when I think of it now, it was kind of ridiculous.

Think In a Good Way

This holiday is the last chance to go home until the summer vacation comes. And this summer vacation is the last one in my college life. Every time when I think of it I have a quite weird feeling, surprised, sad, happy, worried, all kinds of feeling mixed together. I couldn't help but keep wondering how fast the time passed and there are lots of questions in my mind. Do I really learned something in these four years and are they worth? What can I do after I graduate and what if I can't find any job? I am in a puzzle and anxiety about my future. However, meanwhile I also tell myself that the effort I made during these years won't go in vain as long as I keep my original aspiration that why and how I chose Spanish as my major. There is always a hope in the future. After all, the life can’t be splendid without challenges. 

My New Goal

This week I went to have my writing and listening test, and I was very nervous about the result. They said that we had to wait at least two months for the result. Through this experiment, I am well aware that I am inadequate in which part and how far to reach the proficiency of my Spanish ability. Also, I set a goal that must be finished before I graduate. That is, I must pass B2 in the next year. No matter that I pass this test or no, I will do my best to achieve this goal. This Sunday my parents asked me again what I would like to be and what kind of job I want to do. Though I have been thinking this question for a long time, I don’t have a clear direction and a real goal. I just keep avoiding and escaping from this reality that I only have one year in the university and this summer vacation is the last one. I also heard that many of my friends are going to have practical training in some company or go to cram school to study for passing the exam to get the certification. So this weekend I looked up lots of information and tried to make a plan for my future.

my oral test

This Sunday I went to have a test called DELE which is a test for Diplomas of Spanish as Foreign Language. I major in Spanish, although our graduation standard doesn’t include passing DELE, I want to test myself how proficiency my Spanish is. Honestly, I am a little disappointed to myself, because I find in despite that I have learned Spanish for almost three years, I still feel strained at preparing the basic level—B1. This week was for oral test and at first I was really nervous. I was afraid that I might not understand what the examiner asked and what I could do if I couldn’t answer it. When I walked into the class, there were two Spanish teachers sitting there. One was my interviewer and the other one is the person who graded my point. During the interview, I found myself talking happily with my interviewer, at least in my opinion. I wish next week I can also do well in the listening test.

My new part-time job

The Friday before last Friday I went to an interview at a restaurant near NCCU, and the next day I was notified that I was selected as a waitress. I, therefore, worked last Monday immediately without any training. I've been working at the restaurant as a waitress before and have lots of experience, so I was not nervous and had confidence that I could do well at my first day work. However, I was wrong, everything became a total mess. There were only two people serving at the outside field which including delivering the water, soup, food, desserts, cleaning the table, setting the cutlery and napkins, making drinks, and even taking out the garbage at almost the same time. We were too busy to remember all the demands of the costumer, so we lost many details and neglected a lot of orders. The worst thing was that we made so many mistakes that some customers were unhappy and angry with us. All the night we kept apologizing and felt sorry for this restaurant.

Akeelah and the Bee (part two)

Akeelah goes to Javier’s birthday party and plays scrabble game with Dylan. Though Dylan wins the game, he still gets scolded by his father and is asked that he must get the championship on the Spelling Bee, and Akeelah overhears everything. Dr. Larabee teaches Akeelah to learn more vocabulary by reading essays, because he thinks that acquiring vocabulary by rote memorization is useless. Moreover, he tells her that big words are made of little words, so he teaches her to consume and own the words by breaking them down into their origins and roots. He also helps her to find her own way which is jumping rope to remember the words better by keeping time while learning the words. The day that state bee is held comes, but during the contest, Akeelah’s mother drags her down from the stage because she is very angry that Akeelah is lying to her for almost six months. However, Akeelah’s mother might see how desirable her daughter is about the Spelling Bee, so she allows Akeelah going back to the contest by doing the double chores for the next three months. The results is that Akeelah, Javier, Dylan represent the L.A. to the Washington D.C. On the other hand, Dr. Larabee gives up coaching her because she reminds her too much of her daughter Denise, and he makes 5000 flashcards for Akeelah to study on her own. Akeelah becomes very sad and depressed because Dr. Larabee not coaches her no more, her best friend is angry at her, and the people in the neighborhood all expect her to win. But after her mother comforts her with her own experience and tells her that if she looks around her, she will have "50,000 coaches" which include her teachers, classmates, friends, all the members in her neighborhood and even the gangster Derrick T. Akeelah finds out that Dr. Larabee had lost her daughter and she comes to comfort him and tries to persuade him to accompany her to Washington D.C. Finally, Dr. Larabee was touched by her word, and promises to be with her. Eventually, Akeelah and Dylan become the two finalists of the contest, but Akeelah attempts to loss it by deliberately misspelling the word. Dylan, knowing that Akeelah deliberately misspelled the word, intentionally misspells it as well and tells her to do her best and makes a real competition. At last, they make a miracle that they both win the International Spelling Bee and they hold up the trophy together.

I love every character in this movie, how they influence Akeelah, and the process of Akeelah’s change which also makes a good effect to others. In the beginning, Akeelah lacks of self-confident and feels isolated that she locks herself in her small world. Her considerate brother encourages her to do whatever she wants. Then, Dr. Larabee appears. He teaches Akeelah many things as a father and Akeelah starts to find the value of the life and the big potential of herself. Therefore, she begins to change. She becomes more confident, optimistic and brave. This change also influences the people surrounding her. Firstly, she helps her mother walking out from the grief. Also, the relationship between Akeelah and her mother become closer and tighter and I also see a great maternal love of Akeelah's mother. Secondly, she gives her neighbor a hope, an encouragement and a model that tells everyone do not judge a book by its appearance which even touches the gangsters. What makes me touching most is the interaction between Akeelah and Dr. Larabee. She cheers him up again and helps him get back to his normal life. I think this movie tries to tell us that everyone must not afraid of showing the best side and fight for the success with hardworking and determination to make his or her dream come true. Besides, it is necessary to keep a heart filled with kindness, thankfulness and love. The most important thing is to believe that everyone has the potential just like the quotation that Dr. Larabee asks Akeelah to read out loud says, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. We ask ourselves. Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.”

Akeelah and the Bee

Summary

This movie starts with a girl who feels isolated no matter where she goes and what she does. Her name is Akeelah who is really good at spelling, and never makes an error on her spelling tests. She studies at South Los Angeles and lives with her widowed mother, a sister, and two brothers. Her principle and her teacher recommend her to sign up for Spelling Bee, and Dr. Larabee also says she is potential but needed to be coached. At first, she is afraid of being laughed, so she denies participating this contest. But then her big brother persuades her to do it for her Dad. When she goes to ask Dr. Larabee to be her coach, he rejects her because of her rudeness. However, Akeelah thinks it’s not necessary to apologize and she can do it by herself if she works hard. At the final round, she misspells "synecdoche". When she is going to lose, her sister catches a cheating which a mother helps out his son. So Akeelah gets a second chance to spell another word, finally she wins and gets the qualification for Los Angeles District Spelling Bee. And she also meets Javier Mendez and they become friends. Javier Mendez invites her to join the spelling club at his school at Woodland Hills. However, her mother is not happy with all these because she thinks spelling bee is a game and Akeelah spends too much time on it. But she forges her father's signature on the consent form and goes to find Dr. Larabee to apologize and ask him to be her coach sincerely. Dr. Larabee tells her that this contest is really tough and she can’t be afraid of it.

Observations about Akeelah in the movie

Akeelah is an eleven-year-old girl who lives in South L.A. with her widowed mother, a younger sister, and two brothers. She seems afraid of acting like a bookworm around her friends and classmates and she hates everything in school which is the reason why she always skips the classes. Moreover, maybe her father’s death and her mother’s busy work make her feel more alien and isolated. Her two brothers have totally different character. The bigger one is more positive, brave, optimistic and considerate, but the younger one runs with the local gangsters and is rude and ironic. When she is in the dilemma, her big brother encourages her to do whatever she wants to do and do it for her father. She loves her father very much and often talks to his picture, but she somehow kind of blames him for leaving her alone. She is a bright girl but lacks of confidence, so she always arms herself by acting rude and indifferent so that she won’t get hurt; however, she is also a brave girl because she isn't afraid of acknowledging the mistakes, correcting them and making the apology. Then Dr. Larabee appears. He acts like her father by teaching Akeelah many things not only on the spelling contest but also on the behavior and the meaning of life. He tells her that do not afraid of showing the best side of her. 

A frustrating day

Today I went to have a class for learning Spanish outside the school. The purpose of this class was to teach students how to pass the B1, which is one of those levels of DELE (Diplomas of Spanish as a Foreign Language). The exam will be held on May 24, so I am going to have six classes. It’s really a short time for me to improve a lot on four skills including writing, listening, speaking and reading, although I am majoring in Spanish and I have even studied it for three years. The first class I took today gave us a mock test which made me feel really frustrated, because there were still lots of basic vocabulary that I didn't know and I couldn't understand any word that spoke from the CD. Moreover, the expense on registering the exam is really expensive. So definitely, I need to do much more practices. The class today gave me a lesson and made me do the self-examination and I really hope it is still not too late.

Don't put off till tomorrow what should be done today.

Now is twelve o'clock pm on Sunday, and I am typing this week's composition. This and the next week will be very busy and full of pressure because of the approach of midterm. I was intended to start studying this Thursday because there were a series of holiday which were a good chance for preparing exams and reports in advance so that I could feel less anxiety and well-prepared for the next two weeks. Therefore, I brought a lot of books home in order to study them all. On Thursday, things went good on my plan. I really studied hard all the day and felt lots of fulfillment. However, I not only got up late on Friday morning but also wasted the whole day watching the Korean drama. And what's worse, I didn't realize immediately how serious the things would become until now. I was really regretted of that. Now there are still a pile of books on my desk waiting me to digest them. How sleepy I am now! No wonder there is a proverb says, “Don't put off till tomorrow what should be done today.”

Surprise!!!

Every weekend I always wake up in the mornings without an alarm, and I usually sleep until noon. This Saturday morning, I intended to sleep as late as usual. But then at about nine thirty, my phone rang. At first, I thought it was my alarm clock that I forgot to turn off last night, so I turned it off without doubt. However, my phone kept ringing which made me gradually awake. Then, I thought of that it might be someone’s call, so I took a look at the screen of my cellphone to figure out who’s call it was. The word which appeared on m screen made me more awake was “Daddy.” I picked it up soon, and the other end of the phone passed my father’s strong and deep voice. He sounded happily and didn't appear a trace of unhappiness or impatience of my delay on answering the phone. He was surprise that I was still sleeping because getting up early is always one of the rules at home.

After 15 minutes…

When I was wondering why he called to me so early, he told me he was right downstairs of my dormitory. I jumped out of my bed with this surprising news. After I told my Dad to wait for me for a little while, I rushed to bathroom to brush my teeth and washed my face and then ran down to find him. When I walked out the front door of my dormitory, I saw him wearing the sports outfit with his bike and his cloth and face was all sweaty. He said he was riding here form home by two hours which made me very astonished. I was very happy to see him appeared unexpectedly. Then, he took out two bags full of bread and snacks. I was too touching to speak any word. In one word, parents are the people who are most concerned about their children. 

Taiwan's "democracy"

It has been chaotic when about 200 students forced their way into the legislative chamber and occupied the space on Tuesday night last week. The reason is that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus sent the cross-strait service trade agreement to a plenary session without it being screened. They are some people worried that the trade pact, which would open large parts of Taiwan’s service sector to China and vice versa, would threaten the survival of Taiwan’s small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as the livelihoods of its workers, farmers and businesspeople. In my opinion, there must be pros and cons in this trade pact and I am not very understand whether this pact is good for Taiwan or not, but what made me angry is the procedure of the legislative. I feel sad and disappointed about the democracy of Taiwan and the press. Recently I want to know more about this event, so I read lots of news and watch many videos on the Net. However, I saw a video yesterday about how the press garbled what really happened on the spot. What was reported was totally different from the truth. And at the end I really don’t know which news can be believed.

The Power of Positive Thinking

After the abortion, my sister’s health became really worse. At first, she was prone to being tired. Then, there were aches in her joints. So she went to the hospital and did overall physical checkup. Last weekend, the report went out and the doctor said that my sister got the autoimmune disease. This disease is incurable. It may affect her working and daily life and she may even not be able to give birth to baby. In the beginning, we were stunned and couldn't accept that. We just couldn't believe why it was my sister to get this kind of disease. She is only 26 years old. Therefore, all of us were really sad and upset. However, my friend encouraged me with her mother’s story. When her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, the doctor said she only left few months lifespan. However, her mother remained a positive thinking and had a healthier lifestyle. And now three years passed, her mother is still healthy and lives happier than before. Therefore, I decide not to be so worried and try my best to let her feel relieved and less stressed. I keep telling her that she will be fine and ask her to think positively. Surprisingly, though she still feels pain, she gets much better and the aching also becomes less.

A Sad Weekend

It kept raining for many days, which made me a little upset for no reason. This was a sad weekend. This Friday night I was comforting my sister by phone, and both of us were crying our hearts out. This feeling was totally different from three weeks ago. I can still remember that my sister talked of her pregnant in a cheerful voice. She was so happy, and we spent a whole day talking about her baby’s sex, name, appearance, etc. Everything was so perfect, and everyone expected the baby’s birth. However, things became worse. My sister first got cold, and she couldn't take the medicine because of the baby. Therefore, she was very uncomfortable and became very weak. The good thing was that she was not getting more seriously and her condition was improving. Then, everything happened too fast to react. One night, my sister felt a great deal of pain in her abdomen and she started bleeding. She was sent to the hospital and got a bad news from the doctor. The doctor talked her that she needed to the induced abortion to keep her safe. And she is still very weak and sad until now.

228 vacation

This four days vacation is a good chance for me to go home. Actually, I live in Taipei, but I go home only once a month. Because of that, every time I go home my mom and dad are very happy. When I still lived in home before, I felt lots of limitation from my parents and I always had many chores needed to do. Certainly, we seldom talked to each other and had a lot of fights. However, everything changes after I left home and lived in dormitory. Once I went home, they would prepare bountiful food and I would share my life in school. They would ask me that whether everything went fine, did anyone cheat you bad, and did I have any worries. Then I started to complain the thing that didn't go very well. I felt warm when they are concerned about me and stood by my side. Also, I felt happy when there was someone listening to me so carefully. That's why every chance that I can go home becomes very valuable.

A Trip to Sun Moon Lake

This winter vacation I arranged a three-day traveling for my family, because it has been a long time after our last journey. Besides, my brother just finished an important exam, the General Scholastic Ability Test, which is an important component of the college admission process. So we decided to take a relax and went for a trip to 台中. We went to Sun Moon Lake, which is the largest lake of Taiwan. We traveled along the Lake by riding the bike through the lake cycling trail and soaked ourselves in the tranquility and peace of nature. After that, we also boarded a boat and cruised over the waves as we enjoyed the glories of the mountains and waters. The air was so fresh that was totally different from the big city. Its crystalline, emerald green waters reflect the hills and mountains which rise on all sides. Its beauty is created by the combination of mountain and water scenery. All of us were immersed in such a beautiful place and relaxing journey. It was really a wonderful trip.