My Old School

   Today, I return to my old school－Sanmin Junior High School, to ask for transcripts. It’s been three years, and the school still looks the same. Standing in the office, it feels like I'm back to old times again, being a middle school student. Hearing the bell rings, my memory at Sanmin are all brought back. More surprisingly, some teachers even recognize me and call out my name; I don’t think I’m a student who would be remembered because I’m not either having excellent academic performance or always breaking rules. However, I’m only able to recall few teachers’ last name rather than their whole name, and some of them I just forget what their called. This time’s return, I have to thank the office staffs for being so helpful and efficient that I get my English transcripts within such a short time. In addition, I have to especially thank Mrs. Lo, who used to be my English teacher. She still remembers that I’m called “Teresa,” and she helps me on translating award. We chat for a while, and she knows that I’m going to Canada to study. Also, she said that I have to go visit her when I finish studying college, and I’ll definitely keep this promise since deep in my heart, I really appreciate what Mrs. Lo has done for me.

Gaining Offense

   Today we have our second basketball practice, which takes place at school. Mr. Li makes some changes for the warm up: usually when we’re doing “Four station,” people on the top would shoot, but now is people at the 2-point line shoot. From now on, the practices would focus more on our offense since we’re good at defense but lacking offense in the tournament. Shooting and cut-in are two only ways that can gain points, and we practice cut-in because most people are afraid of doing so. When the defender is really close to you, it’s the easiest time to cut-in because the defender wouldn’t be able to act so fast. In addition, v-cut, turning, or faking can always be successful while doing cut-in. In another case, which the defender stays where she is instead of approaching you, you can either shoot or pass. So, all team members have to be capable to shoot at everywhere, not just limited to one spot. The whole team has to be more familiar with these offense skills, so that we can get more points for games next year.

Alumni Party

   Today is the Alumni Party, which is held at the Hsinchu Ambassador Hotel, and starts from 12:00 pm to 3:00 pm. When I get to the hotel, I’m shocked by the scene that there are lots of people lining up for elevators. It’s not only my first time to see three elevators are crowded with people, but also my first experience of waiting for 10 minutes just to go up. However, I take the escalator with other attendants rather than the elevator to go upstairs because three elevators seem stuck: neither showing the sign of going up nor down. When we finally get to the 11 floor, there aren’t lots of people, so there is waiting again. I meet some of the alumni from last year, and it’s pretty happy and exciting to see them again after so long. While waiting for others to come, me and the alumni talk and take some pictures. Finally, the last group arrives, and everyone can start eating after 1 hour of waiting. Although there is never-ending waiting today, I still enjoy the party because the food is delicious and it feels good to see old friends again.

Macbeth Video

   Today is the day that our group films Macbeth, and we decide to shoot it in Jingmei, Taipei. In the morning, I take the train by myself, and also the MRT, and finally get to Jingmei station. The place we’re doing the film is at Bella’s house, which is beautiful since there’s a river and a park across the apartment. For the first two hours, we divide up the group and assign each people to read each act and choose what they think are the important lines. While one people is doing the work, the rest are just lying on the sofa and watching TV, which is pretty relaxing. After two hours of summary reading, we finally start to film. I think our film is extraordinary because it has some funny elements yet not losing essential parts of the story. Also, I like our group a lot due to the fun filming process and the efficiency of our teamwork.

   After the film is done, I have dinner with Sylvia and Leo at an Italian restaurant－Partco. I’m really not familiar with Taipei, and the restaurant is in the district that I’ve never been to. After dinner, Sylvia originally said she would take the bus with me and send me back to Taipei main station, however she changes her mind and decide let me take the bus by myself. She and Leo just walk me to the bus station and tell me which bus I should take. I’m pretty nervous and scared because I’m afraid I might miss the station to get off the bus. After the exciting journey, I finally get to Hsinchu successfully and safe. After today’s alone trip in Taipei, I think I become more independent.

Winter Solstice

    Today is the annual Winter Solstice, and people have to eat stuffed dumplings according to Chinese tradition, which has the meaning of growing one year older. Today is also when day time is the shortest and night time is the longest due to sunlight’s angle. After today is over, the weather will become colder and colder until lunar new year. Personally, I really love to eat stuffed dumplings, and Winter Solstice is always my favorite holiday because I get to have lots of them. Mom cooks both the sweet and the meat kinds of stuffed dumplings, and I decide to have four of each flavor. When I open my mouth and ready to have a bite on the meat stuffed dumplings, I find out that there are still frozen parts. Not only mine is like that, but also the whole pot is. The meat stuffed dumplings were bought last year, and I think they have lost their freshness, so that’s why they couldn’t be cooked. Despite this, the sweet kind has no problem at all, and I still get to enjoy this tradition.

Build Your Body

   Today, the girls basketball team members meet at UMC for the first practice. Rather than practicing basketball, we focus on body building this time. Mr. Li introduces to us all kinds of fitness equipment in the gym, and he plans a lesson for us. Most of the girls are afraid of having big muscles, but Mr. Li says we don’t have to worry about that as long as we control our diet. Moreover, fitness training can help to shape our body and we can have better physical strength while on the court. For every basketball game we play against other schools, we lose because our physical strength is not good enough. Thus, both boys and girls basketball teams are going to start work out in order to play better on the court.

    Mr. Li plans for us what we have to do over winter break: there are two sets of programs, and they will cover training of different parts of muscle. The most important thing to remember is “one front one back,” which means if you train the front muscle for the first facility, then you have to train the back muscle for the next facility. Mr. Li says we have to rest for 48 to 72 hours between two training days. Also, he says that the muscle will be sore after first few times of training because it’s trying to get used to the new condition. After today, I learn lots of usages for different fitness machines, and which part of muscles they train. From now on, I have to go to the gym more often and start doing the assignment to be stronger.

Late Lunch

   Today is the first day of the productive-week, so I do homework after I wake up at 10:30 am. After I finish Act 4 of The Tragedy of Macbeth, it’s already lunch time, and I thought I can take a rest since my brain works so hard in the morning. However, Mom and Dad haven’t come up yet, so I have to wait for them to finish their work. I thought they would have been done with their work within 30 minutes, but I waited and waited for a long time, until my brain is dizzy, my limbs are cold, and my lip is pale. I decide to eat some cookies because there’s a great chance that I faint if I wait any longer. I couldn’t even do any homework since my brain can’t run, so I just play games and listen to music while waiting. When we’re finally going out for lunch, it’s already 3:00 pm! Today’s lunch is the latest in my life, and I learn that the feeling of hunger is really disturbing and uncomfortable, I really don’t like it.

Christmas Break

   Today I wake up at noon, which I haven’t done so for a long time. Christmas break is a great time for me to regain my energy, my 8 hours sleeping time that I lose due to heavy school work. Although we have two weeks off, we still can’t really relax at this year’s Christmas break because seniors have finals right after the first week school starts. In addition, these final grades are especially important since they determine whether one can get into the college one wants. I have planned through my break that I should do homework, study for final exams, and start my college application. For first three days of the break, I’ve been acting pretty lazy, and I did almost no work at all. Tonight, I watch TV again for whole 6 hours, and this should be the last time for doing so. For the rest of the break, I tell myself I have to begin to work harder so that I can have less pressure next year.