Journal 79

     I was at my home for the whole day. I did my final project. In the morning, my mother went to my grandparents’ house, and my brother went to down town with his friends. I stayed at home alone. There were something good happened in my Christmas break, but there were also something bad happened too. Although I had some friends from current seniors, I still preferred to share my personal stuff to my friends from last year. I thought that I trusted them more. I spent two hours read novel this morning. Actually, it didn’t attract me a lot. I wasn’t sure whether I had enough time to finish it or not. I went out around 11:30 a.m. and got the things which I bought online from 7-11. I bought three clothes and two pairs of pants. I ate my lunch while watching TV. I went to my bedroom and started to do my final project until 2:00 p.m. My mother came back just before dinner time; my brother came back just before my mother. I didn’t go anywhere today. Today was a little bit boring. I hoped that I could have more time to stay with my friends because they go back to colleges soon.

Journal 78

     I didn’t wake up early in this morning because I went to bed at almost 2:00 a.m. I was skype with Rachel last night. We talked about some personal stuff. I told her my secret when she called me last night, and then she also told me that she wanted to share something with me. Therefore, we chatted online for around two hours. I hadn’t share personal stuff with my friends for a long time. Although I had some current senior friends, I was not as close with them as with Rachel. I knew her for more than five years, so we definitely understand each other. I did share some personal secrets with current friends, but I didn’t tell them all. It didn’t mean that I didn’t trust them. To me, I would only share things, which were very important to me, to some particular people. I might felt uncomfortable if I shared my personal things to too many people though they were my friends. Rachel was the person who I could trust. We both faced the same problem yesterday, but our problems were still a little different. Although she might not be the person help me to solve the problem, I felt better after I talked to her.

 

Journal 77

     Our after party was continued to this morning. I just met a person in this party. He was the person who I hadn’t seen him for a year. We hadn’t talked to each other for a long time, so when we met each other I felt that I met a stranger. I was not as familiar with him as before. Although we still could chat and talk to each other, the feeling I got was totally different from before. I told myself that at least we started to communicate and made contact with each other. This was the first time that I had a friend, who was extremely closed with me, brought me this such kind of feeling. I kept talking myself that I should think in this way because it was not that bad. We were still friends. I went home around 11:30 a.m. and I ate lunch with Esther in a 7-11 which was located at my village. I also chatted a lot. I told her about my feeling. I really wanted to stop missing him because I didn’t want to live in this way. Life must go on. I thought that it was time for me to rethink about my final decision.

 

 

Journal 76

     When I woke up this morning, I was excited and nervous because today is Alumni Party. Many people who graduated from PAS would come to this party. They shared both their academic and social lives in colleges. I already bought two dresses before the part. One of them was pink; the other one was black. I wondered that which one I should wear. The pink one was shorter and looked like a party dress. The black one looked formal and I didn’t need to worry whether it was too short or not. I put on my make up first, and then tried both dresses and found out which one was more suitable. Finally, I chose the black one because the pink one was not formal enough. After I finished my make up, I went to Rachel’s house first. I was there to wait for her putting on her make up. Her dress was black too, but it was shorter than mine. Actually, Rachel’s dress was a shirt not a dress. When we arrive at Ambassador Hotel, I suddenly found that there were only few people there. Not many people came to this party, but we still had good time tonight. It was not over when the party ended because we had an after party event!

Journal 75

     What date is today? Today is December 25^th. Today is Christmas! I wanted to go out with my friends, but everyone had different plan. Therefore, I plan to celebrate Christmas with her this year. In this morning, I did my environmental science’s homework. It was a little complicated but was not that hard. By the way, I watched a movie, Sherlock Holmes, with my family yesterday. It was so great, especially the ending part. I haven’t watched movies with my family in movie theater for a long time. I had a dinner with Rachel tonight. I invited her to a restaurant which was near my house. I took lots of pictures and had a wonderful time. She shared something of her first college life to me. I suddenly realized that even though an art student still had lots of works to do. She said that she slept only two hours or less during midterm and final term weeks. After we finished dinner, she came to my house. My parents and brother went to another restaurant, so there were only Rachel and I in my house. My parents came home later. Rachel and I chatted a lot. I really wanted to stay with her because she was the only one person who I could trust in PAS.

Journal 74

     I really wanted to buy a new wallet. I didn’t find it when I was in Hong Kong. Some were too expensive; some were too childish. I reached some online today and finally found one which attracted me a lot. It was not that expensive, so I decided to buy it. I watched a Chinese drama this morning. It was very intense. My mother ate lunch with her friend, and my brother had a basketball game today. Therefore, I had to eat lunch alone. I had no more college applications, but I was very nervous about waiting the results. I suddenly felt nothing to do after college application. Recalling what I did today, I could only remember that I met with my friend at night market tonight. They all just came back from the United States and Canada, so they missed Taiwanese foods a lot. That was why we met at night market because they want to “eat”. We hung out until 10:30 p.m., and then we went home. Although we only saw each other for a short time, we cherished the time we met and had fun. Friends are forever. They are my best friends in my life. I think that I gonna miss them after they leave Taiwan.

 

Journal 73

      met Esther and Rachel this afternoon. This was the first time that I met them after they came back from the States and Canada. In the morning, I continued the fill out the online applications until three o’clock at the afternoon. I felt so excited to see them because we haven’t seen each other for a long time. As a senior, I didn’t have my social life for around six months. I didn’t go to movie theater, go shopping, and hang out with my friends. Today was the first day that I went to down town during my senior year. I suddenly felt relaxed. Esther and I went to Fe21 buy the tickets. The main actress in the movie was my favorite one-Ariel Lin. She is a famous Taiwanese actress. I have known her since I watched the drama “Kiss” when I was in seventh grade. Rachel and Esther haven’t gone to Hsinchu’s down town after they came back, so they were so excited when they ate Taiwanese foods and saw the local shops. I felt that there were two crazy people around me. They kept telling me that I will be like them after I go to college next year. I really had a great time with them today.

Journal 72

     I slept until almost nine o’clock in the morning because I went to bed at two o’clock in the morning. I felt tired today. Probably because I just came back from Hong Kong. I had four more online applications and one more envelope needed to send out. My plan was to send out all the online applications and tests score today. The result of the TOEFL test, which I took two weeks ago, was available yesterday. I was very nervous before I log in my account. I hoped that I could get at least “at least” 90 or 95. After I click the “Test Scores”, I covered the total scores fist, and then started from the writing score. OMG!!! I improved my score! Although my score was not good enough, I was glad that I did improve. Writing score was the highest; however, my reading was still weak. I chatted with three people online at the afternoon, and checked my facebook. I haven’t use my facebook for a long time. I told myself that I must finish all the applications first, and then use facebook. At night, I filled out the rest four online applications and sent them out. That was a meaningful moment in my life.

Journal 71

     Today was my last day in Hong Kong. My mother said that she wanted to visit Hong Kong University. This school was very big and I saw students from different countries that were very diverse. I had to go to another place, so we didn’t spend too much time at Hong Kong University. I didn’t buy anything in the first two days. However, today was my shopping day. I only bought a shirt and a jacket. My mother said that the clothes I bought in Hong Kong were cheaper that Taiwan. We only spent three days at Hong Kong, so we went and visited many place a day. I thought that the last day was the busiest one. Maybe I didn’t sleep last night, so I had headache at the afternoon that was very uncomfortable. People who smoke in public are also made me felt even worse because I was unable to have fresh air. Our flight was nine o’clock at night. I didn’t eat anything in the plane. I slept until we arrived at Taiwan. After a short nap, I felt better. My brother said that the dessert was cheese cake which was my favorite cake, but I missed it. Overall, this trip was very good.

 

Journal 70

     The day after Winter Dance, Saturday, was my family trip in Hong Kong. This was the first time that I went to Hong Kong. We spent three days there. My mother went to Hong Kong last December too and she said that we might have chance to go this year because winter break was only two weeks. It only took an hour and half from Taiwan to Hong Kong. Actually, there was no big difference between Hong Kong and Taiwan. To me, the buildings and environment were extremely different. I could only see skyscraper there. The roads were not flat there, so walking too long would be very tired. I really like the style of the hotel we lived. Besides shopping, I thought that the most important thing in Hong Kong was “eat”. There were lots of restaurants here and each of them had it own style. Every meal I ate in Hong Kong was way more than what I ate in Taiwan. I felt that I spent a lot of time eating. Desserts were very delicious too. Although I only spent three days in Hong Kong, I felt relaxed and excited because I just finished my college application. I miss the foods in Hong Kong now.

 

Journal 69

    Finally! Finally! Finally! We had done all the performance today. Although I had only two performances, I needed to memorize many steps that were totally different. For senior class, we divided our performance into three parts. It contained girl’s group, boy’s group, and all together. Except for boy’s group, I was in other two groups. I didn’t worry the girl’s dance because we practiced a lot, and we were all doing during the practices. However, cheerleading was the one that I worried the most. We not only had less time to practice but also had problem to memorize the steps. Our coach was too busy to come last Sunday which was the day that we first time dance the whole thing. Yesterday when we practiced, no one was hundred percent about the rhythm, so we didn’t practice anything. Our problem was solved until the coach found his student to help us. His student arrived at school around 1:00 p.m. this afternoon and practice with us. Overall, today’s performance was good though I made some small mistakes. At least we made it! It was so surprised to see that our cheerleading finally succeeded during the performance. This was the first time that I was a flyer.

 

Journal 68

     I was not happy today. PAS’s Christmas performance is tomorrow, so we went to Science Park to rehearse. All classes schedule were changed to short period that only 45 minutes per each class. I am not good at using computer, so I didn’t really enjoy in Adobe Photoshop class. Although today’s class was in short period, teacher still wanted us to do a project, which was hard for me. We needed to cover the skills which teacher taught us last time and send the file to him before the end of the class. I almost forgot the skills. Our project was to create a Christmas card. I researched some pictures online and started to think about the structure of the card. The most difficult skill was called “vector.” I totally had no idea about this skill. I kept asking the person who sat next to me how to do because I was afraid that I was unable to finish the project for the class was ended. I did create a card, but it was not perfect. I only got 80 for this project that really hurt my grade. I had a unit exam for AP Human Geography tomorrow, so I probably will stay late tonight.

 

Journal 67

     Christmas performance is coming soon, so each class practices after school. I like this year’s dance because the style of dance can really show our energy. However, I just felt that some people of this class didn’t very care about this only few people would attend on time. I was afraid that we might forget or make some mistakes during the performance because we didn’t have enough practice. I thought that this class lacked cooperation and participation. Many people attend late but left first. How this attitude was. I felt that some people were not really busy. They just found excuses to show that they didn’t have time to practice. Two days after was the performance day. I couldn’t imagine that whether we could make the performance great or not. Today was the first time that we ran through the whole performance. Majority people were still not familiar with the schedule. We practiced from 3:30 p.m. to around 5:00 p.m., but the boy’s and girl’s dance group stayed until dinner time, around 6 or 7 o’clock. This year I had to perform three types of dance. Sometimes I forgot the steps because they were totally different style. I hoped that our performance could be perfect.

Journal 66

     Both Doraemon and Hello Kitty are from Japan. They are famous cartoons in Taiwan. I still remembered that I watched Doraemon’s cartoon on television almost everyday during dinner time. Each time after I watched the cartoon, I always told my mother that wanted to have a Doraemon in my life too. Doraemon and Hello Kitty share some similarities. For example, they lose some parts of their appearances. Doraemon misses his ears on his head; Hello Kitty misses her mouth on her face. Both of them don’t have fingers and toes. On the other hand, they do have some differences between each other. Doraemon only has one sibling-his younger sister; Hello Kitty has a group of family members. In cartoons, Doraemon’s mission is to help and take care of his owner. Hello Kitty doesn’t have any mission in the cartoon. I think that Doraemon’s and Hello Kitty’s personalities are totally different. To me, Doraemon symbolizes a critical thinker; Hello Kitty symbolizes a naive person. Both of them play important roles in children’s memories. Compare the audience of these two characters, most fans of Hello Kitty are girls because it is pink and romantic. However, the audience of Doraemon can be both children and adults.

 

Journal 65

     Last Friday I met Irene on the hallway before I walked into my homeroom. I hadn’t worn my glasses yet, so I thought that Irene was Melissa. Until I walked closer to Irene, I just found that she was Irene not Melissa. When I met both of them at locker area during lunch time, we chatted about this event together with them in Chinese. I speak Chinese unconsciously because it is my native language and then I feel more comfortable to speak it. I think that it is easier for me to communicate in Chinese, and even if I fluent in another language, I still want to go back to my native language when I can. It is just normal. However, we are not supposed to speak Chinese in school because we study in American school not Taiwanese local school. If we keep speaking Chinese, we won’t have any chance to improve our English ability. My better skill of speaking English might improve my listening because I have to understand the meaning of words first. The weak speaking skill of English won’t help me to succeed in college anymore. As reading, listening, writing, and speaking are related to each other, I should practice all of them rather than parts of them.

Journal 64

      We watched a movie in History of American Music class on last Friday and this Tuesday. The movie was talking about a famous rock and roll musician, Johnny Cash. The whole movie was directed by Johnny’s son, and the story was completely true. Before I watched this movie, I had no idea who was Johnny Cash, and why he was famous. Although teacher had already introduced him in class, it would be easy to know more about him by watching movie. I liked the end because it was touched. I believed that Johnny Cash’s life seemed very significant to himself. Today we had a quiz for this movie. I thought that I got all the questions correct. I didn’t fall into sleep or missed any part of the movie, so I knew all the questions. I just checked my veracross ten minutes ago, and I got 5.8 out of 5.0 because I also answer the bonus question correct. My average grade for this class was 87, but I hoped that I could get at least 90 before final. Therefore, I must get 90 or higher on the next quiz. Oh! Next week was the last week before winter break. I can’t wait for it!

Journal 63

     I felt not comfortable within this week because the weather was too humid. Majority floors in my house were wooden made, so I could clearly see the footprints on the ground if the weather was humid. The news said that it would be very cold this weekend. The temperature was approximately 10°c. Next week was a very busy week. Thursday was PAS’s Christmas Performance and the deadline of college application. Friday was one of the student’s events, Winter Dance. I was busy this week too because I had a TOEFL test this Saturday. I did reading and listening practices everyday in order to improve my grade. I didn’t have much homework today, so I wanted to finish BU’s short essay today. If I could, my essays might be finished by the end of this Friday. I asked Esther to edit some of my essays because I couldn’t ask for help from the teachers in PAS. My UC’s essay was edited by Esther, and its idea was approved by teacher too. Therefore, I thought that Esther was able to provide suggestions. She was good at writing that she could totally express the feelings I wanted. The reason was that maybe she studied in psychology, so she could quickly understand what I was thinking about.

Journal 62

     I went to bed at 1:00 a.m. today, so I was very tired. Actually, I could sleep at around 12:00 p.m., but I tried to get more homework done as I could last night because we needed to stay at school to practice our Christmas performance. I had TOEFL test on the weekend again. I really hoped that this was the last time I took TOEFL test, so I must get at least 100 for the overall grade. Therefore, I found both reading and listening practices online. I did one reading passage yesterday, and I was so surprised to find that I got all the questions correct. I couldn’t believe that. For college stuffs, I just finished a short essay last night. There were still two essays which I had to work on. One was Boston University’s short essay; the other one was Michigan State University’s essay. They were be finished by the end of this week. I started the BU one today. Although I tried my best to do everything well, I still worried about whether I could get into the school which I want or not. I worried about my future. I worried about my life in college. I worried about my current school works. However, I kept telling myself that I should clam down myself and got everything done as soon as possible.

 

Journal 61

     I am willing to share my story to other people, but I also worry whether I make each plot clearly enough or not. I think that I am not a good writer because I don’t know how to elaborate the story more vividly. Therefore, I am afraid to tell my own story in front of public. I do have experience to tell story to other people before. The audience was my younger cousins. They usually pick a storybook and ask me to tell the story for them when we met. I am able to use different voices and tones because I feel no pressure to tell story to my cousins. Sometimes, I can even act vividly in order to let them understand the story. However, the situation is different when classmates are my audience. I might feel pressure coming toward me. On the other words, I don’t feel confident about my story because there might be some mistakes or unclear parts. The story is made by me, so I definitely know the whole story. Not all people understand the details of story as I do. Everyone has different point of view. I think that it is a god way to share my story to other people in order to find the mistakes.

 

Journal 60

     I had an environmental test on Friday last period. The test included two chapters, but I only studied one of them at Thursday night. I planned to study for the other one during Friday’s study hall period. I thought that I didn’t well prepare for this test, so I worried that I might not get a good grade. However, I just check my veracross that I got 18 out of 20. That was not bad. On Saturday, I went to school around 3:00 p.m. to do a project with Karen. Some seniors stay at school to work on their essays, but I chose not to write my essay at school because there was too noisy. I wanted to finish my homework by the end of Saturday, but I still left two. After Sports Day, I finished these two in around four hours. Yeah! Let’s talk something about today’s Sports Day. I participated in four events with my enthusiastic spirit today, 100 meter dash, 200 meters relay, legged jump, and tug of war. Relay was always my favorite event during sports day, but I preferred 100 meter relay. I couldn’t believe that I won the second place of 100 meter dash, and our team, Blue Team, won the first place of both 100 and 200 meters relay. Although our team didn’t have as strong spirit as Yellow and Green teams, I did my jobs during every activity.

 

Journal 59

     I almost finished my college essays. I left only two short essays because I didn’t know how to express and show my feeling in short essays. One of them should be no more than 1000 characters; the other one should not be more than 750 characters. I had no idea how to start these two. Some people felt that short essay was easier to write than long one. On the other hand, I preferred to write long essay that I was able to totally say what I want. I set a deadline for these two essays by the end of this Saturday. By the way, I supposed to take SAT reasoning test on that day, but I thought that I had to focus more on the TOEFL test. I decided not to take the December SAT. However, some people suggested me to take the test; some told me not to take. I was so confused that whether I should take the test or not. After I got some people’s suggestions, I still decided to ask Ms. Pamela. She said that TOEFL is extremely to international students, so I should focus more on it. Therefore, I won’t take SAT reasoning on this Saturday.