Letter X: School Annual Events and School Fair

What a season of festivities!

Hello, Tim! Seems like we can never enjoy a week with much tranquility around here, in EHP. This week is the event of the school's fair and tournaments, and whichever part you took in either of the events, you would feel inexplicably drained and fatigued.
Note that in this week, though I am still not sure yet, I am afraid I won't be writing much, for all the imminent assignments preparation I have to finish in the weekend.

Why is it so Hard to Find a Book?

I remembered writing a small review of the book For the Winner several weeks ago, and now I have learned that this book comes from a set of a three book series, The Golden Apple Trilogy. I bought this book at the time when the second book (i.e. For the Winner) and now I am dying to find the first book, where it all started. I looked for it all over the bookstores in Taiwan, not quite surprised was I to find that there wasn't any. I proceeded to bookdepository.com, which is a worldwide book delivery website that ships book with no charges of delivery fees. Right after I had finished the book, I went to that website and had been glad to see there were more than ten books left in stock. However, I would have to pay via credit card on that particular website, and therefore I had no reason to turn to my mom for the help right then. Now, though, I plucked up to courage to ask for her help, and surprisingly she said yes. 

It was out of stock.

I was practically panicking because I knew that it would take a lot more money if I were to look for the book on Amazon.

Given the last place to resort to, I went to Amazon, and along with the shipping fee, a used version of hardback For the Most Beautiful costs 28 U.S. Dollars. My mom was upset because she never knew I would want a book that cost so much, so she made me promised that I would not buy another book anytime soon. For that book, I would try to refrain myself.

The Golden Apple Trilogy that got me awestruck. Third book out on 2018 June.

Sports Tournaments

Unlike last year, we have new and better fields this year, so the annual track and field tournaments are back on "track" (Get the pun? It was unintentional... :D)

However, for this event, our class was more like the spectacle team here. Only Angela, William, Sabrina, Melody, Selena actually participated in the event, where Angela took part in the 100m and William in the long jump contest. 

The five mentioned above were the contestants participated in the "2000 meters group relay race" (I had to look the word up)  while the remaining 13 of us watched them and our seniors run together as a team; we were the "physically incompetent" bunch.
As spectators, we had to sit on the grass field next to the tracks, under the sun.
Uhh, the weather.

We brought picnic mats out :D

Killer weather.

Bonus: Cathy 

Our phones say 36 Degrees Celcius, but we believed that it was way higher. We rushed back to our classroom multiple times to fetch our umbrellas to hide the penetrating sunlight. We had no idea what went into the weather system that day but ten umbrellas weren't enough!
In the end, we got the second place for the relay race (thanks and credits solely to the runners, both the seniors and my endearing and physically compatible), and I am so proud of them.
That was the tournaments on Friday.

Questions Answering- Part One

1. Jason from Fushing High school would be finishing off his remaining time of high school in Toronto, Canada. One thing Mr. Maher thinks that he would soon be aware of how could it would be over there, and how people rejoiced in the low temperature. Speaking of Canada, I remember talking about Lawrence, my friend who is also currently studying in Canada, in one of my blog posts. I have no idea of when he would be back for visit next time, but I am guessing winter break. I would sure go out with him someday, just to chat and have fun.

2. The Veterans Day, or the Armistice Day as its original name, or the Remembrance Day is on November the 11th. This is an unofficial holiday, for there is already a Memorial Day on May 28th (was it?) and this holiday is nowadays mostly celebrated in restaurants, where you can get free meals if you're currently servicing in the army or a veteran.

3. Unlike what Mr. Maher's son did by showing the service card to the waiters, he simply had to show up to qualify for the free veteran meals.

4. First, I would like to say that I think Echo is a very lovely name because it has an origin in Greek mythology, in the story of Narcissus and Echo. Okay, back to the question. This time, Echo and her mother, Coleen were in Ireland because she had to work. However, on her day off, she took advantage of the ongoing Disney ice skating performance in Dublin and she decided to spend some quality time with her daughter, who was among the performers (was this part correct? I was unsure)

5. Echo plays as Wendy from Peter Pan, and also Anna from Frozen. Funny, because we just had a performance about Frozen as well! :D

School Fair- Now with Surplus Amount of Sprite!

Conclusion: We shouldn't buy so much Sprite.

It was Saturday, a day with a more moderate temperature, comparing to the burning Friday. We as a whole class had to arrive before 7:30 in the morning to decorate and set up our stands. This year, we were selling colored Sprite, fried instant noodles, and body painting (exactly what we had last year) and an additional corn soup for sale.

I was still in charge of the drinks group, scooping up ice cubes, filling up the cups with sizzling, transparent Sprite.

Originally, we only decided to serve 2 colors, but after endless inventing, there were five colors

It was still popular among students in CCSH, but this year we got a stand that was closer to the corner, which lowered the number of customers. The instant noodles and the soup were soon sold out, but even until the end of the whole event, we still have half of the amount of Sprite, unsold. How many bottles of Sprite are there, you ask? 22 bottles of 2 liters! This means that even if we give each the students in 220 a bottle of 2 liters, we would still have remains!
This was the miscalculation of the year! Though albeit with this, we still earned around 5000 NTD or so, which would all go to the money prepared for the yearly presentation.

Allison drawing my arm

Selfie with the two sunglasses drawn on their faces

It... It... It's A SHPIDER!!!!!! (shriek) creds to Allison

Minion

Questions Answering- Part Two

6. I wasn't quite sure if the answer to question really can be found in text, but still, I looked the word Ol'Sod on the Internet, and it says that in old Irish, "sod" means "soil" or "land", and it was originally referred to one's homeland, whereas in the original context of such usage, refers to Ireland. Also, it fits into the texts as well, since as Mr. Maher stated "Toomevera, our ancestral village".

7. Mr. Maher described Toomevera as his ancestral village, one small farming village with an estimated population of  700 people.

8. I have been staring at the particular picture with scrutiny. I think the kind of harvest in the front were pumpkins, while the ones in the back.... I honestly have no idea. Are they ear corn? Are they rye? Are they something else?

9. Normally, when you burn things like leaves, it produces a great amount of smoke that supposedly can block your vision and cause allergies. With people's protests, burning fallen leaves were not quite accepted.

10. It is true that burning leaves produces smoke and ash that are hard to avoid, but also it harms the environment. If I were to come up with a solution, I think people can... maybe bury the leaves since they are biodegradable and also a source of fertilizer? Plus, if you bury them, they are less likely to get blown up by the winds...

End.

It is near the mid-November, and soon will come December! Looking forward to it! However, for now, I have to move on to my next assignment, see you later!

Sincerely,

 Hugo