Summer Vacation Day 30: Movie (The 3rd Time) and Friends

Hello, Tim!

Today, Mom spent her day with her sisters, while I went out and had fun with my friends

7/28, Saturday

Yesterday when I got back home from the Beijing opera, I borrowed the credit card from my mother and bought movie tickets for three on the Internet. I clearly remembered writing about having a movie date with two of my best middle school friends, Henry (the guy who went all Pokemon Master with me weeks ago) and Daniel. Funny story, we were also in the same elementary school years past, and even though we were all in different classes, we managed to mingle together when we got into the same middle school.

Daniel was in the same class as I was in the first and second year. He’s not a guy you would describe as tall for he really isn’t, but I believe he has a higher IQ than I do. Our strengths in subjects share a vast difference, in which he excels in physics and earth science whereas I live my life buried in languages. He loves anime and video games, so I guess you can also call him an actual nerd, though not in a bad way. As far as I know, he is the owner of a taekwondo black belt, which made him even cooler. Also, he’s the first soul I’ve ever come out to, which he reacted like I was just telling that I was secretly having a crush on someone.

 

Daniel

Henry, in comparison with Daniel, has similar interests in subjects as I do. He’s also a lover of English. However, we are still quite different. He loves the grammar part of the language more than any other aspects. He loves making those sentences that confuse while being grammatically correct; he makes test papers and hands them out to me and some others as a challenge, and I remember the time we spent on the school bus, nagging and arguing with each other about the tests he made. Oh, and I almost forgot to say that we actually met each other for the first time in the English teachers’ office, and since we had a mutual English teacher, we started with a greeting, and the following just went by like flowing water: smooth and natural.

 

Henry

We watched the 13:30 movie, Hotel Transylvania 3, an animation that features monsters from all sorts of monster legends and folklore. The plots were romantic, delightful, and we all enjoyed ourselves in the theater. Had we arranged the movie date a week or two earlier, we would be watching The Incredibles 2, but I don’t think that matters. I just like the time we spend together, especially that our college admission exam is creeping nearer and nearer.

Movie poster

The plush keychain I got from the claw machine at the theater

By the way, since my mom has a better photo-capturing function on her cell phone, I asked her to share some of the pictures she took.

In better quality.

Tomorrow, my uncle will come over to help me bring most of my book over to the new place since the moving company’s fees are determined by the number trucks used, and Mom wants to save money. It is fine with me, for I would really rather have myself handle the books rather than risking them creased.

The boxes inside the picture hold all my books. There are about 426 books inside 15 boxes.

This is all for today.

Summer Vacation Day 29: Pictures of the House and a Beijing Opera

Hello, Tim!

Today, I spent most of the afternoon in our new house, and I got some pictures!!!

7/27, Friday

Today is Friday, and it means today’s test would be English mock tests, and since I have already finished it a few days ago when Ms. Lin handed them out (oh, by the way, Ms. Lin went to some choir contests, I think, so she had been absent these two days).

Remember my mentioning that Allison lives right in the next alley? Well, today, I asked her if she was heading home immediately after school, she said that she was planning to finish the mock test at home, which means I got the chance to go home with her, just to see how and which bus I am to take to go home. There are two ways to get home by bus, Allison said, one needs changing buses, but it takes us right over to the bus stop just downstairs to my house; taking another bus, you can go all the way to a small plaza that is about less than one kilometer to my house. With such a hot day, we naturally chose the first route.

After getting off the bus, I recommended that we have lunch first, we came across a newly opened Japanese rice ball restaurant, petite but looking nice. We went in there and we were greeted by a small space packed with people. There was a range of flavors to choose from, and I ended up getting two from the menu, and Allison one. It was served beautifully with the seaweed lying flat on the wooden plate. The serving of the white rice was more than enough, and the rice is adequately seasoned with salt, and I believe I’d be going over for more. What I was thinking at the moment was whether this rice ball restaurant is open in the early morning and if I could one day get very nice rice ball breakfast to school.

Delicious. :P

After lunch, I accompanied Allison back to her place, which along the way the casual chatting constantly present. After arriving at her house (the map is in the previous post), I said goodbye to her, and activated the stopwatch function in my cell phone, and paced slowly back to my house. In a totally slow and lazy walking speed, in only need two and a half minutes to walk from her house to mine! Just see how close that it!

I fumbled with the keys I was given with for a whole and finally stepping into the house, alone.

The floor was still messy like it was several days ago. The reason I had to be at my place, by the way, is that there would be workers coming over today to first leave the plastic planks at our house first. The planks with a woody pattern, as I mentioned before, was to be laid across the floor next Monday. I had to help open the door for the worker, so that was the reason I had to be there. Normally, after the worker left, I could have just left for our current home, but there was another activity coming up later then, so I had to stay. Since there was nothing to do, I decided I wanted to sweep the floor to make the living room look more pleasant. The floor was carpeted with a layer of dirt, so I was wearing my sneakers all the time. I started wanting to walk in something more comfortable, so I left the house for a pair of slippers with the aircon still on, knowing that I’d be back within five minutes to return from the grocery store that was in the alley. When I was back, however, I was not alone.

The property owner was standing in the living room as I walked through the door. It wasn’t shocking to me since I knew that the landlady has one of our keys. What plagued my mind was ‘Oh no the air conditioner is still on she’ll think I might have left for thirty minutes or something!’ The landlady is a nice person, giving me advice about placements of furniture. She told me she was here because there are other workers coming over to install the AC in my study. It was another hour later when they left, and during the time, I was trying hard not to fall asleep while sitting on the floor doing Chinese test papers.

Like any normal house is, you see the living room after you open the door. It's about as wide as our living room now, and it has a very square structure, making it easier to arrange the setting of furniture. This is a house with age, mind you, but it has a big window that promises nice lighting, and we don't really have to compromise much when we have to live how we normally do.

This is the dining room. You can't really see it in this picture, but it is directly linked to the living room. We would place our dining table here, and perhaps if we still have space, we would lay a mat over here, so that kids coming over can have a place to play.

This is my study a.k.a. book house.

I plan to sit my bookshelf on the corner on the right, and maybe I'll be able to place against the wall another shelf. The shelves aren't here yet, but I can already picture myself standing in front of it, smiling and ordering the books until I am fully satisfied. 

This is the long and thin front balcony. Looking out, you can see the Tianmu Baseball Stadium and a big sports park.

When I started writing this introduction, I discovered two problems. One: I didn't have the measurements, making describing anything difficult, and second: I forgot to take pictures of my bedroom. Maybe I'll try to redo this thing after all the furniture is in its right place.

Okay, to start with the program of the evening, we would have to wind the time back to earlier this morning, during our Mandarin class, when our teacher reminded me the ‘show’ was today. It was a relief I didn’t make any other appointments today because even though I clearly remembered our teacher has a friend who asked if any of us want to go watch a traditional Beijing opera for free, I couldn’t remember the exact date. Right then, I must be thinking that a new experience is a new experience, so it didn’t bother me much when I signed myself up finding no one else in the class was going.

Theater next to our school; what a classy place!

The show started at 7:30 in the evening, and due to the fact that the theater is right next to our school (i.e. right in Tianmu), I thought it would be better to stay over there rather than heading back to our current home and set off again.

The Beijing opera is a kind of performance formed in the 18^th century. In my opinion, it sounds very much like the Taiwanese operas my mom loves since her childhood.

The title of the show this evening was called Ding Fung Po (定風波), or as it is officially and aptly translated into ‘Ode to the Relenting Storm’, and it is a story about a poet in the Northern Song Dynasty, Su Shi (or Su Dong Po), a guy, as we learned from our intensive Mandarin classes, who lived a life being continuously exiled by the emperor just because Su Shi had disagreements with others in their government. The theater added a large proportion of his works into the lyrics and dialogues, making all my Mandarin class pay off.

This is my first time visiting this newly-built national theater that neighbor my school. There are three stories for the audience, though the second floor has only boxes. I got the ticket for the third floor, on the far-left side of the stage. Here are some poorly-taken pictures.

You look down at the stage, and a majestic and beautiful curtain can be seen. Under the blue light, the large, flat drape showed elegant words in large calligraphy.

The show started as the orchestra in the hidden stage started playing the light and relaxing Chinese traditional music that is supposed to resonate with nature. Among the instruments, I like the flute the most, with its bird-song voice that soars all the way up to the third floor. I found that not only the Chinese subtitles but also the English translation was provided with the projectors on either side of the stage. On more than several occasions, I find the modern (but with beautiful wording) English helpful when the dialogues consisted of hard and incomprehensible Chinese.

It’s an opera, so a lot of singing was in the play. Since having memory, Mom has always loved Taiwanese opera, so with its resemblance to Beijing opera, I knew what to expect. In the show, both characters of men and women sang in an incredibly high pitch with an eccentric tone and intonation. Different pronunciation for words was also very common. I couldn’t describe the way they sing before, but sitting there, being there, and watching the play live, I found the way they sing resembles the most to how Mickey Mouse speaks in cartoons, with the high pitch voice, but also were the tunes high in dose on sentiments. I texted Mom during the intersectoin, and to both of our surprise, this is the show Mom and her sisters are going to watch the next day! 

Curtain.

The play ended at roughly ten in the evenig, and I started my trip home with a brand new experience in my memory.

This is all for today.

Summer Vacation Day 28: Walking and Being Dumb

Hello, Tim!

Today, something funny happened.

7/26, Thursday

For the third consecutive day, I left school at noon, bringing home the test papers of the day, under the malicious sun with my soaking wet T-shirt as usual.

I called my mom on the phone, but unlike the previous two days, there was no response, she didn’t pick up. It was sort of confusing for me since she should be taking care of Aiden at the moment (that was what I thought then), so she either brought the kid out to some places and left the phone at home or she simply didn’t hear it. I didn’t give it much thought at the confusion and just kept walking under the sun.

So when I got to the gate of Aiden’s house, I called for the fourth time with no answer. Along the way of going over, I had had this particular scenario rehearsed in my head. In case Mom didn’t pick up any of my calls, I would just climb the ten stories because it requires an electronic identity card to take the elevator, hence I would have to do the steps, knock on the door, and perhaps lie flat on the floor and pass out for an hour or so.

I did the ascending of the stairs, straining calf muscles and all until I finally saw a stop on the tenth floor.

I was taking the stairs...

I knocked on the door, frustrated to find that no one walked over to open the door. The house felt like it was… empty.

That was when I started questioning my choice of taking the stairs without really making sure anyone would be there to open the door for me. Since I was too fixated on the problem in front of me, I still had no idea where Mom and Aiden could be. I then rested myself on the bench at the door, whipped out my phone, and called Aiden’s grandma, hoping she knows the whereabouts of my mother who ‘supposedly’ went a.w.o.l. The kid’s grandma picked up the phone, and when she told me she didn’t know where Mom was, I heard a little boy’s playful laughs… I asked her if Aiden was with her, and when the response came affirmative, every gear in my brain suddenly clicked.

The truth is… Mom wasn’t even here in Tianmu. She’s at work, near our current house, almost an hour away; she won’t have her cell phone until three! I know that it was solely my fault. She did tell me about feeling the need to keep on working despite the impending move. I kept chanting the phrase ‘Why do you have to be such an idiot’ while making my descending on the stairs. When I got back with my feet touching asphalt, I got a little wobbly, and that was when I knew my legs would be sore, very sore tomorrow.

Proof that I was here.

It was only two o’clock when I finally got home (which was over an hour after I left the house), and after a quick change of my wet and smelly T-shirt (eww) and decided that there was still time to visit Mother -at work. These would be the last several days she would be working over here at this 7-11. She had been talking about her work with such a feeling of accomplishment, of pride and everything. She said that the job can be ten times tiring than normal times when it feels like there are time times more customers, and the fact that being a clerk at a convenience store need to handle every problem with a smile on their faces without showing a tinge of bad attitude to the customers no matter how demanding and rude one customer can be.

Mom at work

Mom is leaving this 7-11, and I could tell she really didn’t want to leave. Hope she can find another nice job after we settle down.

This is all for today.

Summer Vacation Day 27: Heat and Maps

Hello, Tim!

Today, Mom told me to head for Sophie’s and Aiden’s house because she would be there taking care of the boy.

7/25, Wednesday

Leaving school at noon has begun to feel like torture. The sun, casting its ‘loving warmth’ upon the land is supposed to be something that invokes a love for nature, something that reminds you of the tranquil and slow-paced rural life that makes you want to un-hasten your speed and just soak up the temperature. Well, I am certain it was nothing like that! Soybean-sized drops of sweat rolling down my neck, the tip of my nose, everywhere, and none of that part can be compensated by the occasional soft breeze going by. I didn’t want to walk slowly; I wanted to rush all the way to the house.

Sophie was at her summer programs, so my mom only had Aiden to look after. Their new house was as big as their last one, all well-furnished. The multiple rooms gave them three for bedrooms, one for storage, and two for toilets. The grandparents of the two kids visit often, so when they stay over, they would have a fixed place to sleep.

I have no idea what was up about my blog. Normally, Tim, when you post a comment below my blog posts, I would receive notifications via e-mail, but the weird thing is that I don’t really see any messages even remotely remind me that I have two unreplied comments. Sorry about that.

About the actual location of my house, I think the only effective way would be with the aid of a map, so here it is!

Please take a look at the map. The school of mine sits on the bottom left of the screen. It is about a ten to fifteen-minute walk from Zhongzheng to either the MRT Mingde Station or Zhishan Station. You walk down the road for another thirty minutes or so, you will pass sequentially a Zhongchen Park, a Yunong Elementary School, and a farther Dayeh Department Store. Across the road is the Tianmu Baseball Court, a place often crowded with spectators and ball players. Here’s a close-up map of the part we have gotten to:

On the right side showing green is the aforementioned baseball stadium. See the Shun Chen Bakery on the other side of the road? That is the place where I live! By the way, there is a Café Onion (which, in fact, is a steakhouse to be accurate) by which the lane is where Allison lives; it was so much closer than I originally thought! I would have to ask her which if the fastest way to go from home to school since the closest MRT station is forty minutes away.

This is all for today.

Summer Vacation Day 26: Enchanté House and Reading, Reading

Hello, Tim!

Today is the first time seeing the house we just rented!

7/24, Tuesday

Being a frequent visitor of Eliza’s house means that it needs no time to adapt to this already-familiar area. I didn’t need to try my best to remember how I am supposed to go from one place to another in a short time; I have spent literally over ten years in this area; before having had rent this place, I already called it my second home.

After school that finished at twelve at noon, we were to take a Chinese essay writing exam, which will be a hefty part in the soon-to-come college entrance exam, so it is crucial to have enough practice done so that we could get used to the format of such writing tests. Every time the essay test would be made up of two separate essays, one to express your logical thoughts and ideas, and the other to show your emotions and it is usually more sentimental. We only had righty minutes, and although the time needed varies at the difficulty of the topic you are given, we always have to finish it within eighty minutes, which is normally not enough.

Give me an English essay, and I would be happy to oblige. Chinese essay? Hello, sore wrist, here we meet again.

It is about forty minutes of walking distance from our house if you start from our school. The first leg of the trip (get it? On foot? Leg?) I had the blazing sun as a company, which made me sweat and feel sticky all over. And then it rained. I was then sweaty, WET, and sticky all over. I have nothing against the rain, as long I have myself indoors. It just poured down so heavily like every drop was a pachinko pounding down into the sky that I had to wait at the protruding part of the building as a temporary (sweat-less) shelter. About fifteen minutes did the rain poured on, and I set off once again after the rain relented a little. (mental note: Umbrellas.)

It just HAD to rain.

Another fifteen minutes passed in walking and rain, I finally reached the bakery that is just below our apartment.

The rooms were all empty, so there really wasn’t anything t see except for the planning for the rooms. The house was filled with people hustling in and out, dealing with the wires, the ACs etc. My mom and Aiden, my little nephew, were also there. Putting an effort into not disrupting the workers while checking out the house, I walked and wandered around slowly, soaking everything up. It has three rooms, one living room that is linked with an open-space kitchen, two toilets, and two balconies, one on the front of the house and the other on the opposite side. I looked at my bedroom, where a wardrobe is already set and ready for use. The room itself is small, but enough for me to put my bed and a small stand. My study was about the same size, and they have yet gotten the AC installed. For my study, I would need space for a desk, some chairs, and, of course, my bookshelf.

The only blurry picture I managed to find. More to come in the future!

By the way, I finished reading a book today. Theodore Boone, The Kid Lawyer is a book written by one of the most renowned legal novel authors. I read the Mandarin version before, and I totally loved the concept, so I indulged in it and eventually bought the English version of the first in the saga.

Theodore Boone had parents who are both working in the legal systems as attorneys, and this kind of connection to the local court gave our protagonist Theodore a chance and the access to get to know a lot about the people who work in a court and just generally a lot about laws and the process during a case. All these inspired him and made him aspire to become a lawyer or a judge. At school, he’s the star of his debate team owing to his sharp wit and his silver tongue that says only what he thought was correct. He is like a consultant when other kids in school are his little clients.

Taken yesterday when lining for optometrist!

My cousin is a lawyer for patent laws, and that also stimulated me and inspired me in the beginning. I’ll need to get more books.

It is a rather old house, with white walls whose painting is peeling off. We weren’t to worry about that, though, for our nice landlady said that she would have the painting job finished.

I know  I wasn’t here two days ago, but this first time knowing it, seeing it, I felt welcome.

Mom and I are still arguing whether I am going to let the moving company take my books. The compromise, for now, is that I get to pick out books that are important to me, with a limit of two boxes, to bring them personally, and leave the rest for the company.

I still have doubts…

This is all for today.

This is all for today.

Summer Vacation Day 25: Breakfast and Eye Doctor

Hello, Tim!

School started once more after the curt two days of weekend days.

7/23, Monday

Today, I woke up with my eyes still red. With that in mind, I decided I had to go to an optometrist for problems like this; It was itching, and I had to refrain myself from rubbing it!

I had breakfast with Candy this morning. We agreed to meet at the metro station at seven, which gives us a maximum of one hour before the class started. Normally, when it is just me and Candy, we talk about all eclectic stuff, from the boring school work to the movie she watched yesterday; from our ranting on wanting to find love (just a hope though :D) and several teasing banters. Still sometimes our time is passed in an utter zero connection with no dialogues at all, but that doesn’t seem to faze us a bit. I’m just happy to have friends like Candy to enjoy time going by together.

'If you are taking a picture of me, please can you do a better job?' She asked.

At school, I told my classmates about my soon-to-come moving. Moving to the new house, I later learned, is practically within five minutes to Allison’s house, and it is also in proximity to Cathy’s and Selena’s place. I know that moving can be nice, but I never thought that the others can get all pumped and excited as well!

After school, I went to the nearest optometrist and sat there waiting for a solid one hour and half, listening to some of the elderly patients mumbling about why it wasn’t their turn yet, looking at kids focus on the small screens of smartphones they hold in their tiny hands (a thing I totally disapprove of). I was reading my novel, trying to ignore the dull throbs of pain in my back for sitting still, maintaining the same position for too long.

My session was only five minutes long, as my doctor informed me that it was the same small infection in the eye I had a while ago, so I was prescribed with the same kind of medical eyedrop and salve as treatment.

Tomorrow, I get to see the place we would be calling house for at least two years in the future, after school. I am so excited to see if it would be as I imagined!

This is all for today.

Summer Vacation Day 24: Rented and Upset

Hello, Tim!

Today is Sunday, meaning it was a day for math tutoring. Because of the class, I stayed home while mom went house hunting with my cousin and her sister.

Little did I know that I would react quite badly to one shocking news.

7/22, Sunday

I was at home, doing homework, watching TV after my math class. At about four in the afternoon, I texted mom to ask her how the houses she went watching were. I didn’t call her with cell phone, in case she was seeing houses at the moment. Picking up the cell phone at such times can be impolite. Several minutes, I got her reply. The text was a simple half-formed sentence: ‘The deal is made. Signing the contract.’

And then I flipped out. The whole day my left eye was a bloodshot red due to some possible infection so you could say at the moment then I could literally ‘see red’.

Okay, enough with the puns. I didn’t even know I could be so indignant about such a thing. The thing that ticked me off, I believe, was the fact that this was the only single one time I didn’t tag along with Mother to go house searching, and it just happened to be the right one? It just was so upsetting because when such a monumental thing happened, I wasn’t present. Just exactly like the last time, three years ago.

I understand that this is supposed to be good news, meaning that the seemingly endless search for houses had been put to an end, that we will once again be close to our relatives, and with an unrealistic cheap of monthly rent! But I still felt like I should be at the place when all this took place. Instead, I was home, throwing a small pillow around, taking out my anger on it.

My mom came home, and I stated my malcontent with a displeased tone, but her simply saying that she couldn’t have told me earlier because she was so busy kind of calmed me down. I was still upset, but I no longer felt the need to throw something (soft, fluffy, and cotton-filled) across the room.

Yes, we have found a house, which according to my mom, is just a bit smaller than our current. The most important thing is that I would have space for my bookshelf. There is no set furniture so we could move all our movable furniture over. The furniture dilemma has been averted! The place we rented is located just one floor above a bakery, making it the second floor of the apartment.

I couldn’t say I was bouncing up and down with joy because we found a house, but I was looking forward to seeing it with my own eyes when I get the chance.

This is all for today.

Summer Vacation Day 23: Houses and Dinner

Hello, Tim!

Ah! Weekends, days of relaxation!

Although this Saturday is mingled with a tinge of the house hunt.

Spoiler alert (not that it matters much): Status of the rental house in search: Yet found.

7/21, Saturday

My mom and I set off in the morning and headed for Eliza’s house. Our appointments with the owners of the houses were in the afternoon and in the evening, but my mom visits her sister (which by context, is Eliza’s grandma) as frequent as possible because she likes being with family, even if sometimes all they do is chatting and nothing else. Some other time, mom would go over to help her sister with some chores, dye the hair of her sister, etc. They also go to the theater for traditional Taiwanese operas with their other sisters! They have close relationships, and Mom doesn’t usually feel lonely because of them.

Before going over to Eliza’s place, we made a detour to a nearby not-so-traditional traditional market. It’s called the Shih Dong Market. Ask Angela, Cathy, Selena or others who live near Tianmu about this place, and they would probably tell you the same thing: The market is for wealthy people. True, different from my mom and I, Eliza’s family is actually quite affluent, and they have most of their groceries bought over at the market. 

Different from normal traditional markets, Shih Dong is indoors, with a large and well-air-conditioned area. The vendors are comparably more hygiene, but it does share the traits with that of a traditional market you can see scattered all over the map of Taiwan: the big volume stall owners use to attract customers, and the vegetables for sale are unpackaged, spread across the table, waiting to be picked by customers.

My cousin came back from some work she was working on, and we headed out to have a look at the first item of the day (while at the same time we left Eliza at home to deal with her report). The first house we went to watch is one on a small hill, on the third floor of a five-story apartment. When we arrived, we saw a couple just leaving after taking a look at the house. The house itself is old, but I don’t say like I am implying it lacks furnishing. It was a cozy place with a view outside the window a small exquisite park and a miniature river. From the window of the study, you can see who is trekking up the hill and approaching. One problem is that the bed and sofa, the dining table and the wardrobe are not to be moved away, according to the owner, which means all our current furniture would be left for our current house owner. It might be convenient at first, without the need to move the large and bulky furniture we had bought before we moved into the house in Xindian, but what about the further future? What if one day we would have to move again? We would be left with no furniture left and would turn out to be a much bigger problem.

We didn’t readily push away the idea of living at the place, but the restrictions about the furniture is a hard problem to find a solution.

We had dinner at a Hongkong restaurant, which is the favorite cuisine of my aunt, another of my mother’s sister. We gathered to celebrate her birthday. Eliza’s mom just kept ordering food, claiming that the boys (i.e. me) were able to finish it. As delicious and as much as I also love Hongkong cuisine and snacks, I just don’t eat as much as I used to. Granted, I still take in more food than the others have, but the now me is no competitor to the me in the past who could finish five bowls of rice.

A table-full of food

Hand-made birthday cake by Eliza!!!

After dinner, we went to the next item, which is located nearer to Sophie’s new home (she and her brother are one of the main reasons we moved, after all). This house, located on the fifth floor, is even more furnished than the one we saw in the afternoon. The walls painted with a lighter shade of apple green, accompanied by the soft light gave the house a warm and welcoming feeling. A big panel of glass is set in the living room, outlooking the neighboring middle school’s track fields. It felt like it would have a nice ventilation system, but no. There is a long narrow hallway adjacent to the kitchen which is where the balcony is set and the living room. The hallway is too long for the wind to go through, so the indoors is also hot and sultry and a bit uncomfortable. This place also had the same problem we had in the item we saw in the afternoon, which is now dubbed (by me) ‘the dilemma of the furniture’.

Tomorrow Mom and my cousin will continue the house hunt, but not m, unfortunately,tely have the math tutoring to attend to, so it is not possible for me to join them…

This is all for today.

Summer Vacation Day 22: English Mock Test and Bookshelves Packing

Hello, Tim!

Even with such a tight and extenuating schedule, time seems to fly by when it is summer vacation.

7/20, Friday

Today's classes were more relaxing than those of the previous day. There was no math class today! Civics, geography, Chinese, and English were what we had, and they are relatively more welcoming and a bit less intimidating than the monstrous math. After school, I stayed in the air-conditioned classroom to do the mock test for English, which is to be done before the next Monday.

Our standard English in the college admission exams is 100 minutes long in duration, consists of fifty-or-so multiple questions, and there is also a writing section, with two sentences for translation, and a topic for essays.

The writing for this mock test asked us to write a letter to an (imaginary) friend about some (imaginary) accomplishment, congratulate him/her and recount in the letter how (imaginarily) hard had he/she worked to obtain the goal. I generally don’t have the talent named ‘imagination’, which often gets me in a bad position. I tend to get my ideas and thoughts from different places in my life. Personally, it sounds more realistic. This is one of the reasons why every once in a while, I like to go to different places all alone, soak of different things I see. I dare not to say that I immerse in the notion of traveling as much as Melvyn does, but I try my best.

In the evening, I started packing up my books. We haven't even found a right house, I know, but it is always better to be prepared than to be rushing, right? We plan to have the moving company bring all other furniture, but I have no such plans for my books. Four hundred does sound a lot when it is used to count the number of the books I own but for now, I hope that I can bring them all to the new house on my own. I do not wish to let the people from the company have any chance to fracture my books. My mom doesn't seem at all pleased with the idea, putting my once-injured back into account, but I really don't want to take the risk of needing to regret trusting the moving company...

Tomorrow we will keep on with the house search, but we will also go have dinner with Eliza and her family to celebrate the birthday of my aunt.

This is all for today.

Summer Vacation Day 21: House Hunt EP4 and Tiresome School

Hello, Tim!

This day featured tests, afternoon math classes, and evening house hunting.

On the news, it said that there was a potential for a typhoon to form.

7/19, Thursday

Thursday has officially become my least favorite day of the week. Every Thursday we have class until three in the afternoon, a little different from the other school days. Two of the periods in the afternoon are math, the dreadful math class. It was so difficult to withstand the monotonous game with solving equations, crunching numbers and so on. The pace of the classes was a bit fast, and once you fail to keep up, you lose focus on the rest of the class. Therefore, I think it is safe to say math class wears me out more any other subjects.

In the evening, I went to a house for rent that is near my uncle’s house, about forty minutes of distance covered on foot to school.

This time, my cousin accompanied us to have a look at the item. It is a five-story apartment, with the room for rent on the second. It is right next to a wide asphalt where cars pass more frequently than not. The living room was surrounded by all other rooms, giving it no lighting, and it basically has bad ventilation. The study has some shelves for books on one side of the wall, but the other side of the wall was fixed with plentiful of small wooden planks, in the patterns of a bricked wall. It protrudes out from the wall, making it able to hold small items like decorative mugs or small cacti pots, but no way it is it going to fit my books. It’s got no space left for my bookshelf with the placements of this house.

The search for places will have to go on…

This is all for today.

Summer Vacation Day 20: Tests and a Punny Evening Meal

Hello, Tim!

This is the third day. It would probably take over a week to get used to the current schedule.

7/18, Wednesday

Today is the day we walk into the seemingly endless tunnel of tests, mock tests, and midterms. Today’s civics and geography were just the beginning.

With the little memory from the past and the morsels of effort made in the first fifteen days, I was able to answer most of the questions, so I think we are off to a good start!

Tomorrow comes our unconventional history test. We were all given a sheet chart, marking the important years in the past where big events happened, like the year when the February 28^th Incident happened (1947), or the year when the Byzantium Empire fell (1453), the year when Napoleon claimed himself an emperor (1405) or when the First Shino-Japanese War took place (1894). To perform as a tool to break down questions when faced with tests, said our teacher when explaining the use and goal of this test. While what she said was known as a truth, but no one can actually finish memorizing over a hundred important events and the exact year within three days! We were desperate, but we tried nonetheless. Finding a shortcut or other techniques to get as many remembered as possible was our plan.

After the test that took over an hour (an hour of brain torturing), I packed my stuff and left alongside with Melody and William. We decided to have lunch first before William goes to his cram school, Melody to the clinic (She had pains in her back like I used to), and me home.

We went to Subway and just ate and chat in the quiet and easy atmosphere the place offered.

Dad came back today at around eleven, and he entered the door saying that he was quite hungry. Unfortunately, we only had fruit in our fridge today, so after a fruitless/fruitful search in the refrigerator (a play on words :D), I got up from the sofa and went to the kitchen cupboard. I fished out (wait for it) a can of tuna, noodles, chili, some remaining vegetables from the fridge, and started to cook an evening meal for Dad. This is a dish I learned from my mom. I don’t know about other people or whether this is a commonly known dish, but it never needs much skill, for all you need to do is boil some water, add the tuna can and the noodles, add some salt and while waiting for the noodle to be thoroughly cooked, keep taste-testing the broth to make sure it tastes nice.

Dad eating.

My dad is also knack at cooking, so when he praised even a simple dish like a tuna can noodle, I felt a rush of accomplishment.

This is all for today.

Summer Vacation Day 19: Tiring and Arduous

Hello, Tim!

This is the second day of our summer program.

7/17, Tuesday

Although the courses had barely started, we have been trying not to fall behind. We had just returned to school, but we have already been bombarded by a myriad of tests from different subjects. Officially, the courses end every day at 12 at noon (except for Thursdays), but with the test, our school would finish around one to two in the afternoon. (sigh)

Still being unable to assimilate myself to the regular school time and routine, I got drowsy and started nodding my head, dozing.

It was such a tiring day, and tomorrow we would have our geography and civics exam, so I had to study.

I started reading another novel, and as I always do, I’ll introduce it once I finish it.

p.s. I need to remind myself to take some pictures of my classroom.

This is all for today. (though this might just be the shortest letter yet.)

Summer Vacation Day 18: Books and School

Hello, Tim!

This is the first day of our summer reviewing program, one that consisted of tons of lessons forgotten in the past, all of which so dense and foreboding.

Yeah, it was a bit dramatic.

Summer Vacation Day 17: Last Day and World Cup

Hello, Tim!

This is the one last day before a five week summer program is launched.

Since I think it is not at all difficult two write a roughly three-hundred-word diary, I reckon I’ll just keep on writing even with all the half-day school going.

Summer Vacation Day 16: My Cell Phone and My Grandpa's Phone

Hello Tim!

It is Visit My Grandma Saturday again.

But before all that, something happened.

Summer Vacation Day 15: House Hunting Part 3 and Kids

Hello Tim!

The sun shone, and what can be a better day to continue our hunt for houses?

Summer Vacation Day 14: Bike and Park

Hello, Tim!

Let’s just get right to the frenzied day I had!

Summer Vacation Day 13: Typhoon Holiday And Plans

Hello, Tim!

Today, it was decided by the government that today would be a typhoon holiday.

However…

The sun shone bright like a normal summer day with moderate weather.

Summer Vacation Day 12: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Hello, Tim!

This wind is almost howling at this point, and it has rained non-stop since morning.

It is said that tomorrow we will have a bigger rainfall and the whole force of the typhoon, and there will be no school and no work tomorrow for New Taipei City residents.

7/10, Tuesday

Summer Vacation Day 11: Nannying and Reading (as always)

Hello, Tim!

There is a typhoon named Maria approaching, and it is expected to hit land tomorrow.

7/9, Monday

Summer Vacation Day 10: Biking and Sightseeing

Hello, Tim!

This is the tenth day of my summer vacation. Seven more days later, I will be going back to school for our summer revising program (mandatory, sadly saying). The amazing thing I did happen in the evening.

7/8, Sunday

Summer Vacation Day 9: Grandma and (Cliched) a Book

Hello, Tim!

This day, quite different from the previous ones, rained heavily.

I spent half of the day sleeping, and almost the other half at my grandmother’s house.

7/7, Saturday

Summer Vacation Day 8: Movies and Even More Houses

Hello, Tim!

This day, I stayed most of the time outdoors for two reasons: a) My mother and I went to the movies, and b) We also went to look for houses that are currently for rent.

7/6, Friday

Summer Vacation Day 7: A Short Letter and Some Babbling

Hello, Tim!

I would definitely say that today was one of those uneventful days of my vacation... I studied some, got distracted by the TV series I was watching etc. etc.

Several things worth bringing up were…

7/5, Thursday

Summer Vacation Day 6: Lawrence and Canada

Hello, Tim!

Today is one of those days when I am afraid of oversleeping, for one reason, reiterated throughout these days…

7/4, Wednesday

Summer Vacation Day 5: House Hunting and a Post with No Pictures

Hello, Tim!

We have had five days into the summer vacation, and sadly, shamefully, I have not yet set myself into the studying mood. I need to do something about it soon.

I don’t think this will be a long letter, though.

This was the day I went out and checked out the houses with my parents. Let’s see…

7/3, Tuesday

Summer Vacation Day 4: Thai Food and about Moving

Hello, Tim!

My dad came home yesterday. No, actually, Mom and I went out to meet him and we went home together later. My dad will be staying home for two days and possibly more.

Weather condition in Taiwan in terms of the always high temperature: Sweaty kind of horrible.

7/2, Monday

Summer Vacation Day 3: Math and Dinner

Hello, Tim!
I know that I have already said that events I want to attend to keep popping up themselves, but it also seems like I have been voluntarily making new arrangements for new events! Well-aware am I that studying is the first thing on the priority list, but at the same time, I also want to make the best out of this summer vacation.

7/1, Sunday

Summer Vacation Day 2: Lotuses and Candies

Hello, Tim!

I know that I had said that I would try to make my summer vacation as eventful as possible, but it seems like things just keep coming to me these days! This is the record of my second day into the vacation, but I’m not writing it until the third day because I was at my cousin, Eliza’s yesterday.

6/30, Saturday