The Compass and the Anchor: Year Three, Almost Free 3: Matthews and School Life

Hello Tim!

I know that at the time a typhoon swept by our coast, nearly hitting us but still bringing a considerable amount of rain and wind, there is also a hurricane (which is basically the same thing) hitting the coasts of America. Is Arizona in anyway affected by the storm?

Keeping a Diary for the Second Time in My Life

Yes! I’m keeping a physical diary again! The last time I did so was over two years ago, for more than three hundred consecutive days. I stopped writing them when I was about to graduate from junior high because I was too lazy. Last week, I remembered having my hands flying across the paper, writing about whatever I could think of. I would dig one of the books I wrote, full of colorful words (I used a different color every page) and you would see me sitting in the corner of my study, sometimes smiling at how goofy I used to be, cringing when I wrote about an awkward event, and a scowl forming when I spot some grammatical mistakes.

I then thought about how forgettable I can be at school. I have forgotten to bring papers needed at school; I would forget to bring them home (some would totally mistake me with a goldfish in a bowl- I’m as forgetful as them). I thought about how I would spend money with no intention of stopping but never really remembering where and how I had spent them. I dawned on me that I could just start writing diaries again! One day, Allison and I went to a stationery store to look for a small notebook- I don’t want it too big or I would end up spending too much time writing entries every day. Exasperated at my indecisiveness, Allison grabbed a palm-sized black notebook with dozens of lined pages inside; It was perfect, as I found out later. Its size was big enough for me to write about two to three events or how I felt per page, but not so big that it would take more than five minutes to write. On the other page, I could write a to-do list as well as a record for the money I had spent and how much I had had left. It’s extremely portable because of the petite size it has.

I named it Matthews. I know that it sounds weird, naming a diary, but is it really that normal just to start every entry with ‘Dear Diary?’

Volleyball is Back!

I believe the whole EHP loves the PE classes. This semester, we will have our own in-class sports tournament, in which we all compete against each other in fixed teams of four or five, and our semester scores will be determined upon the outcome of our long-term tournament only. For first, we have volleyball matches, which is one of the few sports I have learned to be decent at. I don’t know why we still call it autumn in September in Taiwan; It feels as hot as it is in summer! But still, I wouldn’t imagine myself saying this a few years ago, it feels nice to run around and sweat and have fun on occasion. The volleyball tournament last semester changed.

My teammates for the semester are Vivian, Cathy, and Patrick, and we have played against team William (teammates: Allison, Candy, and Otto) and team Selena (teammates: Angela, Sherry, Amy, and Jay) so far. We luckily won Selena’s team and only lost to William by a couple of points.

PE classes have never been so fun.

Our sunny volleyball court

Eric and Some Afternoon Tea

This Saturday, I arranged a small rendezvous with my German teacher Eric. He just came back from a two-month trip abroad with his wife, and I wanted to discuss with him the continuing of my German classes. It might be a lot to juggle when you put the big exam into the equation, but a juggling on languages is something I am always up to; it can also be a source for stress relief to an extent.

Eric also brought me to a French pâtisserie that he has constantly been recommending me to visit. The owner of the dessert store, Cherry’s Café, is a Taiwanese family. The daughter was said to have grown up in France but speaks Mandarin well. However, they are moving or closing for good at the end of the month due to complicated reasons.

Eric conversed with the clerk in French while all I did was say ‘Bonjour,’ ‘Je m’appelle Hugo,’ ‘Oui, je suis lycéen; J’ai dix-sept ans.’ It was not all that hard, but when you really are engaging in conversations in a language you just learned, you would find yourself lost for words. But for the rest of the time, I listen, and I found that I could understand about 60% of the words and 80% of the context. The café was full because it was raining outside, so Eric asked the clerk how much longer it would take for us to have seats while she answered ‘in about five minutes.’ He ordered two lemon tarts, a cup of Americano (my first cup in a week!), and a black tea for himself. He then asked whether they really are closing the store, and she answered that maybe they will move to another place. These are the moments that turned out to be the proof that shows how much I love different languages; maybe I’m not as fanatic as Melvyn is (I think he’s learning Japanese in Spanish now), but I have my own pace.