Half Way Out Here, from Senior High: The End of the Tests and a Day of Nothing Better to Do

Breathing out a sigh of relief, I put my pencil and eraser back into my pencil case. I glanced at my watch on my wrist, then at my test papers on natural sciences, and mentally stuck my tongue out at them. There’s only that much I can do about the subject I am never good at. I grabbed all my belongings, pushed my chair back with my legs. I stood up and handed the invigilator my sheets and headed out. Being the last subject of the second day of GSAT, walking out the classroom meaning one thing.
It’s over. For good or for bad, it’s over.

Hello, Tim!
The GSAT is finally over! Good, I’m already running out of ways to describe the test like a vicious beast.
The test results will be out after the Chinese New Year, but the examination center has already given answers to all subjects. I think I did a decent job, considering that the tests were thought to be rather difficult. I didn’t dare to make any guesses since it would be such a disappointment if the results come out worse than my prediction.
Anyhow, the exams are finally over, and we are finally given the freedom we had been hoping for!
I didn’t know what to do.
It is so clichéd! You made so many plans for the future, but when you finally have to chance to do them, you either didn't know from which you should start with, or you aren't under right place for the plan. On the day the test was finished, I went straight with several of my fellow classmates to a barbeque party. We indulged ourselves in conversations relating to the test and our plans for the coming days. After the stomach-filling dinner, I went over to my Grandma's place, where my parents, my aunt, and my uncle were in a game of Mahjong when I arrived.
It was already a tiring day, so I retired to my bed rather early.
The second day was the panicking one. I went for a long stroll on the streets in the morning since I got nothing better to do, but after coming back for lunch, I had nothing else to do other than slouching on the sofa and staring mindlessly at my cell phone screen. There was nothing else to do! I had done the dishes, wiped the tables, and even tried a twenty-minute session of Japanese sitting, which was prompted by a program on TV - needless to say, my feet were so numb I could hardly move properly afterward for more than five minutes. Other than that, I had no other ideas. I have a whole house of chores to do back home, but being there at Grandma's place, staring into the void is the most you can ever do.
This letter is uploaded a bit too late, but it will back on track by the end of the next week.
Sincerely,
Hugo

Year Three, Almost Free 21: Last Week and Growing Tension

Hello Tim!
Six days left!
It’s both... good and bad.
Good because the whole grotesque ordeal is about to be over, and that will be when we can truly breathe out a sigh of relief and perhaps, start doing the things that we didn’t have the chance to when we were dragged down under by the pressure from the tests; bad because of we don’t do well in this GSAT there is another road you can walk down, a sidewalk paved with yellow bricks you can and very likely will have to trace, just to save your horrible scores：another test. It’s actually quite different from the one we are about to take, since it will be a test for specific subjects and will be a lot more difficult. To make it more foreboding, it’s still more than a hundred days away, meaning that we will have to go through all that one more time.
Well I don’t want that.
Need to go, back to studying.
It will all be over soon.
Sincerely,
Hugo

Year Three, Almost Free 20: Almost There and Struggling

Hello, Tim!
Another fleeting week had passed, right in front of our eyes. We have sixteen pairs of hands in EHP, all with desperate grips trying to hold back Time, only forlorn and shook that It showed no signs of stopping; one more weekend and we'll have to fight face-on with the monsters in the Colosseum. If you trip, you're most likely going to fall, face-down with a mouthful of dust and given no time to rise to your knees, you'll be mauled by the proverbial beast and it will be GAME OVER. People have been arguing that a single test cannot accurately show your aptitude, and we should all be looking beyond the scores, but for now, in this generation, score still takes up a depressing proportion of one's abilities.
During the little breaks we take between studies, we would talk about what we would like to do after the test. William will be traveling to Korea with his friends, which will be his first time visiting the pop-culture-flourishing country; some would probably just stay at home for the whole day watching drama, trying to make up for the recreation-deprived lives we still are living in. As for me, I have a lot of thoughts flying in my head here and there so none of the plans are definite yet, but one thing can be sure, and that is a lot of walking and trekking around will be involved.
Yesterday the twelfth was Cathy's birthday, and we have agreed to move the celebration until after the GSAT.
It's time for sleep now.
This is all for this week.

Sincerely,
Hugo

Year Three, Almost Free 19: Friday Outing and Cell Phone Resolution

 Hello, Tim!
The pressure is building up in the steamer called school. From a countdown starting at 100 days, we are now faced with 19 days left from the final exam.
But look on the bright side, if we make it through alright with a score acceptable, we will finally be able to relax.

Cell Phone

It’s basically a euphemism of devil. For me, at least. It has been a fact long-recognized that I am one with absolutely no self-control. You put a cell phone in my hand, and my fingers will automatically glide themselves, steering away from the websites that give me a reference for the subject I’m studying or any other justifiable reasons I am allowed to pick up my phone.
Tossing it away out of my reach seemed plausible, but more often than not, it would find its way back to me. I’m a cell phone addict, and it gives me more pressure than ever since the tests are so near. Here is a small resolution for me. I’ll be leaving my cell phone in my bedroom whenever I’m at home. I’ll bury it under the sheets so I won’t be tempted by the sight of it. Nineteen days are all I have left. It’s quite a long time and it isn’t. All logical reasoning points to the conclusion that I should be studying instead of reading through someone’s social media feed, and now all I need is the willpower to guide my attention back to my textbooks.

Friday Outing

On Friday, just one day after our in-school finals, our Chinese teacher organized a small outing for us and her homeroom class. The trip is planned to observe a students’ tradition: going to a temple and pray for good scores and luck on the upcoming test. Students will take with them either the pencil that will be used on the test or the papers of the test confirmation to the temple and pray to Wen-Chang, a god for academic studies. Roughly three years ago, I went with my friend of five years, but this year, I couldn’t enter the temple because of my grandfather. He passed away a while ago, and according to the traditions, I am not to be allowed in any temple for a year. I handed Angela my papers and waited outside the wooden doors of the entrance instead.

We then traveled to our teacher’s house, whose community comes with an impressive karaoke bar. The six of us sang at the top of our lungs, chasing away the stress that has been building up for a while. Then, we went for a walk along the rocky coastline of Danshuei, just a dozen minutes of walk from our teacher’s place.
Taking turns holding the leash of Ah-mei, the dog our teacher is keeping, we walked and talked and laughed. William always has a soft spot for animals and was very eager to hold the leash. You can say that merely five minutes of interaction with the dog got him more committed than he has ever been in his studies. The beach was thoroughly blanketed with round pebbles that probably came down with the river from the mountains. We took our time taking individual pictures. It was warmer than it had ever been in the whole week, so I didn’t even have a jacket with me!

Photobombing!

Alas, fun time never goes without an end. We are back in reality. Time to study.
This is all for this week.
Sincerely,
Hugo