August 25, 2013

Today is the day when Interact Club had its first event. The purpose of this event is to tell members what Interact Club is and what this club is doing. People attending this event included members of our Interact Club, the members of Interact Club in Chien Kung High school, and some special guests. As the secretary of this club, I am responsible for showing up at the place at 8 am sharp in order to decorate the place. When I arrived, I found out that the door was not even open yet. According to our President, Jimmy Chuang, Ms. Sherry was supposed to come and open the glass for us at 8 am. When we called Ms. Sherry, she was still on the way. However, one special guest is already here. We felt really embarrassed that we were letting the special guest waiting outside the glass door waiting. After Ms. Sherry arrived, I was told by Jimmy to wait downstair at the first floor in order to welcome and lead the special guests into our school. The event started at 9am. However, when it is nine o'clock, only eight students from our school showed up. In addition, only four students from Chien Kung High school showed up. This was really awkward because we told the special guests that there will be at least 40 students in total showing up. A

lthough Interact Club has been in Hsin-chu for a really long time,

this event for explanation was created for the very first time

. Maybe that explains why so many things went wrong. We were not experienced for this event. Regardless of the number of students, the event began. The special guests explained to us that the main purpose of the Interact Club is to make friends, have fun, and do beneficial activities to the society. For example, students went to the mahjong event and helped the senior players with registration and guide. Many old members of the Interact Club said that the mahjong event was really exciting and captivating. Therefore, I a

m really looking forward to the mahjong event this year.

August 15, 2013

Today I began to prepare for my TOEFL test. Unlike SAT test, TOEFL has a really different style. The total score of a TOEFL test is 120 but the total score of a SAT test is 2400. In addition, there are four sections in a TOEFL test, including writing, reading, speaking, and listening. However, there are only parts in a SAT test, which are writing, reading, and math. The main purpose of the TOEFL test is to determine a person's ability to understand English. Therefore, math sections are not included in a TOEFL test. However, TOEFL test seems to be easier to me. I am not saying that the TOEFL test is easy. I am just saying that it is easier than the SAT test. I think that is because a SAT test has a harder reading passage than does a TOEFL test. I am aiming for at least 110 points out of 120 points. Having at least a 110 score is one way to show the colleges in United States that my ability to comprehend English is enough to apply for their schools. I prepared many sections of TOEFL for practice. So far, my score on reading is really unstable. Sometimes I only got a few questions wrong. Other times I score really low. I hope that I can minimize my mistake by the time I am taking the official TOEFL test.

August 9, 2013

Today is the fourth day of my Wu Chien Shiung science camp trip. Tonight, there is one of the most excited events in the camp. That is the night walk to the top of the Phoenix mountain and enjoyed the night sky without any light pollution from the city. Every students expect this trip to be fun. What we don’t know is that the trip to the top of the mountain would take at least 2 hours and is mostly steep hill. In addition, there are dead corpses of many different kinds of organisms, including frogs and malus, that are killed by cars on the road. People have to walk carefully in order to prevent from stepping on to the corpses. Moreover, this trip is dangerous because some parts of the roads are damaged and broken. We are walking in the dark mountain at night without street light and with a lot of smog. There are many times that I really want to stop and rest. However, I know that once I stop, I probably will not want to move again. After 2 hours of strong determination, I finally reached the top of the mountain. When I looked up, I knew that all this trip was worth it. The night sky is beautiful with abundant sparkling stars. I can even see the Milky Way and Saturn without any specialized equipments. There are some teachers, who were there to teach us about the constellation, at the top of the mountain. I learned to recognize a few constellation on a summer night sky. There were some constellations, such as cancer, that can’t be seen on the summer sky. After the lecture, it was already four am in the morning. Therefore, I decided to stay up for the sun rise before going down. My friends and I spent the hours before sunrise playing card. Just a few seconds before the sun rise, everyone gathered to the east side of the mountain, counting down for the sunrise. When I saw the first ray of light coming out from the horizon, I reaffirmed the belief that staying up all night is worth it.

August 4, 2013

Today is the last day before I go on to a science camp I signed up two months ago. This science camp that I signed up is funded by Wu Chien Shiung Foundation. This camp is located in a mountain at Xitou, Nantou. The foundation has invited four excellent professors to join the science camp and give lectures to the students attending the science camp. Three out of four professors that were invited to the science camp are from Berkeley and the last one is from Stanford. Each professor has a special topic to talk about. Professor Richard Zare is going to talk about “Mass Spectrometry”. Professor Shen is giving lecture on “”Mysteries of Water and Ice”. Professor Tsai will be talking about “Chromatin Remodeling”. Professor Alexei Filippenko will be talking about “Cosmic Evolution”. Knowing that four great professors  are going to be there, I immediately go on to the Internet and research on the topics that they will be teaching about. So far, the most interesting topic to me is Professor Tsai’s “Chromatin Remodeling” because I am interested in Biology. I hope that I can learn many most-updated information from this professor. Recently, the news of rabies infection cases increased, especially around mountain areas. I was really scared because there will be a field trip in the mountain, according to the schedule. I prepared many pairs of long pants, wishing those can prevent my legs from being bitten by wild animals. In addition, the Weather Report said that the temperature will drop low in Nantou, especially in the mountains. Therefore, I prepare thick clothes in order to avoid my science camp trip from becoming a fever trop. With every necessary items in my luggage, I lay on my bed, hoping for a good weather tomorrow.

July 23, 2013

Today I continued studying for my SAT. Since the last day of Kevin’s SAT class, I have given myself a schedule to follow. Each day I will have to finish one section of reading, one section of writing, and one section of SAT Math II. I actually did better than I expected on my first official SAT test. I was really satisfied with my current score. However, I know that more and more people are competing for college each year. My current score will become an obstacle for me to get accepted into my dream school. Ms. Pamela also send e-mail expecting me to take the next test in October. However, my first practice SAT test after the official test didn’t turn out well. My hopes sank immediately into the deepest part of the ocean, dark and cold. I realized that feeling a little sense of confidence and getting off guard will bring disaster to me. There is no time to relax before I am certain that I have a college to go to. I will have plenty of time to do whatever I want when college application is done. Therefore, I should be focusing on what is before me right now, not slacking off and doing nothing.

July 17, 2013

Today I began to study physics. I have decided to take AP Physics next year. According to Ms. Pamela, physics is the hardest of the three lab science classes, which are chemistry, biology, and physics. Therefore, I thought that it will be safer to have a preview on physics. Just like Mr. Jones once said, practicing during the summer will ease the stress that comes in the school year. I barely survived high-school physics last year. I don’t want to give myself so much stress next semester on top of all the college essays and SAT. Therefore, I took out the book I purchased before summer and moved on to the first chapter. The first chapter was surprisingly boring, talking only about theory, hypothesis, and units. The first five chapters are basic high-school physics that I learned last year. They haven’t escaped my memory after half of the summer break. However, materials usually get more difficult as you read on. Luckily, my next-door neighbor just graduated from college with a physics major. Although he graduated from a Taiwanese college, teachers used English textbooks to teach the students. My neighbor, unfortunately, used a textbook that is different from mine. Despite the difference, they are actually just the same materials arranged in different orders. With his help, I was able to move through rest of the materials smoothly. Any complex concept or equation that requires calculus, which I haven’t taken the course, was broken down into smaller and simpler pieces for me to comprehen. He was a really good tutor. I am on chapter 12 now. I wonder if I could finish the last chapter before school begins.

July 11, 2013

Today I tried to learn Japanese. I am a big fan of Japanese animation. Although there are always Mandarin subtitles for Chinese people like me to read, it is still beneficial to know a few phrases in Japanese, in case I want to travel to Japan for vacation. My grandmother knows Japanese. During the time when the Japanese colonized Taiwan after the First Sino-Japanese War, the education provided was all in Japanese. My grandmother learned everything in Japanese until she graduated from middle school. Then the Japanese were drawn back to their home country. My grandmother’s ability to speak Japanese is a great advantage for me to learn Japanese. I can ask her to help me if I can’t pronounce a phrase. However, I was not sure whether or not my grandmother learned the modern Japanese. In the old time, earrings were called mi mi wa. In the modern time, earrings are called iyaringu. It sounds exactly like english. Beer, milk, and banana are all examples of words that translated from english, old or new. My grandmother handed me a decrepit Japanese learning handbook. All four sides of the book were crumpled. Every page in the book was yellow due to long exposure to air. That book looked at least 20 years old. However, the ink in it has not worn off yet. The words are still clear on the yellow pages. This book is very interesting. It consists of three parts. The first part is the original Japanese text, showing reader what it looks like. The second part is the Chinese definition part, telling the reader what it is. The third part is pinyin, showing the reader how to read with Chinese characters. However, the third part is so hard to understand. Frequently, I can’t recognize the Chinese characters. My grandmother was so confused when I tried to read out a phrase to her. It is so frustrating for me.

July 6, 2013

I went to visit my great grandmother, who is 90 years old. She is my mother’s father’s mother. A few days ago, she fell and broke her leg. The rate of decaying calcium is faster than the rate of increasing calcium because she didn’t intake enough calcium from external sources regularly. That might explain why her leg broke so easily when she fell. She was on a wheelchair and rested her leg on a small stall. I sat down next to her at the dinner table. She didn’t show any sign of pain. Her leg looked a lot better now, even though she was still unable to get up from the wheelchair. During dinner time, many relatives encouraged her to eat more to strengthen her thin and pale arms and legs. I looked at her, tried to speak some poor Taiwanese, and tried to get her to eat more. Although I didn’t think that I got my message to her, she smiled back at me and began to eat her vegetables. I am regretful that I didn’t learn Taiwanese language fluently when I was young, but all the memories we shared together will always connect me and my family.

June 30, 2013

It was the second day of my Changhua trip. We visited a famous temple called Lugang Longshan Temple. My father’s friend gave us a tour of the temple. Out of all five Longshan Temples in Taiwan, Lugang Longshan Temple is the most comprehensive Longshan Temple in Taiwan. Most of the buildings and ornaments had been preserved since it was built. It is considered a national first class monument. This temple actually had been through three big disasters. The first one is a big earthquake, damaging the temple severely. The repairment of the temple took many days. The second disaster is a big fire. The entire back side of the temple was burnt into ashes. People rebuild the back side with an addition of a modern pond. The third time is a flood. However, the temple was barely damaged. Is it because the temple worships a water god so the temple survived the flood? No one knows. There are many beautiful stone carvings and paintings in the temple. Each carving and painting has its own meaning. The four bats on four corners of a carving represent giving happiness. In Mandarin, “four bats” is “四蝠”. It sounds similar to “賜福”, which means to give happiness. In addition, I was surprised to know that ancient Chinese knew about Physics. The dome inside the temple is a performing platform. Performers would get on the platform and perform traditional Chinese dancing and singing. The sound will be amplified due to some phenomena of physics. I have to admit that I was captivated by the artful skill and scientific knowledge of the ancient Chinese people.

June 19, 2013

Today I read a very interesting mystery novel. The title of the book is “And Then There Were None”, written by Agatha Christie. The story describes an unsolvable crime. Ten people are invited to an island known as the Soldier Island. According to the story, Soldier Island is full of mystery. It was originally owned by a wealthy man, who built a beautiful mansion on the island. However, the spouse of that wealthy man can’t withstand the ocean. Therefore, it was sold to an unknown person. No one knows what happens to the island now. Those ten people are excited because they are invited to the most hotly discussed island and can live in a high-class mansion. In each one’s room, they found a poem. Ever since they find the poem, people begin to die in the exact way the poem describes. The police had no clue how that is possible. Later, a letter is retrieved from the sea. The murderer reveals everything in the letter. The murderer kills nine other people on the island because they are people who committed crime but escaped the punishment of the law. I originally thought that the murderer is the doctor, but I was wrong. I didn’t even imagine the story will end like this. Agatha Christie was too brilliant.