Last week...

Yesterday was our club's performance at NTU.

It was quite fun but really tiring.

We got to NTU in the morning, cuz we need to set the wooden floor up first. Thankfully there were a lot of people, so unlike the performance at nccu, we set the things up really quickly and easily. 

At first there was no air conditioner in the hall, which was really killing.....

Afternoon was rehearsal, then was the time for changing and make up.

At first, we thought it won't be really full, just like the first performance in nccu. However, at 6:50( we start at 7) it was really unbelievable that the seat was almost full!!!!!!!!(There were approximately 350 seats in the hall!!!!!!!!!!!!) We all became quite nervous at that time!!!

Our performance turn out pretty good. My friends said it was a nice show that she wanted to join in the club too. My former English tutor also came with her sons, they enjoyed the dancing bu found the bridge was quite annoying. (Cuz they couldn't understand Chinese and in order buy time for dancers to change their clothes,  the bridge was quite lengthy.....) 

Over all, our performance was really success and i really had a nice time with all my friends in the club.

dragon boat festival

The happiest thing about dragon boat festival was having a day off.

During this three days holiday, i went back to the south to visit my grandma. For me, the best thing of going back there is having a lot of delicious food which we don't have in Taipei with just a little budget. 

This week was a week full of rain in Taipei. However, it was always sunny day in the south. In fact, it was just too hot that was really killing people. Although i want to do my homework since that finals are coming, the weather just made us don't want to move or think at all. My grandma was really incredible, she didn't need  air conditioner at all. Nevertheless, we were almost melting....

During the holiday i also found out some fun traditional for dragon boat festival. At the noon, (about 11 o'clock) my grandma took out a really huge bottle of water on the road right outside our house. She said this was a kind of traditional that during the day of dragon boat festival , if using water heated under the sun to take a bath, people can wash away bad luck. So she was preparing to use this water to take a bath for my cousin's newly born son. 

This was the first time i heard of this tradition and was really cool. 

10 week

This week was a kind of busy week. Full of works and activities.

This Thursday, due to one of my class, we held a event for exchange students in NCCU.

At first, we planned our event as "soccer and beer". However, it seemed not attracting enough. At Wednesday noon, there were still no one signing up for our event. As a result, at the 2 hours meeting on Wednesday, we changed our event into ice skating in Taipei arena, and decided just to invite our foreign friends to come. Nevertheless, on Wednesday night, there are 2 people suddenly signing up for our soccer and beer event at night!!!! But at this moment, it's impossible for us to change back our plan!!!! The more tragic thing was that on Thursday morning, we found out 4 more people signed up at the website!!!!! It was a total mess, sending emails to all the participants was all we could do.

At first, we only expected few of our friends would come, but out of surprise, we got 14 people to join us. Although i had no idea how to ice skating and it really hurt when falling down on the ice, i still had a great time with my friends. Hopefully my ice skating skill has a "little" progress since i fall for twice and it was still hurt till now.  

movie summary and reflection

Last week, we finished the movie " Akeelah and the bee".

The second part start with Javier's birthday party. In the party, Akeelah and Dylan compete for the the scrabble game and Akeelah lost at the end. Accidentally, she saw Dylan was scolded by his father of almost losing the games. Akeelah started to work more harder in order to beat Dylan in the next contest. During the next competition, Akeelah's mom rushed into the contest and asked Akeelah to get down the stage. Akeelah's lied to her mom in order to participate in the game. Her mom was totally angry. But after promising to do three months chores and with Javier's help, Akeelah finally got to finish the game and was able to go to DC for finals.  However, Dr.Larabee suddenly didn't want to teach Akeelah anymore, and her best friend also ignored her. Akeelah felt really upset and wanted to quit. With her mom's encouragement, Akeelah started to work on memorizing the vocabularies again. Although Dr.Larabee didn't help her, this time, everyone in the village became her teacher to help her with the vocabularies.  Akeelah persuaded Dr. Larabee to come to DC with her, and encouraged him of getting out of the sadness of losing his own daughter. At the finals, Dylan and Akeelah became the last two competitors. Akeelah realized she still got the chance for next year; however, Dylan's dad would definitely got mad if Dylan lost the game. Therefore, she spelled the word wrongly on purpose, and intended to let Dylan win. Nevertheless, Dylan was not happy about it and asked Akeelah to do her best, or the prize was not worth it for him either. At the end, both of them got all the words correctly, and both became the winner of the game.

I think this is a good movies, very encouraging. Before the movie, I didn't know that spelling bee is such an important competition for children in U.S.A, since that we didn't have such games in Taiwan. This movie also shows different aspect of U.S society. For example, the different lifestyle between Akeelah and Javier's family or the bullying problem in the school. Akeelah is an encouraging character, she shows that no matter where are you from, by working hard, everyone has a chance to win the first prize. She also helps Dr. Larabee in her own warming way. She knew the feeling of losing the beloved one. She shared her feelings with  Dr. Larabee and encouraged  him to go to DC with her and go back to teaching at school. This is really touching.  The part of letting Dylan win at the finals is also out of expectation. In the real society, is really hard, more accurately "rare", to see people letting others win when they are so close to win. Children are often more innocent and just do what they think is right. The friendship (or love?) between Javier and Akeelah is also touching. When growing up, it's more harder to find a friend who truly cares about you in such a sincerely and simple way. 

 

Overall, I think this is a movie worth watching and I really enjoyed it a lot. 

reflection of "Akeelah and the Bee"

This week, we watched the movie " Akeelah and the Bee" during the classes.

This is a movie about a little girl Akkeelah, she always feels isolated from others. At school, she is often being laughed at. She has a great talent on spelling vocabulary. As a result, her teacher encourages her to join in the spelling bee competition. At first, she didn't want to attend. She didn't want to let others to think her as "freak". Under the principle's suggestion, she reluctantly got into the contest and became the representative of  their school on the regional spelling bee competition. At the regional, she almost failed. However, her sister caught the other competitor cheating, so she got the chance to join in the state competition. She met a boy who invited her to join in their school's spelling training at their school. It took her 2 hours to get home and her mother was really angry and forbidden her from participating in the state contest.

Akkeelah  often feels that she couldn't fit in any group in her school. She was often being bullied but she just can't do anything. So she skipped classes very often. Her family was not so rich, so her mom had to work from days to night. As a result, she doesn't really get a lot of care from her mom. Even though she won in the regional, her mom just ignored the fact that she had won. Akeelah seems to have a close relationship with her father, but he had passed away. She always talked to her father's photo in front of her desk. She shared the same interest on scrabble with her dad. Although she got the talent on spelling words, she didn't want to attend the competition in the beginning. She tried to be like everyone else, like having the same way of talking, in order to fit in the school. However, it still didn't work. Students often laugh at her and think she's a freak. Akeelah also has two brothers which are really different. Her bigger brother encouraged her to join in the contest; nevertheless, her other brother just laugh at her.

week ....(i forgot.......)

This week, is a week full of laziness.

During the whole week, i didn't want to do anything at all. It was really tiring and i had no idea why. I didn't study at all and even didn't review my German.

However, i did a lot of things during the weekend.

On Friday night, i went shopping with my mom and sister. In fact, i won't really regarded as shopping. We were in the clothes store  to find the clothes for my sister's interview on Sunday. To watch her wearing something so formal was really strange and kind of funny. She look like a weird and awkward sales, which made me laugh all through the dressing process. At first it was fun, but after an hour, it was boring. Because all she was trying just suits, black jacket and pants for working. Just with different colors. At the end, she bought a black jacket and  a pair of gray pant.

On Sunday, i went to the interview with my sister. The university she was interviewing was quite small, and was also quite far. About 40 minutes from my house, with transfer from MRT to bus. While she was having her writing test, my mom and i just wandering around the campus. The weather was quite nice that day and we just enjoyed the winds breezing through our faces.

All in all, hopefully she can get to the university just in a few months!!!!!

4 week

This week, still like usual.

On Monday, we had our Tap dance classes at 7 at nccu. This week we were still learning the song "Let it go". I really like this song and the movie "Frozen". In my opinion, it was a really cute and warm movie which was suitable for adults and children. Unlike usual princess movie of Disney, it seemed to more emphasized at the relationship between sisters rather than just on normal love story. I really like the snowman in the movies, its a really funny character.

Back to my Tap dance class. When I first told my friend about dancing the song "Frozen", she just couldn't believe it. Because it was really hard to imagine that any steps would fix the beat since it was quite slow. When our teacher first taught us about the dancing steps I didn't think it will be this song either. When he played it, all of the students in the classes were all shocked and surprised!!!! The steps were not so difficult, however, when combining with music, I had totally no idea when to dance the right steps. The beats of the music were really subtle, and the steps were sometimes following the lyrics or sometimes with the beats of the music. It's not as easy as i first imagined.

Hope i can learn it soon in the future because i really love this song!!!!!