Ayusa 國際愛優生文化交流協會

九月，終於飛到了美國，原本，已經在高中讀書的我，突然接到一通改變我高中生活的電話，從那通電話起，我就在美國了。
回到家，把收到一半的行李完成，打電話給親朋好友道別，一切來的突然，我帶著緊張卻又興奮的心情踏上了新的旅程．
坐了三次飛機，至少度過了三天，才到達我接下來十個月的家─俄亥俄州。在飛機的旅途中，我畢竟還是有些不懂，在台灣境內，是沒什麼問題，但是到了美國，我可不保證我沒問題，我心中就在想，我到底該怎麼辦?就當這時，空姐在飛機上發給了我們進海關的表，我有些問題是不會填，所以我就主動問我旁邊那位阿伯，沒想到，他竟然是美國公民，他想，這樣似乎太危險了所以就叫了一位空姐，跟她說了我的情況，因此，我下了飛機就有人帶我轉機，我還在華航辦公室睡了一夜!真是不錯，也因此我安全到了家，我真是太幸運了！
到的五天還不用上課，因為有些事情沒辦好，也剛好碰上假日，並不是還沒開學，學校都已經上課兩個禮拜了，我開始熟悉我的家庭，我的家，我有一個爸爸、一個媽媽和三個弟弟，每一個人都對我很好，我知道我很幸運，被選中在這個家。
去學校的前一天，是勞動節，我跟家人一起去看遊行，這個遊行，看了令人開懷大笑呀!很多有趣的畫面，像是警察叔叔騎警車耍特技等…我也藉此了解到我的學校以及這個社區，更何況那天又放假，也順便讓我有機會熟悉新的環境也陪伴轟家，真是太棒了!
而到了學校之後，我就發現我有些跟不上，朋友似乎也有點難交，畢竟他們都已經相處了兩個禮拜，而且我的轟弟都不是這所學校，因此，我有點受挫，但是，轟媽真的是神通廣大，介紹了一對好朋友給我認識，讓我在學校越來越適應，也越來越沒困難，我真的是要感謝轟媽，還好有他，我才能趕緊上軌道，但接下來我也要靠自己努力才行呀!
在到了轟家的幾天，我先送給了轟爸和轟媽還有全家一個禮物，轟爸的是翠玉白菜裝飾，轟媽的是有復古風味的小錢包，而全家都有的是筷子，而畢竟中秋節也要到了，就請媽媽送了兩盒月餅過來，而正合轟家口味，大家都吃的贊不絕口。
我在九月的第三個禮拜六有跟轟爸去養老院幫忙，說是幫忙，但是卻還是有得到一些小禮物，更能在付出當中和轟爸相處有增進英文對話，能夠幫忙我也很開心，收穫也比付出的多，希望下次有這個機會跟全家一起出去幫忙。
最後一個禮拜，我跟我的CR見面，去了AIRFORCE飛機博物館，認識了很多東西，也見到了許多交換學生，但見到他們的同時，也刺激到了我的自尊，我在他們面前，英文能力竟然向小學生一樣，回家之後，我告訴了我轟媽，我轟媽依舊鼓勵了我，讓我相信自己，我再過幾個月一定會不一樣的。我會把這次的經驗當作我上進的動力，努力練習英文，相信下次我也可以用流利的英文跟他們溝通！
學校生活，在轟媽和自己的努力下不再枯燥乏味，我交到了一些朋友，也分享了一些台灣的學校生活和糖果─嗨啾，結果是，一掃而空，尤其是在英文課，但這同時也讓我與我的英文同學都成為了好朋友，原來糖果這麼有魅力呀！我也秀一一段魔術方塊，結果他們都說我是怪獸!這句話令我非常的驕傲，原來，我也可以讓大家佩服，尤其是佩服「台灣人」！我證明了我的國家是讚的，哈哈！
這一個月的生活…..或許沒有想像中的容易，但是為了我以後的未來，我會好好努力學習，也謝謝爸爸媽媽以及其他長輩支持我到美國，我會加油，這一個月也因為有轟家的幫助以及好朋友的幫助，才能夠沒有很多問題，謝謝~相信，只要努力，就會成功!

In this month, the first month in America, I felt I learned a lot of things, not only in the house also in the school.
In the house, at first, my English is not good enough, but I tried to understand and expressed my meanings with body language. They are patient to listen to me and nice to me. And I also ate a lot of different food. In my new home, I have three brothers. This experience is very wonderful, because I can learn more about how to talk to people with the way of USA. And I am very lucky I have good parents, they teach me a lot of stuff about America.
In the school, I felt difficult at the beginning. But I thought I need to try and work hard and it will be successful. So now I make more friends in the school and I am happy to go to school. But I do not like homework. Ha! Ha!
I found that the schools in America are more free and open and the teachers are lax. So everyone in the school is happy, I hope the students in Taiwan can learn happily too.

After all the good compliments for my Fung-Li-Su, today I brought a box of homemade Fung-Li-Su to school. At lunch, I gave one to Darren, who lived in Okinawa for 12 years and speaks fluent Japanese (which surprised me at first). He usually doesn’t enjoy sweets, but he finished a whole one without sharing which really pleased me! At trig class, Ms.Campbell said I made her day by giving a homemade treat cause she ran into a deer in her car today and wasn’t having an awesome day. Turned out Ariana liked it too, and she shared pieces with classmates around her, they were very interested and asked many questions about it and seemed to find it exotic and delicious, which made me proud to say, 『Its a popular Taiwanese dessert.』
Its kind of ironic that the period of time I learn to master many Taiwanese and Chinese dishes is the year I am far away from home. Honestly, I never really cooked when I was home in Taiwan. Now I think about it, must be because my mom took such good care of me and I didn’t bother to cook because she cooks so well. Here, because I miss home food and because I want to share with Americans such delicious dishes we have, I learn to cook and experiment and try my best. Its really not a big deal once I got my hands to it, and it brings confidence and self-accomplishness once well done.
Ive always liked to look at my year here as an early chance to spread my wings and let them strengthen, although sometimes it may feel stressful and harsh, I know that if I do well now I will have no problems in the upcoming future. Meanwhile, although somewhat stressful, bu also packed with excitement and awesome adventures awaiting me to experience.
Well, I guess I have to ask my mom to mail more ingredients for me to make more of the delicious Taiwanese dessert!

Pictures:1. Darren!

2. you can see the beautiful filling reflecting sunlight in this picture

3. Thankyou, Ms. Campbell!

4. looks like I need to bake more, Ariana

5. He’s really shy but he let me take the picture anyway

Last week was homecoming week. Among all the spirit days, I liked character day the most. Everyone dresses up as a character or puts on a mask. I guess this is how Americans make life fun. You can’t expect there to be a party everyday but you can make the most out of everyday life. Just by some cool ideas, going to school can be something to look forward to too. Of course I went to the homecoming dance, it was a blast and I had a chance to see all my classmates and friends go crazy and silly dance.
My host mom and dad( Ms.Mary and Mr.Eddie) went on there second honey moon for a week so I stayed with another host family that week. They have two exchange students too, and we get along well. It is nice to share cultures from three different lands with each other and share feelings of the more or less homesickness. It was a 3 day weekend, so John(host dad) made the best out of it. He brought us to Atlanta’s CNN museum, 1996 Olympic Park, Atlanta Aquarium, and the Coke museum! My favourite was the coke museum, there was 170 kinds of coke products from all over the world for us to taste and try! I tasted all of them.
There happened to be chicken and garlic and tomatoes that night, so I made some 『three cup chicken』 for Larul and Jayson to try. They enjoyed it and devoured it. Next, I fried tomatoes and eggs, for John and Jayson. Jayson is from Beijing, where they like things stronger, so when I was making it, he kept on asking me to add more salt! He said they way we cook it is different too, because my eggs ended up fluffy, but I think this is just due to my personal way of cooking. To him, whatever I say or how I cook represents the whole southern Chinese population.
This was a really good experience to have a chance to spend time with another family and other exchange students. Other than learning that Northern Chinese like their food saltier and Europeans are very passionate(the other host brother is from Spain), I also learnt that no matter where we’re from, we all need to treat on another with respect and show care as if we were true bred siblings.
Pictures:1. Character day!

2.Homecoming dance!

3.at 96 Olympic memorial park

4.fried tomatoes and eggs!

5.3 cup chicken!

Recently we had County Championships for cross-country. The girls and boys both won second place. It was a disappointment for the boys but an excitement for the girls. Newspapers were not expecting much from our girls’ team, so we proved that we work hard and have a chance just as well as other teams. The next day we had cross-country fund raising yard sale. Terrin baked cookies, Alec’s mother baked muffins, and I baked Taiwanese Pineapple Cake (fung-li-su). I didn’t expect it to sell well because it isn’t as pretty-looking as the other pastries, but some people actually bought it and liked it!
So cross-country season is generally over and I joined swim team. The first day at practise they put me in beginners’ lane. The coach told me I shouldn’t be here so next ended up in experienced lane. That was very exciting for me and they also told me I have a good butterfly. I really like how people here are very complimenting and positive. Like in cross-country, teammates tell you 『good job』 even when you know its not. In art, nobody hides their positive feelings about someones good work. At the festival face painting booth, even when I know I messed up a painting, they still say, 『Is that a lion? Looks good!』 I guess compliments don’t merely mean 『good job』, it also means 『don’t stop』, it boosts others’ confidence and inspires others to do more.
Pictures:1.in the middle, 『Taiwan』 shaped Fung-Li-Su!

2.me, far right, 『come to our yard sale!』

3.Fing-Li-Su for 30 cents!

4.Buy Fung-Li-Su and get your picture taken for free!

This week was very exciting because it was 『Fall Festival』 week. Every church has their fall festival on this week. On Wednesday, Ms.Mary brought me to Southside Baptist Church’s Fall Festival. There was alot of people and children dressed up in their costumes. Thursday was our home church’s Fall Festival. Mary and Eddie volunteered in a booth to help host a game for the children. I helped them and also helped out in 『Face Painting』 for two hours. It is not easy to grab a small brush and try to draw on squirming children!It turned out to be alot of fun and a good experience to hang out with church friends and chat and paint faces. Saturday I went to National Central Baptist Church’s Festival. It was $8 to get in but you can play and eat all you want. I had 4 cups of lemonade, 2 hotdogs, 1 bag of popcorn, and 2 funnel cakes, which is a southern special where they fry some batter until it is crisp and put powdered sugar on it. By the way, I have gained 8 pounds since I came to the U.S. I wonder where all the pounds come from! And I am trying to convince myself that these are all weight from the lean-muscle I gained from cross-country.
Speaking of festivals, I turned in 3 artworks for Georgia National Fair, and actually got to see them at the fair! The best thing is, recently I learnt that one of them won third place! It was the one I did for fun when school haven’t started. Ms.Mary was very excited about this because it was the view of her back yard, I simply sat down at the kitchen table and painted the view from her window.
I really like it how I have 1 period of drawing class everyday. I love to draw and paint and I actually got many pieces done since I came here. Back home, I only did major arts, such as pencil and watercolor. But here, Ms.Peavy (our art teacher) makes us try out all different kinds of materials, such as pastel. And now, I am even working on a self-portrait from ripped out newspaper! Breaking through new materials can be stressful, but I learnt that, once I give it a shot, I discover that I can do more than I expect!

Pictures:1.third place at Georgia National Fair

2. my pastel, (copying Monet’s 『Water Lilies』)

3.wrapping up the festival with some 『self portraiting』!

4.last one to go!