四月 14 2009
So Many Activities in Dec.
12/2/08-Distribute the Syracuse Christian Academy’s (SCA) Newsletter
This would be the second newsletter for the academy. I sure worked hard on my articles. I was required to write at least two articles. The topics are SCA’s Band and SCA’s Christmas Program. I wrote another one for personal addition. It was about Taiwan’s aborigine-Ami. I met the requirement that my teacher gave me, and also met the requirement that I gave myself. I think the life here has been more and more interesting.
12/07/08-Weslyan Church Concert
The concert was on December 17th at Wesleyan Church, Johnson. I am not a formal member of the church band. But the director said that he thought it would be beautiful if they added violin into their songs. I was willing to help, so I took the violin position. In fact, I was a little surprised because I didn’t know the concert was on Sunday. I only got one chance to practice with the band before the concert.
It was kind of tired for me because I practiced a whole Saturday afternoon. However, that was the only way I could do to make sure I would be able to play with them on the next day. I also had a solo of my violin. It had been a little while since I played a solo next time, so I brought my paper music and iPod with me in order to guarantee the quality of the performance. Fortunately, it was better than I thought I would be. I tried my best to make sure the violin would come out smoothly and reasonably. Actually, the director thought that is came out pretty good with the violin. I think that indirectly prove that my practice was useful. Other parts of the concert also went out without any problem. The director told me that he was going to have a CD for the concert. Well, I have to say that I am looking forward the CD because that will be the first CD that has my violin in it. The other interesting thing is that I met another exchange student from Japan. We talked a little about how Taiwanese think about Japan and how Chinese think about Japan. I enjoyed the conversation. Hayden (the director’s son) took me to the basement to see the place that their band practices at. I was interesting in the electric guitar, so picked up one of them and tried to pretend like I am actually playing it. I think it was 『One Wild Night』 for me and it was a good experience.
12/11-13/08- Arkansas City Basketball Tournament
Actually, I don’t really basketball because I have no interest in it. But since the school didn’t has enough players to form a formal basketball team. I joined it as a part of my responsibilities as a student of the school. I have to say that I have learned a lot about this sport. Now, I play basketball, but my skills still have a long way to go. The parts that I don’t like of basketball are too many collisions and frequency of arguments. Anyway, it is also kind of fun to play with other players and especially with Christian players.
There are friendlier during the game and tournament could ends in a more peaceful way. Plus, I can travel a little bit with the team. Compares to the time when I had to stay in the tiny Syracuse for a long time without doing anything interesting but stay in my room dealing with a bunch of school works, I sure feel a lot better in this way. The Syracuse Christian Academy Kings took off from Syracuse and headed Arkansas City at 1:30 on Thursday afternoon. There were 6 players with the principal plus my host dad-Larry. He used to be a basketball player and coach a long time ago, so he was quite exciting when the principal mentioned the tournament to him. He decided to come with us eventually. According to his decision, there would be 8 people in 1 vehicle. It wasn’t pretty comfortable for me and I suffered that for at least 8 hours in the car. After we arrived there, the next problem came-we couldn’t reach the Christian Academy which held the game. Fortunately, we were be able to reach a friendly family lives just a couple blocks away from the gym we would play at. The principal called this 『God’s plan』. We have another two students form Goodland play for our team. The first game was smooth and nice. But the second one wasn’t as good as the first one. On the second, we won the first but lost the second game. We have to say that we still need more practice and skill to deal with those good teams from bigger Christian academies. After the game, we went to a Chinese buffet restaurant for lunch. I think the foods were pretty good. The tournament was good enough to be called a nice beginning of the season.
I hope we can play more reasonable and skillful in the next game.
12/19/08-The Christmas Concert
I got the order of Taiwanese T-shirt from Garden City today. I was kind of exciting because I have been waiting for this moment for quite a while. I am going to sale it in Sherry’s shop, just for a little finance support. By the end of the program, I am going to give every student in the school a special Taiwanese T-shirt. (If I still have enough money to do that then.) Anyway, I am glad that I can finally start my business. I suppose that the following five months are going to be very busy. The Taiwanese Fair has to be successful. I am preparing a speech that will ask for supports for exchange student programs. I want people in town to know that exchange students have dreams and desires to achieve their goals. I will be proud as an exchange student and also as a Taiwanese. Since Ryan stays very close to me, I am going to ask if he wants to do this. I hope that he can make some Taiwanese desserts. I’ve already book the local fairground building for four days. There are going to be series of presentations about the Chinese New Year in January and February. (I hope I can make those presentations work because the timing is a little bit tight.) My goal of this year is to make it one of the most unforgettable periods of time in my life. The thing that I have to do now is to reach my goal.