A week I want to introduce here is my week in Taiwan, where I went to for a week with some of my friends. Here, I will be depicting my journey from beginning to end; from the flight to Taiwan to the flight back. In Taiwan, I did various things such as visiting an aquarium and a beach, riding trains, camping, and even drinking bubble tea!
On the way to the plane
This is a photo of me on the escalator, on to riding the plane to Taiwan. My luggage was heavy, but my footsteps felt light, as if I were walking on clouds! Everything was perfect - the air smelled soapy, and the sounds of the planes taking off came to me as a pure excitement. I couldn't wait to get on the plane! When I got off from the plane after the flight, I realized that different countries had different smells - the Taiwanese airport smelled like herbs and spices.
My friends and I in front of the aquarium
For our first full day in Taiwan, my friends and I went to an aquarium. We saw various fishes, and even got to touch or feed some of them! This was the first time I realized that sea stars were hard, not squishy. Afterwards, my hands smelled like canned fishes, and my clothes like salty seawater, but it was all worth it. We even got to sleep in the aquarium that night, underneath the tunnel exhibit! The next morning, we were waken up by the sound of whales squealing - I never knew whales could be so annoying! :)
At a coral beach
For our second day, we visited a beach on the coast of Taiwan. Unlike many beaches in Korea, it was a coral beach, which means that there's no sand, but just rocks. These rocks used to be coral reefs, and the sound of the waves crashing on the shore was much louder than I had known for it to be, since the shoreline was of rocks, rather than sand. It was really windy at the beach; one of my friend's hat ended up flying away!
A clock at the train station
For our third day, we rode a train from Taoyuan to Zuoying. The train ride was long, and we all fell asleep because we were so tired from the days of staying up late. We woke up right in time to get off the train. The train station smelled like street foods, like hot dogs. The train ride was pretty quite,which was totally different from the the train station filled with rackets.
Bubble Tea
For our fourth day, my friends and I went for a drink of bubble tea. I've never been a big fan of bubble tea, and I was pretty doubtful of it's taste. But it was actually really good! The sweet milktea and chewy bubbles were so amazing, I couldn't believe it. We all felt drenched in the sweetness of the bubble tea, and it was one of the best drinks I had ever eaten.
My name tag
This is a photo of my name tag I got at a camp that I attended for a day in Taiwan. It was a local camp, and it was fun, except for the fact that we couldn't understand half of the things that kids said. The food here was kind of gross (have you ever tried ostrich meat? Well, I'm proud to declare I have) but we all agree on the fact that we enjoyed the thrill of trying out new things.
At the airport
On the last day, my friends and I had to... leave, it was the last day, after all. My friends and I were waiting at an airport in Taiwan. It was really sand, because we all knew it was going to be our last time traveling together, as I would transfer schools soon after. None of us spoke, but the silence was wiped away by the busy chattering of the airport.
These are the things I did for a week in Taiwan. It was amazing, exciting, thrilling, and challenging all at the same time, and we thoroughly enjoyed this trip. I wish I had more time to go traveling in different places, because this trip taught me how fun traveling can be, especially when you go on a journey with our friends.
The movie, 'Mao's Last Dancer', was a movie I watched for my assignment, movie review. To be honest, I thought it would be boring, but it was pretty good, and I rate it a 8.5 out of 10. It was based on a true story, which made it even better.
This movie is about a young boy in a rural area of China, being selected and moved to Beijing to learn ballet. This happens as a part of Mao's effort for the Cultural Revolution. Anyways, at Beijing, this young boy, Li Cunxin, is not very enthusiastic about ballet. However, his teacher, Chen, really inspires him and gets him inspired in ballet.
I have a person like Chen, and that is my friend, HeeJoo. HeeJoo is a really good friend, but she and I were almost totally different. She really put in lots of effort to everything she did, she tried to manage her time in a productive manner, and read lots of books, which I didn't do as much as I needed to. Being friends with her really made me think a lot about these kind of things, and encouraged me to read more and become a more productive person.
After years and years of training in Beijing, he is moved to Houston, Texas, where he learns even more about ballet in a company. At first, he is very new to America and is not adapted very well, but he eventually becomes a part of this company, and begins to take roles in the company's productions. His years of effort and hard work really shows, because he begins to take some roles in productions in his company. As he continuously develops and begins taking lead roles in the U.S., the China embassy calls him back into China, probably to make him dance political ballet and all that. Knowing this and the fact that he won't be able to dance in such free conditions, Li struggles to find a way that will let him stay in the U.S., and he comes up with a solution with his attorney; to marry his American girlfriend.
Even when he gets married, China still wants him back; and to do this, they lock him up at the Chinese consulate for nearly a full day. This becomes a big issue, and a lot of people get included in this, including President Bush and the FBI. After 21 hours, Li is finally freed and given the choice to decide whether he'd stay in America or go back to China, but the conditions are that if he doesn't go back to China, he'll never be able to - meaning he'd never be able to meet nor contact his parents. Even though there are bad parts to this, Li decides to stay in America, and that's what I'd do as well, because I wouldn't want to go back to a place where I can't freely do what I wanted to do, especially it was deeply related with my job and dreams.
Lastly, I want to talk about the frog in the well story that is told in this movie. This frog, in the well, is not told about the world outside the well, because he wouldn't be able to leap out of the well anyways. Thus, the frog blindly thinks that the well is the whole world. This is kind of like the story that I know about frogs in a well, because Koreans refer to people who blindly believe that they are the best in their small little world as a 'frog in a well'. However, I think that Li, who may have been this frog, leaped out of the well into the world, and still was able to become a big frog out in the world as well. I do hope that I can be like Li, motivated and on his way for success.
To sum up, I think this was a good movie, because it showed Li and all of the hardships he went through on his way to success, and it portrayed this through various episodes that Li has. Although I shouldn't tell the ending (because guess what, spoilers) I'll just tell you one thing; the ending's really good. It was one of those movies that 'fill your heart up' at the end.
Six is the number of times that I transferred schools while attending school for eight years.
Yes, that does mean that I transferred from school to school on an average of about 1.3 years at each school.
For first grade, I went to a Korean public school for like, half a year.
After that, I moved to New Jersey and attended a public school there fore second grade.
For third and fourth grade, I attended another Korean public school.
For fifth grade, I got into an International school, so I attended there.
During sixth grade, I got enrolled in an exchange student program that our school had with their sister school in California, so I studied in a private school in California for a year.
For seventh grade, I came back to the International school I was attending, and I stayed there until the middle of eighth grade.
In the middle of eighth grade, I transferred to a public school in our town, and that's where I am now.
So, currently, I'm attending Duil Middleschool in Paju.
Six times in eight years is quite a lot, don't you think? But personally, I love that I did so, because it enabled me to attend
various schools in different parts of the world.
And, just as a side-note, even though I did transfer quite a lot, it didn't feel so to me.
Weird, but that was just how I felt.
I bet I'm reading your mind on this; as you clicked on this word, 'Potato Tree', you were questioning yourself :
"What's a Potato Tree? Do potatoes grow on trees?"
The answer is, of course not.
So then, what is a "Potato Tree"?
It's actually the names of my two pet dogs.
One dog is named 'Potato' (or Kamja, in Korean,)
and the other is named 'Tree' (or Namu, in Korean).
Potato, Kamja, is a boston terrier which our family adopted from a stray dog protection organization.
He has short fur in the color of black and white, which makes him look like he's wearing a tuxedo.
Tree, Namu, is a bedlington terrier which our family adopted from a friend of our family.
He has soft, light grey, thin, fluffy hair that gets tangled very easily if we don't brush it every now and then.
We, our family, call our two dogs by the name, "Potato Tree", which is the combination of their two names.
The thing is, I'm not sure if they know their names. They do react to my voice, so it works out, I guess.
These two dogs are the most adorable things I have ever seen, but then again, I find all animals with fur adorable, from kittens to tigers (if they aren't mad).
Aren't they amazing? (Although I do wish Tree's fur had been brushed before taking this photo.)
Olive is the name of a vegetable, as many of you may know.
However, sorry to all the olive fans out there, but I'm personally not the biggest fan of olives,
and neither am I going to be writing about them.
The Olive that I am talking about is the TV cooking channel named 'Olive TV'.
My dream, at the moment, is to become a chef.
The occupation as a chef occurred to me while watching people cook on Olive TV.
The people who ate the food seemed so satisfied and happy, and the people who made that food seemed even more satisfied and even happier.
So, I could basically say that Olive TV was, and still is, and inspiring and yet entertaining channel for me.
A show I really enjoy from this channel is Master Chef, a competition where people cook,
and the best chef of the season is awarded 'Master Chef' at the end of each season.
Master Chef Korea's third season is airing at the moment.
I wonder if I could take part in something like, the sixth season of it. Who knows? :)
