06/12 Journal

My neighbor keeps three medium Beagles (米格魯). I often see them hanging around outside or lying on the ground to tan. They always take action and play together. My mother says that they are smart because they can pass the street, walk to the park and pee. Then, they walk home by themselves. I really envy my neighbor has those three clever dogs. In fact, my younger brother, sisters and I are lazy to take Dodo for a walk to pee. We often shirk the errand and order one of us to do it. One reason is our laziness. Another one is that Dodo often spends much time peeing. The other one is that we need to bring his droppings home.

Dogs divide their own territories by their urine and Dodo is not an exception. As a result, he has to pee in different targets at park to secure his territory, such as trees, handrails or streetlights. The waiting is endless because he happily runs everywhere. However, it is his nature and physical needs so you cannot ask him to stop. What you only need to do is wait. I often read newspapers which are going for wrapping Dodo’s droppings.

06/05 Journal

Once, after taking Dodo for a walk at park, I let him walk home alone. However, he just rushed to my neighbor’s house. I immediately grabbed him out off the house. Fortunately, my neighbor didn’t see Dodo’s and my invasion or it would be very embarrassing.
I recalled that my mother had told me that Dodo is smart because he knows which house is ours and he will enter the right one. However, until this time, I realized that Dodo isn’t smart but stupid. The reason was that we always open the front door but, my neighbor seldom opens the door. This time, they opened the door so Dodo just saw the open door and then, ran into it. He really cannot recognize our house. As a result, I cannot let Dodo walk to the park alone because he will get lost though I will not be too sad. Not to mention Dodo can cross the street so I always need to hugged him to the park.

05/28 Journal

Although I think Dodo was trained a little bit by his ex-keeper, he is still stupid. For example, he can sit down and lie on his stomach by his own but we cannot order him to do so. He does not understand the instruction and we are lazy to train him because of his dullness. Not to mention that Dodo cannot shake hands and catch the ball we throw out. I think the only trick he can amuse us is dance, but it isn’t exactly what we think about “dance”. Dodo will lie on his stomach, stretch his back legs, swish his tail happily and tap the ground with front legs to and fro. However, we cannot order him to do the trick before our guests so it is useless to show Dodo’s unique. Frankly speaking, Dodo doesn’t have many things to say but his folly.

05/22 Journal

The small and fluffy animals often give people a cute feeling. It makes people want to get close to them and play with them, not mention to Dodo. His tiny body and long fur often attacks people’s attention when I am taking him for a walk. Dodo always shows innocent expression with his tongue out. Because his head is pretty round so he looks a little like cartoon character, 巧虎 if his fur is cut.

Dodo seldom barks at strangers and that’s the reason my father could pick him up without troubles. Maybe his ex-keeper trained him well or he has no alertness to human beings. However, if someone presses the bell or the phone rings, he will rush to the door and bark or bark at the phone. If he does it, we will joke “Dodo, answer the phone!” “Dodo, open the door!” Dodo does not bite people because he is a five-year-old dog and has no teeth to bite. I think Dodo just swallows the food without chewing.

If any guest comes to our home, we do not need to worry about Dodo’s reaction to strangers and they can also play with him happily.

05/15 Journal

My family is keeping a Pomeranian (博美). He is named 嘟嘟 Dodo by my father because he is covered with fluffy fur and it makes him as round as a rolling ball. Dodo’s fur color is orange and brown and it is a common color of Pomeranian. He is as tiny as a small watermelon and weighed three kilograms. Dodo likes to put out his tongue and we thinks that it is his bad hobby. However, a keeper told me that it seems that Pomeranian often does that because her dog also puts out his tongue but in opposite direction. It is interesting.

Dodo was a stray dog that my father found him on the road. He wore a collar and looked like having a well care from his ex-keeper. As a result, we guessed that Dodo was a missing dog and we tried to find his ex-keeper. However, after few weeks, my father said that Dodo was abandoned by his friend’s friend. Then, we kept Dodo as our family pet. In fact, the reason that my father kept Dodo was that my younger sister was asking to keep a dog. My mother and I thought keeping a pet was a trouble so we asked my father to abandon Dodo again. However, my father still keeps Dodo because of my sister. Dodo is our family pet and my sister is his real keeper.

05/08 Journal

Although the life with part-time job was really busy, I learned that how to manage time more efficient than before. I did not have more time after work so I had to make piecemeal time more useful like reading some texts or doing easy homework in break time. However, sometimes I was too lazy to use this kind of piecemeal time. As a result, a good way for me was division. For example, if I had to write an essay, I would do the research and conception on Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday were writing days. I would revise and type the essay on Thursday, and then my paper was finished. Because I did not have enough time to complete the work totally on short weekend, I needed to divide the work into several parts. Although I had to spend much time doing work, each part was so small that I can handle it in short time.

Besides that, I would prepare the work before many days, especially the examination. I would start to study before two to three weeks. Because of my laziness, the preparation did not work efficiently. Although I could not get great scores, it was satisfying that at least, I had studied all the subjects.

05/01 Journal

My last part-time job had to work till 10 o’clock. After I ate some snacks, read newspapers and took a shower, it was always almost 11 o’clock. If I spent some time watching TV or surfing the Internet, my bed time would be 1 or 2 o’clock. It was fine in the usual but it would be terrible in midterm exams week. I only had two to three hours to study in a day so I had to study harder on the weekend to catch the exam schedule. It really drove me crazy because there were so many subjects need to study but I did not have enough time. Fortunately, my employer would give me a week off to study so I could pass two examinations. Because I had to work after school on weekdays, the weekend was time for me to do homework and study. Sometimes, I needed to refuse my friends’ invitation for “Sorry! I have part-time job after school so I cannot have dinner with you,” or “I have to do my essay in weekend so I cannot go shopping with you.” The reasons were often like this. I would often feel embarrassed when I decline my friends’ invitation but there was no help for it.

04/17 Journal

Because I had a part-time job at night, I had to eat dinner outside. Then, I ate two meals, lunch and dinner outside in a day. It was really troublesome for me to find an appropriate meal to eat and I had to guess twice in a day. First, the price was my primary condition to choose a meal. Although I was working and making money, I didn’t want to spend much money on eating. I was not fascinated by delicacy so I was not particular on food. I could accept tasteless food but with cheap price. Moreover, if I was not full by dinner, I could eat snacks at home after work.

If I wanted to find a low-priced meal, the choices must were few and limited. The average price range was up 40 NT dollars outside diners so the dished I ordered and the restaurants I went to were not various but fixed. As a result, I had to make variety from monotony. For example, I went to different diners and ordered different dishes or bought food from home to keep myself from having meals outside. Sometimes, I was tired of deciding which diner I went and which meal I ordered but I still had to feed myself to have energy to work. Now, fortunately I only need to worry about my lunch.

04/10 Journal

In this new semester, I choose weight control and training to be my physical class. Last semester, I chose badminton but for the new one, the teacher said she would teach us smash. I was not good at high skills so I quitted. Or badminton was really interesting. I choose the new class because someone said weight training was not so tired. Moreover, I do not need to go outside to be tanned. Using weight-training equipment looks cool. However, it is not so easy that I imaged.

One is the students are required to weigh in every PE class and we should record it. It is a small pressure for me because I need to notice the weight every time. As a result, I have to prevent my appetite from being over full. Even though I cut down the appetite, I still gain some weight and it really disappoints me. The other one is that besides the exercise we take in PE class, we still need to take two times 30 minutes exercise in a week. It is the most troublesome part and I have to spend some time taking exercise. Before taking this class, I only take exercise in PE class.

Although the PE class is troublesome, I want to be healthy. I am trying to adapt myself to the mode of taking exercise and I hope I will lose some weight in the end of
the semester.

04/03 Journal

The day was also my bad day because I was sick. After waking up, I got stomachache in the morning. I thought that I was too hungry and it would be better after I ate breakfast. However, my stomach was still hurting so I continued the tour with my ill body. I even throw up in the afternoon but it became better. On the way home, I was dizzy, uncomfortable and drowsy. I was afraid that I would get carsickness so I forced myself to sleep. It would not be better if I was dizzy when I was awake. Fortunately, people in the same tour only saw movies not sing karaoke in the bus. As a result, it was easy to lull myself to sleep or I would jump out of the window to get rid noise. Although I slept a lot, the ten-hour long journey to home was still intolerable. Nevertheless, I went through it. It was really fine to step on the solid ground.
Because of beautiful Meqmeqi, the tour to east Taiwan was still worthy. It was not a waste to spend nearly a day driving.

03/27 Journal

On day three, it was time we drove back to Taichung. As a result, we only visited a scene and just hurried on with our tour in the rest of time. The scene we stopped was鹿野高台 in Taitung. It was famous for paragliding and was one of few training areas of paragliding in Taiwan. The view was really wide and vast. There was no blocker before you and all the plain was under your feet. The plain was surrounded by far and near mountains. 鹿野高台 was a good place to see the night scene because it was a summit. It was like we stood on a huge bowl’s edge and saw inside. However, the night scene here was not beautiful. On the plain, there were only few and scattered houses but the farmland took a large part. Nevertheless, it was much better to the environment.

03/20 Journal

Sometimes we took a small bus for uphill and sometimes we walked along the road for downhill. That was what the perfect hiking I imaged. You would not sweat a lot but enjoy the scene comfortably. However, we did not warm up our bodies actually so it was just walking, not hiking. The air was clear and the scene was beautiful. This kind of great surrounding relaxed and comforted me. The end of the tour was a huge bridge and a power plant. On the bridge, the tour guide told us that if you hiked along the road to the mountain area, you would reach Cilai Mountain(奇萊山). Unfortunately, the day was a holiday or we could visit the power plant. It was interesting that there was only the hydro office but you could not see any power plant. To hide the hydroelectric power plant, it was built in mountains. It was part of important energy for east Taiwan. As a result, it was reasonable that the area was restricted early. That beautiful stream was bubbling across the bridge downstream. Later, we got a chance to reach the riverbed. The color of water still amazed me. The stream was just like a jade, luminous but silently. I really liked the weather in the mountain. It was cool but not cold and moist but wet. However, I still had to leave here.

03/13 Journal

Meqmeqi was a mountain valley. The mountains were parts of Central Mountains and the stream winded the valley was called Mukua Stream(木瓜溪). We entered Meqmeqi by small bus and drove along the road which was opened by tunneling through mountains to the power plant of Tai Power. The scene was really beautiful and wide because of high mountains and the deep valley. The mountains were dark green and some were shaded by cloud and mist. As a result, it was cool and the air was a little humid. I liked the weather here because you would not sweat much after hiking and the air was really clear.

Besides the mountains, the stream in the valley was also very pretty. It was too clean that you could see fished swimming and rocks in the stream. Moreover, the color of the water was very different and astonishing. The color in shallow water was transparent but by the increasing depth, the color transformed malachite into pine green. Under the sunshine, the water was sparkling like a mysterious jewel. Although the color was dark, you could still see rocks on riverbed. I had not seen this limpid stream before. It really fed my sight on.

03/06 Journal

It was almost 11 o’clock at night when we arriving the hotel in Hualien. Maybe, it was too late so the area in front of Hualien Train Station was not lively. However, there were many hotels for the tourists. The famous 曾記麻糬 was opened in front of the station. I walked to there to buy some delicious magi(麻糬) for my family to comfort our exhausted bodies.

The next day, we went to the most beautiful scene of the trip, Meqmeqi(慕谷慕魚). It was an area in mountains of Tai Power(台電) in County Sioulin(秀林鄉). In early times, the area was forbidden entering by government because it was one of important power plants in east Taiwan. Recently, the area has opened for tourists but they need to have an applicant for entering restricted mountain areas. The area was named after Meqmeqi in memory of a sheik of aboriginal ancestors. Three hundred years ago, Meqmeqi led his people to walk through Central Mountains(中央山脈) from Nantou(南投) to Hualien and settled down there. There was an aboriginal village in Meqmeqi and the villagers were Taroko(太魯閣族).

02/27 Journal

On Chinese New Year vacation, our family had a three-day trip to East Taiwan. We took tourist bus because it would be very tired for my father driving from West to East Taiwan. The tour route was that we departed from Taichung, drove south to Pingtung(屏東), passed through Southern Cross-Island Highway(南部橫貫公路) to East Taiwan, Taitung(台東) drove north to Hualien(花蓮) and drove back to Taichung by same route. The distance was very long so we spent much time, maybe one and half a day on the bus but the scenes that we planned to visit were few.

On the fist day of the trip, we left Taichung at 6:40 in early morning. Then, we rushed to Hualien directly for almost 12 hours. The tourist bus only stopped at the rest area and we could go to piss. As a result, we did not visit any scene on the first day. It was a torture if you were confined on your seat and could not stretch tour body for more than 12 hours. Although you could see the pretty landscape outside, it could not comfort your stiff body. I thought my bottom got decayed. The narrow space made me tired and dizzy, like vomiting but I tried my best not to enlarge the feelings to affect my body or I would have carsickness. We sang karaoke and watched movies to kill long time.

01/09 Journal

This week is very busy because of the coming of final exams. Some teachers request assignments and some have the final exam in this week. As a result, I burn the candle at both ends. Many things that need to do drive me crazy and anxious. I want to give up all the things but I cannot. I need to write assignments and also study. However, I don’t have enough time to let me do these things because I have the part-time job to do. It is always 10 o’clock after work and I have to take a bath or do something. It often passes 11 o’clock when I start to study. Then, I always stay up late for preparing the studies. Fortunately, I don’t have many classes that need to wake up early. Everyday has different works need to hand in or check so there is a deadline. I am always chasing time. This week is like a break-through game. Everyday is a barrier that waits for me to break through. There is still another week waiting for my conquest. I can expect that it is a tough battle because I haven’t prepared any subject yet. I will screw up.

01/02 Journal

Wednesday was December 31. I still had to go to school and part-time job so I was not in a lively mood to plan any activity. However, I was looking forward to four-day New Year holiday. As usual, the school held the series of New Year activities, like New Year party, the carnival and fireworks show… The activities started from 2 o’clock pm and there were many different clubs’ performance, such as live bands or dancing. In the afternoon, I strolled around the refreshment kiosks. It seemed that the night market which was near the campus were all here. Hot dogs, pop corns, BBQ, sushi, stinking tofu… Also, there were some exotic food, like African, Macao and Hong Kong which were sold by foreign students. Especially, one of food stands is kept by a hotel and keepers wore uniforms of waiter and cook. They looked high-class. Moreover, the food is high-class, too and delicate. Maybe, the price was also high. After looking around the carnival, I bought nothing. I was not hungry and I did not want to spend money so I refused my appetite.

After work, I returned back to school because I wanted to see 陳漢典. I thought he and 盧廣仲 were more famous than other singers whom were invited. He was one of hosts of New Year party. The other host was boring so the party was not so hot. After Chen came, the party became interesting than before. Chen was a jokey host because his performance was full of humor. He intimated many celebrities, sang a funny song lively and talked amusingly. However, I did not stay to the end because it would be too late. As a result, I missed Lu’s performance in 2009 passed 15 minutes.

Anyway, Happy 牛 Year!!!

12/26 Journal

We did not bring a camp so I took out stupid sleeping pad which I stuck advertisement flyers together at home and laid it on the ground. Then, we slept on it and we became one of vagrants. It was not cold but after 30 minutes, I felt coldness from the ground. I regret not to bring a sleeping bag. As a result, I put on all my costs, and then my upper part of my body was warm. However, my legs were cold. It was hard to fall asleep so I only slept for 2 to 3 hours. After waking up, I was still tired.

The staffs started to arrange lines about 8 or 9 o’clock. Then, we stood to line up for exchanging tickets. Moreover, Vivi and I had to carry our luggage to line up. My luggage became heavier and heavier and I was exhausted by the endless ranks. I had to move and stop constantly so I could not sit down for a nap. Finally, after more than 3 hours, about 12 o’clock, I took the rock zone ticket. There were about 50 thousands people came to see the concert so my ticket number of entering Stadium was a front sequence. We could see Mayday’s performance in a close distance but not just watch the large monitors. It was worthy to sleep on the ground.

12/19 Journal

Last Saturday, Vivi and I went to Taipei to see Mayday’s concert, 十萬人出頭天 in 中山足球場(Zhougchan Soccer Stadium) .It was my first time to go to a real concert. I often see their lives in small place. This time, the concert was held in Stadium so it would be more lively and large.

The concert was free as bought Mayday’s new album. As a result, there would be huge amount of fans join the concert. My friend in Tunghai University heard that some crazy fans had camped outside Stadium on Monday so Vivi and I decided to line up early. My friend said she would set up to Taipei on Friday morning and she would save seats for us. Then, after school, we took bus to Taipei. Karry were also with us because she wanted to go home. It was 2 o’clock am on Saturday while we arrived in Stadium. There were already lots of fans lined up and slept outdoors. They had surrounded Stadium ring above ring and some slept on the ground or camped just like vagrants. It really made me creepy. Moreover, it was really difficult to find my friend in huge crowd. Luckily, I still found her and her friends.

...To be countinued

12/12 Journal

After the songs, it was the time for autographing the per-ordered posters. The entire crowd scattered because some were going to line up for Mayday’s autographs and some were leaving; they just wanted to see to their live. While people were moving, according to my experience to lives, I rushed to the stage and stood there. The reason was that while Mayday were autographing, I would be the first line of the crowd so I could see and photograph them near and clearly.

It was interesting but strange to observe Mayday. Because I was so close to them, it was easy to see what they were doing, like chatting with each other, drinking water. Meanwhile, I was photographing them by my cell phone camera. However, after taking only two pictures, the battery in my cell phone was exhausted. It really disappointed me so I only photographed them by my eyes camera. I stood there and looked at them fall in faces for more than twenty minutes. It’s really freak but fans always did it. Then, finally, I decided to order Mayday’s 7th album. I was released from the purchase struggle in my mind. “Goodbye and see you guys in Taipei,” I said in a whisper. Later, I turned around but finding surprisingly that I was surrounded ring upon ring by crowd. I tried to walk back to the record store. After saying more than ten times “excuse me”, I finally reached to the store and paid for the album. I took the final glance at Mayday on the stage, and then went home.


If you want to see Chinese report and more pictures about this Mayday live, you can visit here
http://www.wretch.cc/blog/gothicverde/8217926

I have tried to post some pictures here, but unfortunately I failed.