a surprising trip to Jiufen

After the welcome party, I got a call at 23:00, Serena who went to France last year asked me if I wanted to go with her, her friends and four of the inbounds to Jiufen where I already went to after coming back to Taiwan. I however agreed because I'd like to know the inbounds more. I woke up really early to go to school first to get the fee this semester. And then, I went directly to Taipei main station to meet the others. There were Olivia, Yoan, Hunter, Alex, Jenny, Serena and Alice, Serena's friend We went there by train and then by bus. It was kind of a long trip. Jenny Tsai was all the time nagging that she wanted to sleep, but I think she'd rather talk to me than sleep. Jiufen was anyway not an interesting place to go. They were walking and then complaining. Anyway, we went to the gold mine. And then, we just sat down in a circle in the square and started playing Uno. It was fine though everyone was watching us playing. I think they think it's fun to see the foreigners. What I mean is they are human beings they are not monkeys in the zoo. Then we got the bus to go to the old street. It was a tiny street filled with a lot of people. There they saw condom world. That was kind of embarrassing but funny. That shop has always been a highlight whenever I went there and whoever I was with. They tried stinky tofu. It was still weird for them. I didn't had any because I thought I didn't really like it. After that, we went back to Taipei.
Eveyone then decided to go to the night market. There we met Shawn, Rika from America, and Paluba, the first time I saw him but not the first time I heard about him. I told Paluba a lot of things about the silly ones. As usual, there was really crowded in the night market. We bought some little snacks to eat in the streets and then we all got tired, so we went to the park nearby started to play the murder and Uno. Everytime I was about to win, Hunter called me for not saying Uno. I got impatient in the end. Surprisingly, I don't really hate him. At around 21:00, we decided to go home. A lot of inbounds were picked up by their host families despite of some of us. Jenny, Rika, Shawn, Paluba and I walked Alex home then to the MRT station. As soon as we were leaving for Alex's house. It started to rain heavily. bad luck :( Anyway, I was home safely by bus.
a cool day with exchange students. I love the exchange students. They reminded my of the craziest year in my life. I miss everyone from last year, especially some of you.

the welcome party for all the inbounds in my club

So in the evening of 8/25, we had our welcome party for the inbounds in my club. I had been all the time nervous before it. I don't really know the reason probably because I could see my shadow in all the inbounds. I miss my exchange year too. Anyway, the event wasn't that good. We found the song if you're happy in several languages, and asked them to sing in their own languages, but it was anyway a bad idea. None of them was happy when they sang the song. The handouts with their lyrics were even very wrong. After that, the inbounds and their host parents held a bit introduction about themselves. They all seem speaking a bit Chinese. It was good. After that, we start eating. I was arguing with the American, Hunter a lot. I heard later that some people were complaining that I was too loud. Anyway, at last, we played another game. Each person got a heart and we wrote our names in the middle, walked around and introduced the others ourselves, got the others' cards. We could then sit down when we got our hearts back. On the second round, I got mad when Hunter didn't want to give me his heart. Well... but I wasn't really angry at all. I was just joking and lazy walking around. At very last, we took a group picture. We were there smiling for probably 5 minutes. Didn't anyone know what facebook or email were. I hate that when everytime, people want the same picture but in their own cameras. Before we were heading home, I gave Hunter a hug. He seemed to be angry at me because I wasn't willing to pick up his name card I asked him to give to me on the floor. Dad, however, seemed a bit confused with the hug. If hugs count something, I think I already have a lot of things when I was in Germany. It was anyway a good day. I was glad I was there to know the inbounds. They were really cool. They really reminded me of myself last year.

life back to Taiwan

It's been morer than 2 months since coming back from Germany. It's somehow weird but fine. To my surprise, I'm doing quite good. I had had around one month holidays before the school started. It was really difficult at first at school as a result of knowing no one. I was so scared. Whenever thinking of hoe hard I must study in the future, I cried. Remember hearing the principal's speech, I cry alone among 48 girls in my class. No one knew what to do. Things changed surprisingly after a week. People started to talk to me, not consider me as a stranger in class. I, anyway, still hate to go to school, from 7:15 to 16:00. I hardly have time for myself. I can consider my senior high as study study and study. I got the 6th place on the first mid-term exam this semester in my class which made me a bit more self-confident. I was really afraid I've forgotten everything after a year without really studying something. However, I think I'm going to take the exam on the summer vacation for transforming to another senior high which I can study hard, play hard. That'd be the most important philosophy in my life. PLAY HARD, WORK HARD. I don't want to be a book worm.

After the first midterm exam, I had about  one week free. That was still a busy week for me. On the first day and the second day, I needed to take an exchange student from Spain, Alex out. I took him to Chain- Kai Shek memorial hall for the first day. And then, we visited the Egyptian exhibition. It was alright but tiring. In the afternoon, I showed him a bit Ximen, the cinema park and the cinema street. After that, I went to school for a little check-up which we did every year. I let Alex stay in Carrefour. I think he was kind of tired that he stayed at Starbucks the whole time. In the evening, we went to Shilin night market which is famous for a tourism spot. We went home at probably 18:30 because we were both exhausted after walking the whole day. The next day, I decided to make a less tiring trip, so we went to Shinyi District where people named Manhattan in Taiwan. We went there for the most famous movie in teens' world in Taiwan "You are the apple in my eye". I think it's a good movie without a lot of action.  We had lunch and then we went to the top of Taipei 101 which was a part I didn't really want to do because it was expensive and not impressing enough for this price. After that, we went to the bookstore named Page one. It's a big and famous book store. It was on sale. I was so happy and excited because of a lot of cheap books also ones in English. I bought 3 books in English. We spent anyway too long there. Then I thought we  had better go. Otherwise, we'd be late for the welcome party tonight. No, I meant I'd be late due to needing to be there earlier to prepare things. Anyway, I'll post another article to tell what comes the next soon. It's been an article way bit too long.