Cutting people in line.

Don't you hate it when people cut in front of you in lines? I know I do. But unfortunately, sometimes, desperate times call for desperate measures (ie. lunch time). I know how annoying it feels when people cut in front of you, just exactly when it feels like the line is hardly moving anyway. But in PAS, the lunch line gets so long it is annoying, and you just feel the need to grab a friend, and cut straight in. Imagine this: you are in the classroom waiting for the bell to ring (at this point everyone in the classroom is already packed, with textbooks and bag in hand, completely ignoring the teachers' last comments, and just staring at the clock, or listening for the bell). The familiar sound of the bell goes off, and everyone rushes out the door, and as you near the locker area, you already see crowds of people squishing in, desperate to throw their bags in the lockers, and get to the lunch line. After you dump your bag, you run to the cafeteria, and quickly inspects the line for familiar faces. If you're lucky, your friends might be at the front of the line, but if you're not, you have to queue up just like the rest of them. This happens to me all the time. I never understood how people got to the cafeteria so fast. But unlike some people, I actually feel guilty when I cut the line. I can imagine the people behind me whispering to eachother. But we all know they'd do the same, if they were in similar circumstances. So my solution is: get another table, so there could be a total of 4 lines.

Overrated Books and Authors

Jane Austen: A year ago, when I finished Pride and Prejudice, the school librarian asked me which Jane Austen book I liked most. I said, "Sense and Sensibility". She was surprised, because she thought most people would put Pride and Prejudice over Sense and Sensibility. I told her that I thought Pride and Prejudice was overrated. I thought it really wasn't that big of a deal. It was a great book, but I think I preferred Sense and Sensibility more because over the years, Pride and Prejudice has been used too many times as movies, adaptations, inspirations, etc. and its just gone a bit worn out.
J.R.R. Tolkein: I think he is one of the best authors in the world. Lord of the Rings has been an enormous success. I love the trilogy, and I'm going to get around to reading the Hobbit. But really, its just another trilogy about a quest to save the world. I get that it has some originality, and frankly, some of the plot is really amazing, and I find the author an amazing writer, but I just think that because it has been such a success, people use it as an 'excuse'. There are people who have seen the movies, but haven't actually read the books. These people call themselves "Lord of the Rings Biggest Fans'. I think thats really stupid. You can't be a fan of a trilogy without actually reading the books. This is a lot like the so-called "Harry Potter fans". These people post all over the web and talk about how much they love Harry Potter, and become over-emotional at some of the details. Also, because of its success, I think that this trilogy has become so famous that the 'magnificance' of the book has been exagerrated greater and greater through each generations, just like a snowball effect.
This is all just my opinion, and I understand that most people's opinions are often swayed by others', and that only watching the movie doesn't deprive people of the privelage of being a 'fan'.

A dream house

All through my life, there has always been a blue print of my dream house. And over time, it has been editted, deleted, added, or completely thrown away to start from scratch. But I think its so hard to just decide on ONE house. For example, for some time, I thought about a house shaped like a ship. But at the same time, I wanted an apartment.  Right now, my current dream house would be an actual house. I like houses made of glass (although they have to be bulletproof). If someone was to walk in the door, by their two sides would be two stairs that spiral up to the second floor. Walk straight, and you will see a glass door that leads to the living room. The living room should be really high, like two floors high, so it could provide better acoustics. When you walk immediately into the living room, by the left side would be a TV built into the wall and sofas, etc. By the right side would be a white grand piano raised on a platform, right beside a french window (the kind that extend to the floor with panels of glass, etc.) But the thing is, the entire side of the right wall is actually glass, so you can see the side garden (which could serve as the backyard), and ofcourse the glass has to be bulletproof, and should also have curtains that extend all the way fromthe top to bottom, so I can close it. And halfway between the floor and the ceiling is a glass pathway that led from the top of the stairs to the bedrooms. I realise its really hard to describe if I don't draw a picture. But, in my mind, it would be the perfect house to live in.

My knee.

Today in basketball, I scraped my knee on the floor of the basketball court. I was playing offence, and I collided with someone playing defence. At first, I didn't feel anything except a little sting on my hands and knee. But then I looked down and saw a big white spot on my knee. Turns out that was the graze, but it was white. After I stood up, blood started coming out of the graze. It hurts so much (still does). There were also tiny cuts around it. I asked a friend what the white stuff was. She said it was tissue fluid, and fat. That made me want to throw up. But it was hard, so it couldn't be fat. Still, its obvious that the scratch took off the skin entirely. I didn't go to nurse, instead I just used the first-aid kit. There weren't a lot of stuff, so we had to make do and stick my knee under the water fountain. So my knee was washed in warm water, and it started hurting. I put a bandage on the scratch, but it was a little small so pretty soon blood started leaking out of it. Back, home, my mom put medicine on my cut, using a cotton swab and rolled in medicine. She rolled it over the graze so many times I swear she was doing it just to get the fun out of hearing me scream. So now, I have a new bandage on my knee, and it still hurts like hell.

Unpacking

On Saturday morning, our last packages from Belgium finally arrived. I was very excited and started packing immediately. My aunt and my cousin came to help out. We unpacked all the porcelains, glass, mugs (there were A LOT of mugs, I don't know why), etc. In the afternoon, I spent more time unpacking my own stuff. I had a box full of my stuff, plus other bits and pieces in other boxes. In my box, there were lots of books I brought back from Belgium, and CDs, notebooks, but mostly its just books. I organized my book shelf into alphabetical order based on author and filled up a whole book shelf from floor to roof. I love looking at my stuffed bookshelf. The other two bookshelves were full of old textbooks, my notebooks, collections of different classics and shakespeare plays (not original, mostly in shorter versions), and little boxes full of random stuff. I also seperated the fiction and nonfiction books. I had fun organizing the books. Another thing that came that made my very happy is our TV. We had to watch tv out of a computer moniter for the last couple of months. Now the size of our TV overwhelmed us. Also, many of my clothes arrived, but they were mostly winter clothes, and boots. I realized that I have a LOT of boots. But now in Taiwan its a little hot for boots. Many of my rabbit's stuff also came. For example, my mom was worried she wouldn't get used to the rabbit food here so she brought a lot of rabbit food from belgium. My rabbit's soccerball and mat also arrived. Many of my decorations also came back, like a box of perfume, sea shells, photo frames, etc. Also, all of my baking tools and recipes came back.We spent the whole weekend unpacking (and throwing away lots of stuff). It was fun, though.

The Big Bang Theory

I remember when it was first mentioned in history class, everyone was like, 'oh wow', what a nerd, etc. That was pretty stupid. 'The Big Bang Theory' not only refers to the actual theory itself, but also a popular american TV Show. That was what I was talking about. In Belgium, when I went to the British school (which was strictly speaking, an international school), there were people from al over the world. There were many americans and australiens. They watched a lot of american shows. One of them was The Big Bang Theory (plus others, like How I Met Your Mother, etc.). I love that show. It is now premiering its 5th season soon. The show is about a bunch of nerds and a pretty girl next door. The main characters are Sheldon, Leonard, and Penny. Sheldon and Leonard are roommates who live across from eachother in an apartment in Pasadena. Sheldon and Leonard have two other friends, Howard and Raj, and they all work at the university. Penny is a waitress. The one thing I love about this show is its characterization. The characters are portrayed very well by their actors as well. It is a comedy show, and mentions a lot of nerdy stuff like Star Wars, Star Trek, etc. They also speak Klingon fluently (that's how nerdy they are, even though I think its really cool). They also really like comic books, like Batman, Superman, etc. and basically know, and own, every single Marvel comic book. They are all extremely smart. It was said that Leonard and Sheldon had a combined IQ of 360 (Sheldon: 187, LeonardL 173). It is a pretty stereotypical comedy show.

Basketball

Today, someone asked me why I like basketball. I thought about it, then said, "Because I grew up around it." Normally, children in Taiwan grow up around baseball, because it is one of the few sports we are actually good at. But for me, it was basketball. My dad plays for a small team in a sector of the company he works for. He used to be captain of the team, and encouraged me to play with basketballs. In our house, there is always at least 3 spare basketballs sitting around, and since a small age, I've been rolling them around (I have a video of me as a toddler trying to play basketball). And every saturday and/or sunday morning, we would watch a NBA game. Sometimes, we would go to a basketball court and shoot some hoops. But when we moved to Europe, we stopped playing. I don't know why, but I think its because my dad was really busy in Europe, so we didn't have time to play basketball. Plus, we had satellite TV, so there weren't any basketball games to watch, but we'd always follow the scores closely. Besides my dad and my brother, a lot of my cousins play basketball, too. I remember we used to go to a park and just play basketball while the adults stood around talking about politics.Now that I'm back from Europe, I decided to take up basketball again. But after two years of no practise whatsoever, I've actually gotten pretty bad at it. But I really want to actually be good at it again. Also, I can't wait for this year's basketball season to start.

9/11 Attacks

Today in MUN class, we watched footages of the attack of September 11, 2001. It was heartbraking. We watched a footage of the second plane crashing into the second building, via a bystander's videocam. Hearing her reaction, made me want to cry. Because it was that moment, when she saw the plane actually fly into the building, that she realised it was a terrorist attack. For people in my generation, who only learned of the attacks during school, and annual memorials, didn't know the first feeling of shock when it happened. We only learned the story from other's point of view AFTER the initial attack. So when we looked through the eyes of the bystander and heard her reaction, we realized what shock and terror was really like. Furthermore, we watched videos of people waving out the windows who were trapped in the top floors, and people jumping out the buildings. This, for me, was the saddest part. There were video after video of people jumping out. One bystander stated that you could hear the sound of people falling onto the cement. 200 people jumped. We also saw videos of people crying on the street, traumatized by the whole attack. It must have been very, very horrible. Not only for the victims, but also for their family and friends. Nearly 3,000 people died that day. Many of them were firefighters who died during the collapse of the building. It makes me said to think that the people who did this, thought they were doing the right thing.

Today in Taipei

Today I went to see my cousin in Taipei, who is attending the National Taiwan University in accounting. I asked her if she liked accounting, and she said yes. I've always thought accounting would be boring.We went around Taipei and went to this amazing Japanese restaurant. I also got new clothse, because she recently visited the US (where her sister, also my cousin, is attending the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor), and she bought a few shirts from Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister. We went around, ate frozen yogurt, and she told me about college, because she is in her second year now. I went inside her dorm and saw her room. One of the girls had a REALLY messy room. She majored in philosophy, and her desk was just PILED with stuff. There were empty coffee mugs, lunch boxes, paper, textbooks, tissues, etc. My mom also told me about a friend of her's who majored in philosophy. Apparently, that friend went mad and had to get psychological help. My aunt also knew someone who majored in philosophy who took her own life. Now I know I definitely won't take philosophy as a major in university.

Darfur conflict

In our MUN class, we watched a video on the Darfur conflict in Sudan. We had to write a response to the video. I strongly felt that the genocide in Darfur was completely wrong. It made me sad to think that there is a country as corrupt as this that they would rather try to protect the power of the arabs, then protect the country itself. All the horrendous deeds that were done there shocked me. People burned alive, families killed, 400,000 people displaced, forced to relocate to refugee camps in Chad. This made me really sad to think about. I mean, human beings are not supposed to treat eachother in such ways. How could anyone bare to kill someone, hacking their brains out, etc. without feeling any slightest inkling of remorse? Everything that happened there were photographed by Brian Steidle. The photos were... indescribable. It made you feel like you are ashamed to be alive. If a similar thing had happened to me, I don't know how I would bare it, like the strong people of Darfur do.

Keeping fit.

Today I realized the importance of keeping fit. Because if I don't, I will be slaughtered in P.E. and girls basketball. For example, today in P.E. we had a fitness test, where we had to do pull-ups and this other type of exercise which trains your biceps and triceps. Then we did shuttle runs. Plus, because someone was late, we all had to do suicides. This killed me. At the end, I could barely lift my arm, plus my leg muscles hurt.
Then in girls basketball, we practised penalty line shoots. If we didn't get the ball in at all in our turn, we had to do 20 pushups. In the end, I had to do 60 pushups.
But there's been much improvement since the first time I joined. The first day, we did a lot of fitness tests, etc. and the next day, my muscles hurt A LOT. I could barely move without feeling pain in every part of my body. I concluded that I just had to suck it up. Because this time next year, I would be the one watching the newbies suffer... :D

Sail France (or, Why I like sailing) - Part 2 Sailing

The next day, we were all expecting good, hot weather, and a marvelous day of sailing. But instead, the day was freezing cold, with a LOT of wind, and cold breakfast. Wind is an essential part of sailing, but when you are just a beginner, TOO much wind is horrible. Besides that, everyone packed for hot weather, so we were all wearing short and tanktops, so by the end of the session, all of us were cold and wet. The sailing was horrible that day. Nearly all the boats capsized (although I'm proud to say mine's didn't). At lunch (which was cold as well), no one wanted to go back to sailing. But we did anyway. It was much better in the afternoon, since the wind was much smaller. The week after that were full of ups and downs. One of the ups is the fact that we had a little trip to the beach and huge sand dunes. Also, I grew to like sailing a lot. One down: I was paired with a boy one afternoon. We just learned a new skill in sailing, so we were both pretty confused. He was quite a large boy, while I was quite skinny. In the beginning, it was ok, because we were going in a straight line. I was afraid of capsizing because it was cold that day and I didn't want to get wet (plus, I didn't want to ruin my record of not-capsizing). But after some turns and close calls, I began to accept the fact that we were going to capsize and it was only a matter of time before we do. So later, he handed me the tiller extention ( the thing controlling the rudder) while he held on to the mainsheet (the thing attached to the boom which controls the mainsail). We were both really crap at the positions, so we kept turning in circles because it was pretty windy plus we were both bad sailors at the time. So in the end he got frustrated and pushed me off the boat. The boat kept going and I had to swim after it. And while I was climbing back into the boat, I cut my leg with one of the ropes, and the scar is still visible to date. And later on, we capsized so many times I couldn't even count. Other than that, I love sailing.

I love sailing because I love the water and the ocean (though we were sailing in the lake, I always dream of sailing in the sea). I am sick of land and I'm kind of afraid of heights and airplanes being hijacked, so air travel isn't really appealing to me. So I like travelling by water. Also I like the fact that I get to control the boat, deciding how fast it goes and which way it goes. I told my mom this, but she just said, 'wait until you get a car'. And other than that, it is pretty safe, and it feels nice to just glide on the water with the wind pushing me. It produces no pollution at all. That's why I love sailing

Sail France (or, Why I like sailing) - Part 1 The Journey to Bordeaux

In the summer that has just past, I went sailing with my friends. It was part of the British curriculum, stating that every student had to thoroughly learn an outdoor sport before they graduate from year 9. So our school decided on sailing.

2 weeks before school ended, we went to the Bordeaux and stayed there for a week and learned sailing. Everyone expected the weather to be really hot. But in actual fact, it was freezing. Plus, the morning we were leaving, the train had mysteriously 'gone off grid' so we had to wait at the Brussels Gare du Midi for about 2 to 3 hours. By then the teachers were thinking about cancelling the trip. Eventually, we all got so sick of waiting, that we just took whatever train going to France arrived in the station next. Eventually, we landed in the station right outside Paris Disneyland. From there, we stayed for 2 hours, and everyone got a free first-class seats, as an apology from the Eurostar company. Then there was another hour on the bus to the camp. When we finally got to Bordeaux, it was already midnight. Everyone was freezing from the cold, and had no appetite. Plus, the food there sucked. And in our tent, there are about a million little bugs crawling around. Some girl even found a beetle under her bed.

I guess by then, everyone had gotten sick of the trip. They were all annoyed about the travel (though most were quite excited about getting free first-class tickets). But all through the journey, everyone thought that maybe this whole set-down would make the sailing more fun. That night no one could sleep because of the bugs and the excitement of sailing. Every single girl buried themselves in their sleeping bags, save their face, to avoid being attacked by bugs. From my point of view, I was tired and annoyed and wanted to go home. I considered phoning my mom and telling her to get a train back to Brussels. But then I though, heck, go with it. It's only a week.

Blogging

For over two years, I've always been on another blog: tumblr, which technically wasn't a blog. I think it was probably because most of my friends were on tumblr. Tumblr is a place where you could share photos, videos, gifs, texts, etc., and you could also reblog from someone else. So naturally, it would be full of funny photos and gifs.

I've never used Blogger before, so I'm still getting used to it. But I think its just like most other blogs. Hopefully, I'll get into habit of writing a blog every night from now on. For a daily blog, I really don't have any idea what to write about. I think maybe I'll just write about random things that happened to me over the course of the day, or maybe memories from summer, etc.

So far, I've had trouble with bloggger about: template changing, gadgets, layout, language, privacy settings, etc. But I've solved many of the problems now, except template changing and gadgets. Hopefully, by the end of next week I would be fluent in using this new blogging site.