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