#15

     David shared a survey with me, and it showed that when you keep doing one thing for 21 days, it will become one of your forever habits. It sounds cheering, and it means to make keeping an English diary as a habit, I only have six days left.

     My dad went to the company where he worked before to take the check of his pension, and he planned to order fifty cups of coffee to treat his colleagues since he thought it would be the last time he went to the office. But I thought he didn't have to do it because he'd already treated them pizza and drinks to take the place of a farewell party before. He just liked to *splash out.

     I got a letter today, and it was from one of my pen pals. He was an *early-intervention *social worker, but he was just a *novice. He made me recall a documentary named "An elephant boy and a robot girl." It was about a boy with a serious *cleft lip and cleft palate, and a girl suffering from *cerebral palsy. They didn't undergo any early childhood intervention, so it was very arduous for them to learn and exercise like ordinary children, and they didn't know how to interact with people properly since they stayed home all the time, and no body taught them. They were taken care by their grandparents, and their grandparents were too old to take good care of them and teach them. Luckily, some people asked social workers for help when they knew those two kids' conditions. They made progress step by step after accepting an early intervention. So, I think my pen pal's job is very respectable and important to influence someone's life.

     Here comes the winter again. Oh! My! It's so windy at night.





*splash out -- to spend a lot of money on buying things, esp. things that are pleasant to have but you don't need
*early intervention -- 早期療育
*social worker -- 社工
*novice -- a person who is not experienced in a job or situation
*clef lip and clef palate -- 唇顎裂
*cerebral palsy -- 腦性麻痺

#14

     My dad invited me to deal with the money in my saving account of Dacun Farmer's Association this afternoon. Since I didn't work there, it became annoying whenever you wanted to use its passbook and its ATM card because you could only use them in Dacun Farmer's Association, even if in other Farmer's Association, you had to pay for a *transaction fee while withdrawing. 

     When I got there, I found that they've *reinvented their *passbook style and renewed their ATM card for people can use them in every Farmer's Association in Taiwan. They should have done this! My passbook and ATM card were old ones, so I couldn't update my passbook successfully.

     One of the officers saw me taking the old passbook, and led me to her counter, "I'll help you change the passbook," she said.

     "But I don't need a new one, should I change it? I'd like to close my account."

     Well, she looked embarrassed and *perplexed as if it was a very difficult question, so she went in to ask her colleagues and chief... 

     Come on, I just wanted to close my account...

     Later, she asked me to stand in line in front of another counter. That was another section, and there were so many people. I waited for ages, and when it should be my turn, another officer with short hair said, "You wanna close your account, right? You should come here!" What? I was speechless and kept waiting for my turn.

     It really took me a very long long time. The officer said they've made my new ATM card, so I had to take it first, and then I could start the *procedure of account closing. Sounds ridiculous for me. I just signed my name to take the new card, and returned it back, and the officer printed a list of my detail deposits, and I filled out some forms. Finally, I got my money back... I felt exhausted after the short trip.

*transaction fee -- 手續費

*reinvent -- to produce something new that is based on something that already exists

*passbook -- 存摺

*perplexed -- filled with uncertainty

*procedure -- a set of actions that is the official or accepted way of doing something

#13

     Mayday held a free concert in Daan Forest Park tonight, and because the concert was free, many people stood in line for a very long time to get a better position to watch their performance. There was a *live stream of it, so I just watched it on Youtube, and I kept sharing my strong feeling with David via LINE app. I recalled a beautiful old time being with David in Kaohsiung. Once in a lantern exhibition, we were just like idiots, standing under the stage more than ten hours for waiting to join Mayday's concert. It was a fantastic experience, and I couldn't help bursting into tears when I saw my favorite band, Mayday. I remembered I held David's hand and a stranger's hand, and we listened to Ashin together attentively then.

     The date March 29th was very meaningful for Mayday because it was the date that they first used the name Mayday and performed on the stage in public in 1997. It's been 20 years since then, and in 1997, there were no people coming for them. All the audience were just members of other independent bands at that time, but now, more than 35000 people under the same stage were shouting for them, singing with them. It was a really touching moment especially for such a die-hard fan, like me.

     My dad looked very great today, and we went to the gym to take a walk in the morning. We bought two boxed lunch, two bowls of *milkfish soup and fish ball soup. The soup was super delicious, no wonder my dad loved it. It contained much *shredded ginger, so it was very gingery.

     I had an English class at 4 p.m., and my dad invited me to go shopping in the market after class. I recommended myself driving the car, and unbelievably, my dad said, "YES!" Ha ha ha ha ha ! I drove my dad to the market, and my dad directed me to the expressway to go home. Oh! It was an exciting trip! This was my first time driving at a speed of more than 70 kilometers per hour, but still, many cars tried to *cut me off.

     My mom needed to work overtime tonight, so I went to the kitchen preparing today's dinner at 6 p.m. I cooked many different vegetables, and fried rice. I liked the fried rice!  Super delicious and very healthy. It contained cubes of cucumber, *yam, *snap bean, and carrots, and I also added minced pork. If I have to cook tomorrow, I will try to cook it again.

*live stream -- broadcasting video and sound of an event over the Internet as it happens
*milkfish -- 虱目魚
*shredded -- 切絲的
*cut sb. off -- (in this case) 超車；也可以用在插話
*yam -- 山藥
*snap bean -- 四季豆

#12

     Arnela's class again! How lucky! I was surprised that she told me that they also say Cao or Zdravo to greet with people. It's same as in Serbia. She said they had a *power outage today, and the screen was shut down without warning in the middle of her class when she taught a Japanese student.

     My *die-hard reader, Patty, asked me to write down the meanings and pronunciations of difficult words, and it was not difficult for me, so I would do it from this day.

    The same Tuesday, like Tuesday last week, and Tuesday last last week. Mom and I went to the hospital with Dad, and he got a cold. His report of the blood showed that his CRP (發炎指數) was a little higher than usual, so he couldn't *undergo a treatment today.

     I drew a draft of Jake on the wall today, and if I have free time tomorrow, I'll paint it.

*power outage = power cut = no electricity = black out
*die-hard -- 用來形容頭號粉絲

*undergo -- to experience something that is unpleasant or something that involves a change

#11

     It's been a long time since I had Arnela's first class. Today was my second time taking her class. I'd got a very great impression of her in our first class because she was so jovial and active, and of course, her instruction in English words, sentences, and articles was very clear.  I always desired to have her class again, but I couldn't predict when the schedule of her classes opened up for students to book. Therefore, whenever I entered the website of her profile to book her class, and they were booked all the time.

     I had a great time talking with her this evening, and I thought I should look upon her as a model of communicating. She was beaming and always showed a genuine interest in my words. I felt easy about talking with her in spite of speaking English, a language I'm not familiar with.

     I've desired to paint my favorite cartoon characters on the roller doors for a long time, but it's difficult to carry out since they are too big and tall, and it's hard to draw a draft on a roller door. However, today I made up my mind to do something. I decided to paint an indoor wall first as a practice. I started to search further information about painting in the morning, and made a list to make sure what I already had and what I needed to buy. Later, I started to practice drawing Jake and Finn on the paper, and I found I couldn't draw Jake well, so I decided to paint Finn first.

     I went to a paint store in Lukang in the afternoon, and I found everything I needed in it. It was such a nice place. I bought a can of water-based cement paint, some liquid masterbatches (色母), and two different sizes brushes. I found wooden ladders in the store, and they were so beautiful, but I didn't buy any. I was so rational. Also, I went to a convenience store to buy a newspaper for not staining the floor.

     After home, I started to collect all tools I needed. Besides what I bought in the store, I still needed several different boxes and jars to put water and paint in, wooden sticks to blend the paint, a paper plate to lay down brushes and a piece of old cloth to dry brushes and clean my hand.

     Painting on the wall was an amazing experience,and I really loved it! I spent less than two hours painting the wall, but I spent much time preparing before and cleaning after. Cleaning was the most exhausting thing for me, but I really had a great time.

#10

     My brother lent his credit card to me, so I could keep taking English classes on line. He was so nice, and of course I will pay for it. I booked an English class today, but the teacher couldn't attend the class at that time for some reason, so I got a free ticket to book another class no matter when the class is. It means I can use this free ticket to book a class at a later date, and it will be easier for me to book my favorite teacher's class. Only some people will book a class at a later date because if you do so, it means you have to miss some classes before the day, it is not a smart way. Therefore, it is so excellent for me to get a free ticket.

     Mike is my brother. Mom, Mike, and I visited Aunt Shen this afternoon. Of course, I went to play with the dog Black immediately. At first, he was still too timid to get closer to me, but I walked to him step by step, and tried to touch him. Finally, I did it! This was my first time to touch him successfully. I've tried many times to make friends with Black whenever I visited my aunt, but he always felt scared of strangers. (Though I don't think I am a stranger actually.) This time, he even stretched out one of his feet for asking me to pet his head and body. We are friends now!

#9

     The study group meeting for discussing about teaching past-exam papers restarted today, so I went to Lukang junior high school in the early morning. Also, I met students I taught before, and they got taller, and looked nice, healthy. I was very glad to see them again. After the meeting, I had lunch with Becky and one of my past colleagues, Yiwen. We had a good time in the restaurant, and it was fantastic to listen to them and spend time with them. I shared this blog with them as well, and asked them to help me find some grammar errors and incorrect usages of words.

     The weather was a little bit cold, but after home, Dad still wanted to go somewhere to take a walk for exercising. Therefore, Dad drove my mom and me to Taiwan Sugar Corporation in Xihu. It was extremely windy, but the sun appeared soon. We took a walk through the woods, and saw many different machines for manufacturing and transporting sugar. Also, there was an old lady singing beside the path. The songs she sang were not my type, but my dad's. So, we took a seat to listen to her, and Mom and I bought two cases of ice cream. It was delicious but unfortunately, my dad couldn't taste it.

     In the evening, my brother was home, and he got a cold again. Oh! My! I sprayed him with electrolysis alkali ion water (超電水) to kill germs on him, and asked him to wear a gauze mask. Later, he went visit Alice again, but I didn't know. I assumed that he was just visting his basketball partners. As soon as he went home, I got a message from Alice. She didn't tell me the complete story; she just said she was a little angry. I was surprised about that, and I didn't know what happened. I went to talk with my brother and shared some important lessons from my working experiences.

     My brother was an insurance sales representative, and Alice was one of his customers. To complete an insurance case, generally speaking, it needs a couple days for preparing necessary personal files and making a personal insurance policy. Also, you have to sign or stamp the authorization letter for the bank can make a deduction from your bank deposits. It depends on the way you used to create a bank account.

     Last time, Alice signed the authorization letter, and my brother informed her of the date when the bank would deduct the first payment from her bank deposits. However, she was asked to resubmit the authorization letter after the first payment. It was really weird if her files were not ready yet, how could the bank deduct her money? And my brother also felt confused. Alice felt angry about this, and decided to rescind the insurance policy. For the lack of working experience, my brother didn't know how to deal with it, and how to comfort his customer. He seemed a little disappointed, but I tried to encourage him with my mom. We shared our working experiences and how we dealt with difficulties. Making mistakes and feeling disappointed were very common in life actually. At least, he learned a lesson.

     Although he lost a customer, I told him that he should apologize to Alice first when he meets her next time. And he should try his best to show his passion and sincerity for dealing with her case. Also, he has to know what happened, and finds out the answer soon. After all, he has to know how to deal with the same problem in the future.

#8

     I just finished English class, and felt very excited now. Teacher Victor shared his today's crazy thing during class with me. It was about one of his student, and the student was 52 years old. Victor said he got a little cold this morning, so he didn't really wake up, but he had to prepare his first class. When he called the student, he found the student was naked! Ha! Victor apologized to him for not waking up, and said he was not clear-headed, and then the student tried to wake him up, so the student started to sing a song loudly with his naked body. Victor said, "He did wake me up!" So interesting! I also want to meet such a crazy guy! Haha. The story made me think of David. Also, I learned how to greet with people in Serbian today. I searched the information about Serbian on the Net, and I found their words are very different from English. It was a brand-new language system for me.

     My grandma came to my house this afternoon, and she didn't call me and tell me she would visit us first. So, if my aunt didn't call me, I wouldn't know it. My father and I were exercising around the gym then, and we were going to buy boxed lunch. It made me feel uneasy for knowing a sudden visit. After home, I got my grandma's call. She said, "I'm around your house now! Go downstairs!" Umm... I went out quickly, and found her scooter filled with bags. Oh! My! THREE boxes of cake, a BIG bag of vegetables, and many packs of nuts. I tried to refuse her kindness in supplication, but it didn't work. She went upstairs to visit my dad, and I asked her to wear a gauze mask, but she refused. She said she wasn't sick... It was really difficult to communicate with her, and she didn't seem to listen to others. During her visit, she kept complaining about her relatives, but those were long past stories. It was really an exhausting visit.

     By the way, hello in Serbian is Здраво (zdravo). I'll try to greet a Serbian teacher in Serbian next class.

#7

     Since yesterday I booked Dusanka's class successfully, I had expected today's English class very much. I tried many times to book her class, but I failed for she was just too popular. It was a very comfortable conversation, and she was very nice and patient. She made me think that I talked in English fluently, haha. I was filled with confidence during class. She was really good at leading students to answer questions and express their opinions. I was glad to share all my opinions with her. To my surprise, she was familiar with Asian food and she liked to eat and cook it.

     I tried to divide every dish I cooked into three portions averagely, and put them in three separate plates for Mom, Dad, and myself. Guess what? Every dish was over, no leftovers! I was happy to see that, and I could wash fewer dishes by this way.

     Emma said that she will visit me after Eileen's wedding reception, and I expect both very much, the wedding reception and Emma's coming. However, Emma will come to Lukang on Monday, so maybe we'll see many stores closed... She said she'd like to help me prepare lunch for my dad on that day. It must be very interesting!

#6

     It was a very busy day. In the morning, I drove my dad to the gym to take a walk, and went to Lukang Farmers' Association to apply for a scholarship for my brother. I asked one of the officers to make sure all necessary documents were collected for applying. However, I failed. So, I drove the car to the convenience store to print some personal documents. This was my first time driving alone. Although the road was extremely wide, I was still scared. When I was done, I went to find my father. He kept walking along the park, and he looked energetic after chemotherapy. We walked together and he invited me to buy boxed lunch together. Of course, I was glad to do it, but I forgot to bring my purse, and so did he. He was so disappointed, so I said I would go buy it later.

     My great-grand uncle passed away a few months ago, and today his children and grandchildren came back to let his urn put into the columbarium pagoda in his hometown. My great-grand uncle had lived in Japan for many years, and he married a Japanese woman. Honestly, he had taken root in Japan, and his family couldn't speak any Chinese or Taiwanese, but he still loved his hometown where he was born. I went to the nearest columbarium pagoda with my aunt and uncle, and joined the ceremony together.We took incense sticks to worship the God of the land, and then a feng shui consultant taught us how to proceed with the ceremony. It was weird for me to see my great-grand uncle's family keep taking pictures during the ceremony. I guessed they just wanted to record all memories about my great-grand uncle.
   
     Later, one of my great-grand uncle's grandson came to us, and he showed a picture in his cellphone. The picture was in my granduncle's funeral, and we were there. I drew our family tree to make sure our relationship-- he was my uncle. I was like a translator among us--my aunt, my uncle, and my Japanese uncle. We tried hard to understand each other by English, our body language, and facial expressions. It was really interesting for me. Hope that we will be more familiar with my great-grand uncle's Japanese family in the future.

#5

     Tuesday again, the day for my dad to see a doctor. My mom would take a day off every Tuesday, and go see a doctor with my dad. It means I don't have to cook every Tuesday. Yes, I am free!!!! Therefore, I went shopping with my mom this morning, and bought a pack of kimchi and rice cake. I wanna cook Budae-jjigae (부대찌개; literally "troop stew") for myself.

     However, for the lack of ingredients, like sausage, Korean ramen, cheese, slices of ham, it was not a real budae-jjigae, but it was still delicious. It tasted like a kimchi hotpot. It was spicy, and I loved it so much. I haven't eaten spicy food for ages since I started to cook for Dad because he could only eat light and natural food.

     The indie band Fire EX. released a new song "Song for you," and I watched its MV this evening. Mr. Yang was still cute and handsome. I missed the time when I stayed in Kaohsiung because I could always join their concerts then. Hope that I can go to their concert soon.

#4

     I was just like a housewife today, but I was an unmarried housewife. I did a lot of housework, cleaning the room, cleaning the floor, doing the laundry, hanging the clothes, etc. This was my first time to prepare lunch and dinner, two meals a day. Originally, I was responsible for only lunch but since my mom had to work overtime, I prepared dinner. My dad was so impolite that he asked me to buy dinner from a restaurant. Come on! Although dishes I cooked were not as delicious as those made by professional chefs, my cuisine was completely based on natural plants and vegetables. It was absolutely healthy! No much salt and sugar! It was exactly fit for my dad's condition.

     Another story about my childish dad--this afternoon, I invited my dad and one of my aunts to go shopping together. I thought my dad spent too much time lying on the bed, so I tried to energize him to go outside. However, he dare not let me drive. He took the key and insisted that he should be the driver. Impolite again! I've made such progress in driving, but he just grabbed the key tightly.

     On the contrary, my mom was so sweet. Since she needed to work until eight p.m., I left her dinner in the electric cooker to keep warm. After she went home, I told her that I also prepared her dinner, and she could take it from the cooker. My mom said dramatically, "Ohhhhh~~~ What a happiness!!!" I was so happy to hear that. I really like to be praised. Luckily, I am not a king or queen. If I were a king, I would be cheated by those beautiful words by villains.

     Today's English class, I knew a new teacher Victor. He was so easygoing and interesting. He called me when he was in the bathroom. And then he wanted to have water, so he took his laptop and walked to take a glass of water. Of course, he tried to keep talking with me constantly. It was so funny. Also, he was awesome. He could speak Serbian, German, English, and now he is learning Dutch. I hope one day I can also speak other languages fluently. But first of all, I should practice English more.

#3

     My mom invited me to visit Grandma today, and of course I'd like to but when she said she would drive me there, I was really scared. My grandma's house is in the mountain, if you want to get there, you have to go through many curves and go through a very narrow road. My mom was not good at dealing with curves. Whenever she tried to go through a curve, she would turn the steering wheel strenuously, too strenuously. It was very scary. I couldn't help screaming on the way and reminding her to turn the steering wheel back soon.

     However, we arrived without accidents. Thank God, seriously. I was not familiar with driving, either, so I asked my mom to let me drive back home. On the way home, we also went to Aunt's house, and she gave us some papayas and vegetables. I love the dog Black in Aunt's house. Black is so cute and timid. I played with him for a while, and hoped that one day I can keep a dog as well.

     After home, I told my dad that Mom and I took turns to drive, and he felt incredible! Both of us made very big progress in driving. It was a really interesting trip with my mom today.

#2

     Yesterday, I was really expecting to take the online English class because I tried many times to book Marra's class and finally, I got it! However, you can't always get what you want. The time of Marra's class was 10:30 p.m. yesterday, and I went to the hospital with my mom at about 7:30 to apply for my dad's pathological report. Actually, 7:30 was still early from 10:30, and who could predict that we spent more than two hours waiting for that report! I regretted that I had to cancel Marra's class. What a pity!

     After home, I turned on the computer, and it was over 12 o'clock. I tried to find if there were still other available classes of my favorite teachers, but none. Therefore, I booked a teacher I didn't know at 3:30 a.m. It was a crazy decision, I thought. But it made me feel better.

     After class, I started to book the next day's class, and I was so lucky that there were still some available classes of Marra's. Hope that everything will be good this Sunday.

     Today, my brother came home and stayed only for a short time. He went to visit Alice's sister to deal with her insurance. It was so interesting to see him serving my friend and her sister.

#1

     Since I registered Engoo classes, an online platform for learning English, it's been about twenty days, and now there are still seven days left. I'm not sure how much progress my English has made, but I really hope that my English can be better and better. Therefore, I decide to set up a blog to keep a diary in English, and enforce myself thinking in English.

     I am already a very mature adult, which means I have a complete thinking system in my brain. I have my own values, opinions to other things; however, it's always difficult to express my complicated thinking in a foreign language. I really wanna jump to a higher level, I really hope that I can talk about something serious with others in English, not just greeting, talking about the weathers, hobbies... come on! I need more practices and confidence in speaking English. And I think, to improve my English speaking, first, I have to be used to thinking in English.



     Since February, I've stayed home for taking care of my father for he suffering from the lung cancer. It was not difficult for me to take care of a patient like my father because he was such a good and obedient patient. He never rejected to take his medicine although he needed to take so much medicine after and before meals.

     Just a few days ago, I knew a shocking information from the doctor. My father told him that he was drinking the nutrition shake ENSURE, a popular American brand of nutrition shake.Then, the doctor was very angry, and asked my father,

"Why did you drink that?"

"Umm...isn't it good?"

"Of course not. OK, now I know the reason why your condition is unstable. Stop drinking any nutrition shake!"

     I felt really surprised after hearing what the doctor said because I assumed that those nutrition shakes are just for serious patients. On the bottles of those nutrition shakes including ENSURE, it says it can be drunk by patients before or after surgery, or patients undergoing chemotherapy, or old people who can't eat normally, etc. My father is undergoing chemotherapy, and of course we think he can drink nutrition shakes for energizing.

     Therefore, I googled on the Net and I found a book talking about ENSURE. It said that ENSURE contains much sugar, but it won't tell you what ingredient provides it. I took one from the ENSURE box to check its ingredients based on the book. And that's true! It provides many carbohydrates. The book said its carbohydrates are even more than coke in the same capacity. I also took other nutrition shakes and compared with ENSURE, and I found all of them have maltodextrin often used in milk powder for prolonging expiry date. It would make your blood sugar increase promptly. Furthermore, nutrition shakes are made from chemical syntheses, and chemical syntheses are not good for our bodies although maybe they are exactly containing some nutrients. So, if you are not rather ill, just eat natural food as much as you can. Eating natural food will be much better than drinking lots of nutrition shakes.