#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.