Roommate's Birthday Week 室友的生日週慶祝

托室友的福，這個星期吃了好多蛋糕，不同於台灣的蛋糕，這邊的人都自己做蛋糕的，雖然我也想要自已做，一來對自己做蛋糕沒什麼信心，二來是我得去買很多材料，再來就是時間緊迫，所以我在Food Lion買蛋糕給室友囉！

Thanks to my roommate. I had a lot of cake this week. Different from the cake in Taiwan, people here make their own cake. Although I was desperately wanting to make one for the roommate,  I bought a cake at Food Lion with the help of my supervisor. Well, firstly I don't have confidence in making cake and then I have to buy lots of ingredients which I don't have time and transportation to do shopping.)

我選了草莓口味的，希望室友有個甜蜜的一年。(再加上一些"飲料"當禮物)

I chose the flavor of the strawberry to wish my roommate a sweet year. (Also, I bought some her favorite "drink" as her birthday gift.)

接下來的幾天，學校幫九月的壽星慶生喔，再加上貼心的Megan也帶我們去橄欖球賽慶祝室友的生日，當然她也做了一個蛋糕與大家分享喔！她做了個巧克力蛋糕，非常非常好吃！真希望自己也有像她的手藝。

The next days, the school held a birthday party for September birthday girls and boys. Megan also took us to a football game to celebrate the roommate's birthday by making a  chocolate cake(Btw, it was very yummy). I wish myself to be able to make a delicious cake like hers.

Unknown sadness & My Hobbies? 莫名的難過 & 這是我的興趣嗎？

It was so nice to know that there are some friends caring about you. This morning I posted a statue on Fackbook and later a few friends left some texts on fb to cheer me up. Then I met M on campus. He was checking on me too. I felt he was very sweet at that time.

今早很高興知道有幾個朋友在關心你。我在臉書上寫"今天天氣很好，可是心情很糟，出去晒晒太陽吧！，接著有幾個朋友就留言鼓勵我， 在校園，遇到一個朋友，他也關心我是否有什麼事發生，嗯，心裡甜甜的呢！

Actually there was nothing bad happened. I was just cleaning some of the stuff in my room which I was very relunctant to do. While sorting out the gifts I am going to give, writing thank you cards, looking around the closet what to take home, oh man, I became very moody. Yes, I was moody and I could not figure out the reasons. Then, I realized it was the sadness for leaving here this morning. 

事實是沒有什麼不好的事發生，我只是在整理房間裡的一些東西，而我很不情願去整理，分類要送人的禮物，寫感謝卡，看看衣櫥裡什麼東西要帶回去，唉，我突然覺得很難過，而我在當下並不知道為什麼情緒不穩，直到今早我意識到我在難過我要離開了。

Anyway, I would like to share about today's speech class. The speech I made today did a great job to make me happy. This time we had to make a speech about hobbies that are not yours but your assigned partner's. In short, your partner's hobbies are now your hobbies. We were asked to write our own speech about hobbies as an assignment to hand in class, so we did not that the speech would be switched. Therefore, I try to be funny on my hobbies which were singing, scootering and man hunting. (If you know me, you will know I have no guts to do man hunting.) My partner is a man and I could not image his only hobby is to make people laugh. What an interesting person. In fact, when I first read his speech, I could not help laughing.

不管怎樣，我要分享一下今天的演講，我很高興我這次的演講講得不錯。這一次我們的主題是「興趣」，但是不是演講你的嗜好，而是你同學的，簡言之，你同學的嗜好現在變成你的了。(老師這次要求我們寫講稿然後上課交，我們不並知道老師會交換我們的講稿，而我試著要風趣一點，所以寫了我大學時代的興趣：唱KTV、騎機車兜風、和獵男生--認識我的人都知道我根本我沒個膽去做這個…)我的夥伴是個男生，而他唯一的「興趣」就是帶給人們歡笑，真是一個有趣的人！事實上，當我讀他的講稿時，我忍不住笑出來了。

I am not sure why but the instructor only asked my partner and me what are the hobbies we have now in front of the class. Because of that, the whole class knew our interesting hobbies and kind of looked forward to hear our speeches. I felt pressure.

我不確定為什麼老師要在課堂上說我們兩個人的興趣，但是因為這樣，全班都知道我們兩個人的興趣，而且期待我們兩人的溝講。

Here are some lines of his speech draft.

I don't play video games, and I freaking hate playing golf... Since I was little I have been perfecting this hobby of mine...When the whole class is langhing at my shenanigans is when I feel the most alive. I crave the laughter. I would die for the attention. 

這裡分享一下他寫的東西：我不打電動而且我非常厭惡打高爾夫球…當我是小孩子的時候，我就將這個興趣完美化了…當全班在笑我的笑話時，那是我覺得我還活著的時候。我渴望笑聲，也渴望得到注意。

Most importantly, I learned the "knock knock joke" because he use one in his closing. (I mean I heard it before but never really figured out what it was.) Knock knock. Who's there? Little old lady. Little old lady who? Wow, I didn't realize that you all were such good yodelers.

重要的是，因為這次演講我學到了"knock knock"的笑話。(我是指我以前聽過，但從沒真的了解那是什麼。)

敲敲門。誰在那？，是個嬌小的老太太，誰是嬌小的老太太? 哇我不知道你們是很棒的yodelers)

Meanwhile, he also did a great job to turn my hobbies into his. I did not talk about man hunting in my speech draft because I felt it might be improper to talk about it before the audience. I wish I had his revised speech draft so that I could show you because it was sooo hilarious. I kind of remember one part. " I like to sing Karaoke with men at night and have breakfast after singing. I would hop on a man's scooter and head to breakfast store and then see the sunrise...Gosh, I wish I could have the creativity he has. The whole class laughed.  I think he is a really laughter-maker, isn't he?

而他也很棒！他很成功地把我的興趣變成他的了，我並沒有在我的講稿裡說太多獵男人的事，因為我覺得這可能不太適合跟聽眾們說，但我真希望我有他改過的講稿，所以有可以跟你們分享，因為真的很好笑！我有點記得" 我喜歡跟男人唱KTV，晚上唱完歌後可以去吃早餐。我會跳上男生的機車，然後前往早餐店，再去看日出…真的是，我希望我能有像他一樣的創造力，全班都笑了，我想他真的是一個帶來歡笑的人。

Making going away gifts 製作小禮物

Here are my plans for making gifts.

Chinese knot- auspiciousness 

Little card with Chinese characters "吉祥" hanging below the Chinese knot+ my Chinese stamp on the back of the card.

Thank you card: Print Xiexie in Chinese calligraphy font to put on the card.

我的規劃是：

吉祥結

吉祥話+我的印章(吉祥話後面)

卡片上面有謝謝的書法字

終於完成小禮物的製作！

Phew! I finally finish the present making.

There are a few ones I made earlier: Chinese paper cut and Chinese knots as hair decorations.
還有一些是之前完成的：剪紙+ 中國結髮飾

I really want to make more, but I did not have materials left. Hehe.. YEAH!! Hope my friends will like the gift I made to them.

我是真的想要多做一些，但是沒有材料了。耶!! 希望我的朋友會喜歡我做給他們的小禮物！

The lesson from Lindt Truffle Chocolate

I felt like I was so silly that I just found out one thing today. I have some chocolate every month during some period of time. I have noticed the wrappings of the chocolate are different which are red, yellow, and blue. Besides, I have noticed the chocolate are different in these three different wrappings. Even though I had never thought of it carefully that what exactly is the difference between these three chocolates. Now I know it clearly when I had these three ones together today.

The red wrapping one - black chocolate
The gold one - white chocolate
The blue one- white chocolate with cocoa nibs (my favorite)

P.S: The Lidnt Truffie Chocolate I had were in a cherry blossom cup. Both the cup and chocolate are gifts from Parker's family when I visited them after my first week in the USA. They were meaningful presents for me because it was my first warmth I received and felt since I arrived this country.

我實在是很蠢，現在才發現一件事，今天吃剛完了Parker家人送的巧克力（對我意義非凡，因為是我到美國的第一個星期，第一份收到的「溫馨」。），我每個月某個時候都會吃個二、三顆，我知道包裝不一樣，紅色、金色和藍色…也知道裡面的巧克力不一樣，但我從來沒有去細想，今天第一次三顆不一樣巧克力一起吃，才明顯的分別出到底是那裡不同…
紅色--黑巧克力
金色--白巧克力
藍色--白巧克力加可可粒 (我最愛的)

The thought I have from today is: although we don't like to be compared with someone or some people, it is quite easy and obvious to know the difference, strength, weakness of each person if you are put to compared with other people. It is like a job interview. The interviewers can tell who may be the better candidate for the job position if they interview interviewees in a row. However, if you just see every interviewee individually without comparison, he or she has different personal traits and strength. It may be a little tough to tell who may be more suitable for the position.

所以，今天的感想是：雖然我們都不喜歡被比較，但是有時候被一起比較時，差別和落差真的很容易馬上被分辨出來，就有點像在工作面試時，面試官接連著面試時，可能一眼馬上比能分辨誰比較合適…但是如果把面試者個個打散時，每個人其實都有特色，可能很難馬上分的很清楚每個人特色…

Easter egg hunt 復活節撿彩蛋

Unlike yesterday, it was such a great weather in the morning. It was shinny but I still felt cold because of the wind. Even though I like the weather like this, warm but not too cool. It was a perfect day for egg hunting.

不像昨天，今天的天氣非常好，雖然陽光普照，但我還是覺得冷，不過這樣的天氣是我喜歡的，很適合拾蛋喔！

The kids looked very excited and the eggs they prepared were more than I had expected. Actually, I wanted to be one of them to be able to pick up the eggs, but I guess I was too big for it and it was better not to fight with the kids for the eggs. ^_^ Even though, watching them picking up the eggs was still fun. 

小孩們都看起來很興奮，而且他們放的彩蛋比我想像中的多，我也想要跟他們一樣可以撿彩蛋，但我想我可能太大了，還是不要跟小孩搶蛋吧，而且看著他們撿蛋也是挺有樂趣的。

I had thought Easter Day of a religious holiday, but it was a day for kids to have fun and time for family to be together to have fun as well. 

我一直以為復活節是宗教的節日，但是也是小孩玩樂日和家人聚在一起玩樂的日子。

(很多彩蛋吧! See~ many eggs.)

(很多人吧！See~many people!)

(Kids enjoyed it and I enjoyed watching them having fun.
小孩撿蛋撿得很快樂，我也看得很快樂！

Of course I need to take a pic with a Easter bunny.
當然一定要跟復活節兔子拍張照的啦！

This is supposed to be slurpee, right?
這應該是思樂冰吧！(可以自己選口味耶！)

Then, more thing I have learned from the Easter Day is "marshmallow peeps". When I first heard of it, I thought was something people will do on Easter day because of the word "peep". haha.. but it is kind of sweet, not an action la. 

對了，還知道了一個跟復活節有關的東西 " marshmallow peeps"，剛聽到的時候，我以為是「偷看」的這個動作，所以想到是不是復活節時有可能會做的事，經由指導老師的說明，才知道是「有造型的棉花糖」我想放在熱可可裡應該也會很美味吧！ 

( CT) A Lesson Learned from Sudoku 輸給數獨也輸給我自己了

Happened on March 20th
Written on March 27th.


During the whole week, I had done at least two sudokus (beginner and medium). The night before the test, I felt like I can finish the medium one in time and still have time to challenge the difficult one. However, what happened was not what I had expected.
整整一個星期我至少做兩個數獨(初&中級)，而考試前晚我還想說根據我之前的記錄，覺得我應該可以在時間內完成中級的，而且還會有時間挑戰高級的，但事實卻不然…

Such a big failure. That deeply and heavily hurt my confidence. The moment when I left the classroom, I was still holding a grudge against myself; then I blamed myself; next I felt sad. What's even worse was that I had only 5 mins to to clam myself down before I met my supervisor.
挫敗!!重重地傷了我的自信…當我離開教室的那一刻，先是不甘心、再來是自責、接著是難過，慘的是我只有五分鐘整理我的情緒，因為我跟指導老師約了見面…

If you could not get a good result after making all of the efforts, why should we still be working hard? That was my first question for myself. I understand when people told me that if you don't work hard, you never get a good result. Even though, the failure in the reality made me really depressed and kept blaming myself for the thing which I definitely could make it but I did not. Does this situation imply something about me?
如果努力得不到好結果，那為什麼還要努力呢？這是我的第一個問題，雖然我知道不努力永遠得不到好結果，可是現實的挫敗還是讓我很沮喪..而且我明明可以做到的，這到底是說明什麼？我的能力不好? 抗壓性不高? 期望太高?

Besides, I lost not only my confidence but my memorable rings and hair band. On the same day, I found my ring was gone when I finished the test and my pretty hair band from my sister was gone too after I finished the restroom. The lost of the ring and hair band made the lost of feeling even stronger. Right after the mini Chinese class, I went home. On the way home, I then again kept blaming myself for being not able to do what I could have made it. But why could not I make it? Thinking about this, I didn't sleep well last night. I wanted to sleep to ease myself, but I couldn't. The boxes and numbers of sudoku were hanging around in my mind.
再加上，我不只是失去了我的自信，我的一些東西也不見了，考完試後，發現我的尾戒不見了，而上完廁所，也發現妹妹給我的漂亮髮飾也不見了，失去這些東西讓我更加「輸得徹底」勉強自己上完中午的中文課後，馬上回家…路上不斷的責怪自己，明明就可以做到的，但為什麼卻做不到呢？那晚也睡不好，想睡卻睡不著，數獨的格子和數字一直在我腦海裡揮之不去，可惡啊！


It took about one week for me to recover from depression and to take out my failed sudoku sheet to take a close look. Facing this blue and hateful sudoku sheet twitches my heart. The battle between self-denial and self-value is very likely still happened again and maybe often. However, time is a really good medication to cure the symptom of sadness and misery.  Being a loser sometimes helps me know my limits and things I should work on. So..jiayou and never ever give up yourself.

 

                                  (After the test, I tried again.)       (The one I have learned the lesson from.)

而一個星期後，我漸漸不再沮喪，也可以拿出我的那張讓我感受失敗的數獨單，看著這藍色可恨的單子，我的心還是會抽痛一下平常心寫這篇文章，不斷的自我否定和尋找自我價值的戰鬥可能還是會發生，而且是可能是常常發生，但是，時間真的是很好的良藥，可以治療悲傷和苦難，當一個失敗者只是讓我清楚我的極限和我可以努力的方向。

所以，加油吧！千萬不要放棄自己

Relax after Speech 終於可以放鬆一下

I slept so well that I didn't want to wake up this morning. However, in order to practice my speech which I need to modify again, I snoozed a little and still get up to get ready for my speech.
昨晚睡得特別好，所以今早真的不想早起，但是為了練習演講，賴了一下下床後還是決定起來好好準備演講。

As I mentioned earlier, I really feel helpless and stressful about the speech this time. Therefore, I spent lots of time collecting information. I first make sure I understand the material I am going to use and then I drafted the speech. (Just in case you don't really know me that well, I would like you to know that I have no ideas or any concepts of stock or business.)
這次的演講如我先前所說的，讓我非常不知所措。
所以花了一些時間搜集資料，讓我自己先懂要說明的內容後，才開始打演講稿，如果你不是很了解的我的話，我在此說明一下，我對於這種股票、商業性質的內容一點點的概念都沒有…

With the encouragement from D and diligently preparation of the materials, I kind of have a feeling that I may make it.
因為D的鼓勵再加上花時間整理資料，在準備過程中，有感覺我應該可以做到


And I really made it today. OH-------- YEAH!!

而今天我真的做到了！喔~~~~~~~~~~~~耶!!

Frankly speaking, I was very very nervous this time. While making speech, I was not even sure I know what I was talking about. There are a few seconds my brain is blank. Even though, I got the best grade for this speech.
說實在的，我這次真的很緊張，在演講時，我都不是很確定我自己在說什麼，有那種幾秒頭腦是空白的，但演溝後的結果反而是我目前成績最高的。

I can't believe that I really made it.
我真不敢相信我做到了!!

When I was home, I decided to make a big meal, nothing special, but just to cook something different to reward myself. (Instead of saying cooking something different, I would also say put whatever I have to cook.)
回家後，決定煮個大餐，但也沒什麼特別，只是煮點不一樣，或是說雜燴:，就是有什麼就加進去，來獎勵自己。

BTW, on the way home today, I noticed of the green spouts on the trees. Spring is here. I feel like I am so blessed watching the scene in front of me. (PS. This morning the bus driver said I am a princess and that reminded me of my father.)
對了，回家的路上，發現樹木開始發綠芽了，春天來了，而當下看著眼前的景色，我覺得我好幸福喔！(PS 今早公車駕駛說我是princess耶，讓我突然想起了我爸爸…)