The Biggest Natural Disaster in My Life

The earthquake and tsunami in Japan is the most bad news in the last few days.  I can totally identify with Japanese!  As an island, lots of earthquakes happen in Taiwan.  I’ve ever experienced a big earthquake, too.  It was on September 21st, 1999.  The earthquake was measured 7.3 on the Richter scale.  We call it “921 Big Earthquake”.  7.3 is not a record in the World, but it happened at the bad timing and wrong place.  It did destroy Taiwan.

921 Big Earthquake struck at 01:47AM.  Everyone stayed at home and was sleeping.  When the earthquake struck, my mother waked up my family.  I didn’t know what to do.  I just tried to run out after my mother.  The earthquake was so big and kept shocking for 102 second.  I couldn’t run fast, and even fell down twice!  I still remember how scared everyone was.  Although my home was not destroyed by earthquake, we were afraid to sleep inside the house.  We have been sleeping in my father’s van for several days after the earthquake.

The place of occurrence of an earthquake can also affect the number of deaths.  921 Big Earthquake struck in the middle of Taiwan.  It caused not only lots of property damage, but also deaths and injuries.  Over 2,000 people died, 29 missing, and injuring another 11,000.  It was a record in Taiwan.  If this quake had struck in the Pacific Ocean and very deep, it wouldn’t had killed so many people.

Northern Lights

Calgary, AB

February 18

The weather was so good.  The sky was clear.  I was on my way to Hay River, which is located in Northwest Territories.  We decided to go to Hay River because the hostel feel is much cheaper than Yellowknife.  Six people joined the trip, Caspar, Dero, Sohta, Fumi, and Jenny.  We got three drivers.  I was driver No.1.  That was my first time to drive in Canada.  Even though it was a little bit boring during the drive, I still enjoyed it.  During the drive, I saw some wild animals.  I was so happy.  After twelve hours driving, we arrived at High Level, AB.  We stayed at BCM Inns for the night.

Hay River, NT

February 19

It was not far from High Level to Hay River.  We spent around five hours to get there.  For me, that was the closest place to the North Pole I’ve ever been.  Caspar made lunch and dinner for us.  When night was coming, all of us were looking forward to seeing northern lights!  We took turns to stay in the living room and waited for northern lights.  Unfortunately, none of us could see any lights until morning!

Hay River, NT

February 20

The second day in Hay River.  It was snowing!  It’s hard to see northern lights on snowing day.  It was too bad!  In addition, we couldn’t have any activities in Hay River.  We were going to have dog sled ride, but they had a competition.  Dogs were too busy to serve us!  What a pity!  All we could do was pray and watch videos.  Night was coming again.  The owner suggested us to check the sky outside, not just stay in the house.  After dinner, we took the owner’s suggestion.  Around 8:30PM, Jenny went out to check.  Suddenly, she shouted:”Dolby!  Everybody come out quickly!!  Northern Lights!!  Northern Lights!!”  That was emergency time!!  I put on jacket and boots as soon as possible!!  Ran outside right away, and I even forgot to bring my camera!  I could see northern lights in the sky.  It was white.  It looked totally different with the pictures.  It was green in the pictures.  Beside, we saw red northern lights on the other side.  So amazing!!  We were so happy, even though northern lights were not strong and disappeared in 20 minutes.  I think 20 minutes was just the right time, because it was so cold outside!!  I couldn’t stay outside anymore!!  Anyway, we were so lucky, weren’t we? 

Jasper, AB

February 21

We waked up early this morning, because next stop was Jasper.  It was another long driving.  We spent most of our time in the car, including lunch time.  When we arrived at Jasper, it was almost 9:00PM.  What we need was to take a hot shower, and go to bed.

Banff, AB

February 22

Before we leave Jasper, we went to see the Ice Field.  Although it was not open at winter, we still took pictures at the entrance.  After that, we departed to Banff.  It was on our way home.  We just stopped there for lunch, and then went back to Calgary.  We all felt happy that we did it!!  I’ll never ever forget this trip.

Save Polar Bear

Preserve our World

In my opinion, the worst problem that effects the environment is global warming.  It’s a big problem all over the world not just in my country.  It’s caused by increased amounts of CO2 (carbon dioxide) and over population.   We have around 6 billion and 5 hundred million people in the World.  Everything we do can increase the amounts of carbon dioxide.  Even eating meat can cause the carbon dioxide.  Because we eat more meat than before, we raise lots of cattle, chicken, and pig.  Those animals will also increase amounts of carbon dioxide.  That’s why more and more people prefer to eats fish and vegetables.  If we don’t do something to stop increasing the world temperatures, the ozone hole will become bigger, and then we can’t avoid the bad effects from the sun.

In Taiwan, we are trying to reduce the amounts of carbon dioxide.  Riding bicycle is the top hot sport in my country recently.  More and more people go to work by bike instead of motorcycle.  It’s a good idea to reduce the air pollution and the temperatures in the World.  For me, I don’t waste any resource, such as food, water, electricity.  I always shut down the computer before I go to bed.  How about you guys?  Here we have an interesting advertisement.  Let’s see what polar bear want us to do.

Contrast Paragraph

In my home culture, the way men and women speak is similar.  I think the only one different thing between men and women is the particle.  Men like to use rude words as the particle more than women, especially when men have strong feelings.  No matter when they are angry, happy, disappointed, surprised, they will swear before any sentence was spoken.  On the other hand, women like to use “ne”, ”ye”, “a”, “yo”, “o”  in the end of their speaking.  I know it sounds stupid.  However, it works, when women are asking for something.  Believe or not, women are told that they should be more polite, just because men like women be polite.

Women VS Men

I had difficult time at understanding what were men thinking about!  When I fought with my ex-boyfriend, he would just be silence and say nothing.  I would be the person who couldn’t stop speaking.  I hate that.  It looked like I was always complaining.  I just wanted to express my opinions and I also wanted to know his.  The strangest thing was that he felt unhappy because I don’t understand him.  He didn’t communicate with me.  How can we understand each other?

Was it because of different way of using language?  Yes, I think so.  Men are not good at speaking.  They are lazy.  They even don’t like to talk.  I think that’s why men use languages directly.  I do believe men and women use language differently.  Such as, my father and mother, when they go shopping together, my mother always ask my father: “I don’t like this one.  It’s too big, don’t you think so?” or “How do you feel?”  On the other hand, my father always makes decisions by himself.  He just said: “Buy it.” or “Don’t buy it.”  My father used to be the leader in my family.  He uses bossy languages more than my mother.  That’s the different language using between men and women.

Joni Mitchell

                Joni Mitchell, who was born in Fort MacLeod, Alberta in 1943, is a famous singer.  She went to art school.  She played guitar and sang to make extra money.   She wrote many songs and people liked them.

                Actually, she got very sick with polio at 9.  She started singing in the hospital.  In 1964, she got pregnant and had a baby girl.  Unfortunately, she couldn’t take care of a baby.  She put baby up for adoption.  She hadn’t seen her daughter until 1997.

                She got married with Chuck Mitchell, who took her to the US.  They sang in coffeehouses together.   She started writing songs for other singers.  She wrote “Both Sides Now”, which was a hit for finger Judy Collins.  She moved to jazz music after she wrote many hit albums.  Then, she retired in 2002.  However, she made a comeback in 2005.

                She has released 18 albums, won 9 Grammies, and worked with many artists in folk music and jazz in her life.

                She loved as a singer and songwriter in Canada and around the world.  “Both Sides Now” was played at the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.  It’s really hard to make a living as a singer.  Most of people would change their mind, when life is hard.  Joni Mitchell never gives up.  I think that’s why she is succeeded.

Snowboarding- extreme thing I've done

 

I just got home from BC last night!  I had a great three days snowboarding trip at Fernie.  What a perfect place for snow sports!  I got to the top of the mountain and took a Black slide.  It is 5662 feet high.  Black slides are for advanced.  Blue slides are much easier than black.  Green slides are for beginner.  At first day, I always took the Blue slides and Green slides.  At the second day of the trip, I thought that I will never come here again.  I should try anything that I can try, so I pushed myself to the limit.  That’s the extreme thing I’ve ever done.

Actually this is my second time for snowboarding.  I’ve never tried snowboarding before I came to Canada.  The first time was in COP.  It was just one month ago.  I took the beginner lesson there.  And I just practiced the base skills again and again, also fell down again and again.  I never thought about give up.  I just want to do it as well as possible.

In the Fernie trip, my snowboarding lesson was still in level one.  The staff taught us the base skills, I can follow every skill he taught.  He knew that I’ve learned before.  The staff let me to play by myself.  I was so happy.  I picked out different slides to play.  I tried jumping, turning.  I still fell down many times, but it wasn’t a matter.  I feel good and enjoy the sport.

Scam in Taiwan

Before I went to Calgary, I worked as a secretary in a Law Studio.  My boss is a lawyer.  We had two cases about the fraud. 

First one is about con men who were selling fake Chinese medicine to old people.  They often worked as a group.  Our client was also old men.  He was already up to 70 years old.  They tried to find old people who were stay lonely in the hospital waiting for the doctor.  One of them seated beside the old people, and chatted to them.  He told the old people that he had the same health problems.  He treated these old people like family.  Old people trusted him.  Then he sold the fake Chinese medicine to old people in high price.  The victim’s family found the fraud, and called the police.  Our client was found guilty of fraud. 

The second one is about a girl who was used by the Scam clan.  Let me tell you the story.  The girl bought something online.  She transferred money by ATM.  After several days, she received a phone call.  The con man, who called her, personated a bank employee.  And told her that she press the wrong button on ATM, that she could be transferred the same mount of money periodical to the seller.  He let the girl go to ATM again and he thought the girl how to use the ATM correctly, and used the ATM in English.  The next day, the girl found that she had no money in her account!  The girl was very nervous!  At the same time, the con mad called the girl again.  She asked the man what happened.  The con man told her it must have problems on her cash card.  The con man asked her to put her cash card with a note which write down the code number into a bag then give it to a betel nut shop.  Then they can figure out her account problem.  The stupid girl followed the con man’s directives.  Of course, the co man disappeared for ever.  Until the girl receive the arrest warrant from District Court.  The charge was conspiracy to fraud.  She realized that the scam clan used her account to transferred money.  She knows that she was not only cheated but also used by the scam clan!

Why Calgary?

When I decided to study abroad in Calgary, lots of my friend asked me:” Why did you choose Calgary?”   Even though I’ve been living in Calgary 23 days; my classmate who also come from Taiwan asked me the same question.  Maybe I can post the reasons on my blog.

At first, I made a decision that I want to study English instead of work in Canada.   I’ve been worked for 2 years, since I graduated from university.   I would like to return to be a student and keep learning English which is my favorite subject.   And I prefer to learn American English.   I’ve been told that American is not a friendly country.   I searched lots of information about studying abroad.   I found that people, who studied English in Canada, said Canada is a wonderful country!  Canadian is kind and friendly.

Second, I need to make another decision.  Which school do I like?  I think that it will be much easy to find a school which is suitable for me by choosing the province as step1.  Step 1, I chose province of Alberta, because it’s in the west of Canada.  It’s not so far as Ontario.  The weather is comfortable at summer, cold at winter.  But it’s not cold as Manitoba and Saskatchewan.  The most important reason is the tax!  There is no Provincial Sales Tax in Alberta.  Step 2, I have to make a decision between University of Calgary and University of Alberta.  I visited each website of these two schools.  I found that it only takes 1 and half hours to drive from University of Calgary to Banff!!  And the activity program!!  Olympic Oval!!  Great!  That’s it!!  That’s what I want!!!

That’s why I’m studying English here now.  And I am so happy that I made a right choice.  People here are really friendly.  I’ve been helped by different people twice when I got lost and missed the bus.  I have a nice host family.  I meet lots of classmates come from many countries.  All of my teachers are hard-working.  I went to Banff last weekend!!  And now, it’s snowing.  I love snow!  Let it snow!!

the Topic of PIC-EASY

You can take as many as pictures you want.

Do you have a Holstein in your house?

Kwai Lun-Mei, who is a famous movie star in Taiwan, the scene is in a kichen.  A bottle of milk was on the table.  She seated on a chair and said : ” Your body care about what you eating.”  She gave a simple introduce about the milk –Lin Fong Ying Hight Quality Milk.  Then she drank a cup of Lin Fong Ying.  Milk mark was on her mouth.  When she enjoyed drinking the milk, a Holstein appeared.  The Holstein cow mooed. 

Ling Fong Ying is one kind of products in Weichuan.  They named the milk “Lin Fong Ying” because it’s a famous ranch in Tainan which is in the south of Taiwan.  Water and air are clean and fresh there.  It’s suitable for feeding Holstein.  The advertisment try to convince people that the milk is so thick that you will have milk mark on your mouth after you drink the milk.  And the milk is so fresh that feel like you have your own milk cow in your house.  They only use the A level milk from Lin Fong Ying ranch.  It’s a successful advertisement.  Nowadays people all believe the “Lin Fong Ying Hight Quality Milk” is the best choice.  While a drinking shop make the milk tea with the “Lin Fong Ying Hight Quality Milk”, the price of milk tea can be higher, and people still love to buy it.

I like the milk mark in this advertisment.  Everytime I drink milk, I also like to leave the milk mark on my mouth.  Then I will lick it.  How about you?

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