The Coming Exams

     Recently, I am occupied with loads of assignments and textbooks in the coming of the Mid-term exam. As tired as I am, though, I find it sometimes inspiring to see so many students buckle down on their studies in the library, and I think it is something we would value in the college─ the climate of hard-working (of course not simply in the coming of big exams). I am, anywhere, managing to sustain myself through these weeks of exams. And the most urgent issue for me now is to strike a balance between studying and sleep─ though a hard task it may be.

Life is Beautiful

Life is beautiful to him. There is no difference and hostility of race and people in his mind, but only joy and brightness even in face of the toughest time in life. This is Guido Orefice in the movie of "La vita e' bella (Life is Beautiful)", an award-winning Italian comedy directed by Roberto Benigni in 1997.

Seemingly being mischievous, frolicsome and a bit flighty with some unexpectedly doings that always surprise others, Guido, a carefree Jewish young man in the 1930s Italy, is a person with the mind of child and passion of life. To protect his son from the relentless harm of the Nazis and the fear of death in the concentration camp, he makes up a story to his son that the holocaust is simply a "game" of winning a gorgeous tank despite all the hardship (actually, it is truly a "game" of death and survival). Not because he has no fear for what they might encounter, but all he braves is out of love─ the love to his beloved so selfless and strong that conquers the deepest horror of human conditions and the cruelty of humanity.

When seeing Guido's desperate seeking for his wife Dora for the last glance in the riot, and his encouraging good-bye smile to his son in the last hour of life, a feeling of weeping and bitterness strikes me to the deepest. I think there is no respectable man in the world than the one so brave as to risk everything for those who he concerns, and still believes in hope in the face of death. After viewing the movie, I got to realize why it is honored as a classic, ever powerful and lasting. This is, indeed, a simple story, but never an ordinary one. 

Winter is Coming

I sniffed winter the first time these days. In the past few years, the unsteady weather makes it hardly winter in winter in Taichung and sometimes it feels like autumn in December─ I even didn’t fetch my overcoat out last year. This morning when riding the cycle on campus, however, a blast of wind blew over my cheeks and I do felt a bit chilly. It came to my mind the scene of my mom knitting sweaters for my sister and me in the coming of wintertime in my childhood immediately, and I was bewildered by the somehow flash-on memory, which I then attributed to my long absence from home and the yearning for homemade cooking.

Sometimes winter seems to make people delicate and gloomy, for it is a time of dying of vitality and, perhaps, poetic melancholy. Every time when I wrap myself up in three layers of heavy clothes like a bear but still feel unsatisfied, I cannot help wondering the false fantasy of lovable winter with beautiful fortuity from Hollywood romances. But I must clarify for myself that there is no distasteful disapproval against the cold season; in fact, I appreciate it to some degree instead. Besides being able to sleep late─ Mom will never be so hardhearted to have you up in 7:00 a.m. in freezing mornings, I have an incomprehensibly sweet and genial sentiment to winter probably credited to my youth experience.

While a child, my parents used to prepare hot pot for the family at winter nights. We children would crowd together waiting to fill our empty stomachs, and the ongoing laughter echoing the tiny living room would draw the unforgiving coldness away. Preferring to dine at the hot pot stores, more economical and diverse, outside now, we have less opportunities to have our own hot pot nights. The foods without doubt are great and desirable as well, but what appears to be lost in them I can never tell.

Oh, winter is coming. How I wish for a steaming hotpot. I think I am going to go home soon.

On the Healthy Diet

Recently, I have been obsessed with the studies of healthy diet. After my moving away from home to study and live independently, to confess is necessary, I rarely paid much attention to my everyday diet. It was not until three weeks ago, the time I got seriously sick and the doctor announced it was out of the lack of nutrition and exercise, I got to cast about my own diet habit and what to eat.

Since exercise is the less attraction to me, I start to delve into the world of regimen─ how to eat not only healthy and balanced but economical and flavorful. Instead of the efficient microwave meals and instant food in the convenience stores, I try to give more favor to the grain and rude products, such as barley bread, oatmeal and brown rice. I also pick up meals with vegetables and protein like tuna salad or boil mushroom. They are all delicious nutrients without much cost and burden.

What’s more, I catch up the trend of the slow food movement, which boasts to dine slowly learning to appreciate the original savor of food. It is never an easy task for me because I am a person used to devour quickly for time (which is definitely a bad habit).

After weeks of implementation, I find myself better in spirit and more dynamic in energy, and the attention and concentration span sustain longer. The slow food movement makes me rethink both my dining habit and living style effectively. I no longer take eating as a daily boring routine but a time of  enjoyment and happiness. I am satisfied with my new change now and still working on exploring more healthy recipes. And welcome is to anyone who loves to share his/her own tips with me！

A Custom in My Family

     As people nowadays become more and more engaged in the modern life full of hustle and bustle, it is harder and rarer to spare time having a cup of tea with their family. It is always a pity not to seize the opportunities to get along with our family for the daily busyness. My family, fortunately, has a custom that allows its members to get together: going on a family trip together during the summer or winter vacation.

     Every year, when it comes the time of the summer or winter vacation, my family will make up a plan going on a short-term inboard travel altogether. We have carried out this tradition for ten years since my father, who always loves to add “Nothing in life beats going out and seeing the world with your own eyes.”, made a spontaneous proposal that we went out for more domestic activities. My sisters and I, though preferred staying home reading novels to being keen on the new try at first, found it more and more interesting and attractive to travel in our own country. The travel custom, in fact, has become one of the most exhilarating expectations in my life.

     The trip depends on the places we would like to visit in Taiwan that year, and on how long we can spend on it. We went to Tainan, for instance, this summer for three days for its beautiful scenery, historical attractions and, never forget it, flavorful delicacies. The great canyon in Hualien we resounded our laughter; the orange-red sunset in Kaohsinug we omit our breath; the endless beach in Kenting we set our footprints....... Wherever we went, we would snap a family picture as the best memento of the trip. By the way, our recent “ambition” is to achieve a driving tour around the island.

     Not only does the custom binds the family members closer, creating treasure memories through entertainment but it provokes our interest in travelling and learning new things in the world, broadening our horizon in life. Most of all, it makes me rethink what family, which I tend to take for granted before, means to me and value it much more.

Observation of College Life

     Diving into the second year of college life as a transfer student, I find myself seemingly hexed back into a novice in mystery. As a newcomer to National Chung Hsing University, it is interesting for me to masticate the confusing combination of novelty and familiarity meanwhile. Everything gets worthy of exploring as I renew my vision of college life in Chung Hsing─ the campus, courses, friends and activities, etc. For me, the most catching part is the versatility of activities and variety of student composition here.
     Broadly speaking, most of us will agree that loads of heavy assignment and stressful studying are the two essentials of undergraduates’ lives. However, the plenty of extracurricular activities─ no matter it is relaxing entertainment from clubs or cohesion-drawing chorus contest between departments─ show the diversity of NCHU environment and the flexibility of its students.
     The multicultural background of student hybrid, students with exotic customs from around the world, also reveals NCHU as an academic republic of mosaic culture. It is always a pleasure to meet people from different countries, exchanging experience and provoking cultural reflection that cannot be gained from textbooks. The two lovely girls with passion to life from China I met recently have proven my point of view.
     The fledgling life in NCHU is filled with uncertainty and possibility. And I think I am getting to love it.