04.03.11
Posted in Uncategorized at 8:41 pm by catttering
Many immigrants to American have this ultimate goal of coming here, also known as the American dream. So what exactly is this great “American dream?” I believe everyone here has their own definition of this term, because they all have different goals and expectations for coming here. After all, America is a place with an opulence of opportunities for everyone. Therefore, my American dream is fairly similar to the American dreams of most people’s: to become successful in this foreign land. 
Most families that moved here came for one reason: to live a better life than the one they had in their homeland. That is true for mine as well. Although it was only my grandparents who emigrated here from Taiwan, they have shown me countless possibilities that could happen. They have both successfully assimilated to living in this sort of environment while keeping their mother language. To achieve this arduous American dream, they have probably put in an enormous effort in learning and coping with their new home. Now they are happy with the way their lives are and I believe this is one of the many successful American dream stories.
Now moving on to my American dream, which is actually somewhat similar to my grandparents. At first, I had no 
American dream because I was almost forced to come here. However, gradually I learned what I really need to do: I need to be more aggressive and meticulous when it comes to school work. Therefore my “American dream” was slowly developed. I realized that I want to be successful and affluent when I grow up. And the possibility of me achieving that goal is relatively small in Taiwan. Thus living in American became an advantage for me to accomplish this great American dream I have.
All in all, although it wasn’t my choice to come, my life still went on. I will enhance my life by striving fervently toward my American dream.
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03.21.11
Posted in Uncategorized at 5:46 pm by catttering
In the inception of summer 2009, around two whole years ago, my sister Alice and I went back to Taiwan to visit my dear family and friends. I still have a very vivid memory the time when we first walked out of the airport. It was a typical summer day where the sun was burning fiercely in the sky and the heat was nearly unbearable. It was so dry
and humid that it seems like the second you walk outside you start sweating. I still remember how sometimes I feel giddy after being outside for too long. However unpleasant the weather may get, I still had the most wonderful time of my life.
To overcome the extreme weather, I often go out with an umbrella. I was also forced by my mom to put on a great amount of sun screen. Everyday I had to repeat the same routine over and over again to be protected from the blistering sun. You might think that the summer in Taiwan is just going to be incredibly hot throughout the whole summer. However, that is never the case. Despite how the sun is always burning in the bright blue sky, it will sometimes rain too. And when it rains, it pours. However, the funny thing is that when it rains, it’s not cold at all. In fact, it’s usually still very dry and humid. This makes the weather something rather interesting to experience: when you go out in the sun, you get hot and sticky from the heat, but when you go out in the rain, the exact same thing happens.
Many times when I walk around the streets and alleys in Taiwan, I see parched fruit and vegetables everywhere, apparently dried from the heat. There were hardly any puddles, because the sun was so intense that water dries up very quickly. I can understand how some people who hate to live in Taiwan, because the weather is so capricious. But I find that I was rather fortuitous
to be able to experience such weather. I got so used to the heat that I stopped caring about it, and just went along. It was a very interesting experience and hopefully I can experience it again this summer.
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02.20.11
Posted in Uncategorized at 10:14 pm by catttering
The reason that made me choose this topic is simple: it’s the only problem out of the available topics that I actually witness almost everyday. To see vagrants living on street corners due to homelessness is not difficult in LA. In fact, I usually see at least one or two homeless men sleeping in the park when I walk to school. When you really see those people, it’s rather easy to discern the great disparity between them and us. It’s a very sad scene: I’m sure being homeless is very debasing but they lack the ability to change that. Therefore, I believe it’s important to garner everyone who wants to help together and make a difference in these people’s lives.
To begin, we need to somehow approach the homeless people, who must have had mortifying experiences because of their poor conditions, with great civility. We need to let them know that we’re there to help, so they can trust us and accept our aids. Moreover, we definitely need to help those impeccable children out. They are all way to young to live a life without a roof over their heads everyday. Also, they certainly deserve a good education as much as we do in order to grow up and become someone useful to the society. To accomplish this, our group decided to take real actions by amassing donations from others who may be students at school or adults at home to buy warm and comfortable socks for those homeless people. I believe the most we can do right now is to provide simple necessities like socks to mitigate their current condition. Unfortunately, it really will take much more people and money to make a drastic difference in their lives; but this is a good first step toward that goal.
Sadly, it is certainly not an easy task to find altruistic people out there to get together and help them, because the in reality, there just aren’t very many. Nevertheless, asking donations from people is absolutely worth a try. Because who knows? We might even get enough money and donations to buy more than one hundred pairs of socks. Thanks to this project, now we all have a great opportunity to go out there and take some actions to help those homeless people we see everywhere. Hopefully one day the great number of homelessness in LA will face a dramatic diminution and would disappear all together.
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02.07.11
Posted in Uncategorized at 10:26 pm by catttering
There are many people in my life that have left a profound effect on me and helped me become the person I am today. However, after seeing the topic, the very first person that popped in my head was my dad. He was the person who I lived with before I came to America, the person who took care of me when I was naughty. The things he had done and are willing to do for my sister Alice and I are innumerable, and therefore we both know from the bottom of our hearts that he truly loves us and cares for us.
My dad, who is honest, benevolent, considerate, understanding, is the best dad I could ever ask for. Ever since we were little, he tried tirelessly to make us acknowledge the difference between what’s right and what’s wrong. Although he had always given me the impression of being fun and gregarious, he had never failed to give us patient long talks when we make mistakes. At home he was always so gentle to Alice and me, 
and was constantly joking around with us, trying to make us laugh. I’ve never really seen him be mean to anyone, until one day when we were around his office; he was very loudly admonishing his students for what they had done wrong. Witnessing that allowed me to see the other side of him, the more serious and authoritative side. But what’s funny is that few years after this incident, Alice and I told him what we saw and he was astonished and a bit embarrassed. Apparently he never intended for us to see that side of him, because he wanted to keep his fatherly image.
My dad is the kind of dad that tries very hard to be a good dad. He was always present when I have any sort of events at school, even though one can easily tell he came from the middle of his work when he would always show up in his military uniform. But because he is constantly in his uniforms, the boys in my class always showed a great deal of adulation to him because of his resemblance to a heroic police officer. Regardless of his firm appearance, he always laughed and played around with my class. I can easily tell that my classmates all liked him very much and were all a bit jealous me because I have such a cool dad. Furthermore, whenever my friends and I talk about our parents, I remember myself always proudly bragging about my nice and awesome my dad is. My friends were seldom allowed to play and were always told to be the top in the class, but my dad did the exact opposite: he frequently took my sister and I out for spontaneous trips, and on tests he merely asks us to try our hardest because he doesn’t want to put any pressure on us. Whenever I reminisce the days I lived with my dad, I feel like I was the luckiest kid with the best childhood ever: all he wanted for us was to have a childhood full of jollity before we grow into the age of stress and responsibility.
Although my dad lives in the country part of Taiwan, and is possibly very deprived of the urban environment we have here, he is forever and will always be the greatest man in my heart.
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01.23.11
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:54 pm by catttering
Humans, as we all are, have a predilection for a luxurious life. This is especially apparent in the urban cities we live in where people pursue a life full of materialistic wealth. This sort of preference is understandable, because
who doesn’t want to live a comfortable and well-appointed life? However, now that overconsumption has proliferated to the point where if we don’t limit ourselves, there will certainly be severe consequences. So what exactly are the causes and effects?
There are many causes for overconsumption, but the main one is population growth. As the population of the world gets higher, more food and resources will be needed to support this large group of consumers. Today, many people tend to buy things that are not necessary. One example of that would be food: many people (especially in the prosperous cities of US) are consuming more food than needed, which can lead to very harmful effects such as obesity. Excessive food-consuming has become a big problem in America, where over half of the population is over-weight. In order to solve these problems, we can definitely start from limiting our diets.
The various effects of overconsumption are turbulent. It can be as severe and damaging as depleting the Earth’s resources. If we keep up this sort of habits, natural resources can easily become very scarce, and in the end we won’t have anything left. Another effect is obesity, which like mention above, is another big issue that needs to be seriously addressed. It’s not only unnecessary, but also detrimental to our well-being. In order to save the new generation from consuming an excessive amount of food, we need to be willing to change our habits to be able to set a good example for them. The rate we’re consuming is higher than the rate these resources recover, thus in order to ameliorate the situation, we really need to consider this problem and start limiting ourselves in using as well as eating unnecessary amount of food.
In my opinion, overconsumption is a problem that can be eliminated, but is often very difficult for one to realize due to the pleasure we get from it. It can really destroy our natural resources thus impair our ways of life in the future. For those of us who wants to live an extravagant life, we really need to re-consider this goal.
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12.12.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:19 am by catttering
It was on Friday, when all of us had that great opportunity to be part of a fantastic program called Career Day. Before I walked into the gym, I was fairly undecided about what I want to do. With somewhat uncertainty yet excited steps, I walk pass the gym door, into where many people are espousing their schools and careers.
The first job I approached was accident reconstruction investigation. Although the gregarious speaker was very affable, I can easily tell that you definitely need a lot of audacity to do well. While I was filling out my worksheet, he showed me many daunting pictures of car accidents, accidents that were extremely serious and severe. He even went as far as explaining one of the worst accidents he has been to, which was absolutely grotesque and repugnant. I’m sorry to say but I have a strong aversion toward seeing sickening images like these, so this is certainly not something I would pick for my future career. Nevertheless, I must say I this man have earned all my respect: this isn’t a very pleasant job but he’s doing it for the benefits of others.
Another interesting career I went to was nursing. I’ve heard from my grandparents that there is a paucity of nurses out there, so the younger generation now should definitely take advantage of that and go for this altruistic job. When I went up to the friendly lady, she told me all about their nursing schools with great alacrity. To become a nurse, you need to be good with people, that is, being able to be liked by your patients. Another important requirement you’ll need is education: either a 2-year training school or 4+ years to earn your bachelor degree. Actually what you learn depends on the field of nursing you want to get in to, so the time for education really varies. I would like to go into nursing and learn about ways to help others out, but I’m still not sure if this is what I really want to do or if I have what it takes. After taking their flier and thanking the people from nursing schools, I moved on to many other really different careers.
All the distinctive careers look tremendously interesting to me, and it’s really thrilling to be thinking of all the possibilities there are in the future. But thanks to all those great possibilities, I was still very much uncertain after walking out of the gym door. It was relatively difficult for me to pick a type of career to look in to because I don’t know what I want to be yet. One reason is because I don’t particular excel at any subject; therefore it becomes very hard to pick a career that I can be certain to do well in. I’m definitely hoping to find a specific subject that I’m interested in soon, so I can try to learn as much about it as possible before I go on to college. I want to pick the right major by that time, and get into the right type of job after college. There’s still a long way ahead, but I know it’s time to go out and explore for the right profession.
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11.28.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:04 am by catttering
Thanksgiving, a special holiday almost every family here celebrates, is not only a day to have the most wonderful dinner ever, but also a day to think about the all great people and things you have in life and be grateful for them.
A serious problem we have nowadays is that many kids are very fortunate to be living in a wonderful environment like America, with enough clothes and food and a roof over their head everyday to keep them away from any sort of harm, but they don’t realize it. What’s exacerbating is their demand for more, and how many of them thinks that it’s their parents’ responsibility to give them what they want. Unfortunately, it’s not. Instead of asking for more, kids now should definitely start giving thanks, and be more appreciative for what they have. Therefore, I believe that Thanksgiving is the perfect occasion for everyone, not just kids, to give thanks to the great family and friends they have right now while enjoying the traditional dinner spent with the family.
Now as for me, although I didn’t get to celebrate my Thanksgiving with my mom and dad, (who are both currently in Taiwan) I’m still grateful to be able to get together with my uncle’s family. They are all extremely affable people – who are all very energetic and gregarious. Thus they allowed me to have a very good time eating, playing games, and just talking. I want to thank all of them for giving me such a great opportunity to get to know them and also allowing me to feel the love of a family, despite of the fact that my close relatives are mostly in Taiwan. Lucky enough for me, I was able to get on the phone with my Mom with I got home from the amazing Thanksgiving dinner. We had a great conversation, as always. That night, I felt the sudden necessity to think about all the great things she has done for me. Even though she’s so far away, I know that she’s trying her best to be a good Mom by constantly checking up on my sister and me, and providing us comforts when we are feeling down. Because of this, I feel very fortunate to have a mom, a mom who is always tireless and eager to help her children out.
As we all grow older, time with family will get less and less, for we will gradually be occupied with more and more responsibilities. As a result, I find it very important to treasure every moment we have to spend with them, because we probably won’t have this opportunity in the future.
As for friends, I know I’ve definitely encountered many great people in my life. They have induced me to become a better person, a better person whom I might never have became without them. I’m grateful for all the friends I have, who were always there for me when I needed them. But sadly, friendships are not immutable. People will enter but also leave your life. It may even be a little implausible how dramatically your group of friends will change after a period of time. But as for now, I will treasure every single one of my friends in hope that we can all be friends forever, even after high school!
Most of us realize the importance of giving thanks on Thanksgiving Day, but now I believe that we should always remember to give thanks on any other day, because of the two types of significant people around us: family and friends. They are the ones that deserve our appreciation the most, due to all the big and small things they have done for us.
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11.12.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 10:21 pm by catttering
Before I start this blog off, I want to say that I have really always been a “common Joe” before coming to America. Elementary school was when I started to feel a little bit of academic pressure: the ranks from the monthly tests made me want to aim higher each time. I can still vividly recall the sporadic trepidation I felt when each test was being passed back to us. To my dismay, my scores weren’t always up to my expectations, and the ones with bad scores were extremely debasing. Luckily, starting from 3rd grade, I begun to get the hang of studying and testing, and I just stopped getting bad grades. However, comparing to my classmates, I was really just average. It was actually pretty difficult in Taiwan to be on the top of this academic ladder, because there were many people who are just really intelligent. But there was a reason that I never gave up trying: the rewards my Dad always promised me. They were always amazing surprises such as stuffed animals or just toys. It really wasn’t until my last year in middle school that I started to feel the need to challenge myself. The desire to do better and enroll in harder classes finally hit me when I realize the importance of going to a good college.
When I was an 8th grader in Taiwan, I never thought I would really take hard classes, because doing good in school was never my first priority. However, gradually as I entered high school in America—where I’ve learned that going to a good college should be my key focus—I started experiencing with hard classes. First there were honor classes, where the teacher taught a little more and went a little faster than regular classes.This changed my old perfunctory manner at school. Next to honor classes, there were AP classes, where indolence could not be tolerated. Our attitudes toward these classes were expected to be circumspect, because of the AP Testings that come around at the end of the school year. And what really motivated me to go through all these troubles is my wish to enroll into a good college.
Since I happen to be one of the lucky few to have the opportunity to come study in America, I was expected to treasure it and do well in school, especially by my scrupulous grandparents. Grades are extremely important, so important that I would be grounded if I get anything lower than an A. Thus, there was a time when I felt so inundated by the amount of pressure and vexation, because I couldn’t live up to their standards. However, looking to the bright side, doing well in school has certainly become a part of me, a part of me that I will never throw away.
Despite all the punishments of getting B’s, good grades can be rewarding too. Last semester when I got straight A’s, the feeling was incredibly amazing. I felt so accomplished, not only because I got all A’s, but also because that I didn’t disappoint my grandparents, and my Mom and Dad who are currently in Taiwan. I could tell they were really proud of me, thus the hard work immediately paid off.
That was all the past. Right now it’s junior year, which is often viewed as the hardest year in high school. The thought of SAT, college, and just my AP classes worries me. Time is flying by, and high school is half way done. I feel like there is a glorious path waiting for me, and I won’t miss it.
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10.25.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 5:42 pm by catttering
In Asian families, I’ve noticed that a great majority of them have a very similar hobby: watching Korean dramas. To me, it has gradually become something very typical of many Asian families, including my own. Back in the days when I was in Taiwan, my family of 5 would usually sit together during dinner time to enjoy Korean dramas that plays one episode each day. It was a slow process that would usually take months to finish the entire drama, yet no one really got tired of it. People who don’t like Korean dramas would think that they are humdrum and insipid, and most of them would find it abstruse for people to be frenetic about them. Nevertheless, those people like my family are indeed frenetic about dramas. We see it as a great entertainment to do during our spare times. However, I’ve noticed that my sister and I started developing a bad habit of staying up all night trying to finish a couple more episodes, or being very cursory with our responsibilities such as chores because we want more time to watch our dramas. Despite of it’s characterization as “entertainment,” slowly I became aware of what it really is: an addiction.
An addiction is usually something negative, with detrimental effects. A common example of addiction would be drugs: once you’ve became addicted to it, it’ll be difficult to get rid of it. As implausible as it may seems, I believe the same thing goes for Korean dramas, because once you become too into it, it’ll be very difficult to stop watching it. Therefore, my new definition for dramas is an entertainment, an entertainment that would slowly seize all your attention and thus gradually getting you to be addicted to it. If you start viewing Korean dramas like this, then such seemly innocuous type of entertainment wouldn’t be so innocuous anymore.
Of course not all Korean drama lovers are all “addicted,” but the majority of them definitely are. Once you start staying up at night watching them, or cannot get them out of your head, you can’t deny the fact that you are addicted. Another harmful effect of being addictive is that you will become very dormant and sedentary, because all you would want to do is sit in front of your TV or computer all day, and you won’t be sated until you’ve reached to a certain parts of the drama or episodes. All this can be exacerbating to the level of addiction you’re in.
Despite of all the negative effects, my love for Korean dramas will be immutable. It can still a good source of entertainment, as long as I control myself, but I would be lying if I say that I can control myself all the time. I feel like this is almost incorrigible, because it’s so hard to really not be frenetic about it. It almost seems as if Korean dramas are filmed for the audience to be feverish over. The cast would always be unbelievably good-looking and attractive, and the story of the plot would be something remarkably catchy. As a result, it is always extremely difficult to stop watching after seeing the first episode, because the plot would already have immediately caught your attention. So on the surface, dramas are widely viewed as a source of entertainment, but in reality, they are really just another kind of addiction.
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10.11.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 8:16 pm by catttering
Today I was sitting in front of my computer, trying to think of a more fascinating topic to write about rather than an insipid and mundane one. I want it to be something I feel very enthusiastic about, and very soon, it hit me: Taiwan. When people ask me whether I like it better in here or Taiwan, I could not help but give a somewhat ambivalent answer, because they differ in so many ways! Sometimes I wish that I could just amalgamate those two places into one, then I can be extricated from having to choose between the two! To me, Taiwan and America are only similar in the affable people I met, and they are different in almost everything else, everything else from food to transportation to the daily routines as a student.
When I first moved from Taiwan to America, the first thing I noticed was how friendly and sociable Americans are. Although Taiwanese people are also just as friendly, they are a bit more taciturn and reserved. Furthermore, their diffidence can be a little vexing, because sometimes it would be very difficult to get to know them. Immediately after I started going to school here, I felt welcomed, thanks to all the amiable people I met. They were never shy to come up to me and introduce themselves. Hence, I was able to learn English in an amazingly fast pace. But very soon, I realized that America is in dearth of so many reasons I love about Taiwan. Gradually, I became very homesick. 
I unconsciously become very garrulous and verbose when I talk about Taiwan, because it’s such a wonderful place full of all the food I like. For instance, when I went to school there in 8th grade, I would get boba at least once every 2-3 days, because they sell it literally everywhere! But here, it’s a lot more costly and inconvenient, so I can’t help but feel like I’m getting ripped off. Also, my grandpa—who is a farmer—would always have a superfluous amount of fruits like guava, oranges, and grapefruit available in his farm throughout the year. I still remember how his farm looked like very vividly, because I used to go there so often! His farm was basically like a supermarket to me: I was always free to go there and pick whatever I want to eat! Lastly, I can’t leave out the authentic Taiwanese food directly from the night markets. Some of the food may seem to be exotic, but they are indubitably the best food ever! No need to say that these are most definitely something that can never be replaced in my heart, because they are all just such special experiences to me.
After spending a couple years here, I gradually realized that you basically can’t go anywhere without a car. This maybe seem a little implausible to some of my friends in Taiwan, because over there, most people either take the taxi, bus, subway, or ride their bikes. The inconvenience here can be frustrating sometimes, because it’s hard to get anywhere without a car, and the last resort is walking. I feel like I’ve had enough of walking already, because most of the time I was forced to walk to every single destination, unless my grandparents aren’t busy or someone offers me a ride.
So far it may sound like I like Taiwan more, but when it comes to school work, America is fairly easy comparing to Taiwan. Students in Taiwan—who have to take an exam to get into good middle schools, high schools, and colleges—are often under inundating pressure and stress. No need to say that there is absolutely no room for indolence nor languidness. Therefore, I am very thankful to be able to receive good education at lower price.
Comparing to the urbanity of America, Taiwan may seem to be rather antiquated and even archaic. It’s more to the countryside, and is relatively behind in technology and many other things. People there are also more conservative and provincial than America’s freedom seekers. Regardless, my love for Taiwan will forever be immutable. As for America, I’m still exploring the unlimited possibilities.
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American dream because I was almost forced to come here. However, gradually I learned what I really need to do: I need to be more aggressive and meticulous when it comes to school work. Therefore my “American dream” was slowly developed. I realized that I want to be successful and affluent when I grow up. And the possibility of me achieving that goal is relatively small in Taiwan. Thus living in American became an advantage for me to accomplish this great American dream I have.
