I'm going to go back soon

After 23 days, I have to go back to Taiwan. I really feel very exciting and kind of nervous. The cause of excitement is that I will see my girlfriend soon, but I am nervous about what jobs I can do.

The economy of Taiwan is becoming worse and worse, so it is very difficult to get a good job in my country. I often saw the news on Internet about stocks of some companies are falling and some companies are laying off employees. I worried about that. I majored in Management Information System. It seems a very good study and easy to find jobs, but every university in Taiwan has MIS. Thousands of students graduate from MIS every years. The university of I studied is not famous in businesses so it is not easy to enter a company. That is why I came here to learn English.

My mother spent a lot of money on me. I hope that my English has improved enough to help me to find some good jobs. I know it is very hard to do, but I must do hard.

Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleoutology

This Friday I joined the ESL's activity to go to a dinosaur museum. The museum named Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleoutology. We spent two hours to there. About 2:00 we arrived the museum.


First we saw a video presentation that let us understand this museum and we had two hours free time to explore there. When we went through the door, I saw a big dinosaur model stand there. It's very exciting. There are many dinosaur models and fossil in this museum and they have explanations at the side. It exhibit many dinosaur fossil from anywhere in the world. I learned some knowledge in there and it's very interesting. I took a lot of pictures in there. It was very regrettable that we just had two hours explore there.


I looked at a pair of beautiful earrings in the souvenirs store. I bought this to give my girlfriend. originally, I wanted to give her when I go back to Taiwan, but I couldn't keep restraint and showed the pictures to her. No suprise but she was happy.

Crazed Chicken Wing

Last Wednesday, I went downtown to eat chicken wing with Lance and Leslie. The pub was named Unicorn. It has a special price of chicken wing on Wednesday.

This pub is underground. We should show our passport when we went into there. I knew that the waiter just wanted to check our age. I think all of pub here will do that. Beginning, we just ordered three kinds of chicken wings that included Honey Garlic, B.B.Q, Salt & Peper. It's really delicious. After a while, Lance wanted to try a "Hell Fire". The waiter told us that it's really very very very spicy. It's the hottest in this pub. We ordered one to try. I tried a bit. Oh my god!! It's too hot. Leslie and I couldn't eat one more bit and the waiter took a lot of water to us. So, Lance had to finish all "hell fire". All waiters thought we are crazed. When we left there, our lips became double thickness.

After that, we really want to eat chicken wing again, but we won't order Hell Fire absolutely.

New class, New entry

I haven't written my blog for long time. Sometimes, I am lazy to update my blog. This is a new class and I need to write new entries in my blog. I hope I will continue to write new entries in my blog after this class.

Interview, Snowball Fight, Erhu Concert

The weather was a heavy fall of snow in this morning. Yesterday I finished the finally test of this semester. Originally, I don't need to come to school today, but yesterday Des told me that they are having a interview tomorrow noon. It just a practice, and if you finish the interview you can get pizza and drink. I'm very nervous about this interview. The interview is about travels and family.

Afternoon, Hsiao-Yen and I waited for Dave to finish his work and we are going to play snowball fight. Dave works in ESL office. He really is a very nice guy. We usually talk with him to practice English. We wanted to go to a erhu concert at 4:00 pm. Before the concert beginning we had a lot of time could do anything so we went out to play snowball fight. Dave told us that we can eat the fresh snow, but if the snow is yellow we don't eat that because that was a dog peeing there. We made a small snowmen and took some pictures there.

We went to the concert at 3:30 pm. This concert is in the music department of school. The player is from Beijing. Her name is Yu Hongmei. It was my first time to listen the erhu concert. I don't know how to describe this concert so I find her video from Internet. Enjoy it!

My Writing & Reading class teacher - Marcy

Marcy is my Writing & Reading teacher. She really is an earnest teacher in ESL. I remember that my first journal was very less, I just only wrote five sentences. She told me that my grammar is good, but my writing is too less and I need to write more. My writing sometimes have wrong about higher level grammar and she will teach me separately. She often shows us a lot of extra vocabulary in the class and usually gives a lot of homework to us. She always prepare many things to teach us and occasionally uses the games that help us learn English well.

Now my English has a little progress. I can write a blog to record my life in Calgary and share my feeling with my friend. I want to thank her. I will continue to post new one after.

Last Activity - Griffin Valley Ranch

This activity is the last of this semester. That is an outdoor excursion. We went to the Griffin Valley Ranch. The ranch was very far from U of C. The distance was about one hour and a half. There were a lot of horses and cattle in the ranch.


We arrived there at 1:30 pm. The weather was very cold because we were on the mountain. First, we ate free hot dogs and drinks there, but the hot dog was too small. They also sold chips and we wanted to buy a pack of chips, but we found the date of availability have been overdue. we had to take the money back. Later, we got a wagon ride, that is a special experience. It's a pity that we couldn't ride horses. The owners of the ranch were very interesting. A owner of horses told me that he had 70 horses and every horse had a name. How could he remember all the names of the horses. I thought that he needs to take care of 70 horses and that is not easy. About 5:00 pm, we went back U of C. Some people told me that the trip was boring but I didn't think so.

Liliana, Deyvid, Hsiao-Yen, Sunny, Bill and me thought the time was early. After the activity we went to a pub of downtown. We just drank some beer and ate something. The pizza was very delicious. We chatted each other. It was really a great time.

Joe Hisaishi Meets Kitano Films

I was listening this album last week. This album is that incidental music of Hisaishi made for Kitano's movies. I have never seen these movies but I was moved by the music. The music is full of emotions and power.

Joe Hisaishi is a music master of movies. He made a lot of music for Hayao Miyazaki's cartoons and Takeshi Kitano's movies. He won many awards on international. His music combines classical music and popular music. His melody mixes eastern culture and western culture. Most of his music is well-known on the world. From the cartoons for children to commercials and movies you can hear the music of he made. I had played one of his music when I was in elementary school. It is the music of Hayao Miyazaki's cartoons so it's not very difficult. Later, he made a lot of music for orchestra. I want to play the music. It's my dream and it's also many musicians' dream.

A Letter for My Girlfriend 一封給我女朋友的信

Dear Fish

When I received the letter that you sent to me. It really touched my heart. I want you to get this feeling. Although I can post it on my blog. I think the words that I write myself can communicate what I want to talk you. Originally, I wanted to write a letter like you sent to me. But I can't find the letter paper and the card from bookstore is very expensive. So I have to write this handmade card for you.

I really want thank you for that when I left you to learn English in Canada. You are still waiting for me. I often see lovers walk hand in hand on the campus. Sometimes, I envy them, but I know that you must be waiting for me, waiting I go back to hold your hand. I can reply loudly, I have a girlfriend who love me very much and wait me in Taiwan.

The date of I back is advanced to late July. It's like that I leave the army early again and the early time is cut five months. But my heart of love and missing won't cut for this reason. Finally, I need to tell you ~ Thanks for you love me. I'm happy extremely.

ifoolish

親愛的洪小魚

當我收到妳寄給我的信的時候，真的是非常的感動，我也想讓妳感受這樣子的感覺。雖然可以寫在無名，但是我想親筆寫的字比較能表達我想跟你說的話吧，所以也寫了這張卡片給妳。本來也想寫信的，可是找不到像妳寄來那樣的信紙，外面賣的卡片也貴的誇張，只好寄這張手工卡片給妳。

我真的感謝妳在我要離開妳到加拿大來學英文的時候，還願意在台灣等我。常常走在學校看到情侶手牽手走在校園裡面，有時候還真的很羨慕，不過我知道，你會等著我回去，等著我回去牽起妳的手，我可以大聲的向那些人嗆聲，我有一個很愛我的女朋友在台灣等著我阿。

回去的日子提早到了七月底，好像當兵又要提前退伍了，這一提前就是提前五個月，可是愛妳、想你的心並沒有因此而減少。最後我還是要說～謝謝洪小魚愛我，我真的很幸福。

永遠愛妳的傻子

Daylight Saving Time

Daylight Saving Time began on this Sunday. It means spring is coming. It's my first time to experience of cutting one hour in a day. When I just arrived here in January, I went to school that the sky was dark. Now, I woke up at 7:00 that the sun has risen already. I think it's important to help the energy economy.

In Taiwan, we don't need to enforce the summer time. Because it's not many differences between summer day and winter day. But I used the Internet to search information that Taiwan had enforced the summer time in 1945 to 1979. I wasn't born already.

I had been used to talk with my girlfriend the other day. Now, we need to change these habits. First, when I woke up, I wanted to talk with her but she was eating. Then, when I finished classes a day, I wanted to see her on the Internet but she was sleeping. We are trying to be used the summer time.

Going to Javier's home

Friday I went to the concert and so I felt that my mouth was itching. I wanted to play my trumpet. I have a lot of time that I don't play trumpet. "Can I go to your home to play trumpet this Saturday" I asked Javier. I prepared three songs that I wanted to play with him.

I made an appointment with Javier at 2:00 pm. I saw Kristi and Liliana in the school. Kristi was teaching Liliana English about pronunciation. I was waiting for Javier. He was late one hour. I knew he missed the bus. In this time I listened with Liliana what Kristi's teaching. Javier came to school at 3:00 pm. So I didn't have much time to practice. But his homestay was very nice. I talked more with the children. The little girl was very cute. The boy wanted to learn about guitar. We took some picture in the house. Although I couldn't get more practice. But I have a great Saturday.

A different concert - Broadway Beauties

On this Friday, The ESL's activity was to hear a concert. This concert was different from the other concerts that I heard before. It's not only music from orchestra. The performance combined the orchestra and the singers. Full of the show was a story about three women live in New York. They sang many famous songs, including one of my favorites - "Over the Rainbow". I wanted to tear when I heard this song. The music vibrated in my heart.

After the concert ended, we saw the singers in the lobby. Their singing was very melodious. I took a picture with a singer. She is so beautiful. (My girlfriend looked the picture. "Who is the woman? Why her hand put on your chest?" She was very angry to say. But I know she was kidding. She was just a little jealous.) After that, We met the conductor of Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra. He told us a lot of things about him. He said that his two favorite instruments are trombone and saxophone. Haha, Trombone is the instrument that I played when I was in senior high school. This concert made me to thought of past. I missed the time that I practiced with my friends in the school and held a concert by ourself.

Thanks for Hsiao-Yen, Liliana and Javier. Because I didn't want to go to the concert originally. But in all the afternoon, they told me the concert will be very good. They wanted me could go with them.

Banff Trip

This friday I joined the Banff trip of ESL. Banff is a national park and it's a beautiful place. There are many kinds of wild animals in there. I saw a lot of majestic mountain scenery and I acquainted some friends. This trip was wonderful.

Let me introduce my friend Eason. I acquainted him in this trip. He is a nice guy. He sat next to me on the tourist bus. He knew I didn't bring camera, so he lent his camera to me. I almost went with him all the trip. We ate lunch together, we rode gondola together, we went to the hot spring together, and we went home together.

About 11:00 we arrived Banff. We only had one hour and half to stay in town center. We just looked some stores in there and then we ate lunch in McDonald's. Because that is cheaper in there. We also rode gondola, everyone go to Banff always to rode gondola. The scenery is amazing when you ride in gondola. Then we went to the hot spring. It's like a pool, not real spring. But taking hot spring was comfortable. All besetments and tiredness disappear at a moment.

This is a good experience in my life. If I have a chance to go Banff I must go there again.

It's my dream

After I read Sunny's blog, I also want to write something about my dream.

I began to learn piano when I was an elementary school student. In senior high school, I joined a wind band in school association. I started to contact trumpet. I hoped I can perform on the stage from my childhood. But I never go to the formal course of music. It's very difficult to be a musician. Now, I want to join a jazz band and to be a trumpet instructor.

I just play trumpet one time since I arrived here. Because I can't find a place to practice my trumpet. Only last Saturday, I go to Javier's home. I played music with him.

Javier live in homestay. He asked his homemother that could we play music in the house. His homemother said "It's not big deal, sometimes the neighbor beat a drum." Javier is a good guitarist. I played melody and he accompanied. It was very fun.

I still want to find a place where I can practice everyday. If you know somewhere I can practice trumpet. Please tell me.

I'm missing you

I have arrived Galgary for near a month. I miss my girlfriend so much. We use Skype to talk with each other everyday. But the time of here is different to Taiwan. It's late 15 hours. I study English and write homeworks a lot of time at home. So we have less time to talk. We very treasure the time.

Tuesday of this week I received a package that she sent from Taiwan. I was very excited about it. She sent two letters and a lot of foods. I'm so happy that she want to wait for me in this time. She is so nice and very kind to me. Oh, I love her. Although we live faraway, our hearts are always together.

I have adapted myself to this new environment, but the mood of I miss her is more and more. I will try harder to learn English here. I promised that I will celebrate with her next new year.