Week 15：Dragon Boat Festival

　　This Monday was Dragon Boat Festival! When I was little Dragon Boat Festival was always my favorite because at that day my mom always took me to the traditional market and bought some cuisine to worship my ancestors and sometimes we even made sachets on our own. At the noon, after worshiping the ancestors, we were used to stand eggs at the terrace and my sister and I always had a contest on it.

　　However, since my sister was preparing for the upcoming college entrance exam and I was busy in doing piles of reports, we didn't celebrate the holiday this year. And it made me  felt a little bit. However, at the night of the Dragon Boat Festival this year, all my family sat together to eat delicious rice dumplings made by my aunts which was also let my a lovely memory.

Week 14：Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

　　I read a book named Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother for preparing a report this week. It has been a very controversial book since it was released because of the strict method the author used to educate her two daughters. The author Amy Chua is a Chinese-American woman who is now the professor at Yale Law School and the mother of the two teenage daughters.

　　In the book, Chua talked about her strict policies in educating her kids, like never attend a sleepover, never be in a school play, never get any grade less than an A, etc. Before reading the book, I thought Chua might be a critical and horrible mother who uses the wrong ways to treat her daughters which could deprive  them of the happiness of the childhood.

　　However, after reading the book, I discover that Chua is a mother who loves her daughters so much and try her best to educate her daughters to become independence and self-confidence. Even though I do not agree that she names her parenting method "Chinese parenting," I can not deny that she dedicate most her time and effort to educate and accompany her daughters and both of her two daughters are very talented and outstanding.

Week 13：Tap dance club

　　When I was a freshman, I joined the tap dance club in NCCU. I had a great time there and I had not only learned dancing skills but also made good friends there. However, I joined a workshop which was at 7pm every Monday so I quitted the club. I felt pity and really want to go back to practice my dancing skills.

　　This Sunday I received a message from the leader of the club, asking me that if I could help them record their performance on campus. I was so excited that I promised her immediately and went to their class on Wednesday. Their performance was great that made me really want to go back! Even though I also stand behind them, I could feel how hard they had worked for the coming performance and I could feel their passion toward tap dance. It was a great night and I decided to go back to the club next semester.

Week 12：Holiday!!!

　　My family and I went to I-lan this Saturday. The weather was perfect! Big sun shine, and breeze made the trip more adorable. My dad drove us to the observatory of Su-ao harbor, a beautiful nameless beach, and a fancy restaurant. Even though I got tanned and all my shoes filled with sands, I still cherished the time that I spent with my family because I know that after my sister go to college, we would have less and less chance to go out and had fun together.

　　We went back Taipei at about 9 pm with the heavy rain outside. And since I was too tired, I went to sleep when arriving home without. I was so lucky that I dream a good dream that night!

Week 11：Mother's Day

　　Last Sunday was Mother's Day! My dad took us to Tao-yuan to have dinner with my grandparents and all my relatives. It was a great day that we all gathered together to share lives and chat with others all day. 

　　We went to the bus station at noon with two delicious cakes and arrived at my aunt's place at 2 pm. At my aunt's place, we played with my cousin's puppy Joy, which was a cute 2-year-old Miniature Poodle and waited for my grandparents' coming. After my grandparents' coming at about 5:30, we walked to the restaurant. It was not a very fancy restaurant and the food there wan't very good. However, since it was a celebration of mothers, we still had a great time there. At about 8 pm, we walked back to my aunt's place and sing the karaoke in her house. We went home at about 11 o'clock and got home after midnight. Even though it was a tiring day and the dishes at the restaurant were not delicious, my sister and I still felt fulfilled and delighted.

Week 10：Akeelah and the Bee (2)

　　Akeelah went to Javier's birthday party and became the main rival of Dylan in Scrabble. Few days after, Akeelah went to the region bee without her mother's permission and caught by her mom while the competition.  After a long discussion and argument, Akeelah's mom finally agreed her to go back to the stage, and with the help of Javier, Akeelah went back to the stage on time. Javier, Dylan, and Akeelah won the region bee and all of them had a chance to go to the national bee in Washington D.C. While Dr. Larabee was training Akeelah, he thought of his late daughter and he taught Akeelah that he would stop training Akeelah and left her some word notes. What's worse, since Akeelah had become the focus of the press, she ignored her best friend which made her best friend angry. Akeelah felt terrible; she told her mom that she didn't want to go to the national bee without Dr. Larabee and her best friend. Akeelah's mother encouraged her that she should not give up when facing difficulties. After her mother's encouragement, Akeelah found that everyone could be her couch and she plucked up her courage to ask her best friend and Dr. Larabee to go the national bee with her. At the end of the story, both Akeelah and Dylan won the national bee.

　　

　　It was really a inspiring story which taught me that we should always be positive and should conquer any difficulty facing in life. It's always easy to give up; however, only after people try to conquer something, the final success will come.

　　I really like the movie because in the movie, I saw a eleven-year-old African-American girl who plucked up her courage to attain a competition which might made her laughed by her peers. She was amazingly courageous that she asked for help from others and tried to find answers. Even though the environment against her, she never quit and won the national bee in the end.

　　The movie made me think of my own experience. Sometimes I suffer from the hardship in daily life and I think about quit easily. I think I should learn the spirit of Akeelah to ask for help before quit and to try my best before feeling upset.

Week 9：Akeelah and the Bee

• 　　Akeelah and the Bee is a story of a eleven-year-old African-American girl who was not interested in school but was good at playing Scrabble and always get good grades on her spelling tests. As a result, her teacher encouraged her to attend the spelling bee competition in her school. Without a doubt, she won the competition and inspired Dr. Larabee, a English professor teaching in UCLA. Even though Akeelah got the champion in her school , she didn't want to join the further competition because she didn't want her peers to make fun of her any more. In the end, her oldest brother, who was in the air force convinced her and she finally won and got the ticket for the next competition. However, she also faced some difficulties during the process. Her mother didn't agree her for practicing so hard for the spelling bee because she thought that studying were much more important than this competition. Moreover, gibes from her second brother and her peer never stopped.

•      Akeelah lived in South Los Angeles with her widowed mother and her siblings. The community they lived in was a African-American community which had lower income and worse public security than North Los Angeles. Akeelah didn't like to go to school because she was not interested in school courses and also because some of her classmates always make fun of her. She really loved playing Scrabble because it was the game her late father had taught and played with her when she were little. She was really lucky to met her homeroom teacher Mrs. Cross, who noticed her talent and recommended her to sign up for the spelling bee competition in her school. However, Akeelah had weak self-confidence and decline her teacher in the beginning. When she finally plucked up her courage and won the competition, her talent discovered by Dr. In the beginning, Larabee. Dr. Larabee wanted to coach Akeelah and help her to win the next competition; however, Akeelah refused and thought that she could coach herself by her own way. After Akeelah joined the next competition and met Javier and his club, she learned that she really needed a coach and taught her how to "spell". She went to Dr. Larabee's place again and bagged him to coach her.