Letter 14: Making a video

To Tim:

As the other classmates, I’ve read a picture book and made an MV about it. I worked with Doris and our book was “THE MAN WHO WALKED BETWEEN TWO TOWERS”. This book is about a guy who once secretly went into the towers and walked on the wire he tied between. Though then he was arrested, but he was only sentenced to perform in the park. It was always a joyful memory until the towers, which are the World Trade Center towers were gone. This is a sad story, so we made the conflict as big as we could in the MV. Many classmates were very surprised when they saw the ending.

These pictures are some of the scenes I drew.

In the video there are two styles of drawing and pronunciations. I did the drawing style you see above, and the voice acting to the end when it turns to real pictures. See our video here: https://youtu.be/Obcohu0Em2A

This year we didn’t put our Christmas tree out since the weather is just too hot those days that if you put on the lights, you’ll feel like sweating. But I still got my Christmas presents---a new Barbie (since mine just bent her head off) and some body models that are the same size as Barbie so I could put the clothes I made for them. And, tomorrow is the day for our Christmas party, I am so excited. I’ll tell you the details next time. For the New Year holidays, I’ll try to focus a little more to my studying. Final exam by the corner…uh... But my family and I are going to Brazil right after, so…happy at the same time.

Wish you a happy new year!

From Allison

Letter 13: Postcards for the First Time

To Tim

Lately we did an activity in class---writing postcards to human right fighters all around the world. It’s a meaningful activity to me since I have never wrote post cards to people or government I haven’t known before. Though sometimes I am not clear if this post card could really help, but by just looking at the amount of post cards our classmates wrote, I can feel the power when it arrives not only one or two but ten, twenty and more.

Letter 12: Human Rights

To Tim,

Our teacher told us to write this.

 I agree for same-sex marriage to be legalized. I think humans should all have same rights, and have the right to choose for their own. Reason 1.Homosexuality stays there since the human was born, they were not willing to be that way. There’s nothing they’ve done wrong, and according to the experts, they may not affect health nor other people.Reason2. The other thing is that people are not married for having children, I don’t get why they say that when normal couples get married and didn’t have children. Well, even though they did want marriage just to have kids, why not? I am not worried about education between parents and children, but they say they were born homosexuals, kids won’t change however there parents are. However, what I think is more important, o wonder if  our government is just distracting our concentration? We should be talking about the food problem from japan, the government switches the arguments by throwing problems people will definitely care about one by one and we forget the ones left behind.

From Allison

Letter 9: School Affair

To Tim:

I have a few questions: If they increase import tax to products from China and make them more pricy, will the people, especially the ones who voted Trump for a change on their work, be able to pay for the “made in USA” products? When everything gets more expensive, and it turns into huge paying for everyday life, what will happen? I believe Americans cannot live without “made in China” goods, so are other countries.

So, let’s move on to our school anniversary. The activity lasted for 2 days, or you can say 1.5 days because we still had class in the morning of the first day. We had the sports day on the first day- Friday afternoon. We should have had races like relay races and sprints, but our sports field is under repair, so we didn’t do the races. The first graders, which we also belong to, had a dancing competition. The dance is far from being hard, I would say foolish. Our class didn’t join the competition though because we decided to focus on the school fair. We just sat beside and watched the other classes. (Here is a video of the dance. https://youtu.be/KL7z4C6V-j4 ) The second and third graders had volleyball games. Most of us chose to watch the games instead of the dance since it is really boring. The next day which was Saturday, we started the school fair. Candy, Cathy, Doris and I worked on the body painting part. We took turns drawing and dyeing people’s hair with pastel and water. I drew a lot of people including students, teachers and children, and also my classmates and myself. Lots of fun!

Letter 8: Trump-Sadness

To Tim

Sad to see the result, I can see the big news reported on every news program. To people in Taiwan, almost all of us dislike Trump because of his craziness and none sense. Though Clinton doesn’t show any kindness or promises for protecting us from China, since we have been receiving some help from Obama for years. Japan has always been helped by America to stay away from China, they are worried if the American army will leave Japan. They had an emergency meeting about it, they could attacked easily by north Korea or China without the army and the pressure America gives to these two countries. We are now watching how things will happen, and make a decision whether we will still be friends with China.

From Allison

Letter 7: Drying the Corn

To Tim,

When you wrote about drying the corn, I was wondering if people in Taiwan dry corn too. We mostly eat fresh corn. I’ve heard of people in the past dry their rice in their own san-ho-yuan which is a central building with two wings attached perpendicular to either side. They used to plant for their own family living there, so they just needed to plant enough. But the humid weather in Taiwan may ruin the crops already dried.

↑rice drying in a san-ho-yuan

By the way, people in Taiwan have developed many kinds of corn. My favorite one is the fruit corn which people say you can eat it raw, though I thought it tasted like grass and didn’t like it when I tried. But it is really delicious after you cook it. My mom cooks it in clear soup and I can taste the original taste of the corn. Another way I like my corn cooked is steamed, that I can eat a whole one. Its corn flavor isn’t too heavy, and each kernel of corn is plump, filled with juice. The best thing of all is the skin of each kernel is soft and thin, so your teeth won’t be stuck. The pictures below are some other kinds of corn I like.

←fruit corn←sweet corn

←Glutinous corn (the colors are natural)

Oh my, I’m hungry. See you next letter!

From,

Allison

Letter 6: I Love Halloween

To Tim,

I bet almost everyone wrote about the wonderful school play, which is really amazing that the actors are only at our age. But what I like most about this Thursday is the Halloween activity.

Since I was small, I have loved Halloween, and pumpkin picking had always been the best part to me. Every year before Halloween, we went pumpkin picking for field trip. I got to pick up one or two small pumpkins and take them home to decorate. Then we go to a museum and make our own scarecrows. That’s when I first learn how to braid. In the night, children in all ages set off trick-or-treating from door to door. You get big blue lollipops with pink bubblegum in the middle, some strange and funny toys, or even some home-made snacks. I also like to wait by the door with my candy bucket on my lap, and see if any of my classmates come.

↑lollipops with bubblegum inside

For the years after I came back to Taiwan, I still went trick-or-treating. But not in our neighborhood since not everyone in Taiwan celebrate Halloween. My family and I went to Tian Mu where you can trick-or-treat in almost every shop during those days. The last time I went out “hunting” for candy was only two years ago, which was the busiest time I’ve ever seen. You needed to stay in line in order to get the candy! Well, I wasn’t out for candy then. I came out for the costumes worn by the people, which are interestingly creative. I once saw an outfit on a child that turns into a car when he crouches, very cool.

From,Allison

Letter 5: Typhoons

To Tim,

Have you ever experienced a big storm like typhoons and hurricanes or an earthquake?

There are two typhoons coming our way, and it is interesting to see that actually the two are actually attracting each other. But October isn’t our “typhoon season”, everyone was surprised to see such two late typhoons. They don’t seem harmful though, since they are far from tearing right through Taiwan.

Earthquakes are definitely a threat to us. The power we release by earthquakes every year is equivalent to at least 8 atomic bombs. Little earthquakes are often, so we are used to it. But you never know if the next one is big, or where it will happen.

↑Double typhoon

From

Allison

Letter 4: My Trip to a Foreign Country

To Tim,

I’m not sure about the picture, but I did a rough guess. Is it from somewhere in Switzerland? I think I have seen that before, maybe on the internet, but I don’t know the story about it. I know little places in Europe; in fact I have only been there once. The picture I gave to you was taken when I was on the Prague Astronomical Clock. The large statue you saw was the statue of Jan Hus. He was a key predecessor to Protestantism and also a Master at Charles University in Prague. (you might know more than I do)

By the way, because of my father works in Brazil, my family and I are planning to visit Brazil in the winter break next year. But I have to get good-enough grades in the big tests, which one of them takes place next week, so I don’t have to study in the break and take another test when school starts.

↑cool rain coats I saw in Czech Republic

From,

Allison

Letter 3: I Will Stick to My Dream

To Tim:

Actually, designing clothes is not my only hobby. I also play piano and join competitions, I often get good grades. I’m still learning it now and there will be a competition near January. This hobby can keep me alive since there have always been a certain percentage of demand for learning music. I’ll still give a try on my dream though it’s more likely just a hobby.

My dad works in Brazil and seldom comes back. He speaks Portuguese well and is learning Spanish. I learned a tiny bit of Portuguese too. Learning a new language is fun because you hear alien-speaking first then you slowly understand. I have always been curious about how foreigners think Chinese sounds like.

Do you know where this is?

From

Allison

Letter 2: My Dream

To Tim:

Thank you for the comment about the dress I made. You may see that it has a big golden tie at the front. I like ties, because they are cool and somehow meaningful to me. I like to design any kinds of things but I like designing clothes most. I also enjoy making what I designed. My parents bought me a tailoring machine this year for my birthday present, and I love it. I made little bags and a simple gown for my Barbie, but it looks like picnicking. I would like to be a fashion designer when I grow up, so maybe I will go to a university that teaches fashion designing.

The problem I am facing is the big test all of us must take even though I’m going to a university training designers. The university I look forward to takes grades medium to high, your creativity and idea are not their first consideration. Weird, isn’t it.

From

Allison

The gown and a little baggie.

Letter 1: Say Hello

To Tim:

I am glad to have the chance writing letters to you. My name is Allison, my Chinese name is 賴宇婕 , I lived in California before for five years when I was little. I came back to Taiwan when I was eight and continued my life in elementary school. It was a hard time before I came back because the education between these two countries are so different, so Mom forced me to memorize the multiplication table and learn lots of Chinese words that just seem like drawings to me. But I am very thankful for her forcing me to do that. If she didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to learn so well and I wouldn’t be in this school.

This is me with a skirt I made by myself. (p.s. I’ll tell you more next time.)

From

  Allison