Memorial Day Camping

My family has had this tradition, for as long as I can remember on Memorial day weekend. We go to YMCA camp Eberhart We take a bunch of friends and enjoy a weekend of doing whatever we want. On the beach one can swim, paddle board, canoe, kayak, go tubing, or jumps of the high dive. You can go on trail rides with horses. Or shoot bows and rifles. There's every kind of land sport. I could go on. In short: it's a blast. The sad thing is that this may be the last year with everyone there. After this Willow, my sister is going to college, Alice, whom I have been best friends with since first grade, is going to boarding school, and when I come back from Taiwan even more people will be gone. But none the less, it has always been worth going. If you're in the area for Memorial Day I highly sagest it!

This year's gang

The tree house- cabin we stayed in this year

End of The School year

Credits: https://newsroom.aaa.com/2015/06/aaa-travel-lists-top-summer-vacation-destinations-2/ 

Its that time of year when classes seem slow and pointless. When even the teachers are counting down the days left. Most of our class curriculums are about to end or have ended. In some classes, we just watch movies to pass the time. Summer seems so glorious and wanted. It means freedom, beaches, video games, and guilt-free late nights. Or at least that's the ideal. In reality, not much is changing. I'm taking Summer school so that I can graduate with my class and go on exchange. I'm still taking Mandarin and gardening. Now that I think about it feels like nothing is changing! But soon enough everything will change and I'll be whooshed away to a place where nothing will be the same! The crazy thing is how fast freshman year went by. Yesterday was Spring break. The week before that, Christmas, and a month ago was the first day of school. If this year went by that fast think of how fast next year will be! If I blink I'll be in Taiwan. Close my eyes and my year will be over. All this makes me value savoring the moment. Making as many days as I can stand out from the others, rather than blend together like the last three years have.

Gardening

I have been raising money for my exchange by gardening. I usually just do weeding but sometimes I do planting. I have three vegetable gardens, a bed of strawberries, and a flower bed at our house. Gardening is a strange hobby for someone my age, and for the longest time, I didn't know why I like it so much. I think it's because, with gardening, all the work you put in is what you get out. At school, one person can do way more work than the other for the same grade. But not with gardening!

This is a picture of me working at the house of Renne Sieg

My little friend is named Stray, he and his friend are looking for homes. Stray followed quietly me around and is very friendly.

Rotary Trivia

Today my bother, parents, and I went to Rotary trivia at Marian High school. There were fun categories, a 50/50 raffle, that I helped sell tickets for, and a silent auction. It was a good time, Rotarians are a fun group. Everything was going fine, nothing odd. But then one of the categories was dance! Each table had to send a representative, and I found myself at the front the room along the other 26 people. We danced to clips of about ten songs in three minutes. It was actually a lot of fun! And the two winners each got a bow of Kraft macaroni and cheese! We arrived almost an hour late because today is my sister's prom! All in all,

it was a good night.

My Sister <3 

AP World History

Photo creds: https://news.stanford.edu/2016/03/31/memory-war-asia-033116/ 

So, the reason I have not posted yet this week is because this morning was the AP World History (WHAP) Exam, or at least that's what I keep telling myself. At Adams High School a week in WHAP  goes like this: Sunday- read 10-13 pages of the textbook, Monday - quiz over the material, Wednesday - read pages, and so on an so forth in a cycle. Then one also must take the 100 point, multiple choice and short answer, Unit Tests. It sounds rough, but one learns to get used to it. The funny thing about this is whenever Taiwan popped up in the textbook somewhere I would circle it and swell with pride, for the country I have not yet been to. The best part of the story is that my friends would also get really excited when Taiwan was mentioned in World History. I know this makes us sound super dorky but it's encouraging to hear about Taiwan. I think this is because sadly, it is very common for the people who ask where I am going to have never heard of Taiwan.

Rotary Cheer Team, Girls on the Run

This morning my mom and I, along with other Rotarians and Poppy (the inbound form Thailand) volunteered for Girls on the Run. This is a local 5k that young girls train for. The 5k is empowering, fun and builds self-confidence. This is my second year volunteering for it, and as always, it was a lot of fun. The theme of our cheer team is superheroes.

Spring in South Bend

We are a good ways through spring now, but I still find myself marveling at how beautiful everything is. Even if it does give me allergies. Although our yard is not very big, we have eight threes on our property, four of which we planted since we moved here. They each bud at different rates, and some have flowers and then bear fruit. I love our trees. Our yard is just an example of the amazing fauna found in South Bend. Another thing to be appreciated is the river. Just at the end of our block, is the gorges St. Joseph River. I have been taking pictures, recently, of our natural wonders and thought I would share them.

Cinco de Mayo

Today is May 5th, and South Bend is celebrating Cinco de Mayo! This celebration commemorates the Mexican victory at the Battle of Puebla against Napoleon's French army. My mom and I volunteered for a 5k run called Cinco de Milles (which is funny because a 5k is 3.01 miles) that my dad and brother ran in. This is the third year I have participated in this 5k, but the first year I wasn't running. The proceeds go to a local non-profit, La Casa de Amistad. There was a mariachi band and the warmup was dancing. it is always a lot of fun. Later we went to a Cinco de Mayo celebration at Lasalle Park and had ice cream from a local ice cream parlor called La Rosita. In all, I had a lot of fun today, and encourage anyone coming to the US for exchange to celebrate!

Here is a picture of La Rosita (personally my favorite ice cream place in South Bend)

Here is me wearing this year's volunteer shirt (click to enlarge)

Next Year

In a few weeks, this school year will come to an end, a few weeks after that I will leave to Taiwan, obviously I am super excited, also obviously I am nervous. Sometimes I will forget about exchange for a second and say something like "we'll have to do this again next year." Then I remember and correct myself. Other times someone will ask me something such as "are you doing track next year?" or "what classes are you taking next year?" It is strange to say, again, that I will not be here next year. I thought I should write a post about this for anyone who is thinking about exchange. There will always be things that you cannot be prepped for. I am just glad I have learned this early and with something so harmless.

Exchange Pins

There is a tradition in Rotary that each exchange student makes their own pins. It sounds strange, but it's actually really cool. Every student has a Rotary blazer and just about every other student they meet gives them a personalized pin to put on the blazer. By the end of their exchange, their blazer is completely covered in pins, and each pin has a story and a memory. The trick of making pins is that they have to be cheap and easy to make many of. I have yet to make my pins. I have a few ideas, but I don't know which one I'm going to chose. 

This picture is a to-scale map of Taiwan inside Indiana, where the hart is South Bend.This is one of my design ideas, it would be a button. Buttons are cheap and with the right tools,  are very easy to make.

This is my other idea. Same design, different style. I could do this with a shrinky dink, but that may be pretty time-consuming. My other idea, which would be really cool but might be costly, it to have laser cut wood done in this design at the local art place Make it South Bend.

This is how my blazer looks, so far