It's extremly cold!

I went back school this morning. It was cold in my hometown, Taichung. But I found that it's is much colder in Lin-Kou. There have been a chance that we would have secessive holiday. Unfortunately, because there were some mistakes, we couldn't have the sucessice holiday. So we have to take two chemical courses today. I felt a little disappointed that I can't went across the year with my family. But there were not only disappointment. My roommate didn't go to Taipei to go across the year, too. So I could go across the year with my roommate by watching TV. It's was not that bad that we could't go to Taipei to see the fireworks at 101. We don't need to crowd in crowd and stand in the cold weather. We even could eat some dessert and hot chocolate, sit comfortably in the common room, watch the TV to enjoy a warm crossing-year night. In my opinion, those who went outside to go across the year is crazy.

It was extremly cold here in dormitory. The Christmas snow, a kind of plant with little flower, blossomed in my home's balcony. Its flower is lovely and bright. Here is the picture.



Isn't it lovely? In recent days, there were many bird like Japanese white, sparrow on it in the morning. Mom bought it three years ago. It was short and small then, but tall and flourish now. It blossomed in winter, like snow floating down on our balcony.

The outdoor Chinese class

This morninig, our Chinese professor, professor Han, took the class outside the campus to have the Chinese class. Professor Han is professional in birds, insect, and plants. He always took birds and plant as examples in Chinese class. He also have established books which talked about ancient poems and composition that relative to birds.

Our touring start from school gate. First, professor Han introduced us the dragonfly's juvenile, Euphaea decorata.

http://contest.ks.edu.tw/~river/environment/insect/insect4.htm

Later, we met the Ring-cupped oak, whose fruit is oval-shaped, and had a sharper end. It was the fruit which appear in the cartoon movie, Ice Age, sought by the squirrel. And also appeared in My Neighbor TOTORO, an animation made by Japanese director, Miyazaki Hayao.

The fruit I pick under the ring-cupped oak tree

Then, we met the wintergreen. Its fruit is red, which was usually picked to hang on the door in Christmas. Its wood was also used to make Harry Potter's wand, 13-inch long, did you remember?

The fruit I pick under the wintergreen tree

(It was bright red as soon as I picked it. After several hours, it became dark red.)

We continued meeting a plenty of fascinating plant, birds, and insects, like butterflies, dragonflies, and larvae. It was a unforgettable and interesting class I have ever taken. Hope that we will have more chance to have such class in the future.

Christmas' chocolate

Yesterday was my first Christmas in Chang Gung. And I first knew that everyone send and give chocolate to each other in Christmas. In my memories, people only send Christmas cards in Chrismas. This Chrismas, I have accepted plenty of various chocolate, like mint, coffee, milk favors. Seeing diverse chocolate, I recalled a novel named Charlie and the Chocolate Factory which I read in junior high school. It was my first English novel that I used to improve my English reading ability. You must felt curious and asked, "There were a large number of English novel, why you chose this one?" I couldn't concretely say why. I was just fascinated by its lovely cover and the letters "C-H-O-C-O-L-A-T-E", then I quickly "seized" it without second thought.

The person on the book cover is Mr. Willy Wonka

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was written by Roald Dahl, illustrated by Quentin Blake. The story talked about a little boy who love eating chocolate but he couldn't afford it because his family was poor. One day the biggest chocolate factory's owner, Mr. Willy Wonka, decided to allow five children to visit his mysterious factory. So he sent out five golden tickets which hid in chocolates in every candy stores. Charlie was eager to have the ticket, but he was afraid to ask for allowance to buy the chocolate. He never said anything about the tickets, but his parents and grand parents all knew what Charlie was eager for. One day, Charlie's grandpa Joe, decided to gave his cute grandson extra allowance to by the chocolate. After several days, there were four lucky children got the golden tickets. Charlie luckily got the last one, and decided to go with grandpa Joe. Then the following plot was the adventure in the chocolate factory.

Following are some illustrations in the novel which I take by my camara.

There was a chocolate lake in the factory

Boating in the chocolate lake
Because Charlie's home was poor, his grandparents all had to lie on the both end of one bed.

Chocolate can warm the body and heart in cold winter. When you feel melancholy, eating a chocolate can also help you to feel better. In Harry Potter, the people in the magic world also eat chocolate when met a an creature which make one feel cold and unhappy. Chocolate is such a fantastic and magical food!

Picture's origin: Taking by camara from the novel.

Drawings of the experiment result

I liked to draw the view I saw in the microscope. Eventhoght it was a bit time-wasting, I still enjoy the work. In my opinoin, drawing is more elaborate and particular. My classmates always derided my "hard working". They said,"It only takes a few second taking pictures, why you waste time in drawing?" I don't know how to answer. I think those who don't know the happiness in drawing cannot understand my meaning.

Following are the biology experiments we take in this semester.

This experiment is olein analysis. We observed the condition of water and oil's mixing to simulate the membrane's structure.

This experiment is chloroplast analysis. We used TLC,or thin-layer chromatography, to analyse kind of chloroplast in the sample.

This experiment is cell division. We observe the onion's calyptra cell divising and looking for the view of chromosome division. From left to right are chromosome division pathway, prophase, metaphase, anaphase, and telophase. We used Acetobacter to stained the nucleus to help observing easier. This experiment is Model Organism-Drosophila. We observed the Drosophila's egg chamber and its ovariole. We use staing solution which contain X-gal in K3Fe(CN)6, K4Fe(CN)6 in PBS. Through staining, the target part looks blue, yellow, and green. In the picture, it is the ovariole at left, ovary at right.

We also observed various Drosophila's alleles. Professor gave each team five type of Drosophilas, OreR(wild type), w-, TM3Ser, CyO, and FM7Bar. I drew their appearance in my note book.



This experiment Model Organism-Caenorhabditis elgans. We observed its imago's egg and observed the cell division before the egg is fertilized.

There are two type of Caenorhabditis elegans-hermaphroditism and male. We had to choose hermaphroditism which have eggs(ovum) and fertilized eggs. First, I and my teammate couldn't differentiate which is hermaphroditism and which fertilized egg have divised yet or not.

After "killing" six Caenorhabditis elegans, I finally differentiate which egg haven't divise yet.

Competition of spelling

There was a competition of spelling at 6:00 pm today. Although I have printed the vocabularies two weeks ago, I still had no time to memorize them. I started memorzing them just two days ago. During the memorizing, I found that there were some words making me confused. For example, we usually use "pharmasist" which means a person skilled in the making of medicine. But I also saw another word "apothecary" which has the same meaning. They are all means "藥劑師" in Chinese, but what is the difference between them? After looking up them in the dictonary, I eventually knew the difference: "pharmasist" is the modern word. On the contrary, "apothecary" is the old use. I was so excited that I knew another old-fashioned word again. I had great interest in the words which are old-used. In my opinion, they are more elegant than modern words.
The other doubt in memorizing is that there are "cancer" and "carcinoma" which are both mean "癌症" in Chinese. What is the difference between them? Again, after looking up them in the dictionary, I found that "carcinoma" is the medical use.
Although I didn't do well in the competition, I still reap no little benefit in this experience because I not only learn a lot of new word but knew many medical phrases and old-used words.
I determined to join the competition again next year!

The competition of the dorm's neatness

This is my desk^^

Tonight from 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm there were a competition of the dorm's neatness. Having will to win the first place, I and my roomates, 恬綺 and 孟品, maked a lot of effort to clean our room. We started to clean out on this Sunday. We mopped the floor, washed the sink, folded our quilted cover, clean the bathroom and toilet, and moreover, we also clean the screen window! After several hours later, we had a room which looked brand-new! Tonight before the judge came to our room, we even mopped the floor again and using tape to stick the hair on the floor.

Several minitutes went by, the judge came. Surprisingly, the judge only worked straight into our room, took a look of the bathroom, then finished. The overall process costs less than twenty seconds! I was so disappointed and a little angry about the way of scoring. Although we had the perfect score, but I felt that the judge didn't have the "sincerity" to check our room. They didn't check the sink, our desks and balcony. They even didn't take a look at the stainlessly clean floor

and the screen window! In my mind, they had to give some praise at least....

The full view of the dorm

The stainlessly clean screen window which was cleaned by me

Having mid-terms and reports all the year----I am so tired

Last night, I make the chemical mid-report until 4:30am. I haven't went to bed so late ever before. I don't want to stay up night anymore!

Since I entered Chang Gung, my life were fiiled with plenty of exams and reports. There seems to be no rest in every week. When a series of exams were over, there must be a great number of reports waitng for you to do. For instance, we had a chemical mid-term last week, then this week we have eight reports to do. More astonishing,as soon as we finishing the eight reports, we again starts handle the second wave of mid-terms. In other college or departments, there are only "mid-term" week. But for Life Science in Chang Gung, there must be a "mid-term year." Sometimes I really feel exhausted. Luckily, I have great interests in life science. Otherwise, I really don't know how to keep me study hard and have willpower to face the giant pressure in dealing with schoolwork.
Next week, there will be a physical mid-term first. Also there are regularly biology test, chemical reports, and biology experiment reports. Hope that I can do well in these schoolworks in the following days and don't stay up night anymore.

Picture's origin: http://www.lalulalu.com/thread-466446-1-1.html