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Peggy's Diary

The first day at Harrow school

Lorancto is energetic and she lives beside me. I found that she's not good at logic.

Jassica and Alexandra are hot girls. They both have great flexibility. The latter has been here three times. She has done lots of extra-curricular such as drama and ballet. She is a proud Greek.

Our teacher Tania is from a small country near India. She is nice and young (25)

The first class was about Shakespeare. We wrote scripts in the past tense (communicating with Alexandra was exhausting). Then, she introduced phrasal verbs to us by a clip in a TV series, The Big Bang. (Lorancto seemed a bit too childish and careless. I regretted letting her create the content.)

Harrow fives is a hard sport, but worth trying. An Italian girl played it well.

The second day at Harrow School

Cambridge is a beautiful place that looks like a scene in a movie. It’s totally a historic and cultural place. It is a wonderful experience that you should never miss. The architecture here is truly a work of art. The details and delicate sculptures are astounding, not to mention the age of those buildings. Most of them are centuries old and were thus designed on paper and by sketching.

I found that English people take their quality of life seriously. You can tell that from their gardens and street designs. I think that if I want to keep this feeling with me after I get back, I should well learn gardening and more cultural stuff. Perhaps I should make the best of my leisure time to explore the world and be creative. I think the best thing that English people have impressed me so far is that they take pride in their culture and try their best to promote it globally.

After my visit to Cambridge, I found it boring and exhausting to attend the evening activities. One thing I've learnt is that it’s hard to please teenagers and I should learn how to launch an activity properly without making everyone bored. The best way to achieve this is probably to put the people who are attending under close observation. Another experience I got from there is English connects everyone worldwide, which is amazing. I also found it awkward to convey my thoughts to others because different languages come with different experiences and logic. Now, I suppose that I can stand in Loracto’s shoes and get to know her more in order to try thinking in her way. By the way, my goal (just came up with it today) is to make friends with all the girls in my class. I hope that I can make it in the end, because if I complete it, I will know that I have the ability to make friends. Most important of all is that I can make the most of my English ability.

One last thing, the game splat is interesting. There is be a person in the middle, and whomever he points to has to get down. Then, the two standing beside that person have to splat at each other. The one who does it faster survives.

The third day at Harrow school

My classmates and I got to know more about each other. I also finally found the problem, which I’ve been having with Alexandra. She always decides to follow her plans and she is overconfident. But I have also found that being confident like her can be quite important because my biggest disadvantage is that I can't feel good about myself unless others surrender to me. It makes me feel so weird. I’ve been going through this cycle ever since my school life began. It prevents me from making friends. The most important thing I’ve learnt so far is that I care too much about others' thoughts and I, therefore, avoid various possibilities. I hate my personality. I need to change.

While in the canteen, I heard Andy talk about the separation between England and the EU. Later in the afternoon, we had a quiz about everything including Harrow, music, common sense, and even sports! I suddenly found out how little I know. Although it was not the first time that I noticed my lack of knowledge of the world around me, I had never peered so deeply into my brain that it made me tremble. Now I find that studying is important, but at the same time, it is even better to get involved in this world.

Last but not least, I am convinced that teachers do their best to help their students. No matter how boring or terrible, l believe they all mean well in the end. The conclusion is that I must think about the meaning behind school fairs and small activities, and get engaged in classes. I will adopt a new attitude when I get back.

The fourth and fifth day at Harrow School

It took a while to get to the city centre. All in all, England is an international place, where people from everywhere walk around. It has a lot on offer. For example, it has one of the best museums in the world and numerous shops and sights to see. In some of those shops, such as the pharmacy, grocery store, and even bookstores, there are various different brands of goods. The malls also have many shiny and luxurious products. The different smells of perfumes mixed up together will literally make you dizzy. Big cities are all the same to me since they all resemble each other with crowds of tourists and huge buildings. But London’s highlights are its historical buildings and its leafy environment which makes it recognizable compared to others. However, its urban areas and countryside are my personal favorite, due to the silence and wonderful views. I think one of the things I envy about Harrowians is this.

The sixth day at Harrow school

I think that l must have misunderstood AJ since today she talked to me in a friendly way and listened to my opinion. Also, our class today was about advertising and debates with all those phrases and idioms like “Sorry to interrupt, but...” and” go like hotcakes. When it comes to speaking, AJ always is the best. However, what really stunned me today was the knowledge they had during the debate. For instance, the topic today was ”boys are better than girls”. Unfortunately, I was on the agree side, so you're aware what happened in the end. It didn’t matter who won, but my classmate Jessica and Monica did a good job on that, and they even made examples about the Olympics and information like girls are three years more mature than boys. Not to mention that Alexandra had stated that women live ten years longer than men do. Her unbreakable points are so perfect as to make me feel ashamed of being one year younger. In my opinion, it’s better to be knowledgeable about things that are important as well as facts which can be useful while writing and talking.

Finally, at the dinner party tonight, I gave my email address to Monica. This meant that I made my first friend here. On the other hand, when I saw the Chinese group going on stage for graduation certificates, l suddenly felt a sense of loss because that made me have to face the whole group of foreigners without the familiar language around me. I started to be afraid of the last half of my journey becoming just us Taiwanese being the minority among those Italians.

The seventh day at Harrow school

Today we explored the small town of Harrow. It is amazing that there is such a lively street for residents in Harrow to go shopping. I didn't learnt much today because there was no class. The only thing that I found interesting is that some of those kids were wearing uniforms today, even though it was still the first month in summer vacation. I didn’t ask why. Anyways, I bought some souvenirs for myself, my mom, and my sister, which were respectively a Harrow hat (at the price of 32£), a pen with my mom’s name written on it (which was surprisingly 1.40£), and a ring for my sister (at about4.00£). I decided to buy something really British for Mom. It was all under 20£.

PS, I am making friends with an Italian girl, Cecilia, who is seventeen years old and willing to communicate with us. I'm expecting this relationship will be established easily. Additionally, I played badminton with Angelica today. She’s the girl who played Harrow fives with us last Wednesday. She was not as 衿持 as she was before. I acknowledged that playing sports can be an excellent way to make friends since we can avoid the embarrassment of talking and see the person through their movements, or just simply enjoy the game.

The eighth day at Harrow School

It's been a long time since I got here. The sense of interest has ended, and everything seems to be less intriguing. I found that Monica is remarkably good at English despite her young age. I’m jealous of her. However, I need to come up with a way to advance, so I found out that her abilities over me are vocabulary and how she organizes her thoughts. For example, she can write things down from sentences to articles and then 修飾. I want to be just like her, but it's hard to start because it's a matter of how. What worries me the most is that I don't have much time left, and that makes me feel anxious. That’s why how I use my time will be my toughest task.

Aside from those things, my day ended with a question: why is it so hard to make friends, and why does everyone here end up with a fellow or two? The answer I have come up with so far is that I always chicken out while making friends with strangers. When I saw AJ get a boyfriend, who’s from Turkey, in less than three days after he arrived, I was really amazed. I believe there is still a lot to learn in my last five days.

The ninth and tenth day at Harrow School

Ceceilia is not an easy one. She loves fashion and loves taking pictures. Another thing I know about her is that she is competitive. I know I don’t have much time left to make friends, but I need to try my best to get this one, and AJ’s Instagram. After these two days, I learned several things. One of them is something I noticed while playing tennis with a bunch of Chinese kids. They are surprisingly selfish. The first time I noticed this was when one of the girls, who is thin and short, was selected to collect the balls. While she was running around the whole field busy as a bee, those children who came along with her kept hitting the ball harder and harder. I found that they didn’t take pity on the girl but focused on their own enjoyment. I saw the girl running and sweating and finally it was even hard for her to catch her breath. She barely said anything the whole time. Despite this, those Italians showed no tolerance to the same girl because she can’t speak English fluently. Correction, she relied on her friend. Those Italian boys couldn’t speak proper English either, however, they sort of spoke ill behind her back in Italian. Well, in my opinion, children in this generation are self-centered. When I talk about this, I am talking about myself, too. It’s such a bad habit we have nowadays. Everyone is doing it though, so it can be it’s just normal. Anyways, it doesn’t mean such behavior is right, and as a citizen in this era, I should be responsible for a change in the situation.

Today, I also went to a Disco Night. It was the first experience I had in such an unserious place. I recorded it in my collection of photos and videos. The place was too dark to get any good footage though and my efforts were to no avail.

The eleventh day at Harrow School

Today I went to the natural history museum. I tried to connect with Rebecca, a new girl from China. I went with Monica to the earthquake simulation area first. Something I viewed as interesting was that it perfectly showed what life was like in Japan a long time ago, including all the products on the shelves. In addition to that, the explanation about earth and matter was simple and delicate. Most importantly, the samples exhibited in the shop window were real. For example, there were rubies, diamonds, some human skeletons, and even a catfish transported from Japan. However, I regretted not going and seeing the objects and specimens in the green zone. Now I know what a map is for. In the future, if I get a map, I will make better use of it. Just like learning a new skill, it can tell you where to start and finish. More importantly, a map makes your journey more efficient. In conclusion, from now on, I’ll make good use of maps.

The next place I went to today was Harrods, where luxury items are sold. It was such a posh place. Something I couldn’t believe was that the Chinese people, who are the same age as me, bought bags and bags of jewelry and clothes without hesitation. How much money did they actually bring with them? It was just surprising! I’m not a person who actually shops a lot, thus I strolled around and pretended that I was as rich as Monica. She even mimicked those ladies with high heels walking in the department store. It was so hilarious. After that, we listened to some street performers perform in front of Harrods. There was a fourteen-year-old black girl with a powerful voice who promoted herself in order to become a singer in the future. That is the difference between us and those Europeans. We don’t show off because we think it’s an act of arrogance. On the other hand, when you reveal your ability people see you as a person.

Work by one of our student- Brian

Death, a consequence of everything, a situation you must embrace, early or late, you are going to meet up with it.

When you are going to face it, what will come up in your mind? What will you do to take the best use of the rest of your time? I suppose you're going to take the plunge , do whatever you want , stop struggling in any adverse feasibility , put the most effort into your dreams that are not achieved yet , because you know that you don't have much time left. So that you can end up your life with satisfaction.

Why don't we have this kind of mentality and determination while we're being challenged? Or simply just everything? Won't this mental pre-preparation help you genuinely immerse and enjoy in the process of coping with the plight you're in or let yourself finely concentrate, and indulge in the feeling of being alive and active?

Death, reminds us the value of life, tells us how precious life is, teach us the magnificence to treasure our life just as our children, and push us out of our bubbles and attain what we thought we can't.

Don't we need to thank Death devoutly?