Pneumothorax

First I'll give those who don't know what pneumothorax is a place to gain some knowledge.

So after you've read the wiki-article, you should know a bit more about pneumothorax. I wouldn't be telling anyone to read about it without a good reason, so here's one, I just had a pneumothorax attack on Tuesday.
Honestly, I haven't felt anything that painful in my 16 years. I had just got on the bus and felt a slight pain in my chest, at first, I didn't think anything about it. Than as the pain slowly increased, and felt sharper when I breathed, I thought of pneumothorax. Since three people in my church had been sick with it, I'd heard of it before, and since I fit the description(According to Wikipedia" Primary spontaneous pneumothorax is most common in tall, thin men between 17 and 40 years of age, without any history of lung disease.") of the high risk group, they said that I was probably going to be the next.
So, when I got to school, by which time it was hurting like hell, I called my parents, they picked me up at school and drove me to the emergency room at the NTU hospital.
Once there, my suspicions were confirmed, and to cut a long story short, I waited until 13:30 and got a minor surgery done. Basically, the doctor just injected some anesthesia in my chest, which is not something I'd like to go through again, and stuck a tube into my chest. He then used a syringe connected to the tube in my chest to suck the air , a total of 1350 ml, out of my chest cavity. But to be safe, I had to stay another 5 hours(Which in the end was aprox. 7 hours) and get two more chest X-rays(bringing the total number of X-rays taken up to 3) to make sure I was good to go home. So in the end I spent about 12 hours in the hospital.

I guess I could say that it was quite an experience since I hadn't felt any pain as strong as this and I did learn a lot more about the disease.But these still don't make up for it, which is obvious, so I guess that's the end of that....(What kind of sentence is that??)

The Test

I've just finished my first Senior High"Monthly Exam" in Taiwan, it's as hard as it gets....
I guess I totally screwed up on my Math, I'm not sure if I can even pass it(which takes 60)
I think I'm gonna get something in in the 70s or 80s for my Chinese, but I'm not really sure.
I'm not sure about my English, I hope I can get a 90+, but may not be able to get that which won't be good news for me.
I got a 81.9 on Earth Science, which was higher than I expected, and it is above the class average(73) so I guess I deserve a pat on the back for that one.
As for the last subject, Geography, I'm hoping for a 80 to 90 + percent on that, since it isn't very hard and I finished it in less than half of the time provided.
So I hope I'm gonna get a 70~80+ average this time, and I have faith that I'm going to get it.

School(And all the other stuff that I "should" have written)

Ok, I haven't posted anything for a long long time, my bad. I've just been lazy, and haven't really wanted to take the time to post stuff. So now I have tons of stuff that I have to write about to fill in the blank.
1.Back to Taiwan
After half a year of easy life, running around, visiting people on both coasts of the US, and basically just enjoying my life, I've returned to Taiwan. I kinda have mixed feelings about this, like, I miss a lot about Taiwan, friends, church, a convenient store on every corner..... That kind of stuff. But returning also means leaving the easy lifestyle(especially the school part) behind and getting into the heavy workload of Taiwanese high schools. Fortunately, it's not for me to choose, so I'm back here.
2.Jianguo Senior High School
For those who don't know, Jianguo High School is the top boys' high school in Taiwan, accepting only the top like half percent of the students participating in the high school entrance exam, so naturally it's known for it's academic excellence. Somehow, I got in. So I started school there yesterday, since I missed a whole semester. The other it's known for is it's relative freedom in the sense of students' rights compared to other high schools in Taiwan. It's quite a good school in a lot of ways, and I'm happy that I'm in it. I guess I still like it since all the heavy workload hasn't caught up "yet". And I went to the school's fellowship today, two of the guys in my same year at church go to it, too. I enjoyed it quite a lot and think that I'll be returning next Monday.

That's about it.

Huntington Library&Newport Beach(1/17&1/18)

1/17
Yesterday we went to The Huntington Library. It isn't like the libraries you usually see, it's more like a rare book and manuscript library, it has approx. 6.5 million manuscripts and more than a million rare books in it's collection. There were a lot of old books and manuscripts, a few of which date back to around 1275. There were also a lot of scientific texts, most of which were either original manuscripts or first edition copies, from Newton, Galileo, Pasteur, Hooke, Tesla, Edison and so on, it was so cool to see all these books there. BTW, we went there with my aunt, she is currently doing research there so we didn't have to pay the admissions fee, which was 20 bucks per person.

1/18
Today we went to Newport Beach, a city in Orange County. We went to the beach there, rode bikes there, and went to a mall afterwards. The weather was great, typical south California weather, and felt more like summer than Winter. We had dinner at Jonathan& Tim's house, pizza, and watched a NFL game. It was brutal, two guys had a full speed,head-on collision, literally, and one of them had to be sent out on a stretcher. It was crazy, football really is a crazily dangerous sport.

Universal Studios(1/16)

Yesterday, I went to Universal Studios with three of my cousins, Jonathan, Timothy, and Michael. Same as Disneyland, I haven't been there since I was maybe 2 or 3, so it might as well be my first time there, too. We got there around noon, went on a couple of the attractions, and then went on the studio tour, which was my favorite part. The studio tour featured a lot of cool special effects(water, fire, earthquakes, explosions.....), it basically used a lot of stuff that is used in filming movies, and although I felt that I had sat on the "wet" side of the show(JAWS, the flood in the subway station) and constantly got sprayed by water, it was still a great experience. BTW, Waterworld is great too, if you go there, you have to see it, just remember not to get to the show late or sit in the front unless you want to get wet.
I enjoyed it over all, and I think that I actually like Universal Studios better than Disneyland.
(I'll write about today's trip to The Huntington Library tomorrow.)

Disneyland

Disneyland, one of the biggest attractions in LA, if not the world, is where we went yesterday. The last time I went there was when I was a few years old so I don't really remember anything about it, so it might as well be my first time there. The park wasn't too crowded since we went on a Wednesday so we didn't have to wait "too long" in line, 10~20 minutes at most. Since I'm too old to appreciate most of the kids' stuff and I don't like roller coasters, it was only OK for me, but if you're either a kid, feel like a kid or enjoy rides, Disneyland is a place you definitely have to visit, it is, after all, a part of American culture.
In the evening, we saw the show"Fantasmic" there, it was good, they made the whole presentation quite nicely. It was quite a pity that it was hard to take pictures of it since it was so dark.
My little sister enjoyed it quite well, she is 6(What 6-year-old wouldn't?), except for Space Mountain, which was too dark, fast, and scary for her. My cousins also enjoyed it a lot(I guess.), we basically tagged along with my sister. Overall, it was a nice day.

LA

We arrived at LA last Wednesday and have been staying at one of my uncle's house(I have two uncles who are in LA). It's really hot here, in the 20s, especially since we just came from Toronto, which is freezing at below zero.
I've basically been having no life for the last week or so, playing computer games, reading novels, and going out occasionally, not much of a life. I did go to fellowship with one of my cousins(I have four here in LA), Timothy, it was nice, we went to Applebee's for dinner afterwards with some of the people at the church and got home at a little after midnight.
I've ordered books, music& computer games from eBay and have them sent here, so I've been getting all those and been happy about it:), since it isn't often that my parents let me buy books and the last time they let me buy computer games was a few years ago. Some still haven't arrived yet and I hope I can get them before I leave LA.
I haven't visited any of the "major attraction" here but I'll be starting tomorrow with Disneyland, there'll be five of us, me, my little sister, Michael, Timothy, and Jonathan(Three of my cousins), so it'll be four guys looking after a hyperactive little girl. I also believe we'll be going to Universal Studios on Friday.

Conclusion of NY trip

The NY trip went quite well, we visited 4 museums and two sight-seeing spots, spent hours waiting in line, stood waiting in the snow, ran to beat the blockading of streets on New-Years eve and much more. All in all, it was a very enjoyable trip, the family we lived with, the pastor from our church, was nice, though the younger of their two daughter fell ill on the Thursday. Later, I followed suit, getting sick myself, but that doesn't reduce how good the trip was.

Conclusion: NYC is definitely a city worth visiting, and I believe I'll visit it again(and again and again....) if I get a chance, there are museums that need to be seen, lines to stand in, you get what I mean.

Dec. 31(Grand Central Station,UN&MoMA)

The first stop we went to today was Grand Central Terminal, seeing it really made me know why I heard people criticize the demolition of Penn Station. It's really quite magnificent, the extent to which they build their train stations is quite something.

UN, we didn't really see a lot of it since we didn't take the tour.

MoMA(Museum of Modern Arts) was quite something, too. We saw a lot of famous paintings, like Matisse's The Dance, Picasso's Three Musicians& Les Demoiselles d'Avignon , Monet's Water Lilies triptych , Rousseau's The Sleeping Gypsy, some of Dali's, Miro's and van Gogh's. We didn't see van Gogh's The Starry Night, which was one of the paintings I wanted to see, it was in a special exhibition. But it was still nice, seeing all these artwork that you usually see in textbooks.

Dec. 30( Guggenheim Museum, The Met)

Since we slept late on the 29th, everyone slept late and we left late. We got to the Guggenheim Museum at just after noon, and "evaded" another long line because we had the "City Pass". I don't know about the artwork inside , but the building is really something, Frank Lloyd Wright was the designer. I've heard of it before and the architecture really isn't something to miss.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art was, as almost everyplace we've been to, crowded. I guess I'll have to come at least another time, the Met isn't something you can finish in a day, don't even think of it. The museum is huge, I guess it really lives up to it's name, they have a huge collection of artwork and even someone who isn't into art, like me, can recognize the value of a museum like this. They have a great collection of Egyptian artifacts including a small Egyptian temple. I've already talked about how I'm "mildly" interested, you can guess that I took a lot of pictures.

For dinner, we met up with my cousin who's working in the fashion industry here in NYC. She came with her boyfriend and we ate at a "pricey" restaurant (An average of 20+ USD). It tasted well and cost a lot.

Arrival at NY& Dec. 29(Statue of Liberty& Empire State Building)

Well, we arrived at LaGuardia Airport on the evening of Dec. 28, the day before yesterday, and were picked up by a family friend who's also a pastor from our church in Taiwan, he currently works at the American Bible Society here in NY, they live at Long Island, which is also where we'll be staying for the week.

Yesterday, our little "group", which consists of my family and him, his wife and his two daughters who are in 8th and 5th grade, got up at around 7 and went to take the ferry to the Statue of Liberty. It took us around two hours, which we spent standing in line, to get on to the ferry, it was totally crazy. But I guess it was kinda worth it, the statue is really worth seeing, it's quite something. Then we went to Ellis Island, which is the "gate to America" since it once was a place where immigrants had to pass through to enter the states.

After that we went to the Empire State Building, where, guess what? We encountered a long line again!! After waiting in-line for an hour and walking up six floors, we finally got to the 86th floor. The view was great, we could virtually see the lights, it was dark already, of the whole city of NY.

Then, after eating diner, we walked to Times Square. It is really a sight. I mean, really, how many places are there in the world where it's as bright at night as in the morning? It's really one of a kind. But as great as it is, I won't go there for New Year's Eve, it'll be to crowded and I prefer comfortably watching it on TV thank you very much.

On Christmas-The First Gift

(This isn't like a blog entry; it's more like a thought about Christmas.)
(The title doesn't mean "on Christmas (day)", it's more like "Concerning Christmas")

Christmas, it's a season of love, a season of gift giving, and a season of warmth in the cold of winter. It is a season of shopping, of Christmas trees, of Santa Claus and a lot more. But what is Christmas really about, what is this holiday which causes major traffic jams in cities around the world really about? There must be more. It actually is quite surprising; it celebrates the birth of an infant, 2000 years, in a manger, in a small town in the Middle East.

Two thousand years ago, in Bethlehem a small town in Israel, a child was born. He was born in a manger, not in a palace or a house of power, but in a humble manger. "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6)." A king was born to us, but he was not born to be served, but to serve. Not only to serve, but to die for us, die so that our sins may be forgiven “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed (Isaiah 53:5)." "The Word became flesh." God came down as a man, he walked our roads and he felt our pains, "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin (Hebrews 4:15)." God gave us the first gift, which is also the greatest one, his one and only son, Jesus Christ, who lived to die for our sins, so that we may be holy again.

So next time when Christmas come along and you're giving presents, don't forget the first gift, which was given by God to all mankind, Jesus Christ, the Savior.

Trip

I went on a three day trip to Ottawa, Montreal, and Quebec with family& friends. It was fine, I guess, as long as my little sister and her "friend" turn down the volume of their talking and so on. It was a lot colder there than here in Toronto, about 10 degrees colder, but it's still bearable. Anyways, we went to a few places and some of them were quite cool, in Ottawa, we made a stop at the Canadian Parliament and then we went to the Canadian Museum of Civilization, which I admit doesn't sound too cool, and its normal exhibits only strengthen that, but then, there was a special exhibit that is cool, as long as you like ancient Egypt and don't freak out when you see mummies. There was an exhibit, "Tombs of Eternity: The Afterlife in Ancient Egypt", and since I'm "mildly" interested in Egyptology, which must have something to do with my uncle who, I believe, has a PhD in Egyptology, I loved it, it's not like you can see a real mummy every day.
Later we went to a catholic church, a big one, Saint Joseph's Oratory, at Montreal. And I have to admit, disregarding the problems in their theology; Catholics really know how to build a church.
Then, we went to the Olympic Tower, which wasn't a lot. The Biodome was better, there were all kinds of different animals in it, and it was.....just cool I guess.
Then there's old Quebec City, which was fine, I wasn't in a good mood then, it was way too cold for my liking. The next day, yesterday, we came back, passing through Kingston on the way.
Please forgive me if it wasn't a very interesting entry, I don't really know what to put in.

I'm really looking forward to the trip to NYC, I haven't really been there before and I..... Guess I just look forward to it.

Photos from the three day trip

Last Week of School

It's the last week of school, there's tons of HW. I'm just sick of it.Looking forward to the53 day winter break.

University of Waterloo& Weather& Random stuff

Last Friday, my family went to the University of Waterloo. It's a pleasant school, and since it isn't located in a big city, it has a bigger campus, which makes it "feel more like a university"(That's what my mom said), although it is quite cold, even compared to Toronto. I went on a general campus tour and an engineering tour (software engineering). I'm mainly interested in computer science, which at Waterloo is in the Math Department. I think I'm interested in it because it's "computer" and "science", LOL, just kidding, I'm interested in it because I think I'd like to have a career related to it and because......I like it. We went to Waterloo because it is considered No.1 in computer science in Canada, and since it's near, we decided to visit. I am actually considering taking my undergrad studies outside of Taiwan, there are, naturally, some reasons. Some of the reasons are because A LOT of the schools outside of Taiwan offer better Computer Science programs than those in Taiwan, and I can also skip the university entrance exam in Taiwan, YEAH!!! And since the tuition in Canada is much more affordable than that in the state, it's possible that I'll pursue my university education here.

The weather here is beginning to become quite terrible, it's started to be freezing cold; literally, it was as low as -10 today. Walking outside is becoming more and more unbearable, so I'm thankful that I won't have to last through the whole winter here.

I bought two books last Thursday when we went to Costco, they're "The Appeal" by John Grisham and "Change of Heart" by Jodi Picoult, both are great writers and I look forward to reading them, but they'll have to wait, for a reason......... No, I'm not that hardworking, it's not because I have to study more, though I do, it's because I'm gonna read the books borrowed from the library here, since I can read the two books later and not the library books. I still have like 5+ books at home that I haven't read yet and a few that I hope I can get and finish before I leave Canada.

OK, I guess I've made up for not writing for a long time, or maybe not, anyways we'll be at New York from the 28th to the 3 of January (New Years Eve!!! Time Square!!!), after that we'll go visit my uncle at LA on the 7th and leave for Taiwan on the 20th, arriving home on the 21st, thus ending the half year "trip" to Canada.

Random Stuff

I haven't written for quite some time, just had a lot of things happening but not really knowing what to write, it's kinda confusing actually, so I'll just talk randomly about my life.

To call the temperature here "cool" is a total understatement, it's literally "freezing" here, and the temperature routinely goes below zero now. While the temperature is still 14~18°C in Taipei, it's already -2~-7°C here, it's already snowed quite a few times.
We've just gotten our first term report card; I did OK on some, great on others, and even did quite bad on one subject. Since I did quite awful on one subject, I got an average of 87.5, it's OK I guess, but considering that I wasn't really studying, I guess I could and should have done better.
What I'm more worried about is the school work back at Taiwan. I haven't been studying hard on the material, and learned why Jianguo High School is considered the most prestigious high school in Taiwan. I tried their first exam, and might have failed about half of them, it's totally scary. It might partially be because I'm only reading on my own, but it still means I "should" work a lot harder.
And I'm reading like crazy. The public library here is so much better than the ones back a Taiwan, there are tons of novels available, and I can even download audio books from their website .YES!!!! But, NO!!! I don't have time for school work. Oh, whatever.......XD.
I'm also thinking about writing a story, which I sometimes do but never finish, I think the setting would be at least 1000+ years into the future, some of the random elements would be: space, magic, technology, feud, assassination, interstellar empire, emperor, coup, loyalty and others(what a mess:) ) I'll try to start it if I can get the time to do it; it's quite an interesting thought. I might be able to put some of the drafts here or on Facebook soon, but don't hold your breath :).

I've just jot down some things about my life here. Even more random stuff.... I'll write more in about a week.

Nigara Falls

Yesterday I went to Niagara Falls with my family and a schoolmate of my sister.
We went to Niagara -On-The-Lake first, it's a small town near Niagara Falls, we went there and, ate lunch, and got a slice of the best fudge I've seen anywhere. There's a store there, Maple Leaf Fudge, that sells fabulous fudge, I bought one slice and it was as good as I remembered, it's HEAVENLY!! If you ever go there, you have to try it.
After that, we went to the falls. Niagara Falls is one of those places that I would say are"must go's" in your life. The sight of the falls is breath-taking, and the walk along the sidewalk which took us through the "veil" of water which was being blown are way,that was really an experience of a lifetime. It left the outside of my jacket all wet but it was definitely worth it.
Here are the photos.

Books I've been reading recently

Just a list of some of the books I've been reading recently.

Kite Runner: I won't say much about it, half of the people I know have already read it. It's a good book, that's all I'll say, it isn't one of my favorite books and I'm only reading it for my English class, haven't finished it yet.

Children of Hurin: A great book, if you are a The Lord of The Rings addict that is. I love it, but I don't recommend reading it unless you've read LOTR+The Unfinished Tales+The Silmarillion+a dozen other books related to them. It talks about the "child of Hurin", Turin,his life is epic but also quite tragical. A must read for all who like LOTR.

Nineteen Minutes: A book that is a worthy read. Its author is Jodi Picoult, who's a great writer, her books have great depth and are definitely worth reading. It's a tragic story with a tragic ending, but that doesn't change the fact that it's a great book. It talks about a teen who in nineteen minutes, kills 10 of his schoolmates and wounds 19 of them in a school shooting, it goes on to talk about the problem of bullying in schools, family problems, and teen problems, it's a great book that gives you a lot to think about.

The Black Jewels Series: Great reads!!!! The books in the series are great. I admit, the stories are dark, nasty, and violent, but they're also fascinating, absorbing and great reads. I haven't finished the books yet,I've only read the first two, but I'm already hooked by the story. Just read it, it's GREAT!

The surgery

I had the surgery done yesterday, it was the "short and painful" kind. There wasn't any dizziness but unfortunately I did experience the slight and temporary loss of taste for a little which, believe me, isn't pleasant at all.
But other than the surgery, yesterday was a fine day, I didn't go to school, ate New York Fries(the Works is great!!!), got a new book back from the library, finished it(YEAH!) and generally had a great day.

SNOW!!

It SNOWED today!! Well, not a lot but there was SNOW! It's only October and it's already started to snow, in Taipei, the temperature still hits 30, it's so unbelievable.

Bad news, I have to go to the hospital tomorrow. Those who know me well should know that I routinely have to put ventilation tubes in my ears since they fall out, now it's fallen out again, and the situation in my left ear is deteriorating. So I'm going to the hospital tomorrow, and I might have to have a surgery done, for the dozen+ time. And although I've had surgery on my ears a lot of times it still is a pain, and believe me, it is definitely not a pleasant experience. I could either have sufficient local anaesthetic applied, not feel a lot of pain, but feel dizzy and off balance for the remainder of the day; or I could apply some local anaesthetic, not be dizzy, but feel some CRAZY pain for a minute or so, I haven't really figured out which is more worth it. So, I'll be praying for myself and the, possibly, upcoming surgery.