2020 is Taiwan’s 109th year of independence and just like any other year, we celebrate this day to honor the independence of our nation, Taiwan. This year, luckily, the national firework took place in my hometown Tainan so I was able to go there easily. Moreover, I decided to participate in a volunteer group to help out the overall program of the firework which includes several performances from celebrities all over the place…etc. I volunteered from the early afternoon when the sun was still up and shinning to the night where the amazing fireworks stood up in the darkness. It was an amazing experience especially seeing the smile from the visitors after giving them support about my hometown. This experience has deeply impacted me in wanting to contribute more to society.

As planned, I decided to make breakfast on eggs and cook the yolk and egg white separately to find out if there is a difference with the normal ones. When actually doing it, I found out that I cannot really control how the yolk is going to spread out on the pan which the shape of it is not that round. It is the same for egg white which the final product is not really like a well-rounded egg. Moreover, I find it difficult to add the right amount of oil, salt, and MSG because I cooked the yolk first and add the egg white about 30 seconds after the yolk. Overall, it is a nice experience and the taste of the egg is quite similar to the normal ones. So I still prefer the normal one since the cooking procedures are easier and efficient in a daily breakfast meal.

Breakfast has always been considered the most essential meal in a day. With that in mind, it leads me to come up with this CAS which is to make a dish of an egg for breakfast. I believe egg is a perfect ingredient for a typical breakfast and I have been researching how to deal with the eggs. There is one video that demonstrates a variety of ways of how to cook an egg and it gives me an idea about making an egg. I decided to make an egg by separating the yolk and the egg white while cooking. I think this is an interesting idea to be tested out because the taste might change from this trial. I will try to do one trial in the following week. Here is the video that inspired me to act in this CAS:

This Sunday, I was invited to attend a concert with my music instructor. It was great to have this since it is rare that music concerts are still available to be hosted during this pandemic. The concert is on percussion music which played a lot of pieces in marimba and that was probably the main reason I was so passionate to go. There were several familiar pieces played throughout the concert as some of them were popularly played in national competitions. I am glad that I get to use this time on the weekend to attend this concert. It gives me a sense of being once again connected to the music I love throughout my career as a musician and as a person.

I decided to do some practice on my volleyball skills as the sport season is starting again. It has been a long time since the last game I played last year November and it is due to the restriction of the pandemic. I plan to do some basic drills on bumping because that is the most used skills that will be applied as a volleyball player, especially a libero. It is necessary for me to get that sense of “touch” of volleyball which most of athletes do know the feeling of that. It is essential to have that feeling when playing volleyball because it gives you confident and feel more connected to the ball itself. Here is an exemplar video for practicing the basic of volleyball bumping.

During this summer, I was also able to do volunteer in a hospital in Tainan for a week. I stayed in the emergency area of the hospital, mainly assisting the nurses and doctors on the patients that need the most urgent care and treatment. To be honest, I was not able to really help anything medically, however, I was still able to help out on things such as moving hospital beds and helping the nurses to take medicine from the pharmacy in the hospital, things that do not necessarily require an advanced level of medical knowledge. It was a busy week, patients were coming in every second. Occasionally, the whole emergency area looks like a place that is in chaos but somehow in order. Nurses were rushing everywhere and asking me to do all kinds of things that I could help within my ability as a high school student. It was a fulfilling week and I learned a lot of stuff in this week. I solidly experience the life of a nurse and we really have to appreciate that each of them is standing on line to fight for everything for the patients. It once again reinforces the importance of medical staff to fight against the coronavirus every single day and to honor them with all the respect. 

As summer vacation arrived, Simon and I begin to start out our cooperative CAS project which is about promoting indoor fitness to get exercise going during this worldwide pandemic crisis. We each made videos and post them up on an Instagram account that serve the purpose to promote indoor fitness created by us. I am responsible for the videos about “push-ups” and I decided to make 2 different levels of push up. The first one is the intermediate push up that people normally do for a workout. The second one is an advanced push up that requires a lot more muscles in order to fulfill this push up because it is a “clapping push-ups”. Filming these clips actually uses up more effort than I already thought because I re-film some of the clips to make sure that I am doing it correctly. I did approximately a total of 100 push up just that day which is an amount way beyond what I originally do each day. It was a unique experience and we will be posting more videos in the following weeks. Here are the videos for the 2 different levels push-up I made

Continuing on with the fitness work, I decided to create a list of schedules on my fitness workout and I will follow that routine every time I decided to work out. Creating my own schedule of the workout will enable me to have a more efficient performance and workout that specifically focuses on the part that I am attempting to work on. The objective goal of mine in this workout is core muscles which require a lot of abs workout. Thus, I decided to plan the abs workout as the primary necessity of my list of workouts. The plan that I listed is:

• Torso Rotation x 240 ( Right spin  x 120 / Left spin x 120, 20spin per round)
• SBE x 120 (Right side x 60 / Left side 60, 20 times per round)
• Abdominal Crunch x 120 (35kg x 60 / 37.5kg x 60, 20 times per round)
• V-Crunch x 45 (15 times per round)
• Push up x 50 (25 times per round)

This month, I think I am more into discovering foods and recipes which I decided to bake some chocolate brownies with my friends for the first time ever. There is a lot of preparation such as pure chocolates, eggs, flours, butter…etc. Also, the steps and procedures are not as simple as I thought. One of the most memorable steps is the meting of chocolate which has to be prepared from a plate but melting it using a method called double-boiling which it melts the chocolate into liquid form without direct contact to the flame. The baking process is easier but it is essential to look at the time and softness periodically to make sure it is not overcooked. Overall, the making of brownies is quite successful and they are “eatable”. For me, it is a little bit too sweet and I think it is due to the ratio of sugar and chocolate during our procedures. It is a great experience for making a dessert at home.

For this CAS experience, I decided to cook a meal that is completely done by myself for my dinner. I cooked some beef ribs, mushrooms, and eggs because there are more proteins in these foods which are what I needed the most. I think the flame control Is important when cooking beef ribs because not all the beef ribs are in equal sizes and thickness which is hard to cook them all in the medium-rare. Also, I found out cooking the beef ribs first is quite essential because it can later help seasoned the egg and mushrooms so there isn’t need for adding more salts or flavors afterward. Overall, I think I did an okay job on this first experience and personally I think it tastes better if you cook it yourself. I would love to try some more in the future because I believe cooking is also a decent area that can be mastered in the future.