Healthy lifestyle

I know many of my friends like to sleep until the afternoon especially on weekends, I used to do that, too but in fact, that kind of sleep just mess up our biological clocks and doesn’t soothe tiredness in any way. And more often the case is that before midterms and finals we stay up studying and after exams we go to karaoke the entire to celebrate- the week after that became a vicious circle of going to bed late again and waking up late again. Realizing how weak and I got after freshman year, I decided to put an end to this dreadful lifestyle. 

 When I go to bed late the night before, I still wake up at 8 or 9 rather than sleep for 10 or 12 hours. Then I have nutritious breakfast rich in protein and vitamin C, eggs, soy milk and some kiwis for example, these things would work better than those extra time of sleep to make me feel energetic again. After that, I do some reading or check e-mails sometimes I also work on assignments. Of course the breakfast doesn’t make me a king kong, in two to three hours I would be sleepy again, then I’d take a nap after lunch, when I go back to bed this time I only need no more than 1 hour and I can get up and go exercise. 

The magic about this method is the combination of nap and work-out. Nap according to research is effective because an hour of nap between 12~6 pm equals three hours sleep at night. And we are all aware that exercising boost circulation and metabolism what’s more it gives you high-quality sleep, so we shouldn’t stay inside when feeling lazy, on the contrary we need to go hiking, jogging or bicycling. And the last but not least, after taking a nice shower, that night I go to bed early, no later than twelve 30 to be exact. This way I can start a brand new day after 8-hour of sound sleep. An improvement tip for this schedule is to adopt it with roommates, my former roomies and I always slept so late as if we were competing for the best sleeper but it’s much easier in sophomore year, I tried to keep up with my roommates who have great lifestyle and fantastic skin that I yearned for.

Exchange plan

I’ve made up my mind to study abroad as an exchange student when I entered NCCU. My aspiration of exploring the world had formed since I was little but it was then just some naïve imagination of a little girl after seeing beautiful landscapes and sceneries on TV. Growing up, my interest in international affairs grew stronger and the crave as well. However, I also gradually realized the cruel truth that exploring the world costs a lot of money and that I can’t simply asked my parents for it and get it. To fulfill my dream, I have to count on myself. Luckily, NCCU OIC has been working on exchange programs and provides many opportunities for its students. In addition, the senior students in the department of diplomacy have no compulsory courses so we can plan the year as we wish. Through exchange program, the cost is cheaper since we only have to pay for the tuition of NCCU, compared to enrolling in German schools. Besides travelling Europe, I certainly have more plans for the year, though traveling is definitely the thing I look forward the most. The priority is to improve in German, which I have studied two years in NCCU. I believe I’ll have a lot of progress when exposed to the environment where I encounter German on daily basis. I will also take some English-taught courses in the university, which, I believe, will focus in management. Although management is quite different from what I’m studying in Taiwan, I’m convinced that it’s a very general and useful subject; it is very likely to benefit in some ways. 

Germany

Ich gehe nach Deutschland; it means I'm going to Germany. Yes, this August, I'll be leaving for Germany. I applied for the exchange student program of NCCU last semester and after working hard on TOEFL and the interview, I got the qualification of going to Karls International University in Karlsruhe, Germany.

Why Germany? A lot of people asked. This country first draw my attention when I was reading " The diary of Anne Frank". The horrible atrocity of Holocaust was beyond my imagination as a 10-year-old. Apparently, that didn't make a perfect first impression but it did brought me the interest in international affairs and later resulted in my decision of majoring in diplomacy. 

It wasn't until 2006 that I became fond of this country. When the FIFA world cup was held in Germany, I was 14 and beginning to enjoy watching soccer games. The first game that year was Germany versus Haiti. The German national team was filled with talented players. With the jerseys of black and white, they were so calm yet so precise just like the eagles, the icon symbolizing Germany. The team didn’t have a certain star player; instead, they had great team-work and shared the pride together; they were humble yet passionate. 

Dancing

I still got something to say about dancing, so I thought I could spend another 15 minutes on it.

I used to be lack of confidence and armed myself up when I met new people because of insecurity. Now in college, I found myself putting on smiles more, not judging people that much before I know them, and dare to show myself more. I'm not sure if growing older also contributed to the change, but I'm sure the turning point is the  dance classes in high school, which revived my dance gene. When I was dancing, I felt great about myself because I got a lot of compliment and I knew I was doing well, and that confidence expanded to all aspects of life. However, I don't call myself a dancer; to me, dancers are those who devote themselves in dancing and spend huge amount of time practicing. I am not willing to spend that much  time on it. I know it sounds contradictory, but dance can be very fun for me when I do it just for fun, but I become impatient if it become something that I have to do over and over again to achieve perfection, I just think there's more in life that I should also spend time on. I can watch dance videos on youtube whole day and feel like dancing whenever the music is right; dance is certainly my passion of life but I am no dancer, just someone enjoy dancing and always happy when dancing. 

Passion of life

    We wrote an essay last semester in class about our passion of life. In that essay, I wrote about travelling- taking in the different scenery, knowing people of variant culture and becoming aware of what kind of person I am, journeys always amaze me one way or another and it will always be a crucial part of my life. What I didn't write, but is as well what I can't life without is dancing.
    I've always love to dance. I danced to the TV commercial music since I could stand on my feet, according to my mom. Later in kindergarten, I took ballet classes for about a year; but as we all know, to excel in ballet takes hours and hours of practice and costs a lot, so I guess my mother decided I didn't have to take ballet anymore when I am older. It was not until high school that I started to take dancing seriously again. I went to the ballroom dance club at school and found out I was really good at dancing. The club was just a start, I was actually more interested in pop dancing like new jazz or hip hop than in ballroom dance. But the classes I took in the club and how naturally my body moved to the rhythm of the music and how I enjoyed dancing and watching myself dance made me so happy and confident.