Winterfest

When flying in the Prancer, I was attracted by a huge Santa Claus which looked like a hot-air balloon. It was revolving around a fixed point; almost everywhere in the Prancer can see his face. However, without seeing Santa Claus with his reindeers and sleigh is quiet strange so I started to find them.



After finding out Santa Claus with his reindeers and sleigh, I couldn’t help sitting on his reindeer, shown on the picture. When I was a child, I wished to ride on the reindeer and sent presents with them. In reality, it’s impossible, but I can make my dream come true here.



When walking around, I found a snowman and a house which made of gingerbread cookies, jelly and candy.



I got into the house and saw a Santa Clause on the wall. That he was smiling seemed to welcome me to his house. The circumstances let me feel like in the fairy tale.





I saw somebody riding the sleigh. It reminded me of that it’s always a white world in Christmas in our stereotype. As a result, it’s hard to imagine Christmas without a white world. However, this phenomenon will happen someday because of the global warming.



In the end of traveling in the second life, I found a warm house and slept a night.

Canadian Food

Before this mission, I have no idea about Canadian food. But, after receiving Diana’s mission website and pre-test worksheet, I started to surf on the internet to find some information of Canadian food. When surfing on the internet, I found out that some names of Canadian food are French. The reason might be Canada has ever colonized by France. Consequently, the Canadian food might contain some French flavor.

On November 14th, through Jason’s description of the poutine’s ingredients and cooking method, I think that poutine is the most traditional food and that we can cook it by ourselves because of the cooking method is easy to learn. At the end of the mission, Jason briefly compared the Taiwanese and Canadian table manners and took some examples. What example impressed me most was that he mentioned that Canadian people don’t talk with the food full of their mouth. But, Taiwanese people sometimes eat out with their friends and talk loudly and eat at the same time. This rude behavior might give foreigners a bad impression and let them regard us as the uncultured people.

The Trip to Banff

I’ve never been to Canada. As I knew we had a mission of the trip to Banff, I anticipated what the mission is and what Banff is. Before this mission, I received some information about Banff form Youtube and the official web page. The scenery I saw from the pictures was really awesome.

On November 30th, we had a mission of a role play of planning a trip to Banff. What I learned most was that Jason taught us a number of vocabulary which I didn’t know and might have no chance to use in my life. For example, he taught some vocabulary of activities of the snowy day and of some overnight accommodations. Furthermore, through discussion, that I also got some different sight from classmates could also broaden my horizon.

To conclude, thanks for Jason’s instruction and sharing his experience of traveling to Banff. After this mission and his instruction, if I have a chance to travel to Banff, I will recall what Jason told us, such as what I can do and where I can live. By the way, if I have a chance to go aboard, I will choose to go to Canada. I want to see the unseen spectacular views.

My First Time in Second Life

My First Time in Second Life

My first time in a virtual reality, second life, was on November 9th. The scenario wasn’t as I expected because the scenario of Halloween has been removed. Besides, Jason was absent, but my upper classmate, Dianna, replaced him and started the lesson of Halloween.

Dianna asked me some questions of the pre-test worksheet and required me ask her question on the topic of Halloween. There are two responses impressed me most. One is that I ask her what children would do if adults don’t give them some candy or coin. Dianna answered me that children would spray some soap water on their window. The other is that I asked her why Halloween isn’t popular in Taiwan. She replied me that it’s not a Chinese festival, and it’s probably because that our traditional ideas might be conservative; as a result, we might not celebrate a festival with wearing a scary costumes and play trick-or-treat from door-to-door.

It’s a new way to learn not only English, but also the culture of America. Nevertheless, communicating in English would surely enhance my communicative competence. Consequently, I can't wait for what I will learn in next few weeks.