The Dragon Boat Festival in Taiwan

The Dragon Boat Festival is one of Taiwan's three major annual holidays. People have also referred to the Dragon Boat Festival as the" Poet's Festival" because it is a story related to the

remembrance of a poet who lived during the ancient times.

During the Dragon Boat Festival, most schools or groups hold dragon boat races and eat rice dumplings called JonZu. The story said that when the poet died because he jumped into the River, the local people rowed their boats to search for him; And this event had become the dragon boat races. Today, dragon boat races are a popular activity that is famous in Taiwan, China and Korea. There is an international dragon boat races with teams from Taiwan and abroad competing.

The story of making rice dumplings came from the people who were trying to protect this poet's body from being eaten by the fish. So the people wrapped stinky rice with bamboo leaves and threw these dumplings into the river to feed the fish. Of course, nowadays people don't throw the dumplings into river anymore, but enjoy it by themselves.

The life in Australia last two weeks

Time pass so fast that I have lived in Adelaide and start my GEAP course for around 2 weeks. The weather is nice here even though it rain sometimes and people are friendly as well. my house is located in the North Adelaide and quite near the downtown, so I always spend 25~30 minutes on walking to school every day.

Because I don't live in a homestay but a flat shared with my friends, I have to cook on my own. On Saturday,we alwayse take the free bus to central market for purchasing all the necessaies of life for the next whole week.

I have learned a lot during the period in GEAP3 course, my teacher is a very nice lady with professional teaching skill, and all my classmates from different countries are friendly and enthusiastic about learning english. To prepare for the IELTS in July, I have to practice more the four part- listening,speaking, resding and writing.

In one word, I believed that I will have a happy and substantial life here.

sesame seed cake (Revised by Helen)

Time has passed so fast that I have lived in Australia for one week! I spent the first weekend with my roommates and then I decided to do some cooking to make a traditional Taiwanese cake called a sesame seed cake.

Firstly, I had to prepare the ingredients for the cake including flour, sesame seeds, salt, fat and hot water. Also, a stick-like tool and oven with a much higher temperature function is essential for success. To acquire these goods, I went to Central Market and looked for a quality one with a cheaper price. Compared with these goods sold in Taiwan, I found that meat and vegetable are not expensive. But the seafood here was a higher price and there were fewer types that I can choose from, even though Adelaide is not far away from the beach. At the same time, I also widened my knowledge about how the vendors do their best to attract the attention of buyers, when it is suitable to visit there, and which shop provides the better quality items at the most reasonable price.

Everything was prepared for cooking the cake, so I started to make a paste, which is a soft, sticky mixture of butter, flour and a liquid made up of water and fat, which can be easily spread. After that, the paste was rolled flat, salt was spread over the surface and sesame seeds were sprinkled on the other side. Finally it is baked in the oven at a temperature around 250 degrees centigrade. Around 15 or 20 minutes passed, a crispy sesame seed cake with its gold-colored surface was ready. These cakes are renowned for spreading their fragrance far and wide, and my friends and I enjoyed the one I baked with an Australian red wine.

The different weather

I have never lived for a long time in another country and even in my country Taiwan, I always stayed in cities with similar weather patterns. Thus I have not much experience in the different weather patterns until I moved to Australia. In the following discussion, I will compare the weather in my country with that of Australia.

One difference in the weather patterns between Australia and Taiwan is the time of the seasons. There are four different seasons during the year time for example. The season in Taiwan currently is summer. However, it is starting to turn into winter here.

Another difference is the strong winds when it is raining and the instability and changeable nature of the weather in Australia- here in Adelaide in particular. For instance, earlier today it was a sunshine day because there were no clouds and there was a bright sunny sky. During the time that it took me to travel to school, it started to rain and a strong wind blew. Therefore very quickly my clothes were saturated even though I had been prepared by bringing an umbrella. What I can not believe most is that it started to become a bright sunny day again after very short period of rain. However, in Taiwan, the weather is more stabilized and less changeable. For example, it usually is rainy or sunshine all day long.

To sum up, weather is a key feature of each country. The only way for me to become aware of the differences between countries and cities is to live in them for an extended period of time and to experience these variation and then assess how the changes impact on my life. This is what I plan to do this year.