牧羊少年奇幻之旅

12/19~12/26

I haven’t written my diary since the day I went scuba diving. After that, we had a Christmas party and exchange presents in 12/20. Damian wrote down everyone’s name on the paper and he said whoever you picked up, you had to send he or she a Christmas present. I picked up Sharon. This was the first time I celebrate Christmas so I take it very seriously. I wanted to prepare some serious present whilst others all buying some funny stuffs. Since last time I drew a picture for Patricia, which everyone told me that was excellent, I realized that my drawing skill is not bad. I decided to sketch a drawing of Sharon and Mike smiling together and flamed it. This would be the second picture I had drawn. I chose a photo that Damian had took when we had our Sunday social event in the club, which in it, Sharon and Mike laughed almost form ear to ear.

I have never drawn laughing people before because I thought it is harder than draw a normal smiling face. The hardest part for me was drawing the teeth and the mouth. I didn’t know whether I could make it. If I couldn’t, I could just buy some stupid presents in the buzzard. At least I tried it.

Luckily, I finished it. I thought the picture was quite successful because when I showed it to the couple who stayed in the same room with me; they said that was excellent! I was glad I had done it. Maybe I needn’t find a job; I could earn money from this talent.

When I drew the picture, Damian and Nat came into my room. I didn’t want anyone to see this picture before I finished it. I hided the picture under the sheet and then chatted with them. I showed them the photos of my friends in Taiwan. I taught them how to distinguish people from different countries in Asia.

In my opinion, Korean has the smallest eyes; Japanese likes to dress complex and girls always have make up. Most of the people from Taiwan will wear glasses while Japanese and Korean attend to wear contact lens. If you see pale skin people, they probably come from Japan or Korea. After I taught them, I would exam them when I saw an Asian. But honestly, even me, sometimes I couldn’t tell the difference from those people if I only see their appearance. It is easier to tell the difference by listening to their speaking.

I also asked their opinions about Asian guys and girls.  I asked them to score all of my friends. The result was, Damian picked 昀瑾 as his number one and 佳瑩 as number two whilst Nat picked 昀瑾 as her first choice and 瑛琦 as her second one. For the guys, Nat picked 振傑 but Damian refused to answer. It was interesting to understand foreigner’s opinion about Asian. I used to recognize that foreigner will have different views but this time was quite the same.

I finished the last library book and returned it the day before I leaved Exmouth. I saw some old books for sale in the library when I leaved the door. It was quite cheap. I chose a book called ‘The 30 days’ war’ and brought it for only one dollar. It is a history novel. I used to borrow kid’s books because it is easier for me to read. The book I bought is not for kid. It took me 30 minutes to read one page. Maybe when I finish it, I already leave Australia.

Damian, Nat and I leaved Exmouth on Saturday morning. We headed to Coral bay for the quad bike tour we had booked before. A quad bike is a four wheels, 4WD and bike looking vehicle. It has 4 big wheels and a motorcycle handle. We rode the quad bike up to the sand dunes and on the beach. It is quite exciting to ride quad bike. You have to grab the handle very steady in order to make the bike go smooth. The guide lids us to two different spot for snorkeling. Those spots were all very astonished.

The tour ended around lunchtime. After we finished our lunch, we went to the beach. The beach in Coral Bay is very shallow. It is a great place for swimming and playing frisbee. Coral Bay is a small town where there are only 120 people live in it. But the unbelievable beach makes it well known. I had heard about Coral Bay when I was in Taiwan. Someone said the beach is the most beautiful place he had ever visited in Australia. Well, it’s true!

After coral bay we headed to Carnarvon and stayed for one night. We arrived at Carnarvon in the afternoon and went to the town beach. Compare with the beach in Exmouth or Coral Bay, the town beach isn’t worth to be mentioned. The reason I refer to it is because we saw a giant sea snake. When we swam, Nat told me she had stepped on something strange. She’s sure that it was not sea grass or sea cucumber but she didn’t know what it was. We didn’t put it in our mind and keep swimming. When we closed to the shore, we saw a long shade beneath the wave. It’s a sea snake. Damian told me the toxin of a sea snake is so strong and if you were bitten by it, you couldn’t feel any pain before you die. That’s terrible. If the sea snake was mad at Nat who stepped on it and bite her, that would be a tragedy. 

Carnarvon is the city where Jim, the girl I met on the bus to Exmouth, works in. I had told her that I would meet her but I didn’t. Maybe she’s already moved to next city. Maybe she’s already forgotten me.

Next day was a long trip for me. We started driving at 7 am and arrived at Perth at 4am. The good thing was someone accompanying me so I wouldn’t feel boring. The bad thing was: there was no air conditioning in Damian’s car. Or I should say, it has air conditioning, but if you turned on it, the engine would become too hot to function. I presumed the temperature in the car was higher than 40 degree. It was a hot day. I felt dizzy all the time because of dehydration.

When we passed the tropic of Capricorn, we stopped and took some photos. The tropic of Cancer passes Taiwan in the northern hemisphere. We have stone steles in 嘉義 and 花蓮 (or 台東？

) where the tropic of Cancer passes. But in Australia, it only has a simple sign.

We stayed at Damian’s mother’s place when we arrived at Perth. Damian’s mother lives in the hill. There is only one hill in Perth and form there you can see the whole view of Perth city. It is a nice and worm place. Australia is a big country so that Australian’s houses are all very big! For example, Damo’s mom’s place has two big parlors, a bright and clean kitchen, four sweet rooms, laundry, two toilets and a big yard with a warehouse. I told them that only rich people live in the hill in Taipei so they must be rich people. Damian told me his mother’s house worth 700,000 Australia dollars. Although I want to immigrate to Australia and buy a house, this price will take me a long long time of hard working.

Damo’ mom was very hospitality. She cooked stew beef with potato, sweet potato, onion and some spice. It was awesome!!!! I’ve never tasted such delicious stew beef before. Every time I think about it, no matter how full am I, I feel I still have space in me stomach for it. I should ask her how to cook it and tried to eat as much as I could (I really did!).

After dinner, I helped them decorate the Christmas tree. Every thing was interesting to me. We don’t celebrate Christmas in Taiwan because we are not a Christian country. In the same day of Christmas there was a holiday to celebrate the execution of our constitutional law, but it had been canceled several years ago. Although our cultural affected deeply by western cultural and every shop will have Christmas-like decoration, kids won’t receive presents from Santa and we don’t have Christmas tree in our house and most of all, we don’t exchange presents.

Next morning Damo lid Nat and me to see around the city. We went to Swan Bell, Swan River, London court and ate pasta in a restaurant that Damo recommend. We went to the bookshop and Nat bought me a book for my Christmas present. That was great!! After I came to Australia, I am fond of reading books. I finished three books in Exmouth and I still want to read more. The novel that Nat gave me is very interesting. I finished it in four days.

The name of the novel is ’hole’. Although it is not a profound story that will make you think a lot after reading it, it is a story that will make you want to know what’s going on in the next page (Maybe it is because it’s a novel for teenager). In the story, the protagonist has to dig a 5 feet deep and 5 feet wide hole in a dry lakebed because the court sentenced him. There actually were some treasures under the lakebed. After some tense story line, the story has a happy ending.

Damo drove me to Mike and Sharon’s place after we finished our lunch. Mike and Sharon live near the beach. I could see the ocean from their house and it only take you three minutes walking to the beach. The water temperature is colder than the water in Exmouth. But the sands are softer than those in Exmouth. This is the place in my dream. I want to have a house in Hilary and maybe become neighbor of Mike and Sharon. Think about it, after a hard working day, bringing your tower and beer and walking to the beach, swimming in the sea and cooling down yourself, drinking beer while enjoying the sunset and forgetting all the unpleasant things, what a wonderful life is it!!

I think I am already accustomed myself to the Australia culture. When I was in Taiwan, I wouldn’t ride my scooter to the beach even if I love beach. Australian will drive to the beach for 30 minutes swimming. They will meet their friends in the afternoon and go to the club at night. They do nothing but chat, drink and appreciate the view. In Taiwan, I would make plan before I go to the beach. Sometimes it is very annoying because you have to deal with other opinions form your friends. I like the local wisdom: enjoy the life and do whatever you want!

I stayed in Mike and Sharon’s place for three wonderful days. I ate Christmas meal and exchanged presents with them. My present was a box of chocolate. We go to beach for swimming everyday. We had BBQ and beer. I really enjoyed the time live in Mike and Sharon’s place. When they come to Taiwan, I will treat them just as they treat me. I will show them around Taiwan and bring them to the night market for local foods.