ㄚ˙一ㄚˋ Life is a journey, not a destination!

     In this summer, I’m lucky enough to join this program. At first, I didn’t expect to get the useful things during this trip. I just think that maybe I could improve my communication skill through AUSL. I didn’t have the hope that I can get some intimate friends in this program. After all, it’s too short for making good friends within one month. However, things happened out of my anticipation.

     When the first time I saw the information about this program, I was attracted by the fame of Stanford University. It is written that we can have the chance to live the dormitory of Stanford and we also get the opportunity to meet the students from Stanford. I was glad to receive the mail and get to know this program. Then, as I started to fill out the application and answered the questions which the program required knowing, I was confused and scared. Because this program is more about service such as serving people, and I’m not sure whether this is the best decision for me to make or not. Next, I just think that if I can pass through the interview, then I’ll go. The interview was holding very smoothly, and I got passed.

     And then, when I got home, I told my mom this good news and she’s really happy for me. But things didn’t go successfully as I had imagined. When my mom knew how much this program is going to cost, she’s surprised. After that, she kept asking me that why I want to spend so much money to do the service abroad. And I stood still; I can’t say anything when she asked me this question. I didn’t have the good reason to answer her back, because I just chose this program out of my psychology of trying. I was curious about this program. And I had never done these things before like serving people neither environment. I just want to experience some new things. And I try to tell my mom about what I was thinking, but it seems that she didn’t get it at that time. Anyway, she just let me go at the end.

     Actually, before we headed for the U.S., we had several pre-program activities and an orientation. Those are good opportunities for us to get to know each other including coordinator. At first, I was really worried about making friends. I’m not the kind of person who is good at socializing. Nevertheless, through these activities, we could know other participants roughly. We could also have some conversation with each other. That’s a good way to make us closer before we went abroad. During the pre-program activities, we could have not only chances to talk to other people, but also some common knowledge about what we’re going to do in the research. In addition, before we went to the U.S., we also had to do some assignments which helped us to realize this program much quicker. Via the assignments, we learned about some environmental issues and the teamwork among the group members. That’s one of important things I have learned from AUSL.

     As soon as we arrived at San Francisco airport, there are lots of people standing out of the custom. And there are some people who stood among the crowd are waiting for us. In fact, I was quite touched at that time. Because I had never experienced that someone is waiting for me when I got off the flight. It’s kind of amazing experience. I was nervous when I got on the bus which left for Stanford. It’s a big challenge for me, because I had never lived in the foreign dormitory and I had never stayed with people whom are not acquainted with over a month. Then, when we reached the dorm of Stanford, we all felt excited and curious about who was about to be our roommates. Later, as I saw my roommates, I was really glad to meet her. She’s pretty and vigorous. The first thing she did is giving me a bag of souvenir which is come from Japan. I was happy to receive the present from her. By the way, it’s at night while we arrived. I couldn’t sleep at the first day night. It could be the reason of jet lag. I don’t know. I just can’t get used to the new environment so quickly.

     The next day, we went out to have a tour of Stanford’s Y2E2 building. The building was constructed by the idea of caring the environment. They used several panels which could save the solar power energy and changed it into electricity as the roof materials. The students in Stanford helped us to find a professor and asked her to make some introduction for this building. Things I just wrote above are not the only thing she told us. She also pointed some area to show us the main idea about the designer of this building. Such as, they made a hole to set the glass on the ceiling so that they don’t have to turn on the light to brighten the indoor circumstances.

     Since there are so many things I had learned, I just picked some of events which are most unforgettable memories for me.

     At one night we just finished our reflection, then, my roommates and I went back to our room. At first, we just chatted to each other happily; however, she cried all of a sudden as we finished talking. At that moment I didn’t know what to do, how to ask when I saw her crying. It’s kind of weird. Because when she stopped crying and tried to tell me what happened to her, the first words she spoke out is Japanese. After that, she did as possible as she can to let me know about the situation; yet, I still didn’t get it. Then, she continued crying. Therefore, I walked close to her as well as hugged her. I tried my best to use my body language to comfort her. And it seems that she knew what I want to do and say “thank you” to me. The next thing we did is sitting on the floor and started to chat in English as well. We talked about our feeling, motivation, and what we thought about this program. We spent a long time to talk these things. I felt like I was released as we finish chatting. For me, I would never do this kind of things in Taiwan. I would never expose my weakness to people who didn’t know me well. I would never cry in front of strangers. I even won’t hug people that I didn’t know them very well. This incident has made me change part of my personality and the definition that I give for “good friends”. I used to think that what we called the “good friends” must have met each other for a long time, at least three years. But I was wrong, when I met my roommates and get through all of these things together. I began to realize what the meaning of “good friends” is more like getting through all of unhappy things and difficulties. And that’s what we called for “good friends”.

     As I known, one of the biggest events during the time we’re staying Stanford is volunteering for 2009 Senior Games. It’s kind of sports day for elders. The things we did in “Green Team” is picking up the trash. However, many people who were interested in our appearances came to us and asked us where are we come from, what kind of the program we joined in as well as what’s the purpose of this program etc. I guess it might be really rare for them seeing Asian people do the volunteer work in their country. This event had held for a period of time. And the last day of Senior Games, they held a great celebration for the sake of awarding the prize to the elder. Before the celebration started, we had to help the organizer to lead the direction for the elder’s family. It’s a hard task. Because you needed to use English to communicate with them and you had to recognize the abbreviation of each state for making sure that you won’t lead the wrong direction. That’s really tough! But I still try my best to solve these difficulties. I would get close to people actively when I saw them coming. And I also asked them first whether they needed my help or not before they came to ask me. Besides, after the celebration was over, we were asked to stand out of the door and deliver the bags to the elder. Afterwards, we stood into two lines and started to applaud for those elders who had come out. We had kept applauding for a long time. I was quite moved. Because all of us had worked for this celebration for a long period of time, we all got tired. Nevertheless, we still smiled at the elder, applauded for the elder and cheered for the elder. It seems that we didn’t feel tired at that day. On the other hand, people who accepted our cheering looked like teenagers. They’re energetic and also gave good response to our acclaim. From this activity, I have learned to muster up my courage to inquire people who need help voluntarily. And I also enjoy the feeling of serving other people. It’s a pleasure that you see someone smiling because of your behavior. I acquired a sense of accomplishment while we served others. Further, we attended the party which is held after the celebration. Originally, we just wanted to eat dinner at the plaza, but some of people tended to go up to the stage and dance with the music. Before long, all of us stood on the stage and dance with joy. That’s totally incredible. Because all the audience down there was applauding for us while we were singing and dancing. Then, after a while people began to come up to the stage and dance with us. It looks like that they’re hosting a carnival.

     By the way, we had reflection time at every night. We must think about what we had done in the whole day and shared our opinions with others. It’s kind of difficult for me at first. Because I didn’t have any strong ideas or special thoughts, I was used to listening other one’s talk. I couldn’t get used to speak out my views to others. But during these days in AUSL, I’ve learned that speaking out our own ideas is much difficult than just listening. Furthermore, it’s also vital for me to develop the skills of possessing my own thoughts. I think it’s an important step for us to turn into adults. Owning our own opinions could help us express the emotion and make our thoughts change into words. That’s one of things I lack for. After getting along with other members in AUSL, I started to admire people who are strong-minded. They won’t go with the current. I realized that it’s essential to be yourself when you stayed in a group.

     As I just mentioned, I was in the group of environmental sustainability and that’s what we called “ES” group. Take at face value, things we cared more are related with environmental issues, such as organic farm. I had visited lots of organic farms during AUSL. Even so, there was an organic farm which impressed me a lot; we called “Homeless Garden Project”. The organic farm combined environmental issues with human issues. They designed a project to let homeless people have the opportunities to make money by themselves. In addition, this project also provided job training courses in order to help homeless people learn some skill so that they could utilize it in the future. This project could not only support those people but also operate the farm successfully. And the participants of this project could also obtain knowledge from the organic farm, such as ecological sustainability.  
In fact, we only stayed at Stanford for almost two weeks, and then we moved to the San Francisco downtown. I was shocked when I got off the van. The scene I saw was totally different than I had imagined. There were so many homeless people wandering on the street. To be honest, I used to visit San Francisco four years ago. And I didn’t notice this problem at that time. Maybe it’s because we only paid a visit to the tourist spots and we barely went to downtown. It’s kind of serious problem for San Francisco. The amount of homeless people was more than I thought. I just supposed that the scenery of San Francisco was the same as I saw from the big screen, like Manhattan. Whenever we left from hostel or went back to the place we lived, we just kept bumping into those homeless people. Likewise, every time when we met them, they would ask us for some money, even some of them would get closer to us in order to get money successfully. I felt sad and uncomfortable. Because I couldn’t do anything for them even though there were some money in my pocket. It’s kind of weird when you saw someone who needed help and you didn’t offer them the aid. And it made me feel sorry for them. Whenever I passed through in front of their face, there was something struggling in my heart. Most of participants in this group had the same feeling as I got. Therefore, we inquired the coordinators that why there were so many homeless people standing on the street for asking money. Then, they told us that long time ago the government had decided to shut off most of the shelters, and many people on the street couldn’t find the place to live because of expensive rent. However, as you had known, there were many rich people who lived in San Francisco and the sightseeing for this city was blooming enough so that many homeless people around this city were appealed by these reasons. And then San Francisco was swamped with homeless people. That’s the cause of view which we have seen today.

     Moreover, we had volunteered with Conservation Corps North Bay. In this volunteer work, we helped the community to brush the wall and paint on the wall. It’s an interesting experience. I found out that most of people who lived in the community were black. They just looked at what we were doing and stood next to us. You know, I was angry at first because I was wondering why they couldn’t do it by themselves. After all, it’s their house not ours. But not for so long, one of black turned around and said “thank you” to us. He said the wall was very dirty before we came to do the volunteer work and he also appreciated what we did for their community. Then he smiled to us. I was satisfied about what I did after his smile. And I could realize why some people enjoyed doing the volunteer work even if they didn’t get paid. Although your wallet would never be filled with coins as you volunteered, your heart would be entire while you did the volunteer work. And you will possess a colorful spiritual life.

     Before we worked on final project, we still had few days to go out and visit the organization which is related to environment. There are two organizations that I still remember. One is called “Heron’s Head”, the other is called “OBUGS”. Heron’s Head has something to do with environmental Justice. They told us that some factories tend to ignore the living right of residents, and they would pour some bad things in the water without informing anybody. Sometimes, those emissions would pollute the environment, for instance radiative substances. Therefore, this organization provided some program for citizen to tell them about this issue and educate them what they can do as they faced this kind of injustice. Their programs were designed to teach people in different age, so they had divided them into many groups like a class for teenagers or some courses for adults. And OBUGS is kind of community school. There was a small organic garden beside their class room. Children who studied at there have the responsibility to take care of the plants. By means of doing so, they could know the ecological diversity and observe the relation between the plants and the environment. At that day we went to their garden to pick up some fruits and vegetables so that we could have ingredients to cook dinner for them. That’s amazing because some of children made some delicious dishes and some cool drinks for us. It’s really tasty. I just keep eating at that time. At the same time, those children also considered that the dishes we served were appetizing. We gathered with them and made fun to each other because of a meal. I had never enjoyed my meal with so many children in my life. It’s quite unbelievable and unforgettable.

     One of the biggest events in AUSL is Final Project Presentation. That really makes me super nervous. I’m not good at speaking in front of people, especially in English. It’s a big challenge for me. I had to overcome the fear to speak out loud about my own opinion to the audience. In the meantime, I was afraid that no one could understand what I said about this project. Before the day we did the presentation, we had discussed this topic for a long time. We couldn’t get the point of the description, so we had asked many people for some advices. I was touched to receive their help. And on the way left for the place where we’re about to do the presentation, our group kept rehearsing to make sure that we could do the best on the stage. As I presented my speech to group member, they would give me some useful suggestions as well as help me to relax. I was really grateful to what they did for me. And that it made sense of why people kept emphasizing the importance of teamwork.

     In this trip, people in AUSL make me feel like I have met them for a long time, and even let me get misunderstood about how long we’ve stayed together. Indeed, I’ve made lots of friends with different nationalities, and I was surprised that we also became close friends because of this program. Now we’re back to Taiwan, but we still have contact with each other. It seems that this story will never end while summer is getting over. All of these memories will become part of experiences in my life.

<maybe I'll add something some day...>