Last Day in Ipswich High School

Since my host mom, Barb, works very long time, and my only roommate, JJ, went to school to play sports every night, I am boring and at home along most of the time. And most of the time I also have to make supper myself, but I am not good at making foods, so I consider to change a host family. Two and half months ago, I asked my agency for help, and I got an notice these days that my host family would be in San Diego, California. They are my dad's host family's daughter, my dad was studying in USA 20 years ago, too. My dad's host dad, Paul, is very nice. He know that I do not have new host family to go now, so he asked his daughter, Karen, and she said that I can stay at their house. It is so unbelievable that 20 years later, I am going to stay at the same host family with my dad!

The surprise party on my digital photography class. 

Read the Full Article & See More Photos »

Veterans Day & Some more photos around Ipswich

One of the photos around Ipswich.

Before sharing photos around Ipswich, I want to share some photos about the activity in school today. Since today was 11 Nov, 2013, it was the Veterans Day in America. According to Wikipedia, Veterans Day is an official United States holiday that honors people who have served in armed service, also known as veterans. All school students, include middle and elementary school students, all gathered in the gym this afternoon and listened to a speech. Today was pretty special to me, because we do not celebrate Veterans Day in Taiwan.

Read the Full Article & See More Photos »

Cool photos that I took for photography class

My second hour class, digital photography class, is one of my favorite class. We took many photos and edit them. I always got good grades on this class, because I love taking pictures, and because of this, my teacher, Mrs. Shimitz chose to attend Northern State University Workshop & Art Exhibition. Today, I am going to share some of the photos that I took and edited for the digital photographic class in the past two months. Please notice, all photos had only been edited on Google+ Photos and ipiccy.com, although I have professional softwares such as Photoshop, but I did not use them. And all pictures were taken with HTC J smartphone camera, even a cellphone's camera could be awesome! By the way, "HTC" is a creative brand that comes from Taiwan!

One of the photos - ONLY edited on Google+!

Read the Full Article & See More Photos »

The Homecoming Week

(The content of this post happened on 13 Sept, 2013 CDT)

One of the most important activity in America's high school each year, is Homecoming. According to Wikipedia, homecoming is the tradition of welcoming back alumni of a school, it includes activities such as sports, culture events, and a parade through the streets of the town. Of course, Ipswich High School have homecoming, too. We have a whole "homecoming week", during this week, we have activities in SRP hour (after lunch) everyday, and all-day activity on Friday.

Exchange students on the float of homecoming parade

Read the Full Article & See More Photos »

Two Crazy Snowy Days - Playing in the snow

Since the last snowy night on the day before yesterday, it has not snow again (or very little), but the snow from that night has been no melt, so JJ and I played in the snow these two days all of the time after school.

The scene I saw in the morning the day before yesterday.

Read the Full Article & See More Photos »

Watching Volleyball Game at School

(The content of this post happened on 3 Sept, 2013 CDT)

Most of the time, JJ and me had not many things can do after school except study and using our cell phone. So we often find some activities to do, such as playing basketball or go to the school game. There were many games held in Ipswich, most of the time, it was girl volley ball game, and sometimes was football game. Other schools' team player will come to our gym and have game, of course, our school's team will also play games at other school, such as Aberdeen Central High School.

This was the first we went to school and watch the game. We went home after school and had supper, and we went to school again. All of the audience supposed to pay 3 dollars for entering, but since I bought an activities ticket for 15 dollars, I can enter all school games and activities for free. There were many people in the gym, some are home teams' (our school's) parents and schoolmate, some are visitors'.

When JJ and I arrived, I saw there already have many of my schoolmates, most of them are in school band, they have to play bands during the games' break time. But JJ and I sat on the top ourself, because we did not know them very much. Before the game start, we have to pay tribute to the America by standing up and put the right hand on the heart when national anthem was playing by the band. Although I am not American, but since I was in their nation, I still do so. The game was pretty exciting, all players all played very hard, plus the visitors' cheering, we really enjoyed the game.

Read the Full Article & See More Photos »

Helping barb washing the vehicle

We did not have many things to do yesterday, we went to the fire department to wash Barb's pickup truck and went Aberdeen to meet Styles and have supper at night. Since Barb also work at the Ipswich fire department, we could easily go in. Barb works only when there is a fire in town, she do not get paid.

Read the Full Article & See More Photos »

It started to snow!

Although I haven't finished writing posts about big things that happened before, like Trip and first day at school, I still want to write today's diary. It was too special today, it started to snow!  Actually, it started at the night before yesterday, but those days had only a little bit. Today did not have very much too, but it was snowing when I was walking to school. I have seen snowing days and played with snow before, but only a few time during the trip in foreign country like Japan and Korea, so snow actually are "new things" to me.

The night before yesterday

Read the Full Article & See More Photos »

The first day at school

(The content of this post happened on 20 Aug, 2013 CDT)

After spending 3 days with families in Ipswich, It is time to go to school. Ipswich Public School started on August 20th, but before the school started, there was a open-house day. Since whether students or parents can visit the school classroom and meet the school teacher, freshmen and people new to the school, like me, can find the correct class room.

Library

Read the Full Article & See More Photos »

First visit to the farm

(The content of this post happened on 18 Aug, 2013 CDT)

Barb have two brother and two sister, they all live in town or near Ipswich. On my second day in Ipswich, Barb took me and JJ to the her sister' farm. The farm is few mile west from Ipswich, it is not very big, there were only few farmhouse that keep animals.

The house in the farm

Read the Full Article & See More Photos »

Walking around Ipswich

(The content of this post happened on 18 Aug, 2013 CDT)

I do not have school during my first 3 days here, so I just walk around Ipswich, go to the farm or go Aberdeen, which is the 3rd biggest city in South Dakota. Ipswich is a very tiny town, the population is soon 1000. Walking around Ipswich only take like half an hour. So of course, there will not be many stores in Ipswich.


View Larger Map

There are a subway, a groceries store, a bank, a restaurant and 2 gas stations with convenience store. There is also a post office and... maybe some more stores (I'm not sure). Because we are on the highway intersection, the gas stations are important.

Bank

Subway

Gas station

Restaurent

Read the Full Article & See More Photos »