Our Backpacking Trips

yesterday afternoon the 3 of us (me, my brother and dad) were all hanging out in the back room of the house chillin’. then we started talking about some of the silly/stupid things we did when we were a kid. i laughed until there were tears in my eyes. it was that funny. i dont know if i shared these stories with you guys or not but its something def worth laughing about.

everything happened in 1st grade. when i first moved to the united states from taiwan. i didnt know a word of english and i was a huge fob. i remember 3 events very distinctly:

1) “My Very First Assignment” – it was the first day of school, each of us little kids had our GIANT name tags taped to the top left hand corner of our desks. the teacher passed out our very first in class assignemnt. she said something to the class – something i didnt understand because i didnt know english – then every one started writing. so… i did the first thing that came to my mind… i copied the whatever the girl next to me wrote. so i wrote “Alic…” then the teacher came over and said “no no” – she pointed to my name tag, then pointed to the paper where i attempted to write “Alicia”. okay i got it, so i wrote some one elses name on my paper. *FOB Strike One*

2) “The Spelling Test” - we have weekly spelling tests. on weds, mrs. hurfurt (my first grade teacher) gives us a “pre test”, but if we get 100% on weds we dont have to take the final test on friday. since it was our VERY FIRST spelling test she let us “cheat” on the weds test… like have us practice what its like to take an actual test. so we could look at our cheat sheet for the weds test. the 3 words that we had were: can, man, run. on friday, for the final test, we had the same words… BUT NO CHEATING this time. but of course i didnt know know. so i… “cheated”. of course i got caught and mrs. hurfurt made me put away my cheat sheet. i didnt study because i didnt know i had to, so of course i got an F on that test. i felt so bad. so i went home with those 3 words and took it up to my dad. told him about the spelling tests that we’ve been having. he helped me study those 3 words (can, man, run) all weekend. he tested me forward and backwards. for a kid who doesnt know a word of english… this was very difficult. i studied even monday through weds morning. then came the “pre test” on weds. before the teacher read out the words, i immediately wrote down “can, man, run”… all spelled correctly on my paper. i was so proud of myself, for sure i got 100% on the pretest and i didnt have to take the final test on friday. then i got my test back on thrusday… i got another F, the teacher pulled me aside and explained to me why. it turns out “can, man, run” were LAST week’s words. this week we got a new set of words. *FOB Strike Two*

3) “Going To the Bathroom” - its not easy being “the new kid” and not knowing a single word of english makes it even harder. so… i had to pee one day and all by myself i found the freggin bathroom to release my bladder. yay! i returned to the same bathroom quite a few times through out the week to take my daily piss until one day… i ran into a little boy in the bathroom. um, yea… i was just as shocked as he was. my first thought was “oh my… americans ‘hao sui bian’ boys and girls go to the same bathroom?”, it turns out… i was in the wrong bathroom. he pointed down the hall where another restroom was located, oh okay… i get it now. this explains the mystery of the urinals on the wall. *FOB Strike Three*

oh by the way… happy earth day!! i planted 2 trees yesterday!! =)