JYSim for jobless-yokel Sim

The golden rule for going on exchange is and always will be to not expect things so that the unexpected will always find its way to you and surprise you genuinely. Even after my short life as an exchange student ended in Italy more than one year ago, I still find this rule apt enough in life to promote it - learning to keep your expectations down is just a key to living a less demanding and happier life, as was the events that unfolded today.
At 12.00 midnight I was already planning a whining day - reading some novels and perhaps sleep a little and watch a movie - the last thing I really wanted to do after an examination. I asked a friend out on MSN and we decided we’ll be deciding where to go the next day, and so I went to sleep 1 hour earlier than my usual time in my new room - clean, immaculate and with a brand new stand fan blowing at me.
I woke up subsequently at 6.05 and 7.30 - both times due to the sun directly shining at my face. I am a photosynthetic creature, I live around the sun. That’s why I usually wake up around 9 in Malaysia when I actually can wake up at 7 here - the sun rises earlier in the eastern side of the globe. Anyway, at 8.05 I was awakened by my mobile phone - the most unexpected person called - my senior from SCOPE. Hosting exchange students, it is our responsibilities to expose them to everything while they’re here - food, places of interest, culture and people. He told me they’re heading for Taroko National Park today and asked if I’d be willing to join. As if hitting th jackpot or being upgraded to First Class on my flight to New York, I agreed passionately in my groggy state and went to dress up as quickly as possible.
2 minutes later I was off in a Mitsubishi Lancer my senior rented, and while the air-conditioning was not working very well, it was a luxury to actually sit in a car in Hualien. We went to the various trails in Taroko and the sceneries were absolutely breathtaking. It was the grand canyon with lush greenery dotted with cascading waterfalls almost everywhere. The geography is just as if God had really spent time carving and architecturally designed the way the river flows and the valley dropped vertically into the ravines.

To our Scandinavian visitor, the scenery was of course a huge difference from the snow and frost in Sweden. The humid and perspiring weather made us even more looking forward to a ‘water curtain cave’ we’re visiting. The cave, as its name suggests, is literally curtained by showering torrents of water from the ceiling - icy cold water. I tried to hold some in my plastic bottle and it just frosted from the outside. After getting ourselves drenched, we sun-dried ourselves outside the cave and tiredly continued our journey.

The next spot was special with it’s aquamarine-and-azure blue waters flowing between the gray granites. Sitting on one of the many rocks you can lay back and stare directly into the blue sky - something I had not done since laying back in CLHS’ basketball court after PMR.

Clouds are such beautiful marvels we always fail to notice them - they’re dynamic and ever-changing, and even staring at the pictures of it we feel it changing. The blue and white of the clouds are two colours so beautiful we often fail to notice despite the other artificial colours around us.
I had a great and unexpected day at Taroko today, and I guess I wouldn’t have had such a great time if I had expected something like this since the first day of school. And guess what, I’m going off for dinner now.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 1st, 2007 at 3:27 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.