Jeffrey Chang

2006-07 Inbound from Taiwan

Hometown: Hsin-Chu City, Taiwan

Sponsor: Hsin-Chu Downtown Rotary Club, District 3480, Taiwan

Host: Downtown Gainesville Rotary Club, District 6970, USA

School: Buchholz High School

Bio

Jeffrey's Bio

My name is Jeffrey and I have a family with four persons: father, mother, younger sister and I. I am optimistic, humorous and easy to get along with.

My father is a teacher. He teaches in college in Taiwan and my mother is a high school teacher, teaching computer related classes. My younger sister is 13 years old and studies in the same junior high school as I have studied before.

We live in Hsin-Chu city, Taiwan. Hsin-Chu is also famous for its wind during the winter season and people used to call the city ‘Wind-Town’. There is a famous hill named “18 Hill” near my home. Many local people and my family used to climb the hill in holiday.

I was a member of the soccer team in junior high school and have won a championship in a local soccer contest. I like to play tennis and basketball very much. My favorite tennis and basketball players are Nadal and LeBron James. I love another hobby, the Chinese cross-talk.

Since I was a child, I am very curious and filled with imagination about foreign countries and culture because of my parents’ influence and my own experience. My parents got their graduate degrees in U.S.A., and have told me many experiences about their studying and living in a foreign country. I am very glad I have this chance to join this exchange program.

Now, I am in Gainesville, Florida. Gainesville is a clean, natural, and peaceful place. They have many fields; I can see a lot of cows and horses. The weather is very nice, almost everyday is a sunny day, and it is very hot in Gainesville. People in Gainesville are nice and friendly; they will help you when you need help. I am very glad I came to Gainesville.

September 19 Journal

The first day I went to school, it was so many new things I need to learn. In my country Taiwan, I don’t need to change my classroom, we have the same classroom for almost every class and study with same classmates. But over here you only have 5 minutes to change your classroom and some times they have so many people in the corridor, it is hard to walk. I remember the first day I was late for 5 classes, out of only 6 classes, but now I can get to classes on time. The school is nice to students; every student can take a book home for each class, and school has the books too, so you don’t need to take your books to school everyday. Every student can use their own locker, it was interesting, I can put my schoolbag in the locker and just need to take the things that you need to use in next class. These methods are very humane.

The lunch time is so cool, my school has two lunches, A and B, because it has too much students, they can’t all eat in the same time. I was A lunch, some of my friends are B lunch, so I can’t meet them at lunch time, but you can meet new friends at that time.

I went boating with my host family, it was awesome. We played tubing, the tube was tied on the boat with a long rope, when the boat was going, you just need to lie on the tube and control the tube, but when the boat was going faster, it was hard to control the tube, and when you lose control, you fall in the water. I never played this game before, it was so exciting. I hope I can play again, but when I went home from the place where we go boating, both of my arm muscles hurt, and I can’t hold a heavy thing, because you used both arms to control the tube. It was not easy and needed to use much strength.

I have been here 7 weeks, the first week I felt like a deaf-mute person, I just can listen. But now I am like an elementary student, I can use easy words to talk and can have easy conversations. I believe in two months I will speak like the grade 9 student.

November 16 Journal

Our exchange students went to Daytona on October 20-22, this three day weekend we went to NASA, motorcycle show and Daytona 500. We went to NASA first, NASA showed us all the history about how Americans went up into space and they are the first ones that went to the moon. We saw the real size rocket, that was very big. I had a fun time at NASA.

This was the Biketoberfest week, they say more than 30,000 bikes had come into Daytona. I saw a lot of different bikes I never seen on these 3 days, we saw a green bike on the gas station, some one went to take some picture, every motorcycle we saw was big, huge and have a powerful engine, it was very cool.

We saw the bike show on Oct 21 night, the person who ride the bike around the wall and catch the money which people give to him, it needs good skill to do it, but he looks like it is very easy. Tony is a cool person, he was Edgar and my host family these 3 days, he is the classic car player, he had two very cool classic cars. The first day he drove one of his cars to come to pick us up, and the second day he drove the other one, both these cars he protects very well, look like new ones, and he was a very good car engineer, because he say he can fix almost any car, he can change the car engine or circuits in the car, he is very good at that, it was awesome.

We will go to Disney on November 30, I can’t wait!!

January 3 Journal

Disney World on 11/30~12/03:

I finally went to Disney! I remember the night before we went to Disney I can’t sleep very well. I thought I will play all the things in Disney, the truth is I almost played all the things in Disney. The first day I woke up early and checked my baggage to make sure I brought everything I need. This time other district exchange students came with us, which made it more exciting. Gainesville’s students all met in front the bank, and ready to start our first day to Disney.

On the way to Disney no one slept! Everyone was taking what happened at their school and shared their country’s music. It was fun. I can’t remember how long we drove to Disney, but the important thing was we were at Disney! We and other exchange students met in the hotel and checked in, we all lived in Sport Center. In Disney World they had many different hotel centers. The room key was the card, it was very cool because the card showed your name on the card, and the hotel was very nice. It had a big pool. To get from the hotel to every park you need to take the bus or train, which is like Taiwan’s MRT.

The first park we went to was MGM Studios. When I first stepped in MGM, I thought my friends in Taiwan they imagine I am in Disney now. When you went in the MGM you must see the tower that was called Hollywood Tower, so we decided to go there first. But when we got there, we saw the big electric guitar and the sign said Rock’n’Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith, so we changed our mind and went to roller coaster first. everyone is crazy about roller coasters, this one was the small coaster, but its speed was faster than Space Mountain which we went second day. I thought is ok, not very exciting, but next we went to tower, that was very fun. You went in the box, and the box will move and you saw the little movie and then everything stop, suddenly the box will fall down and up again and fall and……, that was very fun, but I thought I was crazy because I was the only one take the video, you can’t see anything in the video you just can hear people screaming. I played 3 times! The best show in this park was Lights Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show, that was crazy. They show how they make extreme stunts in the movie, like you think they really drive car back, but the truth is they changed the car inside, let you look like they droved back, and they chose the boy to control the remote. In fact they had driver on other side of the car you can’t see, and the end of the show, they did the big fire on the water and beside the water! That was very cool; you can feel the heat blow on your face.

In the evening, we all went to Streets of America to see the music light show. My friend and I start to take pictures about America and the end of the trip we will decide who won. Tonight we went to see the laser on the water wall and fire on the water, this show was very cool too.

The second day we waked up 7 am and went to Magic Kingdom maybe 8 because this morning we had Disney people lead us. It is called Y.E.S. program, they teach us about the physics at Disney’s amusement facilities. We went to Space Mountain first, we rode twice. First time open the light so you can see inside the Space Mountain, and you write down what you think the speed, high point and time, and second time they turned off the light, and did the same thing, you will feel if close the light, everything you will feel totally different, it’s fun. Than we went to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. It’s roller coaster. Each person holds the cup of water and when you finish the roller coaster, who have the most water in his cup win. My water all gone in the last turn, before the last turn I had a lot. It’s is fun, everyone tries to keep the water in their cup but it’s hard. Olof won who was crazy; he only lost a quarter of cup’s water so of course he won. The physic lesson lasted only 2 or 3 hours, so we were free before lunchtime. I was with some people decided go to Splash Mountain first, because we already got wet and want be more wet. It’s good, I played so many times in Taiwan but I still like it. Magic Kingdom is the park for children. A lot of shows and amusement facilities for children, and Disney’s famous castle is in this park. We saw the fire show in front of the castle that was beautiful and cool. I heard someone said the fire show is twice a day, I can’t imaged how much money that cost, but who cares!!

The second day night, we have the pizza party at hotel, a lot of pizza and soda, and everyone was talking, eating and changed their pins, I heard more than 8 different languages tonight, it lets you feel how big is this world!!

The third day of Disney we went to Epcot. Today you can wake up what time you want, but we need to meet at Epcot before 1 p.m. But I want play more so I went with some people early like 9:30. This park was my favorite park. They have more exciting facilities than other park. We went to Mission: SPACE first. This is so good! We went out and met other people, so we all went in together, I didn’t know how they do it. You go in the box, and you feel you were going at a very fast speed. You will feel not comfortable when you get out, they put the bag in front of your seat if you want throw up. The second time we played, the machine had little problem, and we were stuck in machine like 5 min. When we got out they gave us the Re-entry Fastpass to apologize that we were stuck in the machine, but I didn’t go back to play anymore, because I continuous played twice, and I didn’t feel well. In fact everyone didn’t feel good!

Soarin was good, I want to play twice but no time, Soarin is where you sit on the machine and rush of this free-flying hang gliding on the big screen. It looked very real. Epcot had 11 different countries buildings. When we went to the Norway part, the student from Sweden, Norway and Sweden people can know each other’s language, so he spoke Swedish to them and they let as play first without Fastpass! Many people waiting and we played first and had our own boat.

Tonight I saw the best fire show in Disney. The fire show is on the lake; they had many small boats on the lake and put the fire stuff on it. It’s not just a fire show, there was lasers and fire together, and they have big fire on the water too, this time is bigger than other two. I think Disney really likes to use fire on the water.

The last day we went to the new park Animal Kingdom. In this park I think only one is good, that is Expedition Everest which is the roller coaster, the best one in Disney! I rode twice, I wanted ride more but there was no time. The first time we had a Fastpass we wait 10 min, the second time no Fastpass and we wait like 50 min, but it fun. I and my friend played a game to see who can throw the coin and which hit the cup in the middle when we were waiting. We also went to Kilmanjaro Safaris is like Taiwan’s 6 Lucky Village’s animal park. You stay in the car and see the free animals, but Disney free animals are not many of and hard to find them, 6 Lucky Village is better. Today we need to return to our homes so we just stay half day in this park, and we went back to hotel to wait for our drivers to take us home. On the way we back home we didn’t talk that much, everyone is tired, I walked more than 6 hour per day, and my feet hurt a lot! The next day I went to school I was very tired. I can’t concentrate in the class. Before I need to listen very carefully what teacher said so I can understand, so I think that day I learned nothing…but not on purpose!!

June 1 Journal

I have been here almost 10 months now, I feel like I am a part of here now, I mean I feel like I lived here all my life. In the weekend I will go out with my friends to watch movie or do something I will never do in Taiwan. For example, last week one day after school, I and my friends decide to hide in one of my friend’s room and to surprise him, but we didn’t succeed - we were playing his Wii and didn’t hear him come back, we run in his living room trying to find the place to hide, but he saw us, that was funny. We didn’t plan it, we just do it, and this will never happen in Taiwan. I feel here in America, how to make the relationship with friends are different than when I was in Taiwan, more fun but maybe you will think it is stupid, but I have fun over here.

I did one thing make me very excited on this Monday, it will never happen if I was at Taiwan, that was I went FISHING on this Monday. My host dad and I went to CEDAR KEY, we wake up 4:30 very early in the morning and drove to the key. This is my first fishing experience, I was very excited. I catch couple Mackerel, I catch the biggest one, but take me some time to get it out of water, but the important thing is I almost catch the shark, I fight with one shark a long time, I got it close to the boat and my dad trying to use the net to catch it, but the shark’s teeth is so sharp, he broke the net and cut the fishing line and ran away. I know we need to put him back too, but I was still depressed. We were fishing a long time from morning to late afternoon, that was fun. We clean the fish when we go home, it was other fun experience, cut the fish and take off the fish skin, it was fun but after this I smell like the fish, after we wash our hands it didn’t go away……

The last Rotary exchange students meeting was two weeks ago. We did a lot like playing baseball and took a sail boat, I love sail boat, every time the boat heel over you think the boat will turn over, it was fun. I had a great time at the last meeting, I was very appreciative the last time to meet every exchange students - they are not just my friends in America, they are my friends in the whole world, I will remember them.

I really like Florida life style - you can go hunting or fishing in the weekend or go to the beach to get tan, the food over here is also very good, even the Chinese food, the life over here is more like the life, now I know why everyone wants to come Florida. I am very enjoy my time over here, I almost go home now, I feel I just come here not longer than one month, but it’s not the truth. I want to stay longer but I can’t. Thanks to my host family, they host my whole year, they are like my second parent and sister like my other home, thanks all Rotary people who make this year possible for me, I want to thank you everyone who helped me over here, I will never forgot you.