My first long hiking experience I went two-day hiking this weekend, that was my first time to have this kind of long hiking trip. There were eight people and one guide. We did not need to bring the tents, food and facilities for the staying in the camp, because we chose the tour that someone would prepare for us. But we still needed to prepare some stuff by our own. For example, food and water which were important during we were going up to and going down from the mountain, clothes (in case it would rain) and some necessary. I carried about 7 kg weight backpack. It was not really heavy, but when you were tired, it was still burdensome. We took about 6 hours going up. Before arriving the beginning of the track, there was a long slope, it took 2 hours to really start climb the mountain. During the process, we took a break at creekside, to had lunch there. It was really nice to have a meal in the natural and drink the cool water from the stream. Departure from the creekside, it did not take too long, we arrived under a giant tree. It was the start of the track. The walking tracks were roots and soil, you just followed the roads which tramped by fore-hikers. Most of the time you had to grasp the spray or roots next to you to climb to the next step, sometime it was slipper, you had to be very careful for each step. So, it is important to have a good shoes when you go hiking. Finally we arrived our destination. There was a lake, however it was not mach water because it did not rain for couple weeks. I guess there were more than one hundred people there. Not long after we were arrived, the sun started going down, the sunset was amazing. Although I was tired and went to bed at 20:00, I did not sleep well. The guy in a single tent next to mine snored the whole night. He did not stop for one second. I barely to fall asleep. But I saw the staring night. Without any light, the stars were shiny. The moon light irradiate to the lake it was so quiet and peaceful. We went down from the top at 8:00 and only 4 hours we had already be in the car park. It was a really nice experience for my first hiking trip. I start to understand why people like to carry heavy backpacks and walk for a long distance just to go to the top of the mountain. I would like to have another trip next time.

A freelance job I have got a freelance job this Monday. When I was discussing the case with the case owner, I though it was easy and I could finish it in three days. However, there’s some parts of the job that I am not familiar with. It took me so much time, much more than I thought. I spent lots of time to learn how to deal with this case, but I feel satisfied about the process. Because I have learnt a lot of new skill from it. It is really exciting to learn something that you had never knew before. I think I will try to find more freelance jobs. They are not like the office job you have everyday, they are all different and the owners have distinct requests. The most important thing is, you can always learn something fresh every time!

Travel in Ho Chi Ming I went to Vietnam with my family last month. We’d stayed in Ho Chi Ming for five days, I really like there, although the weather was a little bit hot. The streets in Ho Chin Ming are not clean, the traffic are mess up and the air pollution is kinda really serious. But I am still into this city. Maybe it has some similar parts to Taiwan, or maybe just because I like to hang out with my family in another country. Vietnam was colonized by France so it has many Western style buildings, which is another appealing reason for me. On the other hand, the people are friendly, they are willing to help foreigners. I totally recommend people to go there, it is easy for backpackers to travel alone. But, remember to negotiate the price every time.

My first manual film camera I bough a film camera online last week and I just received it this morning. It’s SMENA 8M, which was made in Soviet between 1975 and 1995. The best thing of this camera is it is cheap and it is easy for beginners. I was so excited that I finally got my first manual film camera. I have always wanted to learn how to take photos since I was a child, but I never really started it. Now I got more time for myself, I thought why not just start to do it right now. At the beginning, I have learnt about shutter, aperture, iso and some basic knowledge of photo shooting, also I tried to take some photos by my sister’s DSLR-Like camera, which can adjust each function to make nice photos. However, it can not satisfied my curious about photo shooting, I am so obsessed with file camera. I found some people recommended SMENA 8M as the first film camera, which has fair price, easy to operate and good for construct the film foundation knowledge. I bought it without any hesitation. After I got my new “toy”, I could not wait to play it. However, I got some difficulties. I failed to load the film in SMENA 8M, it took me at least 30 minutes. Finally I did it successfully and started my film photography. After about an hour, I finished my first film. I wanted to find a store to see the results, then I realized that it’s not easy to find a developer to develop a film in 2018. I was sad, but luckily google can answer almost everything. I found a store, which is not really far away from my home, is still developing films. Sometimes beginning is always the hardest. I get it. Hope I can get my photos next week.

After I quitted my job I quitted my job the weed before last. Before I quitted my job, I had thought that I would get lots of time to do whatever I want which I did not have time to do when I was working. However, last week was really bad, because I didn’t have any plan about what I was going to do first. I have read books, met some friends and did exercise. But not being organized. During last weekend, I realized that I was wasting my time. I started making plans, writing down something that I need to do, also trying to have more self-control. I am not sure how it will work, but yesterday I did well. I did something that have been shelved, I felt satisfied when I was concentrated. Also when I have finished something make me feel happy, and I will have more motivation to keep going.

Do you believe reincarnation? I believe in reincarnation, I believe that human's bodies are just like cloths and souls are the real substance. I have watched a program that talked about some people who remembered their last lives. The most incredible things were all of the people in this program could point out who they were in their previous lives. The cases all happened when they were at about 5 to 7 year-old. They told someone that they were another person. For example, there was a boy, he told his mom that he was her dad, which meant that he had been his grandpa. Also he could say something that happened between in his mom and his grandpa and they were the only two people knew. Another case, there was a girl, one day, she told her parents that she wanted to find her "parents", also she could indicate her last life's name and how did she die. Moreover, the small village she said she used to live was far away from her home, which was impossible for her to know this place. At the beginning her parents did not believe it, however, she kept saying she did not belong to this family. Finally, her parents brought her to the home where she described. When she arrived the "home", she indicated the family members immediately and started crying. There were some other cases and all of them had unexplainable evidence. On the other hand, I have read some articles and watched some videos talk about near-death experiences. No matter what religion they believe in, most of them had similar experiences which science can not explain at all. They could feel their souls were out of their bodies. They saw their families and friends around themselves, their bodies, or they saw the doctors were making emergency rescue on themselves. All of them said they felt unprecedented peaceful when they were going through near-death experiences. Maybe it is ridicules to believe these unscientific things. Although I have never witnessed or gone through these experiences, I still believe in it. Because I think there so many things that human can not solve them and find the answers. Soul and reincarnation are two of them.

Be a solitary person I think people should know how to be solitary. I don't really mean staying in a hermetic room, but people should feel comfortable with only themselves. Nowadays, contact with others seems become very easy. For example, make a phone call to some, send a message to a friend, post a photo on your instagram or leave a message on somebody's social media. You can get a quick response. However, the truth is there are so many people can not stay with no one. They can not manage their own time when there is no body to talk. They can not have meals with themselves, they can not stay at home by themselves, they just can not be alone. But I think this is really sad, because we are the only person who will spend our whole life stay with. How can you not know how to get along with yourself? Many people define themselves by other people, hence if they are not with someone they will have no idea about themselves. I think spend time with yourself is a good way to think what are the essential matter for you, although others' opinions sometimes are useful, thinking your values will always make you live your own life.

About willpower Instead of time management, willpower is the key point to achieve the goal. This is what I had read couple days ago. Many people believe that time management is the most important thing for being successful. But someone said if you can not dispose your bad addictions, like wasting too much time on social media or playing online games, then you even don't need to talk about how to manage your time. I think I agree with her opinion. People tend to do things they like and do easy jobs, so if the goal is tough then the first step would be overcome the fear. Usually the beginning is not the hardest thing, but persistent effort is. Recently I am trying to train my willpower, which is like training muscles, to do something that I don't like. Like reading and writing English everyday. I think so far I feel satisfied and I know I am improving. Although it walk slowly, with the belief and effort the achievements will be seen.

The traffic problems in Taipei I'd like to talk about a part of traffic problems in Taipei. I go to work by scooter everyday. When I'm riding it the thing I hate the most is that there are so many traffic violations. Many drivers like to change their lanes without put on indicators, which can put the vehicles behind them in dangerous situations and also they influence the flow of cars' moving. Usually, they even don't know what they have done to others! Another one is illegal parking. Some people illegally park their cars next to red lines at the peak hours, which make serious traffic congestion and it can stop the vehicles hundreds meters away. But I never see polices deal with these violations. These are not just impact on traffic, but also threaten other people's lives! There are still so many illegal driving, like illegal u-turn, running a red light and so on. I really hope government double down on illegal traffic, especially at commuting hours. (Are there any other good words I can replace "traffic"? )