Earlier Than Expected

It is already the last day of July.

As I had expected, the first three weeks of our time in the States passed in a blur.  Now, I am down in San Diego at Alan's Mom's place. They moved in this past March and the place is so beautifully fixed up.  I am in their sun room looking out at their beautiful garden.  In the late afternoon, a family of bunnies are out there, nibbling away at the grass.  There are also plenty to lizards and birds that come to visit on a regular basis.


Isaiah has been at the tennis camp this past week. Today will be his last full day and it will be a full day of competitions.  By 12 noon tomorrow, he will be finished.  He has made some new friends and hopefully, improved tremendously his overall tennis technique as well as his mental toughness when he is on the court facing an opponent.


We will take off to head back up to Torrance on Saturday where I will be busy packing as Isaiah and I are set to head back to Taiwan on August 6th, earlier than our original departure date of August 24th.

Seek Him First!

One Last Blog Post -- For "Now"

I wanted to blog every day, but with our trip to the States (we're flying out tomorrow) I know that's not going to happen since I won't have internet access while staying at my mom's.

I might be able to blog once a week... or perhaps my next blog won't be until August 2nd.

So, what did I do the day before taking off to the States?

I went to Costco to buy more coffee packets.

I paid our bills for this month.

I visited a woman at the hospital.

I packed.

I scootered over to Danhsui.

I cleaned and painted the place as I had to get people to fix a leak inside the house!

I did a load of laundry.

I finished translating and editing a 5 page paper.

And I even went for a run.

Oh, I also blogged.

What will be happening for the month of July?

I will be at my mom's.  That should say more than enough about how busy I will be.

For the last 10 days of our time in the States, we will be down in San Diego with Alan's mom.

Isaiah will be at his tennis camp for a week.

And perhaps I will have time to blog.

Oh, and I hope we will be able to change the date of our return flight and get confirmed seats.

Seek Him First!

The System Is Malfunctioning

Well... another interesting day -- with a chance encounter of a parent of Isaiah's previous classmates, I found out that the turn-out rate for registration at the assigned school was very low.

Here are a few facts --

市立大直高中 215 78 36.28% 137
TaChih Senior High School, the school that Isaiah would have liked to attend, had 215 openings.  Only 36.28% of students turned up to register, meaning only 78 students came.  There are still 137 openings.

市立中正高中 638 340 53.29% 298
ChungCheng Senior High School, another one of Isaiah's top choices, had 638 openings. Only 53,29% of students showed up to register, so they still have 298 openings.

市立南湖高中 564 429 76.06% 135
Nanhu Senior High School is where Isaiah will be attending. The turn-out rate was better but still it has 135 openings. Isaiah would have liked to go to the regular class instead of the PE class, but his scores did not get him accepted. But could he have gotten in if he waited?

What does this mean?

It is a mess... it might turn out that those who scored low on the tests might now have a chance to get to a better school, making many parents and students quite upset, crying UNFAIR! Isaiah might be a case in point.  With only 1 A++, could he have gotten into Nanhu's regular class if he just waited?

I asked the question -- how about next year?  Abby is going to be going through the same thing with the testing system. What is going to happen then?

The answer -- NO ONE KNOWS. Yes, for sure there will be changes, but what kind of changes is still a big question mark.

What about doing anything this year?

The answer -- NOTHING CAN BE DONE.

What a mess!

The answer I cling to is -- GOD IS SOVEREIGN. HE IS ALWAYS IN CONTROL. HE KNOWS and HE CAN DO ALL THINGS.




Seek Him First!