My Childhood in Cha YI

        Everyone looks at my white skin and listens to my accent will be certainly sure that I am from the city, the city kids?... no, no, a very big No.

      Can you imagine a dark little kid always run  after butterflies under the sunshine, and played on the swings as high as possible to reach the sky.  This kid also looked for snails after raining, climbed  up the tree to grab some fruit, and jumped into a river to catch some tadpoles. 
You cannot believe the above description was not a boy, it was me,   a thin and dark girl with short hair.  Thus, our neighbors, who my grandpa's relatives, called me little dark chick.

      I finished my first grade there.  My teacher liked me very much, and she designated me to be class leader, because I was the only one who has entered kindergarten system already.  I could count numbers from 0-100, read Mandarin Phonetic Symbols, and some simple Chinese words.  Although my school life was happy, every morning, I had to wake up very early.  It  took me about 45 minutes from home to school by walking.  In winter, I often overslept  in the chill morning, my aunt would give me a ride to our school, she was a teacher of my school, too. 

 

     Not only the frozen winter problem, summer, there were 4 days of half-day studying, I had to walk under the server sunshine during the noon, not mention that my little body carried on a big school bag.  My ante who live in Taipei told me, the fist time she ever saw her little girl sweating a lot with a big school bag walking home after school, she almost could not hold her tears. 

     One day, I got a very sick and high fever.  Some days later,  my papa and mom came to see me from Taipei.  They sent me to accompany my grandmom in this small village.  I was so delighted to see them again, they bough t me a new school bag and an auto pencil sharpener.  They were the most desirable things for all kids.  

      My new bright yellow school backpack was made of plastic leather which was with two shoulder straps for hanging on the back easily.  It was a awesome gift that the other schoolmates who had clothes material bag never saw that.  And my auto pencil sharpener was pretty cool one, my classmates did not ever use this sharpener before.   The fast efficiency and well done job of this new toy surprised them a lot.  It was my dream of owning a sharpener from kindergarten age, while the teachers helped us to sharp pencils.

       My grand mom passed away for many years, rarely  did I have chance to visit my grand-parents' home again.  Every time when I watch TV programs about the country side, I  remind  my first grade life with my kind grandmom. Despite that my parents did not take care of me, I still had their whole love and a happy childhood.

When I tried to find some pictures about my old school, and I found the story about  my ancestors and  grand parents house: http://www.sasps.cyc.edu.tw/wonpage/index.htm