Jeremy's Post

Summer Vacation
By: Jeremy

     As the school year ends, everyone’s excited about one thing: summer. This year, the last day of school is on June 26, and summer vacation ends at August 13. This year for the 47-day break, I am going to visit my relatives at Taiwan, like I do every year.
     Three days after summer vacation begins, I will go on a flight to Taiwan, where I will stay for many weeks. Last year, my family went to other countries for about 10 days, then went to Taiwan to see our relatives for many weeks. There were many fun things I did there. The day we arrived at Taiwan’s capital, Taipei, the thermometer said the temperature was 33° Celsius(91°F). Then, we traveled to really sultry places. We went around the country in some high-speed train. When we arrived at another city, I saw how high the temperature was, and I was glad that we lived in California so that the weather wasn’t that extraordinary at home. Its normal temperature in summer there was 40° C or 110° F. Don’t ask me how the residents lived there. The only comfortable place was the hotel. I finally know why air conditioning costs that much now.
   90 degrees seemed comfortable after we came back to Taipei. After visiting other parts of the country, I attended several go lessons and one competition. I earned $500 Taiwan money, or about $16 US.
    After coming back from a 1-month trip, I finally came home, but only for a few days. My dad drove me to Santa Barbara for the annual US Go Congress. Even though the Congress only lasted one week and the Taiwan trip lasted a month, I thought, and still do think, of the Go Congress as the main highlight that year. Each morning when I woke up, I had to get to the campus (UCSB) by about 8:45. At 9:00 every morning, the biggest competition in the US, the US Open, would be played with one round a day, with a break day in the middle. I won 3 games and lost 3 in the competition, and got 7th place in my division. The games took a really long time. Some of the better players needed to think more, and even got a lunch break. They took about 5 hours to play a game. In the afternoon, there would usually be a few tournaments. The events usually started at either 1:00, 3:00, 5:00, or 7:00pm. There would also be teaching games with pros and many youth tournaments.

     Last year’s summer vacation was really fun for me. This year, I plan to go to Taiwan just three days after the last day of school. I will not be back home until August 1st, and on August 4th I will go to Go Congress. The plane back will be on August 12th, so I’ll probably be really tired for the first day of school, which is just a day after I come back. Basically, I only get about five and a half days to rest at home, so that might be a little too much for me. I hope to be fine on the first day of school and win a few prizes at Go Congress. What are you going to do for summer, and what do you hope to do?