Wanderlust (n.) Beitou, Taiwan

Wanderlust (n.) a strong desire or urge to wander 

or travel and explore the world

Beitou, located in the northernmost district of Taipei City, is renowned for its hots springs, lush green environment, and historical sites that can date all the way back over a hundred years ago. An interesting fact about the name Beitou is that it is originally called Kipatauw, meaning home of the witches, because many local rivers and ponds emit steams due to the geothermal warming of the hot springs.
Since the Qing Dynasty, Beitou has been well know for extraction sulphur, the main component in the hot springs in Beitou. These hot springs were developed during the Japanese Imperial Rule, because the Japanese loved hot springs and believed that the hot springs provided a way of healing diseases and pains. Today, Beitou features not only public hot springs but also a large variety of hot spring resorts and hotels. It has also become a popular place for not only the natives but also the tourists.

(One of the public hot springs in Beitou)

F. Scott Fitzgerald

In the midst of winter, we finished a story called Winter Dreams by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The setting of this story initially took place in the winter in Minnesota, and the story is talking about the main character, Dexter, acquiring his "winter dreams" which is symbolized by the character called Judy Jones. Note and important fact in this story is that the winter dreams that Dexter so desperately wanted also represents the typical American dream. In the end of the story Dexter did not get Judy Jones and Judy Jones' beauty fleeted and her youth was long gone, so basically Dexter did not acquire this winter dream or American dream of his. Dexter started to feel like his life has no meaning anymore as he wasn't as young as he was anymore, and the inability to achieve his dream, he lost his idealism.

Later on in class, we also read a letter that F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote for his daughter, "A Letter to His Daughter". In this short letter, it described how F. Scott Fitzgerald wants her daughter to worry about those that can make her a good person such as courage and horsemanship and not to worry about those petty little things that does not matter at all such as insects, popular opinions and boys. All in all, F. Scott Fitzgerald wants her daughter to have a good character.

After reading both works by F. Scott Fitzgerald, I believe that F. Scott Fitzgerald changed his views of a typical American dream. In the “Winter Dreams”, he portrayed his definition of American dream as holding fame, wealth and women, but in his letter addressing to his daughter, he changed his views and hold his American dream as having a good character. I believe that the failure of success and acquiring such materialistic pleasure from the story “Winter Dreams” made an impact and woke F. Scott Fitzgerald. It taught us that materialistic works and pleasure cannot last and is not worthy of obtaining, but a good character lasts and can very much provide you a path to success, if not a path to a much peaceful life.

In conclusion, I love the ideas that F. Scott Fitzgerald portrayed in both of his works, “Winter Dreams” and “A Letter to His Daughter”. I feel like that his work not only teach people moral lessons, but also portrayed his wonderful skills in writing. That’s why I chose “The Great Gatsby” as another book to read this year. I want to read more books from F. Scott Fitzgerald. 


(All photos are from Pinterest)

Do good fences make good neighbors?

Recently in class, we've encountered this renowned poem by Robert Frost called Mending Wall. This poem is famous for the message portrayed in the last line, "good fences make good neighbors". Mending Wall by Robert Frost is about two people, the speaker and the neighbor, mending fences, or stone walls, along their property line. The speaker thought of the wall as a barrier to human contact, communication, and understanding, but the neighbor thought of the wall as a necessity because good fences make good neighbors, meaning you have to set certain boundaries. As this poem progressed, the ambiguity of which side the author, Robert Frost, really supported, created a controversial topic. Some said that Frost supported the speaker's point of view and some say that he supported the neighbor's point of view.

Some people believed that Frost supported the speaker's point of view because Frost was writing in the first person's point of view of the speaker, however, I believe that Robert Frost supported the neighbor's opinion. For one, this line was repeated twice and second of all, this line became the most famous line out of all the lines in the poem. Lastly, this poem was ended with the neighbor's point of view and thinking, "good fences make good neighbors".

I personally believe that good fences make good neighbors, because I believe that human interaction or any kind of relationships should have a foundation based on boundaries. For example, you would set boundaries between relationships such as friends or even acquaintances, so you don't offend or cross them. Take international relationships as another consideration, governments in each country would set boundaries between each other so they know what is classified as acceptable terms or not. So in a sense, making walls and fences to protect not only yourself but also others is really important. Making boundaries and set them straight to cause minimal confusion and conflict is the idea that is portrayed in the sentence "good fences make good neighbors". Some would say that this, making walls, setting boundaries, are a very conservative way of thinking, that people should sometime step out of their comfort zone to interact and understand each other. I disagree. I believe that all types of relationships should have boundaries set so you know the limit, and then you would know how many steps you can back up, and grasp on to what extent does your comfort zone end.