John Daniel: 5月的月報：學期快結束了 – The Semester is almost over, May 2025

大家好，明天是我的期末口試，代表這個學期快結束了！我不知不覺的5個月快結束了。我這次在台灣的經驗固然過得非常好，可是同時真的期待回歐洲，看看朋友們，家人，探索西班牙的山區，而且特別對練習跟中文相比比較容易的一種語言十分興奮！

這個月我的中文有了一些很棒的進步。 我上個學期的單班課老師和我好像從學生老師的關係變成好朋友這個學期因為他不是我的老師了，我們有幾次一起見面就像真真的朋友們一樣。 我知道她可能只是對我很客氣而已，畢竟她是我的老師，不過既然是她邀請我的而不是我邀請她的，我可以肯定一下她不是迎合我，而且可以鬆一口氣。當我們在一起時，我們只會說中文。我們有一次試試用英文來溝通，但是因為我們的友誼是在一個說中文的環境下形成，我們說英文時，好像彼此不認識了。

最近我也參加了一個半馬拉松比賽，是國立地理雜誌的。我和我的室友一起跑。最近幾個月來，我們兩個人的鍛鍊都不足，除了每週三的跑上樓梯運動，一個氧氣相關的運動都沒做。不知道怎麼的，竟然還是在目標時間的範圍內完成了比賽。我的夢想是跑完1個小時半的半馬，不過這次只是1個小時44分鐘罷了 – 因為沒超過45分鐘我覺得還行吧。對我的跑完時間被推遲的事，除了我的訓練不足的藉口，還有兩個重要的緣故。首先，在起點準備出發的組織不太好，沒有按照目標跑完的時間安排團體，因此前面5個公里路上的人太多了，並且路太窄了，就像一個瓶頸，我們跑不過比較慢的跑者。第二個重要藉口相當不好意思。我的室友為我們跑比賽中充電買了幾個小能量飲料的套。我選擇的是咖啡味道的。到了第10個公里，我感到快缺少體能了，打開了能量飲料的小包包，嚐嚐看就覺得非常不好吃，可是當我在把它會到我的口袋中，突然爆發了，棕色的咖啡飲料都涵蓋我的下身，那個狀態就看起來像剛經歷了一點腸胃事故一樣。非常不好意思，我不得不去路邊的衛生間弄乾淨。浪費5分鐘之後，我重新會賽道繼續跑步，必須再次超過幾分鐘之前已經超過的跑者，真的很丟臉， 希望他們沒有注意到我的意外。
這個月我的中文有了一些很棒的進步。 我上個學期的單板課老師和我好像從學生老師的關係變成好朋友這個學期因為他不是我的老師了，我們有幾次一起見面就像真真的朋友們一樣。 我知道，她可能對我只是很客氣而已，畢竟她是我的老師，不過既然是她邀請我的而不是我邀請她的，我肯定她不是迎合我，可以鬆一口氣。當我們在一起時，我們只會說中文。我們有一次試試用英文來溝通，但是因為我們的友誼是在一個說中文的環境下形成，我們說英文時，好像彼此不認識了。

最近我也參加了一個半馬拉松比賽，是國立地理雜誌的。我和我的室友一起跑。最近幾個月來，我們兩個人的鍛鍊都不足，除了每週三的跑上樓梯運動，一個氧氣相關的運動都沒做。不知道怎麼的，竟然還是在目標時間的範圍內完成了比賽。我的夢想是跑完1個小時半的半馬，不過這次只是1個小時44分鐘罷了 – 因為沒超過45分鐘我覺得還行吧。對我的跑完時間被推遲的事，除了我的訓練不足的藉口，還有兩個重要的緣故。首先，在起點準備出發的組織不太好，沒有按照時間安排團體，因此前面5個公里路上的人太多了，並且路太窄了，就像一個瓶頸，我們跑不過比較慢的跑者。第二個重要藉口其實相當不好意思。我的室友為我們跑比賽中充電買了幾個小能量飲料的套。我選擇的是咖啡味道的。到了第10個公里，我感到快缺少體能了，打開了能量飲料的小包包，嚐嚐看就覺得非常不好吃，可是當我在把它會到我的口袋中，突然爆發了，棕色的咖啡飲料都涵蓋我的下身，那個狀態就看起來像剛經歷了一點腸胃事故一樣。非常不好意思，我不得不去路邊的衛生間弄乾淨。浪費約5分鐘之後，我重新會賽道繼續跑步，幾分鐘之前的超過的跑者必須再次超過，希望他們沒有注意到我的小意外！因此，對於任何在考慮中是否應該跑個半馬的人我想要鼓勵你-跑步時不試試用新的產品！

Hello everyone, tomorrow is my final oral exam which means the semester is almost over! I can’t believe 5 months are almost over. I’ve had a great experience in Taiwan, but at the same time I’m really looking forward to returning to Europe, seeing my friends and family, exploring the Spanish mountains, and am especially excited to learn a language that is easier than Chinese!

I’ve made some great progress with my Chinese this month. My one-on-one class teacher from last semester and I seem to have gone from being student and teacher to good friends. This semester, since she’s not my teacher anymore, we’ve seen each other a few times and it’s like we’ve become real friends. I know it could just be that because she’s my teacher she’s just being polite to me, but since it was she who invited me and not me who invited her, I’m fairly certain she’s not just pandering to me, and I can breathe a sigh of relief. When we are together, we only speak Chinese. We tried to communicate in English once, but since our friendship was formed in a Chinese-speaking environment, it was like we didn’t know each other when we spoke English.

I also recently ran a half-marathon for the National Geographic. I ran with my roommate. In the last few months, both of us haven’t been exercising enough, and we haven’t done a single aerobic exercise other than running up the stairs every Wednesday. Somehow, we managed to finish the race within our target times. My dream was to run a half-marathon in an hour and a half, but this time it was only 1 hour and 44 minutes – it’s not more than 45 minutes so I think it’s ok. Apart from the excuse of my lack of training, there were two other important reasons my finish time was pushed back. Firstly, the set-up at the start was not very well organised and the groups were organised by target finish-time, so there were too many people on the road for the first 5km and the road was so narrow that it was like a bottleneck and we couldn’t outrun the slower runners. The second major excuse was quite embarrassing. My roommate bought a couple of little energy drink packs for us to recharge during the race. I chose the coffee flavoured ones. By the 10th kilometre, I was feeling short of energy and opened the energy drink packet, which tasted very bad, but as I was putting it in my pocket, I suddenly had an explosion of brown coffee drink all over my lower body, which looked like I had just had a bit of a gastrointestinal accident. I was so embarrassed that I had to go to the toilet down the road to get cleaned up. After 5 minutes of wasted time, I rejoined the course and had to pass the runner I had passed a few minutes earlier, which was a real shame and I hope they didn’t notice my accident.

I’ve made some great progress in my Chinese this month. My veneer teacher last semester and I seem to have gone from being student teachers to good friends, and this semester, since she’s not my teacher anymore, we’ve met up a few times to be like real friends. I know she’s probably just being polite to me because she’s my teacher, but since she invited me and not me, I’m sure she’s not pandering to me, so I can breathe a sigh of relief. When we were together, we only spoke Chinese. We tried to communicate in English once, but since our friendship was formed in a Chinese-speaking environment, it was like we didn’t know each other when we spoke English.

I also recently ran a half-marathon for National Geographic. I ran with my roommate. In the last few months, both of us have not been exercising enough, except for running up the stairs on Wednesdays, we haven’t done a single oxygen-related exercise. Somehow, we managed to finish the race within our target time. My dream was to run a half-marathon in an hour and a half, but this time it was only 1 hour and 44 minutes – not much more than 45 minutes which I think is ok. Apart from the excuse of my lack of training, there were two other important reasons why my finish time was pushed back. Firstly, the set-up at the start was not very well organised and the groups were not timed, so there were too many people on the road for the first 5km and the road was so narrow that it was like a bottleneck and we couldn’t outrun the slower runners. The second major excuse was actually quite embarrassing. My roommate bought a couple of little energy drink packs for us to recharge during the race. I chose the coffee flavoured ones. By the 10th kilometre, I was feeling short of energy and opened the energy drink packet, which tasted very bad, but as I was putting it in my pocket, it suddenly exploded brown coffee liquid all over my lower body, and it looked like I had just you-know-what my pants. I was so embarrassed that I had to go to bathrooms on the side of the road to clean up. After wasting about 5 minutes, I rejoined the track to continue my run, and had to once again overtake people I had overtaken a few minutes earlier – I hope they didn’t notice my little mishap! So to anyone that is considering running a half-marathon  I want to say – don’t try any new products during the race!