New Skills I Learned During Winter Break

Winter and summer vacations are the breaks that students look forward to the most. Many people have already been travel hacking and planning their vacation travels before the break officially starts. Since mid-December, I saw many beautiful photos of my friends traveling when scrolling social media. But even so, I chose to stay in the Urbana-Champaign area, hoping to explore this area more deeply during the winter vacation. 

I tried many interesting activities and learned new skills, one of which was ice skating. Because my hometown has a subtropical climate, I have never seen real snow and of course, there are very few ice skating rinks. Ice skating, therefore, has always been on my bucket list. Luckily, the University of Illinois has an ice arena, so I went there to experience ice skating during winter break open hours. Since I had learned inline skates when I was a child, putting on the ice skates at first seemed familiar; however, after walking on the ice, I found it very different. The ice was so slippery that I could hardly move at my will! I was afraid that I would tumble over so I held on to the side barrier and moved slowly, and also watched other people who were skating skillfully around me, trying to adjust my posture as well as get some tips from their postures and footsteps. After practicing at a snail’s pace for several laps, I was finally able to glide a little more smoothly without auxiliaries. Unlocking this new skill gave me a great sense of accomplishment!

In addition to ice skating, making desserts has always been something I've been eager to give it a shot; hence, I tried making cheesecakes, cheese balls, cookies, scones and apple cakes, etc. Although it was time-consuming and I sometimes failed, I enjoyed the process very much. Unlike cooking which I can roughly guess the appearance of the finished dish, when making desserts, it is often impossible to predict the outcome of the desserts. Therefore, every time I make desserts, I imagine myself doing various experiments in the laboratory. If the result doesn’t come up to expectations, I’ll adjust the recipe and try again next time. 

Despite being full of unknowns, it is still fun and exciting. This reminds me of daily piano practice. Don't we seem to be also doing various experiments every time we practice instruments? Aren’t those new skills like ice skating and dessert-making just like learning and playing music, which require a constant cycle of trials, adjustments, and diligence to progress toward excellence? We musicians have to be patient and careful to find the most applicable "recipe" for fingerings, interpretations, and all other details to play music more expressively! I am very happy that I made good use of the winter break to enrich myself, learn some new skills, and get precious insights and inspiration from them.

Chin-Hsuan Sharon Cheng (written in January, 2022)


Traditional Chinese:
寒假解鎖的新技能

寒暑假應該是學生們最期待的假期，許多人正式放假前就已經開始興奮的計畫假期出外旅遊的行程，十二月中放寒假後，社交媒體上常常能看到同學們去了哪裡旅遊打卡的美照。但即使如此，我仍選擇留在厄巴納香檳，趁寒假更深入探索這個區域，也嘗試了很多從未接觸過、非常新奇有趣的休閒活動。

其中一項是溜冰。因為我的家鄉是亞熱帶的氣候，除了不曾見過真正的雪，也很少有溜冰場，所以溜冰一向是我很想嘗試的休閒活動之一。剛好學校有室內溜冰場，所以我在寒假的開放時段進去體驗看看。因為小時候有學過直排輪，所以剛開始穿上溜冰鞋有種熟悉的感覺，但走上冰之後，發覺跟溜直排輪很不一樣。腳下很滑簡直寸步難行，我很怕會摔倒，所以扶著牆努力調整姿勢，慢慢前進，也觀摩一旁其他從容自在、已經很熟練的人，試圖從他們的姿勢步伐中尋得一些要領訣竅。龜速練習好幾圈後，我終於能不用扶著牆壁移動了，腳步也越來越順，解鎖這個新技能讓我很有成就感！

另外，我也一直很想嘗試做甜點，所以寒假我試做了生乳酪蛋糕、起司球、餅乾、司康和蘋果蛋糕等，雖然製作過程很費時而且有少數幾次失敗，但我非常享受整個過程。不像煮飯做菜可以大概猜到成品的模樣，做甜點很多時候是無法預測食物最終呈現的狀態的，所以每次做甜點，我都想像自己在實驗室做著不同的實驗，這次成品如果不如人意下次就調整配方再試，每次嘗試即使充滿未知數，仍然既有趣又刺激。這也讓我聯想到日常練琴，我們練琴時每次不也像是在做著各式格樣的實驗嗎？指法、詮釋種種細節都是要耐心且細心地找出最合適的「配方」才能演奏出最深入人心的音樂呀！

仔細想想，溜冰和做甜點這些新技能不都是跟學習音樂演奏一樣，嘗試、調整、勤練不斷循環才能進步邁向卓越嗎？很高興能利用寒假好好充實自己，學了些新技能，也從中得到了珍貴的感悟和啟發。

Chin-Hsuan Sharon Cheng (written in January, 2022)