TArgET prACtiCE daY

Remember the family that I went to on Christmas Eve, and all the weapons they showed me? We talked about going shooting some other day. And today, it was the other day for shooting. I had to wake up 9:30 in the morning, which I haven't done for a while during winter vacation, but the bonous was to have McDonalds for breakfast. I went to a shooting gallery in Terre Haute with them. It's actually far away from the downtown of Terre Haute. It's located in a valley, and it was freezing cold.

At first we spent most of the time practicing shooting what they call the clay pigions. It's actually a kind of round target that is made with clay. They have this self-service equipment that you may put the clay pigeon on it, and when your partners are ready to shoot, simply pull the yellow string that's attatch to the end of it and the clay pigeon will be projected into the air at once.

Although it's only practicing, the guns and bullets are for real. It's just that they usually buy the cheapest bullet that they can find for shooting practices. We had to put on earmuffs to protect our ears from the loud noise made at the moment when you fire the guns. I was already worried about the recoil that would come after firing the gun when I was displayed the weapon collections on Christmas Eve, so when I was given the chance to shoot the clay pigeons, I was ectremely nervous. I didn't dare to pull the triger for the first time. But I really wanted to "give it a shot", so I just forced myself to pull the triger. And it turned out to be exciting and fun!

But don't you worry about my safty. Everyone there was awfully careful about others' safty. You always have to keep in mind wheather there's bullets left in your gun. Even if you can't fire anything out of it, it can still be armed.

It was a really fun day. I feel like experiencing a different kind of culture, which I might never experience back in Taiwan.