My Memorial Weekend Plans

This weekend is a long holiday for everybody, but for me it is not. I have to go to work. My job is going to very busy this weekend, because many people are going to get nail done before they go to a barbeque party, a picnic or a weekend trips. So I am going to work hard on this weekend. I have two birthday parties on this weekend. One in Oakland on Saturday and one in Sanleandro on Sunday. Both is my niece's birthday. I am thinking about the present for my niece, but I don't known yet, what's I am going to gift for them?. Maybe I going to give to each of them a red envelope with money inside.
I will off work on next Monday. It's a Memorial Day so my shop will close. I'll stay home to relax or probably I going to go shopping. I hope everyone have nice weekend

Mei Fang's Memorial Weekend Plans

I will visit my old classmate in Canada over the Memorial Day weekend. She recently moved from China to Canada. She invited me to visit her. We were classmates at the university in Chang Chun, China. We graduated in 1955. We didn't see each other for a long time. When she arrived in Canada, she called me up. I was surprised!

We haven't seen each other for more than twenty years. We wanted to get together, but it was not possible. When we meet in Canada this weekend, we will have our wish!

Phung Chau's Memorial Weekend Plans

This weekend I plan to go to San Jose to visit my friend. She invited me and my family to attend her son's wedding on Saturday night. We are all very happy for her son and her family. I hope he will be very happy.

Ceaser's Memorial Weekend Plans

I will go to Lake Tahoe and Reno during the long weekend with my mother and my brother and his family. My mother is very happy because she wants to get to know these places. I think I have a very good surprise for my mother because it's her first time in the United States.

My brother and I feel very happy because we will be together on Memorial Day. We plan to have a barbeque alongside Lake Tahoe. We will have a big party to celebrate my mom's first trip to the United States.

Viva Salsa!

Read this San Francisco Chronicle article about the Bay Area Salsa dance scene.

Mother's Day in Mexico

Mother's Day in Mexico is celebrated on May 10. Everybody congratulates their Mothers, if somebody's Mother is dead, they go to the cemetery to take her some flowers.

At church there is a special mass for all the Mothers. At night there is a festival to honor them. This festival is organized by the elementary school's teachers. Every Mother gets a ticket for a chance to win a prize. They also have free dinner.

I remember when we were children, we used to save money at school. Our parents gave us some money everyday to buy a snack.Sometimes we saved a little bit and gave it to our teacher. Our teacher used to collect our money during the whole year. A few days before Mather's Day we received our money back to buy a gift for our Mother

We couldn't afford to buy an expensive gift, but we felt happy to give her a little present and wish her a Happy Mother's Day!

Mei Fang's Mother's Day Story

In China, our customs were very different. There was no Mother’s Day when I was a child.. Now, some people celebrate Mothers Day, but when I was young we did it a different way. We were grateful to our mothers in a different way. For example, on Chinese New Year and at the Mid-Autumn Festival we gave a big party for our mothers and we were very happy.

China has a popular song that says, “Children that do not have a mother, they feel like grass. Children that have a mother, they feel like a treasure….”

My mother died in 1978. She will forever live in my heart.

My sister has a serious illness. She couldn’t eat out at a restaurant this Sunday morning. My husband and I went to her apartment. We brought flowers for her. Her husband cooked lunch for us. Together, we celebrated Mother’s Day.

We enjoyed a cheerful Mother’s Day.

Mei Fang

My Feeling on Mother's Day

There are half of happiness and half of sadness to me on Mother's Day. I'm happy because I'm being a mother and sad because I don't have a mother.

My mother passed away when I was twelve years old. So that I had lost a very special relationship of my mother. I only have a little bit impression of my mother now.

Many people complement about my mom was a good woman. She could able do anything in her life. She was a lovely woman. She had a heart of gold. She had many characters. All those words are from the people had told me.

I know my mom is a brave and good take care of the family. She was the one who brough the bacon home. I respect and love her very much.

Even though she died for a long time, but she is always alive in my heart. She is my idol. Sometimes, I dream about her and I don't believe she died. I tried to keep up my dream until I woke up.

I feel sorry for the death of my mother. Like today I can not show my love to her on Mother's Day even if it doesn't have Mother's Day in Vietnam.

Short and True Story

There was a little three year old girl. She phoned her grandmother for " happy Mother's Day " and she asked her grandmother, "do you have any gift for my mother?" the grandmother said, what? your mom have to give me a gift. Then, the little girl said, my mom already a gift for you, but you have to give to my mom a gift, too.

This little girl is over smart!

My Mother

Today is Mother's Day. I think almost everybody celebrates Mother's Day this weekend in the United States. But I never celebrated Mother's Day with my parents and never gave a present to my mother on that day in China.

Now that I am in America , I think of my mother on the second Sunday in May. I remember when I was a child, one time my mother checked my homework after I had finished it. She ordered me to do it again as she found something wrong with my homework. After that, I was afraid my mother would check my homework and I always finished it carefully. I had to give up watching TV at night or playing games with other children except on weekends in my childhood. At that time, I didn’t like it but I had to obey my mother’s orders. However, it made me happy that my mother would cook delicious food for me.

My mother didn’t want to check my homework when I studied in Middle school. She just said to me, " You can make a mistake during your studies, but don’t make the same mistake a second time.”

She was very busy because she went to work and she had to take care of our home. I liked to turn on the TV when I came back from school . My mother found out about that very soon and she said to me, "If you want to be successful, do your homework first.”

It seemed that I had no freedom in my family. After I grew up and thought about that, I realized that is love. That is a mother’s love. I am proud that I have a great mother. She taught me a lot. I decided to celebrate Mother’s Day with my parents this year.

My Impressions On Mother's Day

It has one Mother's Day each year. People buy different presents for their mother as a rule.
In this day, as a mother they would feel happy, but in other days they still need to work hard at home or in the factories, or at the offices, or they must do two jobs to support their families.
I think that as the son or daughter who respects for and love thier mother or parent should usually do some houseworks for their mother or parent. It would be the best way to respect for their mother and parent.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day is a big and popular holiday in Americar. I think it is becoming a big and popular holiday for the countries which celebrace the Mother's Day like in America.

On Mother's Day most people are very busy. They spend their time shopping. They want to pick and choose the right things for their mothers. Many people take their mothers to restaurants. Some people give chocolate candy or flower on Mother's Day. They do like this to show they love their mothers.

For me, I have gotten many, many gifts from my children on Mother's Day. I feel very happy because I am the apple of their eyes. They need me very much. Especially, when they are hungry.

Last year, I got a vase of rose flowers from my daughter on Mother's Day. The year before that, I got a neaklace. The necklace was made of beads. It's cute. My daughter is a creative girl. She changed different gifts for me every year. She always makes me feel pleasure with the gifts she gives me. Oh, my son is simple. He just gives me " A heart " every year. He writes something very nice with a lot of red hearts on the card. He makes me feel happy, too.

So far, I'm very happy and proud to be the mother of my children. I hope, after they grow up, that they will continue to honor me on Mother's Day because mothers have only one special day. That is "Mother's Day."

Woman Fired

Read this article.

Do you think the employer acted fairly?

Fat Man Walks Across America

Mei Fang likes this story.

Read it here.

How far have you ever walked?

A Day at Universal Studios Hollywood

During the Spring break, my family and I went to Los Angeles. While we were in Los Angeles, we took one day to visit Universal Studios in Hollywood.

Talking about Hollywood, everybody knows that is a real moviemaking place. It's a largest movie studio in the world.

I took a tour around the studio. I saw movie sets that were very skilled built. They looked real, but they were not real. I saw flood. I saw the fire distroy cars. I saw the rain comes down. This is a popular and famous tour.

I saw " Shrek and Donkey." It's a good film. I felt the action right from my own seat because I wore 3D eyesglasses.

I saw an action movie. Arnold was part of this film. He acts very grave and dignified. While I was watching the movie, I saw real actors performing on the stage. I though I saw the real Arnold, but my husband said, that it wasn't really him. Somebody was made up exactly like him. For this film, I wore three dimension glasses, also.

I joined many tours and I walked on the red carpet at Universal Studios Hollywood. I learned many things and I liked it very much!

This is My Idiom

Put yourself in someone's shoes or put yourself in my shoes.

• Put yourself in my shoes: try to imagine yourself in my situation in order to understand how I feel.
  

I attempt to answer two of the idioms:

• Nose to the grindstone: to pay attention on doing something and to not stop working until the job is completed.
  
• Rule of thumb: to a simple, easily understood rule that tells us how to act in a given situation.
  

Idioms

Idioms are interesting expressions "whose meanings cannot be inferred from the meanings of the words that make them up."

In other words, the words of the idiom provide few clues to the meaning of the idiom.

Here are a few:

• milling around
• nose to the grindstone
• dirt poor
• rule of thumb

What does each mean?


Do you know an idiom?

Post yours on the blog.

A Young Student

Every morning, before I go to adult school, I like to exercise in Clinton Park. I recognize some people. They walk through the park to go to their working places at fixed times. Some people walk around the park and some students stand around the bus stop waiting for the bus to school. I particularly noticed an old lady waiting for the bus everyday with her grandson.
She was relatively tall. Usually she wore black clothes and a light brown sun helmet. She always carried a blue back pack with a drawing of happy face on it. She carries it in her hand. The young boy came to around her belt hieght and he did not carrry anything by himself. Obviously the blue back pack belonged to the young boy.
When the bus stopped and let the passengers got on. The grandmother always let her grandson go ahead. She followed him and accompanied him to school.
One morning, I walked close to the bus stop. Suddenly I noticed a student getting on the bus and he carried a blue back pack with a yellow circular smiling head sign, but there was no grandmom following him. I thought that this student must be that boy and that the grandmother might be busy or sick. The next day, I still did not see the grandmom. The third day, the grandmom appeared beside her grandson. At that moment, I found that the young boy had come up to her shoulder.
Time is passing unconsciously. The first time I noticed them had been about three years ago. Now the boy has grown up. I hope he will not need his grandmom to accompany him going to school again.

Feliz Cinco de Mayo !

For Dan, the Substitute teacher

Thanks very much for the enthusiam and the happiness of you to edit my essays.

Thanks a lot for choosing many interesting stories to let I read.

I liked the questions in those stories because it expanded my idea.

The stories attracted me to read because they have many hero.

Welcome My Teacher Back

Time is flying fast. Four weeks almost have gone. My teacher is going to return with us next week, after his vacation.

I'm very happy with the coming back of my teacher. Recently, the class looks like missing my teacher's voice. The class seems missing the joke and the likeliness of my teacher.

The Day Without an Immigrant

I imagined if the day without an immigrant, it would be very quiet. The life would be peaceful and wouldn't have any competiting. Then, suddenly I think about farther steps. I asked myself, who will do the hard job which pay less money? The answer is immigrants. So, the immigrants are the people who help the native people to get rich?

Day Without an Immigrant

Teacher Jean and I marched in the Day Without an Immigrant rally in San Francisco.

Click here to see pictures of the march.



What do you think about The Day Without an Immigrant events today?

Put your ideas on the blog.