Apologize

Hi ! Teacher and classmates .
How are you doing?
I'm sorry that. I could't come to the party on Friday. Because I had go to work. I wish, I could come and enjoy with you guys on that day .
But I enjoy our class' pictures on the blog. I think, the party was very fun. And I also thank the teacher about helping me hold my certificate when I wasn't there .
We are having a long holiday. So I'm missing all of you very much. With best wishes to you for a merry Christmas and a happy NewYear.

Dim Sum in December 2006

Please click here to see photos.




See you next year!

Writers' Awards

Yan Hua, Nhu Thai, Cam and Kai Yan received their Distinguished Writers Certificates.

Thuong Thi could not be present, so the teacher held up her certificate.

Congratulations!!!

Why I have been absent from school

Hi, Class,

How is it going? I hope, everything is going good!

Did you miss me all this time? (ja, ja, ja, ja, I'm just kidding, do not believe me. )

Well, I have been absent from school for a long time. It was not my intention, because, I like to go to school a lot. But, I had to leave it for a few weeks, and I became sad about it, because I did not see you guys for a long time.-(

First, I left the school on Thanksgiving Week. It was, because my son was on vacation from school, therefore, I had to stay with him the whole week.

Second, I started volunteering at my son's school for more days. For different reasons, I needed to be as near as possible to him and his classmates.

Let me tell you that volunteering for any good cause is one of the best things that you can do. It is not just for your own benefit ( because you are practicing and improving your English, and you are getting some experience) It is also for the satisfaction that you can feel from helping others that are in need. It does not matter if the time that you can dedicate in this labor is just a little bit. The most important is, that you must do it with all your heart.

I was very busy, but now I am returning to my normal schedule. Some days, I woke up with a lot of desire to come to school. But, it was hard for me, because I had to choose between my duties with my son and my school.

This Monday, I am returning to school. I hope to understand everything that the teacher Richard is teaching, because I lost a lot of lessons.

O. K. Class, take care and be well :-)

Favorite Holiday

When I was living in Viet Nam, my favorite holiday was the Viet Nam New Year. It was a lot of fun.

One week before New Year, everyone was very busy. Some people needed to clean their houses and some enjoyed going to the flea market to buy some stuff that they needed to decorate their houses before New Year arrived.

Anyway, I loved the flower flea market the most. It was very crowded with people. They sold many kinds of flowers for three nights. The customers never forgot to buy some red lucky envelopes that were special for the children.

But now, that I am living in America, maybe Christmas is my favorite holiday. After Thanksgiving. everywhere you go you see stores selling stuff for Christmas and a lot of Christmas trees.

Some people decorate their houses and their front yard with lights. It's very beautiful. But in America, they don't have any flea market at night and people are busy with their jobs. They just stay home with no where to go. Anyway, I still miss New Year in my country very much.

Talking To My Supervior In English

Last Friday was the my day off . As usual, at 4:45 pm I was watching TV at home. The telephone rang. I turned off the TV and went to pick up the telephone, but when I heard the sound on the other end I was worried. I recognized the voice was my supervisor. I thought maybe I made a mistake last week and he was calling me to complain.

When I talked to my supervisor, I found out that he just called to ask me to work overtime, not to complain about any mistake. I asked my supervisor, why he didn't call me earlier. because it was 5 o'clock ,and I hadn’t eaten dinner yet. How could I get to work by 5 o'clock?

Then my supervisor told me that one of my co -workers just called sick at 4:30, and he hadn’t known my telephone number .He had to check in the computer, so he was a little late. And he told me not to worry about being late. I could come in at 6 o'clock.

I was very happy because this was the first conversation I had in English on the telephone and I could understand it one hurdered percent! I hope I can understand all my conversations in English in the future. I know this is only my dream and goal.

A Blind And A Cripple

In a large apartment building, there lived about 30 to 40 tenants. Among them lived two handicapped people. A blind man and a crippled man. And both of them lived alone and lived next door to each other.

Every day the tenants who lived in this apartment went about their lives the same as all the other people who lived in the city. They went to work or to school. At night they stayed at home to watch TV or enjoy music. Their lives were simple and peaceful.

One windy night in autumn, suddenly, someone in this apartment building shouted, “Fire! Fire !”

The appartment really had caught on fire. Every tenant escaped from the apartment except the blind man and his crippled neighbor. No one went to help them.

When the blind man and the crippled man were woken up by the noise, the cripple saw that the apartment was surounded by the fire and smoke. The blind man heard the sound of the fire and smelled the smoke .They were very surprised. They tried to call 911 for help, but the telephone had lost connection. They ran to the window, but there was only fire and smoke. No one knew that they were still stay inside the apartment building.

While the blind man and the crippled man didn't known how they could escape.

Both of them ran to open the door, but of course, outside the door it was full of smoke. They ran into each other. So both of them and talked a while about how to escape.

Then the blind carried the crippled man on his back .The crippled told the blind the safe way to escape.

At last, both of them escaped safety from the fire.

From this story, we can learn that when we meet something dangerous or difficult, if we keep calm and help each other, we can solve many problems easier than if we try to solve them by ourselves.

The Problem

A couple of weeks before my daughter was ten years old, she gave me a paper from her school. It said, "Your daughter’s eyes have a problem and she can’t see clearly, so you have to take her to the doctor to check her eyes."

One day later, my husband made an appointment for her on the next Friday. That Friday I was working, so my husband took her to Kaiser Hospital because our insurance was in there. My husband paid $30 for an appointment.

A doctor checked my daughter's eyes and he told my husband that my daughter needs to wear glasses, but we had to pay for the glasses because our insurance company didn’t cover that.

My husband called and told me about that on the phone. I was very surprised to hear that, so I told him to go home and I would find another place.

After two days, I found a glasses shop on International and 6th Avenue. I went and asked for some information and then I showed our insurance policy. The doctor told me that our insurance is very good. So the check up was free. Then the seller explained to me that if my daughter chose glasses worth less than $200, they would be free. But my daughter chose glasses for $380, so I paid $180 to the shop because it was over the coverage of our insurance company.

The doctor also gave me some information. She said, "Your daughter can go to a check up every year for free but the glasses are just free every two years." So we went home, and my daughter was very happy. Now I think the problem was with Kaiser. It was not our insurance company. I don't like Kaiser but I have to go there sometimes.

The Driver License

Today I was absent because I went to the DMV to take a driving test. Yesterday my father said, if I passed the test, he would make something special for me on my birthday, so it made me feel stress.

When we got to the DMV, we saw the road and we got ready for the test. On the car in front of us, the back lights of the car were not working.

My coach said, "If some lights are not working, the car can not go on the test road. You will be the next one, are you ready now?"

I said," I feel very nervous."

He said," Don' t be nervous. You will pass."

After that, the examiner came to my car and my coach had to get out of the car. The examiner asked me something about the car and he told me to drive where he told me to drive.

About 20 minutes passed, we got back to the DMV. The examiner asked me to park the car. After I parked the car he said to me," You have made some mistakes on turning the corner, although you make these mistakes you still pass."

When I heard this, I felt very excited. I made a phone call to my father and told him that I passed the test the first time I took it and I said," Don't forget what you promised me."

He said," Ok." After that, I made phone calls to my sister, mother, aunt and cousin and told them about that.

The whole family are happy for me.

Dangerous

Today, I went to the school to pick my daughters up. I was late a few minutes .
because I needed go home first to cook lunch for my daughters before they got home.

On our way home, in front of the school, we had to wait for the traffic light until it changed to green. I saw a little girl in front of us. She already had stepped down to cross the street and she crossed to the other side .

I wondered why she was going home by herself! I looked back behind me and I didn’t see an adult.

My daughter asked me, “ Why is that girl walking by herself?”

The girl looked younger than my daughter.

We didn't say any thing more. I just kept my eyes on the little girl because she was walking on the other side of the street from us. But, she just walked and didn't look carefully. Some streets don't have much traffic there. Still, I was afraid for her.

I watched her for more than three blocks until I turned to go to my home. The girl continued walking. I think, it was very dangerous for her.

A Sick Boy

A few weeks ago, I saw a movie on TV, that was called “Criminal.” It told about a little boy who just was 11 years old but he was a murderer.

The police found that some kids in his village had been killed and all of the victims had been attacked in the same way. But the police couldn't find who the murderer was. Then, after that, they asked for help from the F.B.I. Several days later, some FBI agents came, investigated and wrote a report. Finally, they suspected and arrested a man who lived in that village. He was a quiet man. For a few years, he had been separated from his wife, however, he was living with his son. When the FBI visited the man, his son was suddenly missing. The agents thought that he had killed his own son and even the other kids.
Then the police came to search his house and they found some things that proved that his son was alive. The FBI thought that the man was covering up something.

Finally, that man had to tell the truth. Although it hurt him very much, he said that his son became a sick boy when his parents separated. He was jealous of all the kids who had a happy family. He liked to play baseball. So, when he couldn’t control himself, he brought his friends to the wood to play and after that, he attacked them with the bat. All the victims were his friends.

I remember, when the police arrested him, that he wasn't afraid and his face was very angry. If you were his mother, how would you feel?

Discrimination

My eldest sister, her family has immigrated to Canada in 1989. I immigrated to the USA in 2002. We always keep talking by long distance telephone once or twice each month.

But my elder sister’s family didn’t call me recent two months. I felt that this was an uncommon thing and I felt nervous, so I brought a telephone card to call my elder sister’s family.

Unfortunately, I learned that my brother-in-law got sick from the call. He is 78 years old. He had treated in the hospital for about 20 days. The next day when he got better, he went home. But at that day, his youngest son got a serious appendicitis.

When my nephew waited to see a doctor in the hospital, there were eight patients who had the same appendicitis but not serious were also waiting.

May be the staffs of the hospital knew that my nephew is an Asian. They scheduled him to get his operation last, so he had waited for about 22 hours.

Treating appendicitis requires a simple surgery. If a patient who has serious appendicitis doesn’t get surgery soon enough, it is very dangerous for him or her.

During the surgery, my nephew’s appendix exploded. It was very dangerous, but my nephew was very lucky. His life was saved after about two months of treatment in the hospital.

Do you think he was treated unfairly because he was an Asian?