Chinese New Year's Eve

In China, we celebrate the New Year for a half month. Before the New Year, people usually clean up their houses, bake cakes, buy a lot of food, and hang scrolls with lucky words on their of doors. People write about good health, being safe and making money.. The good luck words are usually written on red paper.

In the United States most Chinese still celebrate Chinese new year, and I do, too.

This Chinese New Year's Eve, we had a big dinner. I cooked a whole chicken, a whole fish, a pork kidney with facai, and greens... The whole chicken and fish are prepared in honor of our ancestors. Fish means that we will have a surplus of money, too. Pork kidney with facai means we will make money easier. Greens mean we will make more money. All of the food will bring us good luck.

When I finished cooking, I didn't do anything special to honor my ancestors, I thought, all of my ancestors are supposed to be in China. Even if I serve them a big dinner in America, they wouldn't know about it. And even if they get to know about our meal, it's hard to cross the Pacific Ocean to come to my house. So I skipped this step.

I called my family to eat dinner. My brother-in-law is in China now, and my daughter is losing her weight, so we had five people was eating dinner this day. I felt a little lonely.

After dinner, usually we eat dessert dumplings. This dessert means everybody is together. But we didn't eat them because everyone is trying to lose weight. That was a boring New Year’s Day in the United States.

I could have skipped everything, but the call my family in China. I never want to skip that. After dinner I called my family to say "Happy New Year!" and "Kung Hay Fat Choi! "

When I knew that my brother and all of my sisters and nephews and nieces. were at my parents' house celebrating New Years together/ I felt both comfortable and sorry. My parents are getting old. They want to see all of their children being together, but I can not go home now.

Before I went to bed, I asked my daughter, "Do you want a red envelope?"

Usually children get red envelopes from adults who are married. The only reason I asked her is because she seldom wants money. She replied, "Why not? I don't care how much money I get, but I care how much love the person who gives it to me feels."

All right. I gave her a red envelope. Of course, with twenty dollars inside. Twenty dollars does not so much but it included all my love and best wishes. I hope she will grow up with health and safety. I hope she could find a few good friends. I hope she go to school on time. I hope she gets good grades.

That was a great night! When I was sleeping everything became good and my wishes came true.

An Artificial Heart

On March 21^st, 2004 the largest hospital in ShangHai succeeded in replacing a boy’s diseased heart with an artificial heart. He was only seven years old. The boy only lived a little more than one year. He died in June, 2005.

The parents of the boy decided to sue the hospital for three reasons:
1. When their child felt uncomfortable,. they sent him to the hospital. The hospital staff didn’t examine the child very carefully and didn’t take x-rays, either. The hospital staff only touched the child’s feet and hands. Then, the staff told the child’s parents that the child had to change his heart immediately. If not, the doctors said, the child would die that night. The parents had to borrow a large amount of money for the child’s expensive surgery.

2. The hospital imported the artificial heart from Germany without the permission of the Chinese government.

3. The artificial heart from Germany was still being tested. It wasn’t 100 percent safe. The hospital just wanted to use the child’s body to test the artificial heart.

So, the parents thought the hospital was responsible for the death of their child.

Trees And Leafs

My coach’s eyes were wet, and he said, “Chinese people’s lives are really hard,” as he looked out side through the train’s window. That was in1962 in China and on the train from Chungchin City to Hurfei in Anhui Province.

I was thirteen years old and this was my first trip with my Wushu team. We were going to visit Wushu teams in Anhhui and Shan Dong to practice martial arts. Our team got together with them once a year.

The train passed through many cities and villages. We saw a lot trees with no bark. We were surprised and asked our coach, “Why”? Because we were very young, we didn’t know what was happenning in China.

After United States war with North Korea and China ended, Russia demanded that China repay for the weapons they had used in the war. At the same time, from 1960 to 1963, there were three of natural disasters in China. Many people did not have enough food to eat. They ate anything could eat, including the bark of trees.

Last year, my mother passed away. I went to China. One day, my brother, he is 3 years younger than me, and I were talking about my mom and about our family life during the 1960’s.

He asked me, “Sister, do you remember, when you were a young girl and you came back home from your trip on Chinese New Year? Did you see a lot leaves in our kitchen?”

I said, “Yes. I still remember, I thought that we used them in our stove for fire to cook with.”

He said, “No! That was our food.” Later, he told me that he and my second brother used a circle of rocks to grind the leaves into powder. Then, my mother mixed them with flour. She cooked them together. He told me that every family did the same, but only you didn’t know, because my mother had told us, “Don’t tell to your sister.”

I could not control my eyes, I felt my eyes. Something deep and very hot and came out. It was from my heart.

CrossThe Ocean

After the war ended, VietNam's economy was very terrible. Most people lived a poor life because, at that moment, the government needed money to pay Russia for the weapons they had needed in the war.

Many families worked hard, but they still didn't have enough food, clothes or even a place to live. They lived under the tight control of the communist government.

From 1978 to 1990, lots of Vietnamese people decided to escape from VietNam by crossing the ocean to find a better life in other countries. They knew, the dangers, but they didn't have any other choice.

How many of them could realize their own dream? Some of them are sleeping forever in the ocean from many causes. They coped with huge storms, pirate crews, and they even ran out of food and water.

Some were lucky to meet foreign navy ships patrolling on the ocean. They were helped by the sailors on the ships. Those sailors gave them food, water, medicine, and a safe place to sleep.

Then, after they got off the ships they had to stay in refugee camps for a while. After that, some were admitted to settle in one of the countries they had chosen.

They went through a hard and dangerous journey to get a better life, and freedom.

Recollect

Recently, this class talked a lot about what happened 35 years ago in China. I thought back and many old things came before my eyes as if they had happened yesterday.

The Chinese Culture revolution had almost come to the end, in about 1972 to 1974. The Chinese people could not watch anything except only 6 specimens of Chinese opera. At that time, sports were just returning to public view. No one had practiced or performed in a tournament for more than six years. Sports became a hot amusement.

The gymnastics, Wushu (martial arts) and table tennis teams always performed together. We went to many cities in JiLin province. We performed for foreign country leaders and princes who visited Chung Chun.

I remembered once, we went to Yan Ji Autonomy to perform. One night, at a not too big a stadium., we had performed for just about 15 minutes when someone stopped us. Latter, we learned that too many people wanted to see our show. There wasn’t enough space for everyone. All the tickets had been sold, but more people wanted to watch. They crowded through a door, and it was very dangerous, so we changed to the next day.

Thus it can be seen that, at that time, the Chinese people had a thirst for more recreation.

A Poem

Check out this poem.

See if you can fill in the blanks without peeking.

DoDo's Story

Today I want to write a story about my dog. Dogs have been a good friend to man for a long time. My family always kept a pet and dogs were our first choice. Since I was a child, we always have had a dog living with us in our house.



About thirteen years ago, according to Chinese custom., it was the Year of the Dog. A lot of Chinese people boutght dogs to celebrate the coming New Year because they believed that dogs would bring good luck and fortune during this Year of the Dog.

During the New Year holidays, I went dancing with two girlfriends named Ashin and Ayin. When I felt tired after dancing, I sat to wait for my friends who were still dancing. Suddenly, I felt something behind me on the chair. I turned my head and I saw a beautiful puppy. After a short while, its master returned from the dance floor. Ayin knew him. His name was Amin.

He said, "The dog's name is DoDo. Her mother gave birth to four puppies a few months ago. The other dogs have all been sold. I just kept her."

I asked him curiously, "Why did you just keep her?"

He said, "Because she is my girlfriend's favorite puppy. "

Ashin said, "If I want to buy her, can your girlfriend be persuaded to sell the puppy?"

He thought a while and answered, "If I sold the puppy, my girlfriend would kill me!"

We all laughed loudly. Ashin tried again, "You don't need to worry about that. DoDo's mother will give birth to other puppies soon and you will make more money if you sell DoDo now."

Finally, he agreed to sell the puppy to my friend, Ashin. We were very excited. We brought DoDo home together.

When we arrived in front of my house, Ashin said to me," Can you do me a favor?"

I said," What is the matter?"

She answered. "My mother-in-law will be very angry when she learns that I brought a new puppy home because we already have two dogs."

I looked at DoDo. She was so quiet like a baby hiding in her new master's arms.

I said, "I need to ponder this a while. The puppy will be very expensive. I am worried if I will be able to take good care of her."

But Ashin continued to ask me again and again.

"Please, just keep her a few days. I will pick her up when my mother-in-law agrees that DoDo can come to my home. I know you will do your best to take care of her."

For that reason, DoDo stayed at my house.

Since that day, I have taken care of about twenty dogs - DoDo and her children and her grand children ....

AN UNPLEASANT DAY

There is an unlucky day, that I don't like to remember.

Few years ago I took my children to San Francisco. First we rode on the BART and then we caught the bus in the Mission district in San Francisco.

We planned to go to a restaurant where my husband works. When we got on the bus, it was so crowded, but we still found some spot where we could sit.

When it was time for us to get off the bus, I held one of my children in each hand, to stand close to the door.

Finally we arrived to my husband work. After work my husband took us to a Chinese restaurant. We enjoyed the food and then my husband drove us to our home.

When I was home, suddenly, I don't know for wich reazon, I took my purse and I looked for my wallet. I felt very upset and worried because my wallet was gone.

I think it was When we were on the bus, when somebory stole it.

This caused me a lot of problems, because that day I had same of my personal documents in my wallet.

If you ride on a bus, always be aware, specially if there is a crawed.

AN UNPLEASANT DAY

There is an unlucky day, that I don't like to remember.

Few years ago I took my children to San Francisco. First we rode on the BART and then we caught the bus in the Mission district in San Francisco.

We planned to go to a restaurant where my husband works. When we got on the bus, it was so crowded, but we still found some spot where we could sit.

When it was time for us to get off the bus, I held one of my children in each hand, to stand close to the door.

Finally we arrived to my husband work. After work my husband took us to a Chinese restaurant. We enjoyed the food and then my husband drove us to our home.

When I was home, suddenly, I don't know for wich reazon, I took my purse and I looked for my wallet. I felt very upset and worried because my wallet was gone.

I think it was When we were on the bus, when somebory stole it.

This caused me a lot of problems, because that day I had same of my personal documents in my wallet.

If you ride on a bus, always be aware, specially if there is a crawed.

A Warmest Heart

Once upon a time, there was a mother who had a son. And the mother had given everything she had to her son, but the son was still not satisfied.

The mother asked, “What more do you want, son?”

The son answered, “I want to have your heart, Mom.”

Without thinking, the mother took a knife and cut her chest open, and took her heart out and gave it to her son.

The son was very happy to hold his mother’s heart and ran out of the house. Suddenly, he fell down on the ground. The mother’s heart was thrown into the air then hit against the ground with great force.

“Son, are you ok. Are you feeling pain?” were the first words spoken by the mother’s heart.

How warm is a mother’s heart? When she faced danger, her first thought was about her son. But, did the son think about his mother for a second? I think nobody can answer this question.

Nervous

Since I had passed the written test of driving, I looked for and found a driving coach to train me. After two weeks and eight hours of training, I had enough confidence to take the driving test.

My coach’s name was Tony and he is Chinese. I remember what he talked about the day before my driving test. He told me that “your driving skills and safety consciousness is good and you should pass the driving test easily.”

At that moment, I was confident and felt happy about his comment.

I replied, “Of course, I had about ten years driving experience in Hong Kong, so it is no problem for me to pass the driving test. I also have a plan to invite my family to dinner in a Japanese restaurant to celebrate that I will be a qualified driver in California.”

Tony replied, “I think you won’t have any trouble.”

The DMV arranged for me to take the test at 8:00 am on Friday. On that day, I woke up at 6:30 am and had breakfast. I was ready and left my home at 7:00 am. I had about one hour to get to the DMV. I arrived there early because the traffic situation was good. At that moment , I had a strange feeling. I felt a great pressure. I don’t know why, but I knew then that this feeling would impact my performance on the driving test. I tried to do something to calm me down. I was praying and singing songs to help me relax but nothing helped.

I was shaky when I sat in the car to start the driving test. At the beginning, the examiner asked me to demonstrate the hand signals. I did this quickly, and then, I drove my car away from the DMV. I drove for about 7 minutes and everything was ok. Suddenly, the examiner asked me “to pull the car to right side and back up.” I did what she had asked. After that, I started to drive back to the DMV when I suddenly realized that something was wrong. I looked at the examiner anxiously. I found that she was looking at me, too.

She said, “ You have failed the driving test, because you forgot to release the hand brake while driving. That is a big mistake!”

I drove the car to come back DMV and Tony met me. He was very surprised and said, “ Why did you come back so quickly?”

I was embarrassed and said, “ I failed the driving test and the reason was nerves.”

Get Worse

My aunt is cook a breakfast for me in every morning Once day morning, I was wake up at 8:00 am and go to kitchen to find some food for eat. I was found a pot of cereal that placed on the strove. So, I put it on the burner for reheat and went to wash room for grooming. At the moment, I want to take a hot shower because the weather is very cold. During my bathing, I was suddenly smell a stranger taste. At that moment, I suddenly remembered that I had something in cooking. So, I rush to kitchen right now. However, that is too late because my breakfast was got worse. I was very depressed when I looked at the pot. I don’t have more time to make another one breakfast because I need to go to school on time. I only to leave my home with hungry and go to school. My aunt is cook a breakfast for me in every morning Once day morning, I was wake up at 8:00 am and go to kitchen to find some food for eat. I was found a pot of cereal that placed on the strove. So, I put it on the burner for reheat and went to wash room for grooming. At the moment, I want to take a hot shower because the weather is very cold. During my bathing, I was suddenly smell a stranger taste. At that moment, I suddenly remembered that I had something in cooking. So, I rush to kitchen right now. However, that is too late because my breakfast was got worse. I was very depressed when I looked at the pot. I don’t have more time to make another one breakfast because I need to go to school on time. I only to leave my home with hungry and go to school.

Illegal Driving

This story is about my driving in the United States. Before I came to the United States I wanted to get my international drivers license, but someone told me that it didn’t matter. With my driver’s license I could drive in any European country for one year. So, I thought that my license would be good for one year. After that I could apply for a US license. So, we flew from Moldova to South Padre Island, TX where my wife’s mother lives. My wife’s license was expired so when we arrived in the US I drove. Then, we flew to New Orleans to visit with my wife’s father and his wife. My wife got her driver’s license while we were in New Orleans so she drove most of the time while we were there. For Christmas we decided to go to Atlanta, GA to visit her brother and we decided to drive, after that we had to go to a wedding in Chicago. The trip was long and I drove because I felt more safe. My wife’s mother went to the wedding too. She stayed in the hotel with us. The day after the wedding my head was spinning and I had to pretend that I was fine in front of my wife and her mother. The wedding was on the 30^th of December so after a few hours of sleep I drove back to New Orleans on New Years Eve to celebrate with her father. It was a very long trip and I was tired and cranky from the night before. Without any problems we arrived in New Orleans in a short amount of time because I wanted to get home fast. My wife was offered a job here so we decided to start our life here in Oakland. We had another wedding on the 13^th of January, but her work started on the 16 so, we had to fly from Oakland to Louisville, KY. It was a short time. On the first of January we rented a U-Haul and a two dally to drive all of our things and our car behind to Oakland. The drove from New Orleans to Oakland was about 1400 miles. A week ago, we realized that the whole time I was driving illegally, because if you are a permanent resident in the US, you must teak a test to have American license. Two weeks ago, I went to the Oakland DMV and they gave me the information and the Californians rules book. After a few days I took the written test and yesterday, the driving test. Now, is everything OK. So tanks Jesus, that I wasn’t stopped all this time.

More Practice with "Extra" Information Phrases

Click here to get more practice placing commas around extra (nonessential) information in a sentence.

An Earthquake

Mrs. Chan works in an electronics company which is in Fremont and she lives in San Jose.

One day, after work, she drove home along south highway 880. She felt a little tired. But she felt happy.

Suddenly, she felt her car shake. She went on driving and she heard the honkings from other cars. She thought there had been an earthquake. She just wanted to get home as quickly as possible to see her lovely young daughter.

Finally, she arrived home. She parked her car on the curb in front of her house. Before she went into her house, she walked around to the rear of her car. She found that the rear bumper of her car was out of shape. She did not know why.

Mrs. Chan went into her house quickly and saw her husband and her daughter in the living room. She hugged and asked her husband to check the bumper.

Mrs. Chan told her husband that the rear bumper was perfect before she drove home and she didn’t feel anything hit her car during the drive home.

Her husband told her that nothing could explain why the bumper was out of shape liked that unless something had hit it.

At that moment, Mrs. Chan remembered the “Earthquake”. The time of the “Earthquake” was exactly the moment that her car was hit.

Another Chinese New Year's Love Story

Can you sing?

Check out this story about the Miao People of Southern China.

The Pig Year of 2007

The New Year rarely falls on a weekend or holiday, but this year it does. So, most Asians who live in the U.S. are very happy because they have time to go out with their families to visit their relatives and friends.

This year Asians who live in California celebrated the Chinese New Year bigger. They cooked more food and welcomed friends who came to their houses to play and to eat.

There are seven countries in the world which celebrate the Chinese New Year. It’s a very important holiday that everybody is very excited about.

It doesn’t matter whether immigrants have lived in the U. S for a short or a long time, they never forget this holiday. They always maintain their culture and traditions.

Chinese New Year’s Day brings everybody a lot of excitement and happiness. Everyone enjoys and relaxes after a year of working hard.

Wedding in Moldova

I want to explain in my story the differences between weddings in my country and weddings in America.

My wife has been a bride’s maid at two friends’ weddings, since I came to America.

So, we went together and, I saw a big difference between customs in our two countries.

Let me tell you about our weddings in Moldova.

On Friday, at noon, we go to the Orthodox Church for the ceremony.

The ceremony takes about one hour, and then all the friends and relatives go together to take photos.

We have a memorial for people who died in the Second World War and sometime during the wedding celebrations we put flowers there.

After three or four hours of taking pictures, we go to the groom’s parents’ house or to a restaurant.

There are many different kinds of food and alcohol. We have so much food on the tables that we must stack plates of food on top of other plates of food.

Dinner time is without limit, plus dancing.

The reception starts the next day, around five or six PM and ends the next morning.

In Moldova, we adopt a new family to be our support in life. This family could be neighbors or your parents friends. They usually are not blood relatives. It is an old tradition.

They are like a third set of parents called (Nash). The Americans call them sponsors, because they help guide you through your marriage plus they give you some money. The nash also invites their own guests to the wedding.

The sponsors and one young couple stand next to the groom and bride at a table to welcome the guests with music, sweets and alcohol.

The music is live!

From the moment that the first guests get there until everyone arrives, all the guests are dancing!

From nine to ten in the evening is the first meal. The tables are full with food, even more than the day before!

Most of the time, we have one person who manages all programs during the ceremony. This person runs the entertainment.

While we are eating we play different games. After that, we all dance again.

At midnight we start the second meal and the sponsors give a speech for the new couple. They wish them happiness, health, many years of love. After they give their speech they give a sum of money to the couple. Then, the microphone is passed to every guest and every guest gives a small speech and then puts a sum of money in a basket for the couple.

The bride and groom thank everyone for the gifts and start dancing again.

Before the night is over the wedding cake comes out and we do a traditional ritual called “undressing of the bride.” Basically, the bride’s veil is taken off and a head scarf and apron is put on her. She is now a wife. After that, she sits on her new husband’s lap and family members wrap them in linens (sheets, towels, blankets). Perfume is sprayed on the couple and they are ready to go and start their life together.

Usually the wedding ends when the sun comes up around 7 a.m.

Everyone goes home to sleep a few hours and then everyone who wants to, goes to the house of the bride and eats chicken soup.

After three days ( and lots of food, drinking and dancing) it is all over!

I was in trouble

Hi, everyone!

How are you, my unforgettable class? I think everything is well, and I hope it is, in truth.

Let me tell you that I am having trouble signing into the blog. I do not know why, but it keeps asking me for a new blog version..

I did not know what to do. At first time, I got confused and worried, because I thought it could lock me out of the blog forever :-(

Well, in the end, I decided to try and figure it out, and I followed all the steps to get a new Google blog account. I do not know if I took the correct way, but now, I am writing in the blog again, I think so?


In my last post, I talked to you about my busy time, although I was on small trips, but it kept me very busy:-(

Now, I continue to be very busy, because, I am taking care of my little niece, and it makes me be very, very busy.

So, Teacher Richard, please let me come back to your class next week.

I hope everything will be O. K. in this posting, because, I am not sure if I did the correct things .

Either way, I am going to be there next week. I hope Teacher Richard can help me to make it easy.


O. K. class, take care and be nice always. I know all of you are nice people, and that is the reason you are unforgettable for me.

I Miss You All

These last few days, I feel like I look older and older because no one makes me laugh in the morning. I miss you all.

Happy Valentine to All of You!!!

Today is Valentine's Day. I have no candy for you guys. I just have some words for you. It represents my heart to all of you!

A Happy Day

This Monday was Kathy's birthday. We went to Yuki's house to have a hot pot (special Chinese style of cooking) and we celebrated Kathy's birthday.

A week ago, we decided to have a hotpot for Kathy's birthday. We didn't let Kathy know about that at first, because we wanted to give her a surprise, so we made a conversation to trick her.

The conversation started like this. Yuki said, "I want to have a hotpot at your house, Ena. How about this Wednesday?"

I said, "No, my brother and sister are coming home early that day, because their school is over early on Wednesday."

And then Ivy said, "I have something to do on Tuesday."

And then Yuki said, "How about Monday? We can go to my house. Monday is my mother's day off and she can help us."

I said, "That's great!"

While we were having this conversation, suddenly Kathy said, "Oh, Monday is my birthday."

We all felt upset after what she said, because she knew that already and it wasn't a surprise any more.

Yuki said, "We don't want to know about your birthday. Don't tell us about that."

And then we thought about another idea. When we were on our way to buy the food, I said to Kathy, "Does your brother always buy a gift for you on your birthday."

She said, "No, nothing."

Ivy said, "We haven’t bought a gift for you yet. What do you want?"

Kathy didn't answer. Actually, we had bought gifts for her already. We just wanted to trick her again. We wanted her to feel surprised when she received our gifts.

When we arrived at Yuki's house, we went to Yuki's room. We gave Kathy a box and there was a ring in it. We asked her to open that box quickly. That box had five levels. When she opened the last level, she asked us, "What's that?"

We said, "You'll know that after you open it." When Kathy opened that box, she saw the ring. She felt very happy, because everytime when we went shopping, Kathy always looked at rings. That's why we bought her a ring.

The other gift was under the bed cover. Yuki said, "Hey, man. Help me to get my cell phone. It's under the bed cover."

When Kathy pulled off the bed cover, she saw a purse and asked, "Is that mine?"

We said, "Who knows, if you think it's yours, then it is yours."

After that, we all laughed. We bought Kathy a purse because her purse was chewed on and ruined by a mouse. When we first time heard about that, we all laughed without stopping.

After the presents, we were ready to have the hotpot. We all ate too much. When we came home, we couldn't sleep.

Hi, Classmates

My name is Mei Mei. I just joined the blog. I will post a story this evening.

My Daughter’s Computer Teacher

Last Sunday, I took my daughter to Bret Harte Middle School to learn Mandarin. I volunteered for two hours. I helped the teacher make copies of the lesson, erase the whiteboard and helped pass out work to the students.

The Chinese teacher taught the class just like my English teacher does. The students had to give an oral presentation about any topic. My daughter told about her computer teacher.

In February, all the ninth graders change their schedules. If you have health class, you might change to a computer class. The first day, my daughter came to her computer class, she said, “How are you, teacher?” but the teacher said very loudly, “Don’t say how you are to me. Can’t you see the words on the whiteboard? It says ‘No talking!” .

Then the teacher started to talk herself.
The teacher gave an assignment to the students. After everyone finished it, one student told the teacher, “We’re all finished.”

The teacher said, “How would you know? I’m the teacher, if I say you guys are done, then you guys are done.”

The student yelled at the teacher. “You are crazy, you should go to the mental hospital.”

The teacher was very angry and said, “If anyone agrees with what he said, please leave right now.”

Half of the students went out.

My daughter remained in her seat because she doesn’t want to give bad impression to her teacher .She felt the teacher was very unfriendly.

A Late Love

Here is a link to the love story we listened to in class today.

A Poem about Power and Time

This poem is called Ozymandius.

It was written by Percy Biysshe Shelly.

Happy Childhood

I was born in a small village. A small river flowed alongside my hometown. Near the river, there was a huge and beautiful beach. The river and the beach gave me a lot of fun.

Every summer in my childhood, my friends and I went to the beach. We swam, played ball, ran and other games.

I forgot what age I was, maybe 9, maybe 10. One day, we found a few dead bamboo trunks that were left on the ground, then we put the bamboo trunks together and tied them with a thick cord. That was our boat. Together, we pulled the boat toward the river. While we were pulling it, some kids fell down, some kids lost their shoes, and we also sweated a lot. However, the boat was moved into the river.

All of us sat on the boat. We used our hands as oars to row the boat. The boat was moving, and we were laughing.

Suddenly, a kid fell down into the water. We hurried to save him. Another kid jumped into the water. He wanted to save his friend. The other kids stretched out their hands. They wanted to pull him up.

Finally, we all fell down into the water. We screamed and laughed. Although we all got soaked, we still felt happy.

I also remember one day when my friends and I cooked eggs on the beach. We were walking on the beach when we felt that the sand was very hot. One of my friends suggested to boil eggs by using the heat of the sand. We got some eggs from home and then shoveled a pile of sand over the eggs. After an hour, we took out the eggs, knocked the eggshells off and we saw the that while the whites of the eggs had congealed a little but the yolks were still raw.

Ha! These were some of the many anecdotes that had happened in my childhood. Those days were so hilarious and happy!

A Special Man

There is a man who I admire. He is 80 years old and he still works as hard as a young man. He is my father.

My father, as I told you before, is an old man. He doesn't want to stop working. He makes different kinds of candies. He is a professional candy maker in my town. (Yerbabuena, Jalisco Mexico).

Many years ago he received an award for the best homemade candies in the region.

My father is a hard worker. He has been working since he was a little child. His parents were very poor, so he had no choice. He began working to support his parents when he was only eight years old.

When I go to Mexico every year, I see him. I feel happy, but at the same time, sad because every time I see him I notice that he is getting older and sicker.

If I were a magic person I would have my father healthy and alive forever.

Superbowl ESL Lecture

Did you see the Superbowl ESL class commercial?

Check here or here.

Carlos Mencia, a popular comic, is the English teacher.

First Come First Serve, Late Come No More!

Actually, my birthday is going to be on this Saturday, February 3, but tomorrowI’m going to bring you guys a sticky rice cake . Don't come late or we willl have eaten it all.


If you guys contribute some money, I will make you a big breakfast. You can eat until you are full or you get tired of my cake.


See you soon!

The Day That I Went To Court

I want to write a story about what happen when I went to court to pay my traffic ticket.

In the morning, when I woke up, I didn't go out until my husband went to work because I didn't want him to know about my traffic ticket. I got ready and I woke up my son to take him to my mom’s house. After that, went I got to the courthouse the line was long and I waited there for 40 minutes. It was cold at the time, so when they opened the door, everybody went into the building and when I went through the guard door the bell rang 3 times and I lost my place in line.

Other people passed me and got their numbers for court. I didn’t get one and I felt angry. I was angry because the people behind got a number and I didn’t. I told the man that I lost my place in line of the security check.

I don’t want to have to wake up my son early again. I got in a different to ask for an extension until March 13^th. This will be better for me because it will be in the afternoon so I won’t need to wake up my son early again. It made me sad to have to wake my son up early. I don’t want to do that again.

I felt like a child class!

Hi, my favorite class!!!

These last weeks, I have been very, very busy. I visited many places. I went to Lake Tahoe, to Disney Land, to San Diego, etc. But the place that I liked more than any, was Disney Land. Oh my God! I felt like a little girl in this place.

When I was in the park, I went back to my childhood. There were a lot of people there: Latin people, Asian people, American people, and almost any other kind of person you could imagine. But most were children of all ages. Well, I will continue to tell you about my feelings when I was in Disney Land.

We traveled to this place by car, ( when I say we, I am talking to you about my son, nieces, brother, and sister- in-law ) This is a very long journey from Oakland, you know, around seven hours, but it is nice, because you can enjoy a lot of beautiful landscapes.

But I think I am forgetting to write to you about my feelings again. I was very happy. I enjoyed everything in this place, especially, when I saw the Disney celebrities. I had never seen them in reality, just in cartoons. When I was a child, I wished to meet them, but in my country, it is a difficult dream to come true. Especially, because most people in my country are very poor. I think that is the reason I felt very happy when I went to Disney Land.

Most children have these kinds of dreams, especially when their parents can not make this dream come true . There are too many adults in the world like me, who had this kind of dream when they were children, and perhaps, their dream has not come true yet.

I feel very lucky, not just because I went there ( because people can go anywhere they want ) but, I have had this dream since I was a child.

At this moment, I am very happy, because my dream came true. If your dreams have not come true yet, I think you have to go ahead, and make them come true. It does not matter if you are 20, 30, 50, 80 or more years old, the most important thing is that you come back to your childhood, because I think everybody has a child inside.

Elevator

Kieu Banh
Elevator

It was a rainy day. I had an appointment to see the dentist. When I got to the dentist’s building, I saw a young guy and a woman waiting for the elevator. An older African American man walked in. He was holding an umbrella and a suitcase. He said to us, “You are so beautiful.” I didn’t know who he was talking to.
We all got in the elevator together. I pressed the 5th floor. I stood next to the young guy .The African-American man said to the young guy, “Your mother is very pretty.” The young guy replied, "She is not my mom.”

The older man looked at me said again and said, “You are so beautiful.” I felt embarrassed because I didn’t feel the same way about myself.

The door opened and everyone got out. I realized it was the 4th floor. So I went back into the elevator. While the door was closing, the man stuck his umbrella between the doors. He got inside the elevator. He started pointing at me and smiled evilly. I was really frightened. I didn’t know what would happen.

Luckily the door opened and- I rushed out. He still followed me into the dentist’s office. He looked around for a few minutes then he went away.

Even now, I don’t dare take the elevator alone. I prefer to walk up the stair rather than take the elevator.

Cam's tenth essay

This is my tenth essay. I think I should stop here because I have to let the teacher edit you guys’ essays. My job is finished. I am retiring now.

If I continued to write the teacher and you would grow tired of my essays. So, I had better stop here. My job now is to just enjoy reading you guys’ essays. If you wrote your essays as quickly as me, you would retire soon, also.

Our Principal, Burr

Some students said Burr is a gentleman. That is true. He is a lovely man, also.

Burr is a newly principal, but he close to students. He helps students a lot when they have trouble. Although, Burr is a principal, but he is always equal to anybody.

Burr is a happy person. Sometimes he visits my class; he gives my class a lot of impression. He lets my class see his travel pictures on the bog. He is friendly principal.

Everyone in my class likes burr because he has a sense of humor. He brings us a lot of laughter. We never forget the humor of him.

Burr,
I’m sorry! I have no topic to write.

Why I Like to Write

I like to write because I want to improve my English quickly. I want to write to let me remember the new words I have learned. Every time I write I learn something new and after editing of my teacher, I get a lot of experience.

I practice to write to let my words like Americans. I would like people understand my writing. When I speak I would like people understand me right.

I like to write because I want to become a good talker. I want my English go smoothly because that is my dream.

When we speak if we spoke not correct people would understand and they would forget it, but when we write we have to write it correctly because your error are show up on there. It makes people misunderstand you.

That’s why I have to practice more and more on my writing because English is my second language.

There Is a Poem in My Country

It is said in Viet Nam that if we want the best meal we should choose Chinese food. If we want an excellent wife, we should choose a Japanese woman. If we want to live in the best home, we should choose an American house.


Why do people say this? Because people think Chinese food is the best in the world. Japanese wives are very good servants to their husbands. And American houses are elegant. They picked and chose something which is on top.


So, how about people who live in other countries? What are their favorites? Why don’t we hear about them?

I Like Room 101 Class Very Much

Before I used to sit in only one spot. I didn't like to change my seat at all. Sometimes I came to class late and I had to sit in another spot. I sat by new friends. I always learned something new about them. I felt good then.

Our teacher began a new rule. He wanted students to sit in groups of at least three people to do the grammar exercises. And he wanted students to do the conversation exercises with “different partners. Different tables.” Now I feel very comfortable sitting at any spot and with any partner.

To tell the truth, I like this class very much because my classmates are very nice and friendly. We all like a family.

The Room 101 class is very interesting. Every classmate is funny. They make me laugh every morning, especially Mr. Blum. He is the funniest in the class. He always brings up weird news.

Every morning Richard 's role is like a mother. He has to give food to the children. (He gives news.) He has to make every child happy. He must change food everyday to make the children have enough energy. That's why he is the busiest and the noisiest in the class.

Our Honored Classmate, Hung Vi

When Hung Vi wants something, he works hard to get it!

There is an interesting story about this certificate. To read the story of the Tenth Essay, click here.

His classmates enjoy his essays and stories.

0ur Experience Driving To Mexico

Last month my husband, children and I took a vacation to Mexico. This was the first time we traveled by car. We left home on December 15th at 2:30 am. We drove south all way to Los Angeles, then we changed direction to the east. It was about 2:30 pm. when we arrived in the state of Arizona. When we went through Phoenix, Arizona there was a lot of traffic, so we spent extra time driving.

We stopped to sleep in Nogales, Sonora at about 7:30 p.m. The first day we drove about 17 hours.

The next day we got up early at 3:40 a.m. and we continued our trip. That day we were a little bit tired, but excited, too.

We drove all the way through Sonora and Sinaloa, Mexico. We made our second stop to sleep in Mazatlan, Sinaloa. This day we drove at least 18 hours.

On December 17, we began to drive at 5:00 a.m. We passed through Nayarit and finally we reached Jalisco. We arrived our town at 12:30 pm.

Our trip to Mexico was wonderful. We liked travel better this way than by plane. We had the chance to know places that we didn't know before.

My tenth Essay

LLast Sunday, my son told me he saw many pictures of our class taken on the last day of school of the year 2006. It was on our teacher, Mr. Richard’s, blog. Some pictures were taken in front of school. Some pictures were taken in the classroom. Some pictures were taken in the restaurant, “Lien Hung”, to celebrate the holiday.

My son asked me why each classmate stood up in the restaurant, and why only seven of my classmates got a certificate, but not the rest of us. My son’s most important question was why I didn’t get one.

I told him, in the restaurant, my teacher said every classmate had to stand up to make a wish for the New Year in English, but a wish couldn’t be said twice. I told my son that was a little unfair between the first classmate and the last classmate because the first classmate had many good wishes to say without thinking. For the last classmate, almost all the good wishes had been said by the classmates before him. Unfortunately, I was the last person to make a wish. My son asked me what wish I said. I said I wished that all of my classmates would get a certificate next celebration.

Then, I told my son how to get a certificate. It was required that every classmate write seven essays on the blog before the last day of year 2006, or write ten essays before January 31, 2007. I only wrote four essays before the last day of the year 2006. I told my son that I thought the important thing was how much English I understand. My son was unhappy, and he told me sometime a certificate could help me to find a better job.

I told my son I still had one month to earn the certificate. I was determined to get it and today I have done it.

This is my tenth essay, but I think my English good enough yet. I have to spend more time studying English.

A Husband and a Wife

A couple got married two years ago. One day, the husband drove his wife to a supermarket and dropped her at the market. His wife told him to pick her up at 12 o’clock.

Exactly at 12 o’clock, the husband came back to the market, but he didn’t see his wife. He called his wife’s cell phone. On the phone, his wife said, “I’m coming out, you wait for me a minute.”

When she came out of the market, she didn’t see her husband. Then she called her husband on his cell phone. Her husband said, “I am driving back home. You take a taxi.”

When the wife met the husband at home, the wife was very angry and said, “Why couldn’t you wait one more minute for me? I remember two years ago, I was always late one or two hours and you still waited for me.”

The husband said, “Yes, it was before our marriage and I waited for you many times. Now I can’t wait for you anymore, not even for one minute.”

Skill of a Robber

In Viet Nam, many people drive motorcycles because they are very convenient. You can park a motorcycle by any curb or any sidewalk without a time limit or permit.

If you want to park a car for a long time, you can park it in a place or by a house where it registered for parking with the city hall. Each time it costs 2,000 Dong. Dong is the name of the money in Viet Nam. But, if you change parking spots many times a day, you have to pay a lot of money and waste a lot of time.

A businessman had to go to many markets everyday, so he only parked his motorcycle on the side walk and locked it carefully. But each year, he lost one or two motorcycles, even though he locked them with the best locks.

Then, he thought of a safer way to keep his motorcycle. Every time when he went to the market, he took his wife with him. When he went into the market, his wife stayed outside to take care of the motorcycle. Everyone thought it was the perfect solution, but no, he still lost his motorcycle again.

One day, when he went into a market, he left his key in the motorcycle. His wife was standing next to the motorcycle. A robber went behind his wife. Suddenly, the robber pulled down his wife’s pants. While his wife hurried to cover herself and struggled to pull up her pants, the robber jumped on the motorcycle and drove away.

The Last Breakthrough

Last weekend, I stayed at home to enjoy a Chinese movie. The title of the movie was “The Last Breakthrough.” It was produced by a film company in Hong Kong. It described a group of young men and women who studied medicine in a university. After graduation they found jobs in a large hospital in a modern city. It was easy for them to find jobs, but they were unhappy.

All of the young doctors had a dream. They wanted to use their knowledge to help patients who really needed help. They didn’t care if the patient was rich or poor or even where they came from or their religion.

They knew that the life was very valuable. When they saved a patient from death, they were very happy. They celebrated together the whole night, but in the hospital, they had to follow the rules of the hospital. The hospital only cared for patients who could pay the expensive medical bills.

They had to treat rich patients who was not seriously ill, while they couldn’t treat poor patients who was very sick. The young doctors watched many poor patients die. . They were very upset.

At last, they decided to quit their jobs in the hospital to attend “The Life Force” as volunteers.

“The Force Life” was a national organization. It required that every volunteer had to go to any remote location in the world. These places could be in the mountains or forests far away from the modern cities. Sometimes these places were attacked by natural disasters like storms, tornadoes, or earthquakes. Sometimes the volunteers had to go to a war zone, where two countries were fighting. These places never had enough medicine. Their jobs were very hard and dangerous, but the people in these places really needed their help, and the doctors were very happy because they could work according to their dream. They could save more people from death. They preferred to work in these places than to work in the big city hospital.

This film described a group of volunteers who worked around the world. They had to talk in English. So in this film, we could learn a lot of English, and it was easy to understand because it had Chinese subtitles. I thought this film was good and enjoyable.

People and Monkey

I remember when I was a child, an uncle (a friend of my father) asked me, “Do you know where the first men in this world came from?”

I first laughed and then I looked at him because I didn’t know the answer.

Then uncle told me that the first man came from a kind of large monkey, like a gorilla or an ape.

Our ancestors had tails on their backs and if the tip anyone’s tail turned yellow it meant that he would die soon.

One day, a farmer worked in the field. Accidentally, his tail touched the ground. When he took a shower, he found that t tail had turned to yellow at the end. He thought that he would die soon.

From that day, he didn’t go to work anymore. He enjoyed life and waited to die, but after he had spent all his money, he was still alive. He was very angry. He ran to the kitchen. He took a knife and cut off his tail.

Beginning with that farmer until now, people don’t have tails anymore.

Old

A hundred years ago, people’s lives were short. Most of them would die at about fifty years old to sixty years old. Maybe they didn’t know how to stay healthy. They worked too hard.

Not all of people would die at that age. A small number of wise men lived longer, but hardly anyone lived to be over seventy years old.

One of these wise men who lived 150 and was still active and full of energy. Maybe he lived three times longer than other people.

All his friends and his relatives had died already. Everyone, even himself, had forgotten his original name. So all the people called him “The Oldest Child”.

Life was usually short. When people died, their relatives inherit their property according to the traditions. Most of the young men and ladies got marry at about sixteen years old. Their parents arranged who they should marry. So when they became old, got sick finally died, they had a lot of children and grandchildren to take care them and inherit their property.

There lived a man, who widower, whose son was almost thirty years old. The old father hadn’t yet arranged a wife for his son to marry.

The son thought he was too old to get married. Why didn’t the father do anything to help his son? The son was ashamed to ask his father about this problem. How he could remind his father that he need to find a wife.

Then, one day, the son wrote a sentence on the restroom door.

“Thirty no wife, forty no son.”

When the father saw that sentence, he smiled and thought, “Aha! My son wants to get married.” But the old man was a funny person. He wrote a sentence under his son’s sentence.

“Fifty, sixty still not too late”

The son saw the father’s sentence, and he was very anxious. Then, the son wrote one more sentence, “Life is short. Few live to be over seventy.”

At last, the father wrote one more sentence, “Compared to my “Oldest Child”, seventy is still a kid.”

A "Lonely" Girl

A young girl lived in Vietnam. When she was three years old, her parents separated. The girl did not have brothers or sisters.

Her father had to work to support the family, so the girl spent most of the time with her grandmother. She only saw her father at night. After work, her father felt tired and seldom talked with her.

In the girl’s mind, she wanted her father to talk with her more. She loved her mother. She really wanted to know why her mother had left her. No one could give her a reason that the girl could believe. She felt lonely and she did not like to talk to other people besides her father.

Three years ago, her father and she immigrated to the United States. She still seldom talked with her father, but she became more independent.

She knew if she was to be independent that she must rely on herself. Fortunately, this country provided her the chance. She studied English in the morning and worked in a nail shop in the afternoon. She studied and worked very hard. She graduated from Laney College with a business management degree last year.

Recently, her boss at the nail shop arranged for her to become the manager of the a newly opened nail shop.

Who is she? She is Tao. Tao was my classmate at Clinton Park School three and a half years ago.

Jaime and Burr's Excellent Adventure

Congratulations to the newlyweds!!!

Burr told us about their honeymoon in Brazil.

If you want to read more about Jaime and Burr's honeymoon, click on their blog.

Happy Birthday to Richard

Today is our teacher's sixtieth birthday. We are very happy and we wish our teacher a great birthday. We wish him always looks younger and heathier.

My country, when people to the age of sixty, most the children like to do a banquet in a restaurant to celebrate for their parents. The children want to do like this because they think people's life has sixty years only and they let their parents enjoy life with good food.

My Idea

This morning our class had a conflict between the teacher and a few students. I think this is bad because we are all adults. We can talk by many ways or we can make a compromise. Don't from the small thing, we make everybody unhappy.

Although, the school doesn't have a rule but the teacher can have his own rule because he thinks his rule can make the students improve english quickly. I think we should follow it.

However, we are all adults but when we are come into the class, our roles are students. We always need an instructor and we should have obey what he requires.

For exmple, we go to learn Kung Fu, the coach wants you to wear uniform. You have to listen to the coach right? You cannot say I can wear any clothes.

When we are out side of school, we are adults, but when we are in school we are always students. So, we should have followed and respected what the teacher suggests.

I need you guys' comments.

Newest Member of the Family

She doesn't have a name yet.

Do you have any suggestions? 

Why I Like to Go to School

School is a place to improve my English. School is a place to develop my knowledge. Not only that, school is a place to learn many things from classmates.

In school, I have learned about many things from the teacher such as grammar, news, histories and different cultures. Beside that, I have learned a lot of new things from classmates like cooking, joking and talking.

School is an interesting place to me. School is very helpful. If I had more time I would go to school very often.

The Key

I feel like grammar is my key to English. If the grammar is not correct I could confuse people.

Grammar is difficult in English so that I have to practice more and more in my writing. I try to read the difficult sentences over and over. Sometimes I learn them by heart.

Whenever I speak out loud naturally, at that moment, I feel like I am holding the key to English.

I Would Rather . . .

I prefer to learn grammar at the beginning of the class than at the end because most of the time I leave early.

Everyone comes to the class in order to improve English, but some students have to leave early because they have to go to work. If our teacher would switch to teach grammar first then every student could learn grammar and improve their English quickly.

I'd rather our teacher taught grammar first than taught the other skills. If he did it, we'd love him more.

I know my words cannot change the teacher, but at least he understands what the students need.

Go To School

Go to School

Kieu Banh

Education is very important for everyone, especially for children. They go to school to get more knowledge, intelligence, and perception.

They learn how to listen to people and respect their opinions from school. They grow up to become self confident and creative. They learn to discuss and find solutions to their problems. They will have a brighter future.

American children are very lucky. They go to school without a fee. The textbooks are free. Sometimes, the teacher brings all the students on field trips. They see puppet shows and read many kinds of books in the library. They enjoy picnics in the park, look at photographs, paintings and different kinds of animals in the museum.

I go to adult school to learn English. Some classmates are seniors, but they study hard and speak English very well. They were versatile and effective in their country. My teacher is terrific. He always says, “Bring a pencil, notebook, and news.”

Everyday he asks some students to tell their news. It is a good way to improve oral presentations. My first time going in front of the class, I was very shy and nervous. My face was red and my heart was beating very fast, but now I feel that I’m better than before. I respect and appreciate my teacher. I hope everyone enjoys a prosperous and a happy new year. Bye! Bye!

New Years In Viet Nam

Hi ! Teacher, classmates. Happy NewYear!

In my country, New Years begins in January or February. It's a very happy time of the year. People buy a lot of food because the markets will be closed for several days at New Years. And in other meaning, people think that having a lot of food on New Years represents plenty of food all through the year.

On NewYear's Eve, people put fruit, flowers, candles, tea, wine, and special food on their ancestors’ altar.
After that, they burn incense to honor, and invite the spirits of their ancestors to come back and share with them during the three or four days of the NewYear.

Before dinner, people take a shower because they want to be cleaner than other days. Some people add grapefruit leaves to the shower water because they suppose that it washes bad luck away for the whole new year.

Then, people put on new clothes and eat dinner together. Many people go to temples and most of the young people go to see fireworks at midnight.

During the New Year's holidays, everyone usually goes to visit their relatives and friends. They want to give best wishes to each other for the New Year.

It's a special time for children because they get a lot of red lucky envelopes from adults. And, they also get to eat a lot of sweetmeats, watermelon seeds and sticky rice cakes.

People celebrate New Years for about three or four days. On the last day of New Years, people burn paper money, paper clothes for their ancestors and say bye-bye to them.

How about you? How do people in your country celebrate New Years?

The First Day Of 2007

This is the first day of 2007.

The sun is bright and the sky is blue out side. It makes me feeling pleased at the beginning of the New Year.

What shall I say?

First, I wish our teachers and classmates a bright and a happy new year.

Second, I’d like to write these several words for the first of my essays in this year.

Third, I’d like to post two pictures which were taken last year before Thanksgiving.

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?