My Hometown, Xiao Liu

Xiao Liu is my hometown in Guang Dong Province in China. There is a small river and there are many hills near Xiao Liu. It was a poor village. Only narrow winding paths went to my village. No large vehicles could get to this village. People had to carry everything they needed on their shoulders or on bicycles. The people of my village had a difficult life, but they were hard working.

People from Xiao Liu like to sing the Kerjia song. They cook special Kerjia food. There are many local customs and traditions Xiao Liu. I grew up in this place and I love it!

Now almost all of Xiao Liu’s young men and women go out to work in Guan Zhou, Shanghai, Beijing, Shen Zhen or other large cities. Only the old men and women still stay home.

I left Xiao Liu fifty seven years ago. Since then I went back four times. The last time I went back, there was a change for the better. New roads were built to our village. Now, cars and trucks can drive to my hometown. There are a lot of new houses.

Mei Fang

My Home Town, Oakland

United States. Many people say this is a bad city because there are gang fights, robberies and drug selling in some areas. I think this happens in other cities, also. I would rather look at the bright side.

Oakland is more than one hundred years old. It is the capital of Alameda County. There are many interesting historic buildings. One of them is the Oakland Museum. Lake Merritt is a good sight seeing are. Furthermore, the city has a wonderful transportation system includes BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit), the Bay Bridge, the Port of Oakland and the Oakland International Airport.

I think that not too many cities can compare favorably with Oakland.

I live close to our school. I enjoy living right here because of its convenience. There are many different kinds of shops and restaurants that you can choose from. That is why I am content with my new hometown.

My hometown- Taishan

My hometown is Taishan City in Guangdong province of China. My hometown has beautiful beaches and hills. One of the beaches is on Shang Chun Island. In the summer, a lot of tourists visit the beach. The beach is public property. Everybody can swim or surf at the beach. There is a restaurant near the beach. The restaurant has delicious seafood. There is also a spa. All the food is inexpensive.

People can hike up the hills and see beautiful trees and flowers there. People can walk on the beach or climb up a hill to see the sunrise.

In the city center, there are a lot of stores and supermarkets. It's very convenient to buy clothes or food. The clothes are inexpensive and nice. The food is fresh and delicious.

Many people who were born and grew up in my hometown have moved to different countries. Some of them ended up living in The United State and some are living in Canada or Australia. Many live in other foreign countries. My hometown is sometimes known as "the city of the overseas Chinese."

The United States of America

The United States is one of the richest coutries in the world. The United States has a high civilization.

The United States is the 3rd bigest countries in the world. It's a diverse country. There are a lot of different kinds of people that moved from other coutries to here with the goal of making their life better. Some people came here to study.

There are 50 states in The United States. Every state has a different kind of weather and character. Let me descibe some of them.

Florida always has hot weather. People can plant special fruit like jack fruit,Vietnamese kiwi, longan, guava, green mango.

Minesota has snow in the winter. In the winter the snow covers the road. It looks beautiful. In the summertime it is terribly hot.

Oh! Talking about Hawaii, most people know it has a very nice climate. There are four main islands in Hawaii. Honolulu is on one of the islands. I went there last year. There are beautiful beaches in Honolulu. Some people told me that they like to visit Hawaii because Hawaiians treat the travellers like a "King." That is very true!

The United States is a dream country so that many people want to settle here for a better future.

My Home Town

Saigon is my home town. I lived in Saigon for the first 24 years of my life. I escaped from Vietnam in 1987.

Saigon is a trading center. It is one of the busiest cities of Vietnam. Saigon is always crowded with people walking around.

There are two seasons in Saigon-wet and dry. It has a very nice climate.

Talking about Saigon reminds me about the famous market named "Ben Thanh." There are a lot of yummy kinds of food and delicious desserts. Let me name a few: rice cake with special sauce; three colors of beans served with coconut juice; ice cream inside a fresh coconut shell. Oh! I crave the food over there very much!

In my home town, the neighbors are nosy. They like to meet and gossip about each other. They're very frendly.

After 12 years I went back to my home town. My home town had changed. It wasn't familiar to me. It was not like before when I lived there.

Hawaii

We got up early on the 10th of January. As we started our trip to visit Kauai in Hawaii, we felt excited and smiled all the time.

On the first day of our trip, we arrived in Kauai after 6 hours of flight. I felt hot once we got there .

It was sunny and hot in Kauai. We saw almost everybody was wearing T-shirts in the airport. We picked up our luggage and rented a car. We drove and looked at the map to find out how to get to our hotel. The road was curvier than in Oakland, and we saw some wild chickens walking on the road side. I looked through outside the car window, and I could see that there were beautiful beaches on our way to the hotel. the beaches are all public property. After that, I also could see that there were waterfalls in the hills. Kauai has a lot of trees beside the roads, too.

We got to the hotel after about 30 minutes. It was great that there was a big beach in the back of the hotel. We saw the sunrise at the beach. The beach had beautiful blue waters. We saw beautiful hills, beaches, canyons and trees on our helicopter flight.

Kauai is really a beautiful island. Here is a picture of Kauai.

Difficult to Learn at The First Time

When I first learned to cut hair. I had to practice on a doll. I just cut her hair little by little each time. After the third semester, I started to practice on the people's hair. I really liked it because I could see the styles. I was very satisfied with what I have done, because I didn't know better.

Finally I got a license and then I went to work. It was a challenge for me. Everyday I met many customers and they had differrent kinds of hair. I didn't always do a good job. Sometimes, I felt frustrated because I didn't have enough experience. I couldn't always make the custormers very happy with my work.

I needed to improve my skills. I became a helper in a salon. I helped my boss to do colors, perms, shampoos or whatever she needed. I tried to do very good job. I paid attention to what she did. I was loyal worker so that she showed me and gave me many chances for cuting customers' hair.

The saying "experience is the best teacher" is indeed right!

Gradually, I became an expert hair dresser. And now I 'm a professional hair dresser.

Trip to Vietnam

This Sunday I will go to Vietnam.

My cousin will take me to the airport around 7 p.m.

I will stay in Vietnam for a month.

I will read the Room 101 Blog while I am in Vietnam. Please write interesting stories. I will write some stories from Vietnam. Send me questions and I will try to answer them.

Thanks, I will come back on February 19.

See you guys then!

Thank So Much To Teacher Richard Blum

Richard, thank so much for sending me many images. Wish you have a happy New Year.

My Anniversary

Yesterday was my 14th anniversary. Usually, we don't do anything special on these days, but last night my family went out to dinner together.

Many people complement me about my life being happy. That is very true, because I have a good husband and two lovely kids. I am proud of them.

Our life is quiet. We don't have relatives and friends around here. Every summer we take a vacation. We enjoy it very much when we are together. My kids are especially happy when they are close to their parents. We talk and have fun.

Sometimes, I don't remember my anniversary day I even forget my birthday, also. Most of the time my husband or my daughter remind me. I don't know why? I do not pay attention to these particular days so much. Perhaps, it is because in my country people don't celebrate the annversary day.

I've been living in America for 16 years, but I still keep my traditions. I like the traditions of Chinese, Vietnamese and American culture. I like to pick and choose the good things that each culture has to offer me.

Christmas Gift for My Son

Last two weeks, I bought a PSP to my son for Christmas present. I would like to encourage him to studying in Chinese. He was very happy and wanted to play it on that night. He asked me for a few times to opened it. He couldn't wait untill Christmast time, because he was on vacation. I let him opened and played it. Then I said "No more gift on Christmas". He said OK.

A few days ago before Christmas. Suddenlly, he wraped it back the PSP and put it under the Christmast tree. I looked at it, I felt funy and laugh. Then I talked to him. Hey! Randy, you already played the game. Now you put it under the tree. He felt embarrassed and smile.

My Wonderful Son

After Thanksgiving my son had a Chinese's test. He worked hard on this time. It might be he understood and put more time in studying. He looked like very confident for the test. During he took the test and he asked me about a gift for Christmas. He asked "what do you give me if I have a good result on the test?" I said "I will give you whatever you like." He said he liked the PSP, but he said "Might be you could buy me the DS, it just cost $100 dollars." I asked "which one do you like the best?" He said "I like the PSP, but it cost $250 dollars".Then I said "It's OK, I will buy you the PSP." He felt very happy with what I promised him. Then I said "You have to study good and listen to me when I tell you stop the game." He said "It was OK, I will, Mom.

Oh! My son was indeed a wonderful son! He didn't require on me too much.

The Gift of the Magi

Listen to this classic Christmas story by O'Henry.

Read the story.

Use these flashcards to improve your vocabulary.

Take a vocabulary quiz.

Winter

A few of these days the weather are big change. It's indeed the winter is coming. Today, the weather is remarkably cold. The sky is goomy. Look at it! It is sad and quet. None of the people walk on the street. It's cold and freezing. People's cars seem to be less. Where are the people? Are they hiding at home now?

Outside, it is raining. It fall down with a gentle rain. It's soaking wet for a few hours of the rain.

After the rain, it look dark now. Cars are full on the street. It made a lot of sound from the cars driving with the wet of the road. It is time people get out from work. The squall of rain doesn't want to stop. It still continue on and on . . . .

good

i see

Not Easy

I don't have any thing to write yet.

Car Driving Dilemma

Learning how to drive in Oakland's roads is not easy for me. I am sometimes confused about the traffic laws, and the fact that there are two persons teaching me how to drive is making me more confused.

My brother in law is my first driving teacher. He is very careful in driving. When we need to stop at the intersection, I have to brake slowly and must not stop suddenly. This would be a bit difficult for me because I need to look for trafic lights or signs very far ahead. At the same time I must not slow down my car to speed lower than speed limits indicated in the signs. Especially, he asks me to accelerate very fast when there is green lights but while doing this I sometimes either swerve out of my lane when I make a turn or head to the car parking at the corner of roads where I turn a sharp right into.

My other driving teacher is my girlfriend. She, on the other hand, is a very fast and daring driver. She asks me not to foot on break so often, to slow down to much, and to change lane to maintain speed and get out of stuck points as fast as I can and sometimes by ways against what I read in the driver handbook.

Hmm, although I drive to school every day, I am still very nervous of the trafic and more of my "driving teacher's" supervision.

The Job Fair

Last Friday, I visited the job fair at the Senior Center on 58th Street in Oakland.

Many people were waiting in line in front of the Senior Center building when I got there.

After waiting about fifty five minutes, I got into a big room which was prepared for the job fair.
So many visitors were there that I could not move easily among them. Fortunately I got some information from the exhibitors, but I found that most of the exhibitors did not provide application forms for the applicants. Applicants could only write down their name, address and phone number on the visitors' list.
I did not get any application forms from the job fair, but I felt that this kind of job fair is necessary because many people need a job!

I Escaped from My Country

In 1987, my brother and I left my country to look for freedom and happiness. We escaped to a Malaysian refugee camp. We had spent five days on the ocean.

The first night, we took a small boat to a transfer point and boarded a biger boat. There were 112 people on the boat. The captain took us out to sea that night. We continued the second day. That night our boat had trouble. Water came into our boat a lot. People were very exhausted.We had two days with no food and no drink. Everybody vomited and was uncomfortable with sea sickness. No one helped bail the water out. We were waiting to die. I was the one who was scared to die in the ocean. I said that we could pass the buckets of water from person to person and pour out. They followed what I said and finally the water had gone. The captain fixed the boat and we continued for the third day. On the third day, we were dissappointed because we were lost. The boat was floating on the ocean. We didn't know where we were. It was good luck for us. We saw a Thai ship presently. They were not the pirates. They gave us food and showed us the direction. We were very happy and thanked them for the food they had given us because we were starving for many days. We cooked fish porridge on the boat and went in the direction that they showed us. At dawn, we saw a Malaysian ship. They saved us and let us come a board their ship. They gave us a lot of food. We stayed on the ship overnight. The next day morning we transferred to another ship and went to a Malaysian refugee camp.

I have to thank my lucky stars that I survived.
I have to count my blessings for the great happiness I have today.

The Misery of the People of South Vietnam

April 30, 1975 was the day people in South Vietnam lost country. Some people had gone on a warship to America, because they knew what would happen under the Communists. They left behind a lot of people who suffered miserably under the rule of the Communists.

The Communists came to South of Vietnam with the poor and greedy. They robbed the weath of people. Some people couldn't stand it. They committed suicide. The Communists still weren't satisfied. They pillaged properties of people from the high class to the medium class. They never released people who were rich. They wanted tight control of people. They wanted to change South Vietnam quickly. They didn't let people breathe. They didn't care about the hatred of people. They wanted to do whatever they wanted.

Soon afterward, people couldn't suffer the regime of the Communists. They found the ways to escape. In fact, it was not easy. If they didn't succeed, the police discovered them and put them in jail. I was the lucky one. I escaped.