Help Me to Say Thank You!

On Thursday our teacher was absent, so, Miss Ellen was our substitute teacher. At the end of the class, I asked Ellen to explain the meaning of this sentence, "I'm too old to know everything." She wasn't quite sure that she understood my question.

The next morning, I drove my car to school. While I was parking my car, (it was across street from the parking lot of our school) Ellen saw me and she crossed the street to greet me. She said, "Oh, now I understand the sentence that you asked me yesterday." Then, she explained the meaning of that sentence to me clearly. There were some words I didn't understand so she tried to explain it to me another way. She is the most enthusiastic teacher that I have ever seen.

Ellen has taught me only two times when my teacher was absent, but I feel as if she is full of enthusiasm for her students.

We both were in a hurry, so I forgot to say "Thank you" to her the help she had given me.

If anyone sees Ellen, please help me to say "Thank you very much!"

Some Virtual Souvenirs

Here are some virtual postcards from last summer's trip in Denmark.

I don't have a photo of Hans Christian Anderson's house, but I hope you enjoy these photos of my family and friends.

It ain't no Eiffel tower, but ...

Angel Island Photos

Here are the photos from the Angel Island Trip we took last spring.

Do you remember that field trip?

A Little Eiffel to Students

I remember when my son was in the third grade. His teacher took a vacation to France. After the vacation, his teacher came back to the class. He gave each of his students a gift. It was a little model of the famous Eiffel Tower. It was made of steel. It looked cute.

When my son came home, he was very happy and took the little Eiffel out from his pocket. He said, "Mom, Mr. Nguyen gave each of his students a little gift."

My son's teacher loved his students very much. While he was on vacation, he always thought of gifts to give to his students. He made the students very happy with the presents which he brought from France. He was a generous teacher.

Our teacher is going to Holland next week. Well....I hope our teacher will have some little gifts for us after his long vacation.

World's Highest Railroad by Mei Fang

On July 1st the Qing Zang railroad began service from Golmud to Lhasa. People in both cities celebrated the opening. They were very excited. This is the highest above sea level railroad in the world.

For years people dreamed of building a transportation link between the two cities. Now it is real. This railroad is 3,500 meters above sea level and 1,124 kilometers long. The scientists, engineers and workers that built this railroad encountered and overcame many problems.

For example, for 550 kilometers the railroad bed is built on frozen earth called permafrost. To protect the permafrost they had to build a special bed that absorbed heat in the winter and radiated heat in the summer.

In another area they built viaduct bridges to allow the antelope to safely cross from one side of the tracks to the other.

On July 1^st , on television, I watched the first train leave Golmud . There was a celebration. People were singing and dancing. They were very happy.

I hope my classmates and teacher have the opportunity to travel across Xi Zang on this train.

Mei Fang

Golden Gate Park

Last Sunday, we went to Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. We arrived at Golden Gate Park after about 30 minutes driving.

In San Francisco the weather was a little colder than in Oakland. We saw some people BBQing in Golden Gate Park when we walked around the park. It seemed that they enjoyed their BBQ. People were laughing and cheering. Children were laughing and playing games.

We visited a museum, the Japanese Garden and the Rose Garden. There was a big golf course there also. I think the most interesting place was the plant house. In front of this white building there were many kinds of beautiful flowers. It attracted us to go inside. I felt I was in a small forest when we went into the plant house. There were many kinds of tall trees in the room. We walked into another room. There were other kinds of plants there. Some butterflies were flying around the room. I was surprised to see big lotus pond at the center of the room. Beside the lotus pond there was a mini waterfall. That mini waterfall looked like a mirror. It looked like glass. I have never seen such a beautiful place since I move to the United States.

Zidane's Headbutt

Check out this article.


And this animation.

Zidane wins World Cup Golden Ball award.

If I Were Jim Abbott I Would . . .

If I were Jim Abbott I would ask to give a speech to children with disabilities such as: we have to live above public opinions. We have to put away our complex. We have to put ourselves in normal people. We have to look forward to the challenge and chase for our dream. We try our best to realize our goals if we couldn't reach it, it could be fine. We can be American Idol.

Like me, I have been missing one hand, but I nourished one's ambition when I was a child. I hope I going to be a pitcher in the future. So, I tried my best to practice playing catch by myself. That's a great challenge for me.

After beating the best of Roger Clements. People had no doubt about me and they stopped thinking about my missing hand. Finally, people only saw my talent and forgot about my disability.You see!

Could Anybody Help Me?

Hi, teacher and classmates,

Could you tell me which website for listeing the lesson on Friday? I remember . . . what about the modern slave . . .

I tried to find it on the website voanew.com, but I couldn't find it.

Thank you very much for letting me know as soon as posible.

Funny Story

There once was an old man. He went to school everyday. He took two classes. He worked hard and reviewed lessons every night. He had been going to school for ages.

Although he had studied very diligently, he often couldn’t remember even simple words. So, one day, the teacher asked him, “Why do you forget all the easy words, lately?”

Then, old man replied, "Learn more, forget more," and he asked the teacher to let him take a short vacation.

The old man wanted to review the lessons during the break, but he couldn't remember anything at all.

Finally, he whispered, "Learn more , forget more. Don't learn, don't forget . . ." He repeated these words a few times. The old man decided to give up his studies.

July 4th

Every year, my family and I usually go to Jack London Square to see fireworks.

Many people make a rush to go to Jack London Square to see fireworks because it is a beautiful harbor which people ussually concentrate there to see fireworks for years.

Like me, I don't like to wait too long for seeing fireworks. So, my family and I often go there an hour before it starts fireworks. I can't believe that it is crowded year after year. We drive and park our car somewhere. Then, we walk a long distance to there. Oh! There are a lot of people are walking with us. So, we don't feel it take us long. When we go to the point of the harbor. All seats are full and the people are standing there are very crowded. I heard they said, they came there to play for a whole day long and took seats beacause they live far. Some travelers are from other states. They want to stay at the hotels which close to the harbor. They want to enyoy fireworks on July 4th.

At 9 p.m fireworks are starting. People look toward to seeing where it has fireworks. Sometimes, fireworks come up very beautiful. It makes people are excited and scream when they see happy faces or some fantastic of fireworks. It continue on and on. The fireworks are bright with colorful. Before end of the time. People are more excited because fireworks come up quick and are wonderful. People enjoy fireworks until it is end.

Anyway, the fireworks on July 4th are great. People are happy and enjoy fireworks very much.

Coming Back

Yesterday, I received a letter from the school telling that I'm going to room 101 class this summer. I'm very happy to work with all my classmates and the teacher again. They all give me a special relationship as they saw me at Red Wood park. Classmates were very glad and wanted me to stay in group with them. They said: "Everybody misses and asks you." They made me feel touched.

This summer, I try to be an other student. I won't make joke in class. I won't make our teacher angry anymore. Because when he gets angry, his face turns red and his hair loses. Oh, no. His hair has gone! I'm sorry about that.

I try to keep our teacher smiles all the time Because when he is happy, he looks younger and healthier. So, he can bring us go field trip next year.

Americans and Their Pets

Americans are very talent for training pets such as dogs, fishes and cats . . .

During Spring break, my family and I went to "Seaworld" in San Diego. I saw many shows like shamu, dophin and sealion show . . . , but the show I liked very much was Pets Stadium show. There were many little and cute pets were trained by professionalism. They arranged races, games for dogs and cats. When time is up for the show. They turned on the music "Who lets the dogs out." The dogs followed the music to run out messily. Suddently, the music stopped. And then one by one is performing. The dogs and the folk on the show are very funny. They made the audients laugh and laugh . . . The audients so happy and could not stop with the big clap hands.

Americans love pets very much. They treat pets like people. They even talk and feed them. They take good care of them. Americans give pets a very sufficient life.

BBQ in Redwood Park

Last Thursday, our school went to Redwood Park for BBQ. I got up early and go to school early as usual. The weather was hotter than usual. Our teacher started to give us tickets when we came in the classroom. At 9:30 the school bus arrived and we started our trip. We were chatting and laughing during we were in the school bus.

After about 20 minutes, we arrived at Redwood Park. We sanded at BBQ and picnic park area. We sat down and eat some snack which we brought for BBQ. We were chatting, laughing and taking pictures each other. Suddenly, the teacher asked us to keep quiet as a docent want to inform us the important information. He told us that don’t touch this kind of plants and showed us the plant. That plant is harmful for us. It can make us itch all over if we touch it careless. In order to let us understand clearly. At the same time our teacher did some actions for us.

Some students and teachers were firing up the grill. There were 4 grills here. A big smog covered us soonest. We had many kind of fruits. They are Oranges, peaches, bananas and watermelon and so on. Some students were making orange juice. Some were washing fruits. Some were making foods. At that time there was delicious smell went around us. It was the time for our lunch. First, we ate corns. Our teachers cook hamburger and hot dogs for us. Teachers were sweat. We queued for pick up hamburger or hot dog and drink. After half and hour, all of us were full. We cleared up the rubbish. Buys were playing volleyball under the tree or playing football on the trail. We chatted and laughed under the trees. We never have spoken to each other such a lot since we knew each other.

At 2:40 PM, we have to come back school by school bus. Thanks to our teachers cook for us. We have a good time at our BBQ.

Herewith a picture.

First driving test

Almost everyone told me that drive a car is an easy job like you walked. But it is very inconvenience to go somewhere if you don’t drive. I started to learn how to drive once I got the permit. My husband employed an instructor to support me. At first I think drive is the same like drive bumping car in paradise. The different point is drive a car avoid to touch anything. But it can change my idea after I took the first driving test.

After several hours practice, my instructor told me that I can take a driving test in DMV. I was very delight after I heard it. I decided to take a driving test on next day.

Fortunately, I can get an appointment with DMV on next day. I asked my husband to go with me as I want to take his car in the test. On our way to DMV, my husband asked me:” Do you really want to take the driving test today? I don’t think you can get it. We can cancel it if you don’t want.” But I don’t agree with him.

It was my turn to take the test. I started the vehicle and feel very nervous when the examiner got in the car. At that moment the examiner said to me:” You need more practice.” I confused when I heard it as I hadn’t finished the test. I continued to drive. The examiner ordered me to backing, stopping, turns and changing lanes. But I couldn’t do all smoothly.” You need more practice.” The examiner said to me again when we came back DMV and she passed me a piece of paper about driving test. I felt upset as I failed the test. Almost everybody can get it easily but I couldn’t. I think the examiner was too strict.

After thinking about the test again and again, I understand that the examiner was right. I made a lot of mistake during the test. Such as I forget to turn on signal light when I started vehicle and backing. I forget look behind shoulder to check behind spots when I changed lanes. At the same time, I realized that safe is the first. Not in a hurry if I want to get it. I need more practice.

Free Public Transportation on Monday

Monday is a "Spare the Air Day"!

You can ride BART, the busses or the ferrys for free all day.

Click here to learn more.

There may be many more "Spare the Air Days", but this may be the last time this year that public transportation is free.

Get out and enjoy it!

I suggest a ferry ride to San Francisco. Maybe another ferry to Sausalito? If you see me, wave. I'll be riding my bicycle

Let's Talk this Sunday at 9:30 pm

Let's talk this Sunday. If you haven't downloaded Skype yet, you can get it here. Of course, it is free.

I want to try out the Skypecast to see if we can have a group conversation over the Internet.
Click here around 9:30 on Sunday, June 25th.

Join the Techtutor group.



Talk to you this Sunday.

Incentive Students

I don't know what to say to my teacher besides "Thank you very much."

He is a very patient editor. He is never discouraged by essays which need a lot of editing. He is never bored by the topic of any essay. My teacher makes good guesses at what we are trying to communicate to our readers. He asks us to write clearly. He reminds us to make our essays easy for readers to understand.

My teacher always encourages us to write and write. He event gives certificates to students who write at least ten essays during a semeter. He does this to give students an incentive to express themselves through writing.

Richard hopes that each of his students will become an author. Perhaps, this is his dream.

So, let's realize his dream. We should write more and more next semeter. We must try our best to become authors whose essays can make our classmates laugh and cry. Let's scrible like Shakespeare to make Richard's dream come true.

Photos from our 1st Annual Picnic and Barbeque in Redwood Park

Click here to see yourself at the 1st Annual Picnic and BBQ in Redwood Park!

An Invalid Trip

My mother-in-law likes pizza very much. Yesterday we received an advertisement. It said that large pizzas are on sale and there is no need to call ahead, no need to wait, and no limit. Supplies will be available all day, everyday. My mother-in-law was very happy when she read it.

It happens that this store is not far from our home. It just takes 10 minutes to drive there. My mother-in-law decided to go and buy a pizza. She asked my sister-in-law to go with her. But my sister-in-law had to finish her job first, so she refused my mother-in-law. This time my mother-in-law went by herself.

After one and a half hour, my mother-in-law hadn’t come back. We started to worry about her. Suddenly, the door opened and my mother-in-law walked in carrying a water-melon.

“What’s the matter? Why did you buy a water-melon not a pizza?” my sister-in-law asked.

My mother-in-law looked upset and sat down and began to describe her trip. She didn’t know how to go to this pizza store when she arrived at the bus stop so she asked a woman how to get there. The woman told her how to go to the pizza store.

Finally, my mother-in-law found the pizza store. When she approached the shop she saw that some construction workers were working there. She realized that this pizza store hadn’t opened yet!

She didn’t want to come back home empty handed so she went to the market and bought a watermelon.

That’s why she bought a watermelon and not a pizza. Everyone, except my mother-in-law, laughed when we heard that.

“Don’t be disappointed, you can go again when it opens,” I said to my mother-in-law.