Photos

Hi, All,

Here is a link to the photos I promised.

Fixing a Flat

IMG_1604
Originally uploaded by muypadre.

It is a good thing that we brought a patch kit and tools.

A Cafe in Small Village

IMG_1603
Originally uploaded by muypadre.

We stopped for coffee and a slice of apple cake in this cafe.

America's Life

Many immigrants come to the United States in order to turn over a new leaf. They wanted their life to be a bed of roses, but it is not easy for each immigrant, because America's life is competitive. People are almost not satisfied with what they are having. So that they have to work hard all the time.

America's life is always busy. It is really bushes. When people see each other, they just say in a nutshell. They don't beat around the bush like the people who are living in my country right now.

Have A Good time to Peter, Teacher

This Friday is going to be the last day to see Peter. I'm going to represent the class to say "Thank you very much" to him for the four weeks he has been teaching us.

In the last four weeks. We have learned many good lessons, idioms and a few songs. They were very useful and connected with the life. We liked it very much.

Well . . . time is quite short for us. four weeks are almost passing. Perhaps, we can't see Perter anymore. We hope sometimes, Peter will comeback to substitute our teacher again. He is nice teacher. He always ran against time. We never forget him because he always let students win. That the point we liked it very much!

Peter is going to Mexico. He is going to visit his girl friend, Maria. He'll surely have a very nice vacation. We hope Peter has a good trip and has fun with Maria in Mexico!

There really are windmills in Holland!


Yesterday we bicycled to Volendam.

It is about 20 miles from where we are staying.

Volendam is a very cute village. The houses are small.

English Is So Complicated!

Engish is so complicated. If we don't try to remember above all the rules of grammar, we never speak or write correctly. Sometimes, I force myself to remember all the grammar that I have learned, but it is not easy after all. I told myself that I have to take time and take it easy. Sooner or later I will get it.

I wonder I have learned some words quite a few times, but they're not more and less in my mind. Finally, I realized that I didn't like them much. No wonder they didn't keep up in my memory!

Kayak Polo Worlds 2006

IMG_1639
Originally uploaded by muypadre.

Alex and Sophia (my son and daughter) almost pose for a photo at the park in Amsterdam where the tournament is being held.

It is a beautiful place, but there has been a lot of rain.

Here is a photo of the Under 21 Men´s team.

Smart Mouse

There was once time I bought a jean for my daughter. At that night I didn't bing the jean into her closet. I put it on the sofa of the ling room.

Next day morning when I just woke up. I went out the living room to watched TV. Ah ah, the jean was ripped. There were a lot of holes on the jean with deep layers.

Suddently, I thought of a mouse. It really had a lot of nerve. It played a mischief on my jean. I had to give the mouse a taste of its own medicine because I took pains to picked and chose for a long day shopping.

I held my breath. I went to the market to bought a " mouse trap." At that night I put some " mouse's favorite food " to hung on the hook. I left the " mouse trap " at the living room.

Following the next days, I was indeed hopeless because the mouse may felt it in its bones. The mouse didn't comeback to do mischief again. What's a smart mouse!

My Idea

Come up to talk is a big charlenge, but I try because this is an oppotunity for me .

I know come up to talk, sometimes, I confuse classmates and the teacher. I feel nervous and embarrass. I try my best on the next time and the next time . . . . I believe that I will be brave to talk in public one day.

As you know "Time is money" "Time as gold" If the teacher ask each of students to have news everyday. Don't you think like this waste our time? We are all immigrants, the time we are in class is very valuable. We try to be active, don't be passive students. We will lose our gold time.

Peter is nice teacher. He doesn't want to be a tyrant with students. So I hope everybody to make a volunteer to come up to class to talk. I think the people come up to talk are "Heroes."

The Apple

My daughter is the apple of my eye. My daughter is the one who brings me a lot of happyness and laughter. She can joke to make me happy. She can imitate the people to make me laugh. My daughter consoles me whenever I am feeling blue. She is center of my universe.

Joanna is a smart girl. When I am in a pickle, she comes right and helps me out. She helps me a lot to watch and take good care of his brother. She is a boss if no parents home. When his brother did something not right, she felt fishy and screamed at his brother. She is a tyrant.

Sometimes, She substitutes me to take care of her father. So everyone loves her except his brother, but he adores her alot.

Joanna is center of my world. I love her very, very much . . .

Am I A Peach?

There was once I visited an orphan institute. I bought a bag of peanuts candy. When I entered the orphan apartment, I gave each of the kids a present. They were very happy and nuts with my candy. Humm . . . Yummy! They shouted and ate the candy. They whispered in smb's ears to each other that I was a peach. I felt very pleasure and joyous.

I stayed there for a half day. We were in a group to play together. Suddently, there was a boy played pranks to one of the other girl. I went bananas at that time and I yell at him. Then, we continued to play. Accidentally, I had heard the boy whispered by himself "She was not a peach." "It was baloney."

Somtimes, to control myself is not a piece of cake.

The Berkeley Kite Festival

The annual Berkeley Kite Festival held up in the Cesar E Chavez Park yesterday.
My two friends, my wife, my elder son and I went to the park at noon time.
The sky was cloudy, but we could see more children and their parents had been there. Many giant kites floated and swung their tails in the sky. When the show and competitions started, the blue sky appeared gradually. I found that people became more and more. Most of people were all the whole family. And I found that many disabled persons showed up even more. In that time, more variety of colorful kites flied full of sky. ‘Candy Drop’ caused children and people cheering. It made me felt this active event could give all people happiness, no matter child or elder, healthy or disabled.
We enjoyed this event yesterday.

It Looks as If . . .

Ellen is almost as funny as Richard. We have ever hope to have a substitute teacher like Richard Blum.

Everytime Ellen comes into our class to be our substitute teacher. The class is so exciting. We conflict each other. Everybody is very active and in a happy atmosphere.

Ellen is our top banana, so we respect her a lot. Whenever she tells us to stop talking, everyone stop right after that.

Ellen acts as she is very busy with her mouth, he ears and her gestures. She has to control many students in the class.

Ellen is a good and devoted teacher. When she substitutes Richard I feel as if she were real Richard in the class room.

A Subtitute Teacher's First Day

Today is the first day we start to work with a subtitute teacher. Everyone in the class is very happy and excited to the new teacher.

Now everyone in class almost speak English. So, today the subtitute teacher only made one penny in the jar. it's very good because money is newcomer's blood and tear. So that we have to be very careful and control oneself. We have to obey what our teacher requirement.

I thought speaking English in the class is "Rule of thumb." Our teacher has made "The big mouth jar" about several months already. We almost had used to speak English in the class now. I think nobody wants to spend that money anymore.

I left early today so, I asked Peter to give me the grammar sheet. He gave me right away both of the grammar sheets. He is indeed very nice teacher. My hope has come true now.

Have A Good Trip to Mr.Blum

Today is the last day to see our teacher because he is going to take a long vacation to Denmark. Although ocean's apart, but we will be right here waiting......... and waiting for him because he is number 1 teacher.

We are going to be here with another teacher next week. We don't know yet who is going to substitute our teacher. We hope he (or she) will be an interesting teacher like Mr. Blum, but we hope he won't be a tyranny like Richard.

Next week, we are going to be freedom. We can talk our languages when we don't understand each other. I think the substitute teacher will be nice to us and won't tell us put the money in the jar.

We actually don't know what to say is better than the words "Have a good trip" and "Have fun" to our teacher.

Our teacher is going to live it up overseas. For sure, he will enjoy and relax much over there. We hope he won't forget the waiting of all of us right here!

Xiao Qin’s Story by Mei Fang

This story happened in Chen Du, Sri Chuan, China. Xiao Qin was fifteen years old. She completed middle school. After that, she spent three years writing her story.

The story was about her mother’s “tears of blood” life. The story was four hundred thousand words long. The title is “Went ThroughWind and Rain, Haven’t Seen Rainbow”

Xiao Qin wanted to sell the rights to the book. She wanted to use the money to pay for her studies in high school and at the university. Xiao Qin and her mother stood on a crowded street and held up a sign. The sign said, “Hot and bitter story.” She talked to many publishers, but no publisher would buy her story. She went home disappointed.

In her story, Xiao Quin wrote that when she was seven years old she had a happy family. Her father planted lotus root for a living. He had saved a lot of money and they had a happy life, but her father enjoyed gambling. He lost his money and he left the family for another woman.

Xiao Qin’s mother, who also took care of her uncle and his daughter, had to leave the family to go find work.

When Xiao Qin’s mother arrived in Shen Zhen, she was tricked and sold to a song and dancehall for 5,000 yuan.

Eventually, the police rescued her from the dancehall and sent her back to her family in Cheng Du.

For a living, her mother worked as a dance hostess. She made friends with a bad man but he treated her very badly. Xiao Qin didn’t know what to do. She had come to the end of her patience.

Fortunately, she met an unemployed worker. They were married. This ended more than ten years of suffering. From then on, Xiao Qin, her mother and her stepfather lived ordinary happy lives.

submitted by Mei Fang

Humor

I think humor is xxx. It is necessary for everybody. It relaxes our tiredness and relieves our stress. Do you agree?

Life can be ridiculous. I like it when something crazy happens. I like it when people or situations make me laugh and I like to share my laughter with people.

Previously, I didn't think I needed to collect amusing stories, but now, suddenly, I think I should collect them and write them down in my essays because I want to share my humor with all of you. I want you guys to share a smile with me.

I hope you guys collect interesting storiesand spend a little time to share them me on the blog. Make me laugh, because laughter is good medicine for everyone.

I think humor has to a part of everyday life so we don't feel bored while we are working or studying.

Humor is a heath food. It helps us to look younger and have more love of life.

Promotion Ceremony

On June 14^th, there was a “promotion ceremony” at my daughter's school. She had to go there an hour before because she was salutatorian. She had been chosen to give a speech at the ceremony.

After an hour my husband and I attended the ceremony. Outside the school, people were selling many things for the graduates like garland wreaths, bears, and balloons. My husband told me to buy a gift for my daughter.

I bought a bird for her and we went into the ceremony room. As I entered, I saw my daughter sitting on the stage with some teachers and students. The ceremony started. People stood up to sing the national anthem.

First, the principal came up and welcomed all of the parents and guardians. Next, the guest speaker talked about the students' study process. He talked about the students' goals for the future. Then, several students came up to read their essays.

Finally, the students who were being promoted were awarded certificates.

After the promotion ceremony finished, we went out to the stadium. We took some pictures and then we went home.

A few days later, my husband went to Costco. He bought an Ipod for his daughter. She felt very happy and enjoyed the Ipod more than the bird I gave to her. But she never forgets to listen to the bird’s song every night when she goes into her room to sleep.

Problems to Report to Your Landlord

1. There are a lot of ants in the kitchen.
2. The refrigerator doesn’t stay cold.
3. The bathroom ceiling is leaking.
4. The roof is leaking. It needs to be repaired immediately.
5. There is a big crack in the wall near the living room window.
6. The window in my bedroom is broken.
7. There is a big wasp nest the gutter on the south side of the house.
8. The bathroom sink is clogged.
9. The toilet is clogged. It overflows when I flush it.
10. The front door is sticky. I think the hinge is broken.
11. The smoke detector doesn’t work.
12. The dining room light is not working.
13. The water heater doesn’t work. We don’t have hot water.
14. There are termites in my bedroom wall.
15. I don’t have lights in the living room and bedroom. I think there is an electrical problem.
16. The fan in the living room doesn’t work. I smell smoke when I try to turn it on.
17. The carpet in the living room is torn.
18. The hot water faucet in the bathroom is broken. I can’t turn it off.
19. The garage door will not open.
20. I get a shock when I try to plug something into the electrical outlet in the kitchen.
21. The paint in the kitchen is peeling and I am afraid that there may be lead in it.
22. I smell gas when I turn on the stove.
23. I think the tree in the front yard is going to fall.
24. The wind knocked down the side fence.
25. The upstairs neighbors make too much noise.