Timed essay ( Journal #28 )

Prejudice is a very dangerous way of thinking in our life. People will get hurt by the opinion that is not important. Because of prejudice, we are likely to lose friendships or break any kind of relationships and we can not fix forever. There are some examples that can explain how dangerous the prejudice is.

First of all, I remember that when I was in the high school, I had a bad relationship with my classmates but I did not know what the problems were. My classmates just didn’t want to talk to me or hung out with me. As time went by, I couldn’t stand anymore, so I tried to ask some of my classmates to understand that what happened to me. Finally, I got the answer that my classmates thought that I looked very proud, so they didn’t want to hang out with me. However, gradually, they found that I was not the person who they thought before and furthermore, they started discussing homework with me. One day, they told me that they almost lost a good friend just because of the prejudice.

Second, I think that most people have read a famous novel, proud and prejudice. In the novel, the main female character, Elizabeth, has a huge bias on the main male character, Mr. Darcy. Thus, Elizabeth doesn’t want to open her mind to discover Darcy’s advantages. Because of prejudice, these two people spend lots of time understanding each other and resolving the misunderstanding between each other. Fortunately, they notice that they have a wrong opinion about people on time and change their thinking to accept each other. So, even thought a good relationship can still be easily broken by a wrong opinion, that is, prejudice.

All in All, Actually, I agree that most of people have their own bias on others; however, I still believe that we have to observe others carefully and also give ourselves more opportunities to discover those people’s good. If we can possess this thinking, I believe that we will make more friends then we have now and we won’t be manipulated by the dangerous thinking, prejudice.

Thanksgiving ( Journal #27 )

This year is going to end and next year is coming. In this year, I have experienced some big events that make me feel unforgettable. Here are some reasons that influenced me a lot and the events also teach me a lot.

First, this year, I have experienced my father’s back surgery. My father barely has health problems. He always pays more attention on his health, so he exercises every day and eats healthily. On June, 2007, he started feeling pain on his left thigh. Initially, he thought that it wasn’t a big deal, so he ignored the pain problem instead of more exercising. However, as time goes by, the pain problem was getting worse and he couldn’t even walk. At that time, I couldn’t stand any more, so I insisted that I wanted to send my father to hospital for seeking medical treatment. Thus, I called my former colleagues for I asked them to arrange wards and examination procedure for my father. Before my father got the hospital, my colleagues had already arranged everything and waited for us in the emergency room. After my father accepted examinations, we were informed that my father was likely to have back surgery. So, they started arranging surgery schedule and preparing any details for my father. Ultimately, my father got through the crisis successfully. I really appreciate my colleagues because of them, my father could get his health life back and I could put my stress down before I left for USA. I feel moved because some of them I don’t even know them, but they still do their best for my father. In my father’s ward, I could usually see lots of colleagues to visit my father. They encouraged me and my father and also provided their personal experiences to us for soothing our tension. I appreciate those people indeed.

Secondary, I appreciate my whole family. Since they knew that I was going to leave for USA, they gave their whole support to me and encouraged me when I felt frustrated. Especially my father, even though he lain in the hospital and was going to received the surgery, he still asked me don’t change my schedule that I planed to leave for USA. He always tells me that I have to move on my life and don’t feel hesitant about my decisions. Because of my family, I can pursue my dream and I can stand on this foreign land now.

Finally, I am going to thank those people who have ever helped me before. From planning my dream to practicing my dream, I experienced numerous difficult times but when I fell into despairing situations, those people would unknowingly appear to my life to help me to overcome the difficult situations. Because of those people’s carefulness and kindness, I could carry out those complicated procedure and continue to move on my dream.

That is why I really appreciated those people. I don’t believe that people can live without each other in the world. We receive people’s help everyday. If someone asks me that what you will do to repay those people, I will answer that all I can do for those people is that I will keep helping others. I hope that we can use our own power to influence those who don’t care about others and make our world be batter.

Kung Pao Chicken ( Journal #26 )

INGREDIENTS:

2 boneless chicken breasts, about 6 ounces each

Marinade:
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
2 teaspoons cold water
2 teaspoons cornstarch

Sauce:
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
2 teaspoons light soy sauce
1 tablespoon black or red rice vinegar, or red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon chicken broth or water
3 teaspoons granulated sugar
1/2 tsp salt
a few drops sesame oil
1 tsp cornstarch

Other:
6 to 8 small dried red chili peppers, or as desired
2 garlic cloves,
1/2 cup skinless, unsalted peanuts
3 - 4 cups oil for deep-frying and stir-frying

PREPARATION:

1. Cut the chicken into 1-inch cubes. Mix in the soy sauce, rice wine or sherry, water and cornstarch. Marinate the chicken for 30 minutes.

2. In a small bowl, mix together the sauce ingredients, whisking in the cornstarch last.

3. Remove the seeds from the chili peppers and chop.

4. Peel and finely chop the garlic.

5. Heat the oil for deep-frying to between 360 and 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Carefully slide the chicken into the wok, and deep-fry for about 1 minute, until the cubes separate and turn white. Remove and drain on paper towels. Drain all but 2 tablespoons oil from the wok.

6. Add the chilies peppers and stir-fry until the skins starts to darken and blister. Add the garlic. Stir-fry until aromatic (about 30 seconds). Add the deep-fried chicken back into the pan. Stir-fry briefly, then push up to the sides of the wok and add the sauce in the middle, stirring quickly to thicken. Stir in the peanuts. Mix everything together and serve hot

Jurchen cultures( # Journal 25 )

Jurchen language is the topic of our research paper. In Chinese history, Jurchens dominated China for two hundred and sixty- eight years, that was, Ching Dynasty. Jurchens had their own characters and cultures. However, during the Ching Dynasty, even though Manchurian controlled the whole dynasty, the main ethnic was still the Hans. Therefore, most Jrchens’ characters and cultures were mingled by Hans’ cultures. In the nowadays, there is no one use Jurchen to be an official language but we could still find some Jurchen cultures in the China. Most of Jurchens’ offspring have lived in the China and some of them have been still trying to keep their own cultures such as art works and characters. Some Jurchens’ offspring roamed to the middle of Taiwan. They have lived in a village which called NIAN village together for a long time and one of the common characters is that thoes peoples' last name all named NIAN. NIAN family knew that there are descendants of Jurchen but they didn’t pass on their own cultures to their next generation.

Scary Story ( Journal #24 )

Well, scary story! Actually, I don’t have many scary stories that I can say even though I worked in the hospital for many years.

However, there was a story that happened to my college period. In my college, there is a policy that every fresh man has to live in the dormitory for one year. So, I lived in the dorm for a year. The design of my dorm is very simple. There are four beds and four desks in the room. One day morning, when I was lying on my bed and was struggling with my brain which is lack of oxygen, I suddenly felt that someone was shaking my bed violently. I thought that there is someone playing a joke to me definitely, so I bent my head to check who the person is but I couldn’t see any one around my bed. I thought that maybe I was too sleepy to figure out the situation so, I lain back my bed. After I lain back my bed, the same situation happened to me again and I also lower my head to exam the surroundings but the result was the same, that was, no one is near me. Finally, I couldn’t stand any more, so I was jumping from my bed and rushing to my room. When I saw my roommates, I asked them if they played a joke to me. My roommates answered me that after they woke up, they went to bathroom to clean up and they hadn’t come back the room yet.

I am not the person who is superstition and that time was my first time to face such kind of super power events. I still believe that the spirit or ghost didn’t want to hurt me at all and it just wanted to remind me that don’t be late, so it tried to wake me up. That is my personal super power story.

Chinese Cultures (# Journal 23 )

Chinese cultures have nearly 50000000 histories. As time goes on, most of cultures, we forgot already. There is a real story that my friend told me. My friend, Dian, studied in the USA 3 years ago and she has a lot of Native American friends. One day, she noticed that one of her friends was very weird. The friend looked like having some secrets that couldn’t tell her. So, Dian asked her friend bravely” what is wrong? Do you have something that wants to tell me?” Finally, her friend told her” actually, I just feel your necklace is very beautiful and I like it very much.” Dian said, “Thank you, but why you are afraid of telling me?” Her friend answered her, “Because last time when I told a Chinese friend that her jade is very beautiful, she gave the jade to me at once, so I thought that I shouldn’t give her my praise because it sounded that I am rude because I wanted her to give the jade to me.” After Dian heard the story, she started laughing. Dian explained to her friend that Chinese people are very hospitable and Chinese people will do their best to satisfy their guests because Chinese want their guests to feel that even though they are in the other people’s house, they feel they are in their own home. That is why the host gave the jade to her friend. This story didn’t cause any embarrassing situations or results but the story could totally explain the nature of Chinese people, that is, passion and hospitable.

California fires ( Journal #22 )

Recently, everyone can feel the power of Santa Anna Wind. The wind makes people feel dry, hot and windless and I can’t even breathe everyday because of the dry weather. The disaster has been causing nearly 300000 people losing their home or properties. One of the reasons that make the disaster is the Santa Anna wind phenomenon but another more important reason is humans’ behavior. I always think that God grant humans numerous benefits such as, food, water, and nature but humans not only don’t value everything that they have already had but also kept destroying these things that surround us.

The event made me recalled another disaster that happened about 4 years ago, that is, SARS disease. SARS disease cause a bunch of people died. The main reason is a virus, coronavirus. Originally, the virus was not a dangerous virus and it could be easily killed by antibiotic medicines. However, because modern people abused antibiotic medicines, the coronavirus started changing itself and became another virus that contained medicines resistance ability. That is why SARS disease is so hard to control during that time.

Chinese has a idiom that is, "if the disaster is made by God, humans still have chance to survive, however, if the disaster is made by human being, humans can barely survive.” The idiom just only wants to remind us to value everything that we have had already. As to such kind of disaster, I strongly believe one principle that people don’t try to manipulate the nature. That is what I feel about the California fires.