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.

Time management ( Journal #21 )

Time management is a big issue for university students. Students who study in the university are very different from high school students. In the university, most professors won’t assign students daily homework. Maybe they will just only give students a schedule to remind students what they should do. Thus, if students don’t know how to arrange their schedule, they will tend to fail on their study. There are some techniques that can assist students to manage their time.

First of all, students need to discriminate their study time and leisure time. To set up a personal schedule is very important for students. Students can review their own schedule to arrange their study progression. Second, students have to arrange extra time for unexpectedly accidents. If students arrange their time too exact and if some accidents happen, students will be hard to master these things and they will lose their flexibility to deal with these accidents.

The last one is that students need to separate their study time and leisure time. Although improving academic skills are very important for university students, they still value their physical and mental health. Students need to arrange some leisure activities to vent out their stress or negative emotion. Students can release their stress by exercising or hanging out with friends. By these activities, students not only can release their own pressures but also can refill their energy for keeping moving.

Therefore, I believe that students can efficiently manage their time by arranging their own schedule and discriminating study and leisure time.

Essay ( jornal # 20 )

Television is one of the greatest inventions in the world. For modern people, television has also become an indispensable thing in their life. Some people might say: watching television is a waste of time. However, for me, I think that watching television is not a waste of time. By watching television, we not only can receive different knowledge but also can obtain relaxations from our stressful life. For international students, watching television is also a good way to learn foreign language and foreign culture.

First of all, for most of international students, learning foreign language and different culture are their priority. Most of time, students learn foreign language from text books and classes. After school, they can utilize television to be an approach to continue learning. For example: students can choose some educational programs like discovery and national geology channel to broaden their vision and obtain diverse knowledge.

Besides, by watching these programs, they can also train their listening and speaking skills. When students watch television, they can learn how to exactly pronounce the foreign words or they can learn how to apply the vocabulary that they learn from the class to usual life.

Furthermore, watching television is not only a leaning approach but also a relaxation method for most of people. In this strong competition society, people are always under an enormous stressful atmosphere. Sometimes, people have no time to go outside to relax. At this time, watching a good movie or a soap opera can help people to put down their stress temporarily. We can name watching television as “no-brain activities,” that is, people do not need to use their brain to think but totally relax. We can choose a music channel and spend a whole noon to enjoy the wonderful moment.

All in all, I think that watching television can not only help people to relax in their leisure time but also provide other learning approaches to learn foreign language and culture especially for students. Thus, that is why I think that watching television is not a waste of time.

Halloween Party ( jounal #19 )

Halloween is coming. I have never joined such kind of party so far. Actually, I am not a party animal, so I don’t go to party in the past. As I received the invitation card, I had no intention to join the Halloween party at that time. One of the reasons is that I don’t know what kind of costume I can wear. After my sister heard what I said, she yelled me. She said” you should experience any kind of American culture and Halloween is the most important occasions in the America. Besides my sister, my friends also strongly invited me to join them. So finally, I changed my mind. As to costume, I will probably play a sexy nurse or a naughty devil. Why will I choose this costume? First of all, the nurse costume is related to my occupation because usually, we worked in the hospital professionally and seriously, now in this particularly occasion, I want to reverse this stereotype image to everyone. The naughty devil, because it is Halloween, it is very appropriate to play a character that is related to ghost. That is why I want to choose a devil role to be my costume. Well, that is only my imagination. If someone really want to know what kind of costume I will wear, go to the Halloween party and then the answer will be revealed at that time.

To my dear friends ( Journal #18 )

Actually, recently, my emotion is not really stable. I feel very weakness and hopeless. I can understand that people in the different stage will have their own task and we will have our own concerns. Even though I am doing some things that I am supposed to do, I still feel very untrue. Originally, in my home country, I had a pretty good job and very good salary. However, I quitted my job for pursuing a dream. No body knows if the dream will come true or not. Maybe, I can never reach the dream. Now I am standing on this place where I am pursuing for a long time, however, I start feeling fears. When I am struggling with the fears, they suddenly appear in my life. Who are they? Well, they are my dear friends. These friends are not all from my home country. Although they are from different country, they are just like my old friends. When I meet troubles, they will stand by me and support me without complaints.


Yesterday when I was talking to my friends, she told me that 2 months later, everything will change. Some of my friends will move to another state and some of them will transfer to another school or go back to their home country. Suddenly, I and my friend felt very sorrowful. Although we still have 2 more months can be together, we are still very sad because we all know that time won’t stop for any reasons or person. In my opinion, I hate any kind of short relationships and if I know that the relationship is short, then I won’t start. As I was falling into such kind of negative emotion, one of my friend reminded me that let us treasure the moment that we have now. She said that no matter which kind of relationships are, one day the relationships will still end. But if we can treasure this moment and create more memories between each other, we will never feel any regret and the memories will also be branded on our heart forever.

"C’est La Vie!”--- That is life. Now I still feel miserable for I am going to leave my friends, however, I will make more opportunities to hang out with my friends. This journal will be bestowed upon my dear friends; thank you for you guys always stand with me and support me when i am frustrated. I hope that you can understand how grateful I am and in my mind how important you are. Thank you my friends.

The mirror has two faces ( Journal #16 )

In the nowadays, there are numerous movies around us. Actually, I love to watch movies and I am used to watching movies for I can vent my negative feelings. One of my favorite movies is “The Mirror Has Two Faces.” This movie was published in 1996. The director is Barbra Streisand and she is also one of a main character in this movie. This movie is mainly talking if the appearance of women can affect a relationship. Barbra in this movie was playing a professor of university. She always thought that her appearance was not good. In other words, she felt herself was not beautiful. Until her Mr. Right appeared, she just realized that actually, the appearance probably will not mean anything.

I love the movie because I have the same feelings with the character that Barbra plays. I saw that a lot of people around me always pursuit or focus on the appearance of people. Sometimes, they don’t really care about the person’s characteristic; they just only focus on their exterior appearance. Gradually, I felt that I was influenced by those who were around me as well. I lost my confidence for I didn’t have a beautiful appearance. I started paying more attention on my clothing and hairdo, yet I forgot to strengthen the things I had already. I kept blindly seeking some intangible things. For instance; I spent a lot of money on my clothes, shoes, and accessories, however, I didn’t buy some good books to rinse my arid empty soul. Until I saw the movie, I suddenly noticed that when I was seeking those untouchable things, I was also losing some truly important things. Because of this movie, I started reviewing my life and tried to correct my attitude in time. Now I still keep pursuing some things that will make me become more attractive, but I also realize that only when I am full of self-confidence I can just become the person who I am pursuing. I mean ---- Beauty.

The Expository paragraph ( Journal #17 )

If I could visit any place in the world, I would like to visit Korea. I have some reasons for my ideal. First, in the recent year, Korean drama becomes very popular and through the Korean drama, we can see Korean’s own culture such as: food, custom, and so on and the more information from Korean I contact the more interest I have. I want to further know and experience the really Korean culture. For example: how Korean women dress, how spicy their food is and how beautiful the winter scenes are. The second reason is that recently, Korea’s economic system is getting stronger. One of the reasons that make Korea’s economy gets blooming is high-tech products. Such as: cell phones and computers and also those products make whole world start knowing Korea. Finally, each girl loves to shop for the fashion accessory of course including me. I would like to go to the place where the Korean young people will usually go shopping and I will purchase the latest and fashion things for my family and my friends. According to those reasons, I would like to choose Korea to visit.

Universal Studios ( Journal #15 )

On September 29th, all of ALP students had a big patty, that is, we went to universal studios. This time is not my first time to go to universal studios; however, it was my first time to go there with my classmates who were from different countries. This experience was very interesting because each person must use their second language, English, to communicate with each other. Although we were not in the regular class, we were still l learning. Some people like speeding rides but others don’t. Some people like horror things like horror house but some of them don’t even though each person has their own liking. Sometimes, we have different pinions that will make us argue but eventually we can always find the balance. By this traveling experience, I start trying to hang out with some classmates who I am not familiar with. By this chance, I also met some friends that we didn’t see each other for a long time. Actually, I love people. I love the feeling that when I and my friends be with together.

I strongly believe that people can’t be alone. No matter how old you are or which status you are at, we all need people surround us like family and friends.

So, I say: my dear friends, how about eating “Hot Pot” next week.

The American Family ( Jounal #14 )

West world and east world are two different culture groups. Not only are the population, culture, and education different but also the attitude toward others has also their own distinction. There are some resources that we can observe about the American family. When I watched movies, I was usually touched by the relationship between parents and children. For instance: In the American family, parents would give opportunities of choices to their children. They wouldn’t force children to do anything that they didn’t want to. If parents felt that their children made a wrong decision, they would analyze the problems to help children to understand and furthermore to make a right decision. If children insisted their perspectives, even though parents felt inappropriate, parents would still respect children’s decisions; however, parents would tell their children to shoulder the results that they made. Besides, if the American family faced to arguments, parents would try to talk to their children and by expressing parents’ feeling to children, children could know the concern from parents and understand their parents. Another obvious difference in the American family is that children wouldn’t hide their love and feeling to their parents. American children were accustomed to expressing their love and feeling to others and this expression could increase the intimate beween each other.

In the contrast, in Asian family, parents and children rarely expressed their own feeling to each other. Most of time, parents would ask their children to obey parents’ directions so children have no opportunities to develop their own idea and creativity.

In my point of view, I think that American children have a lot of creativity that can make them individually. And American children can easily express their opinion in the public are. When people see the American children, people will be astonished by American children’s confidence and accomplishments. A psychologist ever said” children’s developing of personality will have been accomplished before 7 years old.” I think that that is why so many outstanding people such as: Bill Gates, Dale Carnegie, and so on, are all American or they ever accepted American education.

yellowstone national park ( Journal #13 )

Yellowstone national park is the first national park in the America established in 1872. The superficial measure of Yellowstone national park contains three states, Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. When I reached the Yellowstone, I was shocked by such spectacular scenery. In my viewing range, I can only see a great amount of shrubbery with emerald color just like a green jade. After I entered the inner area, a gentle breeze with a little bit grass smell blown on my face; I felt that I seemed to revive from the dim world. What I can see is only the beauty of nature. When we were driving along the shrubbery forest, we were listening to the melody which was created by the rivers, birds and wildlife. Along the rivers, we saw that some wildlife such as: deers, elks were taking rest on the river side. These wildlife seemed to greet to us. At that time , we felt like that we were in a tiny, magic wildlife world.

long distance relationship ( Journal #12 )

I don’t know which topic I want to write for this free journal. However, recently, I am very curious about a relationship, that is, long distance relationship. Long distance relationship can happen to everyone such as friends, family, and couples. But today I want to discuss about the long distance relationship between the lover and friends. Some people believe the long distance relationship, but some of them don’t. Each person has their own perspective. As for me, I don’t really believe that the long distance relationship exists. I mean that yes, the long distance relationship exists yet most of time, the relationship can’t be a real. For example, one of my friends named Helen. Last month she went back to my home country, Taiwan, for visiting her family and friends who had ever studied in the USA. When she met up her friends, she found that there were no common topics of conversations between her and her friends and she also felt a little bit awkward between both of them. When she came back to USA, she started blaming her friends to me. I told her that she shouldn’t blame her friends because as time went on, people’s thinking and feeling would also change. That is a normal procedure about the long distance relationship.

On the other hand, the long distance relationship between couples will also happen. Therefore, their spouse would do anything that they could do to keep the long distance relationship. They would call their spouse or boy/girl friend two or three times a day for controlling the couples’ or spouse’s activities. Besides, when during the vacation, they would try to be with their spouse together even they didn’t have many vacations they could use.

I think that to keep such kind of relationship is too difficult because you have to pay more and more attention to others. I believe that no matter what kind of the relationship is and how painful the memory you have, it would disappear eventually. So how about let us just treasure the people who are around us and value every relationship we have had already. I think that it is more practical than pursue the faraway long distance relationship.

favorit season (Journal # 11)

It is hard to say that which season is my favorite. Because of global warming, we have difficulty to discriminate the seasons’ change. In the nowadays, the weather just looks like only have two seasons--- summer and autumn. However, such kind of situation hasn’t influenced me at all because my favorite season is summer. Yes, it is summer. Although some people will think that summer day is too hot and the sunshine is too harsh, I still love summer day. In the summer, because of the weather, people will dress up some good looking clothes such as bikini. These colorful cloths make me feel cheerful. While people who dress up the clothes are walking on the street, they just look like a lot of different flavor of lollipops jumping on the streets.

Actually, I am not an optimistic person and especially, when I can’t see the sunshine, I will feel that the fear in my heart is getting bigger and bigger. But when I stand on the streets and feel the warmth from the sunshine, at the moment, I will think that come on, it is ok; everything will be fine and every miserable thing will also pass away. I always think that the magical sunshine seems to be able to absorb my whole pessimistic emotions just like a huge sponge. Sometime, when the sunshine is covered, I just look like a flat balloon--- no energy and vitality. I think that summer is a very vivid season so, when I am under the sunshine, I can refill my energy so easily. That is why I love summer so much.

An important person (Journal #10)

As we live in this world, everyday we will meet numerous different types of people. Some of them, we will easily forget, but others, sometimes we just can’t leave them behind because those people have already implanted in our heart deeply. Such kinds of people are existent; however, as time goes on, we will usually forget unintentionally.
Hoever, there is a person who influences me very much. Before this journal, I almost forget the importance of the person. He is my father. I am not saying that I forget my father. I just mean that I feel too familiar with him to remember his importance.

I came from a usual family. My mother was a teacher and my father was a general in army. As people knew that my father was a general, they always thought that my family discipline must be very strict. Such as I have to weak up very early for doing morning exercise or my grade must be very outstanding otherwise I would accept very serious punishment. However, those were not truth. In the contrast, my father treated me and my sister as we were princesses. Since childhood my father always told us that we should be honest and should be careful for doing everything. If you asked me to provide an example, I would say that the person would be my father. Just like I mentioned, my father served in the army. As a general, he taught the soldiers must devote themselves to the army and do their best in their position. When my father was in the army, he always was the first people to get in the departments and was the last person to leave the departments. A lot of time he couldn’t go home for he had to stay in the army in order to supervise some maneuvers. As the maneuvers were over, he would give the soldiers some rewards for encouraging them. My father was accustomed to doing everything by himself yet he loved to help others heartily. He often told me that he had nothing that was worth flaunting but incorruption.

Because of my father, I always reminded myself that I had to be honest and to be industrious. Actually, because I followed my father’s directions, I indeed gained a lot of praise from my friends, colleagues, and my supervisors. I think that my father’s life is a best example to let me know which kinds of person that I want to be. For me, learning his life and conduct is just like studying a great and useful book. That is how my father influences me to be a better person.

Wake Up ~ Educationalists ( Journal # 9 )

I have been to USA for 2 months ago. Everything is fine, the weather, people, and food all surprise me. I have also found a special situation that was worth discussing. That was American education. For most of students, the most important purpose to them is accepting America education, but the most difficult adaptation is America education as well. Particularly for Asian students such as: Japanese, Korean, and Chinese, the vastest challenges will be how they can be involved into the different education systems. Why I especially mention about Asian students, that is, most of Asian students, we are accustomed to being a good listener but not being a good talker. I remembered that when I was in the school, I rarely had opportunities to express my own ideals. Most of time, we just sat down the chairs, took notes, and listened to the lectures the teacher talked to.

In the contrast, when I touched the American education, I noticed that American teacher were used to utilizing distinct group work to improve students’ academic skills. American teachers preferred group discussing to solely listening lectures. They believed that by academic discussion, students not only could train their independent thinking but also could learn how to communicate with those people who had different backgrounds. By this approaches, students were able to challenge each other and to gain numerous knowledge and ideals that they didn’t touch before.

I feel very pathetic. Comparing American students, Asian students were always lack of critical thinking and confidence. For example, as I practiced my writing skills, I always had no clues about my essays topic, so I spent a great amount of time thinking the related ideals. However, since accepting American education, I have been starting thinking many varied issues that I touched already. Because of the brain storming, gradually, I started having some novel ideals. However, I felt pity because Asian students were lack of such suitable education systems. I hoped that our educationalists could wake up and do something. If they do so, I believed that we will discover another Bill Gates in the Asia country.

9/11 A Tragedy (Journal # 8)

"You do always not understand me!! “ I said angrily. On the September, 11th, 2001 hot and humid night, that day, I and my parents had a big fighting. I shunted down my door and lain down my bed. 2 hours later, I felt a little bit hungry so I went out my room and wanted to find something I can eat. When I entered living room and tried to find some food, unwarily, I noticed that the TV was playing a movie about wars. “What kind of movies you are watching.” “What’s the big deal?” I was thinking. "What are you watching? What’s the name of the movies?” I asked. "……………” nobody answered me. “Hey I am talking to you mom, dad!” I said it again. "The United Stated was attacked.” My father answered me pensively. I couldn’t figure out those words he said was series or not. I just couldn’t encode his words. "Are you series?” I still felt wondering. “I have to call your sister and aunt immediately!! "Ok, I knew that he was not kidding me. When I kept a close watch on the TV, I found that I felt that my chest was so tight that I was aware I hold my breath unknowingly.

During that time, I worked in the hospital already. Day by day, I just only went to work and went home invariably, and I had no feeling about everything. But at that time, when I saw the news, I felt as if the pores of my body were all opening up, and felt like some extremely cold water just poured my body from head to toy, suddenly, I felt scared. After the tragedy happened, I watched TV every day and I was crying with those people who suffered from the terrific attacks.

However, one person made me changed my miserable emotion, that is, the former mayor of New York City, Rudolph W. Giuliani. I am not talking about his merit or demerit. I just want to give him a credit for a special opinion. "We should go shopping, go outside, and enjoy our life.” “We won’t be frightened by such terrific attacks!” the former mayor of New York City indignantly talked to the residents of New York City. “How optimistic he is!” I thought.I think that as a mayor of New York City, he tried to recall the courage and hope that people have already abandoned and he also knew that if people lost their merely courage and hope, they won’t go through the grieved occurrence.

In my heart, I am deeply touched by this opinion. And I also believe that when the only feeble lights are blown, only hope can light up our heart and lead us thought out the dark . Nowmatter how miserable we feel, it will pass away eventually. Don't give up, my friends !

The marrying age ? ( Journal # 6 )

I remembered that when I was in high school, my mother always worried that I will get a boyfriend and because of the boyfriend, my school work could be affected. So, she prohibited me to get boyfriend during the high school time. As time goes on, as I came off the student stage and entered my professional field, my mother instead worried that I have no time to meet a good guy because I am too busy to know other people. I always think how contradictory my mom is.

In the last generation, the women’s stereotype is that women don’t need to accept high education because their destiny is to get married with a nice guy and to manage their family carefully; that is enough. I think that is why the women who are in the last generation are all got married in their brilliant age because they aren’t independent enough. However, in the nowadays, gradually, not only do women’s self-conscious arise but also they find their self- value. Therefore, people’s opinion about women has also changed its tune. The more and more women get married after 35 years old and some of them don’t even want marriage because they don't need to rely on men to feed them and those women can support themselves entirely. Some friends of mine, their age is over 30 years old, but they don't get married yet. Some of them want to get married but they can’t find the Mr. Right and others don’t want marriage because they are afraid that the marriage will change their recent life and they don’t want their life to be changed.

However, the common ground between those women is that they are not hurry to get married because they have a steady work and an excellent salary. Even they don’t have marriage, they can still have a colorful life.

As to me, I don’t really think that the age is a big issue to marriage. I think if women can support themselves, they won’t really care what age they should get married. Thus, I believe that the most appropriate age of marriage is 0. I mean that’s your life and you are the only master in your life. So, just follow your heart and don’t care about the god damn age.

Independence & Economy ( Journal #5 )

Since 2 years ago, I started to prepare a lot of exams including my uncertainly heart. However, at that time, I more focused on the exam then I appeased my irritated heart. Actually, I can imagine that there are definitely numerous differences in the foreign country and I know that my life will experience a lot of huge changes as well. But, at that time, I didn’t think that too much.


Now, I am in the foreign country, United States. I got in here on July. In the beginning, I felt everything is fine; the weather, people, and environment are all attracting me. Gradually, I awared what the America culture is and those “cultures” changed my previous opinions. Let me make a example to you. A month ago, I went to the DMV of POMONA to apply for my drive license. When the staff of DMV keys my immigration documents number in to the computer, she found the name from the computer doesn’t match my name from the documents so she refused my application and suggested me contacting immigration office, USCIS, to correct the error information. Thus, I call the customer service of UACIS and ask for further information. After then, I collected my whole correlative documents and sent to the office. By the way, the customer service told me that it will take about "4-5 months" to verify and correct my documents. Of course, I can’t do anything but wait. Just yesterday, I received the documents that I sent before, and they told me that the documents don’t belong to USCIS and I have to send to another institution. Fortunately, they gave me the institution’s name. So, today I called the institution, CBP, for my immigration documents, however, when I called the CBP , they said they can’t deal with my problems, so they transferred me to another institution it also belongs to CBP. Anyway, I totally called 5 different phone numbers to contact the office. Eventually, I found the right place where I can correct my documents.
Thank God !! The interesting thing is that the staff of CBP asked me a question that who told you sent the documents to USCIS. I answered "USCIS!” Suddenly, I realized that I was already in the abroad, and such these things will happen again and of course, I must be used to. America is a developed and conciderate country but there still are some inconvenient things.

As far as I am concerned, because of those situations, my life becoms more exciting and colorful and I also become more independent than before although I am independent already. Besides, the other change is economy. Yes, when I was in my home country, I earn my own money and I can spend my own money freely, but in the America, I can’t do the same things like before. Therefore, economy becomes a principle in my recent life. I learn how to cook and try to control my desire, I mean shopping. I think that independence and economy are the two important changes in my recent life.

My dear Dr. Hung (Journal # 4)

As usual, hospital is full of smell of disinfectant. As usual, I went to the ward in order to assess patients, but this time, I can’t hear the footstep from Dr. Hung any more.

2 years ago, when I worked in the hospital the same conversation from Dr. Hung and I were repeating everyday. “Dr. Hung, does room 32 Mr. Chang’s diet need to change to low sodium diet? Because he has hypertension and diabetes” and “Can we remove the room 42-1 Mrs. Wang’s wound stitch?” I asked. “Oh my lovely Kuo- Hui (my Chinese name), thank you for your reminding. You are so attentive, after I check the patients’ condition and I will tell you my decisions.” Dr. Hung answered.
Dr. Hung has worked in the hospital almost for 30 years. He always checked patients’ condition twice or third times a day no matter how busy he was or how bad the weather was. He came to hospital every morning and evening constantly. This behavior is just like a ritual and it can’t be changed by any reasons.

One year ago, I already quitted my job. One day, my colleague told me that Dr. Hung got sick. “He keeps coughing, but we can’t find the reasons that make him cough. We suspect that maybe he is infected by T.B (a kind of lung disease).” My colleague said. "Did he check the lung X-RAY?” I asked. Colleague answered “Yes, but the result is normal.” At that time, both of us were worried about Dr. Hung.
After 2 weeks later, that is, on November, 2006, the answer emerged. “He got the cardiac (heart) cancer and he is in the terminal stage.” My colleague called me. "What? Are you kidding me? It’s not funny.” I suspected the answer. “It’s true! The cancer cell has already metastasized to whole body.” My colleague yelled me.
However, I can’t answer her any words because my brain suddenly blanked out.

One day, I went to hospital to visit him silently. When I was walking to the ward, suddenly I felt very scared. I was afraid that he couldn’t recognize me any more because during the time his brain was already affected by cancer cell. I thought that I can’t stand the truth that he will forget me. Finally, I knocked the door and entered the room. I can’t believe that the man who sat on the sofa is Dr. Hung. He looked very pallid and his hair was almost gone because of the chemotherapy.

"Do you remember me?” I tried to ask the question that I am afraid of.
"Kuo-Hui !!” he said. Until heard the answer, I can just put down the stone from my heart. 1month later, he passed away. Although I knew his condition very well, I still can’t help bawling loudly. Dr. Hung died on March, 2006. From knowing the disease to him passing away, it totally took 4 months. Only 4months.

It takes women 10 months to bear a baby; however, it just takes 4 months to destroy a person. "Is it fair ??” That was my first time to question GOD. Dr. Hung was a great doctor that I have never met. He treated me as his daughter. For me, he was not only a teacher but also a father. Unknowingly, my tears running down my face and now I can't write any more.

I just want to say "I will always be missing you, my dear Dr. Hung."

That is Dr. Hung’s true story.

long weekend (Journal #3)

Actually, I have no feeling about long vacation because I have already experienced a long long time vacation in my recent time.
I was used to working everyday whatever night shift or day shift. However, since 2 years ago, I quitted my job for I had to prepare my NCLEX-RN exam and TOELF IBT. That is why I said that I have no ideal about the long vacation.

To be honest, I am not a person who loves travel because I think that travel is really trouble to me and I have to prepare every thing before I start off my trip. In the usual day, my job made me felt exhausted, so if I have any choice, I will stay home to enjoy my leisure time.
But under one special situation, I will love to travel. I will love to travel with my family. I have ever watched a movie called “My Big Fat Creek Wedding” That is how my family looks like. When we congregate together, we are talking, laughing, and eating.

Food is a very indispensable thing especially to my family and we are always searching some fantastic restaurants for we can try it together. As I feel tired or helpless, my family can always soothe my restless mind. By traveling with them, I was able to forget those annoying problems.

As to this long vacation, I think that I won’t go anywhere. However, I expect next coming vacation, that is, Christmas vacation. I hope that my family can visit me and my sister during the vacation, and I can show them the world where I am living. Why I so expect the next coming long time holiday?? The most important reason is that Christmas is a family day. Everybody should be with their family.
For me, no matter how wonderful the vacation is, without family, the vacation will mean nothing.

Joan Didion (Journal #2)

I remember that when I was 12 years old, I got a diary as my birthday gift that was from my mother. She encouraged me to write diaries for I can record each important memory. Because of my mother, I tried to write diaries even I did not have anything that I really wanted to record. As time goes on, gradually, I felt that to write diaries was a bore. The worst thing was that I did not know what I can write.
Edward Robb Ellis said: “We don not like writing diaries because we don not think our life is important enough.” I think he is right. Because at that time, I really think that my life is dull and uninteresting. Actually, that is a reason why I can’t write.

Everybody wants their life to be colorful and meaningful. If we don’t think our life is important, well, we should do some meaningful things to decorate and irrigate our arid soul and life. By writing diaries, we can review our life, and realize the value of existence. When we are writing the dairies, unknowingly, our spirit and life have already been changed silently.
Besides, most of time, we usually live in other people's world. When we are in the childhood, we always follow the steps that made from our parents, and we rarely do something that we really want to do. However, as we are living in the writing world, at that time, we are the master. We can choose which life we really want.

So, that is how the predisposition can readily influence people ----unobtrusively and imperceptibly.

Do you like writing ? (Journal # 1)

Many people are afraid of writing of course including me. Some people don’t like writing just because they afraid that their writing skills are not good enough, however, some of them afraid that their deep feeling will be exposed and they don’t want to face to their own feeling.

As for me, although I don’t like writing so much, sometime I will still try to write something in my note. I will write some sentences or paragraphs in order to vent my emotion, and feeling especially, when I face some troublesome problems. It is not so much that I like writing as that I like to write paragraphs that come from my deep heart. When I had finished the paragraphs, my emotion was also been soothed just as if such annoying things had never bothered me.

By the way, when I face a certain situation, I will definitely write, as I argue with my parents and I can’t make a “peaceful” conversation with them, I will write a letter to my parents to express my opinion and true feeling. By this way, we usually can easily solve some problems between us. Seriously, it works and I have already tried a hundred times in my life. Besides, I have ever written a special letters, That is my own will. Yes, I wrote a will a few years ago because during the time my home county suffered from SARS disease. As a Registered Nurse, “luckily,” I have to go to SARS ward in order to care of those patients who suffered from SARS diseases. Before I went to the SARS ward, I wrote a concise will to my family, my friends, and those people who I ever loved before. Eventually, we overcomed the humans’ disaster and of course I came back to my sweet home healthily. Until now I still preserve those letters.

Now, I start to believe that maybe I can write something. I don’t mention an essay. You know that !!