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.