Sunday, May 23, 2010

The Huntington Library Reaction

Visiting The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens was a very impressive and interesting time with me. I was surprised with the beautiful and amazing places over there. It is not only simply a library, but also a huge museum with the world’s collection of a variety sources. That makes the remarkable and unique difference between The Huntington Library and other libraries I have experienced before. The main gate to enter to the library was small, high and quite special like a gate of the castle in a fairy tale story I used to read and imagine. I felt really impressive with this ancient style. There were many visitors visited the library at that time because that was a day of festival flowers and bonsais. They sold and displayed a lot of beautiful trees and flowers in the entrance road. I thought like I was going to enter to a new world. In there, I had the opportunities to visit the main exhibition hall, Dibner Hall of the History of Science and The Art Gallery of a library. My most favorite place was The Art Gallery. It had such wonderful collections of European Art. There were so many famous and original pieces of art which were displayed on the wall. I could not stop looking at these amazing pictures. Then, I was absorbed by the piece of British Art: “Pinkie” (1794) by Thomas Lawrence which is the permanent and unique collection of The Huntington. It was standing out from other pieces in the hall with the elegant and beautiful depiction of Sarah Barrett Moulton who passed at the age of eleven because of her illness. The more attractive places I love were Japanese Garden, Chinese Garden, Desert Garden and Rose Garden. All of Gardens were so incredible and had their own special beauty that attracts people’s attentions. For me, The Huntington Library is a great treasure of the world. If I have a chance I would like to visit this library again. I believe whoever comes there will be completely attracted by such a beautiful places over there.

Should the porn industry get some bailout money?

Under traumatic economy crisis, more than one million people lost their mortgages, and many banks suffered from bankruptcy during year 2008. At the same time, US Congress approved seven hundred billion bailout in order to salvage the industries as well as the banks. Indeed, the bailout, taken out from tax payment of citizens, is a deduction in their retirement; therefore, the money needs to be invested in right places. However, as stated in Times magazine, not only does the porn enterprise but also the central planners, who decide on bailout expenditure in Congress, are asking five billions to support porn companies even though their income is strong. This decision is an absurdity which should be viewed as an injudicious choice.
First and foremost, Porn is erotic entertainment that perverts many people’s minds; that kind of obscenity fantasizes people to waste their money and time on things that are unrealistic and immoral. A lot of people spend time on internet searching for porn instead of doing what they need to do. Thus, most of them loose concentration on daily basis .Moreover, porn can also isolate a person from the community since it is not something he is proud to share with family and friends. As a consequence, he becomes a loner in his own little fantasy world. Porn is not healthy to anyone, especially to juveniles by contaminating their thinking; therefore, it should be forbidden in society.
When approving a bailout, the governor should consider if porn is a need or it is just a temptation. In this major crisis, the money is to provide shelter and food for people and is to invest in businesses that are essential for the growth of the economy. For example, the automobile should have some bailout because transportation is important due to the fact that it tremendously affects on communication. If automobile companies corrupt, other companies will face a lot of problems distributing their products, and many people will frustrated in transporting. Nevertheless, porn is in an opposite situation. The economy does not descend without it. In fact, based on all the drawbacks that it causes in people’s life, it should be restricted, for all the porn addicts will be able to wake up from the fantasy and contribute to the benefit of the society.
Lastly, porn industries’ income was proven to be strong, so what do they need the money for? On CNN news, United States treasury announced that our country is in debt –ten trillion dollars; we, as tax payers, are working hard for this huge incurred liability hence as well as reviving enterprises that are on the edge of bankruptcy, so there is no reason why porn companies are qualified for this bailout. Besides, 5 billions dollars bailout was surprisingly asked by the central planners who are basically the governors instead of the porn consumers. If the consumers are willing to give up porn for their jobs and families, why do the governors demand to support it without rational reason, most notably a stable income?
Overall, not only is porn helpless but it is also harmful to us. As the result, the bailout need to be denied by the Congress to the porn industries; instead, it should be given to high potential investments and projects if we wish to consolidate the stumbling economy.

Drugs' Consequences

Drug has always been a major social problem in USA as well as around the world. Despite the law, drug use rate, especially among teenagers, is rising up. Bush administration report in 2006 showed that 9.8% of American kids between 12 and 17 years old used illegal drug in USA. Perhaps teenagers are still immature to handle peer pressure or to identify the tremendously devastating outcome of drug use.
American Academic of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry mentioned those who came from family abuse background or from depressing life are most likely to obtain drug. When we live in a disturbing or a stressful lives, we become humble for peace. Teenagers, instead of dealing with stress in a right way, depend on drug as if drug is the only way to vanish all the despair in reality. Plus, the additional peer pressure and lack of parental supervision even provoke more opportunities in drugs.
On physical affect, drug addicts suffer from fatigue, lack of enthusiasm and some other damages to brain and internal organs. For example, Steroid harms the hormone system, fertility, liver and heart. Also due to the dysfunctional brain, they decrease their motivation and interest in daily life. The capacity of consciousness declined in maintaining their daily routines which are usually coherent with restlessness, sudden weight change and moodiness. More severe addiction leads to memory loss, depression and sleeping problems; Therefore, addicts are usually hostile to their family and lost concentration on school work. They even have higher risk in violence, sex abuse or pregnancy since their ability of self-control reduces. As the result, in contrast to what the family and the society expect for, they become burdens and criminals not only to people around them but also to themselves. They are criticized and rejected by the society and that is one of the reasons why many teenagers commit suicide at such a young age.
Moreover, drug is a dangerous path leading to terminal illnesses such as HIV. Study showed that nearly 13000 people in USA died from HIV in 2005, especially those who had drug abuse. When mesmerizing by drug, drug addicts lose their alertness. They randomly have sex or use the same needles with HIV positive victims, which are very common ways to receive HIV.
Hence, the best way to stay healthy and alert is avoiding drugs and critically thinking the consequences rather than one-time satisfaction that drug can bring. Parents and the community should create a warm and concerning environment for drug addicts because they need encouragement to rehabilitate and to prolong their lives, not additional stress.

Political issues in Air Talk Show

In the radio show, “ArtTalk show,” Larry Mantle discussed an issue regarding whether or not terrorists should be afforded the same interrogation rights as other alleged criminals. In the AirTalk show, Mantle talked with Richard Parker, a Professor of Criminal Justice at Harvard, and Cully Stimson, a Senior Legal Scholar at the Heritage Foundation. According to AirTalk show, Mantle shares that President Obama is open to limiting Miranda rights for terrorist suspects. Republicans have criticized the administration for reading the Christmas Day bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, and Times Square would-be bomber, Faisal Shahzad, their rights. Richard Parker agrees with the Congress because terrorism is a dangerous crime in the nation and it couldn’t go free. For some safely reasons, Parker believes that the United States government made the right decision because the dangers of terrorism is more dangerous than any other groups of criminals. On the other hand, a lady’s call from the audience represents that the United States government should give Miranda rights to those suspected terrorists because they could be innocent. Moreover, she believes the government should protect the people who are innocent in the suspected terrorism. However, Stimson believes people want to focus on the safety of United States and the people around them. Therefore, the Congress should not give the Miranda rights to those people who are involved with terrorism. In my opinion, the suspected terrorists have the right to remain silent because the innocent people’s lives will be ruined if they don’t have Miranda rights. People who are going to talk are going to talk, and people who are not going to talk, are not going to talk. Therefore, the court needs to find more evidences to prove the suspected terrorists of being guilty. In short, the more terrorists that are proved correctly, the safer the United Stated of America will be. Another political issue on the show AirTalk hosted by Larry Mantle, it discussed about the controversial event whether Elena Kagan is worthy for the selection of Supreme Court. In Larry Mantle’s broadcast, he talked about this issue with his guests: David Savage (Supreme Court Reporter for LA Times), Mark Tushnet (Professor of Constitutional Law, Harvard Law School) and James R. Copeland, Director of the Center for Legal Policy at the Manhattan Institute. On Monday May 10, 2010 President Barack Obama officially nominated Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court. She replaced retiring Justice John Paul Stevens’ position and became the Court’s youngest member with the age of fifty. She is considered as the fourth female Supreme Court justice in US history and the third on the Court’s current bench. Playing the important role in the U.S. Government, Ms. Kagan has been received a lot of public opinions about her personal backgrounds. Despite of the fact that she was a former Dean Harvard Law school and a professor of Chicago University Law School, critics claim that she does not have any prior experiences as a judge and the possible charge of sexual harassment. However, according to the reporter David Savage’s opinion, her outstanding academic performance during the past years, she will be a terrific justice in the Supreme Court. He said people inside the Democratic Party know that she is a smart and charming person, easy to get along with people. Therefore, she will be a fairly conventional democrat for all of the most public’ issues. I agree with him that what people actually can do is more important than their personal’s lives. The nomination is nothing to bear with Ms.Kagan’s private life. It is unappreciated to have a negative view about her ability as a Justice when people have not seen her future performance.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Qualities to be Successful (Revised)_“Gotta Dance” by Jackson Jodie Davis

Everyone possesses different qualities but a successful individual requires certain ‘must have’ traits which undoubtedly vary from person to person. An entrepreneur must be competitive, highly motivated and energetic; while an artist should be creative, talented and passionate. No matter what occupation people, determination, having strong self-confidence and being hard-working are the most fundamental and essential qualities required in order to succeed.
There are opinion about the importance of determination is in leading to success in a world full of opinions and judgments from others and many unforeseen obstacles. In a story named “Gotta Dance” by Jackson Jodie Davis, the main character, Katie, keeps on pursuing her dream of dancing even when almost everyone in her family disapproves of the idea. Without the family’s support, the chance for her to attend lessons seems impossible. Nevertheless, by watching tapes and keeping practicing enthusiastically, she learns all her moves in secret. At last, after having her dancing skills mastered, she confidently decides to perform on stage and that is the period during which she gets extremely criticized by her family members. Ignoring all the family’s comments, she works hard at what she desires and achieves her dream. What if she was persuaded by her relatives? If so, there would be neither a wonderful performance nor an once-in-a-lifetime offer from the theatre. And above all, there would be no such thing as great accomplishment in Katie’s life. Stories of unfortunate children who have to abandon their dreams because of their parents’ disapproval still occur nowadays. Undoubtedly, the first key factor is the financial support from which most children are depended on their parents for tuition fees and living expenses. Secondly, children are used to the idea that their work must be highly valued, particularly by their parents or family relatives. Without that mental support, people often find themselves lacking of will. Return to the “Gotta Dance” story, ever since childhood, Katie had witnessed how the path of her brother, Mutt, had been completely planned out by others. Abandoning his dream and living out his life by default, he had no chance to feel accomplished. In contrast, on her road to success Katie had faced all discouraging obstacles but still persisted in pursuing her goal and refused to give up. Therefore, whether people want to succeed in business, to become an expert in their career fields, to master an art, all require a strong will, along a determination mind. Without this quality, most of today successful people would not accomplish their goals.
No matter where people come from, no matter how difficult their lives are, hard work is an indispensable quality which leads to success and separates successful people from others. In other words, regardless of your nationality, religion, family background or social status, it is the willingness to invest time and effort that separates successful people from others. A typical example is in a movie named Mad Hot Ballroom which is about a dancing competition between eleven-year-old students from New York public schools. At the beginning, coming from impoverished families, these young children have neither ideas about nor interests in ballroom dancing. However, with the help of instructors and lots of hard work, they gradually become talented like any young professional dancers. Some people might argue that there always will be limitations for people from lower classes in becoming successful in this society despite their effort. For example, a child of a poor worker, who lives in a slum area, will never have an opportunity to achieve as much as the noble classes’ children who attend private schools. Even with all these barriers, everyone always has chances on the way to achieve their goals by working hard.
Human instinct is to have desires, to pursue dreams and to achieve goals. The secret ingredient to attaining this overall success lies in personal improvement which subsequently leads to the development of our society today. In order to do so, acquiring these three qualities mentioned previously should be a person’s first steps on the golden journey to achievements.

Solutions for Obesity

Obesity is an issue that has been accused for many years. Nowadays more and more American adults and children are getting faster and faster because they eat high caloric food. Furthermore, obesity is a serious problem that can cause diseases such as heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, osteoarthritis, diabetes, and cancer. Moreover, the obesity has been affecting a high percentage of Americans. Therefore, American people should find the solutions for obesity to avoid a disease. As for me, I am a thin person, and I definitely know the approaches to avoid fat and keep healthy. There are many positive ways to solve the obesity. Specifically, having a healthy diet, participating some physical activities, keeping a happy mood in daily life, and making an individual long-term plan to overcome obesity.
If you eat more fruit or vegetables, you can have a healthier diet. In the United States, many people prefer to have fast food because it is easily available, and relatively cheap. However, some of the fast food contains high calories and fat and less nutrition. According to the Los Angeles Time, some food nutritionists state that there are many vitamins and nutrition in fruit such as apples, watermelons, etc. Moreover, some vegetables like cucumber, tomatoes, etc., they also offer necessary vitamins and nutrition for your body. When I was a child, I was a little bit fat. I didn’t care about how dangerous fast food was. I just absolutely knew it was delicious for me. At that time, my mother said to me, “Don’t eat too much fast food, or you will get fat.” I ignored my mother’s warning, and ate at least one hamburger a day. Finally, I was getting bigger and bigger, until I realized that I gained 20 pounds in one month. And then, I changed my diet into more fruit and vegetables. No more burgers or fried cook. After that, I got back to my healthy weight. Therefore, don’t eat too much, because fast food is the first step to weight loss.
Moreover, having a good diet is not good enough to overcome obesity, it is much better to get some physical activities. One of the most popular exercises I recommended is yoga. Yoga is a good activity, especially for girls. However, there are different types of yoga, it depends on the type of yoga you select and how frequency you practice it. For example, couple yoga works with couples to develop their love in relationship. In order to lose weight, you had better to choose a type of yoga called BikramYoga, in which it asks for a warm room to practice. While you practice Bikram Yoga, you feel sweating so this brings the fat out of your body. Once you decide to practice Bikram Yoga, you must do vigorous ninety minutes yoga class per week. I believe you will see the outcome in a month.. However, I think they can find spare time to do yoga when they have rest at home because yoga just need a quiet and small room to practice. Hence, yoga could be a good choice to overcome obesity.
In short, there are many different suggestions for the overcome and stop against obesity. As far as I am concerned, adding more fruit and vegetables instead of fast food in your diet is a good way to keep healthy. Moreover, taking some good exercise after work is a good suggestion for those office workers who sit all day in a room. Furthermore, in order to get more effective solutions, those obese people who try to plan their individual long-term plans should have a happy mood in mind. Only in these ways can American people beat the obesity in the end.

Direct and Indirect way in Speech

Speaking is a day to day activity. Japanese Language has many annoying rules in conversations, making Japanese people forced to conceal the truth when they have conversations. In Japan, there are words and phrases that women cannot say because there is a rule that says women are supposed to talk indirectly in conversations. There are two ways to talk, one is the direct way, and the other is the indirect way. In other words, people who tell you what they really think is the direct way, or those who are polite, but leave you wondering how they really feel is the indirect way. Some people prefer the direct way to talk because it is easier to express their ideas. On the other hand, people using the indirect way to talk believe it is not as easy to offend others. However, I don’t agree with the indirect way of conversing. A direct way is better rather than an indirect way, because the direct way in conversations is not only an easier way to express ideas clearly, but also it makes people become of more an honest person and can become more easily trusted. Different countries use indirect ways to talk, especially, in Asian cultures.
In Japan, many people, especially for women, may think twice about what they are going to say when dealing with their classmates or colleagues. There is a little difference between women and men in conversations. Women’s language is much more indirect than men’s. It is not fair for a woman, once she tells the truth people don’t like to hear, she is considered to be rude or uneducated. On the other hand, in the United States, everyone can speak in a direct way because they don’t want to make the conversation so complicated, and confuse people on what they really think. I believe in the United States, women talk in a more direct way, and it’s normal, no one will think she is rude. For example, in an American party, if a man is interested in a woman, he will show his love to her directly without hesitation. And also, if the woman hates it, she absolutely has the right to reject directly. As far as I am concerned, I am sure that it is much more comfortable to express my ideas clearly and directly when I have any kinds of conversations. It can make the conversation easier to understand, and we never get lost in the conversation. People may not get trust if they always use the indirect way to conceal the truth. On the contrary, in the United States, we are allowed to talk directly, so everyone doesn’t have to pretend, we can trust our people. While Japanese people talk indirectly and cannot ask a word when they get lost in the streets, American people are more direct to talk and can even say “What’s up, man!” to strangers when walking by. As for me, I still cannot forget the first day when I went to college. On that day, I couldn’t find my classroom, and I felt nervous, and then I asked for the help from the strange schoolmates. I was lucky; everyone liked to help me because they heard my direct way to ask for help. Therefore, if we begin talking in an indirect way, everyone may choose silence to reply to a stranger because it is protective for him or her. However, life would be boring and suspicious around us. Hence, if we change the indirect into a direct way, showing our ideas in honesty, we will have peaceful and lovely lives around us. The argument from Chinese people would be that talking in a direct way is not mature. For example, when the office employee want to raise their salaries, it is better to have an indirect way to talk with the boss otherwise the situation will get worse. However, we have to know that maturity has nothing to do with the way you talk in a direct way or not. Actually, in the United States, everyone wanting to talk directly doesn’t mean that they are not mature. It is because they don’t have so many rules and rituals in cultural history. As we all know, America is an immigrant and a young country, so women don’t have the rule that makes people talk indirectly. I believe America develops faster than any other countries because everyone can show their ideas directly, so no matter what the idea is, it always helpful for the development of the country.
In short, the direct way is better than the indirect way when people have their conversations. There are many benefits when we choose to use a direct way of talking, for example, we get trusted and we also can easily express our mind. As we talked above, we know that the way people choose to talk depends on different cultures and countries. Mostly, in Asian countries such as Japan and China, they would like to choose an indirect way to talk because it is polite and not offending. However, in the western culture, especially for the United States, people would like to choose direct ways to talk because it is understood and outstanding. What if Japan and China, change their talking style? They would get many benefits. I believe only in the direct way can people have a wonderful life in the future.

Confusing Harder with Better_Alfie Kohn

Education is important to everyone no matter who people are, and a good education can help people live better, or make a country get rich and strong. On the other hand, a bad or even poor education can push down people’s lives and slow down the development of a nation. Furthermore, the article, “Confusing Harder with Better” written by Alfie Kohn, states there exist an emergency education in the United State. In addition, Kohn’s viewpoints make good points about the education system including: a higher standard is not helpful, poor textbooks are not useful, and unnecessary homework is not appropriate.
First of all, making an unreasonable higher standard in order to fail the most of testers that is not helpful for learners to get real skills. As people read from the article, Kohn states that “The tests that result for students and sometimes for teachers are not just ridiculously difficult but simply ridiculous”, and he tells us a statement of an unreasonable higher standard for high school students has been supported by the governor of education in Colorado. Moreover, Kohn believes a college requirement test should not assign to the students in high school, and it is irrelevant for them with such a higher standard. At the same time, the author’s argument that test is not a man’s goal, his goal is to gain the knowledge he learned. As a result of the higher standard, students get failed grade, and this will make them feel frustrated and lose interests in their further study. In short, the teacher should make a little bit lower standard in their examination to students, and it will lead them to the right approach.
Secondly, the instructor use the poor textbook and just go by the worksheets to teacher will have a bad returns in their teaching. According to Kohn’s description, “a textbook does not become a more appropriate teaching tool just because it is intended for a higher grade level”. That is to say that many students work with the poor textbooks and just learn how to get good grade to pass the text, and nothing to do with the real skills practice. What’s more, Kohn suggests that the instructions should be reformed and the textbooks must be refreshed. Additionally, the writer’s points are effective when he says a good textbook can be a wonderful teaching tool that teachers could double returns from the students. For example, a science major student needs a lot of guidelines to work on experiment. If the textbooks give people a clear and understandable instruction, it will help the students to finish task easily. Anyway, a good textbook can give a lot of benefits to students.
Last, too much unnecessary homework and assignments will waste student’s energy and time to accomplish their study work. Specifically, According to the author opinions that get a lot of busy work without thinking is not a wise way to help students to learn the knowledge. Moreover, Kohn writes “It’s more exhausting to memorize a list of scientific vocabulary words than it is to learn scientific concepts…”(123). In addition, the students have to complete the homework which
contains many easy questions and it will makes them feel bored. The author’s point is correct because people who spend most of their time and energy on busy work will get less or little returns from the work. Hence, the teacher should assign students a real practice with skills or it will make the students get nothing at all.
In conclusion, many people feel the same way with Kohn, and they think the government should pay attention to those main problems in education: raising the standard in the test, using poor and dated textbooks to teach, giving a lot of busy work without thinking to the students. As long as the educators change their styles, it will influence a positive to the society. As long as people get good education, their lives will be more comfortable and beautiful.

Friendships from diffrent cultures

Life is like a journey.As we are going on our trip, we can meet thousands of travelers and they may come from different cultures or different values. For instance, Japanese people would like to bow to each other which means polite and friendly when Japanese people meet a first time. Likewise, Korean people must bow to their elders. Especially, when Koreans meet each other, they must say “hello” slowly and not too fast. As a Chinese like me, we definitely have different cultures and values from other countries. Specifically,I have a friend who’s name is Togrhol and he comes from Turkey. Even though we have different cultures and different values, we can share a good friendship. However, by showing respect, giving help and being modest so that Togrhol and I can have the ability to fit each other’s religions and different values of art, we can have a good friendship.To be respectful to my Turkish friend Togrhol is a wise way to make a contribution to our friendship. Despite the fact that the Turkish people are religious and most of them believe in Islam, most of the Chinese people are free. Togrhol is a Muslim so he celebrates Lesser Bairam which is a one-month-festival for Muslims. During the ceremony month, he only can eat at home when the sun goes down. Once upon a time, at school I asked him to eat together for lunch, however Togrhol rejected me and told me about the story of Lesser Bairam. At that time I was very shocked and felt awkward. Due to the fact that Chinese people always like to hang out with friends to go for lunch at school or at work, because we think we can enjoy our lunch with friends to develop our friendship.In order to respect Togrhol religion, I said ”Hey dude, I can understand you.We can still have a good meal when the sun goes down!” My friend smiled and said:”Thank you for your respect and I would like to share all my happiness with you because you understand me!”At last, we had a good dinner on that day after the sun went down.From now on, we respect each other more and communicate closely and it also helps us to develop our friendship because we feel familiar with each other and comfortable when we meet respectfully. In addition, it is important to show a respectful heart to the people who have different values from me such as my friend Togrhol has religions to believe , it will get a positive way to help my friendship grow.

The Challenge of Cooking For Myself

Some people maybe face the problems with their families, the academic adversities, or financial challenges. Studying abroad is a difficult assignment for everyone and different people have different challenges.As for me,when I came to United States of America,on 19th August,2008,arriving at Lax,I was thinking of my empty stomach and I would begin to learn how to cook for myself.I had never cooked before I came here and there were lots of cooking skills which are very necessary for me to learn now.While defeating this challenge,I have learnt a lot not only cooking skills but also learning how to cook makes me became stronger and stronger in my mind.
Before I start to learn how to cook,.I need to know what kind of assignments that I need to be done.It is not easy to cook the right food especially for one who had never cooked before.What’s more,I am not crazy about cooking and I know I need to take care of myself for eating.However,I didn’t know what to buy from the superstore.I couldn’t even find the Vietnamese supermarket with the food I like and I didn’t have any car that I could drive to the Vietnamese superstore.That was very unbelievable to survive without eating food which I like.In order to buy my favourite food,I would learn how to drive in California.Additionally,I should be familiar with how much cooking time would be enough for each dish so that it will be delicious.Moreover,I have to clean up all the plates,chopsticks,cups,pans,forks and so on otherwise the food will turn wrong.
It is very advisable for me to have a pre-plan for the challenges.I still remember the first month that I tried my best to search for the right place to go shopping.At that time,I made a list to make sure what I needed to buy like the kitchenware,vegetables,pork etc.The destination and the bus schedule were prepared on google.Everything was going to be right so that I could go shopping for food.It was very hard for me so I said to myself”Don’t let the challenge break me down!I can do it!”When I came back with my food, opening the Internet and asking for my mother how to cook Chinese meal, my mother would be online to tell me how to use the cooking tools perfectly and more specific steps for cooking through the Network Video.She was very patient to teach me how to complete the work and encourage me never give up.She said”Believe in yourself that is the secret of success!”At that moment,I felt the great love from motherhood.After a couple of weeks,I really made some delicious Chinese meals by myself without my mother’s guidelines.By the second month,I spoke highly of myself and be satisfied with my cooking skills.They was developed.There was a big smile on my face after I cooked for myself every day!
From overcoming this challenge,I learnt at least there principles to make me stronger.First of all,I found it was not easy to fix some small challenges well if you never try it,and I should acquaint myself with such a small challenge so that it can provide my beautiful and comfortable life.Nowadays,it were beneficial to me to choose the classes more carefully from the spring semester schedule book.I had to be calm to consider what I want for classes.Second,good attitude towards the challenge will have a satisfying result.Do not care if it big or not,there is one principle I should keep in mind namely facing the challenge,the more I try to avoid it the worse the situation will be.For instance,several days ago,I forgot to pay my electricity bills on time therefore the company cut my service off when I came back home from school.I felt a little bit nervous at that moment,whereas after
a few minutes I called the company to explain it was my fault and I would pay the bill as soon as possible.The next day I paid the bill and solved my problem in time.Last but not least,I should try my
best to finish my jobs.For example,I found a part-time job at Starbucks and I am responsible for cleaning.Because I have tried my best to clean everything in Starbucks,my boss praised me with extra tips.In a word,the three important principles that I learnt help me became mature in my life. Without these three principles, I believe the challenge will be more difficult for me.
In general,I would like to say thanks to my parents to give me such a precious chance to overcome this cooking challenge and it not only taught me how to cook well but also made me know small matters are necessary and even significant for me to know how to do well.The good attitude is the success of mother and try my best to every challenge.I believe it is a precious experience in my whole life.I believe I can defeat whatever challenges I faced in my life.I believe as long as I make great efforts to those challenges that I can go through them.As long as I get though many challenges I will have a bright future. As common sense says, great experiences can benefit people who really want to make their life more and more comfortable.Only in these ways,can I get through the challenge and have a wonderful life in my future.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

The Culture In America and Vietnam: The Similarities

Besides all the differences, Vietnam and America still have many similarities because of cultural influences. In the aspect of food, one of the similarities is fast-food restaurants. Nowadays, more and more Vietnamese people prefer fast-food in order to save time in cooking and cleaning. That habit has just started in recent years due to the spreading of fast-food restaurants; while to Americans, fast-food has become an indispensable part of the food culture. The American fast-food subculture is a combination of many countries in the world, such as Taco Bell from Mexico and Noodles and Company from Asia. According to sociologists, this similarity can be explained as the effects of cultural leveling, a process in which cultures become similar to one another. The demands of people in raising the standard of living are higher in the modern life; therefore adapting the custom in another country is necessary. Food is one of good factor of connecting two cultures together. The second aspect – traffic law – also has some similarities. When there is a police officer’s presence, everyone will try their best not to draw any attention, even when they are driving correctly. That is the human beings. Some examples are speeding at the intersection when the light is yellow, or changing lane quickly on the free way. These behaviors are not against the law but may become the reason for a police to stop their cars and check driver licensees. The reason is people do not want to get into any trouble that may get them late for work or school, especially when the trouble come along with a police officer and some investigating questions. The last aspect – handicapped treatment – shows how much people from both countries care for the limited people, which is the result of human race’s character. The different level of concerning on handicapped treatment by the governments can be explained by the development of each country’s economic. However, the ways people behaviors to handicapped are very similar. They are always pleased to lend limited people help such as opening the door, moving the wheelchair, and crossing the street. For thousands years of development, mankind have always highly approve showing love and care to others, especially individuals who are lack of abilities. It has become one of our daily life’s norms. People who go against it will receive disapproval from the society. On top of that, showing love and care is also one of our human race’s instincts. Overall, differences and similarities in societies, influences from other countries, the effectiveness of law enforcement, and the attitude of people lead to the resemblances and variations in cultures of America and Vietnam. By understanding these three aspects – food, traffic law, handicapped treatment - people can have a general overview of both cultures. Knowing other country’s ways of living is very important to people who are trying to fit in the new environment, especially me, an international student in the United States.

The Culture in America and Vietam: Treatment of the handicapped

The third aspect – treatment of the handicapped – shows a deficiency of the Vietnamese government in paying attention to people who need special aids, which may be a character of a developing economic. Vietnamese handicapped people do not receive the special cares and policies from the government to support for their disability like American government. Those people do not have the chance to go to malls, restaurants, schools because of a lack of facilities. Government does not have the budget to help all of these people, even though some organizations and individual are still trying to donate money to help them. Most of the time, they have to spend time at home and be taken care of by their families. Some of them stay in the house care and receive the attention of volunteer people. However, the health care still has the limitation due to the budget of Government and the lack of carrying of society in these people. In addition, without the special education and training, these handicapped people slowly are left out of the labor force. The American government, however, is very concerned about creating opportunities for handicapped people to adapt to the society, such as elevators to help them to get to the upper floor, ramps on the buses to let handicapped use public transportation, special parking lots for handicapped people near the front and so on. These things are really necessary and beneficial for handicapped people to live beyond the society. Life will be easier and less stressful for them to adapt. Moreover, every handicapped always have the chance to study as long as they want to. Some people also gain admirable achievement. Community colleges and universities are welcome the handicapped students to study and have special facilities for them to support for their studies. Handicapped people have their own parking space and their own table to study which are in Vietnam do not have these. Therefore, handicapped people have a strong supporting service for them to develop their talent and ability to become a productivity member in society. An example is the famous physicist Stephen Hawking, who is known as the excellent physicist in the ranking of Einstein. With all of the assistance, handicapped in America can live independently as a normal person. While in Vietnamese, they may lose confidence in themselves and being dropped out of the society. They feel hesitated and disgraceful to face the world outside. Thus, the Vietnamese Government should consider and think for handicapped people more and find the effective methods to support them. By a general overview, American is more considered about handicapped treatment than Vietnamese government. Obviously, the American economy is far more developed than Vietnamese. With a tight budget, Vietnamese government cannot do much for the handicapped people. They have to invest money in others infrastructure, which are more important and essential for the country development such as resource exploitation facilities and factories. In addition, the population density of Vietnam is the main issue that leads to the out of control in the facility for their citizens. The Vietnamese government cannot create job opportunities and living chances for everyone, especially impaired people while there are still many unemployed normal people. It maybe takes a lot of time and efforts for the country to develop a strong economy. Under these circumstances, American government has surpassed Vietnamese in treatment for the handicapped. That is the obvious thing Vietnamese Government should learn and try to archive me the future. Welfare is significantly important and reflects the country’s development, therefore to build up the strong economy, government should not skip this part.

The Culture in America and Vietnam: Traffic laws

Another big gap in culture between Vietnam and America is the traffic laws, which may be the result of how differently the law enforcement affects society. One of the most impressive points of Vietnamese traffic that American tourists usually complain about is traffic jams. Although the main transportation in Vietnam is motorbike, which is small in size, the traffic still gets heavy daily because most drivers do not care about the laws. Sometimes just crossing the red light will result in a terrible accident. In contrast to Vietnamese, most American people think of traffic laws as something that cannot be broken, or at least should not be. They all understand that a mistake may lead to a serious accident on the freeway or an expensive ticket from the police officer. These prices are very high to pay for a few minutes earlier. One reason to explain the difference is the Vietnamese law enforcement is not strict enough to force people into the right ways. In Vietnam, police officers can be convinced easily by offenders, maybe sometimes with the help of a bribe. Contrasting from that, American policemen are very strict and consistent. Giving them money when being caught may result in another ticket for giving a bribe. Not only the viewpoint about traffic law that Vietnamese people should be concern more, but also the attitude and how they behavior to others. An example is the Vietnamese horn, which varies in meaning such as a warning, a shout, or sometimes just because drivers have nothing to do in the traffic jams. When drivers get stuck in the traffic, there is no mercy on the road. There is no line, no order, and no priority. People try every strategy they have in mind such as going on sidewalks or slowly move forward in groups even when the traffic light is red. Americans, contrastingly, are usually nice to others on the street. They only use horn to warn people that they are driving wrongly or about danger. Moreover, as I experienced, drivers are willing to stop for a few seconds to let people walk across the street even when there is no right for pedestrians to do so. When there is an accident, people prefer calling the police or trading insurance information than shouting and jumping into a fight with each others like Vietnamese men. Being nice and polite may be a characteristic of American culture. By learning and obeying the law, American people have also learned attitude, norms to respect other drivers. While in Vietnam, many drivers show the same attitude to others as they show to the law, their disrespect and rudeness.

The Culture in Ameria and Vietnam : Food

Do you know that eating dog is a common behavior when men gather in Vietnam but is against the law in America? Vietnamese assume that it is acceptable to kill and eat dogs. So are American assumptions that it is wrong to do either of these things. Obviously, each country’s culture has influence on all aspects of its population’s lives. By comparing the aspects of food, traffic law and handicapped treatment, people can understand more about the cultures of these two countries and how they affect behaviors of individuals.
The first basic aspect when comparing two countries is food, which has many differences due to the effects of history and traditions of each country. An example is the way people cook and eat. As a former colony of China, Vietnamese cooks usually use a wok instead of a normal pan. They also use some ingredients that cannot be found in American recipes such as fish sauce and soy sauce. Moreover, Vietnamese people always use chopsticks and spoons to eat while Americans prefer forks and knives. Some Americans also use chopsticks because American culture is a combination of many other countries of immigrants. While in Vietnam, a country which has been colonized and invaded for almost 1000 years by China, Chinese culture has become a part of Vietnamese culture and also influenced the tradition of Vietnam. In a traditional Vietnamese family meal, younger children have to ask their parents or grandparents to eat first then they follow in order to show their respect. In an American meal, however, all people in family only have to say grace and then share food equally by passing the plate around. Form these customs in food we can see the differences between two cultures. It does not merely influence people’s habit of eating, but also influence they way people behave to things and change the way they think. In Vietnam, having the meal with family together is really important and meaningful. All of family’s members enjoy and help each other make a meal. They find the happiness and joyfulness in seating in the same table and talk with each other. Younger generations always show the respects to their older family’s members. In contract, American families hardly have a meal together. They are so busy and focus too much on their jobs; therefore they usually choose the fastest way to save time. Everyone has their own meal and most likely in the fast food store. However, experiencing many fast foods routinely is not healthy for people’s body. French fries, pizzas, hamburgers, and drinks consist many harmful factors can affect our health. That is American people experience some illnesses from overusing fast foods. However, Vietnamese people are quite different. They refer make food by themselves and fast foods are not a common type here. Eating fast foods costs a lot of money for them in general because the standard of living in Vietnam. Instead of spending their money on fast foods which are quite expensive for Vietnamese people, they choose to make their traditional foods. It might take time to cook these foods, but they are healthy and have suitable taste for Vietnamese people. Therefore, international students from Vietnam going abroad to America, they usually have their lunch box with them. They like to make their own food. It not only saves time, but also their enjoyable thing to do. Different custom and different culture can lead to living’s habit of people.

Diagnostic Exam: An atomic bomb in Japan

“The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty, and all forms of human life” said John F. Kennedy. Nowadays, with high technology inventions, human beings can change the world almost as they want. However, those inventions bring not only benefits, but also negative effects. An atomic bomb is one of the most influent inventions of human kind that not only affects human society but also the environment for generations.
T first, the research of atomic bomb was more like an experiment for study than trying to create a massive effect weapon. After testing in non-civilian areas, the U.S decided to use this bomb against Japan in World War II two times. These attacks showed the huge killing effect of the atomic bombs. The two bombs killed almost all human beings in two cities, especially Hiroshima. The most negative effect that atomic bomb is that soldiers are not the only type of people it kills. When an atomic bomb is dropped, every single life is taken, not only the adults but also the children, babies, eldest, sick and disables people. Furthermore, those people who are far away from the bomb dropping point may get genetic diseases which can affect their children for generations. Today, more than fifty years from the disasters in Hiroshima, Japanese people are still affected by that curse.
However, human society was not the only one who had to suffer from that invention; the environment and all species live in it were also affected. All the plant and animal in the area were killed right after the bomb was dropped. Flying high in the sky or digging deeply to the ground did not bring animals much chances. The bomb poisoned the air, the water and the ground so that there was no escape for any species in the area. The Japanese people have been rebuilding the environment for many years but everything is like the old time yet.
In conclusion, by looking at the example of the disasters in Japan, we can easily realize how dangerous an atomic bomb could be. With the development of technologies day by day, it is becoming more and more effective. As life goes on, there are more advanced technologies. However, new technologies or inventions should make our world better instead of destroying it.

The Culture Shock

The term, culture shock, was introduced for the first time in 1958 to describe the anxiety produced when a person moves to a completely new environment. This term expresses the immigrant’s lack of direction, the feeling of not knowing what to do or how to do things in a new environment, now knowing what is appropriate or inappropriate. The feeling of culture shock generally sets in after the first few weeks of coming to a new place.
Like me when I first came to America, I was really shy and hesitated to communicate and interact with people around me in the total new environment. Everything was quite different that made me take time to adapt it and sometimes I felt depress and stressful to get used to it. I saw people in America live the life obviously different from my country’s culture and custom. They were really opened and friendly with people, but I did not know how to react or respond to them. When I enroll in the English course in Irvine Valley College, I honestly helped the difficult time at first to communicate and learn English with my international friends and teachers. I tried to talk with myself that I shouldn’t be shy, just talk with them freely and naturally, but I almost kept silence instead. Sometimes, I wanted to cry or felt homesick when I was beyond of the new environment alone without any Vietnamese student there. It was good for me to practice English and I got better after one month. I think one of the reason was I got Culture Shock. We can describe culture shock as the physical and emotional discomfort one suffers when coming to live in another country or a place different from the place of origin. Often, the way that we lived before is not acceptable in the new place. Everything seems different. That was why I had special reactions and responds to things which were unfamiliar to me. Everyone has this type of emotion when he or she interact which new environment, but we should control it properly other while we will have difficult life because of Culture Shock. Just studying how to adapt it and think yourself as a part of a new culture, you will find the better way to overcome your emotion problem. Even though, I had a hard time at first to adapt American culture, and right now I still have it, but I have been trying my best to get used to it. I found out many interesting customs and cultures over here from different foreign countries and their cultures. I learned and experienced a lot of useful things. I started confusing should I go back my country or stay here to develop my career and life. I think learning to adapt a new culture and overcome the culture shock is really a great experience for everyone. We should like a transformable animal can easily adapt to new environment, therefore we can have a better life in anywhere we go. Culture Shock is just a temporary emotion; it will be gone gradually when you start accepting your new place.
The symptoms of culture shock can appear at different times. Although one can experience real pain from culture shock, it is also an opportunity for redefining one’s life objectives. It can be an opportunity for learning and acquiring new perspectives. Culture shock can make one develop a better understanding of oneself and stimulate personal creativity.

The difference between city life in US and Vietnam

There are three differences of city life between US and Vietnam including environment, transportation and entertainment. The notable difference between the city life in US and Vietnam is the environment. As everyone knows, US is a develop country with many factories, but it does not meant that the environment is polluted. In contract, the city here is quite fresh and clear. There are many trees are grown to keep the air clear and reduce less dirty. Furthermore, the landscapes are diversity. There are some beaches and mountains which make the city much more beautiful. On the other hand, the Vietnam, the city’s environment is not as good as in US. The pollution is rising everyday because of the crowded population and dirt from transportations. The land is not enough for living, so all park is becoming high building that makes more increasable of pollution. Secondly, transportation between these cities is significant difference. In US, the common transportation is car. Everybody uses car to go to school and go to work. Moreover, the public transportation is in high quality and convenient. In addition, the roads are wide, clean and beautiful, so the traffic jam rarely happens. Differently from the US, motorcycle is the common vehicle in Vietnam. There is about 95 percentage people use motorcycle for everyday activities. Otherwise, the main public transportation is bus. However it cannot afford the people’s demand because of lack of qualification. The traffic jam happens every day in almost street in the city. For example, in DienBienPhu Street (a high way in a Vietnam’s city) the traffic jam goes on daily at the rush hour. Finally, one more difference is the entertainment of these cities. American usually goes to shopping or goes to bar in other to reduce stress. There are also a lot of theme parks such as Disney Land or Universal studio, etc which have a lot of activities like watching 3D film or playing roller coaster where people can go and enjoy their holiday. However, in Vietnam, people tend to go to their favorite coffee shop to listen to the music or relax after hard working. Besides that, going to karaoke bar where people usually go on the occasion of the weekend, the birthday parties or Lunar New Year is really popular. Consequently, although the city life is busy, there are some differences between city life in Vietnam and US in terms of the environment, transportation and entertainment. If I have a choice I would like having a city life in US more than Vietnam.

Influences of computer in society

Nowadays, computerization is increasing dramatically. Computers, which appear in many offices, factories as well as schools, become more and more necessary and important in society. However, computers can be harmful. There are three main examples for how computers hurt our society. The first problem is computers seriously influence the way of our interaction. Some people spend more time in computers than talk to their friends or their families; their personal interaction therefore reduces every day. For example, in my host house, my host mother’s son likes spend all the time in the internet. He does not like to go out or talk to another people. Even though I have been living in their house for almost 5 months, I talk to him just two times. Now, he cannot speak very fluently and hardly explain what he wants to say. Moreover, when people like e-mailing for their friends instead of talking to them habitually, they can forget how to interact with people. The misinterpretation might be made by e-mail because people cannot see the emotion and the body language of what their friends say. Secondly, computers not only influence our interaction, but also affect our health. The person who interacts with computer too much can have problems with their eyes. Specifically, if somebody takes more than four hours each day to look at the computer screen, they can be short sighted or astigmatic. In addition, when people are addicted to computers, they rarely go outside and take part in social activities. It leads them gradually to become lazy, sluggish and less active. Therefore, their supplemental energy is stored up day by day which can cause obesity. Besides that, people can even die because of using computer overtime. For instance, five years ago, in Vietnam, a boy died, for he had played game and chatted to such an extent that he forgot to eat. The last example is computer games might cause of violence. Especially teenagers, most of their violence is from the violent game. They deeply fall into the virtual world and cannot distinguish where the real world is and where the illusion is. They play the games and think it is normal behavior. They act like their characters in the game and violence happen because the computer games deeply affect their minds. In conclusion, computers can be harmful in some ways including the negative influence of our interaction, our health problems and an increase of violence.

Christmas 's memories

Christmas is one of my favorite holidays of the year. I still don’t know when I began expecting this time coming that much. I feel happy and warm whenever I think about such special and wonderful events on every Christmas. I can get together with my family and my friends, decorate Christmas’ tree and go out to enjoy beautiful decorations on the Churches or on the public places. I had a lot of good memories with my friends and family on Christmas time. The first memory I remember was I went out with my best friends to go to the Church on five or sixes years ago. At that time my hometown was really crowed and had many traffic jams. All of the streets were congested with people and vehicles. It was so hard to get into the main center of the Church. Furthermore, the weather of that Christmas was freezing cold, especially my hometown located in the highland of our country. We wore many warm clothes and hold hands tightly to go throught the crowd. Finally we could get into the Church and worked around to see people decorated Christmas trees and around the Church. Everything was so beautiful and miraculous. The colorful lights were twinkling and caught of everyone in the cold night. It made people feel warm when they looked at those twinkling lights. Like everyone we were absorbed to see all of special things going on around us. Even though, we were not Christians, we still really enjoy and cherish this time. I think it has been an international and common event for everyone every religion in the world, not just only for Christian people. After walking around the Church, we went to the studio to take pictures. In the studio had a lot of beautiful decorations for Christmas, we loved talking pictures over there and saved those for memories. I didn’t do a lot of special things on that day, but I felt something really special and unforgettable time with my friends when I remember the time we took pictures together. The second Christmas I couldn’t forget was the time my family celebrated Christmas together. With me it was truly a great and meaningful time. My father placed Santa Clause to make us happy and dance with us. He really looked like Santa Clause because his chubby shape. His face was full of love toward us. He always made his children feel secure and warm. That has been always the most unique thing I proud of my dad. At that Christmas, we had a buffet party with the presents of many our relatives and our family’s close friends. There were a lot of delicious food and fruits that my mom and we made. Everyone was all happy and enjoyable. We were really excited to play around with Christmas’s tree because it was the first time we were allowed to have Christmas tree in our life. We had to take a lot of time convincing my dad to buy and decorate a Christmas tree, even though my grandfather didn’t want us to put the Christian’s stuff against Buddhist religion. That was also the reason I used to cry many time whenever Christmas coming without having Christmas tree. Seeing Christmas tree I felt it was hiding a lot of miraculous and mysterious things about Christmas. Moreover the last thing I liked to talk about was my time trying to give Christmas gifts for my sisters. I had to stay up late and waited until they all slept and secretly put the presents on their beds. I hope they would feel the Christmas’s atmosphere and see their happy expressions when they received the gifts from Santa Clause. That was the thing I didn’t experience, therefore I wanted my sisters would feel happy and believe more in the beautiful and miraculous thing in Christmas.

The flowers’ city: Dalat-Vietnam

My hometown is near Dalat which is a very beautiful and romantic city in Vietnam. Dalat has a cold weather and fresh air with a lot of fogs and pine-trees. However, this place has such a special thing to proud of is all of beautiful flowers are located here. Therefore, it is also called the city of flowers. Not only famous about having flowers, it is also famous for coffees and teas.
Every year, Dalat has a festival flowers and festival teas and coffees which are really popular and famous in our country. At that time, people in all of other places will try to get here to join our special festival annually. Before festival coming, we prepare a lot of things to decorate our city. People have to plant flowers and estimate the right time to make sure all of flowers will be blew up before the festival. Middle school and high school students are selected to dance and sing for the festival. We will practice traditional dances to welcome visitors traveling from other places. Everyone is always excited and can’t wait for the festival. If you go there around the festival time you will see plenty of colorful and beautiful flowers in every street and corner of Dalat city. It makes Dalat so special and fascinating at that season. People will be stunning with the natural beauty of the flowers’city. The most favorite flower I like when I went there was peach’s flowers which blew up in everywhere here. It looked like cherry bloom of Japan, but it is originally from Vietnam. It carried the pink color which is my lovely color and it made all of the streets look so beautiful and lively. Feeling like you are in the Chinese New Year. The festival will be held in the stadium of Dalat’s center. It is the biggest event in our city; however it always happens in the winter time which is the most freezing time of this place. We have to wear a lot of warm clothes to go outside and see the flowers’ parade. It is the most interesting and attractive part of the festival. Visitors will see all of beautiful and variety of flowers on the streets which are decorated around the colorful vehicles such as cars, motorbikes or bicycles. The participators will perform their dances, sing and introduce about flowers and the events. It will be over-crowed that day. No matter how cold the weather is, people still come here crowdedly. They will try to take pictures and enjoy the special time together. At night, the music performance will be officially opened. A lot of famous and important people will be invited to watch the show. It will be lived on the main channel of our country to let all of people can see it through watching television. Many special events will e performed: traditional dances and songs. You will see special and unique performance of highland’s tribe. They will wear their custom, dance around the bonfire to show their friendship and their proud about their city. It is promised will be the unforgettable event for visitors who decide to travel to this beautiful city. I hope everyone would have the chance to join this event in my city one day because you will not regret about what you will experience there. One more thing is don’t forget to visit The Dalat flower’s park next to Xuan Huong Lake. Both of them are the main attractions there. You can see the variety of flowers from over the world in the park and rent the bicycle to sign seeing with your friends around the lake.
For me, Dalat is such a beautiful and romantic place, especially it also regards to the city of love. I hope I could visit there again someday.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

A liitle bit about myshelf

My name is Hoa Nguyen. I am 19 years old. I am an international student in Fullerton and Cypress Colleges. This is my second semester being a college’s student. My hometown is in Vietnam. My family there has six members: my parents, three younger sisters and me. My father is a really successful businessman. I am very proud of him. I want to follow my father’s step to take care of his business in the future. Therefore, I chose business management as my main major, beside that studying international business is one of my most concern now. I am not an outgoing person, sometimes really pessimistic, but I like to be active and to be around with people. I love making friends and communicate with people from different countries and cultures. Furthermore, I am really interested in learning foreign languages such as: English, Japanese, Korean, and specially Chinese. I wish I could communicate with my friends as much as possible by using their own language. I think it is one of the effective ways to get along with people and have good relationships with friends. I also like to travel different countries and visit many beautiful places in the world. That’s why I am thinking to study international business. My favorite sport is soccer; I like to play it with my friends rather than watching it on television. I like to spend time with my friends in my spare time or stay at home watching dramas, listen to music. Because of watching a lot of Chinese dramas and movies, I unconsciously have a special love with Chinese language. I begin wanting to know more and more about Chinese language and this desire has been growing up in me day by day. It makes me decide to study Chinese to build up my interest. I have experienced that Chinese language is somehow similar and acquainted with Vietnamese language from the pronunciation and grammar’s structure. Therefore, I feel it is easy and enjoyable for me to learn Chinese. I can watch Chinese dramas and movies without using subtitles by guessing and understanding the language. It is also the way I improve my Chinese’s skills. I think if we like doing something, we will have a special passion with it and study it effectively without any effort. I wish one day I could completely understand and speak Chinese fluently so that I can feel the beauty and the meaningful contents of my favorite dramas and my favorite songs. Chinese language influences a lot with my life and my thought. I want to inspire my passion to everyone around me about Chinese language. I feel really lucky to take Chinese class in Cypress. I have learned and received a lot of useful knowledge about Chinese from my teacher and my friends. Going to class is the most relaxing and joyful thing to me. I can practice and talk with my teacher and my friends by using Chinese language. I hope I would go to Taiwan one day to visit the country that has made such interesting dramas and amazing songs which mainly inspired me to come with Chinese language.

Stories beside my habit of sleeping

I hate my bad habit of being so easily to fall asleep. I couldn’t concentrate on studying or doing anything effectively. How can I find the method to reduce my problem of sleeping? It is not always because I don’t get enough sleep, therefore I feel like sleeping more. Whether I get enough sleep or not, I still have a strong deserve to sleep. When I was in high school, I started being like that. I was tired and sleepy all the time, especially in the afternoon time. While teachers were giving the lectures, I was sleeping in classes and sometimes did not know what he or she was talking about. In the day time, I felt sleepy, but in the night time I was really awake. I often stayed up late and got up late as well. Every time, my father called me to get up and prepare to go to school, I always sad: “Can you give me five or ten minutes more? I will get out of bed, I promise”. I know five or ten minutes more, will not change that much, but I still deserve to have these little time to get more sleep. Therefore, I have been usually late for classes, no matter in the past or in the present. I used to be deducted a lot of points or have to pay money for punishment dude to my lateness. Furthermore, somehow I became standing out and catch the attention of everyone because I could sleep every time, everywhere, and every position. Uhm…I remember when I first moved to a new high school in a city, I was really famous because of my sleeping issue. My friends later told me that I was so brave, how I dared could fall asleep in the biology class in which the most strict and scary teacher taught. Come on, I was just a freshman, how could I know how scary she possibly was. However, I realized she did make every her student feel really stress and afraid, especially when she wanted to check our memories of biology’s lessons. Not only in her class, but also in other classes, I still sometime feel sleepy. It has been become my bad habit and my special attention with everyone in a new environment. Actually, I did not know that my friends paid that much attention about that, but latter they shared their memory about me with me. They said because every time they looked at me, I was always in the position of sleeping, how I could do that. Then, I was interested by two classmates since they started noticing about me. They were both my close friends and they were close to each other also. I did not expect that they would like me at the same time. One was my best friend in class. One was my friend in another class. I just thought them as my friends, but it was an awkward and difficult time for all of us. The one I liked and hoped he would like me in return did not have any obvious expressions toward me. In contract, two of my close friends began developing the feeling with me day by day. At that time I was really confused and hurt somehow. Then I decided to give up all of them and choose to be single as usual. I thought it would be the best way for all of us. Then when I met that boy who I used to fall for him in America, I finally knew that he backed up with me because they were all his best friends. I thought he was a little bit selfish to do that. But I know if I were him, probably I would do the same way. Relationship happens between close friends are the most complicated and hurtful thing in the world. What we should do to still keep the friendship, but still can be with the person we like. It would be really hard; sometime you just can choice one of them. Therefore, I hope everyone would not let this situation happen as less as possible.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Working while studying

Working and studying
In some countries, teenagers have jobs while they are still students, especially American students. It has been a common trend for colleges and universities’ students nowadays. Either they must have a job to effort their living or desire to get reliable experiences from their working outside of schools. However, knowing how to manage your time to get a balance between studying and working is not a simple thing to do. If students do not find an appropriate method to handle their choice, it probably will cause them a lot of stressful and difficult issues in their student’s life.
Here are some common problems occur when students work besides studying.
First of all, working can distract students from their studies at school. It might reduce their productivity in studying in colleges and universities. Once one decides to work, one will have to divide time in two parts: studying and working. It can be called double-time management. Therefore, it might be really difficult and tough to get things done well in both sides except one really has an effective managing skill. Many students do not have enough time to finish their homework and assignment since they start working. It consequently leads to the time-consuming while students try to finish their duties before last minutes. Obviously, waiting until last minutes likely brings bad results or less effective products for people. Some might luckily get through it, but some are overwhelming and easy to give up their jobs. It is meaningless to work while one receives negative effect in their study. We pay such amount money to study and we do not have any good results just because we want to have money for tuition fees. Don’t we feel it does not make sense?
It is good that having a job will gain our experience and knowledge rather than studying in school and class. However, we have to think carefully and make a right decision of stepping into another side of life. Don’t be so hurry to work. I know everyone likes to do so, even me. I used to have an experience of working in just the last period time before. It was the first time in my life to earn money by myself. It was so special and unforgettable event with me. I received 128 dollars after spending the whole day buying bags for one Japanese company. I was an easy and fun to me at first, but later on I realized, it is starting wasting my time. Instead of using my spare time in the weekend to study, hang out with my friends or give myself some relax moments, I used it to work around the stores and spend plenty of time in the car. I was originally lazy already; it made me lazier because of tiring and even stole the studying time of mine. Therefore, I think, it is still not a good time to work because I am not ready and still do not know how to manage my time
Working can help you more grow up and collect experiences from other people, but we need more effort and responsibility before thinking do choose work and study at the same time. If we are still not ready and not good about managing time, it will bring a lot of problems for us. We do not want that happen, so don’t rush yourself, think carefully and study well before you decide to work. As the students, I think the most important thing is focus on our studies and develop our skills completely. It will be better to start our jobs.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Unexpected day for Spring Break

Hello! Right now I am speaking about my Spring Break again. It would not be that long and I would have stopped to talk about that if on last Saturday my two dear friends had not called me. I did not expect that I would do anything more for Spring Break after having a bunch of activities during the weekdays. I talked to myself: “OK! You’ve gotta study now. Let’s begin with writing the blog assignments for English class”. As I intended, I did start dealing with blog’s entries. Thinking about which topic I should write about, I finally decided to talk about my Spring Break. I was doing half of my entry, suddenly received a call which I did not expect that was Christen, my friend in L.A. “ What are you doing?”, her first question which is always such a dangerous and predicted signal for asking us to hang out. I was thinking: “Oh My God, I want to be study hard, but always be distracted from playing with friends”. Too bad, I knew I would have to pay back and be more stressful to handle my homework and assignment after that, but I could not reject their invitations. As a result, I said “OK, I will be there” and drove car to L.A again. I could not believe that in a week I went there two times: Wednesday and Saturday. It took quite far and cost a lot of gas to go there (23 miles). Around 1h pm I arrived there. We came straight to William’s house because his family had a vacation in Las Vegas. Therefore, we could come freely to visit. Then, William took us to go to Korean B.B.Q restaurant to eat buffet. I like Korean B.B.Q the most, so delicious. I ate a lot like normal and they kept talking and teasing me about my eating. Whenever I see them I feel really happy and comfortable. We can talk and share many things. After being so full at this restaurant, we went home and did housework. I and my sister gave them a hand to clean up William’s room and his family’s house. It was really fun. In the late afternoon, we did not know what we should do next and decided to sing Karaoke at home. His house had a very nice and qualified Karaoke’s loud. We sang and dance crazily until 8p.m that was the time I and my sister needed to go home and start preparing for our studies before too late. We said goodbye to them, but actually I still wanted to be with them. I subconsciously said “Oh, every time I had to say goodbye, I feel so sad, don’t wanna go back!” Right away, William responded “Then, just stays here overnight, why don’t you?” I said to him “Really? Are you sure? I had been thinking about that, but I think you would not probably allow”. He said: “No, I would be more than welcome, no problem!” I and my sister looked at each other and laughed out loud: “Yes, we can stay here, how happy!” Then, we came to Christine’s house to get clothes for exchanging and went to “Raph” to buy some food for dinner. We were so excited and talked to William: “Hey! You are the luckiest guys in the world because u always has three cute girls around you”. He just smiled and took us back home. After all of us taking shower, William showed off his cooking. He always says “Let me do it, let me do it” So, OK! Just go ahead! He made fried noodle with tomato and eggs for us. It did not look attractive, but it did taste delicious though. He also cooked sausages with cheese. It was too salty. However, they couldn’t finish those sausages. I was the one who tried to eat vegetables with those. It was probably the first I ate vegetables that much. I felt so full. Later, we slept together in his room and watched films until midnight. His bed was so comfortable and warm. Woa…I and my sister felt so great when laid on. He slept with the sofa on the floor with Christen to let us enjoy sleeping in his own bed. How nice he was! I stopped watching movie when he turned on the Ghost’s movie which was just finished at the first beginning. We relaxingly slept until late morning on the next day. We finally said goodbye to them and went to work later. It was really great and unforgettable time for my Spring Break.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Spring Break_L.A Time with my friends_Part 2

It was still sunny and just around 2h30 p.m on Wednesday after we left the bowling's place. I said to them:”Let’s go to the beach or the part to play soccer! “. Then, William took us to go to Toysrus to look for soccer’s ball because I want to have them do sport for fun. Actually, William did not want to play at all. He said today was so windy and cold; wouldn’t be q suitable time for playing soccer. However, we tried to persuade him many times; finally we could go to the park next to Christens house to play. We set up the goal and started playing. The same team, we tried to attack them, ran and kicked the ball into their goal. It was freezing cold and windy at that time. It make our breath become heavier and heavier. William was exhausted and tired because of solid air. We had to stop the game and of course they had to suffer our funny punishment. They have to turn their asses back and let us kick the ball into these. How funny! The last activity we did for the entire playing day was eating. It was also the most favorite thing of mine. We went to “Wingstop” to eat chicken wings. We ordered a big combo which included 35 pieces chicken wings. It looked like too much, but don’t worry! “I am here”. It is maybe embarrassing, but I do not mind to say that I can eat a lot, a lot more than I can imagine. I used to pretty famous and stood out of my friends because of being able to sleep everywhere, every time and eat a lot with a high speed. They put on me the nickname “Sleeping and Eating Machine”. It sounds funny huh? But for me it is also a cute and special name. I have still been eating a lot until now. Whenever I am sad or happy eating is my solution. I feel better when I eat food and I like to enjoy all kind of food from other countries and my hometown also. I am really easy to get hungry again just within two hours no matter how much I eat before. My friends told me that probably you had a black hole in your stomach otherwise how come you can eat that much. It sounds somehow make sense to explain for my special ability. They often say to me: “Hey! Cyndi, you can’t get boyfriend if someone sees you eating like that, he will run away or afraid of not being able to paid for your meals”. I know It possibly would happen, but who cares that what I am. If he likes me he will like everything about me whether my weak points and strong points. Someone used to tell me: “No problem, you eat a lot that means you are happy”. Hold on! I talked too much about my eating .Let’s come back from the time at the chicken’s store. We were talking and chatting with each other while we were eating. Therefore, did not notice, we could finish all of those 35 pieces and I was the last one finished the last piece. We were so full and said goodbye to go back home. That was a really great day and was successful day except the lateness of seeing my friends in front of Chinese class.
Those were all of special events happened in my Spring Break until Saturday. I was really satisfied about my relaxing and funny time during these days, especially with my friends. Even though I could not plan to go any further place out of my state like I used to wish, I still had a great time with my friends and my sister. The only thing I felt guilty was I did not do any things related to study. I think I need to get things done as many as I can otherwise I am going to fall behind of all my classes.

Spring Break_L.A Time with my friends_Part 1

Tuesday and Thursday were not any grammatical events to say. I just went to Huntington Beach with my sister and cooked food at home. Unfortunately, I could not study anything despite of the fact that two those days are intended to study. It was getting excited again on Wednesday. As I planed, we woke up early and went to El Camino College to make a bump into my friends surprisingly to see my two best friends (sounds crazy, doesn’t it?). We was trying to run as fast as possible to meet them in front of the door of their Chinese’s class, but we couldn’t make it due to the wasting time of looking for the parking spot. Oh My God, I was too tired of breathing in and out instantly to find them. Finally we accidentally found each other near the library’s door. Unconsciously, we ran quickly into them and jumped up and down for joy. I really did not recognize I was 19 already and even with my sis looked like little child happy because of seeing their parents. My friends looked at us and smiled. Christine said I had a feeling that you guys would be here and it was true. Then, they sneaked out of next classes and hung out with us. We went to Japanese market to have lunch. The foods were delicious and I ate a lot like normal. Being with them really made me happy and comfortable. I felt fortune when I have them as my friends.
After finishing eating, we did not know what we should do next. My sister suddenly asked: “Does any play we can go bowling here?” and that was a good recommendation for us. William took us to go to one bowling place which was not so far. It was an OK place; but I was surprised because all of customers there were elder people. We were the only youngest group, can say teenagers in this place. However, those elder people, they did bowling awesomely and seemed to be so professional. I thought I would have been embarrassed when I played beyond them. Luckily we got the row at the corner so I less consider about that. We bet that which team was going to lose would pay the fee for this bowling game. I and my sis were on the same team; two of my friends on the other team. We played pretty well, especially my sis. She got straight several times. Everything went great and we surely though we would have won this game. They would pay, I thought and laughed. We played really dynamically and lively. We made noises the whole room because of shouting out and jump in happiest whenever someone got a nice score. We made everyone pay attention about us and they looked at us with lovely smiles for our childlike actions. Moreover, at the end of the game, the situation turned around. My friends were getting higher scores and finally won us. How frustrated me and my sis were. They were really lucky actually. William played pretty well, but Christen always missed the points. That was a reason why we could surely win the game. This changed surprisingly like that because I observed her weakness when she was playing. Then I showed her how to use it to fix her way to throw the ball. It worked seriously and she got a straight. Oh My God! You could not imagine how happy she was and how socked I was when she first got a highest score. I continuously lost the points after that and the sequence was we paid the game. My friends were laughing a lot and thanked you me for helping her. Ah! We could have won. William told his girlfriend Christen: “Today we played bowling for free, Christen how pleasant!” he happily laughed. It made me and my sis ever angry, but anyway we got extremely fun and interesting time together. That was the most important thing.

Spring Break_The Begining Time

Oh! My Spring Break is going to end. Today is Saturday, but I still have not done anything with my studies unfortunately. How lazy I am! Despite of the fact that I did not do such special events in my Spring Break, I still love these relaxing times.
When my English‘s class ended on Friday, it was a time of Spring Break. Yeah! I felt really happy and excited. However I had not had any plans for my holiday at that time. I and my sister just went to the Thai’s restaurant to have lunch and talk about what we are going to do for our spring break. Then, we popped up many crazy ideas to fulfill our schedule for Spring break. Let’s see. On Monday, luckily my Chinese friend asked me to play soccer, so I had one plan already. Tuesday, well I thought I would go to Huntington Beach to study with my sister. Actually I have bunch of things to finish during Spring Break such as: homework, assignments, think how to apply for school in China to study abroad in summer. Therefore, I decided to use Tuesday and Thursday to finish these things. The most exciting plan was on Wednesday. We would attack to my two close friends’ college suddenly to see them. They must have been extremely surprised. Think about what would they react when they see us, we both laugh crazily. Oh my God, “I am so childish”, I thought. In addition to that, I was expecting we could go to Disneyland to spend the weekend of Spring break with my close friends together. These were my entire plan for Spring Break. However, not all of them were successful like I expected, and some of them were really great.
On Monday, I and my sister woke up around 9h30 am and 10h30 we went out to pick my friend at bus top. Then, we went to Vietnamese restaurant to eat “Pho Ga”. “Pho Ga” is one type of Vietnamese noodle but containing with chicken instead of with beef. This place is really nice. The food is also delicious. I like to eat at here. After finishing our meal, we got boba milk tea, I love boba, probably can say I am addicted to drink it. Later we came back home to see my friends and went to Santa Monica Beach to sign seeing. At this place, we had a lot of fun. Woa! Santa Monica Beach was really beautiful and crowed. At the pier, they sold many interesting stuff and many different kinds of games and rides. It was so lively over here. I felt so relaxed when seeing the sea. It was so immerse and deep blue. We jumped into the sea and played with water. Almost everyone got wet, but It was really fun. Later on, we looked for the place to play volley ball. My team likely always won the games. Everyone was tired, but really excited. The most attractive and special part for me was playing soccer with my friends on the beach’s sand in the hot and sunny weather. That was so awesome and happy for big fans of playing soccer like me and my sister. We have longed to play soccer again since we did it every day with our neighbors in our childhood’s memories. Therefore, we really put a lot of effort and played dynamically for our team. I can be proud and confident about this part. We opened Spring Break with a really beginning.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Traveling alone ^oo^

Traveling alone

It is so interesting and exciting to just take an adventure to travel solo by yourself around the world. Many individuals have been choosing this way to have a real time of life by their own. By traveling alone, you can discover a lot of amazing and surprising things through your trip and meet new people, make friends and feel free to go wherever you want without time-consuming. It is awesome, isn’t?

There are a lot of fun and wonderful experiences when you decide to travel alone. You will be surprised about what you can see about the world outside your view. When you prepare carefully for you trip and the place to go, with a package, you are ready to take adventure to experience the world. Arriving at the destination, you will start to discover the exciting places you wish to go without worrying about waiting or following others people like in a group tours. It will be even more excited if it is your first time traveling overseas solo. You can experience a lot of interesting like learning how to book the airplane tickets, rooms, deciding which hotels you are going to stay and how many days you will visit…It makes you automatically independent and learn how to be well-organized. That is true because it is so important to have a proper and good travel arrangement to start you trip otherwise you are about to mess up everything. Furthermore, when you visit new country, new land you will learn about this place’s culture and custom, especially Asian or European culture. Sometimes, it is really interesting and amazing more than you thought.

Another great thing is taking a vacation alone is a great opportunity to meet new people and make friends. Do not think that traveling solo you will be alone and enjoy all the things by yourself. It totally depends on your thought and your attitude. It might be a little bit frightened and nervous at first when you think you will travel with any friends and family, who is going to accompany and help you. You must be sad and feel so lonely or homesick (That’s what I think). However, if you open mind, be friendly and involved with the new people in the new place. You will see that they are also happy to make friends with you. Everyone likes to have new friends. It is human’s nature. Don’t worry! Visiting a new country, you will see more and get to know more people and might be discover how amazing they are. Some travelers make lifelong friendships and lasting and meaningful relationships with people around the world. That is so wonderful and miraculous. Each place, you have been through, you are creating memories and nice experience. It could not be more romantic if you meet you lover accidentally in your trip and spend time with each other. I wish this situation would be come to me luckily. A relationship always starts as a friend.

The last great thing about traveling alone is you can take the initiative and schedule you time. Everyone likes the freedom, so it will be uncomfortable and feel tided if you have to follow the arranged schedule of a tour. You have to wake up early in the morning to start a trip with other tourists and tour guide and cannot stay longer to a place you are interested in. That is what I experienced when took a group tour to Hong Kong. It makes you sometimes feel really tired and sleepy. Therefore, be able to control and manage time by yourself, in my opinion is a good way to go. You will have a flexible time and travel wherever you like and feel ready. Like that, you can have more time to visit and enjoy the place you like. You have time to discover it, take picture and save enough memory for it. That is the special and realistic advantage I like and prefer traveling alone.

For all of those great advantages of traveling alone, I strongly recommend everyone who hasn’t or is hesitate to take a vacation alone to give it a try. You will be not disappointed about what you get when you decide to take an adventure to travel around the world individually. Making friends, meeting new people and experience the world by yourself are worth to give a solo travel a try.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

The Creation

The history of Creation is known and defined in many various ways. It depends on religions and personal beliefs of each individual or organization. The world which people are leaving is very mysterious and interesting to discover. Therefore, many authors have written and researched about the creation of the world in centuries. They have different ideas or beliefs about how the world was created. The understanding of creation is expressed unlikely in two readings: “The Book of Genesis from The Woman’s Bible” of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and “Nature” of Luther Standing Bear. Both readings have different thought about creation. Stanton declares the creation is about the simultaneous creation of man and woman. In contract, Standing Bear believes all of the creatures in the world create a beautiful nature around humans.
In “The Book of Genesis from The Woman’s Bible”, Stanton mentioned a about the progress of God when he created man in Genesis. According to the Genesis “God created man in his own image, male and female” (Page 107, Ideas Across Times), God brought the simultaneous creation of man and woman to the world flow his imagination. He expected that both sexes are equal and have the same significant position in developing the human’s lives. Therefore, women have the same right and dominion like man. It is important to maintain and acknowledge the eternity and equality of sex in order to create the balance world. In Stanton’s opinion, she demonstrated that without marinating those important elements “there could have been no perpetuation of creation, no growth or development in the animal, vegetable, or mineral kingdoms, no awakening nor progressing in the world of thought.”(Page 106-107, Ideas Across Times). From that, people can realize that the creatures of the world are closely related to a simultaneous creation of the masculine and feminine which man and woman were evolved on the sixth day. Thus, overall Stanton’s view about the creation is man is the first and original specie in the beginning of the world.
However, Standing Bear has a different comprehension about the creation. His thought is mainly regard to Nature. He thinks that all of creatures are created the beautiful we live now. The earth, the sun, water, animals and every single creature combine together to develop the nature. Standing said The Lakota loves everything in the earth and people feel safe and comfortable under the protection of mothers and grandmothers. They are really close to nature. It makes them has the clear and sympathy thought about the world: “he can see more clearly into the mysteries of life and come closer in kinship to other lives about him” (Page 188, Ideas Across Times). Because of understanding the beautiful meaning of nature, Indian people behave in good manner and know what is helpful and harmful for their life. Standing Bear expressed that the animals have the same rights as man. They are worth to be protected by humans and it is a proper thing to do. They really care about the creatures around them “This concept of life and its relations was humanizing and gave to the Lakota an abiding love” (Page 189, Idea Across Times). It makes them like and appreciate the environment where they live. The creation of the sun and the earth play the important roles in the development of nature. Therefore, Indian people have special love and beliefs about the earth and the sun in their life. They will protect them throughout difficult situations occur in their life.
From those different concepts about the creation above, people can understand more about the historical of the world’s creation. Ones is related to the simultaneous creation of man and woman, one is related closely to nature. However, both thought of Standing Bear and Stanton are really interesting and understandable. They gave people a different ideas about how the world is made and form that people can appreciate more about the world that they are leaving now.

Rural vs urban area

In this modern world, almost everybody tends to live in the big cities to work and study. Thus, the numbers of population in the rural area has been reducing recently because people refer moving to the urban area due to the standard of living. It makes remarkable differences to chose whether living in the city or the countryside. However, despite of the fact that urban area has the attractive entertainment and good environment for people to develop their carrier and study, I still refer spending my time in the countryside because it has a fresh atmosphere, friendly neighborhood and peaceful life.

The first great thing about the countryside is it carries a fresh atmosphere around its residents. People in the countryside are living in the clear and fresh air without worrying about inhaling the smoke and the combustion from the vehicles, industries releases like urban residents. Therefore, they have a good and stable health, less get illnesses from the effects of the pollution even though they do not have a good medical care like people in the city. Everyone can obviously see the fact that, the more developed area, the more crowded people. It makes the population expand and consequently the demands of using vehicles also improve as well. Like in Vietnam, the pollution has been a serious issue in the big cities, especially in Saigon which is the biggest city in this country because people stick together in this area to desire for jobs and good educations. It certainly has benefits, but the air is really polluted and the atmosphere is oppressive. Many developing countries have the same problem like that in the urban areas. In contract, rural areas bring people a fresh, cool air with a lot of green trees and the lack of using vehicles. Therefore, which people who want to avoid the pollution, countryside is the better choice.

Furthermore, living in the countryside really makes people get closer, especially between neighbors with neighbors. Countryside just a small town, people are really friendly and willing to help each other. People live in the same area or even a little bit far each other, they still know their neighborhood very well. If someone asks about any random information about their neighbors, surely they will tell fluently about their neighbors’ stories. They get along and have a good relationship with one another. If any family has difficult problems, they can encourage and try their best to have their neighbor overcome it. They feel happy and pleasant to do the favor without asking any benefits in return. That is the beautiful characteristics of countryside’s people. They share sadness and happiness, always gather in every special event. Like New Year Holiday, it is the obvious occasion to see the rural people show their carrying and kindness to each other. They come to visit their neighbor’s house and celebrate New Year together with plenty different kinds of traditional food gathering from other families. Generally, they have really close and friendly relationships which hardly seek from the people in the big cities.

Finally, the most wonderful thing to choose living in the countryside is people can find the peaceful life here. That is so great to live in the place without worrying about anything such as how to make more money, how to find a good job, how to study or work better than other people. All of those demands are necessary and realistic, however it will be so stressful and headache for someone who just always thinks about those issues all the time, especially the people in the big cities. Whether they desire or not, they are unconsciously attracted to the busy and competitive life in urban area. Their life just likes a routine and a cycle. In the morning, People have to wake up early go to school, go to work and come home late in the afternoon. Do not have time to get together with family’s members to have a meal is a normal and common thing for them. In contract, a meal with family is a habit and traditional custom for almost every family in the countryside. They can talk and share intimately with each other about their life in a small town. They do not have to stress out and think about how to deal with the world with lots of competitions and busy works. They just wake up and go to a rice field which is so green and immense to do farmer’s jobs. It makes people open mind and be close to nature. Their life is such simple and relaxing. Living closely with nature like that, they will have a good health and rich mental development. Furthermore, countryside is especially a good idea for older people to live and spend the rest of their life here. They can stay with their family or even some of family’s members are not available, they still have neighbors to talk and farmer’s works to do. They will not feel lonely and bored when they are getting older. That is a great valuable thing the countryside can bring to people.

For all of wonderful things that countryside carries in itself. People can see and make their own thought and decision whether living in the countryside or in the big city. However, considering about having a fresh atmosphere, friendly neighborhood and peaceful life, rural areas are still great places to choose. Spending human’s lives with nature is always a good idea.