Color and Style of Clothes...journal #28

Clothes can tell a lot about a person who is wearing it. That cannot be judged by science, but everyone can see that. As we know, everyone has some favorite colors, and they also have some their own styles in wearing clothes. The colors and styles of the clothes which they wear can tell us a lot about them.
First, let look at the colors of clothes which someone wear. If they usually wear some clothes with dark color I can tell that they want to hide something inside their body, or they don’t want to share some private things with other people. I can say that they live inside. On the other hand, when I look at someone always wear clothes with bright colors, I can tell that they want to show something, they want to be indicated by everyone and see them. They don’t want to hide everything. Moreover they want to share with a lot people. I can say that they live outside.
Second, let look at the styles of clothes which someone wear. When I see someone who usually wears formal and polite clothes, I can tell that that they have good organization in their life. They want something in order and clearly. On the other hand, when I see someone who always wears messy clothes, I can tell that they live no in order. They want something is messy, too. They want to follow any rule of society, and they have their own rules for their life. They don’t care about anyone who is living around them.
In short, color and style of clothes can tell us a lot about person who wear it. So, when we wear something with our favorite colors and styles, that mean we will show everyone something about us.

Thanks!.......Journal #27

If I have chance to say thankful sentences, my parents will be the first people who I want to say a thank-you. They made me here, and nobody else can do that. I mean I was born by them. They gave me all of their love. They always think about me even though I can say that I have old enough to take care myself. I really want to thank the love which they gave to me. In my mine, I never forget what they gave me. I also never forget their faces which make me happy. I hope that they can have a good health and a good life when I’m studying far away. Second one who I want to say a thank-you is my girlfriend. She always besides me and help me so much when I came to the US. She gives me delicious foods. She also is a person who I can belief and talk to her what I’m feeling when I live far from my family. She always motivates me to study and do good things when came with her. I really want to appreciate the love which she gave for me. Last but not least, I want to say thankful sentences to ALP teachers. They tried to help me so much. I love them. I know that I will get what I did before. So, one thing I need to do is that I have to work hard if I want to have a good score. Nobody can help me have good scores even God if I don’t study hard. At all, I really want to thank people who make me and everyone happy. Thanks!

My delicious Food, Banh Xeo ...Journal #26

Pho is a popular food in my country. However, I have one thing which is more special for me than Pho. It is Banh Xeo coming from the middle of my country. It's really good if we can eat in winter. It will take about 30 minutes to make the dinner with Banh Xeo for 4 people. To make Banh Xeo we need:
1/2 lb boneless pork loin
20 medium shrimp
10 fresh cilantro stems
10 fresh basil sprigs
10 fresh mint sprigs
2 cups rice flour
1/2 cup self-rising flour
2 1/2 cups water
1 cup coconut milk
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 green onion, chopped
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped

3 cups bean sprouts
5 tablespoons oil
nuoc cham sauce red leaf lettuce

And this is a Banh Xeo recipe from http://www.recipezaar.com/:

1. Place pork loin in a saucepan; cover with water and bring to a boil over medium heat; simmer until cooked through, about 20 minutes.
2. Allow pork to cool, then julienne into strips.
3. Shell and devein shrimp; slice each one in half lengthwise.
4. Rinse herbs and drain; set aside.
5. In a mixing bowl, prepare batter by mixing rice flour, self-rising flour, water, coconut milk, curry powder, sugar, salt, and green onion until smooth.
6. Divide pork, shrimp, onion, and bean sprouts into 5 separate little piles for easy access during cooking.
7. Heat 1 tbsp oil in non-stick frying pan until hot; cook pork shrimp and onion until it starts to sizzle; add 1/2 cup of batter and swirl to cover pan and get batter underneath.
8. Place one pile of bean sprouts towards the center of the crepe, then cover the pan tightly.
9. Turn the heat down to medium and cook for 2-3 minutes, then uncover and loosen edges of crepe and fold over with a spatula to form an omelette.
10. Transfer the crepe to a serving platter.
11. Repeat process with rest of batter.
12. Do not cover the cooked crepes or stack them (they will lose their crispness- they should remain light and airy).
13. To serve, place one crepe on a plate with some lettuce leaves, herbs also with a small bowl of nuoc cham.
14. The person cuts a portion of crepe, wraps it in a leaf of lettuce with some herbs, and dips it in the sauce.

Have a good try!

Extinct language...Journal #25

My group is researching an extinct language, Mozarabic. It was Southern Ibero-Romance language, and it was developed in those parts of Spain under Arab occupation from the early century until about 1300. It was the spoken language of the city-dwellers, who remained Christians while the peasants generally converted to Islam. In this time, there were about two millions of Moxarabic speakers.
We also knew that term Mozarabic was devired form the Arabic word Musta’rib and the term Ajami. It was the Romance language which was spoken by the Christians in the muslim possessions on the Iberian peninsula. Unlike most Romance languages, Mozarabic was written in the Ariabic alphabet rather than the Latin alphabet. This language died out soon after the Arabs were driven out of Spain at the end of the 15 century. However, it still used as a liturgical language in a few places in Spain and Morocco.

Boo….Look like … me???... Journal #24

It was a rainy night at countryside. A young man first time went back to his father land after fifteen years living in a big city. Before coming back here, he heard that there were a lot of horror stories on this land. The rain got lighter and then stopped. He realized that he was lost to a cemetery. He could feel goose bump along his body and behind his neck, but he had no choice. He had to find the way to go home. From far, he saw a light, seemed like a candle light. He ran toward that and met a young girl. She was wearing white with long black hair and had a voice like the wind whittling on ears. “Where are you going ?,” asked she. He replies “I am lost. Would you please show me the way to go home? It’s very scary around here”. The young girl smiled gently, “Oh, yes. There are many ghosts in this region. They look very scary… like… me…” She turned around and the young man saw a huge swollen bloody face. He yelled “Aaaaaaaaaa….” and ran with all the power he had. Luckily, he saw a policeman. He told the policeman about what he saw and how scary the ghost was. The policeman wrote down all he said and suddenly asked “Does she look like…. Me????” (No more word to say)

Should we hit our children??? Journal #23

In Vietnam and most of other Asian countries, hitting children is not an illegal action at home or at schools. Some people from other cultures such as American, European think that it is very cruel to hit children. They think that only parents who never love children hit their own ones. In our culture, it is not always right. Some parents love their children even more than themselves, but still punish them whenever they do something wrong. I know a story about a young man and his old mother. He was already an adult and still lived with his mom as our culture. He did something really bad and his mother used a big long stick to hit him with all of her strength. This man cried not just about what he did but about his mom. He felt that she could not hit him as hard as she could before. He realized that she was getting old and became weaker day by day because of pressure of life to raise him up. He promised to himself that he would never do bad things and would become the best person so that his mom could be proud of her son. At my point of view, hitting children is not the best way to teach them. However, it is not true that parents who hit their own children never love them. I got hit sometimes by my father when I was a kid trying to climb to the roof. Until now, I still remember that whipping. I saw tears in his eyes, tears of love and worriment.

Candles...

Besides its use of lightening, candle can also help to freshen the air. Back then, we did not have electricity, candle was the only thing that brought light to us. Nowadays, electricity is widely used, but candle still has its unique use. What will we do if the electricity is out at night time? We cannot see anything, so candle is a good choice to have a light. It does not like the light from electricity, but it can help us to see and do something we can. For example, one year ago when it was out off the electricity, but I really need to go to restroom, so how I can go there if I didn’t have a candle. In addition, this candle could freshen smell from restroom when I was inside.

The fires..Journal #22

Fire is one of famous invents of human. In early time, when people can only know hunting beasts in wood and eat raw meat. Àfter people found out the fire, it has become one of important things in their life. Although fire which help people do a lot of things is very useful in anyway, sometime it become dangerously with people.
Indeed, it is really dangerous even small fires. When we cook something, it can burn our hand and face if we don’t do carefully. For example, at the first time when I cooked, I was burned by fire while I took spoon from the pan. It was a bad thing for me at that time and it took a week later I became normally.
Moreover, when fires become bigger and bigger, it can burns anything even houses which are built very strong. In my mine, I still remember fires which burned the bakery in my neighbourhood. It was a great fear when I saw them which burned three houses and killed 6 people in only one night. Everyone saw them but we could not do anything, because it was too big fire. We only waited support from firemen and got out form the houses which were firing. It was a great shock for everyone in my city.
In conclusion, Fire is great invent. It can help people a lot in daily life, however, we should be careful when we use it.

Time management ...Journal #21

Time management is an important skill for college students to master. Nowaday, student have to study and do a lot homework. Besides the studying hours on school, someone has to work to live. However, we have only twenty hours a day, so every student has their own techniques which can use to effectively manage their time.
One of popular ways which everyone uses is planning. Students usually have a plan for spending time on activities in a day, a week, or a month. This skill can help them control the time on works which they have to do. In addition, with a good plan, they will know what they do at the special time and how much time they need to spend on that work. It helps students to raise the sense of initiative.
The second way which can help student master their time is focusing on one work and do quickly if they can. Indeed, when we concentre into one work , we can do it effectively and then we another works. We don’t need to spend many times to do the same work. For example, I want to do homework, but I also want to watch TV, so last day, while I was studying, I also was watching TV. Finally I couldn’t finish my homework although I had three hours to do that. Therefore, students can save their time very much when they focus on one work and follow this way.
The last way which can help students master their time is doing exercise everyday. At first we don’t see any relation between doing exercise and time management. However, It is really an important skill which help student have a good health to do another skills. For instance, if they don’t have a good health, what thing they can do. No thing…Right? Moreover, When students become sick, how they can do their plans. How they can focus on their work and so on.
In short, time management is an important skill for college students. Therefore, they should have plans for their time, focus on their work, and do exercise to have a good health. I think if students, you, and me follow these ways, we can use to effectively manage our time.

Essay… Journal #20

My high school is one of the big schools in my city. It was built since 1921 and modified last time three years ago. It is really beautiful school, and there are a lot of best teachers and student every year. However, students study English not too much, and English class is not important class in any way. Therefore, they usually meet the problem when they study abroad. So, English class or foreign language class should be required and considered carefully.
Today, foreign languages are considered as an important factor when student want to apply for job. Indeed, most of companies in my city have an investment from foreign funds. Therefore, they require their employees have to know English or other languages beside native language. Sometime these employees have to work and communicate with foreign people. For example, when my brother applies for an office job in private companies which has 50% fund from a foreign country, required my brother had to have English certificates or something like that. So, students need to study foreign languages as soon as possible. And High schools will play important role in achieving these things. Students have to study abroad languages carefully.
In addition, students usually want to go abroad to study. So English and other languages are very important. It will be the first condition when they apply for a university. If they want to have a good opportunity to study in abroad, they should have a background about the language which they speak. Indeed they will be easy to adapt to the university environment if they can speak the language in place where they live. In short, studying English and other languages are really necessaries in high school.

Halloween…Journal #19

Two days ago, I was not going to Halloween party with ALP on the 27th. However, I have changed my mine. I decided to go there to know what the Halloween is in the United States. As I know everyone have to wear their own costumes clothes when we go there. But I don’t know what I will wear on that day? Maybe I will wear nothing like Tazan or I can wear my ancient clothes. It is really fun when I just think of it. I called to Sarah who is my American friend in University last day to ask about what kind of clothes I can wear. And she introduces me to “Pirates of the Caribbean 3 Captain Jack”. It sounds good but too expensive ($79.99). So I till haven’t decided what I’ll wear on that day. If anyone has any good idea then let me know, I will enjoy that.

The entertainment ...journal #18

I can watch a lot of kinds of movie at different time. I liked action movies, because it might be like a little bit what happen in real life. I feel more active when I watch this kind of movie. I also liked ghost movies. I usually watched this kind of movie when I was in university. However, when I came to the US, I really like cartoon movies. I don’t know why like it. May be the new life in the US is more stressful, so I need to relax. Sure, it can be a reason I like it. I really like watching Tom and Jerry movies. Especially, at the first time I watched Finding Nemo movie, I found something can help me relax after school hours. When I watch this kind of movie, I can laugh so much. Sometime I laugh myself into fits, and I don’t think about anything when I watch this kind of movie. Besides relaxing when I watch this kind of movie, I feel I become younger. Indeed, I can help me recall the time when I was in primary school. I watched and waited to watch Tom and Jerry movie on the TV at each Sunday night. One more important reason is I can find out some interesting situations and smart characters when I watch cartoon movies. These characters and actors respond each other intelligently. I have learned so much from it. I really like and need it in this time, it is my favorite movie.

My Favorite Place... Journal #17

When I was in Vietnam, I saw a lot of pictures of Hawaii on the movie. So, if I could visit any place in the world, I would go to Hawaii. First, I like swimming and going to the beach in the early morning. In Hawaii, there are a lot of the beautiful beaches which have high waves, where I can surf and swim anytime I want. In addition, I can walk along the beach, and I can see the sunrise at the morning and the sunset at the evening. Second, I like the way people dance there. I still remember that it is Hula. It’s a really famous and interesting dance. Hula is the soul of Hawaii expressed in motion. No one knows its exact origins and when the first Hula was performed. Two or three years ago, I saw this kind of dancing on the TV. I wish I could join in, dancing around the bonfire. Everyone usually wears Hawaiian traditional clothes when they dance. I like these clothes. Last but not least my girlfriend really likes this place, and she hopes she can go there soon. So, if we can go there together, we will be very happy. Everyone tells me it is a good place for couples. We can live some days on paradise of earth together. I will not worry about anything such as work, family, and so on. It will be a good time in my life.

My favorite Holiday... Journal #15

It was interesting when I had the holiday at Sea World last month. I came to the United States some months ago, but in that holiday, I had a lot of fun. I went to Sea World with my friend’s family. At first time, I was bored because everyone seem to sleeping on the way we went there. However, when we got out the car to came inside, we were excited. It was really noising. I wanted to see every show at that time. We watched the dolphin show and some things else. I really liked it. These dolphin entertained us a lot. They were very cute. We were relaxed after these shows. It helped me to understand more about nature.

VietNam' s Legend

American Family (Journal #14)

Actually, I don’t have much communication or interaction with children in the United States. So, I will just discuss what I have seen and read from books or something like that. I think the children in the United States have a lot of rights and protections form their family and government. Most of them have good educational conditions. They soon become very independence and have their own decisions in daily life. The ways which they express the love to their grandfather, grandmother or parents are different from my country. As you know, in my country as well as other Asian countries, the children have to obey their grandfather, grandmother, or parents to stop doing something, although they really want to do that. But here the children sometime don’t obey and they can decide what they can do. They have less pressure from studying like children in my country. They have a lot of communications at school and extracurricular activities, so they are improved social knowledge than the children in my country

My Favorite Holiday Place (Journal #13)

BaNa is one of the most beautiful places where everyone in my country likes. It is in middle of my country, and it is located between DaNang city and Hue city. It is really nicely situated at the highest mountain. It is special thing when it has a beautiful lake and a lot of waterfalls in there. In addition, there are some beautiful resorts and entertainment places. This place is covered by some small mountains. So we can see the fog which flies in front of our face, and sometime we can feel that it like under our feet. However, from here we can see some beautiful landscapes of other mountains and Danang view which has a lot of light at night. These things can make me want to go there every holiday and so do visitors.

Journal #12... A Tiring Day

Today is Sunday. Everyone has a vacation or a plan to relax, but me. I got up so late at 9:00 AM. After I took a shower, brushed teeth and had a light breakfast with rice and sesame I had to work for my company. I have to finish our project before October 1st, 2007. So I tried to work hard as much as I could. I started to work at 10:00AM. After reviewed some sections which I finished before I started coding on the rest. I spent six hours to finish Desktop sections, and then I went home. I thought that I can relax after work. However, when I went home, I had to clean my room. I exchanged the bed with other people. It took me about one hour to finish this work. I was tired, but I still have some things to do such as homework of composition and vocabulary classes. I still have had a journal which I have to finish before 7:00PM today. So I need to continue my rest works. I thought that I could not enough time to go out for dinner with my girlfriend today. I usually go to the restaurant on Saturday or Sunday, so today is not exception.I tried to do homework as fast as I can. Finally, I finished my journal at 6:00PM as I hoped. I took a shower and put on my favorite clothes. I went to vegetarian restaurant where I have met my girlfriend. After we had a delicious dinner, I came back home and continue my homework. It was a long day for me.

Journal #11...My Favorite Season

The weather in my country does not like the weather in California. Here we have four seasons. They are spring, summer, fall, winter. In my country, there are only two seasons which are called sunny season and rainy season. In rainy season, it rains everyday. Sometimes it’s really cold and humid when it rains day after day, so I don’t want to go out to work or do anything. For me, I love sunshine, and I love to see sunrise and sunset. I like red and yellow flowers, and green grasses, so I love sunny season. In this season, I can go to the beach everyday. I can play football and swim on beautiful seas every afternoon when I finish my works. In addition, I can hear whistle of birds every morning when I wake up. I love going hand in hand with my girl friend on green grasses, on road side with flowers. We can play some funny games together and go to everywhere we like under the sunshine. I also think my girl friend like me. We both love sunny season. It‘s really wonderful.

Journal # 10 ....A person who has influenced me

In my short life, I usually have had different goals in periods of different time, so I have had some people who have influenced me. Among them, my uncle has influenced me the most in ten years recently. He is a successful man. He got MBA degree when he twenty six years old. And after that he has had his own business. When I was high school, I have tried to do everything that I hope I can become a person like him. I also concentrated to study hard when I was in university. Therefore, after I got bachelor degree, I was a teacher in college. However, I wanted to be came a person like my uncle. So I worked for a foreign company, and I hoped I can have a lot of experience before I have my own business like him. At him, I have found a lot of characters which I like them. He is a gentle handsome man. He is really tall and strong because he usually does exercise every morning. He also advised me to do that, therefore I have tried to do exercises as much as I can. He really has influenced me a lot.

Journal #9 ... Vegetarian Foods

My whole family members are budist. My parents have been vegetarians for over thirty years.So, I grew up with vegetarian food. After coming to the US., I found that continuing this diet is quite difficult to me. I do not have enough time to cook and also, I have a terrible cooking skill. Fornately, my girlfriend is a very good cook, specializing invegetarian disks. Nowadays, everyone in the U.S. tend to eat more healthily. My girlfriend offers me vegetarian food at least once a week. Cooking vegetarian food in Budism has more restrictions than in other religions. Beside no meat, no seafood, onion and garlic are not allowed in ingredients. Also, Vegetarian food does not have much spices. That is why it is hard to make the food tasty. Some main ingredients are vegetables, tofu, mushroom, and dried food sold in many Asian grocery stores. With some other special ingredients, my girlfriend can make chicken soup, fish soup, fried tofu, and even fried fish with fish sauce.Of course, they are all vegetarian disks. Sometimes, she is too busy with her homework, she only gives me steamed rice and soya sauce for dinner. Still, I am happy because at least she does not let me be hungry to dead.

Journal #8 ...An Un-Ordinary Day - Sept. 11, 2001

An Un-Ordinary Day - Sept. 11, 2001. Nobody want to talk about that, it was so crazy. I was really sad when I saw what happened on TV those days. I was last year in university. Exactly, that was a second day I went to school after I had two months to break up with my family. I went to school and expected that I could meet friends in my class and some professors who I liked to meet them. But when this event happened everyone wanted to watch TV and listen to radio. The atmosphere of my university was eventful and noisy. We cannot concentrate on studying. I just wanted to come home to watch TV at that time. Finally, my class finished earlier than plan. I rode too fast and came home to watch TV. I didn’t remember how many people died on that day, but it was too much then I thought. Why it happened? Why innocent people had to die? They died while a lot of things which needed to do in future such as their children, father, mother, wife… Their families really needed them. After one week, I still heard a lot articles about that day. Everyone talked to each other about destroy of American economy and the world economy and so on…I didn’t know what would be happen in future, I thought our life was too light and short. We can meet our relatives today, but we don’t know what happen tomorrow. So we need to love everyone who is still alive today.

Journal #7 ...My grandfather

My Grandfather

In my life, my grandfather is really important with me. When he died, I really still didn’t know what happened. I didn’t know why he had to go far away. I still remember what was happening one day before he died. He asked me: “Do you want to eat something” when I just came home from my office. I said: “I’m full right now” then he smiled and went to bed. I didn’t know that is the last time I saw him. I took a shower, watched TV about 15 or 20 minutes, and then I went to the bed, too. And a bad day came with me, my grandfather went far away and he wouldn’t come back again. I was so sad and didn’t want to do anything. I really remembered him every time. I believe he too.




Andy.

Journal #5 ...My Life In The US

My life has changed a lot since I came to the United States. In fact, when I lived in my country, I was a teacher. I went to class as I had class to teach, but now I’m a student in the US. I have to go to the class every day, and I have gone there to study not to teach like in Vietnam. Actually, I still taught Math and Computer Science in my country one year ago, but now I have to study English every day in a new country.

Moreover, in my country I go to work and everywhere by my own motorbike, but I have driven my car to school when I live in here. So I have to take driver license and bought a car to go school and go somewhere. In addition, I used to have a lot of free time after I finished class. I could go some places where I want to go there to meet friends such as coffee shop, restaurant, and the sea. However, I rarely have free time to do some thing like that in the US, and I spend a lot of time in studying. I was really stressful at first time came here but now everything is OK with me. I will live with my best and try to overcome challenges which I have to face at this time. Although my life has had a lot of changes, but I believe that I will overcome everything and have what I need in the future.

Journal # 6...My opinion about age to get maried...

In my opinion, everybody should have a partner. We need to have a person to share something which has happened in our life. But what is the age to get married? That’s a big question. For me, it’s good when you are 27 to 30 years olds depend on you are men or women. First, in this age you can have good conditions about finance which are really necessary for family life. In fact, what will be happen if we don’t have enough money to take care of children and daily needs of family. This time you can graduate in Bachelor or Master and have good job which will help you live stably. Moreover, when you have a job, you will have a lot of chooses, and experiences. So you can choose one which is good for you. Second, this time you can have enough experience about what is the love. With this age you can have a lot of friends and my may have one or more love before. So you will know what is important thing of love and of family life? In addition, this age you can have a good partner after a long time to understand or live together. We can know what is good or not features of our partner, and then we help together to overcome challenges in life. In short, in 27 to 30 we can have everything about finance and love experience which helps our family live safely.

Journal # 4... My Grandfather.

Everyone has grandfather, and so do I. My grandfather was a funny man. It was a long time ago. I didn't remenber exactly but when I was seven years olds, he took me to school. That was first time I went to class. Everyone was new and strange to me. I cried a lot, I didn't want to leave my grandfather at that time. I was scared of being alone, so he could not leave me a minute. After my teacher talked about something with him, he tried to everything that make me smile, and then he left me in classroom. However, I knew he was still outside and look at me when class started. He was listening and looking at everything which was happening to me. When class finished with the sequence of rings. I saw my grandfather at the door with a warming smile. I ran to him and hug his neck. He kissed on forehead and took me home. On the way we went home, he always made me smile with alot of farces. I really happy when I had a grandfather like him. Later on, when I became a young guy he was always behind everytime. I didn't know how many times he made me smile in my life. Althouth he died, I still remembered in mine good times which I will never happen again. In short, I really love my grandfather who was so funny and very important with me.

Long Weekend (Journal #3)

It was great! I have been in Havasu Lake. First, I'm sorry Russel. I didn't do this journal as a plan because I have no time to write it before I took a long, long...long trip. I took four days trip to Havasu Lake after class. It's too long and hot. I can't believe that I can stay there 4 day, but it happened. We had about 18 people with foods, water, candy. We also had one boat and 3 jetskies and everything which need for the trip. We had five cars, actually one truck, three vans, and one Toyota camry.

We started on Friday Everning at 10:00 pm because we didn't want to meet rush hours. And it took about 5 hours to go there. When I was in near Havasu Lake, the weather was too hot. It was 106 oF. I didn't know what can I do there in that time? but now I changed in my mine. It's really fun. After a night slept well in a house for renting, we had a fun day which playing foot ball, swimming, driving jetskies very, very fast on the face of water. We also ate too much on those days. We had Vietnamese foods, Chine foods, American food and so on...

I finished a long weekend trip on Monday everning at 5:00 pm and went home at 11:00 pm. I'm so tired but I had a good time and I relax too much, so I have to do homework now at 3:00 am on Tuesday. Tomorrow, No... actually today, a busy day will be continue what happened before. But I think I will have a good spirit to study.

My hair.

My own hair was "not a bad grade" as barbers would tell me when they cut it for first time. It was like a professor reporting the results of the first full physical he has given you. Like "You are in good shape" or "Better cut down on salt." Oh my goodness!