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.