South California~

I don’t have favorite weather. However, between hot and cold weather, I prefer a little bit cold weather maybe because I was born and grow up in tropical country which is extremely hot and humid. Therefore, I am very admiring having a cold weather and living in a snow country. Two weeks ago, I went to Big Bear Mountain, all the mountain was covered by the snow. It was so amazing that I couldn’t stop enjoying it. Everything was all white and it let me feel so exciting like having a lovely white-chocolate cake. Everyone who was there were delighted in playing in snow. That was my first time seeing the real snow, and I was acting like a five-year-old children. I couldn’t stop playing snow without taking any rest. I wanted to grasp every second to enjoy the pleasant that snow bring to me. When we were preparing to go home, I was so sad. I always think about living in a snow country, and then I can often go to ski, snowboard, or ice-skating whenever I want.

However, having a cold weather in whole year isn’t a pleasant thing. I cannot go to my favorite place, beaches, and do my favorite exercise, swimming and surfing. Maybe having a little bit hot weather is also good. Where can I find a place having snow in the winter and I can go to beach and do surfing in the summer? The answer is very obvious: South California. I have been in South California since last summer, and until now I have been through summer and winter. I really like the weather in here. In the summer, I only need an hour drive to the beach; in the winter, I also can easily to get to the mountain and have snow. I never get bored in the South California. No matter in which season, there are many alternative activities we can do here. I really like the weather in South California.

      

Fears...

There are two things that I am very afraid of: loneliness, and darkness.

I am twenty-three years old now, but I haven’t lived alone for more than six months. When I was a senior student in undergraduate, I lived out side of campus without roommates for six months. However, in Taiwan, everything is so convenient that I can call my friends out at anytime or make a phone call to my friends or families. Until these days, all my families go out the United States and I have to live alone for three weeks. It is a little bit hard for me to live alone in the big house. When I come to the house, there is no one here, no light, or any noise. Everything is so quiet like a dead town. When I get home, the first thing I do is opening some lights, and turning on the TV or radio. I don’t like there is no one talks to me when I come home. If I don’t go out, I don’t need to speak any word in whole day. How terrible is it? No speaking in the whole day. I hate being alone for too long.

Second, I don’t like darkness due to the 921 earthquake which occurred at 1:47 AM on September 21, 1999. There were more than two thousands people dead and more than ten thousand people had seriously injured in physics and mentalities. On that day, I was sleeping, and suddenly there was a magnitude 7.6 earthquake happened. I woke up, and there were all black. I also heard a lot of people screaming. Darkness and horrible screaming were scared me. Since this earthquake, I have been scared of staying in the dark, especially sudden darkness. Now, I always have a small light beside my bed when I am sleeping. I need someone to turn off the light for me after I sleep deeply.

I don’t know how can I face these fears because these are mental damage. I am trying now but it will take a long time to overcome these fears.

 

My New Year's Resolution

Before moving to the New Year, I want to recall myself what did I do last year. I got my bachelor degree, but I was failed to get into graduate school. Then, I came to the United States to improve my English; I was studying hard in ALP, however, I still cannot pass TOEFL. It sounds like I am a loser, but this is what life should be: learn form mistakes. Therefore, my goal in this year is passing TOEFL and applying graduate school. First, I need to improve my English ability. Last Saturday, I took my first TOEFL test, but I found out I couldn't finish on time in reading and writing. Now, I think I need to increase my vocabularies, reading speed and typing skills. To reach my goals, I plan to memorize at least ten words and read one 700-word passage every day. About typing skills, I will try my best to hand in my homework in typing rather than writing. Learning a foreign language needs to continually practice, and we cannot see the result immediately. I believe that one day I will reach this goal if I keep learning and using English all the time.

Moreover, I have another New Year’s Resolution: learning how to cook. In my home country, Taiwan, it is very convenient to get food. We just need five seconds to get the food we want, and you also have a lot of choices. In contrast to Taiwan, the United States is more difficult. In America, we need to take our car, drive at least ten minutes to a supermarket, a grocery store or a restaurant. If you go to a restaurant and then find out it is closed, you need another ten minutes to another place. Because every thing is so convenient in Taiwan, I don’t need to learn how to cook. Therefore, when I come to the United States, I am still not used to the living style in here. Now, I think it is a good chance to learn how to cook. I will learn form my mother, auntie, and granny. They all are very good at cooking. When they are cooking, I will be next to them and learn from them. After standing besides them awhile, I will try some practice and maybe cook for them. This year, I hope I can learn some traditional Taiwanese food, like chicken and vegetable soup, steaming fish, and tofu pork. I believe it won’t be difficult if I am willing to learn and practice it. 

   

I am Wendy. Do you know me?

I am very glade to have the same composition class with you. 

My name is Hsiang Ting, and you can just call me Wendy. First, I want to tell you a story. Choosing Wendy as my English name was a coincident. When I was seven years old, I studied my grade one in South Africa. Therefore, I needed an English name, which is easier to remind for the teacher rather than using my Chinese name. However, I was so little that I didn't know too many English names. It was hard for me to choose a name, so my auntie said several names, such as Amy, Lily, and Christine. These names were very easy to remember, but I really want a special name. One day, when my auntie drove me to the school, we passed by the Wendy's burger. My auntie asked me how about Wendy. The trade mark of Wendy's burger, a little girl with red hair and some freckles, was interesting to me, and also I liked the food there, so I choose Wendy as my name. This name and the story really help people to remember my name.

Second, I want to tell you why I come to American Language Program. Before I came to the United States, I majored in finance and got my bachelor degree last June. Due to the bad economics over the world, it was very difficult to find a job, especially in banking, so I decided to give myself a chance to come to the United States, learn English and experience American culture. I have been here for five months, and I am very happy that I made this correct decision. I really enjoy the time that I have been being here. Last year, ALP made a lot of interesting activities, for instance surfing, Disneyland, watching American football games, fun lunch and Halloween parties. I cannot wait for the activities on this semester. No matter you are new students or returning students, I hope we will enjoy all classes and activities in ALP and know each other better. By the way, if you want to know me more, you can go and check Tara’s blog.

Next, I am going to introduce my partner, Tara, a 20-year-old cute lady. She just came here two weeks ago, and she lives with her brother now. Tara's habits is watching move. When she was in Korea, She went to watch a movie every week. She likes all kinds of movies except horrible ones. Tara majors in English education; her dream is being a good teacher. She will stay in ALP in one year to experience American culture and improve her English ability. Then she will go back to Korea and continue her undergraduate. Since she has been here for two weeks, she thinks that the buildings, which are flat and open space, in the United States very differ from the constructions, which are tall and limited space in her home country. During the interview, Kara was easily to talk and maybe a little bit shy. At the beginning, I was always the first person asking questions, but at the end, the more you know about her, the more you would find out how cute she is. You should go and talk to this interesting girl. It is really good to talk to her.  

Four Factors of Choosing a College

Four Factors of Choosing a College

The college is an educational institution that provides specialized

 

professional and skill training. A good college can provide a better

 

learning environment and can change someone’s life. Therefore we

 

should choose colleges carefully. There are four factors of choosing a

 

college: the ranking of the college, obtainable subjects, internalization,

 

and the future after graduating.

 

    The first factor is the ranking of the college. The higher ranking of

 

the college we get into, the more resources we might have. For

 

example, we might have better facilities, or we might meet a higher

 

quality of professors and classmates. The ranking of the college

 

decides the environment we will have in the future. The next factor is the

 

range of the subjects we can study. If there is a variety of

 

subjects that students can study, they will have more options to choose

 

from the subjects they might be interested in. At the same time, they

 

might reach for different knowledge, and they could learn variety.

 

Moreover, internalization is another factor of choosing a college.

 

Nowadays, our world is becoming more and more globalized, so colleges

 

should be more and more open. For example, many top colleges have a

 

lot of sisters schools over the world, and a lot of resources from other

 

countries that they can reach. The last factor for choosing a college is the

 

future after graduation. Colleges are places where people prepare and 

 

get ready for their future work. Therefore, we should consider whether

 

colleges provide many internship opportunities or have enough training

 

programs before students graduate.

 

    In conclusion, these are four basic factors when we are choosing a

 

college: the ranking of the college, the variety of the subjects,

 

internalization, and the future after graduation. A good learning

 

environment can lead us to a successful life, therefore we should

 

carefully choose our colleges.

  

A Different Me

A Different Me

Today, I am totally different from five years ago. During this five years,

 

I have changed a lot in personalities.

 

   Five years ago, I was a high school student and was preparing for

 

university entrance exam. I was a very shy person. For me, it is

 

impossible to make a presentation in front of many people. At that time, I

 

only focused on studying but nothing else. I didn’t have much social

 

life, and I even didn’t know how to communicate with other people. I

 

almost looked like a nerd. However, I totally changed when I went to

 

the university. I made many friends there, and my personalities also

 

changed a lot. I have become a very outgoing person since I was college 

student. I also studied a lots in university, but I was not only studying but 

also joining a variety of activities. For example, I was a public relation in 

English Club, a leader in our class for two years, and a member of  

International Business Students Association. During the time of the 

university, I almost changed to another person.

 

    I am very happy with my differences of the five years ago. Now, I am

 

very comfortable with standing on the stages without shyness, and I have

 

more and more confidences.    

Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie

    

   Today I am going to talk about Angelina Jolie, one of my favorite actors. 

Angelina Jolie is anoutstanding actress and also a goodwill humanitarian.

 

    Before Angelina Jolie went into the Hollywood, she was a fashion model

 

and also appeared in a lot of music videos. At the age of sixteen, Angelina

 

Jolie learned to become a actress from her father, and she found out her

 

acting abilities. Angelina Jolie started her filming career in 1993, but she

 

didn’t be noticed at that time. After she played a role in George Wallace

 

and performed as Cornelia Wallace in  1997, she won a Golden Globe

 

Award and was dominated for an Emmy Award. In 1998, she continued to

 

played a role in HBO’s Gia, a world of sex, drugs and emotional drama.

 

Next year, she was dominated for an Emmy Award again, and won her

 

first Screen Actors Guild Award. Besides, she has a series of popular films,

 

such as Lara Croft, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, changeling and so on. Her

 

achievement let her win several awards. However, when she became

 

popular and become a super star, she started to involve in humanitarian

 

work and do charities. When she was filming Tomb Raider in Cambodia in

 

2001, she became aware of  worldwide humanitarian crises. In the

 

coming years, she donated a lots money, participated in a variety of

 

charities, and now she has donated three different-countries children.

 

      Although, she is a super star and very famous, she doesn’t forget to

 

help people. Angelina Jolie is not only a good actress, but also a goodwill

 

humanitarian.