After reading'Four Skinny Trees'

By Alice

Have you ever heard about The House or Mango Street? No matter how old I am, I love reading this book in my spare time.Especially since I came Riverside 4 months ago,this book courage me a lot when I feel homesick or helpless.The house or mango street is a kind of lyrical novel with short stories telling a little girl's childhood and her growth on the street  named Mango. My favorite chapter is Four Skinny Trees, it is about four trees who understand her and are understood by her own. These four skinny trees have secret strength. They grow up, they grow down and never quit their anger. Keep, keep, keep, trees said when she was sleeping. That is why I always gain power when I read this chapter.When I feel too sad and too skinny to keep keeping, when I lose my confidence to keep keeping, I think about these four skinny trees, and think about this little girl, all I learn from them is keep, keep and keep.I will never say give up, I will never escape when I hardly try to face and overcome the tough time by myself.
It almost the end of the quarter, I have to keep going in the way to learn english, I will never give up, and I'm really recommend my classmates to read this book.

My first experience of Thanksgiving

             By Marina Moto





               I went to visit my hostfamily in Thanksgiving day. I had a really good time and experience in there. There were two things which I learned; thanksgiving foods and how to spend Thanksgiving day.
              When I arrived at my homestay house, I saw many stuff for dinner in the kitchen. I was very surprised because I saw three huge turkeys, cans of yams and two huge bags of potatoes, so I helped with cooking Thanksgiving day dinner with two housemates. I was not good at cooking, but it was easy to cook. I cooked gravy sauce, mashed potatoes, tams and green beans food. When I cooked gravy sauce, I used gravy powders and it's miwed with water. Gravy sauce was a little bit salty for me, but I like that. Mashed potapoes and yams were similar to cook, I heat them and crush up. But in case of mashed potatoes, mixed with milk, salt and papper. In case of yams, put marshmallow on the yams and heat in a medium oven. Mashed potatoes were for dinner, but yams were kinds of dessert. Green beans food was good. First of all, green beans were mixed with cream chiken soup and fried onion pieces. It was heat in a midium, then. It was not soup, I didn't know what kind of food it was. My host mother bought two turkeys, ham, apple pie and pumpkin pie from store, but one turkey was free because a stranger who met in the store gave my host mother a turkey. So we got three turkeys, and we finished preparing for thanksgiving dinner.
               In the evening, I had big dinner with my host family in their house. There were sixteen people in the house. And we  had  a big dinner surrounding long table, and then, we prayed hand in hand. It was really good experience because I can't have these experiences in Japan.

Tsunamis

By Bakhytzhan

Hello everybody. Today I want to give you some information about my presentation from my elective class. My presentation was about one of destructive natural disaster Tsunamis.

First of all, what does tsunami mean? This term comes from the Japanese, (tsu) meaning "harbour" and (nami), meaning "wave". Scientifically tsunamis, or seismic sea waves, are a series of very long wavelength ocean waves generated by the sudden displacement of large volumes of water, but sometimes tsunamis mistakenly called "tidal waves”. There is nothing common between wind waves, because tsunami can be caused by underwater earthquakes, which is most common reason, by volcanic eruptions, landslides, or even by meteor impacts or nuclear test. Most tsunamis occur in seismically active regions such as the Pacific Ocean, but tsunamis can occur anywhere in the world where there are large bodies of water. The largest source region for tsunamis is in the Pacific Ocean with 71% of all occurrences.

A tsunami cannot be precisely predicted; however, there are some warning signs of an impending tsunami, and automated systems can provide warnings immediately after an earthquake in time to save lives. One of the most successful systems to predict tsunami is using sensor which is called  buoys.

As you know, the last destructive tsunami happened in Japan -11 March 2011. It was the world's fourth largest earthquake since 1900 and the largest in Japan since modern instrumental recordings began 130 years ago.

So, I think it is extremely important to know about natural disaster as a tsunami.

about O'Sullivan life

  by Chih Hao Wu   

        This is my last time to write it. The time is really quick. I wish I could study forever in group 521, but anything will have a finished day. I think in the past I will recall those days I am in group 521, because this is my unforgettable memory. I also hope we can keep in touch.

        Recently, I am crazy about workout. Therefore, I want to talk about my schedule workout. It always changes depending on many factors like homework, quiz, and how I feel, but here is a sample weekly workout.

Mon: Quadriceps (morning) and Calves (afternoon or night).

Tue: Chest (morning)

Wed: Back (morning)

Thu: Deltoid (morning)

Fri: Biceps, Triceps (morning) and Rectus abdominis(afternoon or night)

Sat: Quadriceps (morning) and Calves (afternoon or night).

Sun: Off

        I usually get up at 5am, and then eat some simple Carbohydrates, a banana, and milk with whey. After that I do some homework or listen to music or watch video or chat on facebook or skype until 6am. Next, I go to gym and start to workout. Today11/30/2012 in the morning, I trained my legs. Actually, it is the most tired I think, but legs training also is the most favorite training which I like. Before I start workout, I almost do warm up because it can decrease hurt. Warm up I do leg extension for 2 sets and 15 to 20 reps. Then I like to do leg press I call this leg press machine which is suicide leg press training because I do it very very heavy.I talk about today my condition. First set I did 478 lbs. 20reps. Second set 658 lbs. Third set 748 lbs. Forth set 838 lbs. final set plus to 908 lbs. Today was I did the most heavy on leg press. I felt that form under to push to top the distance is super faraway and suddenly I would instantly crushed illusion. Next exercise is Squat which is training on you Quadriceps, Gluteals, and Hamstrings. Squat which carry barbell on the shoulder is a movement. I did first set 185 lbs. second 205 lbs. third 235 lbs. After those exercises, I felt that I will kill myself if I keep going , and my tank top was wet. Thus, that is why I usually look like tired. Actually, I skip some important like set and set rest time and total workout time and many puny details. If you want to know, ask me.

        I often hear couple questions about workout. Men and women all think that workout can make you getting heavy and big in short time. I want to say “It’s not impossible....,It just takes longer than you think” Men think they can be strong quickly. Only if use drugs. They don’t know they gain fat quickly in his body. Women are afraid that workout will make you getting heavy and big. I feel ridiculous. I train hard everyday, and even harder the next day! Diligence and hard work is my life!

 

Happy thanksgiving!

By. Jina

Hi, Did you have a happy thanksgiving day? Thanksgiving is a holiday that celebrates the first harvest. Now, whole family gathers and they have a great dinner. Usually, they eat baked or roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, sweet corn, various fall vegetables and pumpkin pie.

I had a really good thanksgiving day. I, my roommate were invited to my host father’s home, and also my host mother invited my Korean friend who lives in IV alone. We met at the morning in my host house, and started to make food. My host mother made fried rice, her daughter made a carrot cake and another daughter made a cranberry sauce. My roommate, my friend and me baked cookies. After we made food, we went to host father’s relatives home. We met a lot of people, and they were so kind to us.

At first, they gave us pumpkin pie until the other families arrive, it was really great pumpkin pie, and they were talking each other. They had a pool at home, so we played pool while we waiting the other family. After the whole family gathered, we prayed and started to eat. There were two turkeys; it was the first time that I ate turkey. It was delicious. Also, there was a lot of food, such as sweet potatoes, cooked fall vegetable and macaroni cheese.

After we had a dinner, we started playing game. I do not know name of game. Someone described the word that written on the card, and the other team member guessed. The game was so fun. Their family was so crazy about the game and so loud, but it was really fun.

Thanks to my homestay family, I had a really great thanksgiving day.