25.Advice for New International Students

I still cannot believe that today is May 1^st, but the temperature in Minneapolis is still under 10 centigrade. However in my hometown, everybody starts wearing summer clothes, and enjoy the best weather in the year now. Sometimes I ask myself a same question times after times, why I want to come here, where is extremely old almost every day, to study. Today I find the answer, and I want to share with other international students.

Before I came here, I was already sophomore in one of the Chinese university. I could choose a very comfort way to accomplish my college, and then find a not so bad job in the future. Maybe I will marry to someone and build our own family. Though the life in the future seems not so bad, I won’t accept it somehow. For me, when I was a little child, what I want to do when I grew up was to find a job that I really liked, and I could devote all my time and energy on it. But as I grow up, all the things do not go like what I’ve planned. My parents chosen a university for me which I totally did not like at all. They also “helped” me chosen a major. So it could be concluded as my parents have controlled my life for 20 years. So I wanna make a change, I wanna find another world. Then I come to the US.

I come here not only try to escape my parents’ controls, but also want to try to learn and new a totally different new world. I really wanna broaden my views, make some new friends and have a better understanding  about what I really want to gain in the future. I do not want to find an ordinary job and live in an ordinary life in the future. Though they are not so bad, or maybe they are the best choices for women, I still want to find my own interesting way to live.

So my advices to other new international students are,

Firstly, before you come here, you must figure out the reason why you want to study abroad. If the decision is not made by yourself, please think over before you come.

Secondly, the life in foreign country is harder than your imagination. So please be prepared for living a harder life than China.

Thirdly, please don’t worry about your English. Maybe you are nervous because you think your oral English is very bad. But you could improve a lot if you try your best to live in this coutry. Because you could find so many chances to improve it here than in your hometown.

By the way, before you come to the U.S. I strongly recommend you to remember as many English words as you can. For me, I feel uncomfortable that I know only a little English words. That’s why sometimes you won’t understand what your instructor said in class. More or less, it will have bad effects on your studying. That’s why it is extremely important for you to remember more English words.

Overall is what I want to say to the international students.

24. English Improvement Plan

     How time flies, this semester seems coming to an end now. During this term, I really learn a lot from our ESL class. But there are a lot of thing that I still have to be paid attentions on. Like there is a long way for me to go in vocabulary. Though I have less obstacle communicating with others now than before, my poor vocabulary and bad pronunciation are still big problems. Sometimes people may be misunderstand my words because my pronunciation in words. So I should not only try to remember more words, but also correct my pronunciation of them.

     Secondly, though I took ESL course which is focusing on both reading and writing. I don’t think it is enough for me. From my perspective, I should read and write more in the future. When I go back to China to have summer vacation, I should read English novels and write a lot just like write a blog now.  I firmly believe that it will help me a lot if I continue using English in my mother country. Because it will be great helpful when I come back to the United States.

     Thirdly, I want to practice my oral English. For sometimes I may make a lot of grammar mistakes when I speak English. Maybe first it sounds funny, but times after times, it is horrible. So I don’t want this happen again.  To pretend this, I must speak a lot in everyday life and watch English shows.  Sometimes it is really important for me to go outside and talk with people. It provides me a chance to make more friends, maybe I will meet my future boyfriends! Just  kidding.

     Overall, I have a lot to do to improve my English. My goal is to be a native speaker in English. I will have no problems in communicating with others. We could share our opinions together. I could learn more about the world.

23. Response to Online Rdg #5.

The 2011 Time 100 Poll has just published out. This year, Rain has been selected the most influential man in the world. To tell the truth, when I first saw the result, I was so happy. Because, Rain is one of the star who I loved very much when I was in junior high school. And my English name Raineaf is just from his name.

Way back to days in junior high school, when I was in summer vacation, one day I watched a Korean TV drama online, and it was really so interesting. That’s one is called Full House which was very popular among east Asia in 2004 and 2005. Rain played the main character who was a very famous star in the drama. The leading lady was Song, Hye Kyo who was a orphan in the drama and became a writer at last. Because both Rain and Hye Kyo had played so well, they were known from many young people not only in Korea, but also in China. At that time, a lot of websites would select the yearly best popular couple characters in dramas, with so much love to Rain and Hye Kyo, every day, I spent most of my time voting them online. Of course they became the best popular couple at last.

When I thought of this, it seemed very interesting for I haven’t spent so much time on stars before. And I am also surprised how famous Rain has been till now!

22.

It is widely acknowledged by, at least, most of the parents that early education is of vital importance. Since this period from aged five to ten is a crucial time for the younger children to form the initial recognition of the world. In this case, some people strongly hold that it is necessary for the younger children to take classes such as art and music, apart from history, science and languages. I am one of the supporters of this idea.

To start with, classes like music and art to the younger children is like the fragrance to the flower, with which help to build up their charm and specialty .Young as the children are, they still can find where their interest lies through art and music, which would definitely benefit their future development. For example, there was a time in my primary school that I took part in Pipa classes. At that time, to be frank, I was not exactly enjoying it, for that I need to spend amount of time practicing it. However, gradually I could feel the beauty and pleasure that playing Pipa brought to me, it was a very shuttle feeling, but I was really surprised and happy. Playing Pipa made me more patient and calm than ever before, also, I was told that a girl with good playing skill is really attractive and fascinating. Afterwards, I quit playing Pipa due to time conflicts before I went to junior high, nevertheless, after so many years, I still have more special sense toward music than peer students. Meanwhile, this childhood experience not only taught me how to appreciate life, but also inspire me think in different ways.

In addition, learning art and music are excellent choices for the students to express and relieve themselves. It is obvious that more and more people are facing high stress life, including younger children. They have to balance heavy study load and the desire of getting rid of control from both parents and schools. Under the circumstances, art and music can help to shift the students attention, thus accompanying them go through depressing times. Still, for me, I was so lucky that I started listening to the world classic music when I was 6 years old. I have no idea who Beethoven is, but every time I am exposed to the masterpieces such as “For Elise”, I feel relaxed and peaceful. Whenever I run into unhappy things at school, music turned out to be the best medicine as it created a space for me to take a rest and get charged, after which I could get back on the trail again.

In conclusion, classes like art and music open a door to the younger children, encouraging and leading them to get to know the world, to find the fun of life, to look for a place where they belong to, to shape their personalities to become a better man. So, it is wise and helpful to require younger students to take these classes.

21.

We are living in a time when our life is filled with news and flooded with movies every day. It is easy for us to be influenced by masses of information from the media. In this case, some people argue that, it is essential for the movies from the media to present the good distinguish from the bad, to show that nice people will be praised and evil people will finally end up with punishment. Nevertheless, I am not that into this idea.

On the one hand, it is naive to judge people only by couple of things they’ve done or few words they’ve said, which is basically what the movies are all about. Under the circumstances, if people follow what have been shown in the movies, which in most cases are good people get rewarded and bad people get punishment, to form the idea of the world, they might turn out to be unrealistic people or tend to take things for granted. For example, in the real world, it is possible for a good person to hurt someone unintentionally, while it is also likely that a bad person will help people out of conscience. At that time, you cannot simply judge them with the good or bad, right or wrong, as people are not consist of only two sides like a coin. Anyhow, movie are stories made up from imagination and stories sometimes have little things to do with the real life, just to draw people’s attention thus earning profits. So, it is important for us to have the ability to make judgment, instead of believing in movie stories.

What’s more, movie itself is created, most of the time, for entertainment. So it might not be a perfect idea for people to regard movie as an educational tool or a standard of dealing with real life. Meanwhile, people can select their preference based on their personal taste. For example, if you want to learn something, you can try documentary or educational video. If you are hopeless or unhappy, you can pick up inspirational movies. Or, you want something totally new and fresh, science fiction and fantasy films are good ideas. Different movies are like different windows, behind which presented exactly various stories. We would like to see the diversities of movies to gain new experience and inspiration, not merely the stories with which the ending we can figure out immediately the moment we start the movie. Still remember the old saying? Butter to butter is no relish.

To conclude, movies are small parts of our lives. Admittedly, movies can reveal some aspects of the reality; however, the life we are leading is still far from movies. We might be impressed with some of the points from the movies, but we should never truly count on them as reference. Our insight of the world, understanding of life, feeling of existence, everything together need us to experience and draw our own conclusion.

20. Superpower

     Do you know Doraemon, who is a very famous Japanese anime character. In the story, he helps Nobita accomplish a lot with his amazing pocket. Doraemon could get whatever Nobita or he wanted from his pocket. His pocket is like Disneyland, which could make your dreams come true. Maybe, his pocket is just his special superpower!

     Everyone wants to own superhero power, including me. I still remember that when I was a little child, what I wanted badly is to have a superhero power that could help me grasp and memorize whatever new pieces of piano songs quickly and correctly. For at that time, in order to do well in piano, I had to spend at least 4 fours playing it everyday. So I lost many chances to play with my friends. But now, what I want most is to have one power that could help me to read books quickly and remember all the knowledge that I have study in a short time. I know it sounds funny and impossible, but I really want to have this power.

     Reasons why I want to have it are: before I came to the United States, though my grades were not so bad, but I couldn’t be the best students at my class. Though I tried hard to do my best, the results didn’t come out like what I hoped. Now, I just wanna get highest score in every class. I know it’s hard. So that’s why I wanna own a superhero power, which could help me remember not only whatever I have learned in class, but also all books I have read. Thus it could help me keep on studying and learning more knowledge.

     I know that it is not an good idea to want to own some superpower to help you do well easily on things. But I still believe that we could make efforts to get what we want. It is hard to do everything perfectly, but if you really want to achieve something in the life, no matter if you have you superpower or not, it’s worth making great efforts to get it. Your life will be more colorful when you realize your dreams through your own efforts!

19.A Time for Renewal in Japan

   March 11, an catastrophe happened in Japan, countless people died and missing from the terrible earthquake and tsunami. At first, I did not pay too much attention on the disaster, because there are countless earthquakes happen in Japan, and the Japanese have treat them as part of daily lives. But after I watched the breaking news and some videos on CNN, I realized that 2012 maybe come now. Waves caused by tsunami were more than 10 meters high which was really horrible scenes that could just happened in a movie. The worst thing is that people are still working hard on protecting the radiation from leaking into the air, sea and land from the broken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Though Japanese people may be seemed calm towards these disasters, but measurements must be taken to rebuild this country now.

     As is known to all, after the bubble economy, the Japanese economy is still stagnant, millions of workers still cannot find suitable jobs to afford the expensive life expenses. People there under much pressure, and the MPC of the economy is still too small. Because of the big pressures that everyone undertakes, small gambling houses are very popular in Japan. People just throw their money there to release the big pressures. How strange this country has been because of the recession.

     Now, I firmly think it is the time that to change the Japanese people’s life styles, to make them more optimistic about their future, to turn the recession in economy into prosperous.

18. Music

Last night, when I wanted to go to sleep, one of my friends shared a video of Piano Concerto No. 2 which was a masterpiece of worldwide famous composer Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff. This video is performed by my favorite French pianist Hélène Grimaud which is also very famous around the world. It reminds me days when I took piano classes in China.

When I was a little child, my grandfather played a lot of master pieces of music at home. Because he loves music very much and he is good at playing various kinds of instruments such as piano, violin, clarinet, saxophone and so on. He often played different knids of classical music at home. As time passed, I began loving classical music. Under my grandpa’s encouragement, I took piano classes since 5 years old. Though I was young at that time, I really love spending time with my piano. But sometimes when my teacher gave too much homework on playing the piano, I felt terrible. For all of my friends played games outside every day. What I could do was just sitting in front of the big piano and listening to the happy noisies which were come from my window. However playing the piano took me a lot of time of enjoying my beautiful childhood, I still treasure times when I could have plenty of time practice it. Cause when I attended senior high school, I must live in dormitory at school. And there were not enough pianos at school, so it is limited for students to play it. Only students who are major in piano could have access to it. As I did not choose piano as my major, it was hard for me to play it even touched it. At that time I found I love piano so much!!!

Now I study here, in UM. The chances to play the piano is still hard to find. But listening to some great pieces of classical music could somehow smooth the pain. No matter what, music is the only thing that I will pursue all my life time.

 

17. Response to Nadezda's blog

     I read Nadezda’s blog about her future goals in career, and I was really surprised by her blog. Because I cannot believe that she loves studying so much that she already has one economics degree in Russia. At class, I just know that Nadezda studied in Holand before she came to the US, and her major there is computer science. For me, computer science is one of the toughest major which I am sure that I mustn’t choose to learn in the rest of life. Of course, I admire person who learn it especially girls! So that’s why I am shocked by Nadezda , and she is the one who deserves laudability.

     

   I find that Nadezda is a girl who loves learning new knowledge and is glad to combine the knowledge which she has studied. It is a great thing to put what we have learned in to activity. This is also what I want to achieve in the future, too.  From her blog, I also find out that she planes to move to San Francisco, the one not only has a lot of software companies but also has the most comfortable living environment in the US! I love San Francisco so much! Maybe in the future, we will meet in San Francisco! 

16. My future career

     When I was a little child, all I wanted is just open a music store in my hometown. Because at that time, there was few stores selling tapes or CDs and it was hard to find some digital editions online. For music is my beloved thing and I can’t live without it, so I always have a same dream which is winning a lottery and use the money to open a widely known music store.  As time passed, though I still love music, I don’t wanna open music store, because everybody starts using ipod and download music online. My so called career goal also changed several times. Currently, especially when I attend the university, I found that opening a company which is in the field of culture is a good idea. Because my major in China is related to the developing cultural industry, and I love doing something related to it. Maybe in ten or fifteen years later, I will open my own culture and communication company by myself.

     

     But at this moment, what I want to do is just learning more practical knowledge. It could even have nothing to do with media or culture, but it must could sustain me to find a good job after I graduation from university. Because I never know what will happen tomorrow, maybe I will change my mind to do some other things. But no matter what I will do in the future, I still have one goal that is establishing a fund to help the ones who have difficulties in going to school or healing sickness.

15.Spring break...

Spring break has gone. What I expect now is summer vacation, because I could go back to China to hang out with my friends and eat great food. I have to say that I don’t expect spring break before. I have no idea about what to do in this time. All I want to do is saving money. Because I did not find a part-time job at the beginning of this semester, so my parents still pay all my expenditures. That’s why I refuse my friends’ inviting to go to San Fransico or Seattle. But I have no regretted. For I have some fun in Minneapolis, too. I firmly believe that I have known this city more than before.

I went to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts with my friends. That is really an amazing place! I have ever imagined the city museum could be so big and have so many collections. Before I came there, I didn’t expect it much because I have visited the Getty Museum in L.A. and the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. They are all incredible places with so many famous collections around the world! For MIA is only a museum which is held by the city, so I don’t think it will be unbelievable as the museums I’ve visited before. When I visited there, to my surprise, it is as good as the other museums! There are also many famous collections and paintings from different places, including China. I also saw a lot of precious collections about Buddism in the old time from China. These are things I have never saw it before.

The reasons why I love museums in US are, first, they are all free to be visited. Second, there are so many good collections around the world. Thirdly, the environment is so comfortable! I love art museums!!!!

14. All about Writing

During the two months’ studying in ESL3202, I find that my writing really improves. Before I study in UM, I took an English exam to test if my English could meet the courses’ demand. The result was that I was weak at reading and writing, so they strongly suggested me took ESL class. Before I started learning, I have no idea about what I will learn in the class. I even doubted could I learn some useful information about writing? Today, I would say without doubt, my writing improves a lot!

As I was afraid of writing in the past, so it seemed really hard for me to start with one paragraph. But now, I feel free to write whatever I want in English, despite some grammar mistakes. Though sometimes it seems hard for me to feel free in writing a paper, I could still finish it under the requests. Another thing is that, because I have chose one physics course which requests writing, so it is not easy for me when I finish the assignments, especially when I prepare for the essay. Because with the help of Bethany, I got a good grade in my class! My other friends, even American students did not get as high as me in the grade. That’s why I think this class really helps me a lot in writing.

Though in my opinion writing is not a horrible thing for me, I have a lot of drawbacks to be improved. Like, my poor vocabulary leads me can not express my thoughts sometimes. So in the future, I really need to remember more words and then use them in the writing. Another thing is that, I still have difficult in writing an essay or paper. Because, sometimes it is hard for me to come up with ideas about the topic, and it always takes too much time for me to write one paper. Consequently, above all is what I think about my writing.

13. How could I control my temp

When I was in junior high school, I found I had a problem that was always easy to get mad with someone else.  Till now, I am still confused with the problem. Because I don’t know why I am so easy to get angry sometimes. But as time passed, I think I have control my temper, or in other words, I could not get angry easier than before.

Look back ways that I tried and tried to control my temper, it was really hard. When you meet me in the first time, you must think I am the guy who is so easy to be with. But if you get along with me in a long time, maybe you will find that I am the girl who is really to be mad. Because I can’t get used to something which I don’t agree with, but if you insist on that, of course, I will be mad.

But as I grow up, I find that I must try to control my bad temper, because maybe there are a lot of things that I won’t accept in society. If every time you get mad, how terrible your life will be , and you can’t enjoy the good side of life any more. Thus, I try to control my temper, and it really works. My life is happier than before!  

12. Reading Response 3#

     Recently I am writing a paper about hydropower.  This is an assignment for me which is given by my instructor in PHYS 1001W. To tell you the truth, I have no idea about hydropower until I find this page in internet. This is a website from National Geographic, which is my favorite journal in US. In this website, it tells us the definitions of hydropower, the history of hydropower, the usage of hydropower, and its impact on environment.

     It is known to all, hydropower is an integral part of the overall renewable energy. Nowadays, with the increasing serious concerns about shortage of fossil energy and greenhouse gas emissions around the world.  Hydropower has become the energy that could not only be cycle, but also be environment friendly. As hydropower is generated electricity from water, we could use this electricity with a very low price. It could also help to irrigate fields and control the flood. So it seems that the hydropower really takes an important role in our lives. However, it still has some bad influences. For example, while building dams for hydropower, it may destroy some natural scenery and habitats. What’s more, it may cause geological disasters in the future. That’s why we should treat it in a more impartial way.

     Above all, hydropower could be a gift for us which is presented by the sun. Once we make full use of it, we should have more good feedback in the future.

   

11. Response to Chenlong Wang's blog

In Chenlong’s blog, he wrote four main differences between Chinese education and American education which have big difference between mine. He wrote some details about his experience in both education systems. For instance, he listed four main differences like, the difference in examination system, purpose of education, lecture style and TA’s help.

I totally agree with his ideas. I have studied in Chinese university for a year and half, and I knew the differences that Chenlong wrote about. In China, most of the students in university do not pay much attention on everyday studying. They will just try their best to pass the exams at the end of class, instead of learning more knowledge. The purpose of education in China is not to teach student how to solve problems, instead, they will just post some questions, then post the answers. Instructors in China are not as obligate as Americans. For example, most instructors in China only read PPT in classes instead of communicate with their students in class. And they just leave the class as the bell rings at the end of classes, they do not answer students questions in terms of hurrying to catch buses to go home. And there is no TA in universities, at least in my university. So when we have questions in class, we find nobody to tend to help.

This is the current phenomenon in universities in China, and that’s why more and more students go to the U.S. to fulfill their dreams.

10.Educational systems

     Nowadays, there is a hot debate that whether parents should send their kids to the US to study or not in China. Most Chinese people agree that the educational system in America is better than that in China. Students in China will under more pressure to attend universities than peers in US. But is that true? In other words, do students in the United States face less pressure and could easily get high scores in classes? I don’t think so.

I have been Minnesota a month and a half. From my own experience, I found, though there are many differences in educational system between China and America, there are still a lot of commons among them. Let me just compare the differences. First, students in primary schools do have more homework than their peers in the US. In China, due to the big competition in attending good universities, not only parents but also teachers start to pay much attention on primary schools. Thus children have a lot of homework to do every day. On contrast, pupils in America are lucky, they could not be pushed so hard by their parents and teachers. They could do whatever they want and develop well during years in elementary schools. What’s more, there is a big difference between Chinese students and American students in university. In China, when students have enrolled in university, they do not work as hard as they do in high schools. Most of them will take classes for granted, for they think they have accomplished their mission that they have already attended colleges. On the contrary to Chinese students, the American students really work harder than Chinese us. I have experienced the situations both in China and here.  I found that if you do not work hard during daily studying, of course you will not get higher scores in the end. Therefore, I have to study very hard to keep up with my American classmates.

The similar thing in both educational systems is that, students are all demanded to work hard in senior highs to attend good universities. 

For a better life in the future, no matter where we study in, it is vital of importance for us to make full efforts to studying.

9.What do people live for?

    This is a video that impressed me a lot. The first time I watched it was in Chinese Facebook – RenRen shared by my friends. Shocked by the true story, I really wanted to share it with my friends on Facebook. But for the story happened in Taiwan and the language is not English, so I just want to find the English edition so that my foreign friends could understand it. It was hard to find it until tonight, when I just skipped over the Twitter, I found my favorite singer – Nichkun has shared it on Twitter. Despite how grateful I was, I just shared it here as soon as possible.

     This is a true story happened in Taiwan.  Five Taiwanese, average aged 81, one of them has cancer, one has hearing problem, the rest of them all have heart diseases. But during 6 months preparation, they circled Taiwan in 13 days, just to accomplish their best friend dream the one has passed away. 

     The reason why I choose this video is that everyone will have the time that feels depressed and has no motivation to live, including me. Especially when I just came to the US, and I met a lot of troubles every day. To tell you the truth, I really wanted to give up when I just arrived here. Due to the video, I found that I could do my best not only in China, but also in the United States. So why I choose depress? Like the old man in the video, they have dreams, they knew what they should do. And I knew why I came to America to study. So there was no excuse for me not doing the best.

      What do people live for? For me, I just wanna try my best to do best in classes, make more friends and to understand America better.

8. Reading Response #2

    This news is about recommendations that the DGA-Dietary Guidelines for Americans makes every five years.  This year, DGA suggests people eat more fish and seafood, as well as having healthier diets like eating breakfast, eating less sugar and salt and avoiding fast food traps.
    In this passage, DGA gave guidelines like controlling caloric intake, increasing the calories you burn by moving more and sitting less, and eating more fruits and vegetables and cutting down on sodium, sugar and fat.

    In my opinion, this article suggests Americans to have healthier eating habits like having breakfast, eating more fruits and vegetables and cutting down the consumption of soda and sports drinks. And the guidelines are only small part of the efforts to address epidemic obesity in the US, which includes new food labeling that will help consumers to know how much of sugars, sodium, fat have they take while eating the food. It also concludes the First Lady's Let's Move campaign that encourages children to become more active.
    The reason why I choose this article is that the DGA has been making suggestions for American people about eating since 1980. It really made a great contribution to help the Americans have better lives. It reminds me that, as the economy develops so fast in China, we have neglect a lot of things such as making people have better eating habits. As is known to all, nowadays, there are too much problems on the quality of food in China. It has becomes concerns that could we Chinese eat higher quality of food and do not have diseases? As a result, we Chinese still have a long way to improve our life standards and make ourselves really happier than before.

7. True Friends

When I watched my best friend’s blog, I found that she celebrated Spring Festival in the south of China. But in her description, though it was happy to see her grandma, she still missed her boyfriend and the food in our hometown. After seeing that, I began missing her now.

I am the person who is not good at talking with people. For I am introvert, I did not make so many friends. But as another one and me become friends, it is hardly to see we break up relationships with each other. That’s why you could see some friends and I have been friends at least 12 years. Like the friend mentioned above, she was my high school classmate. The reason why we became good friends is that once we become deskmates, we found that we have a lot of common interests and we were all the persons who didn’t like too crowed. At the time in high school, we had more assignments than in university, but I was also very happy everyday, because I can chat a lot with her.

As time passed, I find that most of my friends are all the kind of speechless or just do not talk too much in public. But when we hang out together, we always talk a lot with each others. I firmly believe that the reason why we became friends that has nothing to do with money it is our similar personality that let us come together. Another reason is that my friends always could have good effects on me. Though everyone has pros and drawbacks, during our time that we spend together, we will find each other’s drawbacks, and we could help each other to correct it. Then we could make progress in the future.

As a good saying goes, ”a good friend is a mirror of yourself”. I believe so!

6. Life in Minnesota

     January 9th is the day that I arrived in Minneapolis. Today is February 9^th; it means that I have been here for almost a month now. Looking back the days I spent here, I found that I have began to adjust to the life in the United States.

     For this was the first time that I started to live in a brand new place alone. I was a little afraid of the city and the people here. Because first, my oral English was poor and I had very little vocabulary. It would come into misunderstanding of what people were talking about and even could not find the right places. Secondly, when I settled down, I found my roommates are three American girls. Due to the culture differences between China and the U.S., I was anxious about saying wrong   words that would cause misleading between us and  destroy the relationship between us. What's more, I always worried about my classes. As what I mentioned before, with my poor English, I did not know if I could understand what the professor taught in the class. Last but not the least, as is known to all that the weather here is extremely cold, though I love snow very much, I was not sure if I could get used to the climate here.

     As time passed, I realized that the concerns above all were not obstacles and just became easier to be coped with for me. Though, I still have problem talking with people, it was not so hard for me to talk with roommates or just ask how to go to some places. I have also found that my roommates are those who are really not only sweet, but also helpful and kindhearted. They help me a lot to overcome my difficulties adjusting to living here and make me feel like that I am part of them. Sometimes we chat with each other and even held parties. I am thankful that I have so great roommates! To tell you the truth, I still have trouble in understanding the professors’ words in class. But I am trying my best to catch up with other classmates. At last, I have to say that I hate walking outside in the day which has a temperature is minus 20 centigrade. I am waiting for the spring!  

5. Shocked by the Super Bowl!

"I gotta feeling...

That tonight's gonna be a good night

That tonight's gonna be a good night

That tonight's gonna be a good good night"    ----from Black Eyed Peas

  Wow! Tonight is awesome! Because this is my first time to watch a real football game, and it is the Super Bowl!  My roommates held a party just for Super Bowl. Thus we watch it together. Though I am not familiar with the game's rules, I found that it is the most popular sports game among the North American audiences, and last year it became the most-watched American television program in history.

The day on which the Super Bowl is played is now considered a de facto American national holiday, called "Super Bowl Sunday". It is the second-largest day for U.S. food consumption, after Thanksgiving Day. That's what I all knew about it.

  I am not an expert on the rules of the game, and I even can't spell the full name of the teams that attending the game, but there is one thing still impressed me a lot. That is the halftime show which is performed by some popular singers and musicians.

In today's show, it was my favorite hip hop group “Black Eyed Peas” and Usher who performed on the stage! It was amazing and fantastic! All of the audiences were very excited about it not only in the stadium but also at my apartment. We yelled and song along with the TV. I have never watched a show like this before. I love it! I love Super Bowl!!!

4. Holidays——Spring Festival

Today is February 3, it is the first day of Chinese New Year. This is the holiday that we Chinese most celebrate in our country. The other name of it is Spring Festival.

Like western people will prepare a lot to celebrate Christmas, we also have sorts of traditions to celebrate Spring Festival. As is known to all that the festival begins on the first day of the first month in the traditional Chinese calendar and ends with Lantern Festival which is on the 15th day, but we have to start preparing for it two weeks before the New Year comes. In my hometown, sweeping away any ill-fortune and waiting for the good luck, everyone must clean their houses, including windows, doors and even the ceiling. Not only kids but also adults must buy new clothes, because everyone must wear new clothes in the first day of the year. We also buy and cook much food before the holidays. The seniors will cook steamed buns in different shapes and fry fishes in advance so that we could have enough time to enjoy time with family members on New Year’s Eve. When it comes to the New Year’s Eve, family members will come together and make dumplings together. There are various kinds of stuffing for dumplings. You can make different tastes. We also put dates or coin into dumplings. And if you eat the coin one, it means that you will make a lot of money in the new year. While we make dumplings, we will watch the CCTV Spring Festival Gala. This is as important as making dumplings in China. Though the shows on it are not wonderful than before, we just can not neglect it because everyone will talk about it in first day of  the new year. So if you want to keep up with times, you must watch the gala on TV.

Above all is how we celebrate Spring Festival.