Highlights of 2012

This is my flour baby, his name is Jason.

          In life, there is always some important events that happen to us. For example, in 2012,  the iPhone 5 came out, London Olympics, Euro Cup, U.S election, etc. those were very important and lots of of people put attention on it. For me, I have some unforgettable events had happened in 2012 too. On April, I was still a high school student as a senior. I took the 'health ed' class because that is a required class to take. That class was impressed me because we had to make a "flour baby" which is we made our own baby using a 5 lb flour or sugar, and we had to bring the baby with us everyday and wherever we're going. We also had to bring it back home, if you left it in the locker or anywhere, that's cheating. And of course we had to bring it to school for teachers to sign. If I abused my baby, and the teacher saw it, she will minus points for sure. I think the "flour baby" was a hard work for me because that was too heavy to bring to school, and I had some other classes's textbook to take.







This is the score of my first written test (right)

          Another highlight of 2012 is I passed the driving test. In the summer, I decided to learn driving. On March, I went to DMV to do the written test, before I did the written test I had read the handbook unceremoniously. Because I didn't prepare at all so I failed the first time. For the second time, I passed the test because I spent a lot of time to read the handbook and read some information online, that was very helpful, and I missed only 1 question for the second time. For the driving test, I passed it in the first time, that was unbelievable. Because my appointment was in the morning, so I felt so sleepy when I was driving, but I had to wake myself up. I was so lucky that I got a nice driving instructor, and I had learned a lot from him. Another highlight of 2012 is that I watched couple movies, some Chinese movies, and some American movies. For examples, The Hunger Games, Titanic with Imax 3D, Love in a puff, etc, I think those were part of the hottest movies in 2012. Overall, I think 2012 was precious, and I hope there will be more intersting things happen in the future.

The Hunger Games (left) and Titanic (right)

Precious Moments

first time doing archery

Our lives are full of memorable, adventurous and exciting experiences, among those unforgettable moments there must be some events that are represented as highlights of the year. In my personal experience, one of the highlights of 2012 is going to college. As a freshman, I learned that life in college is all dependent on oneself. No matter what kind of situation I might encounter during my college life, I must find a solution by myself and be able to handle them on time and efficiently. Besides the difficulties I might have in college, there are also benefits that had helped me a lot for my life as a whole. I made few friends, and gained some knowledge that I considered to be helpful for my future. (including education and social) Now, I feel more accustomed to my school and will continue my study for the following years.

Another important highlight of 2012 is my first time going to camp in the US. The camp was held by a church and was located on the other side of the city. Although it wasn't a long period trip, I still learned a lot from it and had a wonderful experience. I did many activities that I haven't done before, like zip line, archery, paint ball. First experiences are always unforgettable in most situations, and of course, I also did a lot other first time experiences in 2012. Overall, camping was a good time that I spent with my friends together. Finally, I believe that there will be much more wonderful and exciting experiences waiting for me in the future. 

Daily Life

  Do you agree? Doing exercise is very important for us in our life. Because it is good for our health. "Life is movement." I agree. In our life, we have a lot of pressure. Throught doing exercise, it is  one way to relieve stress. Everyday after dinner I play PingPong with my friends. I play one hour or one and half hours with them. Sometimes I play pingpong vigorously. My friends ask, "Do you hit me or Do you play.'' I will say, "sorry, I don't hit you, I play pingpong." It is same as my friends. I have a happy time with my friends everynight. After I had played, I felt very comfortable because I can sweat and relieved pressure.

  Going online is my another activity everyday. I think many people like to surf the Internet everyday. Because we can do a lot of things in the Internet such as playing game, watching movie, online shopping, etc. Going online is very important for me because it make my life isn't bored. I always go online and chat with my friends back home. I also like to watch TV in the Internet. Online shopping is very convenient for us. I like it. I often go shopping online. Do you like surfing the Internet?

My daily life

We should do something to relax ourselves, and not just go to work or school everyday.

 

watching TV can be good for you

          I think TV is very important to all of us because you can learn a lot and you can watch dramas, movies and news. For me, I usually open the TV before I eat dinner because I enjoy to watch TV while I eat dinner with my family. I usually eat dinner at about 6:30, at that time, most of the television channels are playing news. It's good to watch news because you will know more about what the world is happening now. Sometimes when my computer is so slow then I open the TV because I don't have to download things to watch, but I can't choose what I want to watch because it plays randomly.

 

You will find out a lot of things when you open the computer

          Another activity that I do everyday is playing computer. I think all of us love computer so much because you can do a lot of things on the computer, for example, you can talk to your friends or even chat with them face to face, you can watch movies, or online shopping, etc. For me, computer is very important because I can talk to friends, play games and listen to music so my life is not bored.

Piano can bring you to another world

 
         Piano is one of the activities that I do everyday too because I have to play a song every week for my piano class, so I need to practice everyday. Piano is important to me because the sound came out from the piano makes me feel excited and sometimes bring me to another world, and it can make me clam when I play songs that are softly, but of course I have to play well so I can feel that way.

Essential tasks

Reading has become a must do activity in my life

Everyone has some tasks that they must do everyday. It doesn't have to be something that everybody consider a must do thing. A must do list could be activities that you do routinely because your family force you to do it or because you just want to do so. For me, surfing the Internet has become part of my life. I always check my email, news, chat with my friends and family, watch videos, etc. There are so many things that I do on the Internet for almost every single day. It is considered an important task for me because I can find out specific information about topics that interest me or I can search for something that I didn't understand. Also, reading news article online help me to stay updated and learn English. By reading helpful information I can enrich my knowledge in a variety of subjects.

Another task that is part of my routine life is listening to music, whenever I am stress out I must listen to a song; this helps me to relieve my stress and calm down. I sometimes also drink a cup of tea and read a book while listening to the music. In this way I get a little bit distracted so that I don't think about the stressful situations anymore. I'd like to live my life happy and relaxed, there has been studies that show stress could decrease your life span, so we should all enjoy our lives to the fullest. Eating healthy and exercising are also extremely important must do activities for me, I always try to maintain my health by taking care of my diet and physical activities. Although this looks like the little things that we do in our routines, it can turn out to have huge effect later in life.

A love for Life

A love for Live 

Reviewed by Linh

    

      A Love for Live was written by Penny Hancock. This is a novel book and the story is set in Cambridge, England. The main character is Fanella who is a brave and strong women. Fanella is an editor and unable to have children. She intends to adopt a children with her partner but he has left her. But after that situation, she still want to adopt children and she adopted a girl who named Elise. She had a lot of hard time and challenges to being a single mom. After many tough times, she find the right man for her life. 

      My first impression of Penny Hancock is interesting because of the love story. This book is fit for ESL 150 students level. You can improve your reading speed and skills. Also it is easy to understand the theme of the story. I would like to recommend this book to my friends and others. Also this book is good for girl because of the love story.

A Love for Life

Face the challenge bravely
Reviewed by Yongjia Sara Xu

     Have you ever felt that it's very hard to face challenges when you are alone?  In the book A Love for Life, written by Penny Hancock and took place in Holland. The main character Fanella who wants to have a child in her life, adopt a child after her ex-boyfriend leaves her. She faces all problems and overcomes those sufferings in her life by herself, and adopted a five-year-old girl whose named Ellie. But then Fanella's best friend Teresa introduced two men to her, and Fanella is hard to choose between both of them because they both have problems of their own......



     I highly recommend this book because this story is good, although this is fiction, but it's real and related to our life. In this book, I admire Fanella that she wants adopt a child even though her ex-boyfriend leaves her, that's interesting because it's not a easy job for a single woman. When I read how brave that Fanella is because she faces all challenges by her own, I think of myself that I gave up to do something, and I asked myself some questions, why I gave up? Why I ran away when I get in troubles? Shouldn't I need to be like Fanella that bravely faces challenges? One part that I liked about the book is that Fanella can bravely keep her life going even though she got some problems, I admire her so much, and I should learn from her. One part that I don't like is that Teresa looks like jealous that her best friend Fanella marry to Rod, she should be happy that Fanella  finds her happiness.

A Love for Life

A Challenging Life
Reviewed by Anita Chong
Having the wants to adopt a child, Fanella, an editor in a publishing company, has to face a lot of challenges that she encounter in the life of adopting a child. In Penny Hancock's A love for life, which took place in Holland, Fanella broke up with her boyfriend because he didn't agree to have an adoption for the couple. Her best friend Teresa helps her out by introducing her to tell stories to the children in Rod's class, who is Teresa's son teacher. 

After working together for a period she fell in love with Rod, but gets disappointed after realizing that he's married. Meanwhile, Fanella gets approved for an adoption of a five-year-old girl with behavioral problems, Ellie. Fanella then decides to meet Mark-Teresa's husband colleague. Their relationship didn't go well after all because Fanella was still in love with Rod.....

A love for life is a story full of challenging events that happened in a woman who was trying to adopt a child. Overall, it is an interesting story in which we can relate to real life, like the difficult lives of single parents who are applying for adoptions. It also made me think of the conflict situations between couples, because sometimes one might have a different opinion other than his/her partner. 

One part that I liked about the book is that Fanella didn't give up the willing of wanting a child despite of the hard job and personal status. On the other hand, what I found not interesting is that everything in Fanella's life was not very favorable; she always has to find her way out of the complicated situations she might have involved in. Fortunately, she's gotten her best friend Teresa, who is always willing to help her no matter in what situation she's in. I recommend the book for people who care about children and for those who are willing to read a life about a single parent adopting a child. The stories has a lot of ups and downs so you might get emotional while reading the book. 

Murder Maker

 MURDER MAKER

 Review by Fanny

  Murder Maker, the book is witten by Margaret Johnson. The action of the book is in England and Cuba.
  The novel tells the story of a girl how loved her boyfriend and he loved her as she thought. After being jilted by her lover, Carla was devastated and intends to seek revenge. She joins a self-help group for people in similar situations and there she meets three women who have been betrayed or abandoned by their husbands. Carla decides to rehearse her revenge on these men and starts by buying a ticket to Cuba.
  The book is terrible and boring, and it is difficulty for me. I don't like the novel because it is a revenge story. I finished reading this novel, I felt bad. When girls broke up their relationship with their lovers, they don't do things by drinking or sleep with other guys, and thier don't want revenge. They should have a positive life. They will find true love. I don't want to recommend the book.

An important place in S.F

Bill Graham Civic Auditorium / City Hall


                         This is one of the important places in S.F for me, I really love this place. Do you know where it is when you look at the photo above? Yes, It is the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, in there, it can hold 7,000 people and it was built in 1915. It is in Civic Center 99 Grove St (between Larkin St & Polk St). As you can see in the picture, there is a big space in front of it and there is covered with lots of grass which is very beautiful. Bill Graham Civic Auditorium and City Hall both are very important place in S.F because it is the government office, and a lot of people had their wedding in City Hall too, and sometimes there is a concert in Bill Graham Civic Auditorium.
         
                       For me, this place is very important because my high school graduation was in there. The graduation was on May 23, 2012 which was on Wednesday, my mom, my aunts and my uncles had to go to work but they asked their boss to have a day off so they could attend the graduation. I was very happy that most of my family came to the graduation. On that day, one of my cousins graduated too, but the graduation was not on the same time because we were not the same school. At 7 am, all the students (our school) came in to the auditorium for rehearsal, I looked around the auditorium because this was the first time that I get in there and I surprised how it looks like. It was huge which is unbelievable because when I look the outside of the building I don't think it can be that huge. I saw a lot of seats in there, of course those seats are for audience but at that time they are for students, and those seats above were for students's family. At about 10 am, our graduation ended... we left because the next school needs the auditorium, then we went out to take some photos with friends and family. This place such as a great place, and it gave me lots of wonderful memories.

A Precious Trip

During my childhood, Disney was the place that I've always been dreaming to go. One day when I was 12, my parents finally decided to let my sister and I to travel there with our relatives. In the photo, there are six of the places that my aunt's family, my cousins, my sister and I went to when we were enjoying our trip. Disney is one of my favorite places that I've ever been to.  The first photo shows the centerpiece of Disney---the Cinderella castle at Walt Disney world. It was so pretty when we looked at it closely, but unfortunately we didn't have the chance to get in. The one next to it displays a machine that looks like curiosity rover, we were waiting inline to get into one of the rides when I was taking the photo. 

my trip to Walt Disney World

The one at the upper right corner is a structure with the sign "Planet Hollywood" on it . I am not sure if there was something inside of it because when I was capturing the picture I was on the other side of the structure. The one at the lower left corner is a giant dinosaur that was located beside the child's playground. We decided to take a photo standing close to it to compare the size difference, as you can see we looked so tiny in the picture. Next to it is a big swimming pool which was positioned in our hotel. The last one is a pink house with detailed decorations and plants around it. We went inside to see the beautiful things in it. There were pictures and unreal furniture around the house. Overall, it was an interesting and enjoyable journey, I will never forget all these moments that my family and I had spent during the week in Disney. We had a lot of fun and enjoyed it to the best. 

The perfect christmas family picture

 

This picture is really important for me because it show me how much you need your family in your life. 

We took this picture on Christmas Eve of 2011; we took this picture because we wanted to have something that we always remember us how happy we were that day. I also chose this picture because is the most that I like.  We have like a tradition I would say, that every Christmas we would take the family picture and we would put it in a frame with the other that we had taken before.

I also chose this photo because I wanted to share how happy I am to have a family like them with me. That are always there supporting me no matter what. And I love all them with all my heart.

Played with Two Kids

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        I like this picture so much because the kids on the picture made me feel happy. The little girl was my niece who was  sitting on my back named Fangfang. When I came to her house, she usually ask me to carry her. At that day, I got a super big "pokemon " from six flat and  sent it to these two kids. While I was bringing it to their house, they felt so exciting. To my surprised, they not only asked me for sitting on my back but also they wanted the "pokemon" doing the same thing.
   
            During playing game with these two kids, I thought i needed to take a picture with them. When I was taking the picture, Dongdong, my little nephew sitting on the sofa who was laughing at me because I was carrying his sister and the "pokemon". So far, I think it is a very funny picture i kept it. Also, I hope to play more games with these two kids.

My Childhood

My cousins and me

          This is one of my favorite photos in my life. We took this photo in 1999 which is I was six years old at that time. I was in the right side of this photo, and the three other girls are my cousins, their names are Kimberly, Connie, and Christine. We took this photo in our hometown where my grandmother lives. You can see that this is a farmland because there is lots of grain behind us. My grandmother grew grain too, and we always help her to harvest grain because that's funny and we liked to do it, but we always mess up more than help our grandmother. I remember one time that we harvested grain, we harvested lots of grain and brought those grain to my grandmother's house. We think that we helped our grandmother a lot, but actually not, because we harvested in the wrong time which is those grain that we harvested was not yet ripe.

 

In this photo, we were holding each other's hands seems like we were very "good friends", but we were not, we always argue with each others when we were child. This is such as a wonderful memory in my life. Every time I look at this photo, I think of the past that we were child, I think of my grandmother's farmland, and I miss my grandmother a lot because she is still in China, but now we all moved to United States. In U.S here, we don't see each other (my cousins) a lot because we all live in different cities, one of them in New York, the other two are in Fremont and I am in San Francisco.        I love this photo so much and I cherish this photo because I think childhood is very precious, time can not go back, and we are not child anymore. So I think this photo is very important, and now I keep this photo in two different places, I saved it in my computer and I keep one in my album.

My Birthday At Hometown

     Birthdays come only once a year and last year I have a big birthday party at hometown. This was my first time to celebrate my birthday at my hometown after i have lived in the United States for three years. I got a surprise birthday with my friends, relative, family were waiting for me in a room of blue balloons, a big monkey birthday cake and my favorite foods. They sang happy birthday song for me, and I could not say anything. At that moment, I was very happy and wanted to say something to them but I could not. Finally they came and gave me a big hug.  

 

     This photo was taken on my 19th birthday party. It is very important to me, and  by looking this photo I know how hard people have to prepare for my surprise birthday party with a cute monkey birthday cake. Whenever I look at this photo, all my memories and happiness just come up from my mind.

My best friends and Me

                                  

   This photo is extremely important for me. I will always keep and cherish this photo. This photo, I have a good memory. My three best friends and me is the photo of . They are Yanhong, Liuhong and Xiaoyan. It taken in Fenghuang ancient town, HuNan, China in 2005. I traveled with my friends for the first time. I have a good time withthem.                                                    
  I treasure this photo so much. We didn't traveled together again, because we lived different country. I lived in the United States. Liuhong lived in Canada. Yanhong and Xiaoyan lived in China. I often recalled I play with them. I cherish our friendship. I put the photo as compute wallpaper right now.




                                                                                                              

2 year-old Birthday

Mom and I on my 2 year-old birthday

Although I couldn't remember clearly what had happened during the time the photo was taken, this would still be the photo that I always cherish. In the photo, it shows that my mom is hugging me over my waist. As you can see, I was so little that there was a lot of extra "space" in between my mom's arms and me. She smiled gently in the picture as well as in the present. Mom has always been my personal role model since she's a hardworking, patient, and kind person. Being an adult, I know how it feels to undertake all the tasks at home and outside of the world. But I can't compare my work to my mom's, because I know that she has given out far more than what I expect. And I know that every single mom in the world has done so too. Nobody could measure the amount of effort and time that moms sacrifice for their children. Everyone must appreciate the valuable sacrifices that moms have done on each of them, including me. 

By looking at this photo, all the memories that I had with my mom have all shown up in my mind. The picture was taken on my 2 years old birthday, and I wonder if my mom was thinking "my daughter is already 2 years old, time pass by so fast". Whenever it comes to any of my siblings birthdays, she will always say this, that's why I am wondering if she had on that day too. At that time, she paid lots of attention to me and was taking care of me, however, after my brother was born, everything changed. Now, she only focus her attention on the youngest child as every parent, I believed. Overall, the relationship between us has and will never changed in the present or future. We loved each other from the bottom of our hearts.

Here is a quote that I really like from Agatha Christie:

"A mother's love for her child is like 
 nothing else in the world. It knows no 
 law, no pity, it dares all things and crushes
 down remorselessly all that stands in its path."