Sara's class.

We said good bye to Sara finally. We had such a good time with her even though it was so short. Why can't we have two teachers together? Both Denise and Sara. :D I was glad that everybody made an effort to go to my restuarant on Tuesday. Thank you.

My trip to Lake Tahoe

Hi everyone,

For my birthday on 24th of July, my boyfriend and I went to Lake Tahoe because I heard that it is very pretty there in summer, too. We left on Friday morning and got there at about noon. On the way there I saw a rice field which I never thought I would see here in the US. It reminded me of my parents' rice field (homesick). It was very hot that day from Sacramento to Tahoe. The temperature was about 95. But that did not bother me at all because the place was wonderfully pretty. We stayed for two nights there in a hotel room that my boyfriend called "a squirrel hollow." Nice enough but small. On the first day we were just exploring. There were a lot of hiking trails. And trails lead you to streams. The lake was very gorgeous. I think everybody knows that. Now let's have a look at the pictures. As you know, I love taking pictures because it's the easiest form of art of all. It takes only a second to get one piece of work. Not like painting, it takes me a week or two to create anything. Also, I like my pictures better than my paintings. Now I am ready to show you my pictures, really.

This is Carquinez Bridge, the first main bridge of San Francisco Bay Area, linking us to Valejo. But this bridge is not the original one. It's the new one which was built recently. You can see that it's a supension bridge.

The rice feild I mentioned. It looks different from what we have in Thailand but that's why Thai jasmine rice is so good.

Bridal Veil Falls. We found it on the road side, actually we didn't find it because my boyfriend already knew that it was there. He stopped for us to relax and stretch after being stuck in the car for two hours. You can really see how it got such a name, rigth? It really looks like a bridal veil how the water splashes over the layers of rocks.

A weird kind of plant I found at the information center of Lake Tahoe. The berries grow from the leaves. Interesting huh?

Emerald Bay. This place is very popular among tourists. I can see how. The water looks emerald as the name implies. On the shore is a house called Vikingholm. It was built by a woman from Norway. She liked the place because it looks like Norway so she built the house here. The island is called Finette Isanland. It's the place she used as a tea room when she had special guests. What a lovely place to live.

First of all, this is at Baldwin Beach. People play in clean and clear wavy water there. And some were kayaking. The little ant took me forever to focus. But it was worth it. I love the color of the sand through the water. It looks like gold. From this beach you can see Mount Tallac, which still has some snow on some part of it.

And this is how the sand and the water look.






The duck and the ducklings are from the closest beach to the city. It seemed to me that the mother duck was trying to make the ducklings swim but the poor ducklings were cold and only wanted to be on the shore to get dry. A lot of people were having barbeque on the upper part of the beach. In the lake people were parasailing and boating. The beach was dirty but not very dirty, still there was nobody swimming. The different blue layers is from the same beach.

The flowers are from Upper Truckee Marsh. We biked there on Saturday. It was very pretty there. You can see the mountains and the green marsh, with a running stream, how pleasant. And of course the marsh wouldn't look that interesting without the flowers.

Two more pictures from the marsh.

The two views of Rubicon Peaks. One from Upper Truckee Marsh and one from the beach close to the city. This mountain is popular in winter because it has a lot of peaks that you can enjoy skiing.

I hope you like my post. I am actually late now. See you guys and Denise at school on Monday. Welcome back.

My Las Vegas trip

Hi Everyone!!
It's Kimika.
How was this weekend?
As you know I went on 4 days trip,
finally I organized my pictures from the last trip.
It was hot there....so HOT
that I almost forgot what I wanted to do there.
After I arrived in Las Vegas I didn't even want to leave my hotel room.The temperature there was more than110 F,
Can anyone imagine how hot that is?
Visiting Las Vegas really made me feel homesick,
I missed Fremont a lot. ;-(
And I was thinking that
I'll never say the weather is cold in Fremont.
visiting Las Vegas was second time for me,
so nothing could surprise me anymore.
In addition, it was too hot there
so it was very difficult to enjoy myself.
But good thing was the hotel fee was free for us, because we got free promotions from the first trip in Las Vegas.That was the reason why we went there. : }

This trip I were not luck enough so I didn't win much as the first time, But is OK at least I didn't lose money. This time I ate a lot, we went to India and Korea all you can eat, they were very good especially the India all you can eat, even right now I still remember the taste and I really want to go again, But...the food there were toooooo spicy for me, I drank a lot of water more than eat the curries....I think the restaurant is very near India curries in India, because people when there are almost the Indian.
On the last day, we found the best all you can eat in a far hotel. They have many styles food from other countries and the more incredible desserts, ice cream, crepe, cakes and the loveliest pudding. "Creme Brulee" is my favorite pudding , I swear I'll learn how to made it! ><>
hum..so the trip was all about food..
That why I'm dieting.... or~v














The day was Independence day in USA, so on that day you can play with fireworks legally.








<--This was the three days recyclable trash, we brought these home for recycling, because I'm not sure if the hotel will recycle bottles. Even only that mush trash, but still a lot for the world. If everyone brought it home for recycling or chose not to use plastic bottles, our planet will be more beautiful. ^^ b

A peaceful place.

I found a very pretty place in Fremont last weekend. It was veryyyyyy hot in Fremont yesterday. But the temperature in this place was just right. It's a quarry. It's the place I wish it was closer than that. Why do we not have something like that in Berkeley?

Buddhism in America.

Hello everyone,

Last weekend I went to the Thai temple in Fremont. I heard about it form myfriend. She told me it is the real temple. I expected to see a lot of good things. But when I was there it wasn't very good. It was supposed to be the day that Buddhists go to the temple and offer the Buddhist monks some kind of clothes and candles. In Thailand people make very nice candles. They decorate the candles with anything beautiful. But here in America they only try to decorate the candles as well as they can with the material they can find here. There were a lot of people there but not all of them were interested in the real ceremony. They went to the temple becuase they wanted to eat. The ceremony was very short, much shorter than in what I saw in Thailand. Something went so wrong. But I know it's America here. Thai ceremony in America can't be perfect. So I just wanted to say that it was OK for me even though I didn't like it. These are some pictures for you to have a look.

Some Fun Quizes For Everyone

Try this you guys. It's so funny. I have more. If you are interested in some more, just tell me.
1. Why is the letter "T" like an island?
2. What word begins with "e" and ends with "e" and only has one "letter"?
3. I have 12 legs, 12 arms and 8 heads. what am I?

The answers are below. Far below.
































1. Beacuse it's in the middle of the waTer.
2. Envelope!
3. I am a liar!

Here are some pictures from Botanical gardens

It was my first time to go out with level 4 class, I had a good and
also tired time on the same day when we had walked through
(I felt that way...) mountain and visited around Botanical Gardens.
I thought I'll die in the mountain before I arrive there. lol
After that my leg was just like a crab when I walked,
however I still had a good time,
and I also got a chance to practice my photography skill.


I took some photos from Botanical Gardens, I hope you guys will like it.
And I feel sorry that I didn't take group pictures for class.
I was to lazy to change my camera's lens every time,
but good thinks was Pim took pictures for us!!

I like the first photo because the Blue sky, green leaves and
seeds made me feel I'm in Hawaii when I saw it.
What do you guys think about it?

I like the color, sometimes I don't like pictures
have too many colorful colors, I prefer mellow colors.
I think I like the colors that will make people feel a little bit
sorrowful, because I think it reminds people of past memories.

I remember when I was in High school I had always taken one day walking trip
for taking pictures, and I had always walked around public gardens, zoos
and mountains just for taking macro photo.I really had a blast when I was taking photos, I could wait at a place for hours just for the best shot, I spent a lot of time chasing insects and taking photos.
Nevertheless, since I had been in Japan, I stop taking photos because I had had to work in my free time and films are expensive.Year by year, I forgot how much I love to take photos, I used my free time for sleeping and staying at home because I was so tired to go outside, I only want to save my energy for working and doing my homework. After I left Japan and came to the USA I bought a digital camera and the kit lens, right now I have more time (too much time though...) to start off to take photos and learn photography again. But funny thing is I miss the busy days in Japan.

Bees has always made themselves busy hum.
However they are still my favorite topic, because they are so cute
and they are hard workers.When they are busy pollinating,
they'll ignore you when you are around them.
But! always be careful when you see Wasp.
They are not nice bee!!

Plants, insects and animals have always been my favorite topics,
so I have always been taking photos with macro lens,
but sad thing is I don't have a really macro lens.
My boyfriend said he'll give me a macro lens for my birthday gift,
BUT I didn't receive it yet.... it was one month ago.
I wish when he sees this he will feel a little bit pressured.
(He said, "yes, I felt." ) lol

Anyways, I had a fun day.But if it is possible...
I really don't want to walk so much like last time again. lol
Thanks everyone for reading all the words in this post.It's a long post.

Botanical gardens-pim

Well it was quite obvious to me that everybody was having a good time. (????) I did. I got some nice pictures that I want to share with you guys.

This is us in front of the place. Looks like we had a big class huh? Of course it was Denise's last day before her vacation in Italy so everybody tried to spend time with her as much as they could.

This sign is just pretty so I took a picture of it. But hey "save strawberry canyon". Don't wait until we have no trees outside the museum.

An interesting person with an interesting flower. INTERESTING huh?

And a tiny woman with a tiny flower.

The corpse flower. We were not lucky enough to see when it's blooming so we didn't smell the deadly smell. But we were lucky enough to not smell the deadly smell. Hmm we were lucky and unlucky at the same time.

There is a secret inside the huge head with two strands of hair.

Yay, there are some little brains. But is that men's brains or wome's brains?

Hooray!!! I'm not the only one who likes taking macro pictures.

And this is right before we left. I really like the color of this flower. We have plenty of them in Thailand.

World's Shortest Fairy Tale (relate with our subject)

Once upon a time, a guy asked a girl 'Will you marry me?' The
girl said, 'NO!' And the guy lived happily ever
after and rode motorcycles and went fishing and hunting and
played golf a lot and drank beer and scotch and had tons of
money in the bank and left the toilet seat up and farted
whenever he wanted.

Answer

YYUR= too wise you are.
There are two ys. The pronunciatoin is the same as wise.[waiz]
I think you can figure out the rest now.

Husbands in my country

Husbands in my country support the traditional family economically. They need to work very hard and they sacrifice the time they can spend with their children. Although husbands spend most of their time working for money, some of them would still share the house chores with their wives in a DINK(double income no kids!) family. Sometimes, husbands also have the crucial role of being responsible to solve family conflicts caused by different living customs between the members. Recently, the amount of nuclear families is growing very fast in Taiwan and husbands play the wives' role, if the wives have a higher income.

My opinion about marriage (lori_)*

  I think man women and men want to be a couple. If they have a love affair, they can marry with their partner. But they have to be ready for marriage! If they're not ready , they can break up. In Korea although many couples have trouble, they are patient. I think Korean couples are more patient than American couples. Because Korean marriage is not just "couple" combination. Our marriage is the "Family's combination". so many Korean couples consider each partner Family. And many Korean people think they have to get married. So marriage is an important conception is our country.  Therefore if a couple has trouble, they have to think bout their family so they are patient. Because their break up is a break up between their families.  

  Americans are different from Koreans. Americans couples are more individualistic and free.

In America nobody touches the married couple. If the couple is divorced nobody says a word. If a couple divorces in Korea, many people think and say "why?!" 

I think marriage requires an open mind and each partner must provide good team work and good ability for good family relationship.  

marriage

Marriage in my country is called the tomb of love.

However in America,people still love each other even if they get divorced.

The feellings between them might be differentbut they still care about each other.

In Taiwan,many couples just do everything to fight with each other.

On the other hand,people in America usually do what they want.

If the marriage doesn't go well,they just get divorced.

But in Taiwan,people will tolerate everything until they find that they couldn't take it anymore.

Marriage life

since i have been in the US,i have noticed that marriage in the us and in my country have some differences.
If we take `marriage`,the laws are the same in each country .In the US people respect the law but In Africa,it`s not the same,people don`t respect the law.
the law says that each spouse has some obligations.
In the US,a husband will never kick his children and wife out,even if he doesn`t want to live with them anymore.In the US,the law protects the women, if there is any problem or a separation between the spouse,the husband leave the house.In Africa , it`s not the same because there,the wife and the children have to go out,the husband simply kicks them out.
In Africa women don`t have any rights,this fact has become cultural over the years.
I think that husbands in the US are more responsibles ,hard workers and may be more loving.In Africa,many men don`t work so the wives have to do everything by themselves even for the children but the husbands too and his family,other wise his family will find another wifefor who will take care of all of them.
Men in Africa are not strong enough to resist their extended family.Their weakness is their extended family.
In the US,your family is your wife and your children and you have all the privacy and intimacy that you need in your life.In Africa , everybody has his nose in your marriage,the mother in law drops by all the time,the sister or brother in law are always in your house ,they want to know everything and you don`t have any private life.
In Africa,you feel like everybody is spying on you,you don`t feel free in your own house.In the US,people don`t act like that,they can`t drop by before they call you even if it`s the husband`s or wife`s family.In the US,a husband can`t leave his family without any support may be because of the law but it doesn`t matter.In Africa,men leave their family with out nothing.
For me,the best marriage life is in the US but i am noticing that in Africa too things are changingwith the new generation.Some people have a good married life.

Wives in my country (vivian)

It depends on the generation. In the past a woman's role was too limited.
She was in charge of chores, taking care of her husband and children and maintaining the relationship with her husband's family.

The old generation of women didn't get and chance to received an education from their parents who only invested in their sons. So of course the old woman's generation could not find a job they just were able to get married very early. They were not independent people economically.

But It has been changing since i was a child. My parent's generation realized that their daughters deserve as much as their son. They had started investment for daughters.

So not in Korean women are very intelligent and very independent. After they get married they
try to keep their jobs, 90% of Korean women have their own jobs. That weans they don't have
enough time to do all the house work. They have to divide family work, they have to help each other.

But unfortunately their husbands still require old style work form their wives. Also they want their wives to make good money for family economy.
So now Korean wives are getting tired.

COMPARISON


in turkey a husband expects respect from his wife and ussaly the wife shows it.they both have responsbility.
when l compare marriages between the usa and turkey,people are quite independent here.they are endless free to do what they do....

Wives in Taiwan and compare marriage in Taiwan and The USA.

PART 1 Wives in Taiwan

Wives in my country have to support their husbands and also they have to be smart. In Taiwan, We say "A successful man has always had a successuful woman stand behind him."
A successful woman means the wife had done a good job helping and supporting her husband during his career. If a woman is not smart enough, she wouldn't help her husband when he needed advice from his wife, then she wouldn't have the chance to be in a eral partnership with her husband.

A woman shouldn't only stay at home to take care of childen and watch TV shows. She has to think things over carefully and observe her husband's state, and a successful woman must know about her husband's state of mind, in the other words, she must try to understand a man's psychology, also she has to know what's her husband's shortcoming, and she has to tries to help him overcome it with patience.

A successful woman always does a lot of things more than a successful man does, but the man'll never know that. Saving husband'd face is the way to keep peace in the family.

''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
PART 2 Comparing marriage in Taiwan and in the USA

Marriage in Taiwan is a very important thing, once people get married usually thet don't easily divorce, because people are thinking about children more than their feelings. so must parents choose to bear their married life even though they are not happy, but children become the center of their life. They also think time can heal many things even the marriage, so they usually choose to stand the present situation.

I don't really know about marriage in the USA, but I heard my English teacher who is an american woman, she thinks that many people have divorced in the USA, also she said her child's friends' parents have all been divorced.

I really think people in the USA, very easily accept their new soul mate even if they have been divorced, but I'm wondering do they really think deeply about marriage before their second marriage? because I really think that marriage is a very serious thing, and also it's an importan thing that we have to be responsible for our soul mate. They have to learn thrie mistakes from the firstmarriage.

My ideal future husband

I think that I have met a person who is an ideal husband for me. He has strong body and he is a handy man. He often tells a joke and has a sense of humor. We're just good friends and I'm glad to know such a nice guy as him.
Also, I perceive that it is more important that my future husband should be optimistic and that he make friends everywhere. However, the person you meet at the right time might be another best choice for you.

I think it is important for a husband to..........

For a husband the important thing is, they have to always remember they have a wife! Of course, his wife is just the only one he should love. For some reason in Malaysia, some rich men even poor people, do not stick to their wives. They like to go to find some younger lady to become their mistress. This problem has already affected everyone. They always say :"I am thinking about taking a fifth wife; why not? Solomon had a thousand wives and he was a synonym for wisdom." Did you hear that?


Tintin's P.S.
fifth wife? so crazy.....
could the poor find young ladies too?
who's gonna go with them??

Marina Beach

Hello, everyone

So, now I've already taken a vacation. This pictures were taken in a last few weeks when we went together to Marina Beach. That was my first time there. In that day the weather was temperate and was not windy too much. We started from our school to the coffee cafe' on San pablo ave cross Dwight ave. And then, We walked around the street to the marina beach ; it took time around 30 minutes. The marina beach was so great for relaxing or reading some favorite books with soft drink I think. I like to see a colour of blue sky and green grasses ; it seems to be natural and compatible.


I always catch our blog up almost everyday, if it's possible. And I really want you guys post and update this blog.

Weng,