Dudu Is A Dog

Amanda McBroom's concert

2008-05-09T23:17:00.000-07:00

Tonight we went to Amanda McBroom's concert at Young Theater at CSUF. It was awesome. Her most famous song is The Rose which has been reproduced by so many famous singers even some Chinese singers, such as Cai-Yilin and Lin Yilian. Listening to this song before her was very impressive. I was so excited.

Because we were the only young people in the concert (I guess today's young Americans do not care about this kind of music.), and we were sitting very close to her, she noticed us from the beginning to the end. Her song was so sweet and pure. The lyrics are easy to understand, so we had almost fully enjoyed the whole concert.

She also told the audiences about how she wrote The Rose. She got the idea of this song when she drove on a freeway while listening to the radio. That was some 30 years ago. Now today she drove from to Fullerton, and we were gathered together here to enjoy this beautiful song. It is really interesting.

After the concert, when she knew we were exchange students, she got more excited and gave each one of us a kiss and signed on the CDs.

I really appreciate that our instructor Mechelle Luster brought us to the concert. What a coincidence. We came from different country, and took the music class, knew about The Rose. Some one invited Amanda, and she drove here. Then we had this wonderful gathering.

Journal # 20

2008-05-03T00:21:00.000-07:00

When we talk about culture shock, we can find lots of difference between cultures. As a Chinese student, I would like to come up with arguments about the difference between American and Chinese culture. There is a concept as a big picture. While Americans believe in individualism, the Chinese believe in collectivism, which make big differences in many aspects.

First of all, the country's benefits are more important than individuals' in Chinese culture. Chinese people will feel more proud if the country are getting better and better. The country means so much for each Chinese, while Americans may focus on self achievements more. For instance, Yao Ming decided that he would come back to China and join the nation's basketball team for the upcoming Olympic Games. American basketball fans can not understand his decision because that will cause a loss to the Rockets club and also Yao's personal income. However, the Chinese see his decision as a natural law's effect, as Yao said missing the Game will be a pity of lifetime.

Secondly, the U.S. stays on rules. China stays on culture. Americans believe rules always work on anybody, while Chinese people believe in the relationship between each other more rather than written rules. I believe that's why the law of China is still not perfect. Chinese rely on relationship, or "Guanxi", so keeping good relationship is more important than what people have done together.

Another Humility is a good manner in Chinese people's eyes. But, to American it is the same as lying. For example, when a Chinese exchange student speak good English to Americans, they may say that the student's English is very good. However, The student may tell it is not very good. This response is friendly for the Chinese but not for Americans because it seems not honest. The reason is that the Chinese believe people's showing they have done better job may cause other people's stress. In a group, Humility helps Chinese people work together for the group with less personality and more common opinions.

All in all, this concept really cause lots of differences between American and Chinese people.

Journal #19 My Favorite Leisure Time Activity

2008-04-11T09:14:00.000-07:00

During my leisure time, what I like to do most is listening to music. It is a very good way to relax my mind and body. When I close my eyes while listening to my favorite songs, I free satisfied and peaceful. Also listening to music helps thinking. There was one article talking about the impact of listening to music. It says music will increase some 10 percent more possibility of getting creative ideas for people. That happened to me. I got a lot of news ideas while I was listening to music.

Playing ping-pong is another favorite leisure time activity. That was because of peer pressure at the beginning. During the years in high school, a bunch of my friends played ping-pong. As my level of playing ping-pong got improved, I started to be interested in it.

Journal #18

2008-04-06T19:14:00.000-07:00

Due to the traffic jam, we did go to Stanford on the way back from San Francisco. I planed to go there, but we did make it. After we decided not to go there, we spent eight hours to get back to Fullerton because of the traffic. however, that was a very good experience.

Journal #17

2008-04-06T18:24:00.000-07:00

I just got back from a trip to San Francisco. I want to talk about people I encountered during the trip. When I was waiting for the ferry to Alcatraz, I met a student from San Diego. He was from Brazil. Sometimes I could not understand what he said. I was wondering that was because his English was so good or not. Anyway, we had a good conversation while waiting in the line. After I told him I came from China, he said it was impossible not to see Chinese. Even in his school SDSU there are bunches of Chinese students. What I only could say was that there were so many people in China.

We also got a chance of having dinner at a restaurant in Chinatown. It belongs to the kind of restaurants which even I can only see in Hollywood movies. It is actually a mingling of cultures. I can not find such a restaurant in China. Almost all things in the restaurant are red and diners are white.

Journal #16 Keep-up Strategies

2008-04-05T16:11:00.000-07:00

Learning a second language needs a bunch of continual efforts. Since we will have a week long. spring break, I need to keep an eye on my language study. I have been thinking of some strategies that help me keep up my English practice. The first one is reading. I learned a lot from reading that helps writing even speaking. I will read magazines such as TIME and other American books during the break. I will also watch TV, or even watch news on Internet to keep practicing my listening English. One advantage of watching video through the Internet is that I can listen to them again and again until I completely understand what is going on.

Journal #15 My Plans

2008-04-05T15:47:00.000-07:00

My plan for the coming spring break is make a trip to San Francisco. I have discussed with my friends about how to get there and attractions we should visit. We will drive there though it will be a long driving. first thing we will do after we get the city will be visiting the Golden Gate Bridge. Since it is so famous, we will take a close look of it. Japanese Tea Garden will be our second stop. We will have enjoyed the beautiful garden before we are about to go to the Twin Peak Park where we will be in the enjoyment of the landscape of San Francisco. After that, we will go to the Alcatraz island. There was a movie called Escape From Alcatraz, so I am interested in visiting the island to see what it really looks like. Anyway, it will be a fantastic trip for us.

Journal #14 Cultural Identity (part 1)

2008-03-23T21:08:00.000-07:00

As far as I am concerned, I think culture play a big role of my personality. As new born babies, we knew nothing. Education from families, schools and societies made us behave and reason like each other. For example, I can differentiate Chinese from other Asians just by looking their behaving and expression without hearing or talking to them. Because of the education and culture passed down by Chinese people, I have the sense of what Chinese look like as other Chinese do. These make us unique.

Journal #13 Free Journal

2008-03-20T22:04:00.001-07:00

I have no idea what I am going to talk about. I missed Chinese food recently. The Chinese restaurants in American are not good, because they lack completion. They can make more money here than in china, so maybe they feel that's good enough and don't work that hard to improve their food 's quality. Even like that they can keep open here for 10 or 20 years here, but it is impossible for this kind of

Journal #12 Assembly

2008-03-20T22:03:00.001-07:00

Basically I like Director Feng Xiaogang's movies because his movies brought me a lot of fun. They were funny, but the actors in the movies rarely laugh or obviously try to make you feel funny, that makes his movie more attracting and funny. I paid attentions to his every latest released movie.

Last year, Feng's new movie Assembly was released. Some outdoor scenes of the movie are located near my hometown, that maybe one of the reasons why I like. However, the main points are the impressive play and the reality of the picture. The movie is about a true story during the Chinese Civil War 60 years ago. A troop of 47 soldiers got a mission to defend an area until the retreat assembly call was given. Due to bloody battle, soldiers were fallen down one by one, but the rest still kept brave spirit. After this deadly battle, only one soldier survived. Finally, he found that the troops had retreated already except them. They lost connection with the army's headquarter and everybody else thought they were lost when They were fighting in the battle field. Some people may say their deaths are not worthy. How ever, anyway they showed great spirit of being reliable soldiers.

Loong, the Symbol for China

2008-03-18T23:58:00.000-07:00

Loong has been the best symbol for China for thousands of years. Loong is the Chinese Dragon which have a snake-like body, four claws, and is without wings. It is a symbol of wisdom, power, and good luck in Chinese culture. It is usually seen as benevolent and kind. The Chinese are sometimes referred to as "descendents of Loong." Most pictures of these Chinese dragons show them flying in the sky among clouds and playing with a flaming pearl. A lot of Chinese artworks have Loong on them.

Journal #11 - Self Evaluation

2008-03-10T20:32:00.000-07:00

After I went through two month composition classes, I have learned something about what a good writing looks like. I focused on grammar too much in the past, but now I have realized the most important thing of writing is content. If I pay more attention to content, I will write more as I come up with more content. Eventually, I have done more practice. As a result, my grammar and other writing abilities also got improved.

Journal #10 Working In Busy Bee

2008-03-04T22:20:00.001-08:00

Working on campus is a good experience to me. I just got the job from Busy Bee two weeks ago. It was kind of funny because I always went to Busy Bee to get my lunch. As an Asian, Busy Bee does make sence to me though the food they make is not real Chinese food. I remebered I had written an application and turned it in. Then the manager called me on a sunday afternoon. The manager Uthai wrote my job title as "Crew Person" that sounded weird. Anyway, He is a very nice person. He told me that you will be nicely treated if you treat people well. I agree on that. Actually my work was helping cook, sweeping the floor, serving custemers. I found out that I didn't know some vegetable names when Joe, my co-worker, asked me to get some broccoli and carrot. During my work time, there are three people working with me. Grace and Stanley are mostly serving custmers. Grace was a funny girl who always made me laugh. Today she said we shuold be dancing and singing in front of Busy Bee to attract people. Then she started to dance in a funny way and sing: "Welcome to Busy Bee. We have the best food for you." I told her showing like that might scare people and nobady would come. She pretended to be angry and played with my name:"bing ting ling ting ding!" At one time I didn't respond. she told me I could also play with her name. That was funny because she thought I was not happy with that. It is interesting that I can work in Busy Bee with funny people.

Journal #9 My Favourite Disneyland Ride

2008-02-28T23:56:00.000-08:00

California Screamin' is my favorite ride in Disneyland. I remember last time I went to Disneyland and Steve, Eric, and I rode it twice. At the second time, we tried to be in the first car. However, we got the second one, but It was still a lot of fun. After we were ready in the cars, the coaster began to slide to the blast-off spot. Ahead of me I saw the huge incline the car would soon travel up. I wished that I had not insisted on riding the coaster at that moment when I first rode it. After someone's counting down in the speakers, we were shoot out to the huge incline. It was exciting when the car came down fast from the inclines to the bottoms again and again. I could hear the screams and laughter of the people following behind me, and I tried to keep my eyes open all the time. We were so excited that we decided to wait in line for one more ride. I really enjoyed California Screamin' roller coaster as my favorite ride in Disneyland.

Journal #8 Yosemite Trip

2008-02-27T21:11:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I took a trip to Yosemite National Park. Though I only spent 3 hours there, the park impressed me a lot. It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. After I followed an icy path and got closer to a water fall, a wonderful picture greeted my eyes. The path cut straightly through a evergreen forest toward the gorgeous water fall. Trees beside the road were deep green, high, straight, and covered with snow that was extremely white and seemed not real. When winds came, the snow on the tree fell down making sound. I got hit with the falling snow several times. At the end of the path as far as you can see, there is the water fall. Water flows from the high rocky mountain all the way down to the bottom. The rock was also partly covered with pure snow. Obviously the beauty of Yosemite brought me a lot of fun.

Blog #7

2008-02-27T20:39:00.000-08:00

I cannot remember most of the events that have happened in my school year, but those which are so memorable that I can hardly forgot. When I was in middle school, there was a sports competition held by my school. Each class should choose some students to join the competition. In my class we have three students who would take part in the event. I was not one of them. But on the competition day, one of my best friends who was supposed to be in the competition did not came.

Journal #6

2008-02-22T09:28:00.000-08:00

When I was in senior middle-school, 9.11 attack, one of the most horrible icidents, happened. That day, I just came back to classroom after a lunch break at noon as normal. When I walked into the classroom, my friends were talking about the attack. One said planes had hit the World Trade Center skyscrapers and the buildings had collapsed. I said, "No way, that's impossible." However, he said he had seen the news, but I still thought he was just kidding. After school was over, I rushed home to see the news on websites. Sadly, It was true. It was hard for me to believe such a thing happened. It is awful that so many people died from it. I turned on television. Every channel broadcasted this incident. People of the planet killed each other. I don't know the reason why the plane hijackers didn't want to enjoy life and were so mad to be suicide killers. I did lose confident about human being. Later, I knew a part of the reason that they had been told and believed that they would go to heaven to be in the enjoyment with 72 wifes after they died. They were also victims of the fallen nature of human being.

Journal #5 A Magic Pen

2008-02-16T23:25:00.000-08:00

Many fairy tales distributed my childhood life. There is a old Chinese tale I heard when I was in elementary school. It tells a story about a child called Maliang from a poor family in old China. On one night, a old man showed up in his bedroom and gave him a magic pen. He told Maliang to help poor people. What he drawed using this pen would become true. When he saw poor farmers who worked hard on their land but didn't have oxes or tools, he drawed for them. As he helped so many people, he became very famous in his hometown. In his hometown there was a governor who always took advantages from the residents. A lot of people died from him. When he heard Maliang, he sent guards to catch him. After they arrested him, The governor asked Maliang to draw a mountain of gold. Maliang had to draw. Otherwise, he would get killed. He draw a mountain of gold on an island in the ocean. The governor marveled at the shining gold mountain. However, he was angry and asked Maliang to draw a ship immediately so he could get to the gold. Then, Maliang drawed a ship on the wall. Very soon the ship became real. The governor embarked on the ship with his guards and sailed to the gold island. While they were on their way to the island, Maliang drawed strong winds, big storms, and thunders. The governor and his follows cried out on the ship, but they couldn't save themselves. Then after a while, the ship sinked. The message of the death of the governor was spreaded to the whole county. Farmers and residents were very happy and appreciated Maliang for what he had done for them.

Journal #4 My first arrival to the States

2008-02-15T00:22:00.001-08:00

I have never been in any countries of the world except China, even North Korea which is next to my home city across the river. When my father mentioned about studying overseas, I was surprised because I have never thought about that. I sticked to living in China. I used to believe people eager to study aboard was weird. Then, it was my turn. I checked around my relatives and found that nobody is in the United States. So, I can encounter it as my personal adventure. It sounds a little scaring.

My initial arrival to the States is on September 26, 2007. As soon as we got of the plane, the first thing I did was calling my parents that I was still alive after 14-hour flying that had made us all exhausted. Hauling my heavy luggage, I walked out of the arrival area with my other two friends with whom I got on the plane. From that time onwards we embarked a new journey of our life. Pretty weather gave me a good impression of this country. Firstly, we needed to find out where the Super Shuttle stop is. Apparently It was easy to find because It was on right hand side out of the exit. On the way to Fullerton, the shuttle driver kept talking with the man sitting in the front. I couldn’t fully understand what were they talking about. I put my eyes on the view out of the van. People drove fast and there were so many vehicles on the freeway. I didn't know why American people put so many cars on roads. The ground is so open and flat here. Maybe that's the reason. When I got my homestay house, I went to sleep very soon after taking a quick shower. In the first days, I took buses, which is one of the most terrible things I can image in this world because buses are convenient in my home city. However, it was good experience. I met many kinds of people on buses and started conversations with them. Then I found out American people like talking very much and you never know when they are going to stop during a talking. It is good for foreigners who want to learn about this country.

Journal #3

2008-02-08T15:37:00.000-08:00

The day before yesterday is the Chinese New Year's Eve. It is the first time I didn't go home to get together with my parents. I missed them a lot. This holiday is the most important one to Chinese people. We eat boiled dumplings served with garlic sauce. There are hundreds of kinds of dumplines in China. The names of dumplines depends on what you put inside and cuisines you choose. As a result, taste varys in different types of cooking. Another traditional thing we do in the night is setting off fireworks. Though it is kind of dangerous, this is a part of the Chinese New Year. In Chinese tales, The monster called "Nian" comes at midnight of the Chinese New Year's Eves and kidnap children. However, It is afraid of the loud noise made by firecrackers, so people set off firecrackers to scare the monster and drive it away. We can the Chinese New Year "Guo Nian". It means to overcome the monster named "Nian".

Journal #2 Civil Engineering

2008-02-05T23:39:00.000-08:00

Civil Engineering is a very popular major in china now. There are three reasons why so many students choose it as their major. Firstly, There is a lot of fun in studying this major especially for boys. It is exciting for us to know how different kinds of structures such as buildings, bridges, highways etc. are built up. We are intresented in participating the construction of these bulidings. Secondly, since China has a large population and a fast developing economy, Chinese people need more constructions eagerly. That comes up with a lot of opportunities for those whose major is Civil Engineering. Third, It has many specific aspects so students in this major have more choices of their future work. Also, it is easy for them to switch to another kind of job they want to get later because all the aspects are highly related.

Journal #1 As A Writer

2008-02-01T16:46:00.000-08:00

Writting should be one of my favorite things. Especially in English, writting will boost us to higher levels in language studying.

First of all, I believe writting can bring us lots of fun, but I didn't have a habit of writing even in Chinese. I need to confess that I was kind of lazy. I did not write that much since I was in elementary school. I still remember my teacher read my composition homework as a model essay to all the students when I was in high school. I was proud of it for a long time! That encouraged me a lot. Also, that is why I always remember this kind of things.

While studying in high school, I was intereted in writing diary for a period of time. That way what I wrote can reminded me intereting experience. Now we have internet, I have fun from reading my friends' blogs or something like that. It is awesome that we can share experience to each other through the internet.

Writting in English is not easy for me now. It takes time. For instance, when I write some specific thing, sometimes I can not find the right words to express my point of view. So, vocabulary is a really big thing to my writting. Expanding vocabulary is necessary. Otherwise, I will not get inprovement in writing. I believe I can overcome the problems by reading and practise writting more. That's what I need to focus on.

In a word, I need to write more to improve English study and enjoy writing.

Welcome to my blog

2008-02-01T09:20:00.001-08:00