xenashin

Journal15

2009-05-01T18:37:00.000-07:00

Soondooboo jjigae (Soft tofu stew) Recipe

Ingredients:
1 pack soon doo boo (soft tofu)*

8 small clams - cleaned, 4 oz pork (or beef) - sliced

1/4 cup kimchi - roughly chopped, 1 red hot chili - sliced

2 green hot chilies - sliced, 2 green onions - sliced

1 egg york, 1 tbsp go choogaroo (Korean chili powder)

1 tbsp vegetable oil, 1 tsp minced garlic, 1/2 tsp juice of ginger

1 tsp soy sauce, 1/2 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp sae woo jeot (salted shrimp)**

3 cups water

(*It is in a tube, different from square package soft tofu in a Korean super market.)

(**Salt can be used.)

Marinade pork with ginger juice, soy sauce, sesame oil and minced garlic.In a pot, add vegetable oil and saute pork. Add go choo ga roo (Korean chili powder), keep stir. Add water and kimchi, bring to a boil. Scoop in soon doo boo with a spoon. Reduce heat, add sae woo jeot (salted shrimp). Add chillies, green onions and clams. Cook for a minute or so. Finish with egg york in the center and a dash of sesame oil. Serve with rice.

Journal 14

2009-04-20T16:48:00.000-07:00

The purpose of cosmetic surgery is to enhance a person's appearance, but is cosmetic surgery really make a person to have an ideal body.

Maybe if a person are unhappy with a part of appearance, cosmetic surgery can wemove, reduce, enhance or reshape that body part. For many people, this ability to change an unwanted feature also improves emotional well-being by improving self-esteem. However, it also costs a lot, some have big risks, and it takes a long recovery time for some people.

Therefore, I believe that ecercise make people to have an ideal body.

First, exercise improves people's mood. people feel stress very often nowadays. Workout at gym or 30 to 60 minutes jogging or walking can help people calm down. Exercise makes people feel happier and more relaxed than before worked out. exercise even reduces the feelings of depression. So if work out regularly, people look better.

Second, exercise helps to managing weight. When people exercise, people burn calories. I suggest that do jogging or intense exercise because those intense exercises can halp to burn calories, and it burns more fats in the future than normal exercise. Once the burned calories are greater than intake, people will lose weight.

What is ideal body? It is very tough question, so there is no appropriate answer. It is dependent on individuals how to think about it.

Journal 13

2009-04-20T16:31:00.000-07:00

Easter activity
March 12th was the Easter day, so ALP managed coloring eggs and hunting eggs activity last Friday afternoon. Fortunately, we discussed about Easter day during our iBT TOEFL class just before go to the ALP activity, so I understood why do Americans celebrate this day.
Easter day is a memorial day of the resurrection of Jesus. According to the Bible, Jesus was revived from death after three days, so Christians celebrate his revival on Easter day. Easter is the first Sunday after Paschal full moon, and rabbit is symbol of Easter like Santa Claus is symbol of Christmas. Coloring eggs and hunting eggs are common events for Easter. Well, ALP also prepared egg coloring and hunting for students. I colored one egg which was colored blue with some drawing and my boyfriend’s nickname, and I also hunted about 8 eggs. It was an enjoyable activity.
Patrick’s Day, Easter Day, and Halloween are traditional holidays in America. I would like to know more about traditional events to understand more American culture and to adjust this new countr

Journal12

2009-04-12T09:59:00.000-07:00

Dating is good for a couple to know each other better. For a long time, usually men ask women go out for a date, and it doesn't metter with different country, different culture, and different people. Boys ask girls out is very familiar for people, however, girls should ask boys out nowadays.

Historycally and traditionally, boys ask girls out was social norm, so girls expected boys to ask them out. If a girl asks boy out, she may feel uncomfortable; however that doesn't mean she shouldn't do it. Because sociaty has moved to more equal rights between sexes as such women increased their presence in business, politics, and social media, women today seem as being just as competent as men in this function, now that girls emphasize to be equal with men, girls should ask boys out.

Girls also think that if they ask boys out, they will pay for the date, and many girls just don't want to pay for a date. But, many men are shy or they don't understand women very well, therefore, if a woman has inerests in a men she may miss the opportunities to meet him if she doesn't take the initiative.

Girls ask boys out is a social vague nowadays because of the gender equality, and it is very
necessary to grip happiness and love for girls by themselves.

Journal11

2009-04-06T11:15:00.000-07:00

I wated for the spring break because I felt very tired since we took midtern exam. My body and my brain needed to take a rest. Maybe some of classmates were making a great trip plan before hand, but I didn't plan to go any where, and I just spent a normal week.
Therefore, I've been to Pasadena downtown on Friday. I usually take Friday night off to relax myself. My boyfriend and I went to the old downtown Pasadena, and ate at a Japanese restaurant which is called Kabuki. The restaurant serves Sushi, Sashimi, and some other traditional Japanese food such as Yaki dori, Tempura, and Nikuzaga. I ordered Hamachi Sashi and CA Roll, and my boy friend ordered some Sushi and Albacore Roll. We enjoyed our meal with ASAHI beer which was recalled my memory in Japan. When was in Japan, I used to drink ASAHI beer. After dinner, we went around the old downtown, and I saw a lot of stores which are good for people to window-shopping in the Colarado Blvd. There are different kind of stores and different kind of brands to enjoy.
We had fun in the Pasadena, then we went to bar like all the time.

Journal10

2009-04-02T12:14:00.000-07:00

It was Saturday, but I forgot the date. I remember that the weather was nice for us to play around in the Magic Mountain. I really liked that ALP organized this trip for us. They provided three buses, and some instructors and ALP officers came with us and be our guides.
We left campus at 10AM, and we arrived at Magic Mountain about 11:30AM. Then we rode on trams and went to the entrance of Six flags. We divided several groups, and each group was guided either a instructor nor a ALP officer. I was with instructor Lance and Jimmy.
The first I rode on was the Tatsu-green roller coaster(I’m not sure the color). It was my first rime to ride a roller coaster that I have to stand on it. Tatsu was very fast and runs 62 miles per hour, but it was not that scary, so I felt just fun.
The second I rode on was Bumper Car. I thought it just for kids, but because of Lance’s suggestion, we decided to ride it. We bounced and slamed into eachother, and we acted like little kids, especially Lance was driving crazily(hahaha). After the Bumper Car, I felt that I back to the childhood, probably we won’t have much chance to drive Bumpercar in our life. I was very happy for rode on it.
The next I’ve tried Revolution-white roller coaster and Viper’s-red roller coaster. These two roller coaster were same as other amusement just coiling several times. The best exiting roller coaster in Six flags was the X2. I heard the company spent $10 million on it.
We waited almost two hours to ride on X2, but I can say it was worthiest roller coaster that I wait for two hours for it. Common roller coasters have sits, so people will just sit down on the sits, but X2 we were laying on it while it was rotating and the sits were moving 360 degrees. Some times we will feel that we are going to falling to the ground, and the feeling is really horrible but exiting.
Because we had to leave there 4:30PM, we didn’t have enough time to try all of the roller coaster. Any ways, it was a wonderful place for me, I had a lot of fun there, and I will go there again to try that I haven’t ridden roller coasters.

Journal9

2009-03-23T12:27:00.000-07:00

Ma name is Xena, from Jilin province China. I like to stay in new place and meet new people and to learn new cultures. Therefore I came to U.S.A, and I'm going to stay here for a long time.

I found that America is very interesting place. It is similar with China because both country have a lot of ethnic groups. For example, China has 56 different ethnic groups, and America has 60 different racial combinations for non-Hispanics and another 60 for Hispanics. I'm really interested in American culture, but it is very hard to define, so I'm studying the language now, then I'm going to figure out that what is American culture?

Describing a person is not hard, but describing self is very hard. I can say that I'm a goal-oriented person, but I like to receive other people's judgments. It might be negative, but I will accept some advices to improve myself.

journal 8

2009-03-16T12:15:00.000-07:00

Writing skills are very important in the university classes, so if the students have plan to take the university classes must focus and improve their writing skills.

First, we must know what is academic writing structual in English. There are three parts in an essay-introduction, body, and conclusion. Everybody knows this structual, but they usually don't know how to organize it. In Asian cuture, the main idea usually in the conclusion part, but in English writing, the main idea states in the introduction part, and the body part will supporte the main idea, then conclusion part sums up the essay.

Second, we should know academic vocabularys because it makes the essay more fresh and interesting. For example, the conclusion part restates main idea, but we shouldn't use same words that used in introduction part, so we have to use some synonyms to restate the main idea to make the readers feel more exciting about read the essay.

Third, we need to read more books to be familial with English writing. Some students still write a their native language essay first then translate it to English, so the sentences are strange for English readers. The best way solve this problem is to read a lot of English books. From reading we can learn new vocabularys and sentence structtuals.

It's hard to write an interesting academic essay because the topics usually very serious, but we need to make it amuse.

Journal 7 Cnn news program

2009-03-06T18:41:00.001-08:00

I don't usually watch TV, but if i turned on TV, I would love to watch CNN news channel. The CNN news channel has the quickest and various news from around world.
I would like to watch CNN news because I can immediately get some information from this channel. For example, September 11 I was at hotel in Beijing planning to go to Tokyo. I turned on TV and chooced CNN channel, well I was shocked by what I saw fromm CNN. It was like a movie, and CNN reporter said "...... a plane has crashed into one of the towers of the world Trade Center......". CNN was the first network to break the news of the September 11 attacks.
One more, I could get diverse news from CNN. CNN news covers from politics, business, sports, crime, entertainment, and tech, health, travel etc. I can get a lot different kind of news from CNN any time.
In sum, I can get many kinds of information from CNN promptly, so I would love to watch this channel.

Journal 7

2009-03-06T18:41:00.000-08:00

Valentine’s Day social

2009-02-23T16:30:00.000-08:00

February 14th is Valentine’s Day. I know it’s from America, but we also celebrate Valentine’s Day in China. Last Saturday was the Valentine’s Day, so ALP had a Valentine’s Day social event which is making a Valentine’s Day card by ourselves last Friday afternoon.
Since I had choosed iBT class, I couldn’t participate in ALP activities on Friday. But last Friday, our instructor allowed us to join the ALP activity for about thirty minutes. Because of the time was very short, I couldn’t make any card, but I saw a lot of students, some instructors, and some ALP staffs are making a card enthusiastically. Especially Sean was very concentrated on his card, so I guessed that he loves his wife very much. They were using different color of papers and sticks, and make their own design of card. They seemed very happy, so I was wondering that who will they give the card for.
Every year, Valentine’s Day is approaching to us in same time, but I have different feelings each year. This year is my first time to be single in Valentine’s Day since high school. I think it was a very special day for me. Any way I had good time with some friends.

Difficulties in the United States

2009-02-20T17:51:00.000-08:00

The United States is the fourth country I have visited. When I was twenty yeal old, I went to Japan and I had been staying in Tokyou for about six years. During that time, I had some difficulties such as finding a house, apply for a part time job, and communicate with Japanese. I thought I won't have any difficulties in the United States because I have experiences to stay in other countries, but the reality is different from what I was supposed to.
First is the language problem. I've been stuying English for about one year, and I can communicate with Americans, but sometimes I make misunderstanding. For example, I found a person is very interesting, so I told him " you are so funny", but he thought that I think about him a stranger. Second is cultureshock. For instance, during a class the instructor organized a game which is throw a bowl to one classmate and ask a question, so in my order I threw to the instructor and asked "do you have girlfriend?", then the instructor showed disapproval of my question and he said it's too personal, so he didn't answer for it. I also didn't expect a answer from him because I was just kidding. Soon after, during his class he showed to us some pictures of his exgirlfriend and him, so I was wondered that why is he telling us his personal stories.
New place, new people, and new culture are difficult to adjust, but we came to the United States with our own purpose, so we need to adopt them. Even with some difficulties, we have to overcome it and try to find a way to solve the problems.

My favorite season

2009-02-16T14:28:00.000-08:00

My hometown has four seasons spring, summer, fall, and winter. Each season has own feature, so I like each season, but my most favorite season is summer. There are some reasons for why do I like summer most.

First, I like the weather. Summer generally refers to the warmest and humid season betweeen spring and fall. Summer makes the warmest time and longest day of the year. People usually do outdoor activities in summer, because the weather is worm, so easy to go out do some exercise. Second, summer calls vacation, trip, and long holiday for many people. Especially, summer is very exciting season for student, because they will have about three months vacation. Lastly, I like the color of summer. Color of summer is vivid. I like the bright color of mountains, cities, and people.

Summer often expressed as a care free time to relax, take vacations, and go to the beach. Outdoor activity is a hobby, taken by a lot of people during summer season, and leisure tasks are also associated with summer, due to the number of people on vacation. That's why I like this season most.

Birthday

2009-02-13T17:19:00.000-08:00

Everybody has a birthday. For some people, it is important to celebrate it, but for other people it is not. Before finished high school, I had been celebrating my birthday with family. Since when I was a university student, I've been celebrating my birthday with my friends. I had memorable celebration each year.
Surprisingly, the most unforgetable birthday wasn't with family or firends. It was last year in the U.S. When I came to U.S about three months later, it was my birthday. I was living in dormitory, and I lived with three Korean students and one Taiwanese and one Vietnamese student. We were classmates and roommates for about three months., but I didn't tell anybody that was my birthday, so I just put one chocopie on the table with candle and I prayed my wishes at my room.
It was very normal day and very quiet day. There wasn't special celeburation, and I did not be with family or friends. It was my first time to spend my birthday alone, but because of I was alone, it can be unforgetable in my life. I'm sure I will celebrate my birthday with somebody this year.

Journal2

2009-02-05T21:44:00.000-08:00

Feburary 14th is Valentine's Day. Girls give to guys chocolate and guys give to girls flowers. So there are some advertisements on the TV for Valentine's Day. I like the super bowl commerce TELEFLORA'S "TAIKING FLOWERS", because I believe that the business will be succeed.

First, the commerce chose right time, because The super bowl commerce was two weeks before Valentine's Day. In this time, guys usually think about buy a flower to their girlfriends or wives. So, when they saw this commerce, they will think about to buy a flower just by a call. Second, they chose right people, because the super bowl viewers usually are men. In America, most popular sport is American football and the audiences are usually men, and the championship is bigest event in America so a lot of guys will watch it. Therefore, while the audiences are watching the commerce, they think it is very convenient to buy flower just by a call. Lastly, the commerce was very funny. They make flower to speak and move as a person. So the audiences would not feel bored, so they would not change to other channel.

An enjoyable commerce and appropriate audience and time will make the business be successful. Next Saturday is Valentine's Day. Girls expect to receive beautiful flowers in best romantic way. We will see is the TELEFLORA"S "TALKING FLOWERS" succeessful or not.

Introducing myself(For composition 701 section2)

2009-01-26T12:33:00.000-08:00

My name is Guohua Shen or kukua shin. One is in Chinese other one is in Korean. I came from main land China. Actually I just have one name, but it has two pronounciation one Chinese and other one Korean. Some people might think it's strange,Let me tell you why.
I'm Chinese-Korean. My ancestors were Korean. Since my grandparents's generation, they were born in China. Therefore, I also was born in China, so I have one name, but it has two pronounciations. I speak Chinese and Korean. My hometown is a local autonomous place, and we have our own education system. From Kingdergarten to senior high school, we have our own language system. Most subjects are tought in Korean, except Chinese and second language. That's why even I am a Chinese, but my native language is Korean.
I finished high school in my hometown, and I graduated from university in Japan. My major is Law. I can speak Japanese fluently. I have four years working experiences in China. During that time, I recognized that I need to learn English. That's why I'm here now.

impression for ALP

2008-12-10T10:42:00.000-08:00

I was a transfer student. I've been here already about two months. I'm happy with I met a lot of friends from different countries and teachers. But I'm disappointing that some classes and books are not useful for me to improve my English. Anyway, this semester is finished. I hope I can improve next semester, of course I'll study harder.

A memorable experience in my life

2008-12-07T19:26:00.000-08:00

I have four memorable experiences in my life.The first experience was my life in Japan. Although I chose Japanese as a second language I couldn't speak Japanese before I went to Japan. But after two weeks in Japan, I found a part time job. Since then, I worked in diffirent kinds of places for four years. So, I didn't ask for any financal help from my family. The second experience was my life in the Philippines. On Aug, 22, 2006 I arrived at Manila International Airport. But when I arrived and passed Customs, I regreted that I was there because I couldn't speak even one English sentence. Fortunately, I met some good friends in the Philippines. They were my English teachers in language school. From them I started to get an interest in English. After three months, I could communicate with them in English. Also, I experienced a very big typhoon in the Philippines. We didn't have electricity and water for three days. While I was there, I visited many good beaches like Boracai and Palawan. The third experience was in South Korea. I just stayed in seoul for one month in a motel. In South Korea, couples usually go to the motel. So, I couldn't sleep well in the evening(hehehe......). I tried to apply at several companies to get a job. The last experience is in my life in the United States. I've been here for six months to improve my personal abilities. I think I'm doing well, but I can't waste my time for doing nothing.

The Butterfly Effect

2008-11-17T05:24:00.000-08:00

Evan seems to be an ordinary boy in the neighborhood. Play and hang out with his friends and does exactly what boys do and he did the same thing when he eventually grew up as a teenager and went to college. But some what he has been suffering from memory lost. That he couldn’t even remember a strand of it. This has been happening to him since he was young. And it turned to be as big mystery. It was already college when he uncovered the veil that he can go to the past and undo or change the past itself! .

Jia cheng Li

2008-11-14T11:33:00.000-08:00

He is the richest person in China, and his name is Jiacheng Li. He was born in 1928, in Chaozhou, Guangzhou province, China. In 1940, he had to move to HongKong because of Japan's oppression. Unfortunately, his father passed away in 1942. So, he quit school to work and to take care of his mom and siblings. He got a job in a toy manufacturing company. In this company he was a salesman. He worked daytime, and studied at night in a school. Because of his diligence he became a general manager of the company before he was twenty years old. Two years later, he used his savings to establish his own company-Changjiang plastic factory. He didn't have a high education background, but he attained his dream. Then he expanded his company to overseas. He started to invest in diffirent areas. Since 1972, his company started to sell stocks on the market. And in 1979, they purchased a commercial bank of England. He was the first person who purchased a British investment bank. Also in 1984, his company purchased a HongKong electric power company's stocks to control HongKong's electric supplies. In Dec 1995, the value of his company was 42 billion on the market. He is a richest person in HongKong , also in China. And he is the 11th richest person on the world ranking.

Expectation for LA

2008-11-10T16:40:00.000-08:00

I decided come to U.S last year. I applied for MBA degree in Fremont one university, and it is near from San Francisco. I've seen San Francisco from some Hong Kong movies before. So, before come to U.S I already had an image of San Francisco. And actually there's no big diffirences. And I thought LA is progressive city, so there must be a lot of buildings and a lot of people are walking around. Also, I thought that people are very friendly and educated. Surprisingly, LA has very little buildings(if compare to BeiJing China) in downtown, and you will hardly to see people are walking around. People in LA come from diffirent nationalities, so their cultures also are diffirent. Maybe because of this diffirence, I couldn't feel they are friendly and educated. There are some diffirences from my expectations, but some have been true like weather is hot(now a little cold in the evening), and the location is good for access to other places.
I've been here for six months, and I'm trying to go along with here's people and get use to stay in this new place. I hope I can achieve my goal in the United States.

Introducing myself

2008-10-31T12:09:00.000-07:00

Hello!My name is Guohua Shen,or Kukua Shin.It is the same name,but has two pronounciation.One is Chinese and the other one is Korean.Some people might think it's strange,Let me tell you why.I'm Chinese-Korean.My ancestors were Korean,but since my grandparents generation, they were born in China. Therefore, I also was born in China.So I have one name but it has two pronounciations.I speak Chinese and Korean. My hometown is alocal autonomous place.So, we have our own education system.From Kingdergarten to senior high school, we have our own language system.Most subjects are tought in Korean,except Chinese and second language.So even I am Chinese,my native language is Korean.I finished high school in my hometown, and I graduated from university in Japan.My major was Law.So I also can speak Japaness fluently.I have four years working experience in China.During that time,I recognized that I need to learn English.That's why I'm here now.