Two New Friends

Today I am very happy to have two new friends, Stacy and Brandy. They are my classmate’s friends in church. Both of them are nice Taiwanese.

Stacy is a tall girl with long hairs. She learns to play violin and lives at New York for seven years. When she talked about the hurt of playing violin, all of us were very surprised. She showed a light red scar on her left chin, and explained that playing violin for a long time will cause a scar because she must use her left chin to steady the violin. Also, her fingertips became rough. Suddenly, I remembered the old saying “no pain, no gain.” She paid for the hurt, but I think she will gain more from the practice, and pass the exam.

Brandy is a little shorter than Stacy. She is a college student and lives at New York for three years. She is a cute girl who likes to laugh. During our conversation, I laughed loudly because of her humor and response. She told me that she knew many good restaurants with cheap prices. We had decided to go to a hotpot store together in cold winter.

When my classmate and I left the church, we exchanged our cell phone numbers and give best wishes to each one. I like these cute girls. Staying with them let me feel relax and happy!

A Halloween Party

Next Tuesday is Halloween Day. Some classmates will have plans to join the Halloween activities in Manhattan. They invited me to go together, but I can’t go with them because I have a class in the evening. Oh! No. I don’t want to miss the interesting activity.

However, I participated a Halloween workshop this Friday. Project AIM invited many children and their parents in our neighborhood to dress up for the Halloween and join the pumpkin carving/painting. These kids dressed so cute. Some of them dressed like a superman or a queen. The youngest one dressed a pumpkin cloth. These staffs played with them and helped them use different watercolors on their pumpkins. These children were very creative. Their pumpkins were colorful and interesting. I also painted on a pumpkin. Although it was not so cute, I took a picture with it. This painting activity was very funny.

This is my first time to have a Halloween party. I like the feeling that families were together and everyone enjoyed playing in the Halloween activity.

Stop Eating!

Since the weather is getting cold, my appetite for food becomes “huge”. At the beginning, I did not realize that my eating habit in New York was changed. In Taiwan, I sometimes drink some tea after a meal. However, when I came to USA on August, I became not only drink some tea, but also eat some snacks. I like these snakes, such as lays, chocolate, and yogry because eating made me happy. When the weather was getting cold, I felt I was easy to be hungry, even I just finished my meals. And the worst was that I wanted to eat more and more during my midterm weeks. I always want something to chew in my month to reduce the stress. If not, I felt lost. It is really terrible that I can not stop eating! Suddenly, I realize that I really eat too much. I did not become a fat girl. Now I must always remind myself that it is time to change back my eating habit. Stop eating and do exercise!!

Midterm Examinations

Recently, I have several midterm examinations. That a student has many tests in school is not a kind of serious thing, but, for me, I have left school life for a long time and I am worried about if I can handle these terrible examinations. I was graduated with a bachelor degree of Chinese literature, not a business related. I do not have any business related degrees, so I must finish nine basic courses and other marketing field courses, and then I can graduate.

In this semester, I have three basic courses, such as Business Statistics, Business Information, and Economics for Management, which are essential business knowledge. The first midterm test was Economics for Management which was on last Wednesday night. To prepare the test, I read the Chinese translation of the textbook, and also the textbook and quizs in each chapter (English edition). Also, I discussed some questions with my classmates who help me a lot to correct my misunderstanding economic concept. Although I had studied these test contents, I still felt nervous and stress during the test. During the test, all students were asked to finish 50 multiple choices and 20 questions and answers within two hours. Oh! It was too difficult to all the students. I tried hard to finish all the questions, but I could not…. And most of the students did not finish them, either.

At least, the test finished. I should study hard to prepare other two midterm examinations which will be on next following weeks.

An “Onion” Clothes Style

The weather in Autumn in New York is really strange. The change of weather in USA is different from one in Taiwan. One day it is too hot to dress a jacket; the next day it is not enough to wear a sweater. Moreover, the morning is hot, but the night is “cold”, not cool! I can not believe that the differences of temperature are in one day. Even I see that the sky is shiny outside the room, I must check the temperature to see if I wear too much or enough, because sometimes the sun will cheat people to wear little. My friends taught me that I can wear T-shirt and long-sleeved clothes, and then an overcoat, an “onion” clothes style. If I still feel cold, I can use hat, scarf, and gloves to keep warm.
When my friends told me the warming protection in Taiwan, I could not understand what they mean. But now I got it. Because the indoor rooms will use heating, I do not worry if the temperature is too cold to focus on what teacher teaches in class. On the contrary, I can take off my overcoat, and wear T-shirt and long-sleeved clothes which is just fine for the heating temperature. If I still feel hot, I can only wear a T-shirt. That is what my friends called an “onion” clothes style. If I wear a wooden sweater and can not take off in the heating room, I must sweat and feel uncomfortable. This is another difference from Taiwan. Hope I can pass the severe winter and do not eat too much! haha ...

New, Clean Bathroom Comes Back!

Studying in New York, I live in an apartment and share a bathroom with one of my roommates. When we moved in the apartment, the bathroom looked very new and clean and we both liked it, except there was no window. At the beginning, we planed to wash the whole bathroom every weekend, including sink, mirror, closestool, bathtub, and floor. However, after the semester began, we both were busy participating in many activities at the weekends. We did not have enough time to wash our bathroom, but we tried our best to keep the floor dry and threw the trash once a week.
Yesterday, my roommate and I went shopping at flushing. Suddenly, I saw there was a set of light green bathroom carpets which were very suitable for our bathroom to keep it warmer and drier. My roommate and I knew that it was time to clean our bathroom. My roommate suggested "Rebecca, shall we start to clean the bathroom?""Of course, we start it tonight." I said. We bought the carpets, and made a decision to separate our work parts. Although brushing the bathtub used a lot of water to wash, I felt happy that the clean bathtub was bright. (Ya! No need to pay water fee!) Finally, we cooperate to finish all the hard work, cleaning the whole bathroom, putting the warm carpets on the floor of bathroom. We both were satisfied with it. Oh! Our new, clean bathroom comes back!

Watching an Opera on TV

After eating lunch, I decided to take a rest, and then turned on TV. When I changed some channels to look for an interesting program, suddenly I found that an Opera was starting. I was not sure if the Opera's name was "Orlando Palandino", but it did not impede me to enjoy it. I turned the voice loudly, drank a cup of hot jasmine green tea , and wrap up with a warm woolen blanket on sofa. Everything was perfect! However, I felt depressed because I could not understand what these singers' Italian voices at the beginning. Fortunately, there was English translation on the bottom of the screen, so I could enjoy the songs and also read English translation to understand the whole story. The most spectacular of the performance of the two chief actors was their solo. From their voices and body languages, I felt their love, pain, angry, conflict, and contradiction. They put in themselves to sing the opera as if the story was true, not a play. I was touched by their professional skills and emotions. After watching the opera, I felt so happy and satisfied that I wanted to sing and dance in my room. Although I had not watch a Broadway show at New York, I had a wonderful time this afternoon.

Have an arts trip next Friday?

When I came to New York, I wanted to visit many museums in New York, but the trip for arts was not started until now. In Taiwan’s bookstores, I read some travel books which introduce that there are many famous museums in New York, for example: Metropolitan museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, American Museum of Natural History, Whitney Museum of American Art … ect. These museums collected a various of paintings, pictures, and patterns which were created by art genius. In all of these museums, the first one I want to visit is Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) was renovated and opened on 2004 for celebrating 75th anniversary. In the new building, the rooms are one time larger than old ones. Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is one of the best museums which collect complete modern arts in the world. Its collections include Picasso, Van Gogh, Vincent, and Warhol. I have a suggestion to visit Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) next Friday. Should we go together? I really look forward to the arts trip with all of you next Friday.

Coffee means relaxed, smooth, and delighted.

Sometimes I feel I am a coffee addiction, because I almost want to have a coffee everyday. For me, drinking coffee means relaxed, smooth, and delighted. After I finish a hard work at home or at office, having a cup of hot coffee with a small sweet cake is wonderful. When I meet with my friends in Taiwan, we often choose a coffee shop which has lovely music and many books to read. In the nice environment, we can easily open our mind to share our experience. My family usually eat at a restaurant on the weekend, we often have coffees after dinner. Although my mother always worried about she might not sleep well at night, she usually chooses coffee and enjoy the happy family time with us. Actually, I am not a coffee addiction. I just like the feeling to drink some coffee. I know coffee fee is an additional expense, and also someone always said that "Save coffee, save money.", I still can not say I will not drink coffee any more. I love coffee as if I love my family. Now only when I finished my work or when I miss my parients and friends in Taiwan, I will have some coffee to smooth myself. I think coffee is a beautiful creature in the world.

Ellis Island / Statue of Liberty Trip

Yesterday, I was very excited to join the Project A.I.M. activity, Ellis Island / Statue of Liberty Trip. Although the weather was a little haze and the temperature was low, I still had a good time with my friends. We took a tourist coach to ferry service station, which is near Wall Street. Our first station is to visit Statue of Liberty. On the ferry, you can clearly see whole Statue of Liberty, the spirit of America. Under the most important huge, grand sculpture, I was shocked and understand why Americans treasure it so much. However, we did not make an appointment to go to the top of Statue of Liberty, we only went around the island and took some pictures. Our next station is Ellis Island. There is a museum on the island, where you could see many histories and video about immigration. I learned much from many interesting introduction. After this culture trip, I understood the importance of Statue of Liberty in American Culture.