My Apartment.

My apartment is not big. It’s has 1 living room, 1 bathroom, 1 kitchen, and 2 bedrooms. It has 2 doors, a front door and a back door. Near the front door is the space to put shoes. After that space is the living room. It’s medium size. At the right corner, we put a small set of a sofa. In the opposite wall, there are a TV, a VCR, and a DVD player. On the left side of the TV is where my computer stands. Not so far from my computer is the door to the kitchen. There are a sink, a gas stove, a refrigerator and cabinets. On top of the cabinets is a microwave oven. In the middle of the kitchen is a table. This is a place where my family has dinner every night. Opposite the kitchen, there are 2 bedrooms. The big bedroom is for my parents, and the smaller one is for my sister and me. In each bedroom we put a bed and a pile of blankets to keep us warm. The bathroom is near the back door. It’s not big, but it’s clean. We clean up our apartment every week. The back door leads to a small garden and a garage. This is a four- unit apartment, so we have 3 family neighbors. They’re Mexicans, and they’re very kind. We get along pretty well. This apartment is our new home, and we’ll love it as our home in Vietnam.

A Spider's Web.

A web of a spider is very complicated. How can it build the web? A spider’s body makes a liquid called silk. The spider spins its web from liquid silk. The silk is liquid when it comes out of the spider’s body. Slowly the air dries the liquid. Then the liquid silk becomes a strong thread. The spider’s body makes two main kinds of silk. One kind of silk is sticky, and the other is not. The spider makes the first part of the web of non-sticky silk. Then it adds the strands of sticky silk. It’s take the spider a long time to build a complete web. Insects then will get caught on the sticky silk. The sticky silk holds the insects tight so that they can not escape. The spider has a special claw on each foot. It uses these claws to walk on the threads. The spider doesn’t get caught in its web. The web is not only its home, but also its trap to catch its food. The thread of spider’s web is one of the best thread in the world. It is durable, and it’s hard to be cut.

My Busiest Day

Saturday is my busiest day of the week. I wake up at 6am and prepare to go to work. I work in Chinatown in a Vietnamese- Chinese restaurant. The restaurant opens from 7am to 6pm. They serve Chinese and Vietnamese food, noodle soup, French coffee, and Vietnamese sandwiches. My job is to greet the customers and to serve food. Because there aren’t enough workers, I play in 2 roles. My main role is making sandwiches. There are different kinds of sandwiches: beef, pork, chicken, ham… If there is no one ordering sandwiches, I’ll be a bus girl put away dishes and clean tables. The restaurant is busy, so I get a lot of work. Usually I’m done at 4pm. I go home after I have cleaned up and prepared the stuff for the sandwiches for the next day. My legs feel tired because I stand the whole day. But I’m happy because for the first time, I make money on my own. Also, it’s good to work part time. I can get a work experience while I’m studying. This will be a good preparation for my future career.

My Speaking Class.

I study ESL Speaking 4 class this semester. The instructor is Ms. Lisa Cook. I’m impressed at her strong voice and her friendly attitude. She seems an outgoing person. She always smiles. At first I didn’t like her. I could not understand and followed what she said, because she spoke very fast. When I was in level 3, the teacher spoke kind of slow and clearly, so we were able to understand her. For the first 2 weeks, I tried to pay attention and listened to her carefully. I can catch up with her now and realize that she’s a good teacher. She explains everything for us clearly. Because we get a little time in class to practice, she finds opportunities for us to speak outside. She plans ad gives a topic for our next presentation. That’s our great assignment, because we need to go out to interview other people, and we’re going to give the class the information we got from the interview. That sounds tough! But I think this is a good chance for us to practice in a real life and improve our speaking skills.

Custom Differences.

There are many things in the U.S. that are totally different from my country. Here are some examples. First, American’s stores always have sales at the end of each season and during holidays. Sometimes there is big sale in a big holiday like Independence Day, Thanksgiving Day… But in Vietnam, the price of all items such as food, clothes will increase during holidays, especially for New Year Day. The price will not go down until after the events, or it’ll continue to go up the next year, so Vietnamese people are afraid of holidays and New Year. Second, Americans love pets and treat pets well like their friends or like their kids. Americans will get in trouble if they treat pets badly. Pets eat good food and play toys, and sometimes they sleep with their owners. Vietnamese don’t treat pets like that. Most of pets eat food that left over from the owners. They aren’t allowed to step into the owners’ rooms and cannot watch TV. Sometimes if the owners are not happy, they hit their pets badly. Sometimes pets run out of their houses, go alone without their owners, and they’ll return home after several days by themselves. Third, Vietnamese don’t get in line as American do. They are not organized, and they aren’t patient to wait in line. Those are some differences in customs between 2 countries. There are many interesting customs from other countries in the world that are fun and useful for us to learn about.

Flea Market.

According to the information given in the book “I love reading”, a flea market is a place where people can sell things they no longer need. There are long tables at some flea markets. People can rent a table and display their used items on it. Some people just put their things on the ground. Items at a flea market do not cost much money. I went to a flea market which locates on Laney College parking lot last Sunday. There are a lot of things to see: clothes (old and new), electronics, bicycles, household items... I’ve never seen a flea market before. In Vietnam, people usually use things for a long time and fix them if they malfunction. They just throw them when they can’t be fixed anymore. So it’s very interesting for me to visit a flea market. Even though almost all items are used, they look new and in good condition. The prices for those things are affordable for some people. My friend likes flea markets. She said there are many interesting things to see and buy at flea markets.

People's Rights.

This is my writing topic in GED class which is about people’s rights:
People nowadays have a lot of rights that they didn’t have before. Some rights are very important such as freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the right to bear arms. Freedom of speech gives people great chances to express their ideas. If they disagree with the government’s policy or criticize something, they will speak out without fear or hesitate. Some countries don’t allow their people do that, or they will get in trouble. Newspapers, TVs, radios… are places that people give out their words. There are many different religions in the U.S. such as Catholic, Baptist, Buddhist… No one can force you to follow a specific religion or change your belief. The freedom of religion gives people the right to choose which religions they prefer. Safety is very important. The right to bear arms allows people have gun that they can protect their properties and keep them away from danger. People are all equal to have these natural rights, and only the U.S. offers these rights and more for its people than any where in the world. That’s why, I think, the U.S. is the land of freedom.