xiaomei's Blog

2005-12-05T09:53:00.000-08:00

We had a pretty heavy snow storm over this pass weekend, it kind of remind me about Christmas. My mom called me on Saturday, and she said that it was snowing in New York City. I can picture the snowing day in the winter in the city. I was in the city during the thanksgivings giving break, and most of the stores have put all the decorations up in the buildings and windows, which is so pretty. This week is actually the last week for the classes in this semester. I cannot believe this semester is almost finished. I still have a lot of work left to do in the last two weeks…

2005-12-02T09:38:00.000-08:00

I have not gotten my Blog since the thanksgiving break. I think I definitely need to catch up on this quickly. I started writing my 6th paper during the break, even though I did not get that much done during the break. My final paper is the revision of the 4th paper. One reason that I choose this as the 6 paper is because that I did not get my 5th paper back during the break, the other reason is because I think I did a pretty good job on the 4th one. The topic of the 4th paper was interesting to me, and I think I did put some efforts on this paper when I started writing it. I have pretty much finished the first draft for the 6th paper. I wish I can get a really good grade on the final paper…

2005-11-21T07:04:00.000-08:00

Today is the last day for me before the Thanksgiving break; I am so excited about it. Thanksgiving is one of the most important holidays in the U.S. It is a holiday that belongs to everyone, no matter what religions people have. Turkey is not one of my favorite foods, but since it is a tradition I have during the holiday. A successful Thanksgiving dinner is very important. Some of the thanksgiving traditions are still new for me, and I am still learning. I still get some work to do before I leave tonight. I with we are all going to have a wonderful time at home with families.

2005-11-20T23:55:00.000-08:00

I have not updated the BLOGS for a long time. I was worrying about my fifth paper for a long time. Actually, I am afraid that I would not be able to do a good job on that one, but finally, I think I did fine on the paper. The book, A Christmas Carol is a very interesting book to read. It is a not a real story, but Dickens utilizes this story to demonstrate the social issues in the community. The story also reemphasizes the important meaning of Christmas, which is the special time for people to share happiness, good-will, and love with the ones who you love. I enjoyed reading this book, and so glad that I have finished the fifth paper.

2005-11-18T09:55:00.000-08:00

Everyone in our “little corner” today seems very excited on Friday. I guess we all can not wait for the weekend and the break. I think the secret Santa is a really good idea. Actually, my rooms and I are doing that this year for Christmas, and it is new for me. I love to get Christmas present from friends. Most of the students are agree with the idea about the Secret Santa, and we just need to spend max of $5 dollars. It is a good way to share our kindness to each other.

2005-11-18T00:05:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is Friday which it is the last of this week, I am so excited. Next week is the Thanksgiving bread and I will have almost an entire week for vacation. I can not wait to see my family and everything in New York. I like to stay on campus and spend time with my friends, but I love the city also. Sometimes, I think Geneseo is too quiet for me. I have so many plans for the break, and I have so many places in my mind that I want to go. I can not believe that this semester is almost over, basically, the finals are two weeks after the Thanksgiving break. I still get some work to do during the break, and I think I will have a busy holiday…

2005-11-15T23:31:00.000-08:00

2005-11-02T06:41:00.000-08:00

Yesterday in class, we had a class discussion about the first year experience in college so far. For me, this is the second year at Geneseo, because I did not this INTD last year. Actually, I had a lot of difficulties in the first year. I attended an international high in Manhattan three years ago, which was the first school experience for me in the United States. It sort of prepared me for Geneseo, but I had to work really hard in order to get good grades. I was very impressive that there were some of the students here as I could tell who did not work very hard, but still received good grade. I noticed that there are many intelligent people here in Geneseo and some people’s abilities are surprisingly amazing to me. I still get a lot new things to learn here, since I come from the different culture. I did not grow up with some of the things that everyone knows about, but I am trying really hard. I really have a lot to talk about in terms of the new experiences, because my entire life here in Geneseo, in the United States is new to me. However, I am not used to speak up in class; I think it is probably not good for me. There are sometimes that I want to speak up in class, I my hesitation stops me. I want to make sure that pretty much everything I say in class is the right answer, but I probably would not get everything right. Gradually this becomes the reason or excuse for me not to speak up in class. I think I still have many goals that I want to achieve in Geneseo in the rest of the three years.

2005-10-28T10:19:00.000-07:00

The grammar discussion that we had in class was very interesting. It is a useful to pick up a sentence that we are actually wondering about and talk about it. It is a good way to correct and improve our grammar. Sometimes, we probably would not realize the problem about our sentences when we write them, such as the some of the sentences might too long, and people use many unnecessary words. I learned that it is better to use less word to describe the sentence clear and interesting. However, it is hard to do it sometimes.

2005-10-26T10:04:00.000-07:00

This is one of my favorite classes in this semester, and it seems very relaxing and interesting to me. I feel good today, because the due day of the fourth paper has been moved to next Monday and also I have finished my second physical geography exam. I think I did a pretty good job on that. I started reading chapter 5 couple of days ago. It seems very interesting. Today we talked about religions in class, even though I do not really know about that too much, but I am willing to know more. Religion is not a big deal in China, so it is still new too me…

2005-10-23T09:58:00.000-07:00

I have not updated the Blog for a long time. Last Friday I submit my draft of the fourth paper. I did not think I did a good job on that, but I did rewrite it again over the weekend. I thought the argument about the gifts toward Christmas became more and more commercialized were very interesting. People like to get presents in the Christmas, and it becomes the really important part in the holiday. Also, it is interesting to find out that the meaning of Christmas has been changed when the time goes on. Christmas supposes to be sharing love and happiness, but now it brings people the uncomfortable feelings buying things. As a matter of face, the commercialization has taken over the original meaning from Christmas.

2005-10-17T12:20:00.000-07:00

I have not updated my Blog for a long time. I was busy with the third paper, and finally I finished it last night. I think the papers are getting more and more difficult, I wish I will overcome them. The fourth paper is coming up, and I decided that I am going to write about the first topic. Actually it sounds pretty interesting, it really provides me a chance to know more about the different interpretation toward Christmas in different period of time. I think I need to find more information about it.

2005-10-05T08:40:00.000-07:00

The third paper that we are going to do seems pretty difficult. First of all, we have to understand all the reading stuff in order to write the paper; second, we have to make sure whose point of view you are agree with. I am not sure which topic I am going to write about, the third one sounds pretty interesting…

2005-10-03T17:11:00.000-07:00

I went to swim this past weekend. I love the water, but I am also scared of it when I swim in the deep side of the swimming pool, because I cannot swim well. As I start going more to the swimming pool, I feel more comfortable gradually. However, my body does not feel as relaxed in the pool as when I am walking on the ground, because I do not swim everyday. I tried swimming cross the diving pool once with out changing my breath. The distance between the two sides of the pool is not too long. I knew I would be able to do that, but I was a bit afraid. When I was swimming cross the deep side of the pool, I could not really feel anything, except the urge to swim as fast as I could in order to get to the other side. I realized the feeling that I had when I swam cross the pool was a desire to survive. I believe it is a spirit inside of every human being.

2005-10-03T17:03:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday is the National Holiday in Chain. This is one of the most important holidays in China. Most of the people get four to seven days vacation. I got e-mails from my father and my aunt couple of days ago. I almost forget about the holiday, because I have not had it for four years. I remembered it was one of my most favorite holidays. I called my father and some other of my relatives and wish them happy holiday.

2005-10-01T16:52:00.000-07:00

I finished my second earlier than Friday, and it made me feel good. The class was canceled on Friday. I thought that was really cool to get the text message on cell phone from professor Schacht. I used to have only one class on Friday last year, but I have three classes this semester. It makes me feel good to do less on Friday; maybe it is not really a good idea...I went out with my friends last night, that was really fun. Enjoy the weekend…

2005-09-27T14:17:00.000-07:00

I found out that the discussion of pronouns in class yesterday was very useful and interesting. I was surprised the different answers that we had on the survey. I knew there are various ways to say the same sentence. Grammar is one of the tough parts in a language, sometimes it gets confusing very easily. I started learning English when I was in the six grades in Shanghai, and I have learned English grammar for a pretty long time. However, since it is not my first language, I still have some difficulties in English, and especially on the grammar part. Personally, I felt very glad we went over these basic grammars.

2005-09-27T13:57:00.000-07:00

My second paper is about underage drinking. I thought that I wanted to actually argue about the inter thoughts toward honesty and dishonesty, but I gave it up at the end. I believe this is a very interesting topic to talk about, but it’s just too difficult for me to talk about it. I hand my second paper in, and Mike have given me some comments on that. I am pretty happy about my second so far, because I think I had a bit improvement on the grammar part in this paper. I will work on my paper and wish to get a better grade.

2005-09-20T18:30:00.000-07:00

The weather is getting cold not. We will have less and less daylight when the winter comes. I download some Christmas music last weekend. I am surprised that I am actually very attached to the Christmas, even though I have experienced “real Christmas” only for four times. I used to watch shows on TV about how people celebrated Christmas in New York and I always wanted to have a chance to celebrate it myself some day. Now, I am have had my Christmas in here, I really liked it. During the Christmas time, the entire city look so nice, the lights are on all night long. I love to go to Rockefeller Carter in the Christmas and watch the big Christmas tree. I think I am missing the city a little bit now.

2005-09-20T18:26:00.000-07:00

The second paper is kind of difficult to write about. I am sure I have contradict feelings about many different things or situations, but I do not know what is a good one to talk about.

2005-09-16T12:46:00.000-07:00

I hand in the first paper for this class last night. Instead of writing about Christmas as the most important winter holidays for me and my family, I chose Chinese Spring Festival as my topic. At the beginning, I really had enough confidence about this topic because I believed that it would be so easy for me to talk about the details. However, I had some difficulties when I wrote it because I thought everything that we did during the holiday was just an important portion of the cultural history. I realized this was the first time that I really started to think hardly about why the Spring Festival was important for me and my family. The process of the writing the paper reminded me a lot of wonderful memories when I was a little kid in the holiday. I had not celebrated Spring Festival with my family and relatives in Shanghai for three years because we did not have breaks in the U.S during the Spring Festival in China. I wish I will have a chance to go back to Shanghai during the Spring Festival soon…

2005-09-09T09:47:00.000-07:00

This class is really interesting to me. So far, I have learned a lot of new things. Becasue of the cultural difference, my family do not really celebrate Christmas, instead we celebrate Chinese New Year, which also called Spring Festival. It is most important holiday in China. It is a time that all the family member get together. New Year's Eve is especially important. We have different food for spring festival than the normal time.
Christmas is becoming more and more popular these days in China, too. Especially among the young generations, we give christmas cards to each other, sometimes we even exchange presents. Many American traditions are still new to me, but I love all the new experiences.

2005-09-07T10:43:00.000-07:00

This is a fascinating christmas class...