AREQUIPA IS NOT FOR SALE

It seems as if were last night when in defense of the community, my friends and I joined our neighbors in the streets from 10:00 pm to 10:45 pm in a beating of pots and pans. In a matter of minutes it created a chain effect breaking the silence of the night. The solidarity was fantastic. We were determined to fight to the end. In May 2002 in my city-Arequipa, there was an insurrection of the masses against the privatization of two public utilities. The privatization plans of Alejandro Toledo, who was the president at that time, made the community feel indignant because during his election campaign, he made so many promises. One was to not privatize these two electricity companies in Arequipa. The Revolution of 2002 that started in my city and then spread to a third of the whole country had affected my family and my family in a variety of ways.

As a family, we suffered the effects of the people’s protest and confrontations with the police. Our safety was an everyday concern during the months of the insurrection. This was especially true the last month because of the President’s decision to declare a curfew in my city. That meant that our constitutional freedoms were suspended. Furthermore, Arequipa was under army control. In response to the curfew and the institution of martial law, the people increased the protests. They set up roadblocks across the principal streets of the city and became more emotional. I couldn’t have been more worried about my parents every time they left for work. The radical protesters at the barricades tried to stop my parents and other people who worked in the center of the city from passing through because they didn’t want anyone going to work until the protests ceased. Consequently, it was so dangerous for my parents to go from our house to their work and back every day.

My education was effected as well. I was in my first year of law school, so I continued going to school even though the protests were getting worse. However, the strikes turned more violent when the police charged the crowd. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back. As a result, some of my friends from the university joined in the popular protest. In fact, two students died during one confrontation with the police. After that, the classes at the local universities were suspended. I couldn’t attend classes for almost a week. When the classes started up again, we were charged with extra homework as well as spending additional hours at the school, but none of us complained about it.

Even though there was a lot of violence from some protesters in the city center, most of us still acted in a peaceful way. For example, in my community and in all the neighborhoods in Arequipa, we conducted a nonviolent protest that we called “el cacerolazo”. This meant that twice a day, I used to came out of my house and join the other people in the vicinity in the beating of pots and pans, as well as the yelling out slogans at every block “ …Arequipa is not for sale….We need a new president..”. Also, as a show of solidarity for the whole movement, we displayed the Peruvian flag on the rooftop of my house as well as on the houses in Arequipa.

I will never forget the uprising of 2002, not just because of the emotions that originated in me for my own security and as a concerned daughter for the security of my parents, nor because I was a student who was unable to attend the university. I will remember that time because participating in this movement and helping it to achieve victory encouraged me to believe that people who join a just cause can bring down even the biggest obstacles of power in the path towards success. Finally, the Toledo government was forced to withdraw its plans to privatize the two electricity companies. Moreover, the president apologized to the people of Arequipa, the city which had been center of the protest.

Change In My Life

Life can be changed dramatically by an event of history. The reform and open policy, which was carried in 1979 by Xiaoping Deng, led Chinese People from the gate of darkness for a streak of light. Looking back to the past thirty years clearly reveals that great achievements have been made in many areas. With Chinese economic development in everybody’s eyes, and Chinese people’s mind and ideas have been updated as well. The reform and open policy has accompanied me for twenty years, and it is a process that has changed my life.

The effects of the reform and open policy were very obvious in my childhood. My father was born before the reform and opening up. There was not even a toy for those children who were born in the same time as my father. The only fun thing for children was fighting. When the winter came, the ground was filled with snow. They just had wrestling on the ground, because the snow was too thick to get hurt. Fortunately, I was born a few years after that event, so my childhood was much better than theirs. I had toys to play and new clothes to wear, but they were made by my parents’ hands. There were few kinds of food and vegetables. At that time, eating in a restaurant was luxurious. I always hoped the Chinese New Year to come fast so that I could eat dumplings.

Two decades after that event, it brought a striking effect in the flower of my age. The quality of life had clearly improved. No one made a toy or a cloth for their children anymore. Therefore, they bought new toys and clothes for them. My dad bought a video game player for me. It was an obvious good thing at that period of time. Food was improved a lot. Eating dumplings did not mean that it was a special day like Chinese New Year. It was no longer luxurious to go to restaurant. Life became better and better, but the most exciting thing was that the government offered to pull down our house and to build new one for us. My family was going to have a restroom with toilet, so that we would not need to squat anymore.

Now I am adult, and many things have been improving year by year. Computers and cell phones have become common in China, and they have made our life more convenient. I do not need to go to my friend’s home to knock on the door to check out if he is at home or not. I can communicate through the Internet and my cell phone. Even though now I am in the U.S., I can still communicate with them by the Internet or cell phone. In China, we cannot only eat Chinese food, but also food from different countries. Life has become more wonderful and convenient, and China has become stronger and stronger. The earthquake in 2008 almost ruined half of Sichuan Providence, but China and Chinese people were not beaten by the natural disaster. It united Chinese people's hearts. In 2008, after this natural disaster, China still held the Olympic Games perfectly.
During the thirty years, the reform and open policy has changed China significantly, while my life has changed a lot too. China and the quality of life are improving,and it is all because of the reform and open policy. This event has brought China out of the hell into the heaven. There is no stop sign for life. We need to keep driving no matter how rough the road is. Now China is a vehicle that will run down the long road to development and success.

Communism and Overthrowing Communism in Poland




Communism is a political ideology of free society with no division or alienation. In other words, it is an ideology, where there are no governments, no class divisions and no private ownership. In Poland communism came at end of the 1940’s and lasted until the early 1990. There are a lot of conflicts between people who think that communism was a good part of history, and those who think that it was kind of unnecessary. In Poland, people think that this system was not good enough because every political party who governed forgot about the ideology of communism, and tried to make benefits only for themselves. Communism has had a big impact on a lot of people in my country. The lack of freedom made some invariable and unavoidable changes for my family; however, December 29 1989 took communism from Poland for good and offered some new opportunities for my family.

Communism restricted almost everything, especially small business and education for citizens. Instead, they had to work for the country, and help build a new political free land. A lot of people who tried to have something for themselves couldn’t make progress because the political rules didn’t give permission to own anything. The populace didn’t have a chance to make their dreams come true; sometimes they didn’t even have enough money to live freely and without worrying about the following day. My father could learn at his profession, but when he finished four years of his school, the administration of the country didn’t give him papers so he could continue his education. Who knows what have happened if he had gotten a chance to broaden his knowledge?


The next effect of living in a communist country was the lack of immigration freedom that slowed down my parents’ plans of coming to The United States. Our governing party brought to administration the regulation of giving passports only for politicians and VIPs. When I asked my father why they did that, the answer wasn’t shocking. They did it to control every single person in the country, and to be sure that people were working for the nation. Moreover, they brought in the Martial Law as a state of emergency, where the police could put you in jail if you were outdoors after 10 p. m.; they did it because they wanted to control everyone, just in case if someone wanted to run away from Poland. My parents had a chance to come to the United States a long time ago as they got an invitation from my uncle. However, they didn’t get passports and couldn’t run away from their homeland full of restrictions and unfair rules.

The last effect is more optimistic because it does connect with the overthrowing of communism, which gave more opportunities for my family and me. In 1989, one year after I was born, the new ideology of democracy came and changed everything for good. There were no more Martial Law, no more language restrictions and no more restrictions of freedom. Finally, my dad started his school again; my mom changed her profession and opened a small business, and they could get everything in malls again, not only vinegar and spirits. There were two people that helped to bring down this ideology Pope John Paul 2nd and Lech Walesa. Both of them tried to make speeches to show how politicians changed the ideology of communism and made benefits only for themselves. Hopefully, the enthusiasm of new and fresh air won this battle; they gave freedom for average people who existed in Poland.

Communism as an ideology should guarantee the same standards of life for everyone unfortunately politicians that governed in Poland made it beneficial only for the elite, so a lot of people lost their possessions and freedom as did my family. History changed everything and everyone. Sometimes I try to think who would I be if history could change in the past? Would I have another life or never been born? However, I don’t have any machine that could move me back to the past as in the science fiction movies. It is confusing; in fact, I think that people from my generation should be grateful for what they have. I am also glad that my upbringing didn’t have communism as a main ideology of the country because I like to be free and express myself in my own way.

My Family’s History

We all know a leader’s decision is related with the fate of each country. Besides, a wrong revolution initiated by a problem-minded leader could make common people suffer. This is the real picture of the Cultural Revolution. The Cultural Revolution might sound unfamiliar for many people. However, what can be said for sure is that it made a big impact on almost every person in China. Many elderly people and intellectuals were not only attacked but were physically abused, and my grandfather who was a teacher as one of the intellectuals in the old days, unfortunately, became one of the victims. The Cultural Revolution turned out to be a nightmare in the history of China’s development. In addition, this historical event has changed the chapter of my family’s history through three generations.

My grandmother had changed her character to be more independent due to the Cultural Revolution. In the old days, women only played the roles of wife and mother, and they didn’t know how to deal with things outside of their family. Therefore, my grandfather was the only backbone of our family, and my grandmother was responsible for taking care of the children. However, when my grandfather was arrested, my grandmother had to work harder in order to support her family. It was difficult to imagine how a woman from a wealthy family could endure all the disasters by herself. In addition, there was negative criticism behind her back. My grandmother had to face this big change in her life, and she had to be under the pressure of reality. Owing to her disaster, she learned to fight everything by herself to support her family, and she became a brave and independent woman.

In addition, my father was doomed to face his hardship because he was forced to miss his golden time for studying. Individuals who experienced the Cultural Revolution while in their teens and early twenties were denied an education. My father has never forgotten the day he was compelled to come back home, and he never had a chance to go back to school. I remembered how he was proud but struggled to tell me he was the best one when he was in high school. However, he had to face his fate and never knew about the life that might have waited him. When he grew up, he had to exert more effort than others on his job because he had no diploma of his studying. In addition, he had to work overtime in order to get a high salary. However, my father still faces his life optimistically. He lost the chance study, but he told me that he owned more than he lost.

Moreover, the effects of the Cultural Revolution on our family also changed my life and my philosophy for good. Everyone can get valuable things from his/her own experiences, and sometimes we also can enrich our life from another’s experience. Before I knew my grandfather’s history, I was a headstrong girl and never paid much attention to my education. I didn’t think about what were my goals for my life. One day, my father got injured at his job, and he told me the kind of job you have in your future is related how much efforts you paid in your studies. The chance is equal in front of everyone, but if you don’t catch it in time, you will lose it forever. The history in my family is like my instructor in my life, and it guides me to cherish my life.

Although the time of the Cultural Revolution has passed, its influence has changed our family’s route into the new world. The history will never change no matter what it brought us negatively or positively. In fact, it gives an intelligent course for our family to cherish our possessions. As we know more about our family history, we will know how to set up our gold and keep progressing. We all know that we have to face the past and think about what is needed for the future so as not to cause any regret. My grandfather’s history does not only belong to my grandfather, it will be along side our family for good.

The Economic Change

People have their own reasons to move to another place, but they mainly move because they have a tough time in their home country or something bad happened to them that caused them to leave their country For example, economic change affects many people if they did not know how to deal or with the problem. These things happened to my parents when we were in Hong Kong. The economic change happened one year after Hong Kong returned to China from the British control. In 1998, the stock market crashed, and after that day many people lost everything such as money, houses and their businesses. This all just happened in one day. Nobody saw this coming, and from that day on people’s lives become tougher than before.

The first effect of economic change was unemployment. Unemployment was a problem even before the economic change because a job is an individual financial support. The job my parents used to have was working at the restaurant, and both of them worked there for many years. After the stock market crashed, the restaurant started losing money, so the boss of the restaurant started to lay off the workers, and it included my parents. Once they lost their job at the restaurant, it meant they would not get the financial support to pay off what they owe the bank. Therefore, my parents are one of those individuals that lost their job and it becomes a problem because they couldn’t pay off their debt.

The second effect was home foreclosures. It happened to almost everyone during that time because before the stock market crashed, the housing prices was high than original prices. However, after the stock market crash, the housing prices dropped very fast and some of them dropped even lower than from the original price. This happened to my parents because the house price dropped since that day and my parents couldn’t pay the mortgage after they lost their job. The bank gave my parents a warning letter for the payment and told us the house may end up taken away if we don’t pay them. Therefore, my father went to his parents to borrow money to pay the bank, so we would not end up with foreclosure. My grandparents helped us a lot when we were in these kinds of situations and saved us just in time before the bank took back the house. Therefore, my parents couldn’t pay the mortgage anymore, so we went back to live at my grandparent’s house and sold the house.

The third effect of the economic change was people having a tough time managing daily necessities. After that day, people had lost almost everything. Sometimes, it could take a month, a year, or even in just a week to lose what they have. During this time, my parents used up all their saving just for survival. For my parents, their saving was used mostly to pay off their debit before they ran into bankruptcy. Meanwhile, my parents wanted to try to avoid bankruptcy, so they cut out the daily expense like going out to having dinner, buying clothes and food and setting the limit for the daily expense. On the other hand, to cut out these expenses helped my parents save money to pay off the debit. Therefore, this put my parents into deep trouble, and it was for us hard to get out of this kind of situation.

Alought everybody think Hong Kong will be better than under British control, and also the economic will much better than the past. However, nobody expected after one year, the stock market crash, and the economic change would affect many people who brought houses at a very high price. After the crash, some people choose to moved away from Hong Kong and some choose to stayed in Hong Kong. Therefore, for now the economic in Hong Kong it seems better than after the crashed, but it took many year to recover the economic. Therefore, for my parents, they moved away because of the economic change and they had thought about this problem before they moved to the United States. The economic change is one of the reasons people move away to the other countries and also they maybe afraid of is it going to help them or not if they move to another country.

Lighting Up

Many kinds of lights just like the stars shining around the whole city when I looked from the airplane at night. I still remember when I took the flight back to China, I saw tons of light from the airplane before landing. Later on, I realized that nowadays cities have become more and more crowded as the human population has been rising at the same time. In order to develop the cities, the city government has to make some suburbs become part of the city. Since this policy was implemented, it has had a huge effect on the lives of people, including me.

Traffic problems can be solved when we live with the expanding area of a city. In many cities, people cannot imagine how many traffic problems and accidents occur during rush hour every day. When I rode my bike to school during my high school years in China, I could not go through many streets. People would get anxious because they suffered from the traffic jams every day. I was always stuck in traffic jams on my way to school for at least half an hour every day. However, when some suburbs became parts of our city, many streets could be used; my life had become more relaxed every day. After these changes, I had never thought about how long I would spend on the way to school; I had never worried about how long I would be late to school. I could do everything in order and had a delicious breakfast in the morning. It made me feel the sunshine became brighter in the morning and sunset could be so beautiful at nightfall.

Since some suburbs have become parts of the city, there are more and more job opportunities available to people because the traffic problems have been resolved. Along with the financial crisis, a huge amount of people lost their jobs unpredictably. People would live a difficult life without any income after they lost the jobs. After the suburbs become part of our city, a lot of enterprises focused on these extra areas. They set up their business and built many commercial companies in the original suburbs. Therefore, they had to hire many employees to work for them. One of my uncles had been laid off under the economic recession, and he found a job as a salesman in a new shopping center in the original suburb. He always deeply appreciated this new government policy. Different parts of the new areas still need many people to manage, such as in security and street cleaning. In addition, the projects set up by mercantile agencies will act as a stimulant to further economic growth.

After the traffic problems and occupation had been solved, it showed us an obvious advantage of the city which is that we get more and more space to live. Since our city had grown enormously, we don’t need to live too closely anymore.  Now, there is more space for homebuilders to build houses and people can live further apart and can still be near the city. My family did not like living with noise, so we bought a townhouse when some new houses had been built. After we moved into the townhouse, we felt more comfortable. I could enjoy my own spacious room and did my private things. Actually, some original suburbs that already became parts of city started to promote another kind of small city in the new area.  

     Looking from the sky, we can’t count how many lights light up at night. This only appeared after some parts become part of the city. These expanding areas brought more benefits to our life. Most Chinese people have more convenience since moving to these “new” cities. However, each coin has two sides; we still have to prevent the new city from some bad trends such as increasing pollution. We should always think about how can we make full use of the city that exists in our life? It depends on how we treat the "extra size" of the city.  It is my wish that our city will be illuminated by more and more lights if we treat the additional areas in the right way.

Only One China

“Where are you from?” People are asked frequently in the U.S. “I am from China.” I answered with a smile, “How about you? Are you from China?” “No, I am from Taiwan.” Hearing this answer, I get angry. I don’t like this answer. Actually, Taiwan is an integral part of China. There is only a Taiwan Strait between Taiwan and Fujian province where I lived for nineteen years. Taiwan has been severed from the Chinese mainland since 1949 because Jiang, a old leader of Kuomintang, failed in the civil war and escaped to Taiwan. In recent years, some of Taiwan’s leaders have attempted to declare the “independence of Taiwan”. They implemented an educational reform to teach children that Taiwan is an independent country. The issue of Taiwan’s secession has had many negative effects on my life.

First of all, Taiwan’s secession affected my education. As Taiwan’s secession became a problem for the Chinese government, the main topic of my social science class became all about Taiwan’s secession. I had some homework and exam which were about Shui Bian Chen, the leader of the Taiwan’s government who attempted to declare the independence of Taiwan. In addition, my history class also focused on some revolution in Taiwan’s history. As Taiwan’s secession has become more and more serious, some students publicized and participated in some demonstrations to against Taiwan’s secession. What was worse, Taiwan’s secession has lasted for many years, so it has been affecting my education in my middle school, high school and university studies.

Taiwan’s secession not only affected my education, but it also affected my relatives who live in Taiwan. Actually, the hometown of many people who live in Taiwan is the Chinese mainland. They often want to come back to the Chinese mainland on some festivals to visit their relatives. However, the government of Taiwan does not allow the direct route between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan. My grandmother’s sister who lives in Taiwan is limited to go visiting the Chinese mainland because of the above reason. Every time she comes back to the Chinese mainland, she needs to go to Hong Kong first, and then arrives at Fuzhou by air. It’s a waste of money and time. Therefore, she just visits us about once every three years. My grandmother often says she misses her sister, and it makes me feel sad to know that a government has created all these inconveniences for my family.

Moreover, Taiwan’s secession has affected my hometown to a certain extent. As Taiwan’s secession has become more and more serious, it has made the people who live in my hometown became nervous and worried that a civil war may occur. Taiwan’s government has bought many arms from other countries, and these have been some military exercises around my hometown. Some people who used to live in my hometown were afraid of war and moved to other places. Our old Chairman, Xiao Ping Deng, said that “We want to solve the problem of Taiwan’s secession by peaceful means through contacts and negotiations. However, we’ll never promise to give up resorting to force.” What a powerful policy! There is no doubt that people like peace, and all of us want to solve it in peaceful way.

In conclusion, Taiwan’s secession has affected my education, my relatives and the province where I used to live. However, Taiwan is an integral part of China, and China cannot lose it. Last year, Ying Jiu Ma became the Taiwan’s leader instead of Shui Bian Chen. I hope that Taiwan’s new leader will revise its policy about secession. Most Chinese and Taiwanese citizens don’t want to see a war between Chinese mainland and Taiwan. Looking back at history, China has had civil war during 1945 to 1949, many people died and the economic were decline and terrible. The victims are always the residents. The sooner these two sides solve the issue of Taiwan’s secession, the better everyone will be. The most important goal that we must maintain is “Only One China”.

The Chinese Spring Festival

In China, every one, young and old, rich and poor, look forward to celebrating

the happiness of the Chinese new year. The spring festival is a new hope and new

beginning to everybody. It is also a time for the family to reunion. However, since I


came to the United States, I found I had lost my own custom and entertainment.

I had lost the time to celebrate the happy spring festival, while the United States

became a place for changing .


The first thing I have lost is the happy process of spending the New Year with

family. Like American’s practice for Christmas, In China, the process of spending

the New Year with family is very complicated. People always greet the New Year.

In the morning, people always put on their new clothes and shoes. Men, with their

wives, call on relatives and friends to wish them a happy and prosperous New Year

While the children of the family always receive present gifts of money wrapped in

red envelopes filed with lucky money from the other adults. However, In the United

States, people spend the new year in a very calm way, I have never had such

experience. Spring Festival becomes a very ordinary day, People here continue to

go to work because American people had already celebrated their new year in

December.



In addition, I had lost spending my time with the family. In China, it is a very

happy time for a family reunion before the eve of the New Year, every one tries to

come to join the entire family. In my memory, a mother always made a lot of food

for us . We could enjoy eating delicious fish, meat, soup, and vegetable s

together , when the clock turned at 12pm, a voice of fire crackers rang outside .

The fire cracker means lucky, hope, and all things of the universe became new.

While here in America, Chinese people sometimes go to church. The Christian

church always invites us to celebrate the spring Festival, and thanks for God. I fell

it has become a totally different way to celebrate the happy new Year.

At last I found I would never have the entertainment on TV program me.

In China, on New Years Eve, the CCTV broadcasts- a TV program which is

watched by hundreds of millions of people. I t is basically a variety act, with singing

and dancing, comedy acts, . Expect acts representing all fifty- six of China’s ethnic

nationalities. This will be on most households. While here In Chicago, I will never

have the chance to enjoy it, the TV program is all spoken in English. I have not any

opportunity to watch the Chinese Spring Festival’s program. I also had no chance

to set firecrackers off to frighten away evil sprits.

All in all, The Chinese New Year has become a good memory. It also has become a kind of previous. I find I have totally lost the happy time and custom to spend the happy Spring Festival and always miss this special time, I become miss this special festival. Though I have lost it in Chicago, It will always live in my heart. The United States becomes a place to change my process of the Happy New Year.

Missing Pieces

Did you know that the Christmas season in Puerto Rico lasts for almost three months? From late November through early February, Puerto Ricans have a very busy holiday schedule. Due to our political ties with the United States, we celebrate both countries’ holiday customs. Compared with Puerto Rico, the Christmas break in the United States is as short as a movie preview; you can’t wait to see the rest of it. Back home, we celebrate Christmas in a lot of different ways that makes our season longer. In contrast, Chicago’s Christmas season lacks lots of spontaneous and fun elements that I truly enjoyed in Puerto Rico.

One particular way to celebrate Christmas in Puerto Rico is giving asaltos navideños or Christmas attacks. That is our version of caroling. Right after Thanksgiving and all the way through December people get unexpected visits from their friends and relatives. A group selects a household and shows up on a random night with musical instruments. They play typical songs all night long and fix typical dishes like pasteles, arroz con gandules and coquito.

It is understood that every Puerto Rican house must be well stocked at all times. You never know when you are going to have a paranda. The group goes on looking for new houses to assault through the entire month of December. A standard American family would probably consider this Christmas custom as a rude or improper behavior. The families here have a busy agenda and you have to schedule in advance to have fun gathering.

Another classic Christmas custom we celebrate is the Three Kings Day on January sixth. While in the United States, everyone is back to work, in Puerto Rico, we are still doing more shopping. Kids make two separate gifts lists, one for Santa and another for the Three Kings. They put grass and water under their beds for the Three Kings’ camels. The Three Kings leave the presents under every child’s bed. We always joke about who comes first, Santa Claus or the Three Kings; just like we wonder about the chicken and the egg. I missed my Three Kings’ presents this past season. In Chicago, the conversation topic about the Christmas holidays and gifts was already way out of mode by January.

Our last Christmas holiday is Dia de la Candelaria or Candlemas celebrated on February 2nd. Meanwhile the Chicagoans are still hoping the Bears make it to the Super Bowl the following year. In Puerto Rico we have our Christmas trees up until February. On Candlemas Day, we take them down and burn them in the streets and sing and dance around the fire. That ritual represents good luck for the next year and the bad spirits are destroyed with the fire. In the United States, the practice of this particular act is prohibited by law. I did not even think about celebrating this custom here in Chicago. Instead, I bought an artificial Christmas tree that I can recycle for the years to come.

The asaltos navideños, the Three Kings, and the Candlemas are three elements that make the Puerto Rican Christmas season longer and unique. It was painful not to have friends and family around to practice my Christmas customs with this year. Christmas in Chicago was like having just a bite of my own birthday cake. I waited for more, but it was over too fast. The long life and loud energy of the Puerto Rican Christmas were my missing pieces.

what we are loosing

Moving to a new country it is not only a meeting of new people and a knowing of new interesting places and traditions, it is also a loss of some ways of one’s own culture and life, a loss of some habits and dear things. In a beginning, everything is attractive. It is interesting to taste new food you have never tried before and to look around at buildings with the different architecture and at people speaking different languages. It is so exciting to find something new, differences and similarities in cultures of people from different parts of the world, new traditions and customs. The USA is one of the most attractive countries in the world with great opportunity. People come here from all parts of the world with similar wishes for a bright and happy future. And of course, no one thinks about any losses, such as traditions, friends and family, which at first may seem small and not very serious, but can bring sadness, melancholy and even feeling of inferiority later on.

My family is the one important part of me I have lost since I moved to the U.S. My last five years at home I lived separate from my parents. I became a student and moved to another city, but a couple times in every month I went back to visit my parents. I liked to seat with my sister and mom in the kitchen, to cook some food together, and to talk about everything. My father didn’t really like to listen to our talks and usually left after dinner to do something else. I liked to spend time with my sister. We are very similar in taste, in understanding of things and in characters. She is the best person for a talk and fun. We grew up together and were always very close to each other. Therefore, I lost my sister and best friend. It is like a loss of part of oneself, like a gap or like an empty place in a room, which bothers and is irreplaceable.

Friends and communication are the second and big part of my life I have also lost. Good friends are our second family. I think it’s great when people have friends, which can understand and help them. For me the best way to communicate with people is to talk face-to-face. But there is a problem with language. it is so bad when you have a lot to say, but cannot explain because of a language barrier. Often, when I have an idea in my head or I want to share my opinion, or just to joke I prefer to be silent because I cannot find the right words or keep my own style in communication. But without conversation, it is not a real friendship.

When people think about moving to a new country, of course no one thinks about any losses of culture. I like culture of my homeland, especially holidays and celebrations, but without some of them, I feel lost. There are many holidays in the U.S. which are celebrated in my country also, even with similar traditions. But also there are many holidays which I can’t celebrate here in the same way like back home. For example, Christmas is the best day to see family and spend time at home with a big meal and warm talks, like I used to do. One more holiday from Belorussian culture I lost is Shrovetide. It is celebrated a week before Lent, seven week before Easter. It’s also called send-off of winter. At that day in every city organizes a big fair. People spend time together outside of houses, eat pancakes and play different games. In the end of the day a big straw doll is burnt. It symbolizes the end of the winter and the beginning of Lent. It is very interesting and funny holiday. I liked to spend this day with my friends, but now I can just cook and eat pancakes at home.

All in all, any kind of change in life brings a lot of achievements and losses, as a result moving to the US gained me a lot of happiness and success which I will achieve more in my future life by working hard and being prospers, and as we all know in life there are some losses for all of us. By moving to the US, I miss some habits in my daily life structure. For example, I lost some customs and important parts of my culture, which is the hardest part for me to adjust. As I experienced, that kind of losses happens to everyone who dares to immigrate to a new country. In addition, it doesn’t matter how many interesting places you visit, how many new people with different culture and lifestyle you meet or what country you move to. Ultimately, you will miss some of things which you were born and grew up with.

Defoliation

Life is like a defoliation drifting with the wind. When the wind blew to the United States, it took me here. I have lived in the United States for three years with my parents. I am an immigrant. As an immigrant offspring ,I have felt intense pressure to do everything. There have been too many challenges for me to overcome. Parents cannot help you do anything cause they are deaf in the U.S.. Everything needs to be done on my own. My perception as a young man was that it’s a really a bitter way to walk through. So it always made me miss to the past and feel confused in my new environment.

Communication has been the biggest problem for me to overcome. It has been not only simply with English, but also Chinese. Many people from different province of China are living in the United States, and they all have different accents. I speak Chinese with a northeast accent. Most Chinese people in Chicago’s Chinatown come from the south part of China. Sometimes talking to them is much harder than talking to Americans. Three years have past and my accent has changed. I used to work in a restaurant in Chinatown and most customers were Chinese people. One day, a Chinese customer came, then I went to his table and had a small conversation. He asked me what part of Beijing you come from. I was laughing and answered I come from Shenyang. This year, I came to this class, there was a girl next to me named Tracy who asked me that “ Are you from Beijing?” I felt that I have lost my nature accent in this new land.

Happiness was a term to describe me when I was with my friends in China. No matter what we had done, I always had a smile on my face. But I can count my friends in the United States with one hand. As we all need to work and go to school, we do not get together too much. I just sit in front of my computer every day. I have no mood to play games. It is not like before, when I used to sit in the internet café with my friends to play games against other people. Counter Strike and War Craft are I games that I played a thousand times with my friends. But I had never felt bored; I felt happy. Now I play alone on the Internet. I do not even want to open the game. Sometimes I feel that they are leaves on the tree and I am a leaf dropping from the tree and the wind has blown me away.

Finally, when Chinese festivals came, I miss home very much. There are too many different festivals between China and the U.S.. When the Chinese festivals come, there is no atmosphere here even during the Spring Festival. In China, Spring Festival is the most fundamental festival. Fireworks fill the sky and relatives come together to celebrate it. But this year I was sitting alone and eating noodles. I missed my relatives and my home. The American festivals I did not celebrate with anyone. Charismas day is the biggest holiday in the U.S., but for me it was as same as normal day.

There is no stop for defoliation. When the wind blows mercilessly, it just goes with the wind. There is no way to the past, and the past becomes eternal memory. Keep forward is the path way to the success. I am who I am now. I am neither a kid nor who I was. No time for confuse and I just stay still. I just keep going forward and find the light from the darkness. But I still hope there will be a wind coming from east to blow me back.

The Chinese New Year

When some people come to a new country or new place they always bring everything with them like personal items, clothes, and money. However, they also come with their customs and culture when they come to a new place. Their customs are usually from what they did in their own country, or passed down by their ancestors or grandparents. For me, the custom of the Chinese New Year has changed since my parents we came to the United States. Since my family came to the U.S. , I feel part of the holiday have been changed like worship, eating dinner with other family members, and cleaning and decorating the house.

The first things I feel different in Chinese New Year is how we worship our ancestor. The worship is one of the customs in Chinese New Year ,and also it has two parts, The first part is going to the temple and the other part is worshiping the ancestors. On the New Year Day, my parents always went to the temple to worship and gave thanks for the blessing for the past year. They also going to asking for the future is good or bad for the following year. The other part of this traditions is worship the ancestor because it is shows them respect and honor to them for the blessing the family. We also tell the ancestors that all family members are fine and pray for the blessing and bring a good luck for the family for the following year. However, when we came to the United States my parents did not do this anymore because my parents did not have time go to the temple. Therefore, my parent did not do the worship at home because sometime it may bring unnecessary trouble from landlord and it may make the landlord angry. Therefore, my parents did not do this things since my family moved to the U.S. ,so this has make me feel something isn’t in the Chinese New Year day.

The second of change is our traditional family dinner. This is other part of Chinese New Year because when the day arrives people always try to get together eat dinner no matter where you are to try to get home. It just like Thanksgiving in the U.S. Therefore the Chinese New Years day also is a family came together and we can talk together about what we did in the past year. The most important things is families member can improve their relationship with the other while we sit it together to eat dinner. However, in the U.S. I just have dinner with my parent and also it seem like it is not such as big deal to us it used to be. In addition, on the same day in U.S. we just kind feel like normal day and normal meal for the Chinese New Year.

The last thing it make me feel different is cleaning and decorating the house before the holiday. When I was in Hong Kong my parent or my grandmother no matter what it always would force me to help them to clean the house before the New Year, and we used to decorate the house always had lot stuff to do like throw away the things we don’t use anymore. Decoration part it use to try to make our home look like new, colorful and lively so it will bring us good luck for the following year. When we come to the U.S., it didn’t matter because we do not have to do this stuff and too much thing to do if only me and my parent to do it. The other things is we don’t want to mess up the house because if the landlord know it what we done to their house, it may not happen to us or get kicked out the house. Therefore, during the Chinese New Year we just do the cleaning part excepts the decorating, we do not do it anymore for that day.

Sometimes when people come to other country they may bring everything with them even the custom and culture from their home country. However, sometimes certain custom has been limited by people around us, things around us and even maybe we don’t want to keep it or to follow it. Therefore, people may try to hide them from other people and do it when they are alone or at their home. If this kind custom can do at the past so you can do in here too, if you like it or not and also it can tell other people what is about and how great is it if follow your own custom or culture.
　

A tree grows in the wild

One year ago, I still looked like a little girl with childish scent. I remember the first day when I came to the United States. Everything was extremely unacquainted for me. I didn’t even go outside, and I felt home was the most secure place where I could get all information on the Internet to see the strange environment. However, I realized these behaviors woudn’t help me to adapt to the things I was still afraid of. I changed some of my personality and improved capabilities at the same time in order to accept the new environment and create an infrangible bedrock for my future.
Communication is the first step which has become aware myself and others. I am not an extraordinary tranquil person, but I was used to working alone because Chinese traditional etiquette follows this manner. For example, people won’t greet strangers. In China they think strangers must have bad intention or malice if they come to you. Thus, when I got in touch with new friends, I used to have conversation implicitly. However, the United States shows a diverse culture. “Hey, how are you”? That’s the most hackneyed phrase. I will blurt out these words several times a day and I start loving this way to plunge into a conversation. This was helpful for me to practice speaking skills in the beginning; eventually I felt not that lonely because of the different language.

I also lost parents assistance most of time and became a very independent person with strong survive abilities. I broke away from the childish girl of my past. My parents used to spoil me so much. The important things like finding school, preparing documents were all covered by them. The reason is I think I cannot do it well and parents were not relieved if I do it. Therefore, the vicious cycle makes me not have confidence to do anything. In addition, if I did something wrong, they would say “let me do it for you”. It’s a traditional custom in China, parents will do everything for their children, and they don’t want their children to be hurt. On the contrary, I can have my own opinions, consider and can do better of them. First of all, I am alone in a foreign country; I have to do every single business myself. Second of all, I get hurt sometimes, but I have experience and lessons. That’s why people say wise men learn lessons form their own mistakes.

Having a job has also been a new challenge for me. I never had a job in China. Going to school was enough work and my parents supported me everything. The exchange rate has becomes a part of stress for me. Staying with my parents like a free meal, I stretch out my hand and somebody will send to me. I just don’t want to still walk like the past roads. I want to take some blame too because in the United States everything can happen but people need to try. So, I found a part-time job in school and when I received my first remuneration, I finally felt this is my achievement because I had been trying hard.

Looking back at my experiences, I’d like to say it was hard to adapt to the culture and manners that I brought from China. However, adjusting of these difficulties has made me feel refreshed. I am here for a new life, for a life that is totally different with my past. I have become mature because of these experiences. The goal of my future is to just stride forward.