I had a nice Winter break

Especially because of my fantastic trip

My friends and I planted hundreds of trees

We got tired, lay down and sleep

Food and songs filled our dream

The Best Fish Hot Pot

I have been here in America for three months. For most of people, three months may be not counted much. However, I think these months were a pretty long time, for I miss my beloved Chinese food. If you ask me: “ What do you plan to do during the Winter break?”; my answer will be brief and strong: “Eating.”

I live in the centre of Beijing, where is filled by numerous restaurants and shopping malls. Golden Resource is the one right near my home. It has seven floors, and the fifth floor is the one I love the most. Fish, fried rice, noodles, BBQ, soup, and ice cream. You can almost find everything in it. From all of those amazing restaurants and food bar, fish hot pot stretched my heart all the time. I remember my days in middle school. A huge poster of that fish hot pot restaurant was hung in front of the exit of subway station. When my friends and I went back home from school everyday, our eyes were almost frozen by that spicy and smelly fish with chilli and vegetables around. They were mixed harmoniously in the pot, and the oil reflected the light above table. It attracted all of us, either the poster, or the charming smell that permeated into the air from the fifth floor. Therefore, my friends and I decided to eat the hot pot every two weeks as the award for our heavy school work. Honestly, the taste was the best.

We sat around the table on Friday night. Dumping off all of the worries and work, we only talked and ate. To avoid the interruptions that might brought by the electronic tools, all the cell phones were ruled to fold together at the edge of the table. Most of time we talked about our school life, like the funny stories, gossips, and classmates. We always had endless words to say; maybe that was exactly one of the most important foundations of being good friends. We also talk about ourselves sometimes. Those hot pots witnessed hundreds of deceptions and dreams. Angel wanted to be a free writer; Echo liked all the scientific fictions, and Mary had interests in Computer Science. When I told them I decided to study in America near our “special table”, they said “We trust all of your choices.” I am grateful of having this fantastic restaurant and delicious food. Besides them, I know our friendship was actually what made all of these special. We have discussed what would happened when we are sixty on one of the normal Friday night. We wondered if we would have our dream job, expected life style, and family. For the most important, we all hoped we could still sit together and talk like that after many years, even though the restaurant might disappear, and the tasted will not be the same.

Those food is what I dream to eat every single day in America, but I know that is not what get me back. The connection between family and friends just like thousands of invisible strings that tied homeland and the little kites.

One week later, I will sit in that restaurant as we have always planned, and eat my best fish hot pot in the world.

Atypical Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has always been an excellent festival for people to spend time with there families. However, for me, a student who has never celebrated Thanksgiving before in China, this first Thanksgiving break was quite different as well as special.

Unlike most of people, I did not stayed with my parents during the Thanksgiving break. I went to my sister’s house in NJ. She was definitely a busy person, so that sometimes I could only explore somewhere interesting by myself. Last Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, I decided to go to NYC and watch the movies that I had always been look forward.

That was a sunny day; I started my unexpected journey without any company. First, I went to the Pass station. Although I got on the wrong side of the station, I noticed my fault immediately, and finally took the right pass. “ This is not hard.” I thought on the pass. Looking through the windows in front of me, I saw the rails, cars, wide sky, and peaceful sea. Beyond those landscape that rapidly rushed behind me, I saw a new world. This this a new world where I am going to study, live, and grow up. “ Ready for the discovery.” I felt the expectation that lives inside of me.

With my “fantastic” Google map, I arrived at the AMC in the last minute. I bought two tickets of Big Hero Six and Interstellar. The movies were amazing! Although watching animation with a bunch of little kids made me feel a bit different, I still enjoyed my all-alone travel style. After the whole day of sitting on the cinema chair, I decided just to take a walk on the streets.

I love city; much more than the countryside. It might because where I have grown up. I got used to walk through the bridges, skyscrapers and even the traffic jam. To be honest, I was unaccustomed to CA’s surroundings at first, because everything seemed so empty and boring. I missed the feeling of walking in my familiar city. Nonetheless, as time passes, I started to like my new life style. “ They are different, but they are both experiences.” I remembered my dad had told me so, “No matter where you lived or where you have been, experiences are all preciouses for you to choose your own way.”  Indeed, wherever I went, I could usually accept the environment. I looked at those busy people walked around me; they all had their own style. They had already found out their right position in the society, and maybe that was exactly what I need to find by my own experiences.

I felt satisfied and relax on my return trip. This was just an ordinary day, but it was also special. Traveling alone always gave me great opportunities to think about myself. I got many answers that can not be found among the happy time with friends or the heavy school work. For the most important, I started to be grateful, because I realised how much I should cherish the life especially at this young age. “ They are precious.” Every second and every minute of living is amazing, and everything, that I have done would be meaningful for my future. Therefore, I am grateful, to my family who have been so supported; to my friends who have always had my back, and for my life, of being such a big present.

No parents, and no Turkey. I still love my first Thanksgiving.

Starting to be thankful. Isn’t that the true meaning of this special festival?

A Special Canvas-final draft

During the Thanksgiving break, I went to The Museum of Modern Art.

Among all of the fantastic modern art works, I found a special painting at a corner near the Impressionism part. A huge canvas was hung from bottom to the top of the wall. Numerous brown horizontal lines were painted as a piece of thick brown blind warded in front of the art work. Through the gaps between those horizontal lines of the blind, a part of New York was exhibited in front of me. The left part of it were many classical buildings with the typical New York style. Some of them were short and old fashioned departments, and others were the modern offices. Posters, advertisements, and hundreds of dark green glasses that reflected the shining light. Different colours of traffic lights looked like some tiny dots that were produced by an skillful oil painter. The painter hold his wild brush, and swung it in front of the canvas. Those colourful dots were complicated, but also kept in some special orders at the same time because of those city designers. Apparently, the painting of NYC could never be a still life. It was full of movements. Everyone knows the yellow cabs’ position in New York. At the bottom of this painting, many yellow rectangles rushed on the grey street. Pedestrians come and go; they twisted their ways though the cabs, and each of them made the painting even more energetic.

At the right part, a white modern building captured my eyes with fantastic decoration. It had little wall, and most part of that side was glass. Therefore, everything in the building can be seen by its audiences. It was an office building that had a very modern style. Furnitures were mostly white with a little red, beige, and green. The first floor had a huge sofa in the middle. Some greens were put around the sofa. Desks were the protagonists in the second floor; it seemed like a meeting room. Hundreds of files were collected together in different shapes of boxes. The third floor was more like their dining hall with red food bars and white chairs. Each floor had different arrangement, but they all took simplicity to extreme. This building can be regard as the counterpart of many New Yorkers’ lives.

Buildings, streets, and decorations. The amazing painting mixed three elements harmoniously.People usually exclaimed about the painter’s wonderful skill. However, you would not believe this painting was just a normal glass in MOMA. All of the objects and colours were actually the real face of New York. From all of the masterpieces in the art museum, people can hardly notice a common glass. Nonetheless, once you stop for it, you would finally explore the meaning of this accidental art as I did.

Art is from life, and this special art work made me realise the different two sides of art. Our cities were built by hundreds of talented designers who were graduated from the professional design school. However, sometimes the quintessences of art may be actually excavated from the cities that we live in. Art can be everywhere, and this is a circulation of the endless inspiration.

In his blog, Mark Kurlansky wrote some of his opinions about the politics, society, science, and democracy. He mentioned Mitt Pomney, Darwin’s theory, Rick Santorum,the politics in America, and why he became a blogger. Mark has obvious personal style and view, and he is exactly a critical thinker. From his writings, I not only learned a lot about this world, but also combined his opinions with mine, and analysed those people and events comprehensively. All in all, Mark in a successful blogger, and his passages that covered many sides of the society are pretty meaningful.

Sera—“The City Of CA” This writing is very organised. She combined the real campus with her imagination pretty well, and everything seems suitable.

Nina—“Magic Bowl” It is very creative, and the whole story attracted me to keep reading. Moreover, I like her character design the most.

Nancy—“A Red Bottle Called Rango” She described the bottle carefully, and many details were mentioned in the writing. The idea of giving her bottle a name is really interesting.

The Notebook

I have an amazing blue notebook. Hundreds of papers were packed under the hard cover. When I touched the notebook with my fingers, a kind of special feeling pushed me hold it up. Actually, it is not an ordinary notebook. People can be led by this to another strange world once they open it. By staying with it, I gradually learned about who marvellous the world was.

 I found it in an old store for my math homework. However, everything changed after I opened this crazy notebook. The first page was just a normal white paper with many horizontal lines. The paper  was neat and beautiful. However, unlike most of the new notebooks, it always smelled like dust. I thought that was just because of the wind and transformation. I grabbed my pen, and prepared to do my homework. Suddenly, the lines started disappearing, and a weird picture emerged from the white. It was a little boy in the picture. He was only five years old I guess. The boy seemed confused, and the background might be the sofa in his home. “ Is this some weird chemical reactions?” I frowned.  After two seconds, I was even more shocked! The boy started moving in my notebook! I wondered if it was really a notebook. I looked at the boy’s face; he was as terrified as me. “ What are you!! Did I buy a new iPad from the grocery store?!” I was curious about what would happened next, then I tried to open the second page.

Same as the last one, after a few seconds, a person’s face appeared on the paper. Nonetheless, this face looked more familiar. She was woman around twenty, who has a bunch of crazy brown hair.  “ You work in that store!” I recognised her. Some words appeared on the paper near her neck. Apparently, she was writing on the paper. “ Hi, sorry for not telling you before this. This notebook, so called The Mirror, can be used for communication. they existed in pairs before. Now, since the order had been broken, it is no more meaningful to us. Exploring the world with it! You are lucky. ” I did not know how to respond. “ However, one day in the future, we would recall all of them, so please keep in touch.” This was so unbelievable! I saw she smiled to me, and disappeared gradually. In the next few days, I took this notebook with me all the time. When ever I opened it, someone would always appear from the other side of the world. Sometimes that was a middle age woman, and sometimes a old man. Scientists, doctors, artists, and students……I have met hundreds of people with my note book. Actually, it was more like my magic box. Whenever I need help, I can easily find the right person to talk with.

I think I own a treasure now. You may say it can not technically be a notebook now, because I used it on nothing more except communication. However, this magic notebook is still used for recording like its millions of siblings, but in another more fabulous way. 

Accidental Art

During the Thanksgiving break, I went to The Museum of Modern Art. It is a famous art museum that stands in the middle of NYC. Among all of the fantastic modern art works, I found a special view at a corner near the Impressionism part. It was actually a big normal glass next to many masterpieces on the fourth floor. Although the glass was not noticeable, the accidental art that was framed by the glass was pretty amazing to me.

It was a huge glass from bottom to the top of the wall. A piece of thick brown blind warded behind it. Through the gaps between those horizontal lines of the blind, a part of New York was exhibited in front of me. I regarded this special art work as a picture. The left part of it were many classical buildings with the typical New York style. Some of them were short and old fashion departments, and others were the modern offices. Posters, advertisements, and hundreds of dark green glasses that reflected the shining light. Different colours of traffic lights looked like some tiny dots that produced by an skilful oil painter. The painter hold his wild brush, and swung it in front of the canvas. Those colourful dots were involuted, but also kept in some special orders at the same time because of those city designers. Apparently, the painting of NYC could never be a still life. It was full of movements. Everyone knows the yellow cabs’ position in New York. At the bottom of this painting, many yellow rectangles rushed on the grey street. Pedestrians come and go; they twisted their ways though the cabs, and each of them made the painting even more energetic.

The right part of the painting was what I liked the most. It was a building stand right opposite of MOMA. It had little wall, and most part of that side were glasses. Therefore, everything in it can be seen by its audiences. It was an office building, but its decoration style was very modern. Furnitures were mostly white with a little red, beige, and green. The first floor of it had a huge sofa in the middle. Some greens were put around the sofa. Desks were the protagonists in the second floor; it seemed like a meeting room. Hundreds of files were collected together in different shapes of boxes. The third floor was more like their dining hall with red food bars and white chairs. Each floor had different arrangement, but they all took simplicity to extreme. In my point of view, that building can be regard as the counterpart of many New Yorkers’ lives. It used its own way to show the visitors in MOMA what is the other side of the modern art.

Buildings, streets, and decorations. The fantastic glass mixed three elements harmoniously.  It lived in Modern Art Museum, and it was indeed an accidental art. Art is from life, and this special art work made me realise the different two faces of art. Our cities were built by hundreds of talented designers who were graduated from the professional design school. However, sometimes the quintessences of art may be actually excavated from the cities that we live in. This is a circulation of the endless inspiration.

strong:

rotating the staw

straw-zig zag

apparent sign "cheshire academy"

things writing on the surface

five circles

weak:

a little dirty on the bottle

the claw

the water is clear

the shape of the bottle

some spray

I ate chicken that made by my aunt in Thanksgiving break. It was pretty amazing! I could even smell it before I got into the door. That was a kind of familiar smell which I grown up with. My grandma used to cook it for me when I was a child. It was the combination of meat, oil, and sauce. The fire and oil made those wings of chicken become gold and orange. However, it was not fried; it was boiled in the pot with many special ingredients, so that the chicken did not taste greasy. When I ate it, I could felt the appropriate amount of salt and pepper, and even the taste of leaves. Moreover, sugar was necessary in this meal. It is because sugar could mix all the ingredients together, and made me feel a much deeper smell of the chicken itself. The chicken meat was not old. Instead, it could almost melt in my mouth. Its skin and meat became separated when I ate it with rice. I love this chicken especially its feeling of childhood.