Thank you my classmate

I'm in my home country Japan. I miss you all!
This quater was the best of my memory. Thank you everyone(^o^)/








Minori Motohiro

My third quarter

My third quarter finished today, but it was the worst quarter for me for several reasons. The first reason is my elective class was so boring. Also, the teachers this quarter were worse than my first and second quarter except Reza!!!!! However, my classmates were much better than the previous one. Moreover,
My first quarter was the best quarter and my language was improved so much, also, my second quarter was not bad and my language was getting better. I wish next quarter will be the best quarter for me because it will be the last quarter. I want to say thank you for all my teachers and my classmates even thought I didn’t enjoy like the first quarter. Lastly, I wish everybody get a good vacation and I hope we meet again.


By Moath

Yosemite National Park

After spring quarter finished we have decided to have a nice vacation, so three months ago, I went to Yosemite national park which is located near to San Francisco, with my friends. It was really nice trip and I suggest and recommend everybody to go there. We were looking for a place to live in, so we found a very good place which names “Redwoods”. Therefore we rented a Cabin, which has 4 bedrooms, for three days and we visited many places there like waterfalls, which is one of the tallest falls in the world. Also, there are many other kinds like Yosemite Falls, Bridal veil fall, and Vernal Fall. In addition, we saw the longest tree in the world. Moreover, we went to Granite Wonders. It is really nice place. Furthermore, the weather was amazing, it was not cold and little bit rainy, so we really enjoyed there. We saw the bear, which is the most dangerous kind; it was first time for me seeing the bear. It was one of the greatest trips in my life.


by Moath

Last Day

So that's it, we reach the end of the quarter.
I feel that we just started before two weeks, but the truth is we studied for eight weeks, isn't long time?

Usually, I hate these moments, when we know new people and after a while we should say to them goodbye, it really the worst thing.

On the other hand, the best thing for me, that I knew a wonderful friends like you. I really appreciate every moment that I spent it with you.

Most of you going to leave Riverside, to another state or back to home -- wish I could back to home -- So tell me what are you going to do?
For me, I will stay here in Riverside to attend the next quarter, but after that, I really don’t know what I’m going to do.

However, I’m going to miss you all, and please keep in touch, I really wish you all the best.

Take care, and I hope I see you again in the future.

Shouq

Odd couple – The play and Theater in Brazil

Today, 08/26/2010, the drama class had the last presentation of the play “Odd Couple” and I'm here to say that everything was perfect. All actors were amazing and I'm really glad to be part of this group and I would like to say thank you so much for everyone.

Act is not an easy thing to do, we need dedication, we need patience, love and work hard, during the rehearsal and after that. That's my profession and here I would like to talk a little bit about the theater in Brazil.

People say that culture may be in crisis, but theater is very much alive in Brazil these days. In São Paulo, more than 150 plays will be presented at the beginning of September, including some for children.

We have many festivals in my country and the most famous is the Festival de Teatro de Curitiba (Curitiba's Theater Festival) that happens in the capital of Paraná state. The event, is divided into four categories: contemporary theater, children's theater and special events. That's a government festival and any professional company can participate. If you win this festival, beyond have prestige, the group get money to keep working and usually is invited to show they play in other countries.

History

Brazil is a new country, I mean, as we know like now and the the experience in this country is new too. Therefore I will explain briefly about our history.

Theater literally arrived in Brazil with the first ships bringing colonists, and with the new arrivals came those attributes, which depicted the baroque spirit as well as the religious conflicts of the period. Little importance was given to the literary script. The audience was partial to the staging, theatrics, special stage effects and the Faustian overtones.

Allied with the festive rituals and dances of the indigenous population, the first form of theater known by the Brazilians, was that of the Portuguese, which had a pedagogic character based on the Bible. In that era, the person primarily responsible for teaching about theater, as well as the authorship of plays, was Father Anchieta.

The truly national theater only came to establish itself halfway through the XIX century, when the romanticism had its start. Martins Pena was one of those responsible for that, through his costume comedies. Other highlighted names from that time were, the dramatist Artur Azevedo, the actor and theatrical impresario, João Caetano and, in literature, the writer Machado de Assis.

I really love my profession and I'm sure that in your countries you have amazing plays and theater groups. I would love to know about theater in my classmates countries.

My theater company has a blog, if you are interested to visit, please, do it:

http://ciateatrodefebre.blogspot.com/

Roberta.

My hometown

My hometown is Onomichi in Hirosima prefecture, where is south west of Japan. The town faces sea in the south and is surrounded by mountains in the rest of direction.

Onomichi used to be the main port town around there and so flourished. Valuable things were gathered there, but it went out of use now.


The attractive thing in Onomichi is many temples and shrines, about 60. The most famous temple of them is 'Senkoji' that means one thousand of light. The temple is located at the top of Senkoji mountain,so you can see the whole town from the temple, it'Ss very beautiful. Senkoji has large park around it; museum, pool, observatory, and shops. It's the most popular tourist attraction in Onomichi and many people visit there.

However, there are many other spots you should visit. If you travel in Onomichi, I recommend you to go sightseeing by walking. The streets of Onomichi is very narrow and winding , so you'll overlook a lot of wouderful things if you are in the taxi or bus, for example cat ornament hinding at the side of road and tiny shop that is at the end of alley. When you go around the town by your own feet, you surely discover good treasures everywhere. I hope you'll visit my town someday.

written by Minori

Ramadan

Hi my classmates,

A lot of my friends asked me about Ramadan, and what is it? So I decide to clarify everything about it here.

Ramadan is the holy month for Muslims. It is the Ninth month of the Hijri calendar (Lunar calendar). In addition, the lunar calendar is 11-12 days shorter than Gregorian calendar; therefore, Ramadan is 10-11 days earlier every year.

Ramadan is very significant month for all Muslims, because it is the 4th of the 5 pillars of Islam and the Qur’an (the holy book of Islam) was revealed in it.

In this month, we have to do special things, such as repentance, increased prayer, increased charity and fasting. The main thing which specialize this month from other months is fastin, which begins at the break of dawn and ends at sunset. The physical aspect of it is to refrain from food, drink and intimacy during fasting hours (Depending on location and season, it can vary from 12hrs to 17hrs), and the spiritual aspect is to refrain from blameworthy thoughts and acts e.g. foul language, vain talk, hurtful behavior, during all hours.

However, all Muslims should fast in this holy month, and sure there are some exceptions like: children, unhealthy adults (mentally or physically), adults travelling long distances, and women who are menstruating, in post-childbirth care, pregnant or breast-feeding.

The physical objectives or benefits that we gain from fasting are: the person experiences some of the hardships of the poor and hungry, physiological effects include lowering of blood sugar, cholesterol and systolic blood pressure. Also, improves strength, endurance and self-discipline through physical abstentions.

In Ramadan, we usually have two meals. The first meal we called it “Sahoor”, which is before the dawn, and the second meal we called it “Fatoor”, which is the breaking of the fast at Sunset.

In my country, Saudi Arabia, the usual lifestyle is change in this month. For that, the work hours are changed from 8 AM to 10 AM, and decreased. Moreover, people stay awake until the sunrise, so if you go out at 3 AM, you will find everything open, including shops, malls and restaurants, and a lot of people working.

As you may know, Makkah, which considers the capital of Muslims, is located in my country.
A lot of Muslims people from around the world visit it during this month to fast and pray there.

These pictures show the largest mosque in the world, “Almasjed Al-Haram” in Makkah in Ramadan. Do you know how many people are there?? I don’t mean how many people in Makkah, I mean how many people existing in the mosque?? There are 3 million people in this place at the same time, they are from various countries, they are talking different languages, some of them poor, and some of them rich, the only common thing between them, is Islam.
Usually, I spend the last ten days in Makkah, going to the mosque every day, even if I got tired, but I always have a wonderful feeling, I taste the real meaning of happiness there.

After the end of Ramadan, we have a big celebration called “Eid Al-Fitr”, and this celebration mark the end of Ramadan. The night before, all Muslims should give out “Zakat Al-Fitr”; it is a prescribed amount of money obligatory on every Muslim, calculated to feed one poor person in his region for one day. In “Eid Al-Fitr” morning, all people wear beautifully, and go to pray, then all family sit together to eat breakfast, then going out to visit family, friends, neighbors, sick and elderly people. Also, the older people like grandparents, parents, uncles and aunts give us gifts; usually they are money, intersting right? :D

This year, is my first time that I have to spend Ramadan far away from my family, I had a terrible feeling at first day of Ramadan, I couldn’t talk to anyone or eat, and I couldn’t come to school next day. I know I’ll treat this feeling again in “Eid Al-Fitr”, but I hope that we will have joy here, and we will be very grateful if you join us and see how Muslims celebrate in this day, it will be in Sep, 9th or 10th , depending on the moon.

If you have more questions, please feel free to ask, and I hope that I clarified everything.

Shouq

Petition For Food ― by Faye, Phoebe, Roberta and Maya

To Whom It May Concern,

We are some foreign students from UCR Extension Centre. We are writing to you to express some opinions towards food style in Riverside. We found that food in Riverside is normally too oily, salty and sweet. We are not complaining the taste of food but the unhealthy eating style. Moreover, there are few of vegetables dishes in restaurants. Apart from it, the proportion of food size in supermarkets is too large. They seldom sell food in small proportion or small package.

In fact, we believe that there are some disadvantages of these problems. First of all, Heavy taste of food causes body diseases easily. Too much oil, sugar and salt will damage our health. For instance, high blood pressure and diabetes are caused by unhealthy eating habit. Secondly, obesity is one of these negative effects from these problems. Normally, overweight is well-known as a major reason of many diseases.

Thirdly, lack of various proportion of food sold in supermarkets will lead to food waste. Generally, most food is family-size package in supermarkets. However, the valid period of food is limited and it causes an opportunity that we can’t finish cooking the food before the valid period. Then, food waste will happen.

We are writing to you, asking for your help. In our opinion, there are some ways to solve these problems. Firstly, the state government should provide some guidelines about nutrition to restaurants in Riverside to avoid surplus ingestion. If they carry out these guidelines, there is a possibility to solve high obesity problem which is very common in the United States and other diseases problem which comes from this obesity. Secondly, supermarkets should supply some small-size packages of food and restaurants should provide various amount of food to meet the needs of different people. In addition, it is better to add some connection between farms and supermarkets in order to let the supermarkets keep supply raw and fresh food. All in all, to keep the food condition well, should the government make investigation monthly or a few times a month?

Thanks for your help.

Petiton of medical insurance

To whom it may concern.


I'm writing to you about medical insurance. I'm a foreign student of UCR extention. Ithink there is some problems about medical insurance in America. Let me introduce those issues.




First, insurance companies cover only few of medical bills, so people need to pay a lot when they have disease or injury. Therefore, international student like me have to go back to our countries to receive treatment. It's not good for us and our school. For that reason, people join private insurance conpanies. However, insurance premium is so high that poor people and we students can't join these companies .



Second, some private insurance company limit houpitals that people can visit, called a family doctor, so if peole have sick which is different from the field the doctor major in, they can't go another houpital without letter of introduction from their family doctors.



I think insurance conpany should cover more amount of medical bills, and private insurance companies should lower their insurance premium so that every people can join them .Moreover, private insurance companies should apply their insurance to all hospitals in America.



I hope you have time to look at this letter and make this situation better.

Transportation Problem Petition

Dean of UCR Extension

We are a group of students in UCR extension, Riverside, and we have been facing a transportation problem.

As you know, the transportation system in Riverside is very limited, so then only way to move from one place to another is using buses, which are not efficient. The bus routs, the cost and time are inconvenient. However, these affect us in many aspects, such as, being late in morning, carrying our bags every day we have to go to shopping, not being able to visit exciting places and so on.

For that, we are writing to you asking for your help. We suggest that the extension provides the students with its own bus system, which will be small, limited and appropriate for us. The extension will also get benefits from the annual income.

Wrote by:

Hamed AlGhamdi

Shouq Sadah

Problems of Transportation by Moath and Natalie

Dear Editor.

While studying at UCR for around a year, we have found the use of public transportation is not as efficient and safety as we thought. Since we are here, some of us have not seen a public bus at Moreno Valley, which is a place where a lot of students live, for example. Also, even if we want to know the city and its surrenders, it has been difficult to reach them.

Yesterday, we realized that this problem is very common among students at the university, especially for foreign students at UCR Extension Center. Consequently, students who cannot afford buying or renting a car are living limitedly. As an example, if one decides to buy a car, it is important to take into account getting the insurance which is very expensive and needs to be renewed every year. Moreover, the car will need maintenance which cost is high. Also, one has to spend for the gas and parking. So, as we see, it will take almost all of our bugged.

Finally, we want to share some ideas to improve the public transportation situation for students at UCR. First one, a new bus route for students, and second one, open a mail service for students to buy their own necessities. Sincerely, we wish you to support us and solve this problem as soon as possible.

Transportation Petition

To whom it may concern:

we the undersigned are the group of students in UCR extension center and we have been facing a common problem in transportation of all kinds.

Here are some negative effects of this problem :

_First,the routes from school to everywhere are limited.We can't go anywhere we want.For example, if we want to play in "magic mountain"or swim in"Laguna Beach",we can not take buses to get there.Also,getting home after classes will take us about one hour and half if we choose to take bus.


_Second,the interval between each bus coming is quite long. We have to make sure we don't miss the bus ,or we have to wait thirty minutes until the next bus come.


_Third,metro links is limited as well as trains.We can back up this point with a true story.Last Saturday,we want to go to the beach by train.there is only one station here and travelers only have two times to take it.So there is no way for us to get there except driving a car.


_Last but not least, there is no taxi,which will run faster than riding bikes,even buses, in this city.We are confused about it.

So,we are waiting to you, asking for your help.

However, we have some suggestions to solve this Problem which are:
_To expand to routes of the bus,especially cover the whole Riverside
_To change bus time schedules or increase the number of buses
_To increase two more train stations depending on the government's financial help.
_To set up a new taxi industry,making our life more comfortable.


Sincerely.

by Nureddin, Yu, and Hiro

Common questions by Natalie Plaza

Are we part of common people? Who is different from whom? How much do we know from ourselves? I am pretty sure that those are common questions that have many answers. Let me take the last month of our lives as an example of them. What have we done that we consider different from others? Go to Las Vegas or San Francisco? Enjoy Disneyland or Sea World? Those things are very common, I think.

Perhaps, is it not common for the person who is doing the action. For example, I went to Los Angeles two weeks ago,and it was awesome. I almost felt like a movie star; for me, for my life, for my days, going to Las Vegas made me feel uncommon, and exceptional. But now, what does it mean to me, to my life, to my days? Just a memory or images on my mind? It can be like that. There has to be more than that. Consequently, there are ways to make them be more than just a memory.

Related with it, one of the ways is writing them; this is why I like that many of you are sharing little stories from your lives. But, even though, I like to follow our teacher’s recommendation, write a question at the end, so that it would never end; it will always be there. In that way it will become part of your life.

Last Thursday

Last thursday was the last day that June was studying with us.

I knew it in the begining of our course. However, time went quickly and I didn't remember that he would leave us on Wednesday oy Thursday. Actually, in that morning, When I didn't see June in the class, I told to Hiro that June left Riverside. But I saw him in the writing class!! He told me that his flight was on friday. I felt sad at that moment because it is very hard to accept someone whom you see in these three weeks to leave.

However, this story didn't end up here. On Friday, we had a teacher evaluation during our writing class. Faye and I finished it early so we went to computer laboratory to use the internet. Guess who we saw there?

June!

This guy forgot that there are time differences between China and US. He found out this mistake at Thursday's night and came to school on Friday to correct the pick-up service. I hope he will be fine!

Phoebe

A Wonderful trip of Las Vagas

I went to Las Vagas last weekend with my friends. In fact, the aim of this trip is not for gambling, shopping, etc. I went there for watching my favourite opera - The Phantom of the Opera ! It's really fantastic! The design of theater is great and everything is beautiful! The singers sang very well and acted well too! They spent 40 billions for the setting. Everything looks great! I do recommend this opera to all of you! It is a must-see show in your life!

A interesting thing happened when my friends and I go back to LA. We met a BIG traffic jam in the 15 freeway! Normally, it only spends four hours between Las Vagas and LA. However, we needed to spend nearly 10 hours for returning to LA! I also tried walking on the freeway! It was because we sat on the car for a long time and wanted to have some movements! Finally, we arrived in LA at 2:00am! Overall, everything happened in this trip is unforgettable for me!

Phoebe

"ichigo-ichie" wo taisetsuni!!

I explained "kanji" before,So now I'll introduce you "yojijukugo",a four-"kanji" compound word.

"Yojijukugo" is like a proverb.We usually use "yojijukugo" when we face a certain situation and have the feeling of what "yojijukugo" says.

One of the most favorite "yojijukugo" is "ichigo-ichie".
"ichigo" means one's lifetime and "ichie" means meeting only once;Therefore "ichigo-ichie" has the literal meaning of "a once-in-a-lifetime meeting" and the derivative meaning that "The chance of meeting people could be a special gift that might never occur in your later life,so you should treasure it with thanks a gift as one of your gifts of your life'.



Now, I'm in the situation that there will be many "ichigo-ichie".
I think most peole i meet in UCR life will "ichie",but that's the very reason why I treat the encounter with the people so important experience.


Hiro

Good days with you June

First,I'm very happy to spend three weeks with you guys.I will miss you forever.

Yudongxia

Although I'm coming from Shanghai China, but I had been living in Guiyang, a city located in the west of China, for a long time. I love Guiyang, because there are many my best friends, lovely parents, nice relatives and sweet memories.

Guiyang is a city of pleasant climate and graceful natural sceneries, even if some views in Guiyang are not famous in China, they are also worth sightseeing. One of the traveling which has been brought me a nice memory is the trip to Yudongxia(鱼洞峡). Why it called Yudongxia? Because Yu(鱼) means fish, Dong(洞) indicates cave, and Xia(峡) represents canyon or gorge, all in all, Yudongxia means in the river of a gorge there is a cave have the shape like a fish, accurately, the head of the cave like a fish's mouth and the body of the cave like a fish's body.

Yudongxia is a kind of karst topography landscape. The front part of the cave is shaped by natural and the ending part of the cave is created by human beings. Isn't it magic that the natural creates the special beauty and after numerous years people find it and appreciate it? As you are seeing in the video below, the natural part of the cave have many Stalactites, in contrast, the ending of the cave is created by people -- they found the cave and created it's exit, so visitors can easily travel by boat through out the cave. Indeed, I'm not only surprised by the power of the natural, but also astonished by the ability of human beings. How much effort could they have to build the rest of the cave? I rather admire them for their astonishing working!

When my parents, the boatman and I were traveling through the cave by boat, I feel a little bit scary, because I was sitting in the front of the boat, which is the only moving one in the cave, and the boatman said sometimes there were many bats on the top of the cave.

I love this memorable trip in Yudongxia, and it's beauty brought me a wonderful travel experience. Although it's just a small sightseeing and doesn't have many famous Stalactites, I had a sweet trip with my parents, I will memorize it forever^^

PS: There are many famous natural sceneries and special wild vegetables in Guizhou. Which I should tell you is that Guizhou is a province and Guiyang is its capital city, in other words, Guiyang in Guizhou like Los Angeles in California. I have downloaded some pictures of Guizhou's natural sceneries from internet, and made it to the following video. Hope you will like it : ) Furthermore, the wild vegetable in the last 3 photo called Zheergen(折耳根), it is a special local product in Guizhou, I always memorize the flavor of it my mother cooked =D

Faye

The difference between America and Japan

When I first came to America 3 weeks ago, I found there is many difference between America and Japan. I'll introduce two of them.

First, in America, cars run right side of the road, and they can turn right after short stop even if the light is red. However, in Japan cars run left side and they can't turn right or left except the light shows the special sign. Additionally, I was surprised that American road was very wide. The free way has four or five traffic lanes while Japan has two. That's why we have enormous traffic jam!

Second, Ifound American people don't go to grocery shop everyday, but they instead buy many grocery two or three a week. I guess it is so far from their houses to stores that they can't go frequently. Therefore, stores have a large selection of frozen food and instant that can be preseived for a long time.When I went to "walmart" with my host family for the first time, I was sueprised by the big shopping cart and conveyer belt beside cash desk. In japan, we usually have some stores within couple of minutes walk, so many of us go to groccery stores four or five days a week. Additionaly, we like to eat fresh food, so we buy the ingredients of dinner on the day they are used.

written by Minori

www.ted.com

I wanna to recommend you a worth watching website http://www.ted.com/ . The first time when I browsed it I find that it is very different from usual video website.

Firstly, these videos are short within about half hour and various topics covering with almost every subjects related to technology, entertainment, design, business, science and global issues. In addition, these riveting talks present by many remarkable people, such as Stephen Hawking, James Surowiecki, J.J. Abrams, and so on, who kindly spark his(/her) worth ideas to the people all over the world. Most talks are very helpful for enlarging the range of our basic knowledge. Furthermore, subtitles are available in many languages, so it's not hard to understand the contents of a talk and it's a good way to learn English. By the way, when you go to the page with definite talk you are interested in, you can download the talk by click on the button "download" and can choose "Download video to desktop (MP4)" , open interactive transcript on the right to click on any phrase to play the video from that point, and watch the comments discussed by those people who have seen the talk, of couse, you also can sign in to add your astounding comments. Hope you will enjoy it. Have fun~~

The following video I was download from http://www.ted.com/ called Sarah Jones as a One-Woman Global Village

www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/sarah_jones_as_a_one_woman_global_village.html

Faye