To be Better me!
Time is like a flowing river, and the year rolls by. While walking in the Cheshire
Academy schoolyard and watching the changing scenery, I remember my change during the past year and have a lot of feelings and ideas in my mind. Reviewing the past year, I have made progress in citation, writing thinking mode and blogs, creative stories and essays. Now, I would like to summarize what I harvested and learned over this past year.
Speaking of progress, citation technique which once troubled me the most should be mentioned first of all. In English writing, the correct citation is a problem that cannot be ignored. Improper citation is like a beautiful girl with shaved eyebrows, affecting our aesthetic appreciation of the entire writing. In the beginning of this year, I did have some weaknesses in citation. I did not know how to correctly cite literature, and how to properly make reference to researchers’ studies rather than plagiarizing. Fortunately and gratefully, my teachers understand my plight. Mrs. Guarino gave me a lot of help, and Mrs. Hovasse spent one-on-one time improving my citation. Under their help and my efforts, I have made marked progress.
Another noteworthy progress is the change in the thinking mode of my writing. The mother-tongue thinking mode poses a certain impact on the English writing. In Chinese thinking mode, phrases and sentences are used to describe the purpose, time, place, cause, examples and conditions before expressing an opinion. Some examples can often be found in my previous blog. In a blog I posted in September 2014, I used a passage introducing the topic of this blog, as: “In this day and age, writing is become a main part of life, because it’s one way we represent our thought and ideas. We write on homework, test, paper and so on. Personally, I like writing so much, simply because writing can show my opinion to the readers adequately”. Reviewing this expression, I realize this is a typical Chinese thinking of writing: a more euphemistic way to elicit the topic. In my previous statements, I explain the importance of writing in life, and then express my personal attitudes and opinions towards writing. Sentence structure like this is very common in Chinese writing, which suggests the importance of the main point. However, after this year’s learning, I understand that English writing puts more emphasis on confronting the theme directly. Perhaps, a modification of this presentation can include more recognition of the native speakers. The original can be revised as: “writing is an effective way to reflect individual attitude, cognition and critical thought in our daily life. This is also an important reason why I have a strong passion for writing”.
I have gained experience in writing blogs, creative stories and essays, and I find my writing has improved significantly. On September 3, 2014, I posted my first blog, although it is just a quote. Now, my blog has substantial content and I feel writing blog is a pleasure. Looking back on the course of nearly a year to write blogs, it is more like long-distance running. In the starting phase, my momentum was overwhelming, and there were too many words I wanted to express. But after three months when the momentum had settled down, I entered a stage of difficulties and hardships. I call this stage an attitude sickness of writing when I did not know what to write and how to write. I pushed through this weary phase, and entered a relatively easy phase, which is my current stage. Now, I record the moments of life readily with writing knowledge and skills I have learned in the class. The creative stories I have written show more logic. Sometimes I think I am a little complacent with the style of writing I have formed.
To sum up, I think I have gained some significant progress in citation principles, writing thinking mode and blogs, creative stories and essays. Meanwhile, from correcting my mistakes and making progress, I have grown. Can the history of a person’s writing be considered as his or her spiritual history of life? I think the answer is yes. The course of my writing during this past year reflects my growth. I suddenly realize that this is the reason why I like writing because writing allows me to know who I am in a deeper more meaningful way.
Revise:
Do not skip breakfast anymore!
“What it is they say? “Breakfast like a King, Lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper!” This is a old adage from Daniel Herman.
Well, what it is saying is that the breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I entirely agree with this statement, and I MUST HAVE BREAKFAST! Now, I am going to tell you guys my personal experience about a result of skipping breakfast!
To be honest, I was one of the people who skip breakfast very often. I used to not care about breakfast so much because I thought it was unnecessary. I would rather sleep late than eat a brunch or lunch. However, I was totally wrong. I underwent a trouble with my stomach. I remember it was on Saturday early morning. I was snuggling on the bed like I usually did on weekends. Suddenly, I had cramps in my stomach or belly. I was not sure which part of my body was wrong; I just felt painful, and the feeling was like there are thousands of ants were drilling at heart toward me.
My mom was super nervous and drove me to the hospital immediately and as fast as she can. We walked into the hospital, I feel like my stomachache had been growing duller and fainter. On the contrary， I had a feeling that there might be a terrible thing happened in the next few minutes. I started to become upset and extremely nervous.
Doctor:" Do you always eat three meals on time? "
"Uh....kind of..." I said.
Doctor: "What do you mean by that ? "
Me: “It depends, I mean it depends on what time I get up. If I get up early, I will eat every meal on time. But if I get up at noon, I may just have two meals a day, because I would skip the breakfast."
"She always get up late, and directly eat lunch instead of breakfast." My mom said. Doctor:“ That makes a lot of sense! Now, listen, you have to eat breakfast every day, Every! single! day! because the time between dinner and the next morning's meal is the longest, which means your body has lacked of food at a long period of time. Also, especially for teenagers, like you, you need it even more. Your growing bodies and developing brains need nutrition, and eat breakfast everyday will provide many benefits to your health and wellbeing. Well, do you understand what I am saying right now? "
Me: "Yes.. "
Doctor:"Ok, very good! and right now, you have to hold this paper and go to do a preliminary test------gastroscope."
Me: "Wait, what? Gastroscopy? Are you kidding me? Is that serious?! I thought...."
Doctor: " you thought that it was not a big deal?"
Me: "yep, I don't want to do Gastroscopy. That will make me to feel sick."
Doctor: well, I know. But if I don't check your stomach, how can I know the problem inside it and what makes you so painful? As a doctor, I have to be responsible for you. You need to hold this paper, and pay the money first, then come back to find me. “
Me: “ but….”
Mom: “ Just go with me ! He is a doctor. You have to listen to him. Hurry up, Jen!”
Few minutes later……..
Mom: “ doctor, we already payed the money. We can start to do a gastroscope for my daughter.”
Me: “ No… I am not ready yet, mom…”
Doctor: “ Just take a deep breath. Everything will be fine. Just a small test, don’t be so nervous. First of all, I would like to tell you a few notes on security. You may feel sick or weird during the test, but do not move your body or scream. Just raise your right hand, I will know you feel uncomfortable. Then, I will stop. Okay?
Me: “ Oh, ok…..”
Doctor: “ Good. Then, go sit at that wood chair. We gonna start in a minute.”
After 15 minutes…
As you know, the process was scary, and it made me feel sick. The doctor grab a tube from a medicine chest. Then, he used a thin, flexible telescope into my mouth, and passed through my throat... Oh my goodness. I can’t even imagine that moment again. That could be one of the most horrible experiences in my memory.
Anyway, after this traumatic experienced, I gained a lesson——eat the breakfast every day, every single day!! Since I don’t wanna do gastroscopy one more time !
That’s pretty much what happened in my “breakfast story” You guys could see how ignorance I am.
Before I finished this blog, I wanna you guys ask yourself one question——my dear readers.
Do you always skip the breakfast?
If the answer is yes! please pay attention on it! I know that most of you often grab a snake while dashing to work or to school. But it is wrong! you truly have to realize how important the breakfast are!
If the answer is no! congratulations! continue to eat your breakfast! Good for you!
In the next blog, I will post a homemade recipe to teach you guys how to make the quick and healthy breakfast! Keep following on my blog posts, see you on Monday!
My first time cooking adventures!
My dear readers:
Welcome to Jennifer’s Adventure Island! Are you ready to adventure with me? Today, I will take your guys into a time machine on a journey to my past.
Before we aboard, let’s keep two questions in mind : What’s your first time cooking experience？ and is good or worse？
Are you ready? Let’s go!
———————
Time back to 2001/4/28….
When I was young, my mom didn't allow me to enter the kitchen since one of my classmates' houses exploded due to his mistakes cooking. I did not resist because I was truly scared by that accident. However, a few years passed by, and I became more interested in cooking. I found that I often stuck around my mom and observed as she prepared the food. Nonetheless, the kitchen still had a "stop" sign for me and I didn't have any chance to experiment with cooking. But my mom couldn't always stop me, could she?
One beautiful Saturday morning I got up early as usual. My mom had gone grocery shopping, my dad was still sleeping in his room, and no one else was at home, except my adorable dog. It was time to strike back! I sneaked through the living room, and there was the kitchen right in front of me! I was extremely excited.
I stepped inside with a look of unrestrained greed in my eyes. I touched all the household utensils: the tidy dishes like mirrors, the oven like a tiny house, and the pans sparkling like diamonds. Everything was so fresh! As I hadn't yet eaten breakfast, I decided to make a delicious omelette. Since I had seen my mom do it, how could it be hard for me?
I started to work as quietly as I could, since I did not want to wake my dad. I took two eggs, onions, and three tomatoes from the refrigerator. I knew the basics, so I began to cut the vegetables into shreds. I chopped the onions on the work surface just I had seen chefs do it on TV. Then came the tomatoes. I washed them first and started chopping.This time I cut my finger…. “Ouch!” I screamed. There was no bleeding but it was truly painful.
The little hurt didn't stop me, and after about a few minutes I stopped whining. Then, I continued to wash my eggs. They were hard to crack in half. I tried several times to practice….and you know, I even spilled some on the floor accidentally.
The pepper was next! Well, my mom always keeps pepper on the top shelf of the cabinet. I just couldn't understand why she put it so high. Whatever the logic might be, it was super annoying to jump to reach it. After countless failures, I went to the living room and moved a chair as a tool. I climbing up the chair then I jumped to the sink. After that, I grabbed the pepper and chili powder.
Then, I put the eggs, onions, pepper, tomatoes, and chili power into one huge bowl and whisked it all. I lit the electric stove and put a pan on it, then added some oil to it. Everything was going perfectly——I was elated with my success. It brought to mind a TV show called “ A Bite of China”. The chefs in that program can only use one hand to turn the egg upside down in the pan. I decided to try it with my eyes closed…. because I was overconfident. When I opened my eyes again, there was nothing in the pan,
“ Wait, where is my breakfast???” I looked wildly around for my omelette. Finally I found the omelette sticking to the ceiling. “Oh my god, are you kidding me? How can you jump to the ceiling, my dear omelette!!” I was so surprised and nervous. Then I grabbed a stool and broom to clean the ceiling.
While I was busy cleaning the ceiling, someone came up behind me. It was my mom. She was angry to see the kitchen in a mess, and I must have looked ridicules to her.The cabinets were all open, and some eggs, pepper and chili powder were on the stove and floor.
My mother found a punishment for me —I had to clean the kitchen first and wash all the dishes for one month. Well, after I had done my punishment, I realized it was so tiring to do the housework. My first cooking experience turned out to be a disaster, and I had to do one month of drudgery….I mean “ Sous chef ”. But I was happy with my accomplishment, since at least I knew how tired my mom was, and I would never again try to turn eggs upside down in the pan!
The end = new beginning
Today is a special day. Guess what? It's the last day of my 30-day challenge. I am extremely excited about it, and I can't believe that I insist on one things for one month. Is that miracle?
To be honest, I can’t really focus on one thing for a long time. For example, when I was young, I wanted to become a pianist. My mom spent a lot of time and money to help me to achieve my little dram. However, I finally gave up on it, because I felt like it’s so boring that I sit with piano all day. At that time, I wanted to find something more funny, and I can do it outside of my room. Then, I joined school volleyball team. At first, I was a hardest player in our team, and I would never be late for my practice. After two weeks, I started to find reasons to excuse my practice, because I felt that it was too tired, and every day we did the same thing during the practice. So, I dropped out the team after the third weeks. See? I am not a persistent person.
However, in my 30-day cooking challenge, I am insist of doing the challenge thing. and I truly learned a lot from this project.
One of the most valuable things that I learned from this project was cooking skill. As I mentioned before, I’m the only child in my family. My parents never allowed me to touch the kitchen, even grab a spoon for myself. They will stop me immediately. It caused me became a “ little princess” in my family. Well, before this cooking challenge, I did not know anything about cooking, but right now! I can tell you that I am a “little chef”, and I can make sushi, Thai foods, pancakes, fried chicken, etc. I am so proud of myself!
The other important thing that I learned within the 30-day cooking challenge was that I became more creative. When I wrote a post regarding the cooking of crispy bananas. I followed tips from Jenn Segal ( profession chef ). Even though I followed the tips, I was able to apply my own creative skills on preparing the crispy bananas. Meanwhile, my observing skills have improved drastically as shown by my post regarding how to prepare Thai food. There was a newly Thai restaurant opened near our school. I’ve been hoping and waiting for a Thai restaurant in Cheshire for a long time. Then, I went to that place and wrote a comment about the food I ordered. In the blog, I was described the taste of sweet Thai wings, coconut ice-cream and Thai pad .One thing that I felt extremely happy was that my classmate Amanda went to That restaurant yesterday. She told me that she looked at my blog comment and order the same coconut ice-cream as I do. She found that was tested great, very smoothy and sweet. She love it so much , and it already became one of her favorite ice-cream in CT. Through her message, I sincerely happy about that. Well, What I can say is that the whole cooking challenge has assisted me in terms of writing and also engaging this topic with everyone in my classes.
Finally, I founded out the blogging exercises that we used to do every week gave me a lot of motivations; because I could record what I did for the entire 30-day cooking challenge. Especially the pancakes that I had done for my host family, It seems like they don’t like it very well. This is because the younger brother doesn't liking bananas. Then, I did another pancake without a banana and he likes it very much.
Through the 30 days of cooking, I am practicing more and more. Also, I believe with the days going on like this. I will become a better cook and a writer as well when I keep trying to do this on basis. This has encouraged me to continue practicing on writing for my own development.
A friend of mine once told me that home cooked foods are very delicious and tasty. Cooking food from scratch is very beneficial in terms of health and also taste. It is hard to find healthy foods at these fast food joints. These places rarely use the original items in a recipe, but basically most of the times, they use less quality ingredients. They do this because they want to cut costs where for instance they may use lard or margarine instead of using butter. Home cooking makes me looks more healthy because one is able to controlling what goes in to your meals. Also food prepared from scratch has less preservatives because of the fact that they are not stored for a long time.
In addition, cooking makes me to be more creative. For some of us, cooking enhancing their creativity. This is because it gives me the chance to have an art, creativity as well as imagination. Therefore because of engaging in frequent cooking’s from scratch one is able to get some great recipes. My cooking effort have been able to make me became a creative person because of the fact that I am able to create my own home made recipes after the learning experiences of the 30 day cooking challenge.
The cooking challenging has been able to upping my writing skills. The difficulties are used to encounter writing a 500 words passage are no longer there. I can comfortably write more than 500 words and without any challenge.
Wait, I forget to tell you guys! I have already made a new plan——doing ACT problems every day. Although my 30-day cooking challenge was end, I have new goal for myself. I believed that knowledge is infinite. I will keep doing my 30-day challenge; and I hope you guys can join me! Let’s do it together!
I am not a vegetarian, I am a dessertarian!
Do you like sweet foods? If yes, what's your favorite dessert? Apple pie? Doughnuts? or banana toast? Admittedly, those desserts were taste good. but If you ask me what is my favorite, I would definitely say chocolate cake!! It is truly the best dessert all around the world. Today, I would teach you guys how to make a delicious chocolate cake!
My host mom Angela is from France. She is one of the best cooker I ever meet. Yesterday, she made me a piece of chocolate cake. It was dangerously good! Like, “Lady M” cake ( the best cake store in NYC) !!! Guess what? She taught me a secret menu of making a delicious french chocolate cake. I started my chocolate cake adventure by baking this cake – twice. Since first time, I was texting to my friends so I missed it. When I realized, the cake already like a mess. I touched it, it was hard like a “ black stone”. I’m not even kidding. It was ….terrible! I think you can imagine how “well” that turned out. Never mind, I quickly whipped it up again, this time, I focusing my full attention on the cooking process. Finally. the cake turned out nicely and I was so proud of myself.
Now, I would like to show you guys the process about how to make a delicious chocolate cake.
Here’s what I did:
First, we have to list all the ingredients we need. You have to prepare dark chocolate, sugar, flour, a bit of baking power cocoa, and my secret ingredient —water. Sure, you could use milk or honey. I felt so annoyed while doing this step, because I truly had a hard time to find cocoa at that time, all other things were easy to get. I went to Stop & Shop twice, and CVS once. However, there was no cocoa in these two stores. Then, my host mom drove me to New heaven, which is another town near Cheshire. Finally, I found it in an unspectacular place called “ Asian meal”. Just this part, It took me almost three hours to get through it. After that, everything was all set! we were pretty much prepared, and we could start to make it.
Then, the next step was to mix all the dry ingredients together. Actually I enjoyed this process very much, because it took me back to the childhood. I remember when I was in little. Every time when I finished my own meals, I would push everyone full speed ahead until they finished dinner. You may ask me why? because mixed all the leftover into one unwashed dishes seemed to be the funniest thing for me. I truly loved the moment when I combined everything together. It might be looks sick… but… I love the process. At least, to me, It was a great memory. Well, come back to our business. After this step, we had to stir vinegar, oil, vanilla, water and egg. Then make sure you add these ingredients individually, and put them into the separate big bowl.
The third step was to add the cold water on top of the chocolate cake ingredients. Then, continued to mix all of the ingredients until the mixture was smooth. This step was extremely important, because the first time when I made the chocolate cake, just because I forgot to mix all of the materials, I failed. The chocolate cake looked terrible and tasted like a “solid soy sauce”. Thus, it was a point that we must have noticed!
If you follow all the step carefully, DANG DANG DANG! ! It’s time for baking!
I loved baking, because when I put on my gloves, and held the cake pan, I felt like I was the best chef in the world.(laugh..).
The last step was easy, just baked on 326 degrees (F) about 45 minute. After that, the cake would be finished. Finally, you can put several strawberries on top of the chocolate cake. By the way, if you don’t like eat strawberry, you can put whatever fruit or vegetables you want.
‘ “I am not a vegetarian, I'm a dessertarian."(pinterest.com) This was a great quote by Bill Watterson.’ I totally agreed with this saying. I was truly a dessertarian, and I cannot be comfortable without the desserts. Especially my yummy chocolate cake!!! To sum up, it was a hard challenge for me, but finally I did it! I interested in making food, I also found that there was nothing beyond the feeling when you taste a cake which made by yourself. I’m not even kidding. It was the best chocolate cake I have ever had! Trust me, it was better than Lady M. Although I admitted that it looks ugly, it tasted pretty good!!! Anyway, I will continue doing my 30 day challenge. I promise that I will do my best, and learn more, eat more in the entire 24 days!
Bann Thai ——- สวัสดี
It is not a secret—I am a big fan of food. I love to eat, try new dishes and take photos of the food I eat when I was traveling. Every country have their different traditional cuisine, different custom, and I truly enjoy all of single moment when I eat, or searching for food .
About 2 months ago, there was a newly Thai restaurant opened near our school. I’ve been hoping and waiting for a Thai restaurant in Cheshire for a long time. Since when I was in China, I always ate Thai food with my mom, and I really like it. However, I have too much school work need to do, so I don’t have time to go there, even though just across the street. Luckily, I didn’t have too much homework this week, I decided to go there with my host mom—Angela.
To be honest, this place was not a big restaurant. Just a few tables, chairs and two waiters. However, in this restaurant, you can see many traditional stuff, such as pictures, utensil and curio. This kind of decoration exert a peculiar fascination on a great many people, including me. I also found a very interesting thing at that Thai restaurant—every menu printed by different color. I asked why to one of the waiters. He told me that : “ because everyone have their own lucky color. Guests can choose their favorite color. The propose of doing this, just because we wanna every guests can be more happy and in a good mood to taste Thai food.” See! How special that was! I love that idea.
After I look at the menu, I decided to order the Thai Chicken wings, coconut ice-cream. My host mom ordered “Pad Thai with Shrimp”.
The Chicken wing taste very good in this Thai restaurant! I like to eat everything about chicken. Especially chicken wings. In America, Buffalo chicken seems more popular than regular chicken wings. Since you can see it on almost every America restaurants’ menu. To be honest, I don’t really like to order Buffalo chicken when I was in America restaurant. The one reason is that I don’t like the tangy taste of the Buffalo chicken. It’s tasted wired and sour. At least, to me, it is not good. Also, after I ate whole thing, my hand would become oily, greasy or otherwise dirty. However, Thai Chicken wings taste totally different. Here, image that: the chicken wings have crisp on the outside, but not crunchy or tough. Flavored with Thai spices and topped with a zingy squeeze of lime juice. When you put it in your mouth, you can easily feel the tender on the inside. it melt in your mouth. How wonderful it was！
Also, you don’t have to worried about your hand would be oily like you eat Buffalo chicken. Moreover, you can see a orange sauces beside chicken wings, actually I don’t really know what kind of sauces it is, but it taste similar as “sweet and sour sauces”, and a little bit spicy. Anyway, I truly like this chicken wings, and I highly recommend it!
Here is a picture about “Pad Thai”. I am sorry that I forget to take a picture when I eat this. So, I found it on the internet. Well, I do love this meal. Uh… I don’t know how to describe the flavor. It actually taste the same like fried rice noodle, and the only thing different is that they add shrimp in it. This kind of chow noodle is popular in China, I almost eat over 200 times in my life. So I already grow numb, but my host mom like it very much. She said the rice noodle are made by hand, and it taste springy. Also, As the name implies——“Pad Thai”, you can choose different food with your chow noodles. If you are vegetarian, you can order the “mix vegetable Pad Thai”; If you love duck, you can order the “ Duck pad Thai”; If you love beef, you can order the “ Beef pad Thai”, etc. Well, the flexible menu are looks more graspable and humane than other restaurants.
After the main course, I started to enjoy my desert——coconut ice-cream. It is fresh, fluffy, moist and delicious. When I put it into my mouth, that tastes, it reminds me of childhood days. When I was in kindergarten, every time when I don’t wanna go to school, my grandma would buy a small coconut ice-cream for me; and as long as I have coconut ice-cream, I would be willing to do anything. Of course, including go to class. Also, the service in this restaurant are intimately. Since my host mom needed to pick her son Danny at 2 o’clock in Cheshire high school, so we have to leave the restaurant as soon as possible. However, I haven’t finish my dessert yet, and I really want to finish it or ask for a container to take it with me. But, I didn’t say anything. You know what? After we check out, the waiter gave me a small plastic container, then put my little coconut ice-cream inside, then told me that I can carry it with me. At that moment, I feel like this restaurant provides the best service in this world, because he can understand what I want, even without a word!
In general, I highly recommend this wonderful restaurant. I also hope this place can be more popular, because it seems deserted. However, I promise you guys, they do have delicious food, perfect service, and I will come to this restaurant again!
If you guys wanna have a try, here is an address& phone number:
Bann Thai Restaurant
(203) 439-8918
