Journal #13 I've had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my American families !!!

I've had such a great Thanksgiving with my host families. We were having so much fun together. I actually had 3 Thanksgiving dinners because I have 2 host families. I got to spend time with my best American friend back in high school here. 

 On Wednesday we were going to see the movie Twilight, it was great. I love the main character in the movie, Edward, he has a gorgeous face and he's just so awesome. I think it would be so cool to have a vampire boyfriend. After the movie, we went to the Chinese restaurant and had dinner there. It was fun and I felt really nice when I was with family, it felt like home, I love them. 

 Then on Thursday we were having dinner with my host mom's family. We were having a big dinner at the Italian place named Strings. The dinner was so good. After that we played the game called White Elephant, I got to open a lot of presents, it was so much fun. Then we have pumpkin pie which is delicious.

 On Friday we went shopping for little while. After seeing the long line at the mall, we didn't want to waste our time there, we went back home and prepared for the big dinner. Everybody was there to see me and they made me feel really special. I missed them a lot. After the dinner, we got together and went to the Cornish Christmas downtown. I got to see more friends there.

 I was having a fantastic Thanksgiving. I'm so thankful to have such great American families. They are so precious.   

Journal #12 . . . I am thankful ! ! !

This year's gone by really fast, this Thanksgiving will be my second Thanksgiving in the U.S. There are so much people for me to say thanks for what they have done for me.

First, I want to thank my family for always stay by my side, always support what I do. I want to thank them for letting me live in this beautiful world happily.

Second, I want to thank my U.S. family for loving me and letting be the real member of their family. They've given me so much caring. I want to thank them for all the beautiful experiences that I had here in the U.S.

Last, I want to thank to all my friends, Vietnamese friends, U.S. friends, and ALP's friends. They are always with me, helping and caring me when I need, and supporting me when I'm upset or homesick. They make me feel like they are my big family, who let me use their shoulder when I need, who help me with all the things that I never have to deal with.

Living alone is not easy. But all the supports from my love ones make me stronger. I want to be thankful for having them, for everything. I want to be thankful for letting all my love ones have a healthy and happy life.

I am thankful !!!

Journal #10

Today is the very important day not only for American citizens but also international citizens like me. American citizens will vote to choose the person who deserve the most to lead the country. I'm very excited about this event. Also, people will vote for or against the proposition 8.
Firstly, in my opinion, I like Obama better. He's is younger and I think he is smarter, too. I like the way he does all his speeches. I think he'll make a better president for America. And one more thing, I like Democratic more than Republican, because I think it's better, just in my view.
Second, gay married is one of the very interesting topics for me. Because I am for gay married. I think they are just normal people so when normal people love each other, get together and get married, it's the normal thing to do. It's hard to be gay, a lot of pressures when people look at them, point at them, like they are mentally ill or something like that but actually, they are very normal, just like us. I have a lot of gay friends, one of them is my best American friend. He is very sweet and cool. There's no reasons not to let them be normal. They are so fine. I want everybody to be happy to do what they want so if getting married makes gay people happy, I am so for it.

Journal #9, free writing

That was such a long time I haven't written anything in this blog. Today I want to write about my American life after over a year. 

The first thing I want to say is I miss my family, a whole lot. I still miss the family's meal everyday my mom cooked when I have to prepare for food all by myself. I miss my dad when I have some hard projects, he used to help me but now I have to figure them out by myself, and they take a long time. I miss my little sister when I need someone to talk to after the long day of class. I miss them a lot.

Today is Halloween, people are suppose to go out and have fun, but I stay at home on my own. I feel really lonely. Halloween is not A Vietnamese traditional event but every year, my family still go out and have a great dinner to celebrate it. This year, things have changed. I see the little boy of my roommate is going out with his parents to go trick or treat, I feel jealous. I am so jealous with him right now, he has his mom and his dad with him, but I don't have them today. I just can see them through webcam, try to smile so that they don't have to worry about me.

Life goes on and I still have a long journey to go to. I'm just feeling not very good right now but I'll change. Like Morrie in the book that I've read, I'll just spend a little bit of time a day to cry, to miss my family, and then get up and be happy the rest of the day. 

If they do wish in Halloween, I wish that I could go back to my real home in Vietnam just for an hour right now.

Journal #6

 One of the greatest things ever happened in my life is to be an exchange student in the U.S. for the whole senior year of high school. I met such great people, and my host family is one of the best. I have a young host dad and host mom, they're just 25 so they're really open-minded. They showed me a lot of fun stuffs, they're not only my parents but also my friends. I just love them so much. They just got married in May 2008 and I got a chance to be their flower girl, that was super awesome. I can never forget the time we've been through together as a family, Thank Giving, Christmas, Luna New Year, etc. There was so much good memories, I remember when it was Luna New Year and I couldn't go back home, I was so upset. My host family letted me make the traditional Vietnamese food for them, and they made me feel like real New Year eve that I used to have with my family back home. I love my host family so much. There will be ups and downs, Something I might forget but I will never forget them and all out great memories together.

Tourism disadvantages

Nowadays tourism becomes one of the most important fields in the industry. Besides all the good things about tourism, there are still some disadvantages that travelers might get.

 First of all, tourism now is so developed, along with that is the increasing number of tourist organizations or center. It's really hard for travelers to decide to choose the right organization, because some of them are just built to get money from the travelers and they don't care much about how the services for their customers.

 Secondly is some people they like to travel all by their selves and they don't really have the experiences to do that, it causes a lot of risks. For example you can get lost or even more dangerous like you are traveling some of the dangerous areas such as wild forest or areas that have wild animals.

 There are 2 things that I think is that disadvantages of tourism.

Journal #4

I've been to some different places in California, and two of them that I really enjoy are Yosemite and San Francisco.
Yosemite is so beautiful. It's the most beautiful place I've ever been to in the U.S. There are a lot of streams, and river, and all nature is around me. I felt really peaceful when I was there. I could even hear the voice of the bird singing, smell the trees and leaves, feel the fresh air and the dews on my face. Everything is just so fresh and pure in Yosemite. The people here are really warm and friendly, they always smiled at me when I looked at them and when I asked them something.
San Francisco is different. It's a really crowded city, with a lot of busy people. I love San Francisco because it's full of animation, I felt very active when I was there. The light's still on until 1 or 2 in the morning, I can feel the people working very hard, I can feel the life there. Everything is just moving all the time, and it makes me feel like I want to catch up with the life style of the economic life. People here don't really care that much about others but everybody has their own stuffs to deal with so it's not the big deal for people here. I think if I live here I will get used to it and I will have a very busy life doing the job that I like.
There are the two city in the U.S. that I enjoy very much. They are different, they don't even have any thing similar but I still like both of them because of their own.