Tazza, my best Korean movie -Yeobin

-Yeobin

           Have you ever tried Korean movie? My best Korean movie is ‘Tazza. In Korean language it means gambler who cheat very well in gamble. The original story of this movie is cartoon. It has four chapters, but this movie story is about the first chapter. Many people think that if we have a lot of money, we should be happy, so someone who earns money easily should be happy. However, if you watched this movie, your opinion will be changed. This movie shows peoples emotion and conflict very well. Moreover, there is many characters in this movie, and it make me to think like who is the good guy, or maybe there is no good side or bad side.

           Movie’s main character is ‘Goni’. He was good and faithfulness worker in furniture factory. However, he lost all money that he saved for three year in one night. Next day, he steels his sister’s compensation to play gamble because he believes hope, but he lost whole sister’s money in one day again. So, he run away from home to revenge and earn sister’s money. However, he doesn’t have any special skills, so he wanders the casino. While he is wandering the casino, he meets his master who is the best ‘tazza’ in Korea. After several years, he also became good gambler. After that his master killed by killer, and he start to find killer and his enemy, and while that he grow up inside. So, this movie is gambling movie, but also growth movie.

           As I mentioned, some people in this movie earn money easily, but they are not happy as we think. Their life is not stable, and they are law-breaker. So, they want to live normal life that likes normal people. They want to love someone, and they want to make family as normal people. This movie shows those things very well. I can see why they are in those situations and their life without any fantasy clearly. In movie the master said “Hwatu is sad drama.” (Hwatu is Korean style card like western trumps. We also have gamble which play by that card.) There is no any fantasy in gambling.

           The last reason that I like this movie is actor. Include extra actor, this movie’s actors are veteran actor in Korea. Moreover, the director used them very well. I think that good actor is who looks natural. It means character looks like actor. This movie’s characters can do it, so I can concentrate movie easier.

           I watched this movie about seven times, but every time this movie makes me think new things. From this movie I learned that happiness is from your mind, not money. This movie is very good movie, but if you want to try, you have to know Korean language. It will make you enjoy this movie.

What did I learn in summer quarter -Yeobin

-Yeobin

           We came to America to improve our English skills. I have studied for two quarter, so my English skills should be upgraded than before I came to here. Actually, I cannot realize that my English skills are getting better or not, so I think about that.

           First, I am not good at writing. My major is electronic engineering, so writing is not important as physics or math; moreover, I had never learned writing systemic. However, in here I learned about how to write. First time, it was really difficult. I cannot choose topic that I have to write, and how to organize paragraphs. I could feel that it was getting better at the end of the first quart in here. However, I had met new problems in this quarter. Now, I how to write easy, but I always confuse grammar such as tense or articles. When I care about those things, I cannot make sentence that I want to write. It felt like slump. However, soon I found myself that I tried to fix it and it was correct! Still my writing in English is terrible, but I feel I am doing well. Moreover, this blog helps me to improve my English. I can read essays that my classmate wrote. While I read that, I thought I have to try using this word or this styles sentence. The problem was I am so lazy, so I didn’t try a lot.

           From 500 level, we can choose elective class. I was 400 level in spring quarter, so this quarter’s elective class is my first elective class. My class is Business English. As its title, we learned English when we use in business situation. It was really interested because I mentioned my major is electronic engineering. Everything that I learned in class was almost new things to me. It was really fantastic experience. Now, I know how to explain company or answer the phone when I am in the office. Actually, we had presentation about company which included history, vision, business activity, and so on. It would not be specific as EIB course, but it was enough for me.

           Sometimes I thought that I didn’t achieve in America. Actually, it is correct if my goal is too high. I cannot make my English skills like American native speakers in 6 months. So, I decide to small things that I had changed in there, and after the small thing is stacked, it would be bigger as I hoped.

Big Bang Theory - Yeobin

       -Yeobin

           Do you know ‘Big Bang Theory’, which is American sitcom drama broadcast by CBS? This drama is one of my best America dramas. I do not know it is famous or not, but I guess it is because about three months ago their season 6 had just finished, and they had decided to make new season. (It will broadcast end of this month.) Now, they have four main actors and three main actresses, but actually at the first season, they have only one main actress. Moreover, their plot was story about neighbors that two nerds and one beautiful women. The scale of drama is getting bigger and it means it is enough successful.

I have several reasons that I like this drama. The most important reason is of course that drama is really funny, and I feel some sympathy characters.  I am not nerd like those characters, but I also don’t have social skills like them. Penny who is the beautiful women and this drama’s main character try to understand their life and job, and also Leonard and Sheldon also try to understand and learn normal people’s life. It looks not big deal, but because of that their society is bigger than past. People are changed by each other, and they make up for their fault. It is still strange combination, but because of that this drama is more interesting. Sometimes it is funny but sometimes it is touching.

However, this drama makes some funny stereotype that every scientists and engineers live like this drama’s character. It is exaggerated character, but people believe. As those characters engineers and scientist want to know reason many times and try to do something new (only in something not normal), but it is not meaning that they are nerds. We are little bit different because our field is different. Moreover, every scientists and engineers like video game, star trek movie, or D&D. maybe some of us like that, but not all. Because of those reasons, there is rumor that scientist doesn’t like this drama

I like American dramas. They have good stories and a lot of genre, and it can help me to improve my listening skills. Moreover, this drama’s story is about everyday life. Sometimes they use technical term, but it is rare. So, I can recommend this drama if you want to try America drama! You will not regret! I promise you!

The Lord of The Ring (LOTR) -Yeobin

My favorite movie is ‘The Lord of the rings’. It was a novel which was written by J.R.R Tolkin and the movie made by Peter Jackson ten years ago. Many people think that it is big scale fantasy movie and story is just for destroyed the ring, but I don’t think so. It is not a wrong opinion, but I think this movie told me more things. First is Frodo. He is a main character of this movie, and he was a hobbit. Actually, Tolkin made hobbit from England farmers. He wanted to show normal people who had not any special power by hobbit. So, Frodo could be representative of us who was a coward and wanted to live in his cave for a long time. However, as the story progressed, I can see that he found his brave heart. He met a lot of dangerous situation, but he had endured that and I see he is changing inside. Tolkin wanted to show that even though he is small and weak human, he could do it because all we have brave in our heart. Moreover, I think about Aragorn. He was a royal blood of Gondor which is a kingdom of humans, but he didn’t want to be a king because he thought that a king is not his place and he is not ready. (Actually, before he became king, Gondor had been regent system, so Part three’s title is ‘The Return of The King’.) Also, humans didn’t think he’s suited to the king. However, as the story progressed, he was obtaining confidence, and he showed strong leadership to humans, and then people think he is the king for Gondor. Finally, there are Gimli and Legolas. They are different tribes, Dwarf and Elf, and they had a bad relationship between them. Like other characters, their relationship was getting better. They understood each other, and finally they were good friends. Like this, this movie shows lots of characters and shows how they change and why. Also, it shows a wonderful view in New Zealand. For those reasons, I love this movie, and I watched this movie five times, but it always made me think about people’s relationships and how they change.

My home stay family (Misa)

by: Misa

I'm doing a home stay in Riverside. I have stayed in this house for two months. Before, I stayed other house, but I changed. There are six members in my home stay family, but now  I live with family, Chinese housemate, host family's relation's family. So the total member in my house is 13 now. My home stay house is really big and there are many extra rooms, so we can live together.

My host family are very kind and funny!! They take me and Chinese housemate to many places. For example, they take us to the party, swimming pool, drive in theater, and so on. It was all great experiences for me. And, my host grand mother cooks for us every day. She is good at cook, so I eat very delicious dishes everyday. She is from Philippine, so her cooking is almost Filipino. Its taste are quite different from Japanese food, but I really like them. Moreover, They talk to me a lot because they know I'm so shy and I need to speak English to improve my English skills. If I couldn't understand they explain over and over till I understand. My host mother like talking and her stories are so funny every time. An incessant laughter is heard from my home stay family.Although I was very nervous when I talked to them at first, I really comfortable and excited to talk with them now.  I like them and I feel as if we are real family now. I want to get along with them more.

So I'm going to stay until I go back to Japan.

A story about my friend Abby (Rawan)

By: Rawan

This is a story about my friend Abby and how did she meet her husband Ike. This is her story as she told me,

Until now, I remember every single moment. It started in 2008, I left my beautiful city and said goodbye to my old life. I came here to Sydney to start my new job as a nurse. It was an amazing event in my life because I couldn’t believe that I was accepted in this sophisticated hospital. I was looking for an apartment in the newspaper at Starbucks while someone said “Hi Abby!” I was surprised when I saw my old best friend “Jody“. I didn’t see her since we were in high school. We talked a lot. Then, she asked me if I need anything? I asked her to recommend me a good place to live in. She told me to take her uncle’s number who had nice apartments. Next day, I called him and we discussed renting the apartment, we reached to an agreement, so I decided to take the place. A few days later, I was in the laundry area when a handsome man came in and said “Hi” with a smile on his face. I pretended not to be interested, but I couldn’t move my eyes from him. I knew that “he is the one” from the first moment I saw him. During the washing time, he began talking to me by introducing him self “ Hi, I’m Ike” then we started chatting. I was so exited, so I planned to get here in the same time everyday to meet him. In the next day, my bell rang. I wandered who might be at the door? I opened the door and saw him again. He handled me a soup and said “I made this soup for you, my new neighbor”. I replied, “This is sweet, Thanks”. I was extremely happy and shy in the same time. After a while, we started dating, and I started falling in love with him. He was kind, smart, and affable person. The only problem was that he worked all the time; I found that we spent only few hours together during the weekends. While during the weekdays we almost never see each other because of our jobs. As a result, we had some cold times in our relationship, and I began asking my self if he really was the one or not? After long depressing nights, it was my birthday, and I expected it to be a boring one because Ike told me that he can’t see me today because of his work. Suddenly, he came with all of our friends and set an amazing surprise party for me. I was happy like a child, and directly after blowing off my birthday candles, he kneeled and asked me “would you marry me?” I was completely shocked and elated, with yelling I replied YES. We got married immediately and now we have two cute boys just like their daddy.

My hopes and dreams for this year (Rawan)

By: Rawan

It's so complicated when I think about my dreams. A lot of things I have to do but the most important things are to get a car, to get an acceptance in a good university for the masters degree, and to lose some weight.

Firstly, I thought the driving will be very difficult for me because in my country women don't drive at all. Furthermore, all women there have a special drivers to take them wherever they want. Also, It's a government's rule there that women don't drive for their safety.  As a result, mostly no woman there knows how to drive. When I came here to the US, I needed to drive, so I went to a school for driving. In the beginning, I was so scared and I thought that I will not learn how to drive ever. Yet when I started to have more and more lessons, I felt with a lot of self-confidence and learned a lot things. After that, I went to the DMV to get my license. The test for driving "behind the wheel" was easy and I succeed on it. Now, I hope to get a car as soon as possible, but it depends on my father. He wants me to be accepted in a university first then he can buy me a car.

Secondly, when I came to the US, I was planning to do my masters degree in University of California, Riverside, but my sponsor didn't allows me to do that. However, my sponsor allows me to study only the ESL program here. As a result, I have to look for another university and to be accepted in another university to do my postgraduate study. This is sad for me because I began to used to everything here, I made friends, and I like people here, so It will be so difficult for me to begin from the zero in another place again. It is inevitable situation, but I think I can do it.

Thirdly, every time when I stand on the scale, I get shocked and disappointed from my weight. It's so hard for fat people to lose their weight. It seems like you don't eat all the day and when you stand on the scale, your weight doesn't move at all or just moves a little bit. It's so disappointing sometime, but always I try to encourage myself by telling myself that I need to be in a good shape and in a good health. For that, I'm trying to lose some weight this time. In the beginning, when I started to do some exercises and to prevent myself from eating, it was so hart. Yet when I did that for five months, I lost some weight and I became happy for my achievement.

A Vacation I hope to Happen Again (Rawan)

 By: Rawan

       Before I came to the USA, I and my family used to travel a lot during the summer vacation. We went to New Zealand, Egypt, Turkey, and United Arab of Emirates. However, We stopped doing this kind of trips because I came to the USA to do my master degree. I hope that we return to travel together again when our vacations time become the same. In the beginning, we have to decide where we want to go for this trip. Because we went to four different countries before, it is significant that we pick a new destination to go to. Then, we need to know how many days we will need for this journey. After that, we have to check what types of activities we may do there. However, everything will depend on how much money we have. If we have enough money, It is a possibility that we will book a luxury hotel and do as many activities as we could. The other  issue that we should consider is our cat. We must know where to leave her and who will take care of her. Moreover, my parents always wonder whether they will find someone to look after our house and keep on checking on it until we return back or not. Furthermore, my aunt always helps us and takes care for everything for us, so she is our solution almost for everything. After we deal with all of that, my father usually reads carefully about the country we are going to, and what the traditions and cultures do they have. So, he tries to make us enjoy as much as we can, and avoid any bad situation that we may face there. I really hope that we start planning again for such trips, so we can enjoy our time together as a family again.

Cholesterol (AMAL)

By : AMAL

Cholesterol

             Cholesterol is an important ingredient that is produced in the liver. Every day, the liver produces 1,000 milligrams of cholesterol per day. Cholesterol is important to help make vitamin D, hormones, build cell walls and help develop bile salts that aid in digestion of fatty foods (Gavin, 2009). With the amount of cholesterol that is produced daily, there is no need for additional intake. However, cholesterol is found in nearly all foods, including burgers, bacon and cheese. Mainly, cholesterol can be found in all fatty foods that contain lipids because lipids are a kind of cholesterol (Gavin, 2009). While cholesterol is an important ingredient for the body, too much can be dangerous.

            There are two primary kinds of cholesterol. One is HDL and the other is known as LDL. HDL is an acronym for high density lipoproteins. While LDL is an acronym for low density lipoproteins. HDL may be referred to as good cholesterol and LDL as bad cholesterol. The difference between both kinds of cholesterol is the effect that it has on the body. HDL helps remove cholesterol from the blood vessels and travels back to the liver where it can be processed to exit through the excretory system. LDL on the other hand, is a cholesterol that is likely to cause blood clots in the vessels. As a result, it sustains the body from allowing blood to flow as it is supposed to.

            Since HDL is the good cholesterol, there are not too many concerns with it. Some benefits of HDL include the fact that it can decrease the risk of potentially obtaining heart disease as well as coronary artery disease. It also helps prevent atherosclerosis (Hellesvig-Gaskell, 2010). On the other hand, LDL has a little bit more risks than benefits associated. The medical concern that rises with LDL is the diseases that it may cause. People with high LDL are at risk for coronary artery disease, cerebral vascular disease, and obesity. When there is an excessive consumption of foods that contain LDL, plaque forms in the body which causes the arteries to become narrows, as a result people are susceptible for illness.

            There are different ways to help improve the overall balance of cholesterol. It is most important to eat and sustain a healthier diet. Refraining from foods that contain a high amount of lipids can reduce consumption of foods that have high LDL. Choose to eat fish and consume drinks such as wine, in moderation can help sustain HDL levels of cholesterol. Knowing what cholesterol is can be one of the primary ways that one’s health can be sustained. Keeping a good balance of HDL is important while trying to refrain from excessive LDL levels.