Advice

I recieved many advises before I came here. I could not remember all of the advises, but I think the best advise I was given is from my granmother. She usually give me some advices before I have to go somewhere.When I prepared to go to airport to go to US, my grandmother gave me her advice: "Wherever you are, just be yourself. If you want something, just speak up." After living in America for near 6 months now, I realized my grandmother was totally right. American talk directly. They want something, they will say that directly. I still wonder sometimes how my grandmother know that because my grandmother is a traditional Asian woman. As everyone knows, Asian usually talk indirectly. I think all my family are like that, even my grandmother. Thank for her advice, I can get along well with my host family. It makes my life in American easier.
I read Vivian and Tahani's posts.

Reserch questions

Adverting is always interesting to me, so I do not mind watch commercial between watching TV shows. Each advertisement has its own purposes and techniques.
When I saw AT & T ad in TV, I was so surprised that AT & T can compare directly its service with Verizon's service. My major was Business Law, so I knew a Vietnamese advertisement cannot be like that, we have advertising law that ban the directly comparison advertisement. I think every country has their own regulation, so I want to know more about American advertising. Therefore, I chose advertising is the topic for my research paper. When I searched for advertising, I found interesting advertising term like fake advertising, emotion appeal, value appeal and efficient techniques. It is hard for the audiences to know which one is the fake advertising. My research questions are:
What is the faking advertising?
How we can recognize the fake advertising?

I read Tara and Bomi's posts.

American food

Thanksgiving dinner


Vietnamese New Year's Eve dinner

Talking about American food, I will think about fast food and American Thanksgiving dinner. Because life in American always requires fast and convenient, fast food becomes so popular here. For example, you can find Mc Donald, KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and Burger King everywhere. I like McDonald's burger and KPC's popcorn chicken. American fast food taste different from my country like KFC in America is more salty than in Vietnam. American fast food also do not have so much vegetable inside burger or sandwich like Vietnamese fast food. I can find a shrimp burger easy in Vietnam, but I still cannot find it here yet.
Besides that, I am very impress with American Thanksgiving dinner, especially turkey. American families have a huge dinner on Thanksgiving day. It is no doubt that TV diet commercial is so popular after Thanksgiving day and winter break. A big dinner on that day is similar to Vietnamese New Year's Eve dinner, however we eat more vegetable. We will have 8 dishes or more, but half of dishes' recipes include vegetable. Vietnamese food is perhaps more healthy than American. And I notice that American definitely like going to the gym and dieting more than Vietnamese. I had a Thanksgiving dinner with my host family last year. I liked apple pie and mashed potato, and I thought turkey tasted kinda similar to chicken. Every country has their own cuisine, and its food represent to its culture and life style.
I read Sireesha and Bomi's posts.

Tomorrow will be better

"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." - Winston Churchill
That's so true. If you are pessimist, you will always see hard, difficult and dark side. However, optimistic can see sunshine most all the time. I believe in that, I think I am in the middle of pessimistic and optimistic side. Sometimes I feel very depress and just want to give up, stop, and turn back time to change some of my decisions. When I came here, I really want to turn back time and come back, I was not scared, I just felt lost sometimes. I didn't know if I made the right decision or not, I didn't know what I wanted anymore. After that, I felt guilty and embarrassed because my family trusted me so much. I need to continue. Even life can be hard, lonely or unlucky, I still have to face it, so why not see it with positive attitude. It makes me feel better. My teacher told me one time: "If you try your best you will find a light in the end of dark tunnel", and I believe tomorrow will better than today.
I read Michelle and Sireesha's posts.

My best friend

My best friend's name is Ly. We met each other 12 years ago. We used to be classmates from junior high to high school. As they say: " Show me your friends and I will tell you who you are", we have many common in physical, personality and interest. First, we are similar in physical like brown eyes and light skin. Both of us are short, so we wished to be taller every year when we were younger. We also have same hair style through 12 years. We had long hair for so many years, and we cut it at the same time. In addition, we share same interests such as: watching movies, discovering new places that have delicious food and decorating our rooms. Besides that, our personality are quite similar like friendly and easy going. But my best friend is more mature than me, sometimes I feel like I have another older sister. She gives me advices whenever I need. I am always available to listen to all her problems. She went to the Netherlands 5 years ago, so we didn't spend so much time together. We couldn't celebrate each other's birthday for 5 years. We have kept in touch by mail, email and skype. We have shared happiness and sadness together, and we keep each other's secrets. Through we are miles apart, I know she is always by my side. I knew you had a hard time when you stayed there. I went to US, and I had my first Tet here too. Now I can totally understand how hard for you at that time. When I meet a new friend, I usually try to find something similar to you. But I fail all the time, cause you are unique. Miss you so much, my best friend.
I read Candy and Sireesha's posts.

Talking to my old cat

Animals are human's friends. I believe that they have their own language, but we just can't understand it. If animals can talk, do you think they will want to say: " Why we have to know your language? You should learn our language." I hope they have an international language, just like we have English.
And I have had a cat for 12 years. If he can talk, it will be great. Because I have a chance to know what he is thinking, I can take care of him better. And I think of my cat as my brother, so I want to share and listen to his problems. If I can talk to my cat, I have some questions for him. First of all, I want to know how he can be so smart and sensitive cat. A cat usually is not so sensitive, just as we know a dog is always a better friend than a cat. Whenever I feel sad and want to cry, he always comes and sits in my lap. I am curious how he can know that I am sad, so he always comes and sits in my lap at that time. May be he is an old cat, and Vietnamese usually say that an old cat will turn out to be a fox. It means when your cat gets older, he or she will get smarter. Besides that, my cat has a lot of female cat friends that come to my house to find him quite often. So I want to know what kind of female cat is his ideal girlfriend. And I live far away from home now, so I wonder he misses me or not. I miss you so much, my brother. If you can talk, just use skype to talk with me. ^^ Oh, English or Vietnamese, please.
I read Sherry and Quynh's posts.

Favorite song

Music has its unique power that can cheer you up somehow. Shaney Ward is my favorite singer and has so many great songs. However, "You are not alone" always my favorite one. I came to US 4 months ago and it was my first time to live alone in toatally new and unfarmilar country. I felt lost and lonely at that time. " You are not alone" tells a story related to my situation. I undertood how a girl feel in this song. Its lyrics made me feel like someone understands my sadness and promises always stay by my side.. I got used to living here, so I didn't feel so sad like before. I know my family and friends will always be there for me. I stilI feel lonely sometimes, and I will listen to this song. The meaningful lyrics and Shaney's wonderful voice combine together make me feel better any time I listen to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsQvBtplqBA

Don't hide out inside yourself
If you only let the sunshine on you
I promise you
You're not alone
When the lights go out at night
When you're feeling lost inside
You're not alone
You're not alone
When your world is falling down
I will be the one around

I read Candy and Tara's posts. "If we never meet again" and Epick High's song