Ron's ESL Blogs

It was January 6 2010 when I met this amazing person. she is special for me for a lot of reasons.

Her name is Sheily Hernandez but I call her La Bonita. She is 5’1 tall. She has a long brown hair. She is skinny. We men in the school. She was the only person in my class that always said hello to me. I love her personality. She is the kind of person who always laughs. She is funny. She makes a lot of jokes. We had a lot of things in common. She really loves study and I love it too. She likes dance. She always has a right thing to say when I am sad. She takes care of me when I was sick.

Las year she got married with a friend of mine. she loves him so much. she looks so pretty in her wedding dress. her party was amazing. she looks very happy. I’ll always support her in everything I can. I know if I be in the same position she would do the same for me.

Last week I received a phone call. it was her crying because my friend her husband had an accident. I felt horrible because I don’t have the right to do something for her husband. She works in a restaurant weekends afternoon. She need money to support her daughter and pay the hospital bill. She ask me to lend her money, I’d love to help her. yesterday after my class. I would go see her. she was sad and she couldn’t stop crying. But I know something I’ll be with her no matter what happens after her husband could wake up but we will stay together forever. I love my friend because when I need her she always be for me no matters how hard it was for her.

It is difficult to look someone you loved so much crying and trying to stand up for her or his baby. We will get through this situation together and God can help us, like he always do. I don everything for my friend and I know she would do the same for me if I’d be in this situation.

My Family and have been living in the United States for almost five years. At the first half year, we lived with my wife’s uncle in the city on Buena Park in Orange County. Later, we moved to the city of Monterey Park in Los Angeles County. We have now lived here for over four years, and we are very happy with our neighborhood.
My neighbors living at the left of our house are a couple of Italian. The husband named Martino is a very handsome man and his wife Lydia is a very nice smiling person. They don’t have children, and they moved to the US over 20 years. They bought the house 10 years ago. The Martino’s grow a lot of bamboos in their backyard. The beautiful bamboos attracted many birds, so I can hear the sweet songs singing by birds every morning.
The neighbors living at the opposite of our house are Mexican. Thee husband, I don’t remember his name, which is difficult to pronounce, is a strong man with bare. He drives a Mercedes Benz, so we always call him “Mr. Benz”. Their son Antony is in the same class with my son. My son often plays with Antony and they do homework to gather. The “Mr. Benz” family also has been living here for over 10 years.
The neighbors living at the right of our house are new immigrants from China. They just moved in a few months ago. They speak Mandarin and know very little English. We call the couple Mr. & Mrs. Bian. They have a child of four years old. My younger son is four and a half. I recommended the preschool which my son is attending to Mr. & Mrs. Bian. They felt good about that and let their son study in the preschool. We help them a lot in daily life as they are new comers to this country. We became good friends, and we often spend weekend together.
In general, I am feeling good I have all these nice neighbors. Having good neighborhood brings me more joy and happy in my life.

My brother and I have been living in Maywood California for almost four years. It is not long, but at the same time it isn’t a short period of time we moved into our new apartment. in this apartments on Maywood we had so many different cultures.

I remember once when my brother and I went outside when my brother and I went outside in the afternoon we were surprised. it was Friday on 57th ave in Maywood. There were a lot of Mexican people around. Most of them were dressed up in jeans, t-shirts and boots also some of them wore black hats. They were listening Corridos and drink tequila and beer, They like to listen to music like Banda, Norteno or Corridos. I call them because the way they wore PAISAS. That because in my country men that dressed like tat and listen to that kind of music are Rancheros.

Today one of my neighbors say HELLO!!! to me. He lived in a small house that house is beautiful it has a lot of fruit trees. He jus asked me if I would like to enjoy his daughter wedding. He told me that the next
Saturday his daughter would get married and he would like that my brother and I would join them to celebrate the most important event of their lives. He also told me that they would have Banda and Norteno for music. He knew that I love to be there because I always listened to that kind of music. He offer me a bottle of tequila if I would go to his daughter wedding.

I know I would have fun that’s why I said to him of course I’d be glad to be there with you celebrating the wedding of your only daughter.

I love Mexican parties because Mexican people usually had fun and treat everyone that he or she is part of their family.

In my memories, I have so many favorite places. However, one place is important to me and that influenced my whole life from childhood until right now. It is a temple-Shaolin Si of my childhood.
Right now, I live in the U.S.A., some tine meet some of challenges, but I can strong up, that main reason is the temple-Shaolin Si gave me a lot of support which spirit in my heart.
I remember when I was a young child just seven years old, I went to school on the way, I always taken a watching on the Shaolin Si where I respected. Shaolin Si is a well-known place in the world. When people talk about it that first one is Chinese Gong Fu, but so many people don’t know it original from Kaifeng city, Henan. In my childhood, I really don’t know that I just saw a golden place on the sun, it was shining and so many people from China and other countries visiting it, such like they to the farm market, they burned the stick paper and make a wash, the smoke became some cloud that coming from the Temple, I saw them had a red face when they left the temple. I felt so proud of Shaolin Si because it gave the world a place to visit and that gave them support of spirit else.
When I do something and meet some problems, I have courage by the temple; When I had difficult time, I would think shaolin Si; When I need more time to study, I would say some words to the temple.
Shaolin Si is my neighborhood of mother place in my whole life. I will remember and respect it forever!   — Chen, xinqing

Before I came to LA, I already decided to live in Pasadena. There were more than 80 cities in LA, and the reason I chose to stay in Pasadena not only because there was more safety, but also there were a lot of Americans, I could feel about real America.

In Pasadena, there were a lot beautiful and different kinds of road. Everyday, when I drove a car, and passed by those beautiful houses, I always imaged that someday I could have such a beautiful house, and I must be very happy. Now, trees,flowers in spring, and you can smell the fragrance of the flowers everywhere. I enjoyed walking around when I finished dinner. At first time, I was shocked because all the strangers gave smile to me, they were so friendly that even didn’t know who I am. I thought maybe this was exactly America culture.

One day, someone knocked my door. I was so scared because there were a lot of bad things happening in LA. I didn’t know what should I do, so just stood here and kept quiet. I couldn’t heat clearly what they talked about, but I guaranteed that they were a couple. After they left, I thought I should open the door, and made sure they didn’t left some special marks on my door. I was very careful to open the door. Suddenly I found a bag of candies and a letter in front of my door. I picked it up, and the letter said that they would  move in during those days, they were very happy that we could be neighbors. But they had a baby just 2 months old, they were afraid that the baby’s crying would influence my life, so they wanted to make an apology to every neighbor. It was not a big deal in China, they just gave me another America culture class in my life. I didn’t know which room they would move in, but I never heard baby crying when I was home.

I told this story to my friend. He said it happened in America, not only in Pasadena. In my opinion, this country was the strongest country in the world, not only the economy, but also the people’s mind. I like stay in here, I like stay in US. It ‘s a kind of feeling that I was one of their friends who live in Pasadena.