Ron's ESL Blogs

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.

I’m unable to describe my neighborhood in the present time, but I can describe my neighborhood in Taipei during the past. I still can remember how Taipei looks like in the past, I’m not even sure how the city look llike right now since I haven’t gone back to Taiwan for many years.

In my neighborhood, I used to go to the library near my old home. That library was very big, and I still remember it very well. Because I heard a lot of books in there, and to me, it was the biggest building in Taipei. There were also a lot of places that I went to in my neighborhood, such as my favorite restaurant, bookstores, a video store, and a big park.

It’s been a lot of years that I have no idea whether those places still remained in Taipei or not. But I think that they might change a lot and even better than in the old time. But this neighborhood still in my memory forever.

Having to describe a neighborhood is a difficult thing. It is more difficult when you haven’t been there for seven years. However, when I think about my neighborhood, I see a small village, because that’s what it is. But within this village, a place that I spent most of my childhood, lies a computer center where kids, teenagers, and adults go to play games or chat with relatives that live in another country. And because of this computer center, my friends, cousins, and I could have the most fun time of our childhood.

Before my friends first discovered the computer center, we did nothing but lied around in our house all day. But once we went to the computer center, we were hooked. Because, in side, there were so many computers, not to mention the cool temperature. However, to use the computers, we need to pay money, and it depends on how much you pay to use it. Because we can only use it for a certain amount of time. For twenty minutes, it cost us one dollar in Vietnamese money. Forty minute for two dollars, an hour for three dollars, and so on. Since we didn’t get allowance that often, we had to watch the person that had the money, play. But at times, we saved our allowance so that we could all use the computers and play together.

I remember one time, one of my cousins tricked me into using the computer without paying. When they caught me, my cousin had already left. But there was one more cousin who came along, and he had to go back home and asked for money to pay them back. When we got home, we were really mad, but we couldn’t blame him because we were caught using the computer without paying. After all, it was our fault for believing in him.

In the end, we were never allowed to go back there. But lucky for us, another computer center was opened a few weeks later. But this time, I learned my lesson: don’t play if you can’t pay.

-Thai Tran