Obviously the bake sale is a discriminatory act, there’s no doubt for it. Although that sales group defends themselves just trying to raise awareness on new legislation that may pass to allow universities to select applicants based on race and sex. The way of carrying the idea out is too far from appropriate. UC Berkeley is a place where different ideologies exist but the methods people use to express their beliefs are important. Anyway, the fact is the new legislature in California may have passed and will have racist projections. And the bake sale is an affirmative action based on this act. I am not an American so I don’t know anything deep in the progress or the current situation of affirmative action here. But what I see is, America is a big nation consists of different races. Till now, in such a highly developed society, racial discrimination still exists—whether it’s in college admissions, work employment or criminal judgement. I mean, people live on this land and people should have respect on each other no matter what. The society has already taken a large step further in economic development, but still, the ideologies in people’s minds are deeply rooted and hard to change. The society needs more people to stand out for minorities and voice their own rights—that’s the reason why we need affirmative actions. One fact that is glad to be seen is after hearing about the recent bake sale news students argued strongly on facebook. This generation recognized the negative effects of such act and they would put forward their opinions, which, really indicated a change toward good is happening.
World spoken by a CHINESE
Procrastination is a habit, a habit that will be detrimental to anyone who has it. It will leave bad impression for others if you miss the time for business meetings or appointments, which will be really detrimental to you and your work. Procrastinators don’t pay bills or finish their work on time; they miss opportunities for buying tickets for movies or games; they cannot catch the last bus to go back home.
Procrastination is not about time management. Procrastination is not trivial,although as a culture we don’t take it seriously a problem. But for me, it represents a profound problem of self-regulation, and even worse, it stands for dishonesty.
Around me, there are quite a few of my friends who are often late for our get-together or dinner—15 minutes late, or even more annoying for 30 minutes!! Well, of course, they can always think of different excuses to explain but I’ll say, you should have planned your schedule earlier to avoid all the contingencies!Because all the people are waiting for you and that’s quite an embarrassing thing! “Better be early than late; you should always plan ahead of time.” That’s what my parents always say to remind me of the habit of always being on time. So under their influence, I take time seriously, because I know the consequence of procrastinate and I don’t want to leave a bad impression on my friends. I believe time-keeping is quite a good and important habit which I’ll insist it throughout my life.The reason it’s simple—it shows respect towards others, what’s more, a procrastinator will always miss something in his life.
See why I cannot stop loving my hometown
Shenzhen, a city I live in and proud of.
I miss my city a lot since I came here.I love the little quiet town here, and the campus actually, but I still miss my hometown. Unlike here, it is a very modern and economically developed city with convenient transportation and lots of malls to shop around.
Shenzhen is located in the southern part of China, a coastal city next to Hong Kong (thanks to its economic influence on SZ actually). It is a populated city, (similar to other big cities in China)with over 10 million people. The most part that I’m proud of is the huge progress that SZ has made over just 30 years—yes, its history. It used to be a tiny fishing village before until one of the greatest leaders of China,Xiaoping Deng arrived and decided to develop my hometown. Since then,SZ is famous for it became China’s first—and one of the most successful—Special Economic Zones. Tall buildings were built day by day and foreign investment increased with a rapid speed—-the speed of its development has gone far from our imagination and expectation. In just 30 years, it became one of the biggest and most important cities of China, along with Beijing,Shanghai,Guangzhou and Hong Kong. Everyone who came here before would be astonished to see how fast the city could be built like this and how far it has gone through these years—-and so did our ancestors.
Recently(this summer) Shenzhen just finished holding the biggest world sporting events among college students, it’s called Universiade. For those young athletes, Universiade is like Olympic Games. Delegations and visitors came into SZ and thay had chance to take a closer look to this young and vigorous city. By holding the event and the opening ceremony, Shenzhen showed its beauty and has gained much more popularity throughout the world,
I love Shenzhen, it is so young and has so much potential. It can go much, much further in the future and I believe, next time when I go back, I’ll see how much it would have changed.
Shenzhen, my hometown, I just cannot love you enough.
10th Year Memorial of 911
Can’t believe it has been 10 years already since 911 happened in 2001. Time passes real quick. But no matter how time flies, we should never forget the history and the lessons it brought to us. Terrorism still exists, and it has grown,spread since 911.
A lot of critics say 911 has changed the world we live in—Americans sent out troops to Middle Asia and caused lots of casualties, terrorism spread its territory into every corner and people live in fears, more parts of the world is in turmoil. The worst part for America is, 10-year invasion of Iraq has largely crippled its economy,also lead to financial deficit and economic downturn. America is no more the boss of the world. While it is busy allocating large sum of money to the military department, countries in the other part of th world like China and India is sparing no efforts developing and growing. Sadly,America has been left behind and now it has fears for China.
Although Latin was dead,he achieved his goal—America is going downward and it paid a lot for the wrong decision to invade in Iraq after 911. Lots of expenses and casualties incurred. The giant should have listened to one of its ancestors,”Just leave other things behind, our main goal is to develop our own economy.”
Again, time for Americans to reflect on themselves, on this 10th Year 911 memorial day.
PR lesson of controversy on Woods
Not until the car accident happened, Tiger Woods haven’t said anything about his affairs ahead of time—so his silence sparked controversy on himself. And yes, he should have said something earlier so that the result of all his gossips and scandals would not spread like this.
From a PR perspective, the last thing you want is the controversy to get ahead of you. The bottom line is, at least you should stand out and say something before the thing grows big—people want facts, they want to know more so there got to be someone make clarification and comfort the public.
Anyway, it’s never too late to speak out as long as people still care.
In this case, anyone who makes a mistake should show his humbleness and honesty to the media and public ASAP, whether by speech, interview or letter. The most horrible thing is not you said something wrong— it’s you didn’t say anything. Tiger is so famous and people care about him. He should sit down and talk about it, and feel sorry about what he has done. People would listen and if you are sincere enough they will understand you.
My first time went to church in America. Though I am not a Christian anyway, I was totally immersed in the music played in the church—so touching and infectious. ”Everyday a brand new chance to say, Jesus u r the only way, my savior, my savior lives…”
My first American Labor Day
This is my first time to have a Labor Day holiday in America and China also has one,too. Labor Day falls in September here but it’s on the first day of May back in China.It’s always good for people(especially students) to take a day or two to get away from the work and study,and have a nice, good rest or enjoy happy family time. Holidays always provide the chance for the family gathering stuff,right?
So including weekend, we also have Monday off—yep,a 3-day holiday. In Friday afternoon, before my last English class I saw students and staff already bringing luggage with them in Hathaway Hall. And after I finished the test, you guys can imagine how empty the campus was on my way back to dorm. I really was a little depressed and sad at that moment because it’s like everyone went back to their home except us, the only few guys who still had to live in the dorm during the holiday. It made me remind of the days in China. Every holiday I would always go back home with my family—although it was a 2 hour bus ride. I just wanna spend more time with my family, because I’m afraid that the older I become the less time I could be with my mum and dad. Holidays just mean a lot for me and my family.
But still I would say I had a pretty nice holiday. I went to a party late that night and for a nice shopping the next day. On Sunday I watched the football game in Dayton(a long,tiring trip,actually)—which, was my first time to watch American football and the game,the band there was really great. We had a lot of fun there. Monday was the last day and we just went nowhere for the chill weather.
Hurricane,again
Six years after Katrina, another devastating hurricane swept across America. This time, with a beautiful name again, it is Hurricane Irene. Strong as Katrina, Irene destroyed roads, paralyzed the whole transportation system, caused death tolls and led to high economic losses. But compared to Bush’s leadership period back then, Obama’s government did a much better job this time. Death toll is much lower and the quick response by FEMA today is to be appraised. American people have faith in their government and with greater efforts, the government could live up to their expectation. The natural force can be fearful to people but as long as people unite together and have faith, the government take effective measurements , everything problem we face can be worked out in the end.
Fortunately the hurricane doesn’t have any impact on the city that I am living in. In China we never encounter hurricane but we have to face earthquake, drought and other natural disasters. Every disaster is the most challenging task for the government and a time to inspect the government’s ability to handle national affairs. No one would want to go back to the time when Katrina came with President Bush in charge(which, a bipartisan investigation by Congress called it “a national failure” at all levels of government). But each time the challenge came, the government should always reflect on itself and its efforts, in order to learn from the mistakes and improve its job.
Don’t fail your people. That’s all we want for our government.
God bless America. Wish America could go through the hurrican this time.
God bless China. Wish everything will be fine there for the rest of this year, and for the years after that.
Something About Me
My Chinese name is Xinyue Mai, which I know, is hard for many Americans to pronounce. But I am still glad that there is someone loves my name. I am a junior student major in marketing. I come from the southest part of China, a modern city called Shenzhen. It’s a nice and beautiful coastal city and its economy is boosting rapidly these years. My personal love is playing sports(tennis, basketball) and shopping. Like many Chinese families I am a single child so our family is a rather small one. But my parents love me very much(bet they are missing me right now).
Well, this is my first trip to America and I am really excited about everything here. Because since I was young, I was really into American culture when I was first started learning English. I love quite a lot of American stuff like TV series, movies and pop singers. You know what, America has always been my dreamland. For me, it’s really amazing that several weeks ago I was still watching American shows but back now I am breathing on this land. Everything is brand new for me since the first day I arrived and I really love to explore as much as possible here. Though Kentucky is not a big or popular state, I still like this little city I live in now. It’s quiet, the air is fresh and not like most places in China it’s not polluted. I am tired of living in a populated city for 20 years and it’s time for me to enjoy a quiet and relaxed life. I love travelling. America is a big country and there’s so much to see here. The people here are really kind and nice and I’d love to make friends here.
So I have to say, I am really fortunate to be an exchange student to come here. It gives me the precious opportunity to get a real deep insight into this country for the next 4 months, to live and to see.
