Student writers
    Aziz Al-Jedaia
    Chao Jung "Rosa" Ho
    Hyoung-geun Jin
    So-young Jung
    Mikhail Komlatski
    E. Monica Magaua
    Tomohiko Saito
    Hala Tayar

Surveys
    Do you like sports?
        By Hala Tayar and E. Monica Magaua
    Smoke?
        By Mikhail Komlatski, Chao Jung "Rosa" Ho and So-young Jung
    Drinking Alcohol
        By Hyoung-geun Jin, Aziz Al-Jedaia and Tomohiko  Saito
 
 

Favorite Memory: Chinese New Year
By Chao Jung ìRosaî Ho
  My favorite memory is celebration of the Chinese New Year in my childhood. Chinese New Year lasts fifteen days, so my parents always took us to my grandfatherís house which was in the country. And also, my mother prepared much delicious food and bought new things for us, such as clothes, shoes, toys. We didnít have to do homework or go to school. My parents allowed us to play and watch TV all day.
     When I was a young girl, I waited for Chinese New Year. On Chinese New Yearís Eve, my parents gave me new dresses, new shoes, and a ìRed Envelopeî in which my parents put some money. This custom brings luck for a whole year and is supposed to make the new year better. My parentsí friends or cousins also gave us ìRed Envelopesî when they visited my family.
     I remember that there was a time that I was in my grandfatherís house and took my ìRed Envelopeî to the grocery to buy lots of firecrackers. Afterwards, I took my firecrackers and called my younger brother and cousins who were playing at the front of the big yard. First, we were separated into two teams and we competed to see which team could shoot the firecrackers higher than the other. And we fought each other like we were at war. We were hiding behind the columns in front of the house as well as using some dry straw and stones to make a small base, in case our opponents shot firecrackers. We were screaming, laughing, and running; firecrackers were flashing. The explosion caused our parents to come outside and watch what happened. As a result my parents and my cousins joined us in playing.
    Now, when we are together with our cousins, we talk about what happened that night, we laugh and feel excited. It is really an unforgettable Chinese New Year.

My Favorite Person
By So-YoungJung
     My father is the most important person in my life. He is good-looking so I am proud of my fatherís appearance. For example, he is handsome, tall, and muscular. Also, he is well-dressed and neat. Even though someone meets him for the first time, she/he has a favorable impression.
     My father likes working out. He goes to the gym every weekend. One of his most favorite sports is golf. He often plays golf on a good day. In addition, he likes to go fishing. If he has enough time, he sometimes travels to go fishing.
     My father is intelligent and ambitious. For instance, he works hard with self-confidence and doesnít waste time. Furthermore, he reinforces what his children are learning. He said, ìPeople should read a lot of books and go through the variety of lives from the books.î I respect that he always does his best.
     My father takes care of his children with responsibility and love. He teaches us to be honest and responsible. This is also our family precepts. We learn the lessons that everyone including children is valued and important. He emphasizes that we do our best. In addition, he spends a lot of time communicating with my family so we talk about each day everyday. He sometimes goes out to eat with us. He loves us very much and always supports us.
    His friendly looks, nice character, and respectability are why my father is the sincerest person to me.

The Favorite Place: Chicago
By Tomohiko Saito
     Chicago is my favorite city in the U.S.A. One of my friends lives there who is not only serious but also a fun person. Therefore, when I came to the U.S.A., otherwise Carbondale, he picked me up at OíHare Airport and I stayed at his house for two days.
     Then I went to a batting cage and was surprised because of its speed and the ball which is very hard. After that, my friend took me to the downtown in Chicago.
     At that time I was so impressed because I had never seen the tall buildings before. I climbed up in Sears Tower and saw the most wonderful sight I have ever seen. The exciting sight made me think that I might jump out of the window with a song, ìI can fly.î
    I donít know much about Chicago. However, several things are familiar to me about Chicago, such as the movie, ìThe Untouchables,î the Chicago Bears, White Sox, Cubs, and, of course, Bulls.
 

My Favorite Food
By E. Monica Magaua
     In my country, we have a lot of typical Mozambican food which tastes good. We have different kinds of dishes for different occasions. For example, during Christmas celebration we are used to eating turkey. This habit we gained from the Portuguese; it is our heritage from Portuguese colonialism.
     On the weekends, we usually have a big meal with all family members and we eat rich food. My favorite food is ìfeijoada.î It is delicious and easy to prepare. The ingredients are: black beans, cowís hoof, spicy sausage, and chicken parts (necks and wings). You can serve it with rice or maize flour. Maize flour looks like mashed potatoes. Itís also easy to prepare; you just put the flour into boiling water and mix it up to be cooked.
     This dish is very rich in vitamins and if someone is on a diet, he/she had better not eat it.
     I like ìfeijoadaî not only because Iím not dieting but also because itís like a salad; the ingredients arenít melted in the pot. Another reason is that this dish doesnít require much work to prepare, so you donít need to be a great cook.
     I remember the first time that I prepared my favorite food. It was funny because I prepared it very badly and nobody at my house ate it and I became worried. After that, I asked my mother to teach me how to prepare it well and she did. Now, Iím an expert in this matter.
     Big meals on weekends are typical in Mozambique families. We use weekends for family meetings. We enrich the family concept; we include our best neighbors; it is usual in Mozambican culture, considering neighbors as family members.
     Everyone brings one dish; you can taste everyoneís because the food belongs to all of us.
     I myself taste a little bit of all dishes, but I donít resist my favorite ìfeijoada.î
    On my birthday, March 30, I prepared ìfeijoada,î and I gave it to my friends; typically, people receive gifts on their birthday, but on this birthday I decided to give gifts instead.

My Favorite
By Mikhail Komlatski

     My favorite car is the Jaguar. It is not the most expensive car, but this car has style and has very good atmosphere inside.
     Mercedes 600 SEL is not cheap and it is an absolutely excellent car, too. However, they are two different things when you drive a Mercedes and a Jaguar.
     When you sit in this British car, you will believe that this is a 100 percent British Jaguar. Also, you will feel a great feeling at high speed with this car. You will feel that you and the car are one body. If you want to experience this, you must drive this car because it is impossible to tell you what it is like.
 I remember my first time with this car. I guarantee that it will be a great experience!!!
    Also, I like Porsche. It is not bad car either. I like this car more when it is a convertible. It makes this car better and adds to Porscheís good looks.

My Favorite Person
By Hyoung-geun Jin
     My favorite person is my maternal uncle whose name is Hyun-jung Jo. I like and respect him. He runs a computer software company and is one of the most successful people in my family. Why is my uncle my favorite person? Because he overcame all difficulties and succeeded in his business. I have learned a valuable lesson from his success. Anyone can succeed in his or her business, if he or she devotes himself or herself intensely to the pursuit of his or her business.
     When my uncle was young, he was very poor. He was too poor to go to high school. Instead, he took a special exam. He has had a talent for electricity and computers since he was young. I heard that he has liked to fix radios and TVs since his childhood.
     My uncle went to the university on a scholarship. His major was electronics. When he was a student, the university gave him an office to study in and he worked for the universityís electric area. When he was a senior, he established a computer software company. He stayed every day and night in his office and researched to develop a new computer software program. Finally he developed a new program about hospital business. I donít know what it is exactly. I donít have any knowledge of computer software.
     As soon as he developed this new program, several newspaper reports and TV broadcasters reported his success. They introduced his story to people. They called him ìKoreaís Bill Gates.î I was very proud of him. My uncle has studied and invested money to develop his company, so his company is bigger than before.

Syria
By Hala Tayar
    I always thought myself privileged coming from a land where every human civilization left its imprint in the form of customs, habits, great stone buildings and edifices.
     My favorite places to visit are old castles and historical monuments. My hometown in Syria is called Safita, a name that means ìthe stoneî in Aramaic. It is a city built on two hills near the Mediterranean; on one of the hills there is a huge stone castle that everybody knows as the Tower of Safita.
     It is an almost ten-century-old building, built by the Crusader Knights to serve both as a fortification and as a watch point looking over the strategic roads.
     On a clear day if you stand on top of that tower, you can see almost a hundred kilometers across the valley another castle called Crac-des-Chevaliers which is a much bigger castle that contains multiple towers and dungeons. This castle was built by the knight of St. Johns around the same period.
     These are not the only castles and ancient monuments that I visited in my homeland. In different parts of the country there are old Roman theaters which were built to honor the Roman gods by holding gladiator contests. I went to one of these theaters during spring vacation with our school trip. Itís a huge theater; we spent all day walking through it. I had a wonderful day and I enjoyed taking many pictures of this big theater.
     In the old city of Damascus there are old churches and mosques. One of the churches was built on the site of the house of Ananian who healed St. Paul from his blindness. Many tourists from different countries come to visit this church.
     In the middle of the desert towards the east, there is the ancient city of Palmera which was built more than two thousand years ago by local tribes, and it used to be a flourishing city controlling ancient trade routes to the east. I have visited this city with my relatives. Everyone visits this city in the winter or in the spring because no one can endure the heat in the summer. These are only a few of my favorite ancient monuments that I want to visit.

Favorite place
By Aziz Al-Jedaia
      Barnes and Noble Booksellers is the best place in Carbondale for me to drink my afternoon coffee with my friends.
     It is very quiet with very soft music.
     Second, it has a marvelous coffee shop specializing in cappuccino.
     Third, it has many books and magazines for sale.
     In addition, there is a section of childrenís books for the different ages. Every weekend I take my children to it and I stay there about two hours. They can read childrenís books and I can meet all my friends from many different countries there.
     Equally I like this place because smoking is forbidden so I can enjoy all the time free of smoke.
     It is on 13 West very close to Kmart. It opened about a year ago. It has parking enough for any number of cars.
     If somebody visits it one time, they will visit it again.
 

SURVEYS

Sports
By Hala Tayar and Monica Magaua
     We met twenty people and asked them about if they like to play sports and how many times a week they play.
     Almost all of the interviewees said they donít have much time to play sports.
    One-third of the interviewees donít play sports. Four people play 1-2 times a week, four people play 3-4 times a week, two people play 5-6 times a week, and four people play seven or more times a week.

Smoke?
By Mikhail Komlatski, Chao Jung ìRosaî Ho and So Young Jung
    We surveyed 30 students (11 females and 19 males) at SIU. We asked them about how many cigarettes they smoke a day and what year they are in at the University.
    From our survey, we think itís good news that two-thirds are non-smokers.

Drinking alcohol
By Hyoung-geun Jin, Aziz Al-jedaia and Tomohito Saito
     According to our survey, most of students (about 86%) drink alcohol. They agree that alcohol is not good for our health and it may be OK in moderation.
    One female student said that most of her relatives do drink daily and are in good health. ìThat is proof enough for drinking alcohol,î she said.
 
 

Index A-Z | Apply Now | From the Chancellor | Visitors | Alumni | People Finder | For the Media | For Parents | Jobs
SalukiNet | SIUC Intranet | Athletics | Public Events Calendar | SIUC Home

Comments: Webmaster

Copyright © 2003, Board of Trustees, Southern Illinois University
Privacy Policy Last Updated