The early bird gets the worm

The early bird gets the worm means that a person who gets better result than others by doing something earlier and harder than them. In my opinion, this is the correct way to achieve my goals. When I studied in my high school, I always work very hard, I spent more time on my subjects than other people did. As a result, I was pretty good in my class. However, the effort is not the only important thing, I also think that to get a right method is very efficient for studying. In Chinese, there is another idiom that is the early worm is eaten by bird. Sometimes, although I learn something earlier than others, I do not eventually get a higher score on tests. This is because I do not know how to study efficiently. In conclusion, I want to be a early bird to get the worm and always to choose the correct method to study.

My dream

In my dream, I hope I will live and study in Iowa City very well. Everyday, I don't need to get up as early as what it is now. I don't need to take bus, I can drive my own car to the university. Also, I wish I can live in a beautiful house in the the downtown, it won't be very large, but it has to be much more lovely than the lodge, and I can walk around at the downtown easier than now. The most important thing for me is to study well, and in my dream, I see that I study very hard, and get A on every subject of mine. I also see that I get a lot of American friends who treat me very well, and I can speak English as well as a native speaker. Sometimes I may write some articles to the local magazines. That really is a dream, it is totally impossible, but life is wired, sometimes you cannot believe that impossible things are always become possible.

the Spring Festival

The Spring Festival is the most important traditional festival in China. It is to celebrate Chinese new year. The most exciting things are eating dumplings, watching fireworks, and getting together with families in the new year evening. The reason we eat the dumpling is because of a story, that dumplings look like ears, so to eat them can protect ears, and to protect ear is a way to get rid of the cold winter. The Spring Festival will be continued as long as a month, but most people come back to work after the fifteenth day, which people watch fireworks and get together with families again. In former time, the winter is too cold to farm, so people stay at home to eat food they stored, and this festival give them a chance to relax and prepare for the plantation of the next year. However, nowadays, people use this holiday to go vacation, or to do anything they like, but the most important thing is to reunion with families, and children can get some pocket money from elders.

Life in America

This picture is took at the lobby of the Lodge, and it is the most beautiful room in the Lodge. My friends and I have already lived in the Lodge more than two months. The quality of serving is good, and the apartment is really nice. Each time I come back from school, I can fully relax just like go back to my home, because to live in the Lodge you have nothing to worry about.

the fall of Iowa City

The weather has become cold, leaves have changed their color, and the wind has flowed wherever you are--these are characteristics of the fall in my hometown. It makes me surprised that Iowa City has the same fall as my hometown. Therefore, I feel excitied and comfortable in the fall of Iowa City. Although the wind is a little bit chilly, I like to walk around the campus everyday. Because the colors of leaves are changing, I can detect different colors of leaves everyday, which is really interesting. I like the fall because it has some similarities to our life--it changes quickly, and sometimes it is hard to detect. However, because everything is colorful, you can expect anything you think will happen tomorrow. When the fresh air flows on my face every morning, a new day has started. Life is as new as what you will see in the changes of the fall in Iowa City.

do things immediately

I used to do everything slowly, because I was lazy. However, when I was very young, my mother told me do everything immediately, and now, I thought this is the most important life lesson I learned from my mother. Do everything immediately is a good custom, it will not only makes me do everything effective, but also will makes the people around me feel comfortable. For example, when I work with people in a group, if I do everything very quick, it will encourages others to effort more. Also, to do everything immediately can bring me a lot of spare time, because I use shorter time to work than others, so I will get more time to do anything I like. That is what I think the most important thing I learned form my mother, and I highly recommend you to hold this custom, it is really helpful for your entire life.

how to overcome the stress

I have been to Iowa for almost two months, but i still cannot communicate with native speakers very well. The most stressful situation for me is when i talk with someone, who totally cannot understand what i am saying. This thing is quite often for everyone of us, and especially for me. Whatever how much vocabulary I learn, I cannot use them in the correct ways, and I cannot pronunciate them well, because English is not my mother language. However, I get some experiences about how to overcome this stress. The most important thing is think about the sentences you just say, make sure the words in the sentences are quite correct to use, and if they still cannot understand, try to use different words, or give them some examples to illustrate what you are going to talk about. Therefore, by using these methods, a native speaker will probably understand what you are saying, and after that, make sure that you need to ask him or her how to say this meaning correctly, that will give you a lot of improvement on English.

my favorite movie genre!

I like the movies The Shawshank Redemption and The Nuovo cinema Paradiso, both of their movie genres contains drama. The website IMDB has already gave the definition of drama as:"should contain numerous consecutive scenes of characters portrayed to effect a serious narrative throughout the title. This can be exaggerated upon to produce melodrama. Please submit any such keywords. Subjective." (IMDB,10/08/2007, www.imdb.com/Guides/genres) In the movie Nuovo cinema Paradiso, the main character is the Toto, it shows the entire life of Toto. When he was young, he was a very smart boy who lived in a small town in Italy, he liked everything about movies. the projector of the cinema of paradiso ( the only small cinema in this town), Alfredo is the best friend of Toto, he taught everything he knew to Toto, not only about movies, but also about love, life and many other things. He also disrupted Toto's love when he was young, and forced him to go to Roman to work. finally, Toto became the most famous movie director in Italy, and he also own a valuable memory with this old man. In the Shawshank Redemption, the main character Andy was a banker when he was young, but he was misarrested by the police and put into the prison. this movie shows his convict career, and shows the friendship between him and Red, who also is a prisoner. He used his knowledge to help people to get fun, to found out the evidence of the crime of gaolers, and finally got out of the prison. I like the words he said:"Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free." This movie shows Andy's strong ability to get out of the fear, and to find out the freedom and happy. In conclusion, I like drama because it shows everything about a person's life, with many dimensions, and this kind of movie can impresses me really a lot!

Fun in Chicago

Yesterday, I and my Chinese friends and Alicia went to some places in Chicago together. First, we have been to the Art Institute of Chicago. We saw a lot of oil painting at there, included Van Gogh's "the bedroom" and many other expressionism painting. Otherwise, we also watched a lot of Chinese antiques there. After that, we went to the Chinatown by taking subway. That was the worst subway I had ever seen, there was very dirty and dangerous. But, when we had been to Chinatown and ate traditional Chinese food, we get over the stress. That's the most delicious Chinese food I had already ate in America, and all of us felt so excited when we ate. Also, I and Alicia discussed the customs of eating between China and America. After that, we went to the Michigan Ave and bought some coasts there. In the end of the day, we went to a old pizza restaurant, which is strongly advised by Alicia, and we ate the traditional Chicago food, a thick piece of cheese pizza, and felt so satisfied.

Top fun in iowa

yesterday(Friday) night, i played badminton in the field house, i met a lot of new friends and got a lot of fun. Some of them played almost the same level as me, but some of them used to have some professional training, they played so great!~for my classmates who wanted to play badminton for a long time, wish you could come at Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat night, usually 7:00 to midnight. It's not only a good way to play badminton, but also was a method to practise English!

compare and contrast something about Beijing and Iowa City

I used to live in Beijing, the capital city of China, but now I am living in the Iowa City, which is much smaller than Beijing. This change makes me feel uncomfortable in the beginning, but now, it seems not really bad. Firstly, Iowa City is absolutely small, with low population, but Beijing is not, Beijing has twenty millions people, and everywhere in the city seems much lively than Iowa City. But one thing that for people is the same in both cites is that both of Iowa City and Beijing contains many people who come from all over the world. Secondly, both of Iowa City and Beijing have Chinese Food restaurants, but the Chinese food that provide by Beijing restaurants is much better than that of Iowa City. Even though, the Chinese restaurants in Iowa City provide the so called Chinese food, it is really hard to detect whether it is the Chinese food. Thirdly, English are popular in both cities, but in Beijing people do not have as good language environment as that of Iowa City, So, although we can study English in Beijing, Iowa City is a much better place to practise English as well. That's some of the differences and similarities between Beijing and Iowa City.

500 miles

this is the song i like most when i come into America, it is a wonderful piece of melody that let me feel just likes staying at my home...

If you miss the train l'm on

You will know that l am gone

You can hear the whistle blow

A hundred miles

A hundred miles ,a hundred miles

A hundred miles ,a hundred miles

You can hear the whistle blow

A hundred miles

Lord l'm one

Lord,l'm two

Lord l'm three

Lord l'm four

Lord l'm five hundred miles

Away from home

Away from home

Away from home

Away from home

Lord l'm five hundred miles

Away from home

Not a shirt on my back

Not a penny to my name

Lord l can't go back home this way

lf you miss the train l'm on

You will know that l am gone

You can hear the whistle blow

A hundred miles

the Godfather pizza

I and my roomates went to the Godfather pizza to have dinner, this was the most intereting thing for me during the last weekend. The godfather pizza was a very nice restaurant, it had a lot of kinds of pizza, and you could hear lots of contry music when you had dinner here. For us, the most interesting thing was that we did not know which kind of pizza is the most delicious one at that time, and we saw a big picture in the middle of the menu, and it seemed good because it was a combination of two kinds of pizza. So, we choose it by our curiosity. Indeed, we choose a pizza with both combo and all meat. Acturally, we did not know what combo really means at that time. When we waited at the table, we got a fried bread and tomato sauce, and after that, we got a sweet bread, which contained a lot of sugar. After we finished eating those things, a really big pizza just came into my sight, and I did not know how to describe the huge shape it was, the only thought for me was:' oh my god~!!' We tried to eat as much as we can, but finally, we still needed to bring a lot of pieces back, but it was really delicious, and when I felt so hungary during the writing class, I would remember the Godfather's pizza.

my introduction!

My name is marc, i come from beijing, china. This is my first time that visit America and study at here, it is a really wonderful experience for me. The iowa city is that kind of city i expected before i come to America, because i know it is a quite small and quite peaceful city, and i think it is the best place to student who need to study at here. For me, to know the teachers and classmates in the IIEP is a agreeable thing during my study in America. Now, I will introduce some of my hobbits to all of you. I would like to play piano, draw picture(sketching), read book, play badminton(the most interest thing for me), and play basketball. I wish that i have a chance to find some one has the same hobbit as me, and have some fun when play play those kind of sports. I also wish that everybody is likely to see my blog and add your comment, and tell me more about your hobbits (not just be classmates in class). lol~~