Introducing Myself

By Eri Shimizu

     My name is Eri Shimizu and I'm from Japan and learning English. I like English because it helps me know a lot of things about the U.S., for example, the culture, interesting habits and new slang.

  The thing I like best about English is grammar. In Japan, most English classes focus on grammar more than reading, writing, speaking, or listening. For that reason, I have learned a lot of grammar. Therefore, grammar is my strength. I like grammar because it feels like a puzzle. Sometimes, it becomes hard for me to describe, for instance, if I don’t know which part of speech a word is. However, when I can figure it out, I am so happy. There is always a solution and reasons, so I can find an evident answer. Also, the point that everything is connected is one of the reasons why I like grammar. I can use something which I have learned before to understand a new thing. I think that this is also true of puzzles. Puzzles are also difficult, but I like them because there are rules, and I can certainly find the answers. Grammar and puzzles have a lot of similarities; therefore, I like grammar, and it is my strength in English.

      Compared with grammar, I’m not good at reading. I like reading books, but most books I have read are in Japanese, not in English. This is the first reason why I’m not good at reading. I want to read English books fast, so I need to read as many books as possible. The second reason is prejudice. When I was in Japan, I read English articles in my textbook, but most of them were so boring. In addition, the teachers were so boring, too. That's why I have a prejudice against reading class. However, the class in the U.S. is much more interesting than in Japan, so I think the prejudice will go away. To sum up, I don’t like reading very much now, but I might get better at reading this summer.

      Writing is better than reading for me. It is interesting and exciting because I can use grammar which I practice in writing. Writing helps me realize how much I know about grammar. For example, in the last session, I had learned how to use past perfect progressive and was able to use it in my essay. Consequently, I like writing because it has some connection with grammar. Of course, I have many problems in writing such as I can’t write as fluently and accurately as I'd like to. However, I believe that I can be a good writer if I learn a lot and practice hard. In fact, I have become better at writing than I was in Japan, so this hasn’t become a factor in disliking writing.

      In conclusion, my strength in English is grammar, and I like writing because I can use grammar for it. Now, I’m not so good at reading, but I hope that my reading skill will improve this semester.

ABOUT DANIEL

 Hi, my name is Daniel and I'm from Korea. When i was in Korea, i had to take a Korean SAT to enter university. In it, there are many article that i must interpret to answer questions, so i practiced a lot to read fast and understand as fast as i could. That's why i think my strength in English is reading. Also, when I read something, I can control everything. For example, i can control the speed of reading, can read the same sentence until i can understand perfectly, and even if i can't understand some words, i can answer questions about the article. I think my favorite genre of reading is novel. When i read novels, i can imagine the scenes of story and this imagination can fill my life with real happiness. For example, when i was in elementary school, i loved 'Harry Potter'. I read the whole series again and again with imagination. From that time, i found pleasure in reading, so i tried to find other novels to read for fun.

 But writing is a different problem. If i want to write something, i need to consider
vocabulary, grammar, and try to think clearly about topic or my opinion. That's why i need more practice in writing in the next three months. Writing combines many part of English skills, so it's very hard to write refined article. I believe that if i improve my skills in vocabulary, grammar, and clear thinking, i can write better paragraphs. My favorite kind of writing is to write about myself. It is easy to think about me because i always think about myself and i can just write my life's experience without deep thinking.

 In conclusion, I prefer reading than writing because reading brings to me a happiness, but writing always brings me confusing and sadness. I know that i can write better but it is very difficult to find errors and fix them. This is why write bring me sadness. Thank you. 

My First Vacation in US

By Eri Shimizu

 Last week, I had the first long vacation in the US. I went to Las Vegas and Los Angeles. There are a lot of impressive place for me, and I enjoyed so much.
 On the first day of the vacation, I went to Las Vegas. I was so surprised because there is a lot of homeless people on the street. It was more dangerous than I expected. I knew that Las Vegas is a night city, but I didn't want  to go out at night. Yet, I saw the famous fountain show in Las Vegas.

On the next day, I went to Grand Canyon. It was so big and so wide. I had never seen any canyons before but seen the photos of Grand Canyon. It was bigger than I was thinking. I felt that human is just tiny creature. I wanted to relax in the place, but it was too hot, so I couldn't.
  From the next day to the last day, I spent time in Los Angeles. I prefer LA than Las Vegas, because there are more place for fun in LA than in Las Vegas. The best place is Disneyland.
I have been to Disneyland, but it was the first time to go to one in California. I took a lot of pictures with many characters.

My First Vacation in the U.S.

By Daniel


After spring class, we got time for vacation. So i decided to go to Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas. The first definition was San Francisco where far from here about 2~3 hours.
When i planed the vacation, i want to save my money so i chose transfer route from Spokane to San Francisco. I spent about 6 hours to got San Francisco. It wasn't boring than my expectation. I visited Portland airport for transfer and then finally i arrived San Francisco. When i arrived there, it was crowded. I felt confused to find Share ride station, so i missed the first Uber. After that i got Uber, and head to my hostel with the other Koreans. When i got there, there was so many Koreans in the lobby. I felt excited because in Spokane i couldn't find many Koreans. The next day, i visited Lombard street, pier 39, In n out bugger for lunch and cheese cake factory for dinner.
I didn't know about L
ombard street before the trip. But i realized that the street is famous and beautiful. There was many people to see the street. It located in the hill with some flowers and shaped with curve. After that i head to In n out bugger.

My Summer Vacation

by Bridget Green

The Big Easy, Crescent City, Nawlins, New Orleans! 

This wasn't summer, but New Orleans is hot enough that it felt like summer! Last week, my family all went to New Orleans for my son Fionn's graduation from Loyola University.

Crawfish!

He has been living and studying in NOLA (that's what he calls it: NOLA -- which stands for New Orleans, Louisiana) for the last four years. His major is Music Production and he's in the Honors Program (that's my boy!). We are so proud of all of his hard, creative work so we wanted to celebrate him! 
The whole family came: James and I from Spokane, his sister and her boyfriend, Ceilan and Harry, from Scotland, his brother Zeke from France, his cousin Ryan from Seattle, and my sis and her husband, Mary and Gary from Spokane.  So that makes nine people. We all stayed in a super cool Airbnb 'shotgun' house and we had so much fun! We ate incredible food (alligator, crawfish, red beans and rice,

Ceilan and Harry with a 4-year-old alligator

cornbread!) and went on a couple of cool tours (a slave plantation, a swamp tour, and to a cooking school for a class on how to make gumbo and chicken creole) and heard Fionn sing (in a church choir and at a vocal recital)! Wow! Oh, and it was James' birthday and Mother's Day! The vacation was packed with activity and joy and new adventures.
The very best part for me was that we were all together.  I love all of those people who came to NOLA. They are the center of my world. I am especially overjoyed to see my children so happy and creative and strong and so loving to each other. I am the luckiest woman on earth!