Chapter 5&6 Question / blog 20

Read chapters 5 And 6. Answer the following questions: At first, Lorenzo does not want Olivia to stay with him. Why? Why does he initially agree to allow her to stay? After a while, he begins to feel sorry for Olivia and wants to help her? Why? Explain in detail and use direct quotes from the novel.

            Lorenzo, the main character and also the narrator of the book Me and You, who was a twenty-four-year-old grown up man in the year of 2010, wrote down a long flash back about his childhood in 2000 when he was fourteen. In the prologue of the book, Lorenzo's sister's name appears; she is Lorenzo's step sister, who is nine years older than Lorenzo. She appears in the prologue, disappears for four chapters in the book, and finally appears in chapter five.

            Lorenzo was a kid that has bad relationships with all the inferiors- people who was not one of his family member; in his mind, the only people who could understand him is his mom, his father, and his grandmother. In order to make his mother happy of him making friends in school and being invited by them, Lorenzo fabricates an event which is a ski trip with his "friends" and hides in the basement of their living house which is a building. Lorenzo is afraid of his mom asking him to have her talk to his friend Alessia's mom, because this whole event is a lie. He hides in the basement and pretends that he went to the ski trip with his friends, and he thought that he could hide there for the whole week, but on one day someone fiddles with the lock on the door and finds him in the basement. 

            It is his sister, Olivia. She is looking for the money in a box in the basement that she gave her father before; she finds the box but she doesn't find her money in it. She promises Lorenzo that she wouldn't tell his parents about him hiding in the basement and left, but the second day she comes again. This time she is asking for Lorenzo to let her stay and live for a night; Lorenzo refused to do so because he finds his sister's diary of how she hates their father;  he also thinks that the basement is his personal space, the food supplies are limited, so he didn't want her to stay. His sister threatens him by telling his parents that Lorenzo is hiding in the basement and he has no friends at all, which makes Lorenzo compromised. He really wants to maintain a good relationship between his mom and him, so he doesn't want his mom to know the truth. For hiding the truth, he let his sister stayed for one night.

            In the next morning, Lorenzo wants Olivia to leave because the time he promised to let her stay is up. Olivia was cursing at him because he did not let her stay in the shelter and she has no money at all. When she is deciding to leave, Lorenzo's mother called Lorenzo and ordered him to let her talk to Alessia's mom, and to make sure that everything is alright. Lorenzo bagged her sister to pretend like Alessia's mom for making his mom less worried, by swearing that "on my parents’ lives that I will be Olivia Cuni’s slave...For the rest of my life...And I will always be kind and generous to her" and letting her sister stay in the basement. It is really a great effort for Lorenzo to swear so. His sister helps him went through the crisis, and for exchange, she stays in the basement. Accidentally, Lorenzo found her sister vomiting in the bathroom feeling extremely uncomfortable because of malaria. In the text it says that Olivia "...was distressed, constantly changing position like she was lying on a carpet of broken bottles. She wrapped herself in the blanket then threw it off and fidgeted and flinched like somebody was torturing her." Her sister was so sick that she couldn't stop groaning; Lorenzo feels annoyed first, but then he might feel a little bit sorry for her sister because she looks really skinny and sick. He finds some syringes in her sister's backpack while she's showering in the bathroom with cold water. He might feel pity of his sister because he used to like his sister's beauty and suddenly she was not as pretty as before because of the illness, and she is so poor and frustrated which Lorenzo had never experienced.

Summarizing chapter 1 / blog 19

Lorenzo, who was a fourteen year old Italian boy, went on a ski trip with his friends without his mother accompanying, but he didn't went there and instead he hid in a building.

Story about my break / blog 18

          Once upon a time, in a freezing winter, I went on a trip back to my hometown—Shanghai. The weather in Shanghai was as cold as the weather in New York; people on the street were all wearing heavy clothing for keeping their bodies warmer. My friends were all dismissed from school because of the Christmas break, so I could hangout with them as much as we want. It was only six days left to Christmas when I arrived in Shanghai.

          I called my best friend Joyce when I arrived home, and we hangout for the whole day. We went to a lot of places for food in the break, for example we went to the Korean street in Shanghai called Hongquan Road and had a Korean rice cake hot pot. The rice cake is made of sticky rice and mozzarella cheese stuffing in it. We also put a lot of meat and veggies such as pork, seaweed, Chinese cabbages, needle mushrooms and potatoes in it. After we finished all, the waitress told us that we could put a bag of ramen into it; the ramen with the special sauce and the soup tasted fantastic. Besides food, Joyce and I went to a hot spring on Christmas. It was a wonderful experience to chill in a boiling hot water with a friend when it was freezing outside. There were several different springs with different colors and functions; I remember the one that is made of a small portion of carbonic acid and mineral water, because after staying in it for a while, your body would be covered by tiny bubbles like the ones in coca cola.

          Unfortunately the break is short; I still had a lot of friends that hadn't met yet. Everyday in my break was enriched with fun; I woke up early everyday and felt energized. Although I missed my friends a lot, I have to leave Shanghai and go back to my school. I would miss the days in Shanghai where I had no work to do at night and free time. 

Self-Assessment of Your Project / blog 17

I wrote a diary for Sookan, who is the protagonist of "Gathering of Pearls"; this book talks about what she had experienced in the first year of studying aboard in America. The reason why I didn't make another character up is that I want the readers of my diary to know better about how Sookan's daily life is, and how she feels about everything by psychological descriptions in my entries. Even though my diary sounds like a summary of the book and seems like lacking creativity before reading, it is actually different than the original book by adding a lot of new ideas, new events and many mental activities into it. I had included many descriptions of the five senses in a lot of my entries, which could bring some of the scenes in the diary to the readers' brains, and have them imagine what had happened and how things are all set up; some senses are really hard to describe and add into my entries such as tasting and smelling because Sookan is not always eating or cooking, but for other senses, I put in a lot of detailed descriptions in my entries to better express the feelings and the settings of the scenarios. In my entries, the most abundant descriptions are Sookan's narrations of what had happened, descriptions of the settings and the atmosphere, and reflections of what Sookan feels; there's a lot of entries describing her life and feelings about what had happened; about 30 percent of the entries is the description of Sookan's mental activity, and another 30 percent of it is the narration of what had happened. Even though my diary is almost reaching 4000 words, I revised it again and again with my friends and the writing center teachers; they helped me to correct many careless mistakes such as typos, and corrected my grammar carefully. I achieved the length limit of 1900 words, and wrote even more than what we were asked to have. Overall, I think I did a great job on achieving the requirements in class and practicing my writing skills for the future.

Review on Writing Center / blog 16

Lillian Xu

Ms Guarino

English II

Dec 13th, 2015

Last Tuesday some of my classmates and I visited the writing center to work on our diary entries with the teacher there. We brought our first draft with us, and went there in our free periods. Kevin, Johnny, Minh, Jerry and I were all there with Ms Swift correcting our grammar mistakes and telling us what we are aiming for this writing. She said that this diary's main point is to write about the character's life and show the settings of the book, and all we need to take care of is the mechanical thing such as grammar.

Ms Swift looked at my diary entries and said that I am in good shape already, and then looked at others' work and corrected some of the grammar mistakes. She told us that sometimes English is hard, like grammar; she gave us some examples like, when it is a thing that had happened already, we should be using past tense; when it is a thing that is written in the past but still happening now, we should be using present tense. For example, the phrase "the campus is big" describes a campus that is still big now, but the phrase "the campus was big" describes a campus that was big before, but for some reasons it is not big now. Then she showed us National Geographic, which is a magazine that has many pictures and many interesting things happening all around the world, and said, that English is not always hard; she flipped to a page that has only a few words on it and is really easy to understand, and asked Kevin to read it out loud to us. I couldn't remember what it was talking about, but all I could remember is that this author used only less than twenty words and a picture to describe a complex detailed opinion with the readers' imaginations. Everyone has a different understanding about the same description and picture, which makes it a successful piece of writing.

Ms Swift helped me on some details on my diary entries, such as plurals and tenses. Her suggestions and corrections make my entries more grammatically correct, and point out the path that I'm writing on for the following journals. Ms Swift made me feel like my work is appreciated by others, and I'm going to keep this good work up to make my writing better. She encouraged me to enjoy the process of writing, and gave me confidence to write more about what I want to. I learned that a long and complex sentence is not the only way to express what you want to say; a short and simple sentence can also describe a lot of things. And, for gaining more knowledge, we should always read more books, magazines, and newspapers, watch more movies, and even listen to more songs.

Grammar / blog 15

Look up the definitions of comma splice, run-on sentence, sentence fragment, independent clause, and dependent clause. Post the definitions on your blog along with an example for each term.

Comma splice

Definition: Two independent clauses separated by a comma instead of a period or semicolon.

Example: I am starving, I have no food to eat.

Run-on sentece

Definition: A run-on sentence is a sentence that has two or more clauses which are improperly joined (usually without punctuations).

Example: I am starving but I have nothing to eat so I want to steal some from the dining hall.

Sentence fragment

Definition:a phrase or clause written as a sentence but lacking an element, as a subject or verb, that would enable it to function as an independent sentence in normative written English. 

Example: Went to the train station.

Independent clause

Definition: An independent clause is a group of words that contains a subject and verb and expresses a complete thought, which is a complete sentence.

Example: I am starving.

Dependent clause

Definition: a dependent clause (or a subordinate clause) is a clause that provides an independent clause with additional information, but which cannot stand alone as a sentence.

Example: and also went to the train station.

Draft of Diary Entry / blog 14

Diary Entry

Before School

9/1 Cloudy

Finally arriving on campus in my new school in America, I decide to write something down in my diary. It was an extremely long flight from Korea to here including the transfer; time seemed to be endless while I was on the plane waiting for it to land on the ground. When the plane landed on the new continent, I almost cried because of ecstasy. But unfortunately, the school forgot to pick me up in the airport, so I took another few bunch of hours looking for buses and trains to drive me school. When I arrived, there are only a few coins left in my pocket. I felt upset about using up all the money I have in just one day.

September

9/2 Sunny

Waking up at noon when sunlight is filling in every corner in my room, I realized how long I have been sleeping. Because of being too tired yesterday on travelling, my body almost collapsed when I wanted to stand up. Sister Casey, who is the academic dean introduced me herself, my dorm and my new roommate last night. My new roommate's name is Ellen Lloyd; she is an American. Ellen introduced me herself also, and told me that I can find her for help if I have any problems.

9/3 Sunny

I would like to add some details into my previous diaries. When I arrived school on the day before yesterday, Sister Casey wanted me to wear my hanbok (which is a type of traditional Korean formal dress) in the opening ceremony; I refused at first because I didn't want to be so outstanding in a situation where everyone is wearing their casual dress. At last, under her cajolery, I chose to compromise and show my specialty to the community because she told me that I am the only Korean in the school. I was feeling very awkward and embarrassed at the beginning of the ceremony while everyone was staring at me, but I felt less embarrassed when they all say that I'm pretty. Thank god, no one disliked it.

9/10 Partly Cloudy

This is my first day of baby-sitting in America. I went to Professor Bennett's house for his kids; he invited me to have brunch at their house. One thing that really impressed me is that, I saw Professor Bennett, a man, cooking food for his family in the kitchen. It is too shocking for me to see this because in Korea, only women do the housework and men are usually having their own businesses outside. There are two kids in the Bennett's, Sarah and Jimmy; instead of being naughty and annoying, they are pretty mature at their age. I had a good day with them.

9/25 Cloudy

September almost ends. In this first month of everything, I realized the responsibilities that I have to carry on my shoulders. As a scholarship student, I have to work in the dining hall for fifteen hours every week, which means two to three hours everyday, and get good grades in all my classes. Unlike some other students, my family isn't very rich; instead, it could be described as poor; there is no extra money for me to spend on daily supplies, so I have to do some part time jobs besides school work and the dining hall work. The school work is very hard, especially in a language that I am not using very often; I am afraid if I won't get good grades in my classes, because I might lose my scholarship and the financial aid. Ellen asked me to make more friends, but I feel like too busy to make friends or socialize with others.

October

10/6 Rainy

I met Marci, the girl who lives in the single room  on the opposite of my room, and said "Hi" to her, but she didn't reply me. I was feeling a little upset because of realizing the truth that not everyone in America is nice and easy to get along with. Never mind, there's still a lot of work for me to do. Fighting!

10/13 Sunny

Marci said "Hi" to me this morning. I always know that she is a very nice person who says hi to everyone. She told me that she wasn't having a good mood last Sunday, and she actually wants to be a friend of mine. We had a walk and Marci showed me her camera, which looks very expensive and nice. She told me about her family, about her personality and a lot of other things about her, and at last she told me that I am special. It was a great conversation with her, I'm very glad to have a new friend like her:)

10/20 Cloudy

After another full day of work, I saw Ellen and her boyfriend Kyle kissing on the street while I was walking back to my dorm. They are so into each other, so I didn't say hi for not interrupting. It is so different from my Korean concepts, because I was told in Korea that it is not allowed to do such thing in public, even for married couples. American is such an open place where couples could kiss and hug in public; I never thought about being like that, because in Korea, your parents choose who you would marry and who brought the largest benefit for both families. Things in America is so different than in Korea; I feel difficult on accepting both concepts in a short period of time like this, and maybe I just need more time to adapt into this open and advanced society.

10/27 Rainy

There are two letters from my family today; one is from my mother, and the other one is from my sister Theresa, who's fifteen years older than me. My mother is being understanding as usual; she is much different than other mothers in my thoughts, because she never forced anyone to do what they do not want to. Even when I didn't tell her about my busy schedule, she is still thinking about how my life is going on, and telling me not to worry about my family. I feel homesick and extremely sorry about not writing any letter to home telling everyone how I am doing in the U.S. Very different from my mother, my sister is kind of like blaming at me. Her full letter is about how she cares about me, and complaining about my behavior and environment in America, which makes me feel like it is all my fault for not taking my responsibility as a younger sister in the family. Maybe I should write her more often about my life, so then she doesn't have to worry about me too much.

November

11/4 Rainy

It is a hard day today as usual. Thanksgiving is coming, and because of that, many work (such as papers or projects) are due in just two weeks. Ellen asked me to go hang out with her friends, but I have no time to have fun because of the heavy work that I have to do for school and for my little pocket money to spend. I never thought of having fun or finding a boyfriend in America, because my work and my responsibility is too heavy. My parents risked all their money on me, so I shall try hard to not disappoint them.

11/13 Sunny

The weather today was extremely good; the clouds on the sky seemed like huge sweet marshmallows. I went to Professor Bennett’s house for baby-sitting because their kids seemed to like me, and I like them a lot either. By steeping in the open American culture, I eventually adapted some concepts in my mind, like equality between women and men. I was a little scared on the opening school ceremony when Sister Casey asked me to present myself in front of everyone, but now I am more used to show my personality in front of everyone.

11/20 One Day Before Thanksgiving

Ellen invited me to her house to have thanksgiving dinner with her family; she’s been telling me that I need to relax a little, but I didn’t listen to her, and instead, I treated her like a three-year-old kid daydreaming about something impossible. This time I compromised, because I want to have someone to celebrate the festival together. I am homesick, and I wonder how my family is doing—my mother, my sister, my three brothers, and Father Lee… I missed my father too, but it’s impossible to see him again because he had sacrificed himself in the brutal Korean War. I am thankful to my father, because of the contributions he had made for our country.

11/21 Thanksgiving Day

After a few whiles of driving, we finally arrived Ellen’s house. Ellen’s house is so much larger than my family’s house in Korea; it has six acres of land beside it. Ellen’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd are really nice to me, they introduced me themselves and their houses, which gave me a really wonderful impression about all the Americans. At the meal, we mentioned about my homeland—Korea. When they asked me about what we are wearing, Ellen wanted me to wear my hanbok because she thinks it really fits me. After a few minutes of consideration, I decided to let Ellen wear the hanbok. I’m very familiar with the steps to put this huge dress on, and when I finished decorating her, she looked extremely gorgeous. We showed her parents the dress, and they all think it’s pretty and special. I decide to give this dress to her, because I think the hanbok fits her perfectly, and it is very meaningful because she is my precious friend.