Cheshire Academy
Portfolio
Zen Fan
Writing&Composition III
Ms.Guarino
3 June 2015
Content
Transformation of My Writing..................................................................................... 1
How eating breakfast changes our lives?.....................................................................4
So, what was my aim?.................................................................................................6
Oh come on..................................................................................................................8
99 ways to cook eggs...................................................................................................10
Those were normal mornings I miss............................................................................12
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Transformation of My Writing
What you can get from one year’s studying? A comprehension of general outline of a subject? A certain extent of knowing well about the class? What I got from this year’s writing class, is a qualitative change of writing style and skills. Although the process was hard and long, through this year, my writing skills get completely improved. Time goes so fast. This year has passed so fast that I could not react. The moment of the first time I walked into the classroom is still clear in my mind, but now it is the time to say goodbye. Although the time passed in a flash, I found out I had learned a lot. With one year’s practice, I realized the transformation of my writing. When I headed back to read my first blog post, I could not believe my eyes. Tons of grammar errors, uncountable sentences started with “I” and poor length forced me to close the website. My improvement could be shown in these sides either. By putting a lot of efforts included perseverance, determination and carefulness, my improvement of writing skills is obvious.
First of all, perseverance helped me to improve my writing length and speed. What will you do when you are facing a long term homework? Although it is only 500 words, it is our greatest enemy at the beginning of the year. The experience showed me, everything will become easier if you insist to do it, include writing 500 words for blogs. Our thoughts at the beginning of the year are very interesting, and it transformed during the time went.“We have a 500 words short blog post today." "Oh my god, what? 500 words is short? How can I get those 500 words from? That is too long for me."
"Is this writing teacher crazy or something? She assigned us 500 words again! My study
"Is this writing teacher crazy or something? She assigned us 500 words again! My study
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hall will be all used for it. " "Let's see today's homework...500 words...Oh I hate it."
" I have a presentation due tomorrow, and what is next? 500 words blog post,ok." "Aha, except Math i only have a 500 words blog post. What a lovely day!"
That's the transformation of my banner in this year. With the persist to finish 500 words for each blog post, now I am very confident about my writing speed and contents.
Determination played an important role on my way of improving. The aims are always important for everything. A person who doesn’t have an aim will never be successful. Before this year, I treated writing this subject slightly, because I did not think it is necessary. In my old concept, a good writing only needs suitable material and true feeling. After you mastering these two factors, you are good enough. Then I found that I was too naive. After I got a horrible score for the first several blog posts, I decided an aim, I would change my writing style and write something meaningful. Follow this aim, my way of studying had a clear direction. After I had this lighthouse, I never missed my way. Determination helped me to keep learning and have power to write. Because you have an aim on your way of improving, you will never feel bored and refuse to keep going on. For real, I could not accomplish such a lot 500 words blog posts, if I did not use my willing power. I am a lazy person, but the determination drove me to finish them.
That's the transformation of my banner in this year. With the persist to finish 500 words for each blog post, now I am very confident about my writing speed and contents.
Determination played an important role on my way of improving. The aims are always important for everything. A person who doesn’t have an aim will never be successful. Before this year, I treated writing this subject slightly, because I did not think it is necessary. In my old concept, a good writing only needs suitable material and true feeling. After you mastering these two factors, you are good enough. Then I found that I was too naive. After I got a horrible score for the first several blog posts, I decided an aim, I would change my writing style and write something meaningful. Follow this aim, my way of studying had a clear direction. After I had this lighthouse, I never missed my way. Determination helped me to keep learning and have power to write. Because you have an aim on your way of improving, you will never feel bored and refuse to keep going on. For real, I could not accomplish such a lot 500 words blog posts, if I did not use my willing power. I am a lazy person, but the determination drove me to finish them.
Last but not least, carefulness is necessary when I am writing. It sometimes becomes my biggest problem. I always have confidence about my grammar because
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of my Chinese education. My strength is doing grammar multiple choices and I enjoy
doing them. When I write an essay, this blind confidence always accompany with me. I usually made a lot of stupid mistakes because of carelessness not only in writing, but also other subjects. After I imposed myself a sense, I started to reread and check my essay. This action could not generally influence my trend of my essay, but it solved a problem that I suffered for a long time. Before I put my carefulness into the essay, I lost a number of points because of tiny mistakes. With putting in perseverance and determination, I did not forget to be careful about every detail in my essay. It is a good habit and I hope I can keep focusing on it in the future.
Perseverance, determination and carefulness are the methods those helped me advance my writing. By putting these 3 kinds of efforts, I succeed a lot in writing class. When next time I look back on this portfolio, I will not dislike and avoid it. Compared the blog posts I wrote in different time period, I could’t help to plaint. It has been one year, and the transformation has happened. This year was a year of turning, whatever school work or mentality.
Perseverance, determination and carefulness are the methods those helped me advance my writing. By putting these 3 kinds of efforts, I succeed a lot in writing class. When next time I look back on this portfolio, I will not dislike and avoid it. Compared the blog posts I wrote in different time period, I could’t help to plaint. It has been one year, and the transformation has happened. This year was a year of turning, whatever school work or mentality.
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How eating breakfast changes our lives?
I seldom ate breakfast before. What I did was enjoying 30 more minutes sleeping instead of heading to the dinning hall. These 30 minutes are not that much, but it effectively helps me to be full of energy. Every morning, my roommate set up a clock around 7 o’clock, but he never gets up. After the alarm clock ring, I can sleep for 45 more minutes, and it feels like 3 more hours. These similar situations had last almost for 3 years after I came to the United State.
My 30 days challenge’s is getting up for breakfast by sacrificing my second sleeping every day. Although to some people it does not look like a challenge, it is the roughest mission to us somnolent people. Nothing can be more hurtful than sacrificing my sleeping time.
When I was studying in China 3 years ago, my mom woke me up every day. Every morning, a fancy breakfast would put on the table. Although I did not always have appetite in the morning, I would still eat some of them. Thinking about those words I said in the past, I deeply feel regrettable. If I can go back to that time I must say: “Thanks mom, it is wonderful.”
There is an interesting fact, a lot of Chinese students that you never saw will eat breakfast those weeks after vocations. Eating breakfast does not only mean itself, but also a good habit. It means that I must get up earlier, sleep earlier and finish my work earlier. Although I am not sure that breakfast in school will be delicious, I can form a
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good habit, I won't put the things to do in the last minute. I think it will be hard to persist doing it, so I must train my willpower to force me to get up. Getting up early makes me hardly wished to live, but it is a challenge I chose, I have to finish it.
In Chinese people says, the hardest part in everything is the beginning, but for my challenge, insisting will be the biggest challenge. For me sleeping is kind of drug, I can not leave it. If one day I missed the breakfast, I might not get up in the next day.
The challenge has started in April 4th, so it means it will be finished in May 3rd. The first for the challenge, I woke up in 7:20 and went to the breakfast. Finally I felt can feel the breath of morning again. On the way to the dinning hall, I started to think of my life in middle school. How yearning those days was! I can never go back to the past. Stepping in to dinning hall, there were only a few people, much less than I could see after break.
The first menu of my challenge was cereal. In my memory, food in dining hall is always unalterable. I guessed they must be scrambled egg, bacon and potatoes. Certainly it is the most regular American food, but I still can not accept such invariable meal. I saw Leo on the way to dining hall and then had breakfast with him. He asked me if cereal enough for my first day, and my answer was sure, much more than nothing in usual days.
In Chinese people says, the hardest part in everything is the beginning, but for my challenge, insisting will be the biggest challenge. For me sleeping is kind of drug, I can not leave it. If one day I missed the breakfast, I might not get up in the next day.
The challenge has started in April 4th, so it means it will be finished in May 3rd. The first for the challenge, I woke up in 7:20 and went to the breakfast. Finally I felt can feel the breath of morning again. On the way to the dinning hall, I started to think of my life in middle school. How yearning those days was! I can never go back to the past. Stepping in to dinning hall, there were only a few people, much less than I could see after break.
The first menu of my challenge was cereal. In my memory, food in dining hall is always unalterable. I guessed they must be scrambled egg, bacon and potatoes. Certainly it is the most regular American food, but I still can not accept such invariable meal. I saw Leo on the way to dining hall and then had breakfast with him. He asked me if cereal enough for my first day, and my answer was sure, much more than nothing in usual days.
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So, what was my aim?
I must say, it was too tough to get up in the weekends. Weekends were the time I used to charge my sleeping battery before, so I spent every morning in my dream during the weekends before. In the past 2 days, I found a very serious hidden trouble: if I can not sleep until 12 o’clock, I will not get charged enough. Oh My God, I am going to be a walking dead again the next Thursday and Friday.
Breakfast of these two days did not amaze me at all. I came out a question in these two days: Why there must be some eggs in the morning? Back to china, there were 3 types of eggs I can see in the morning; they are boiled eggs, steamed eggs and fried eggs. My mother says that eggs are full of nutrition although everything has. I acknowledge that eggs are one of most necessary parts in cooking, but too many eggs could make people feel uncomfortable. Now when I stand in the dining hall, scrambled eggs waves their hands to me every morning. If I don’t see scrambled egg once in the dining hall , that must be the biggest surprise I ever have. What were my goals for eating breakfast? Sometimes I forget about them in sudden. These days I was doubting about this action. Is it really worked for having a good habit? Sometimes when I got up in the morning I hated myself a lot. For me, it is hard to do and write. When other classmates are writing about their new photos, new sente nces and new poems, I am thinking how to make fun with my scrambled eggs. Again,
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should I keep doing it? For example, last Wednesday was a really tough day to get up. Even though I caught some Zs after I finished breakfast, they were discontinuous. It straightly affected my state in the second period’s presentation. I didn’t know what I was talking about in the first 3 minutes. My goal was have a good habit, but it must be something wrong if it affects my studying. In the past one week, I put my center of challenge into “eat breakfast and remember what are they looked and tasted like”, but not “go to dining hall and find something interesting to write”. It deviated from my truck.
Next week, I will try to change my thoughts. Instead of writing about those boring foods, I will memorize those moments I see when I walk to the dining hall. I will try to use my imagination, to find some more interesting things I can write that happen in the morning. I misunderstand the aims I set up when the challenge started. It is only the first week and I am glad that I found this problem. I believe the next blog can be much different from before.
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Oh come on...
A new day is coming! This is Monday morning on 20th April 2015. I am writing on my iPad with an unclear mind. The morning comes earlier and earlier. One month ago when I got up at this time it was still dark outside, but the sun is rising up high right now. It is 6:40,so please, let me just sleep for 40 minutes then go to brush my teeth...
That was what I wrote this morning. Yes, I decided to write this blog by writing in pieces and then combining them together. This will make it look like a diary, and I can record everything just after it happened. What I planned was looking for some fun things happened on the way to the dining hall and then write them down, but the truth was: There is nothing to write with, because I did not even see an alive person. Wait, actually there was.
It rained all day long. It got big during extra help time, but only rained a little in the morning. When I walked outside VdP, I felt the raindrop touched my head. Heading back to the room, I suddenly realized that I left my umbrella in Humanity building. “It seems to get bigger, but it will be fine until I got back. I hope so.” After thinking for a while, I walked towards the dining hall.
China plates and iron forks had not come back yet. I received a precise information about the reason: the dish-washing machines were broken. I hope we can get them back because I hate the feeling of forks inserting through the plate.
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I found a lot of earthworms on the ground! Although it affected my appetite, it means that I finally found something other than breakfast. Those earthworms on the ground were not lucky at all. Almost every one of them had stepped on. I even saw the vestige of wheel on an earthworm in front of the dining hall. I heard that Gordon made some sentences of Lyric about them in Chinese, but I can not remember those amazing rhythmical sentences any more.
Plates, forks and cups have not come back still. For real, I enjoy the plastic one-off cup, because it can be filled in more drinks than the regular one; I do not need to carry 2 cups at the same time.
I could always see my friend Frank every morning in the dining hall. It seems like since he became a day student, he came for breakfast every morning. He was so surprised the first time when he saw me, because both of us weren’t used to eat breakfast.
By the way, the breakfast in the dining hall still didn’t have improvement at all, but I started to be used to it. I figured out that, because of the cooking level, even the same thing cooked by the same chief has different tastes in different days. It’s so sad. This blog post looks falling apart, so I will try to change the style next time.
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99 ways to cook eggs
Because of those two fried eggs I ate this morning, I decided to write a whole blog about eggs to feedback. I was shocked by one person's action this morning:" May I have 4 fried eggs please?" That was amazing! In fact, when I was standing in line, a dining hall faculty asked me:" Are you waiting for (two) fried eggs?" " Yes I am." Although I was curious about the only fried egg in left the iron pan, I kept waiting in the line, then I saw the 4 fried eggs man.
Back to China ,I also ate fried eggs in the morning because I think fried eggs tasted much better than scrambled eggs. Usually, my mom only cooks 2 fried eggs in the morning, one for my father and the other for me. She always said to me it is harmful to eat too many eggs. Did she deceive me about this? Although I don't think my mom will say an unreal word to me, I checked it last night. "In fact, a single medium sized egg contains 186 mg of cholesterol, which is 62% of the recommended daily intake." I found this I information on the website. If you eat too many eggs, you will be poisoned by too much protein in the eggs.
I start to worry about that 4 fried eggs man. Actually too many eggs make people feel disgusting. Several months ago, I order a wrong Chinese food meal: tomato fried egg, 2 fried eggs, egg fried rice and egg drop soup. I must say that, that meal was horrible. I felt nausea about eggs for almost a week.
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Another way to cook eggs is boiling. In a long period I didn't want to eat boiled eggs when I was in primary school. I think the boiled eggs smell like chicken' dung. This strange thoughts was affected by a novel I read. Every time when I see boiled eggs on the table, I didn't want to eat anything any more. I don't know why I changed this strange habit, but I eat them now, with sauce oil or hot pickle mustard tuber. Wait a second, I got a word called "hot pickle mustard tuber" from the dictionary, but its translation only has two syllables in Chinese. In fact, English menus is so specific. For example, if there is a Chinese rice dumpling called "Lian Rong Rou Zong" in English it is called "Glutinous rice stuffed with ground lotus seeds wrapped in reed leaves." That's really funny. If you write a Chinese menu into English, you will know how to cook it immediately.
Last one is steamed egg. There are big differences between American and Chinese steamed eggs. It is hard to describe the differences, but Chinese steamed egg is much like semi-liquid. I love to mix them with rice and shrimp, that was delicious, but I can never eat them in America. First of all, steamed egg in America is custard. The second of reason is American never eat that kind of 2cm long shrimp in river.
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Those were normal mornings I miss
My phone rings on my desk. “All right... I must get up...It’s six o’clock now.” With my shaky body, I walk to bathroom after I find my slippers. My mom always gets up before I do, because she needs to prepare breakfast for my father and me. Toothpaste and wet towel are already prepared in the bathroom and I have been accustomed to it. “Mom, what is for breakfast today?” “Fried dumplings and boiled eggs.” Fried dumplings are always delicious,especially fried dumplings with Chinese cabbages and pork as stuffing. And how should I eat boiled eggs today? Should I eat with “hot pickle mustard tuber” or sauce oil? Both of them are so gooood! I can wait to eat them, so I rush back to my room and start to dress up.
My phone rings on my desk. “Oh I hate getting up...” I refused to get up although I am made up by my phone. “Mom, what we eat for breakfast today?” I ask with expecting. “Vegetable topping soup noodles(I translate by myself, because the name that kind of noodles will not appear in the dictionary absolutely). I bought it back 10 minutes ago.” Before she ends her talking, I am already brushing my teeth in the bathroom. “ I will eat all the noodles!Even the soup!” I must be satisfied when I walk out the door I think. Tasty breakfast forces me to get up, or I am attracted by the tasty breakfast. Whatever, I just got up for breakfast.
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It is Saturday morning, I wake up at 8:00 a.m. Although school life is very tired, I still wake up quite early. I don’t get up for NBA match on TV,but for steamed stuffed buns. My mom told me she would go to buy them this morning. A box of milk and steamed stuffed buns will be fantastic for the morning! “These are vegetable stuffing, these are meat stuffing and these are three... My mom stops talking after she sees half of a bun in my mouth. Whenever it is weekday or weekend, breakfast was so attractive.
My iPad rings beside my bed. “What time is it now? Oh, it’s 7:00 o’clock I think, I can keep sleeping for a while even I should go breakfast. Let me set an alarm at 7:30..” “I hate getting up in the morning! What are we going to eat for breakfast? Fine, let’s just stop imagining. It must be scrambled eggs and potatoes. How about set an alarm at 7:40? If brushing teeth and washing face will take 5 minutes, dressing up will cost 5 minutes and walking to class will cost 5 minutes... Yes, I can sleep until 7:45.”
That is how my life looks like now, I missed my past life in China!
