Blog # 9

                                            Russian Food

            Today I decided to write about yummy stuff ; therefore,I will introduce some of the national food of Russia. Russian cuisine widely uses fish, mushrooms, berries, and honey. Crops of wheat and barley provide the ingredients for breads, pancakes, cereal, and bear. Black bread is relatively more popular in Russia if compared with the rest of the word. Flavorful soups and stews include borsch and okroshka. Borsch (I can say vegetable hot soup) is made of beetroot and cabbage as the main ingredient, giving it a deep reddish-purple color. Also includes in it carrots, potatoes, and meat. Most people likes to eat borsch with sour cream,so you have to add sour cream right before serving.

              Another type of a soup is okroshka. Compared with the borsch it’s a cold soup and its mix of mostly raw vegetables like cucumber and spring onions. Also includes boiled potatoes and eggs. Okroshka is usually garnished with sour cream and plane yogurt (has to be the sour one). All ingredients are diced and then mixed with sour cream and yogurt just before eating. This allows the vegetables to retain their texture. Okroshka is mostly served in summer.
   
 

                After borsch and okroshka, I stated to feel hunger …J I am going to write about my most favorit food which would be pelmeny. I definetlly will ask my mom in the morning to make it. Maybe on the weekend I will have a chance to eat them. I did not eat this kind of food long time. Pelmeni usually made with minced meat filling, wrapped in thin dough (made out of flour and eggs, sometimes with milk or water added). Pork, lamb, beef or any other kind of meat can be used as a filling and mixing several kinds is popular.  Often various spices, such as pepper and onions are mixed into the filling. By my self I like eat them with sour cream. Pelmeni belong to the family of dumplings. They are also similar to Chinese pot stickers. The main difference between pelmeni and other kinds of dumplings is in their shape and size - typical pelmeni is roughly spherical and is about 2 to 3 cm in diameter, whereas most other types of dumplings are usually elongated and much larger.

    

After this article  I will better get something to eat J

Blog # 8

                                       The Oath

On the 26th of Wednesday, I had the Oath ceremony for citizenship. I had to arrive 30 min earlier before the appointment time. The ceremony was to be held at the Convention Center. More specifically it is located in the center of Downtown, Los Angeles.

There was a traffic caused by an accident on our way to the Convention Center; four cars had been hit by one behind the other in one row. I was nervous all the way, and it was good that I wasn’t the driver. My husband was driving the car as I annoyed him by my remarks “go this way, those cars in that line are moving faster than the cars in your line, or go that way …” and he was patiently changing one line then another. I don’t like to be late, especially in big occasions. Traffic was killing me; we were even provided that something unexpected might be on the way. Finally we reach our destination, and I was happy that we weren’t late.

 Honestly it was my first time in the Convention Center. It is also good that there were arrows and sings to show the people where to go all over the place. If I was by my self, I would be definitely lost. When we first entered the hall or auditorium, there was a great amount of people that wandered around me. The auditorium in our thoughts can be described into three sections. The first section belonged to the guests’ seats, the another room belonged to the future citizens where there were much more sits in the rows and the columns, and finally the final section belonged to the stage’s huge flag hanging from the ceiling, where there was a big table standing in the middle, with two big TVs on the both corners of the flag. There were big lines for registration. Future citizens must be registered before the ceremony; therefore, more than 20 tables have been provided. After registration we were conducted to our seats, and on the way to the sits everybody received a small flag and envelope with material about how we can vote in the nearest future. All of us were waiting for the judge to come and start the ceremony. We stand when judge arrived (he was late and we were waiting for another 20-30 min) and started to read the Oath of Allegiance .Everybody was repeating after him. The judge announced that there were 2,400 people on that day who became U.S citizens. Then the TVs turned on and the president of the United States, Barack Obama, congratulated all the new citizens in his speech. Then we listened to an Anthem; consequently, we put our right hand on our heart. Everybody became so excited, (a couple of people in the front of me were crying).

 When the ceremony ended everybody (new fresh citizensJ) was forming lines to get their certificates. My husband was waiting for me with a bouquet of flowers. He congratulated me and took a couple of pictures. Then we happily went home. The end….

Blog #7

                                       Technology

          I think we are living in an amazing time, the time of technology. It is very common when someone sees us use phones with many features, flat 3D TVs, compact computers with a big hard drive, and high definition video games. Not too long ago, our technology wasn’t like this, all I can say is everything changed very rapidly over the past ten years.

I still remember one of the first video games; it was a Mario game on the Nintendo 64. Today we have a big selection of the games on the Wii, Xbox-360, and the latest model of the Play Station. When we compare these, we can see a big difference between the definition of the today’s technology and the old. Today our graphics, designs, and the speeds are amazing. That is why parents could not take off their children from games. Even parents are playing video games more often sometimes than their children.

Let’s talk about TV as another product of the technology. I don’t know if someone of you remembered not so long ago we had a different kind of TV, not the flat ones, but the box shaped ones. I believe some families still carry old versions of the TV. In the movie theaters we can watch 3D movies also. Even at home people can enjoy new 3D television, but of course, they have to first buy that expensive product. Best Buy has interesting selections of 3D TVs right now.

Another important technology product is a computer. About 10 or 12 years ago, I bought my first computer, it has a 3 GB hard drive J and it was the best at those times. Can someone imagine that? Today day, a simple flash is already, at the very least, 6 GBs. I’m not even talking about computers here. My favorite computer is the laptap; it can be carried anywhere, it’s light and compact.

Finally, everybody’s most addicting thing is the phone. A phone is an actually like a small computer these days. It has so many features, including videos, calls, games, dictionaries, navigation systems, and much, much more. This is our communication devices that the world uses today. Last time, I saw a You Tube video that had the new generation of the 5th I –phone. It was really advanced; you can check it out also. See below...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzsBwnv_dAg

Blog #6

                                                                     Americana

           

         
              It was Friday evening when my husband and I decided to go somewhere. The weather was like on demand. It was not too hot and it was not too cold either. We were in the Glendale city, so the closest and also the nicest place(by my opinion) was Americana. I don’t know if some of you have been there, but I suggest you to going there at least to see it one time. It is nice to see how people at different ages walk around the area. Many of them are with children, in groups of friends, or just being lovely couples.

It is an interesting place with fountains in the center of it. Every 15 or 30 min (I am not sure about the time) it has a small fountain show with music (dancing fountains). I can say it is similar to the Las Vegas fountain show which is located in front of the Bellagio Hotel and of course the show over there was much bigger, longer and nicer. However, I am not criticizing Americana, I am just comparing it. In addition to the fountain there, it has a railroad with the tour train. The train goes around the place; it has a couple stops and the tour guy who’s explaining and introducing the place to the visitors. There is a nice small playground for the children with green evenly cut grass around the playground that children can run, jump, and play on it.

            This place has interesting apartments. They were building on top of the stores or shops. I imagined how someone who lives there by the evening time could walk to the balcony and enjoy the place by watching. By the way, there are many small expensive shops like Armani Exchange and Kelvin Klein. And many people who shop there despite the high cost. My favorite store there, I can say is a Barnes and Nobel book store. Time flies by there for me. I usually get a cup of coffee in the book store and enjoy just being around the books. It might sound crazy, but I like the smell of the new books. I can be around there a couple of hours, but for me time will pass like couple of minutes.

Americana has many small food stores and a couple restaurants. When people went to food stores, they enjoyed the fountains while eating there food. This place even has a Pacific Theater with big selections of the movies. We watch the movie “Driver” that day. Please no comments on the movie, because that movie did not impress me…..

So after all that it was good. I know sometimes we don’t have time for us, but in a while we have to go somewhere and enjoy even a couple hours of the free time.

Blog # 5

 My Terrible Week  
         
                 My son, who is two years old, was coughing for 2 days, just a regular cough, nothing unusual. But suddenly he started to breath so heavy and his body temperature was getting higher. Tylenol did not help and I decided to take him to the emergency room on Monday evening. When we came to the emergency, there were already been a lot of people waiting to be seen. After few hours of waiting in the lobby the nurse finally called my son’s name. She gave us questions, paperwork, and est.….which took another hour before we got to see the doctor. Finally, when doctor came, he assigned a few breathing treatments for my son, because he still breathed very heavily. As he explained me about the kids on that age, especially a three year old or under, can get sick very easily because of their immune system, theirs is much weaker than the immune system of the older kids. And especially right now when the weather is not stable they can catch a cold fast. After an X- ray and blood test was done, the doctor decided to transfer my son to the hospital, at the pediatric department. Around 6 a.m. (Tuesday already) an ambulance brought us to the hospital. We were so tired; my son was crying most of the time.

We stayed in the hospital until Friday. It was very hard, especially with him being two years old. Every time when someone was opening the door he was automatically crying because he though the nurse will hurt him somehow. He was so scared; therefore, he was not letting the nurse measure his temperature and did not open his mouth to take the medicine, all the time we have to hold his hands and head. He was with the oxygen mask for two days and was getting antibiotics through IV (intravenous feeding). Then on the third day the doctor decided to turn off the oxygen and see if my son will be able breath without oxygen. And he did it. Temperature got stable and we were hoping to go home on Friday.

He is better right now. I still have to give him antibiotic for another couple days, but when we are at home, it is much easier to handle with him than in the hospital. He started to eat better and when I’m looking at him, I start to sometimes remember those days that come to my mind as a nightmare.

One of my days

            I don’t know what to write today. All I can think about is my test which I will have on Monday. So probably I should start with my morning.  I was awakening by a ray of sunshine through my room, this tells me that it is morning already. I was still in my bed stretching and thinking what I am going to do today? What is my schedule and how to organize my day? It was Saturday morning. I was in my pajamas and was so lazy to get up. By the way, I love pajamas, it’s very comfortable to wear them and  I have them in many colors.

 Almost every Saturday I have my regular schedule. Wake up, breakfast, study, family time, then lunch, study, family time,  and  finally dinner and more family time. I am so lucky that I have support, as my parents, especially my mom. She takes care of my children, makes sure they are not hungry, clean, and happyJ.My dad takes them to the park and tutors my oldest one on math. Sunday is more for fun. I always take my kids somewhere. We are having a good time together that day. It’s a little bit of a break for me and for them in tell a new week will start.
This Saturday  I will need to study more because of  my Anatomy test and I need to memorize a lot of stuff. It is very hard for me, especially English; it is my third language. Anatomy has so many names that you have to not only learn, but memorize. Many bone names to remember, sutures, muscles and tissues. It is so funny how my professor teaches us memorize many stuff in order using “mnemonics strategy” (a word, phrase, rhyme or other wordplay that helps us remember things). It is helps me a lot and if someone doesn’t know about it I recommend you to view it at My Skills Lab in Active Reading Strategies section .There are many examples there. Read and learn, it will help you in the future.

So let’s get back in that moment when I opened my eyes and all that information just filled in my brain. I decided to get up and get some breakfast before to start my work. Omelet with eggs, bagel with cream cheese, and a cup of coffee will be nice to have in the morning. I love this kind of combination of meal in the morning. It is easy to prepare and you will not fill hungry at least until lunch.  The rest of my day was boring. I was studying most of the time and between the lessons I had couple breaks, including lunch, dinner, and  time with my kids.

Finally, I went to the bed with a good feeling about my accomplishments and with hope so probably Monday I will handle my test with a good grade.
Hard work - good results.

How I Imagined the Downtown

              Couple days ago I was invited by one of my friends to see the Los Angeles Jewelry District, in Downtown. Maybe some of you have been there, but for me it was my first experience. After all my observations, in Downtown, Los Angeles, you can divide it into two parts (that is my opinion).

 One part of the Downtown is the nice place with all beautiful buildings, with many offices inside of skyscrapers, banks, hotels, restaurants, theaters, and music halls. I can list all of them, complete the 500 words, and post it on blog. My assignment in that case will be much easier. LolJ. Many buildings, especially on the Hill and Broadway streets, “filled” with mini jewelry stores, which is usually located in the first floors of the buildings. Anyone can go in and buy many kinds of jewelry: white, yellow and pink gold rings, chains, and bracelets. Stores have many selections on silver. Plus you can exchange gold for money on first hands. Most of the jewelry manufacturings are located there and for the stores is very convenient to buy assorted jewelry from manufacturing and resell it to the public. Many buildings on those streets were hotels that stayed there a long time ago; later they were remodeled. When I went inside of the building I first had an unattractive sight when I looked up. But then, I saw beautiful art work on the ceiling. In fact the art work came from the past. Honestly, the architecture of the buildings was very interesting. Disney Concert Hall is a very educational place for children and adults, which is also located in Downtown. Many games by Lakers were done in the Staples Center and many popular concerts with popular pop and rock stars were also played there.

 

The other part of Downtown (which is the opposite of the nice and beautiful part) is very poor, dirty, and sort of scary at the same time. It is not nice anymore, no glitz and luxury. You can see many homeless people on the sidelines, on the middle of the road, and in the carton boxes. Those boxes are their homes. They build their “carton boxes” on the dirty, bad smelly ground on the sidelines; therefore, for them it’s sort of protection from rain and wind. It is very scary to drive through those streets, and I am not talking about to walk through there. You don’t see a police car patrol there. Crazy people live there. Inside, some of us, he or she will fill badly for them .

But what can we do? I am sure there are some organizations, which helps homeless people that support with food, clothes and money. We can also try to give them money, or donate some clothes and shoes. Even a little will make a big difference. This is the life with its good and bad sides