-Facebook, Yay or Nay?-

Hello.

Today, I’m going to write about my opinion about Facebook.

Recently, one MSN site is becoming popular. The name of it is Facebook. I think many people have heard about it already, because it is the most famous MSN site all over the world. On Facebook, we use real name. We also use our own picture on it. It is really easy to take contact the friends who haven't met long time or living in far place. However, Facebook can cause many problems.

The first problem is fraud. According to the Facebook rules, we are required to use our own name and picture. However, there are many people who don’t follow the rules. Farther more, some people use different picture or information to get other people’s information. The aim of it is for using the information for crime. The people who are using Facebook need to know well about the privacy setting and not to accept the add message from unknown person.

Next, Facebook’s slung affect many students to use wrong spell words. For example, on Facebook, we usually use ASAP or TTYL. ASAP’s meaning is “as soon as possible”. TTYL’s meaning is “talk to you later”. They are easy to write and save time, but people should keep in mind that they are slung. Being careful about the difference of the slung and collect word can reduce the number of students who fail on their assignment.

Finally, using Facebook too much can influence people to be an outsider. People could west their time to spend with their friends in real world. In my opinion, the most important communication is face to face. It’s not sure that people can take communication on Facebook can communicate with real people in real world. We take communication in work place too. It is very important in our lives, so we should not lose the chance to improve our communication skill.


In conclusion, facebook could be harmful if people don't use in collect way. Everyone needs to be careful while they use Facebook or not it is able to be in trouble and affected their life by it. By using Facebook in collect way, people can enjoy it as much as possible.

-Diana-

-When I lied-

Hello.

Today, I’m going to write about the story when I lied to my parents.

It was when I was secondary grade of elementary school student. At that time, I was used to going to cram school after I finished my classes at school. One day, when I was going back from cram school to my home with my friend and my brother, an accident happened.

I was hit by a car. It was my brother’s fault because he stopped me while I was passing the road that doesn’t have traffic light. The driver asked me many times if I’m okay or not. My brother was just standing near of the car without saying anything. I was trying to show them how I was fine smiling, but they seemed scared, so I decided to keep it secret. We neither called police nor did we call ambulance.

 Actually it was really hard to hide about the accident because my foot was broken and it had nice pain. I was hiding it by keep talking, but finally I couldn’t stand the pain. I said to my mother that my foot hurts. She saw my foot and surprised. It was purple and swollen.

 We went to a hospital immediately. My parents and a doctor asked me what happened to me, so I lied to them. I said them that I kicked a big rock when I was kicking small one like a soccer ball. Of course the doctor was suspicious about me, but I didn’t change my saying and I just continued to say same thing. At that time, I felt really bad, but I wanted to finish it just as my fault.

 I haven’t say the truth to my parents yet. Some of my friends know about it, but not my parents. The doctor might notice about the truth but maybe he considered why I lied to my parents. I don’t like to lie to people, but maybe I’ll keep it secret forever to my parents even they might noticed about it… :( I’m so sorry, mom and dad… (＞_＜。)

-Last Saturday-

Hello.

Today, I'm going to write about my first snowboarding.

1 week ago, on Saturday, I had an activity to go to snowboarding and skiing at my English Learning Program, IEP. We went to Falcon Ridge. At the first, we met up at University at 9:00 a.m. and got into the bus to go the place. It took around 2 hours to get to the place, so during I was on the bus, I tried to sleep, because I'm not good at rides and also I was so tired because at the one day before, I went to skating as an IEP activities.

It was my first time to do snowboarding, so I was so exciting about it. Actually, I didn't have snow wear but I went to buy it one day before. After we got ready to snowboarding, my friends and I took lunch, because we wanted to continue snowboarding without break.

Shiho; one of my friend, taught other 2 friends and me, because we are all beginner except Shiho. She taught us how to attach the board and boots, how to stand up and how to go ahead. When we went to near of the hill, I thought that the hill was not high. I even thought that it is really low, but I was wrong. Just to get to the top of the hill, it was really hard. Using the lift was much hard than go up by walking. I couldn't stand to hold the rope, so at the middle of the hill I let go of the rope and I couldn't go to up. I even fell down and my friend; Mei, helped me to stand up. After that I went to the top of the hill by climbing.

When I saw the view from the top, I was so scared by it. I thought I'm going to die, so I was sitting there for a long time. At that time, the stuff of the place came, so I asked her to teach me how to go down the hill. She taught me, but I couldn't follow her. The thing that I learned from her was "Break the snow", but I didn't know what the break’s meaning is...  I even didn't know in Japanese, it was really difficult to understand in English.

I think the time that I was sitting on the top of the hill was much longer than doing snowboarding... :(  Some people taught me how to go down the hill, and repeating many times, finally I became able to go down the hill.

Because I bought ski jacket and my brother will give me a snowboard, I’m almost ready to go to snowboarding after I go back to Japan :) I hope someday I’ll be able to enjoy snowboarding from the bottom of my heart… :D haha

-St.Valentine's Day-

Hello.

Today, I’m going to write about St. Valentine’s Day in Japan.

In Japan, usually girls or women give the chocolates to boy or men. If it is near of Valentine’s Day, many girls start to find sweets recipe. Some girls make by themselves and some girls just buy the sweets that are already rapping beautifully. In my opinion if they don’t have many people to give the sweets, they buy the sweets instead of making.

There are three types of the name of gifts. One of them is Honmei chocolate that gives to a lover from woman. Honmei means the favorite in Japanese. If a girl likes someone, and wants to say that she likes him, she gives him Honmei chocolate. It is also same to couple. If the girl friend gave to her boyfriend, it calls Honmei chocolate. We usually say this one in shorten; Honmei.

The next type of name of the gift is Giri chocolate that is given to a man who the girl wants to say thank you. Giri means obligatory in Japanese. Usually women give it to their classmates or teachers or bosses. There is no existence of love between them. We call it in shorten; Giri choco.

The third type of name of the gift is Tomodachi chocolate that give to women’s friend, and it is women for women. Tomodachi means friends in Japanese. Recently, Japanese woman prefer giving Valentine’s gift to female friends to give to men. I also prefer to give to my female friends. We usually call it in shorten; Tomo choco.

The fourth type of name of the gift is Gyaku chocolate that gives from man to woman. Gyaku means opposite in Japanese. In Japan, it is rare that man gives to woman, because the form of Valentine’s gift is woman to man. The man got Valentine’s gift, usually gives a return gift on March 14^th that called White day in Japan. In Japan there exist White day, that’s why giving a gift man to woman is rare. If a man gives the gift of Valentine to woman on Valentine’s Day, it means that he loves her. The shorten name of it is Gyaku choco.

We call the gift name adding chocolate, but it doesn’t matter if it is chocolate or not. It is just a form of the name of the gift.

The last time that I gave Honmei chocolate was when I was elementary school student, so I hope that I will have someone to give it as lover as soon as possible… :)♥ haha

-Diana-

-The place I'll never forget-

Hello.

Today, I’m going to write about the place I’ll never forget.

The place name is Cusco in Peru. When I was 12 years old, I visited my home country Peru with my mother and an older brother.

Peru is a country located in South America continent. Peru was the center of Inca Empire that was the largest empire at that time until conquered by Spain. Peru has 10 of UNESCO World Heritage Site. One of them is the Machu Picchu in Cusco Region. Machu Picchu located in really high place, 2,057m. It usually called as "Lost City of the Incas", because we can’t recognize it from the bottom of the mountain.

When I went to there, I was so excited, because I could see the “Nazca Lines” that is also one of the UNESCO World Heritage Site from the plane during the way to get to Machu Picchu. The lines were really big. I wondered how the people could write such big lines. My birth place was the capital city, so I didn’t see much cultural things such as colorful poncho and folk craft articles, but I could see them at Cuzco.

The first day of the trip, we got mountain sickness. It was terrible. When I was walking around to buy some souvenirs, suddenly my body became heavy. I couldn’t keep standing, because I didn’t have any power. I sit down on a bench that was near from me. At that time, I thought that I caught a cold or something, but my mother and brother were also same with me. Even to move our mouths was hard for us, so we went to back to hotel without any talking. My mind was clouded and I couldn’t think well. It was the hardest time in the trip.

Next day, we went to the Machu Picchu. We were not sick any more. The sky was so blue. Sunshine was sparkling. My mind was really clear!! It was really nice day. Everything looked shining. We walk around of the remains and took many pictures. There were Llamas that is South American camel, so I pet it. I got nervous at that time, so I’d just touched it for a second. My brother and I made a friend, one boy. We talked a lot and ate traditional supper together with his mother.

The trip was really nice. I can’t forget about Cusco because, it is one of important places of my home country, and I don’t know if I can go there again. If you have a chance to go to Peru, you should go to the Cusco. I hope that I can go there again too :)

-Diana-

-Culture party-

Hello.

Today, I’m going to write about a culture party that I attended today.

Last Friday, I had a meeting with my language partner. Language partner is one program of Intensive English Program of University of Manitoba. Intensive English Program in shorten, IEP provides the English speaker to each student who wants to speak with English speaker. My language partner‘s name is Ann. Ann asked me while the meeting, if I want to join a culture party and showed me the e-mail. It said that we’ll represent our culture to the other people who come from different country. It reminded me the presentation that I did during the class of IEP and I felt really nervous. I also had a plan already, but I chose to give it a shot, because I thought that I’ll never have such opportunities. I have just 2 months left to stay in Winnipeg, so I wanted to do anything that I can do.

My choice was right. The party was really fun. There are 14 people including my language partner, her husband and me. I met people who come from China, Nigeria, Iran, Africa, Chili, and of course Canada. Almost of them are University students of University of Manitoba. The woman who comes from Chili was the IEP student, so when I saw her, I surprised. We all had a presentation about our culture such as dance or singing. I did about “Origami” that is Japanese traditional paper holding. I taught how to make crane. It was really hard to explain. Actually I taught to some IEP students when we were making Christmas gift for IEP Christmas party, but at that time I couldn’t teach well. This time was a kind of revenge for me. It was really tough. I needed to show each steps to every single person, because just the words couldn’t give specific information of the shapes. I was sweating very much. I was so nervous, but everyone was really kind. They said to me that I did well so I felt relieved.

 After that, we had supper together. We all brought some traditional food and eat together. There were many kind of food, Guacamole that is avocado paste to dip by chips from Mexico, Chapati that is fried bread from Kenya and so on. All of them were really delicious. When Ann asked me to go back home, it was already 10:30 p.m. I felt like “Already!? “. I had really nice time there. Thank you Ann for taking me to the party. Thank you god to give me such a nice language partner. Next Saturday, I’ll go to French Canadian Festival with Ann. I’m looking forward it :)

-Diana-

-My Life in Winnipeg-

Hello.

Today, I'm going to write my life in Winnipeg in Canada.

Since last April, I've been stayed in Winnipeg in Canada, for studying English. I've been studied in Intensive English Program; in shorten form IEP that is one of English learning programs of University of Manitoba.

My day starts from taking a bus, because the transportations to get to school are just bus or car. I don't have car license, so there is just one choice. The classes usually start from 9:30 a.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. On the other weekdays, it starts from 9:00 a.m. All classes are 50 minutes, and we have two or three classes in morning and two or three in afternoon. The classes are usually over around 3:20 p.m. In the classes, basically, we learn writing, reading and speaking. The curriculum depends on the level.

After classes are over, there are two choices to go back home or go somewhere with friends. The big shopping mall is located in middle way of my home stay house and school, so on the way to go back home, I can go to the mall with my friends who use same bus or who want go to the mall together. If I don't have much homework, I go shopping at there or go to eat supper with my friends. Every night, after I eat my supper, I make my lunch for next day. Before I go to bed I check my e mail, Facebook and Skype. I usually use my laptop listening English music because it can improve my listening skill.

On every Thursday, IEP has an activity that called conversation cafe. We have conversation eating cookies or drinking juice. The classes are separated by level, so this activity is one of chances to get know many students over classes.

Friday is the day that we are looking forward. IEP usually has activities on every Friday. There are activity leaders who make the plan of activities and support them. We can go to Karaoke, Bowling and so on... It is really good chance, because we can make friends over classes and we can enjoy Winnipeg. The school bus pick us up to the place, so we don't need to know the exactly place, and we also don't need to spend money for transportation.

I changed to homestay from residence in September. Living in residence was not too bad, I could go to school by walking and I didn’t need to buy bus pass. I could sleep anytime, I could wake up whenever I want, but there was a big problem. In my residence there were my Japanese friends so I used Japanese when I talked with them. At lunch time I needed to go back to residence to eat lunch, even though my class mates invite me to eat together. I have no regret about changing to homestay. After I changed to homestay, I was homesick. Almost of my friends went back to their home country. There were many new students. At that time, I was full of worries. Because of the experience, I started to think about the importance of meeting with people. Winnipeg is the place that many people come and leave. Same times as meetings we have parts, so I want to cherish every single meeting. Someday, I want to visit my friends’ place, Winnipeg as well. I’ll enjoy my rest Winnipeg life to not regret and improve my English. For the day, I need to keep and improve my English skill, even after I go back to Japan.

When I’ll visit Winnipeg, I’ll speak frequently, so see it :)

-Diana-