FRO Spring 2013: DTB

What I Like Doing Best:

The best hobby that I ever get acquainted with is the eternal love for soccer. The beautiful game played by 1o men by their foot and one person with the use of his all his body parts. Although my achievement for the game as a player remains an unsatisfactory part of my life but I love everything about it. I love watching the game live and especially the “UEFA Champions league” which comprises of the all the league champions of the countries in Europe. I feel it is better than the world football cup in a sense that the players in the clubs are chosen according to their talents and skills rather than their nationality in the national team. Whatever the case, the game is beautiful no matter where it is played and no matter how it is played. The dribbling, the 20 people chasing for one ball and the moment of victory and happiness and loss and despair when the goals are scored is all the part of the game. That is why the advertising line of all products related to the game is ‘It’s all in the game’ because it may mean nothing to you if you don’t love football but Scottish player Bill Shankly said “Football is not the matter of life and death, it is more than that” in the appreciation of the game. Yes, that is what it is for the football lovers. There is even a rumor among the football fanatics that the war between the two countries was stopped for a night because the soldiers wanted to see the game of world cup when ‘Pele’ was playing after the Second World War. The game has the capacity to spread fraternity and love throughout the people of the world. The oldest game in the history has evolved to the game of investment and playground for the money, the game has become one of the expensive games indeed. The game has seen its ups and downs and has produced the legends in the world history of football like Maradona, Pele, George Best, Michael Platini, Franz Beckenbauer, Johan Cruyff, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo etc. The game has evolved with time and has become more competitive than ever. It is surprising that the magical game has been attracting the Americans these days. It is not so much winning the women’s football tournament two years consecutively in Olympics will go in vain but the choices of football superstars like David Beckham and Thierry Henry to play in the MLS cup has indeed affected them. The constant entry of US national team in the world cup and advancing past the group stages in 2010 has indeed shown the signs of development of the game in this part of the world as well. Let’s hope it will be more popular than the American ‘Football’, Basketball and Rugby.

I likes to watch movies and TV shows. I could lean skills from these shows. One of my favorite TV show is “The watching dead”. It is not scary to me since it makes me laugh and exciting. I like to watch how people are tricking each other and it gains me some survival and social skills.
I likes to watching movies also. It could make me to be more calm when facing dangerous situations. The way of Hollywood making its movie is fantastic. So not only am i are addicting to it, My friends are addicting to it also.
Last but not least, i like to watching video game cut-scene also. I like it because some of these cut-scene are more fiction than the movies. I was a video game player, however i am no longer interest in its game-play since too much attention need in order to beat the game. It also makes me angry when i can’t beat the game. So, instead of playing the game, i like to watch the game cutscene

I am a very lazy person. I don’t like any kinds of works. I only do them if I have to. And that’s why I am so frustrating for the midterm now. I don’t think being lazy is such a bad thing. A lot great things were invented by lazy people. Douglas Englebart, the guy who’s too lazy to type operation code, invented computer mouse. Josephine Cochrane, the lady who’s tired of washing dishes, invented dishwasher. Being lazy is not always about not doing something. And actually a lot of lazy people are quite organized. They organized because there will be less work to find things if they are organized. Lazy people can also become very productive if they find ways to make things easier rather than just not doing it.

I like lazy people, and I also very respect hard-working people. Maybe a combination of lazy people and the discipline people will be a better solution.

Hi, everyone. I am Anita. Today I am going to talk about my part time job. I work as a Chinese tutor during weekend.  My student is four year old Indian girl. I am surprised at first why an Indian kid wanted to learn Chinese. I mean, she can’t even speak English well. She can only count to 37 in English. So it really surprises that she wants to learn Chinese. Besides, I know many people find Chinese difficult to learn.  Then I find out that she really likes a Chinese cartoon called “Kailan.” So in some way she becomes interested in Chinese. In fact, she is also learning Hindi (from her mother) and Spanish (from the day care school) at the same time. So, I am thinking if she feels confused sometime. We communicate with each other in English. She’s a really cute girl, but she’s too little to take it seriously. Every time I go, she wants to play with me rather than literally learn. And I understand, so most of the time we are playing. We do the role playing together. It is really funny when she asks me to play the daughter and she plays the mother.  She will act as a mother and use the kind of motherlike tone to ask me what breakfast I would like to have and she will “cook” for me.  Sometimes I feel so guilty because I don’t teach her Chinese but play around. And her parents are very nice people. They treat me very well. So I don’t want to disappoint them. Gradually, I learn to teach her some simple Chinese words when we are playing, for example, I would ask what’s her favorite animal, color, food and then I will tell her the Chinese words.  In fact, I really like this job because sometimes it gives me a chance to go back to childhood. When I am staying with her, I feel like I am a kid too. I can throw away my upset and pressure for a while.  Because of the midterm, I haven’t been there for two weeks… So after this week, I am really looking forward to see the girl again.

I move from Georgia to New York and I see a huge difference between Georgian and New Yorkers. Georgians manage their life very well. There are easy transportations such as the subway. Every family must own a car in order to get them around places. Most familes own a house so they do not have to move from places to places. Everybody is happy in some ways. They know how to relax on their off days.

Now I consider I am a New Yorker.  I know exactly how the subwway runs in New York. Nobody smiles . Everybody have something to think about in their mind. They can never truly relax because they have something in mind everyday. A lot of the people live alone in New York.

What make me happy?

 After asking myself the question “If I didn’t have…, am I happy?” I finally realize that love makes me happy. Compared with love, such things like wealth, reputation, statuses. Make no sense to me.

    Don’t get me wrong. What I so-called “love” is not just the love between male and female, but also the love among the family, among the friends…The love is delivered to me in various ways and makes me happy.

    Allow me to start with the love from my family. I think it’s love that hides in our blood. Since I was born, the love from them has never been stopped. It can be a toy they prepared for my birthday when I was a little boy; it can be father’s powerful hands that protected me when I was learning to ride a bike; it can be a nickname called by my mother; it can be a piece of advice offered by them when I have problems; it can be some worries about me when I just come back late; it can be… In a word, it can be any trivial detail in my daily life. And all of these make me happy. As the saying goes: “The love from parents is selfless and not required to be repaid. “I do think so.

    Furthermore, I want to talk about the love which is also called “friendship”. When with my friends, I’m sincerely feel the love among us, which is undoubtable a great resource of my happiness. It can be a comfort when I am blue; it can be a birthday song for me; it can be a reunion after we separate; it can be a short message of regards that they send to me frequently; it can be… So many things please me because the love-the friendship-surrounds me.

    Now, this passage is nearly finished. However, all the love will go on and on, so will my happiness.

Adapting to a new life

New York has a charm which makes people fall in love with it. I never knew that it would be easy for me to settle down her. I chose this topic because most of us are going through this phase. Leaving home has come out to be very beneficial for me, I have learned a lot by living without my parents. New York is an easy place to fit in because it consists of people from all the backgrounds. My journey till now has been full of new challenges and opportunities and I am trying my level best to look the challenges in the eye.

New York has so much to do that I hardly get time to think of my family in India. My life in India was very easy as my parents provided all the luxuries of life; I was enrolled in a royal boarding school. Sometimes I feel lonely here because I have a joint family in India which consists of 25 members; however, I have my brother with me who makes me feel home.

The first step in adapting to a new life is adapting to the time difference. It took me 1 week to get to the normal schedule, I became an owl in this period. Moving away from home gives a lot of responsibilities which has made me more mature and responsible. Moreover, this new life has taught me that I should make use of all the opportunities as the come because they might never come back. The biggest challenge for me in New York was cooking; I didn’t know how to even make tea but now in just 2 months I have learned a lot and can luckily survive on my food.

I think everyone should get a chance to experience life in a new way, which could be moving to a new city or a new country because it teaches you a different prospective of looking at the same things. At Baruch, I get to meet people from all over the world which gives me a chance to learn about their cultures and traditions. The best thing in New York is two day weekend because in my country we just have a Sunday off. I have come to this new place to fulfill my dreams and I hope every step takes me closer to it. My biggest concern in life is my parents and I have to become successful to live their dream.

– Shaila Ansari

Success makes me happy
Everyone has had successful experiences. People enjoy success, and I am one of them. Well, lets share my successful experience!
Actually, I did not know how to ride until 14 years old, during the winter holiday; I determined to learn it by myself. My mother thought that I could not do it by myself, and she wanted to help me. I brought my new bike to the ground. At the beginning, I was scared, and I rode the bike carefully, however, the bike started to run up fast. I had no idea how to control it, and almost felt down. My mother asked me: “What are you afraid of? I behind you to protect you, you do not trust me, ah?” The second time, I got some experience from previous, focused on the front, and the bike run a circle.    Where was my mum…she was standing on the other side. I looked back, and felt down! It hurt me; I was angry and blamed my mother that she did not follow me when I was riding. My mother said: “come on, you did it well, do not be afraid. One more times!” Finally, I made it! At that time, it was the happiest moment in my life.

I come from a small country in the Middle East called Israel. Israel is surrounded by many Arab countries that are Israel’s enemies. Therefore, everyone in Israel needs to join the Army. Boys serve    in the army for 3 years and girls for 2 years. I served in the army for 2 years. I was a sports guide in the navy. My job was to train the solders to be fit. Before joining the army when I was in 11^th grade, I took a 3-hour IQ test which checked whether I was suitable for the job. After graduating from high school I was in a booth camp for 5 weeks. The purpose of it was for every person to learn discipline and learn the rules since everyone came for a different area and background.  We had to stand straight and not move every time the commander was talking to us, we woke up every morning at 5, every day cleaned the base camp and kitchen, every day we guarded for 4 hours including late at night. Every morning we had to clean our rooms and if the commander saw a little dirt on the floor we had to clean the room again and again till it was 100% clean otherwise we would have been punished.  After 5 hard weeks we started the sports guide training course so we could be capable and certified to train solders and people. The course lasted 3 months. Every day we woke up at 5 in the morning and had to jog. In the afternoon we used to clean, study or guard. It was an intensive and hard course because we learned and practiced so much with not a lot of sleeping hours. After 3 months we were stationed in different bases all over Israel. I got accepted to the navy. I started my job as a sports guide in a training navy base (where the soldiers took different courses before they started their job). My job was to train them and turning them to more fit soldiers. My duties included timing them when they jogged, fiving them different exercises on land or in sea, giving lectures on proper nutrition. I was not allowed to converse with them like they were my friends even if I had a friend in the group that I had known from home.  I used to wake up early every morning and jog with them.

I have learned a lot from being in the army. I learned what discipline is, what responsibility is and how to think for myself without being dependent on my parents’ advices. I feel like I have matured a lot during my army service. In addition, I met many people and made good friends. If someone asks me if I could go back and do the army all over again I will answer “definitely yes, without any doubt”.

My Personal Motto:

Today, surpass yesterday’s achievement. Tomorrow, surpass today’s splendor.

or

Have more achievements than yesterday. And tomorrow, be more brilliant than today.

This Motto always reminds me that I can and I need to make everyday of my life worth it. (By doing something meaningful. Never lose my dreams and keep working to achieve them.) I can make it day by day, step by step. The most important thing is to keep motivated, pursued and achieve my goals.