BEIJING YOUTH VOICES

I know that you are in heaven now. Earthquake made you fear but you are in heaven now, so I’m not afraid about you. God will save you. You must have a lot of things to tell your family, they are crying, can you see them?

“Where are you? Back home please!”

This is your hometown. The earthquake destroyed it. There are many families lost their children just like your parents. There must have many children whom lost their parents in the catastrophe…forever…

Who ever is forever?

But we must say goodbye to you with tears and a strong miss.

Pray for you, my friends.

Please remember that we love you…forever…

I have kept a little dog since I was 5 years old. It was the first dog in my family.   Her name was Milly.  She was brought by my father from Russia.   I can’t remember what kind of dog she was.  In my memory, she had long ears, and with white and black hairs, just like a cow.  I can’t even remember anything else about her because I was too young at that moment. I just know that my mother  gave her away a few months later, because my mom worried the dog would bite me sometimes. I cried for a couple days for what she did. I missed her a lot.

Then time went on and around my ten year-old birthday, a new dog entered into my family.   It is a cute female dog with white hairs.  Her name is Huanxiang which means “come back home” because it is named after my father’s TV show. My father(爸爸照片） is a TV director, this is one of his favorite TV shows.  During that show my father was acting in a soap opera named “Huanxiang”.  This dog was one of the actors too! So we call it “Huanxiang”.  I played with her all day long. In fact, I always talked to her and I thought she could understand whatever I said to her. The most funny thing is when I say, “go, ” she would suddenly be really happy and jump and bark excitedly as if she was dancing.  Because of that every time I took her outside, I always said, “go.”  And I often teased her by saying, “go” and then I could see her happy dance. That made me laugh and enjoy my childhood life.  I loved her very much and we kept her for two years.  After that I never saw her again.

I still remembered that afternoon clearly. It was the day that that I couldn’t find her.  When the school was over, I came back home as usual, but  I couldn’t find her. I asked my mother. “Mum, where is Huanxiang? She’s missing. I can’t find her!!”  My mother said, “Recently, there is a new disease that is spread by dogs, so this morning I gave it to a friend who loved dogs a lot and she lives in the countryside. I think that place is safer for the dog to stay.  And you need more time to study.  You can’t play with her  during all your free time.”  When I heard this, I felt the day collapse. I cried and could not do anything else. I locked myself in my room for a whole day to show my anger to my mother. I hated her so much at that time.  She took my love away!   After that, My mom and I would quarrel a lot.  I could not understand why she did that thing to me. Sometimes I would wonder if I was her daughter or not. Does she love me? Maybe she loves my brother more than me!  These questions were in my mind for a couple years.

Well fast track a few years  and guess what!  I eventually got a new dog again.  This dog has many funny stories.  Do you want to know more? Just keep attention to my blog. I will tell you more!

Like I said, I’ve had  two dogs before, right? Now I’ll tell you about  the next dog.
Even until today, i still can’t forget the next dog’s name, “Smile.”  This dog has left me an unforgettable memory.  It was 3 years ago.

She was brought to me by my father from my paternal aunt’s home.  Because her dog gave birth to four baby dogs, one of them was given to my family from Shandong.  She was only 1 month old  the first time i saw her.  Her variety is called a “chihuahua.”  She has two big eyes and big ears and a small body with yellow hairs.  She was fat because she was young and she just looked like a little bear.

I really loved her and I gave her a beautiful name, “Dmile,” because at first she didn’t have teeth, so we had to feed her milk.  She was so young that she could barely stand up by herself.  When she was 3 month old, she ate as  much as an adult dog.  She loved sea food except crab meat.  She loved chocolate and the best thing was that when she saw me eating  chocolate, she jumped on my body and licked my mouth.   Whenever I came home, she always was the first to jump out and say hello to me, and she danced happily around me.   She made me happy every day.  One day,  I looked at her mouth and saw that her teeth had grown in. She learned how to walk eventually.  I watched her her grow up day by day.  I was so happy.  So I thought her name was really perfect because she brought a smile to me.

But good times didn’t last long.  I noticed her ears twitching and once she started twitching she couldn’t stop until you hugged her.  I  examined her ears and found that there were no more hairs where her ears twitched.   So I told my father about this and we then observed her carefully found that her  ears had smallpox!

So my father thought it was maybe just some skin disease that we didn’t have to worry about.    So the next three week we spread medicinal ointment on her ears for the disease.  I thought everything would  be ok until one morning I woke up by her yelling and barking.  It was 5 o’clock, the exact time to get up to go to school.  I heard her whining and had a very bad premonition.  I went to her little  house and found her eyes closed  and her lying down on her back with her four legs is to the air.  She was groaning in pain but i didn’t know what can do and it was time to go.   So i called my father to look after her and I went to school in a very bad mood.  Time felt so slow and long that day.   When i back home in the evening, I called her name but didn’t see her.  I was crying and called her name with my voice, “Smile! Smile! Where are you…..no! No! Come on, Smile, don’t frighten me!”  Then my mother came home with the news that Smile died.    I felt like I had lost my soul or love or something.  I  stopped crying as I just couldn’t even cry anymore.  My mom told me that after an hour  she began to spit up foam and barked a lot and then died.  My mom wipes the  tear on her face.  After she told me this I went back to my room with no words.

and the next were missing days, and my missing mind….

Then the next week iIbought another dog named “Smile” but I realized that I can’t love it as deep as the first Smile.  So I gave it to my uncle.

Today i still love my little Smile.  I often hope she can still happy in the other world.  Maybe she loves other people, maybe she have a new master.  But there will still a little Smile in my heart forever.

China is a big country.  It has the rich soil and the rich resources and there is one thing that is most problematic, the population.

Right now the official figure for population is 1.3 billion people. Why does China has so many people? I know there is a traditional thought in most Chinese peoples’ head.   Because there is an old saying in China, “the more sons and grandsons the more multi-riches and honor.”  So many Chinese people, especially the people with low education believe it.

Now China had been promoting the law of “Birth control” for several years.  The population growth has slowed down.  It is a good phenomenon, but China’s population is still the largest in the world and the population distribution is non-uniform. The of the majority of the population is distributed along coastal cities like Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen and so on.  I am in Beijing, so I can clearly feel the danger of overpopulation, such as during traffic jams, trips to over crowded supermarkets and long ticket lines.

China had found out many ways to solve this problem, such as constructing  bigger buildings, making wider roads, planting more trees and grasses.  So I believe one day China’s problem of population will not be as harmful, but more thriving and balanced.

I still vividly remember in my third year in  high school when I missed a lot of classes in math. When the mid-exam was coming up I panicked because I practically knew nothing about the subject!  Fortunately, I had two friends who were willing to help me out.  They had already formed a “study group” and I joined their group.  We discussed academic problems together and shared class notes. I could ask them any question I had about the class.

Apart from academics, we always went to the school STUDY ROOM together. And when any team member was faced with difficulties or felt frustrated, other members would cheer him/her up.  After two hectic yet highly rewarding weeks, I passed the examination with good scores!

I think this phenomenon of forming “Study Groups” depends on different situations. In fact, some study groups do not play a vital role on developing study skills and knowledge because members cannot focus on their lecture. why? As when friends come together, they often chat with each other or share pics rather than study.  However, when we decided to form a study group, we have strong determination to do well in study part. So our parents did not worry about us

When you are in Beijing, do you feel some uncomfortable?  Well, the air is not fresh and temperature is high. You always feel hot.  When you want to relax yourself by seeing some “green,”  you only find some plastic bags here!  Yes, the reason that you feel uncomfortable is because of the POLLUTION in Beijing.

Beijing, the city will hold the Olympics, now has many ways to keep things from being wasted.

In Beijing there has an organization that organizes a  person who has car to drive fewer days than usual. Like “mei yue shao kai ji tian che” which means “every month drive your car less.”  This means that more and more people are realizing that we all have the responsibility to protect the environment.  We all have started to take bus and subway as much as possible.

Even the super market has stopped offering plastic bags freely. It can stop people from wasting them and this thing we call, “white pollution.”  Here is a survey to show 91.52% Chinese people are planning not to use plastic bags.

Every year, we plant trees and flowers to make our environment better and better. It can also prevent sands storms that come from the north.  So trees make the air fresher and prevent natural sand storms.

In these ways, I believe our city will become more and more beautiful. The environment here will become wonderful and without pollution.

So let’s hope and wait!

How to face the problem of pressure? I often analyze, analyze and analyze and often end up over analyzing it whether it  necessary or not to analyze.

Some pressure, such as the pressure of study or finding a job is necessary processes in our lives. Other pressures, like school are temporary stresses.

One time we had an exam, a physics exam. I thought I took the test carefully.  But my score was 57, a very low score.  It made me upset and sad.  As a result I  doubted myself, my ability to even reach my other goals, and my ability to catch up with my classmates.  I felt nervous about this situation.

I told my mother my feelings, she said, “dear you know you are no longer a child. You should try to solve it by yourself. I’m sure you can!”

After hearing that I chilled myself out and began to feel that I could solve the problem by myself. I changed my attitude. Everyone has problems when it comes to their study. So I decided to settle it by working hard and paying more attention to my worst subjects. Several weeks later my physics score was 80 and my classmates and teachers said they liked the new Linda. Hearing that encouraged me a lot.

So guys, if you are facing pressure or problems. Please chill yourself first and analyze it. You will find that you too can solve it easily! Go for it!

Last weekend I cleaned my room and I found that I had so many books!!! The books that you are seeing in these pictures are the books that I might need for study one day.

So I cleaned out my books and decided that the ones pictured below will be given to the children in Sichuan. Now I’m just looking for a chance to do something good. They are useless for me, but they must be useful for those children.

During our last meeting when we talked about our blogs, I found out that Kelen was very interested in my bike -  I own a GIANT HUNTER 2.0.   So she was riding my bike after the meeting and you can see her doing that in the picture.

At last, she told me she also has a  GAINT HUNTER 2.0 bike!  I was shocked because I could not believe she liked riding bicycle as fast as possible like me!

This kind of bike is usually for boys, but Kelen has one!   I felt so shocked. I asked what the reason made her like the Giant Hunter 2.0 and she said because it was expensive…… Oops. Sorry Kelen!   That was her answer.

Now I really like biking and am good at it too.  I have never been scared on the road. Sometimes I will scare others if  I ride too fast.  That is why I own the GIANT HUNTER 2.0 because it can change speeds easily.

Bikes are easily stolen in Beijing, in particular  good and expensive bikes like mine.  Every time I double lock my bike and check if it is even a safe place to lock my bike.  It is my favorite pet. I do not want it to get lost. I would be unhappy if it were stolen one day.

As a gourmand, I have been to most of restaurants around our community, and Pasta House(意粉屋) is on the top of my list.

I find lots of restaurants are the same, but when I walk into the Pasta House, I have a totally different experiences.

In Pasta House, there are beautiful pictures and cartoons of specialty food on all of the walls. In addition, there are some comfortable chairs. I like the seats farthest from window. If I sit there, it is quiet and I feel relaxed.   Now, many people enjoy reading books or having a little meeting in the cafe. Maybe it’s a interesting hobby.

And I didn’t know anything about Italian food before. But when I went to Pasta House, I realized that I loved Italian food.  I always eat too much to walk.  I don’t know what Chinese people think about Italian foods. I just usually eat with my mother.  I feel really good when I eat in the restaurant. I sometimes come here with my friends, or sometimes myself.
In conclusion, I love this restaurant. （Here is a picture of my favorite food, I found from internet. I forgot to take my camera that time. :(((

Now there are a lot of western restaurants in Beijing.  Such as Mexican food, German food, French restautants, Korean restaurants.   Pizza and fast foods is the most popular in Beijing. You can see so many buffet dinner restaurants and cafes in Beijing.  But I like Italian ones because I like how cheese tastes.

I get up at 5:10. Because my home is far from the school, I have to get up early in the morning.  Sometimes I think it’s really difficult.

I then do morning exercises.  In order to have a good beginning of a new day, I  keep doing morning exercises everyday. The feeling after perspiring is cool and I believe that you will have a good day and be in a good mood all day.

Have breakfast at 6:00

I think that we should have breakfast. It is very important.
I leave for school at 6:30

I often listen to the music in the school bus.
then II study at school

I have lunch at school at 12:00.

You can have a break at noon.

I come back to the house around  5:30

I can see some cookies on the table *~*

Mom can cook well,really well…We have dinner at 6:30,

DO HOMEWORK AT 8:30!!!

I go to bed at 11:30

The schedule that I have told you about is totally determined by me!  Mom told me that everyone has to begin making their own decisions in life sooner or later. And there are too many young people who are let loose from their parents later on in life and then make horrible mistakes because they never had the experience of being on their own.

So she said she would give me my freedom early on.  From that point on I have always made my own rules; what time to get up, when to go to bed, when to do my homework, and who I select as companions and friends – these are all my own decisions.  After that, she told me, “Remember, this is a responsibility.  You’ll have only yourself to blame if anything goes wrong.”