PHOTOMONTAGE

Student:Kouliga Koala

Instructors:Jess,Jasmine

Class: American culture
Date: 07/29/2010

Paragraph about photomontage

This photomontage is about Man and the world. It is also about how technology and science have changed our planet and the world into a better place to live. It is undeniable that human mind is dominated by the material. Not only do we think that it the best way to have a comfortable life, but it also how scientists could process to discover more interesting things. The results will be for the welfare of the whole society. Whatever the consequences, our destiny is linked to progress and the bigger the consequences, the more noticeable the progress. Can we say that we are moving towards the best and the right kind of destiny? What if we were walking to a collective disappearance? There is a chain between everything in life going from good to bad. Life made of material wealth, money, the desire of fame, celebrity and beautiful life co-inhabit with environmental destruction, human slaughtering, criminality

alcohol and drug addiction and sexualdiversion. But “If you think that the world is not good enough, then you are old-fashioned. Go to the direction of your destiny and free your mind to give you whatever you want. If humanity disappears, that will be how things should be. If there are problems threatening your life and that you cannot solve, go over them and make new things”. Do we really have problems in the world? Can we solve them? The present day Man looking into the future is deformed and cannot see any of them. His chin hides his eyes and prevents them from seeing, his head bigger that his trunk and his legs that can barely hold him up. He is looking for something for all of us.

Cultural Icon by Alejandro Lopez

Who is Gustavo Dudamel and Why I choose him?

The Venezuelan icon that I would like to write about is Gustavo Dudamel. Gustavo Dudamel was born January 26, 1981; he started to dedicate his life to music at the young age of 10 years old when he entered violin classes. Without finishing he’s violin training he started to study composition to lead a symphony in 1995.

Something that it’s really amazing about him is that with just ten years latter he would be the director of the symphonic of Berlin that is one of the most famous. His debut was with the philharmonic of Los Angeles California where he made an extraordinary performance in 2005. His career has really taken off since 2005. In 2006 he married with Eloisa Maturen and went in 2008 on a European music tour with the philharmonic of Berlin. Right now he’s working with the Gothenburg Symphony in Gothenburg, Sweden. He claims to feel the music to feel alive when he is there on the stage, and that make him continue no matter what, so I know how it feels and I’m agree with that opinion we must find the reason to continue forward and music is mine, everybody should have one.

I choose this man because he doesn’t live with limits in any moments of his life. He just looks forward all his life, and I mean, I never thought that he wasn’t something, he just doesn’t care the size of the thing he is now director of 3 important symphonies. However, I’m sure that he’s not thinking that he reached the maximum point at all. Actually, I think that he still looking forward, he enjoys his life, he reached his goals but now he proposed new ones to himself, and I’m sure he would get all those new ones.

What I feel is the same thing just look forward no matter what or how much it can take. I want to reach my goals, and I know I will do it. For my life is not long enough to regret, we have to work on what we want and enjoy it at the same time. I don’t put limits on myself in nothing I want to do, because no matter in which circumstances I am or if something that its hard for me its easy for others I just thing “I can do it” and it work for me because I never give up and I sure Dudamel is the same way as me in this aspect.

Violet

Do you want to be skinny?

But! you can not stop to eat fooooooods!

Diet! Diet! Diet!

The foods are ENEMY of girls.

You still want to be skinny

with holding a hamger in your hand.

Pills? Low fat?

Those are useless.

Just do exercise!

Thst is real beauty^^

Violer - Korean Icon

Korean Icon “Hanbiya”

Hanbiya is very famous in Korea as a world traveler and writer. She was graduated in English literature at Hongik University. She received a Master's degree in international PR studies from the University of Utah in the USA. Then, she worked in Burson-Marstella, the international PR Company, but she handed in her resignation to realize her childhood's dream which was to make a journey around the world. After that, she traveled almost every hinterland of the world for about seven years. She went to all over the world: Africa, North America, South America, Europe, Southeast Asia and so on. From her travel experience, she wrote some books like "That was Love", "A Daughter of the Wind" and "March out of the map".

Now, she has been working for World Vision, the international NGO, as a chief of an emergency relief squad. She said that she always tries to thanks to god everything. Even that is very small thing like ‘Thank you god that I can come here that I can help people’, ‘Thank you that you give me health’, ‘Thank you that I was born in Korea : there is plenty of clean water, good condition to live.’ Etc. I think because she always goes to abroad for giving help, she can realize lot of things. Positive thinking and mind are really good for us. She always writes in her book how many people are in trouble in Africa because they don’t have enough water even for drinking. She persuades people a small sum of money could save lives of millions and thousands of children in Africa. I respect her character and her way of thinking. I am always eager to have an energetic, positive and optimistic attitude of mind like her. She was given me a lot of lessons. I think she is real Korean Icon.

Jessica's cultural icon

Like many other countries, Korea has some cultural icons, which have influenced people in a variety of ways and in many fields. Korea is a very small country and most people did not know anything about Korea even few years ago. However, there were several Korean, who let the world know about Korea. Kim Yu-na, who I am going to talk about, is one of them.

In the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic, all Korean were extremely excited the day when the final figure skating game was on. Everybody in Korea gathered in front of TV even stopped working and watched the game with breathless interest since Yu-na was going to challenge the champion and also the world record. When Yu-na finally got the gold medal, everyone went wild that day. Even she broke the world record, so she was the first female skater to surpass the 200-point mark ever since the ISU judging system has made. Also, this medal meant a lot to Korean people since Yu-na is the first Korea figure stake medalist in history. No one cared about this field because we thought that the figure skating is just not ours, but Yu-na changed our stereotype. So now, Yu-na is one of the most highly recognized athletes and media figures in Korea.

However, her life as a figure skater was not easy from the first even though she had a natural gift. Yu-na began skating at the age of 7 and her trainer noticed her talent so she recommended her mother make her keep doing skating. And Yu-na started showing her instinct for figure skating ,at 12 Yu-na won the senior title at the South Korean figure skating championships, becoming the youngest skater ever win that title. However, her parents did not have enough money to support her since the tuition fee and all equipments and clothes for skating were too expensive for them to afford. So, they tried to convince Yu-na to quit skating but they could not do that because Yu-na was full of passion about skating. If Yu-na gives up her dream at that time, present Yu-na could not have been existed.

Since Yu-na became famous, her agency produced the ice show. Ice All Stars,2009, which took place in Seoul on August, 2009, Michelle Kwan, who is Yu-na's idol and the most decorated figure skater in the U.S history, joined the ice show. Also, Yu-na took a role as an ambassador for the 2010-2012 Visit Korea Year and international UNICEF goodwill ambassador. Furthermore, Yu-na has been rated as one of the world's most influential people in 2010 by TIME. After the 2010 Winter Olympic, all press from all over the world exalted Yu-na's playing by releasing the articles about her even Hilary Clinton praised Yu-na's performance with a letter.

She also has appeared on multiple commercials in Korea even sings in some commercials and most companies earned plenty of money from advertising their products with her. For example, Samsung Electronics has sold over one million cell phone devices in a record seven months. So, Yu-na made a lot of money but she did not use all that money just for herself. Yu-na has donated more than 1.7millon dollars in last 3 years to support young figure skaters and patients suffering rare diseases and children in need. Because of this donation Yu-na has nicknamed as “queen Yu-na".

For all these reasons, Yu-na became the most highly recognized figures in Korea. She showed us the huge effort, passion, confidence, possibility and personal appeals. Although, Yu-na is just 20years old, she is very brave and audacious. A lot of young people admire Yu-na, I also think that she is fully qualified to be a cultural icon of Korea. Yu-na moved people's heart by playing perfect performance, not only Korean but also all people of the world. Everyone was touched because they could see the effort and hardship which Yu-na has been training, not just because of the glamorous of the shell.

Dora's photomontage

"Actually, these thing are what I reaally like."

This is my photomontage and in the picture I want to present what most of people like in Taiwan. Music, money, power, and fame are things that most Taiwnese admired. In the right side are most of boys' favorite; such as baseball and basketball games, rockers, comic books and cartoon, they are really popular between boys. For girls, there are women things and delicious foods but must be diet, and being a skinny girl is the most important thing in most of girls' minds. I like my photomontage and I think my composition is really cool when I finish it.

Dora-Taiwan Culture Icon

In every country there are always some icons in the people’s minds. Maybe the icon is good at music, and is admired by young people. Or the icon is a very important person for the country, and everybody in the country will remember what the person did for the country. Maybe the icon is good at sports and always wins medals from all kinds of competitions. The icon in Taiwan I will mention in this essay is a famous singer of Taiwan. He’s a super idol in young people’s minds.
Who is he? He is Jay Chou. (Chinese name is 周杰倫). He is not only a singer, but also a songwriter, a composer, a rapper, a musician, and a director. He’s also known as an actor; the movie “Secret” was direct by him, and he was the main character of this movie. I think it’s this movie made him become more famous in Asia. He is good at music since he was a little boy, and the styles of his songs are hip-hop and blues. His music style is usually different from other singers; he likes to mix the music style in Eastern and Western style. It is the special thing that only belongs to him and he soon became a popular singer of Taiwan. His music talent was discovered on a TV show. At that time, he is only a songwriter and was not so famous because he hadn’t sung any songs yet. However, his good voice was found in a song named “Cute Woman” and which was recoded by him, since then, he stared his singing career.

Besides music, he is also good at being an actor and a director. His first movie is called “Initial D”, which was origin as a comic book from Japan. He was the main make character of this movie. In the movie, he was a boy that shy and quiet, but was very good at car racing. It was said that he was acting himself in the movie; though there was some bad critics of his first movie, he still won the best Newcomer Actor in Golden Horse Awards and Hong King Film Awards. After that, he directed his first movie “Secret” and was soon very popular in Taiwan. Furthermore, the music of this movie was all made by him. In the movie, he was a genius pianist in high school and was falling in love with a girl who was from the past. After this movie was played on the big screen in the theater, Jay Chou became a really famous singer and musician in Asia.

I admired Jay Chou as a talented person, though there are still some scandals between him and many female singers, his music and compositions are really good. His music is really unique in young people’s mind, and I think his career life of music will go on and on.

My Photomontage by Elea O.

"I am not an artist and I usually don't like my arts, but I must admit that this photomontage I loved it with all my strength."

My photomontage is the reflection of the the things that I really like and love, it entirely describes my passion to Ashton Kutcher, Pierre Bouvier(music), movies and TV. And in some images it also describes the funny and the crazy side of my personality, I love craziness and unexpected situations. But behind all of that there is this huge field of love that I have in my heart to give to that someone special and to the world too.

Elea O.

Michelle's Photomontage!

Michelle Deniesse Lugo Navas

An American soul in another culture: Venezuelan culture!

In my photomontage I represent who I am. In our American Culture class whe can get to know each other, now you know me! In this composition I have all the things I want to be and also the things I have, like my family, my guitar, Hermenegildo Daniel (my blackberry), my shoes, my make up, my parents' money (sometimes), and my own dream! I wanted to show you everything about me in this composition!

Bye American Culture class! Ya'll rock guys!

Love.

Michelle Deniesse!

One Venezuelan Cultural Icon by Michelle Lugo

Is that person a superheroe?

No, is a cultural icon...

There are a lot of cultural icons in my country; one example can be our liberator Simon Bolivar, he fought so hard for our independence and he was the typical Venezuelan man. We have many known people who can represent our culture; we have musicians, performers, athletes, historical figures and politicians, but we also have all of these stories or legends and their characters. For me, the biggest representation of culture is a story told from generation to generation, the myths change according to the generation, and that's why at the end the story has blended years of culture but conserves the same core.

I chose a novel character for this project, her name is Barbara. She is the main character in the novel and she has the lead of the plot. Doña Barbara is a novel written by Romulo Gallegos and published in 1929; Gallegos was an important Venezuelan novelist and president. Doña Barbara is considered the most important piece of Venezuelan literature, and it is a classic of Latin-American literature; this novel was also famous in Europe by the twentieth century.

This regionalist novel is inspired on Venezuelan plain landscapes; it shows our traditions and beliefs, the shock of lifestyles in the same culture, and the fight for achieve your goals. Doña Barbara is a legend in Venezuelan culture, everybody in our country know almost a little about her and her story.

Barbara embodies the barbaric people and environment in that ages, she is Venezuela; she represents not only the savagery of the people who lived under dictatorship in 1920s but also the strength of Venezuelans, our uncontrollable hearts, our untamable nature, and the indomitable passion for our interests. Barbara Guaimaran is a courageous independent woman who obtains everything she wants by violence and corruption, Venezuela was like that, our ancestors had to battle so hard and be violent to find what they wanted: independence, liberty and sovereignty. Sometimes we are supposed to use corruption to gain what belong to us. This is not a way of excusing the violence and corruption, but is showing a reality that has surrounded us and is still surrounding us.

Barbara may seem like a villain or bad woman, but actually she is not. Something happened to her and this is why she behaves in that way; when she was sixteen year old she was a victim of abuse, six sailors abused her when she was a child so she was traumatized and hated men. Venezuela used to be like that, it used to be a country that suffered a lot because of the previous regimes. In our culture it means that you have to get away of the problems, you have to put the past in a second place and the future first because every generation is better than the other that passed. We cannot forget the past, but we must not get stuck in the past because we will never progress! That’s what happened with Barbara, she was thinking about the past every time so she could never be happy. In Venezuela, happiness means present and future.

Barbara represents our culture, hard working people, authentic people, the man of the Venezuelan plains, and the livestock. She is a woman but she behaves like a man because of the impression that men have in Venezuelan culture; nowadays it is not so important because we are in a kind of liberal age (and I’m glad because of this), but still in our culture the man has a determinant role, he is the family chief and he is supposed to take the reins of the family or community.


Finishing, this woman represents a really important point of Venezuelan culture: love. When Barbara falls in love with Santos Luzardo she wants to do everything for him! And that’s what love in our culture is about: to do everything for the person you love and it does not matter how crazy can it be!

Doña Barbara became in a legend of the Venezuelan Arauca, she was known as “the men devourer”. Nobody else had the strength she had, the determination she had, and the repentance and sadness she had; but in spite of her awful past she never gave up! She was like Venezuela: “All horizons, all roads”…

Doña Barbara is definitely a cultural icon from Venezuela but she is not the one; I think we all can represent our different cultures in our own ways! We are all a part of our culture and we have to represent it wherever we are.

A SUPER ICON :) RUBEN BLADES

Rubén Blades Bellido de Luna

Singer, Songwriter, Actor, Lawyer, and Political Figure

We had to choose an icon from our country and I decided to choose the super incredible man, Rubén Blades Bellido de Luna, me and for all the Panamanian and also a lot of Latin American people admire him so much. He is also a super person, he was the minister of tourism by Panamanian in 2004. He also has a law degree from the University of Panama and from Harvard Law School too.

He is everything, because Ruben Blade is not only all that I mention, he is also a salsa prodigy. He recordered his first album at the age of 18, in 1966; and he is also famous for writing politically-charged lyrics and sophisticated musical arrangements. He is also an actor, and that is one of the characteristics that I love the most of him, he has made several movies, and one of my favorites is called "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" in that movie was Johnny Depp, Antonio Banderas, Enrique Iglesias, Salma Hayek, Eva Mendez and many great actors. I can not believe that he has made a movie with my favorite actor Johnny Depp. He also ran for President of Panama in 1994 and he finished in third place, with about 20% of the vote.

I personally really admire Ruben, because he is one of my strongest inspirations to fight for I want, no matter how difficult it is, if you really want something in your life you must fight for it. No matter if thousand of people tells you that you are not going to be able to achieve whatever you want to, just don't pay attention to those silly words and go for it. I have always said that "the more the people tells you that you are never going to make it, the more stronger you feel to achieve it".

I also have to mention that he wrote a song called Patria which translated to English would mean Fatherland, that it is considered, the second anthem of Panama, and it is sung on all the important occasions.

Whenever Panama wins a medal or huge events happen, the song is played or sung by Ruben Blades and for all the Panamanians it is such a pride that I must admit that whenever I hear the song my skin just go like "chicken skin".

I have not met Ruben Blades yet and I really want to meet him and see if he can help me with my biggest dream, do a movie with Johnny Depp, and I really would love to ask him for some advice for acting.

Ruben Blades will always be a huge icon for Panama, because in some occasions thanks to him, Panama is known as a beautiful place to visit he has made the country more famous in many places. He has encouraged people to go visit and get to know about our culture without Ruben Blade may be, Panama wouldn't be so recognized as it is right now.

"When I go back to Panama, I'm going to be very happy to be there because I really believe in my country and I know we're going to do good things there. It's not just a romantic dream; we can make things happen there."

by Elea O.

Thomas Sankara: Burkina Faso icon.

Student: Kouliga Koala
Instructors: Jess; Jasmine
Class: American Culture
Date: 07/28/2010


Thomas Sankara: Burkina Faso icon

Thomas Sankara was born in December 21st, 1949 in Yako; Burkina Faso. He became president in August 4th, 1983 and will be unanimously known as thefirst president to represent and promote the country, its values and its people ideals nationally and internationally.

Sankara went through a series of military training from secondary school in 1966, to his training in Madagascar in 1970, Morocco in 1978. He also fought in the war Mali-Burkina Faso in 1974. In the political field, he was successively Secretary of State of Information in 1981, Prime Minister in 1982, jailed in 1981 and 1982 because of accused corruption. He finally led the ‘Democratic and Popular Revolution’ party.

One of the dear fights that Sankara had in mind when he became president was to call for integrity and dignity. In fact, he wanted the government of the time to be responsible and set a good example for the young generation. Corruption was not one and was to be banished. The reintegration of the value of dignity, integrity, honesty began when he changed the name of the country from Upper Volta, name issued from colonization to Burkina Faso, ‘Land of the Upright People’. In addition, he changed the motto which became ‘Homeland or Death, We Shall Overcome’. The population was urged by the ideas of the defense, union and patriotism of the country

More interestingly, Sankara was not isolated from his people. He played guitar, football with everyone else and biked anytime. As a result, everybody was proud to have their president so close to them.Sankara leadership brought about many changes. He started by eliminating the chiefs privileges and redistribute lands to everybody. Then, he nationalized the country national resources and proclaims that no powerful country could abuse of these. For people, he represented the future and rebuilt the people personality because a country with no property and no prospect of any for the future has ever died. He also recognized that children were the future and makes health and education his priorities. So, 2.5 million children were vaccinated against meningitis, yellow fever in less than 2 weeks, a success that no former West African president had ever done. Sankara became the ideal person who understands better his people need and was seen as the real Burkinabe and African that represents the exact symbol of Community service and solidarity.
His fight went further to launch a reforestation campaign to plant 10 million trees to stop the advance of the Sahara desert. In fact, he wanted to prevent the country from natural chaos.

More importantly, Sankara speaks against African presidents who cannot rely on themselves for their own development. He started refusing importation of certain goods, rejecting odious debt

from rich countries, IMF and the World Bank by making sure that he will not pay back old debt that he was not responsible for, and that in fact according to the statistics had been used for development but for individuals. In Burkina Faso, cotton was no longer sold abroad but transformed and the population was obliged to consume what they produced. There was a glimmer of hope for the future since people increased their standard of living, and altogether, the Burkinabe saw a steady walk toward integration in the global economy.

In conclusion, Thomas Sankara revolution was short-lived as his death followed four years after. He did a lot and changed the minds in four years’ term than decades of leadership. If his death made every African young man cry in the streets, it was not because someone has died, but because the hoping destiny of Africa was being once more led in the depths, because one star has darkened and no one ever since had the courage of repeating the scene or embodying his spirit.


Sources: http://afficasuccess.org

Byun UKyoung(Naymo) Photomontage

I focused my collage on 'surrealism'. I consider everything is alive. All things have their faces.
In the picture, a dinosour from a computer monitor is about to eat up a little cat. And all the things in the room, except a master, are surprised and they try to get attention of the master.

Byun UKyoung(Naymo) Cultural Icon in Korea

Entertainers like movie stars and singers in modern society are very popular and their influences on society are so powerful that it brings out a big change. Sometimes what they say influences not only on trends, cultures, but also economy in a country. There is a representative example in Korea. The star’s name is Lee, Hyo-ri.

She was a member of a singing group called Fin.K.L, who was a famous idol group from late 1990s to early 2000s. In 2003, she released her own solo album. The album was a very big success. She got big prizes in every award that year. It seems that she was in the right place at the right time. Her advantages were a very glamorous and balanced body and powerful dance. Experts say at the time, there were only male singers who dance very powerfully. There were no female solo singers to satisfy people’s taste in a performance like her. It was the very right time for her.

And it was not only dance but another thing that attract people’s eyes. Her style was always very famous. Her style was unique and sexy, and women wanted to be seen like her. She is the first star who made out ‘wannabe’ in Korea. Wannabe means a star or a famous person who many people want to follow and look like him or her. In Japan, Amuro Namie, who is a famous female singer brought out wannabe trend before Lee, Hyo-ri. Clothes, shoes, and accessories she wore sold out right after the day she was on.

After 2003, almost every 2 years, she has released new albums. Every album records top of charts. As before, people know her songs and her clothes that she wears on stage. Media is crazy about taking her in their camera. Wherever she goes and whatever she does are taken and reported in every newspaper. And new young stars want to be like her. Media compare them with Lee, Hyo-ri.

There is no entertainment show that does not mention her. She is definitely a cultural icon in entertainment and trend in Korean society.

Byun UKyoung(Naymo) Autobiography

This is Byun, UKyoung and I am also called Naymo. I can write UKyoung in Chinese characters and they mean ‘happy things occur’. My mom gave me this name. She used to say if Chinese character ‘Kyoung’, which means ‘happy things’, is not good to consist a person’s name. So she tried to changed my name, however, I like my name. I like it because it may have been the first thing I got after I was born. And I love it for my mom gave me the first thing. And Naymo is my English name which has been a nickname sine I was a child. Naymo means square in Korean. When I was young, my face shape looked like a square. So my friend called me Naymo. I did not like friends calling me that nickname. However, as time goes by, I liked the nickname. Friends made fun of me but it meant they feel comfortable with me. And it is very unique name and it can be a memorable character that people can remember me easily. I know that it is one of my own characteristic and I love it now.

I was born in Dae-gu, on January 25th, 1991. Dae-gu is one of the biggest cities in Korea. After 5 years, our family moved to Sang-ju, a small city. In the small city, I lived in a rural area. In Korea, discovering young children or teenagers in rural area is hard. When I graduated the elementary school, the number of students in my class was nine, and my middle school had less than thirty students total. Until then the number of my friends was not big. However, I liked that all of my friends were very close. I think it is definitely luck that I have been friends with them, such kind and good people. They always make me keep a warm heart. When I feel that I am becoming mean and cruel in urban city, memories with such good and genuine friends make me regret my selfish behavior.

Because the region I lived was rural, houses were isolated from one another. For a young girl, it was not easy to visit her friends’ homes often. In school, I could play with friends. After school, I usually spent time with my mom. When my mom was busy with her house chores or farming work, I played by myself. I have not had any siblings since I was born. Until now, that is why I felt so lonely. Looking at me like this, my mom always emphasized that I should know that the most precious thing to me is friends, people around me. Because I am the only child and she gave birth to me at relatively old age, now I think she worries I need people who will help me when I am left alone in the world. For many reasons, I am unconsciously influenced by her words. So I like meeting new people, making friends, and getting along with them. I do not think I am good at it, but I enjoy it to be with people.

At the same time, my mom taught me a lesson to keep faith between people. She told me with things like money, time, and works, I should be a person who people can trust. She never overlooked my lying and trained me always to be on time. Until now, I always try to keep time exactly. I think keeping time is to respect other people’s time. People usually say ‘Korean time’ that being late is acceptable in Korea. Being late is one thing that bothers me.

Jessica's autobiography

What does it mean to have a milestone in life? There was a time in my life when I thought I knew the answer. It meant that I would have never thought that I could be changed if I had not stayed in Canada. I had been dreaming about living abroad since I was a little girl but I did not know that it could happen in real until the day I was at the airport to take a plane to Canada. At that time. I did not know that how my perspectives could have been changed by the time I ended up living there.

Going abroad to study English was booming when I was in my 3rd year in University among my classmates and friends in 2009. I always had been eager to go abroad; moreover that boom kind of forced me to decide to go out of country. However, even though I had been thinking about studying and living abroad, I had so much fear about going outside of Korea by myself. So, after I got all my paper works done and until the day before I actually left to Canada, I have regretted about my decision a thousand times. I could not sleep at all because I was so frightened about trip and life in Canada. I had no relatives, no friends and I had no idea how my life was going to be. All worries about these made me almost throw up. Also, the day I left, I was crying a lot when I said good-bye to my family, I knew that I was going to come back and I knew that I could contact with them frequently but I still do not know what made me cry so much like that.

With all difficulties, I finally arrived in Canada after 14-hour flight and I was so thirsty from the long trip but I could not even buy a bottle of water at the store. I was afraid of speaking English so I just endured it. At the Vancouver airport, I kept thinking that “What am I doing here?", “What did I come here for". However, I made all choices so I could blame nobody. Everything was new to me ; people, language, the way people act and think, customs, etc. I was having a hard time to adapt myself to these new circumstances so I relied on Korean friends so much, always hung out with them. I could not even go anywhere without them.

One day, a thought hit my mind. “I did not come here to meet Korean friends and I have got to do something to fix this". So I started doing everything on my own. I planned backpacking to eastern Canada. I made all phone calls to book accommodation and transportation by myself. It was not easy at all but I backpacked from city to city in eastern Canada; Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and Niagara Falls. I got so much confidence on that trip. After that, I tried to jump into the new world. I kept trying to make friends from many other countries even though I was shy. In addition, I got a confidence by learning English and getting to know about rules and roles. So I tried to do new things such as volunteering in the city festivals and going outside of city alone. I stated to make lots of friends from a variety of countries. And it was so exciting to me making friends and getting to know their culture.

I have actually stayed there for 10 months and it was not long time at all, although I seemed so long at the beginning. Later, I did not want to leave there, of course it does not mean that I don't like living in Korea. However, the experience in Canada, changed many perspectives of mine. I have learned how to accept and understand the things which are different with me and people who have different perspectives with me. If I did not come to Canada, I could never know new culture and get confidence. By this trip, I truly realized that an experience is worth more than a thousand words.

Dora's Autobiography

"I Just Can't Get Rid of THESE Things, They are Part of ME."

Everyone has their own meaningful things in the world. Maybe these things look old and not worthy, but they usually contain important stories for the owner.



Just like everyone, I have my own meaningful things. They represent what kind of person I am, and they maybe represent how my family affects me. I like art very much. I always think it’s impossible for people to live without art. Both music and painting are really important to me, and I like to play the piano and drawing since I was very young. I think making art is really interesting even though I don’t know what I’m drawing or what kind of piano melody I am playing, I just have fun during doing these things. The crayons represent I’m the person who loves art very much. I just can’t live without art.



Besides arts, I like to do sports. Sports not only make my body stronger, but also make me become more energetic. I used to be a shy and quiet girl until I entered the university. I met some good friends that love to play basketball like me. We practice together, play with each other, and even won the second place in the ball games. I am not a shy girl anymore; I become more talkative, and I make a lot of friends than before. Sports really changed me a lot, so I love it! It makes my life become more wonderful and happy!





There’s one more important thing that is really meaningful to me. I’m Taiwanese, of course I have a pair of chopsticks and I can use them very well just as every Asian. Chopsticks have existed for about almost 3000 years. And it’s really important to me because I have to use them to eat my food just as knives and forks are really important to westerns. This pair of chopsticks is my culture. And it was said that chopsticks was origin from China. Western people don’t use chopsticks; they use knives and forks instead. And I’m really happy to be an Asian.




There are still some things really important to me. And I need these things every day. Without them I don’t think I can live regularly; if I don’t bring them with me I won’t feel at ease. They are my watch, schedule book, and my toothbrush. I’m a person usually be on time; I seldom being late, because I think it’s rude to let others keep waiting for me. Otherwise, I will feel at ease when I have time on my wrist. And my schedule book is important to me; I wrote my plans on the schedule book so that I won’t forget any dates or appointments. The last one is my toothbrush; it plays a really important role in my life. I have were braces for almost two years. And my toothbrushes are different from the toothbrush that everybody uses. I can only buy it from dentist, and I would have decayed teeth easily if I don’t brush my teeth everyday!


I like my things in my life. They’re all meaningful to me. Though these things may look like normal things in others mind, but they are all part of me. They are what I am.

Autobiography by Alejandro Lopez

I’m Alejandro and I am 16 years old. I already explained to the class the way I am through the pictures. I said that I’m rebel, I like to do things my own way and if someone or something tries to stop me I just step on them. But now I would write what I remember of my childhood that made me the way I am now. The first thing I remember is that when I was younger my family was close between all the members, and we were very happy I always had at my side my cousin (Roxana). The first great event that I remember is when I came with my mom and dad to Disney when I was 4 years old, I barely remember some things of that trip cause I was too young but I remember some places and my mom and my that together and I remember that I was too happy. However beside that trip, my childhood was in a big house that was in a weird place over the woods in Venezuela. There with my cousins I get fun every day doing stuff like exploring the woods or riding bicycles or maybe skates, that’s the way I grew up. My little sister was born when I was 4 years old and of course all my life changed then, Its common to feel that your little sister keep all the attention of your parents, well I felt that way too, but I remember that I didn’t care about that too much.

With the years I started to be less in the woods house (that was my grandmother’s house) and I started to live in a 3 floor house near the capital, (actually that house is just two streets from where I live know) in that big house my life was like any other kids life. My father was manager of a shoes company so economically we were pretty well. Years later the company went broke, my father lost all his money and my mother (that is a surgeon) started to work the double shifts we reached the point that I was eating beans for an entire month and nothing else. That changed my life, when that happened I was like 7-8 years old and I complained that things in life sometimes are really dark, but my mother never gave up and I helped her making necklaces all the nights to try to pay the counts. All I know is that we sold the big house and we bought a little one close to that one(the one that still my home to this days) the house was abandoned so we pass years fixing it and finally the house become a pretty home. Then I understood the value of hard work and I learned to never give up, no matter what’s happening.

The next event that changed my life was when I was 12 years old, and my father’s got separated and I really don’t want to write about the details but I started to be disappointed with my father since he left the house. All he said before he went was, “Now you are the man of this house get charge of it”. In fact me and my mother passed through a lot of hard things to finally get stable again, I never had to work for money, but I did and am still doing something in the house to help my mother. My father he never forgot us, he always come to our house and take us somewhere to eat or just get a ride, I mean he is not a bad man, and I know he is penitent of what he done, but for me it’s just too late, I still love him as my father but I don’t want him again with us all the time, the rest of the details, well I just prefer to keep them.

I don’t know how all those things made me stronger and fearless, and also fill me with desire to live top experiences, so I have done a lot of things since that time, like fly in a flying wing (I’m not sure how to translate that), I took control of an ultra light plane (that was Amazing) I bought a motocross motorcycle and I love to ride it and make crazy things with it and get off-road. Also I have now a rock band and I love to play with them or just playing the guitar alone feels great. I have now a house in the beach too so I go there in the summers and I love it too, so I think that I learned through all my life to appreciate life itself and now I just want to live it.

For the future I have planned to be a pilot and I know I will be because I never give up. I hope I can study a career to start working and then pay my flight hours for the license. Flying is something that since I was a little kid kept my attention, I like the combat pilots because I love speed, and feeling the G forces and all that stuff, but also I would like to be a commercial pilot because it’s more formal and I could enjoy a civil life. The music, I think the music would always be my hobby and in my free time I just want to play the guitar until the day that I die. The thing that inspired me to start playing was feeling I think, because, I hear the songs but it wasn’t enough I needed to play and be part of the song, it’s a pretty weird explanation but that was actually what happened.