Contents“Eid Al-Fitir,” by Ahmed Al-Zalzalah 66 “A Visit to the Peirce School,” Amanda...

ContentsContents

From the Director • Credits 4Semester Book Elective Class 6Where CELOP Students Come from 8CELOP Pizza Party 10Student Profiles 12“Three Turkish Girls” 18“The President’s Day Snowstorm of 2003” 19CELOP Essay Contest Winners 22Great Paintings of the MFA Puzzle 29Class Photos 30Part-time Program Students 39CELOP Alumni

Profiles, by S.B.E. students 40Olga Yaqob Interviewed on NPR 43“Life after CELOP,” by Laura Rumbley 44“Some Thoughts on Turkey,” by Ismail Emen 46

Major News Events of the Semester 49“The Front Desk Team” 50Faculty Interviews: Jim Kaplan • Gregg Singer 52Student Writing

“A Hot Cup of ‘Nana’ Tea,” by Orit Steinberg 54“A Kirghiz Tradition,” by Zulfia Kayrbekova 55“My View of My Country Today,” by Claudia Di Giacomo, S.B.E. 56“Korean New Year’s Day,” by Rosa Rho & Jee Seon Han, S.B.E. 58“Christmas in Colombia,” by Camilo Fernandez de Soto 60“The Dragon Boat Festival,” by Pei-Ching (“Zoe”) Wu 60“A Big Date for Japanese Couples,” by Chihiro Nakazawa 61“Carnival in Brazil,” by Marcia Galvao 62“Unlucky Vacation,” by Jittima Tangnatthanakrit 63“A Hawaiian Vacation,” by Satomi Tanaka 64“My Favorite Place,” by Sekou Mamadou Barry 64“Fantastic Korean Food,” by Keun Chang Yang 65“Eid Al-Fitir,” by Ahmed Al-Zalzalah 66“A Visit to the Peirce School,” Amanda Brown’s class 68“Plays and Protests in New York City,” by Rosa Rho, S.B.E. 69“Latin Clubs in Boston,” by Claudia Di Giacomo, S.B.E. 70“View from a Restroom,” by Keiko Ogasawara 72“Justice for Juveniles,” by Alberto Barros 72“Chris Antonellis’s Class Party,” by Reo Kodera, S.B.E. 73

Collage by Thanyaporn (“Gift”) Wongsaroj 74Friday Movie Club @ CELOP 76The Simpsons: Sitcom Club 75Restaurant Reviews 78Theater Reviews 83“Hockey Game” 85Saint Valentine’s Day Survey 86CELOP Expo—Fall 2002 90Spring 2003 CELOP Faculty and Staff 96Answers to Great Paintings of the MFA Puzzle 99

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44 || Spring 2003Spring 2003 From the Director • CreditsFrom the Director • Credits

This is the ninth edition of the CELOP Semester Book. It is published every semester and available at theFront Desk free of charge to all current students. All Semester Books can be downloaded from the CELOPAlumni Web site as Adobe Acrobat (pdf) documents, www.bu.edu/celop.

COVER: Claudia Di Giacomo

BACK COVER: Jee Seon Han

ILLUSTRATION PAGE 52:Alvaro Ruiz Zavala &Marisol de la Miyar

Send correspondence regardingthe Semester Book to John deSzendeffy, [email protected].

www.bu.edu/celop/alumni

All material ©Center for EnglishLanguage and Orientation Pro-grams, Boston University, 2003.

[v. 9.0]

Editors John de Szendeffy, Barbara Bliss, Chris AntonellisDesign John de SzendeffyProduction Assistance Lesley Andrews, Jonathan WhitePhotographers Semester Book Elective students,

Lesley Andrews, Jonathan WhiteDistribution Nicole Buchholz, Gabriella CampozanoContributors Lesley Andrews, Lara Gordon, Margot Valdivia

CELOP SPRING 2003 SEMESTER BOOK

Dear CELOP Students,

I am very pleased to have the opportunity to send you a personal

message at the end of the semester. At the beginning of your

program this spring, I welcomed you to Boston and to CELOP

at Boston University. Now I would like to congratulate you on

your successful completion of the Spring Semester. I sincerely

hope that you had a wonderful adventure here this semester,

improving your English language proficiency, broadening your

awareness about culture in the United States, making new friends, and exploring

new places in Boston.

The CELOP faculty and staff, and all the friends of the CELOP program, have

greatly enjoyed hosting all of you this spring. Although classes are ending, and

many of you will be returning to your countries, Semester Book Spring 2003 will

keep your CELOP experience alive. Share your memories with your friends and

family. For those of you who are returning to CELOP in the summer, we hope

you continue to have an enjoyable and productive time here.

Best wishes,

Margot S. Valdivia

Director

Photos of the SemesterPhotos of the Semester Spring 2003Spring 2003 || 55

66 || Spring 2003Spring 2003 Semester Book ClassSemester Book Class

We are the Semester Book class—Spring 2003with Barbara Bliss

[clockwise from bottom]

Barbara BlissJee Seon Han

Alvaro Ruiz ZavalaSameer Al-Ghamdi

Reo KoderaClaudia Di GiacomoDa Eun “Rosa” Rho

Semester Book ClassSemester Book Class Spring 2003Spring 2003 || 77

T he Semester Bookwas a wonderfulexperience. It wasan unexpectedclass because it

was totally different from otherones. In this class you can sharewith many people and you canknow different things and styles oflife in Boston, because the teachergives you the opportunity to go tomany places and find many inter-esting things about Boston, butthen you have to write about them.This class is very relaxing and fun,but we had to work a lot. Now weare great friends and we were anexcellent team.

We are three guys and three girls,and we are a good representation ofCELOP: Asia (Korea, Japan), SouthAmerica (Venezuela), North America(Mexico), and the Middle East (SaudiArabia):

Alvaro: Budweiser cap, efficient, computer skills

Claudia: Diligent, fascinating eyes, creative

Jee: Quiet?, not quiet?, mysterious, friendly

Reo: Joker, unique, inventive style

Rosa: Good camera, easily cracks up, bubbly

Sam: Easygoing, funny, new sunglasses

Barbara: Long hair, earrings, relaxed but demanding

John: Funny, perfectionist, artist on the computer

We hope you like our Spring2003 Semester Book.

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88 || Spring 2003Spring 2003 Where CELOP Students Come fromWhere CELOP Students Come from

Illus

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Fall

2002

ArgentinaBelgiumBrazilChileChinaColombiaCosta RicaCzech RepublicDominican RepublicEthiopiaFinlandGermanyHaitiIndonesia

IsraelItalyJapanKazakhstanKoreaKuwaitKyrgyzstanLithuaniaMacedoniaMaliMexicoParaguayPeruRussia

Saudi ArabiaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandTaiwanThailandTurkeyUkraineUnited Arab

EmiratesU.S.A.VenezuelaVietnam

Where CELOP Students Come fromWhere CELOP Students Come from Spring 2003Spring 2003 || 99

This graph shows that the largest group of Asianstudents at CELOP are from Korea. But manystudents are from different parts of SoutheastAsia as well.

Twelve countries in Europe are represented, butthere are only a few people from each one.

Saudi Arabia is a big group in this region. Also afew people are from Africa (Mali & Ethiopia).

This chart is about people from Latin America.There isn’t really one big group. Eleven coun-tries are represented, most of the major countriesin Latin America.

Where CELOP students come from this semester, Spring 2003

by Reo Kodera, S.B.E.

1010 || Spring 2003Spring 2003 Pizza ParPizza Par tyty

CELOP PIZZA PARTY

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Pizza ParPizza Par tyty Spring 2003Spring 2003 || 1111

1212 || Spring 2003Spring 2003 Student ProfilesStudent Profiles

Zulfia KayrbekovaKyrgyzstan

Sameer Al-Ghamdi

Zulfia is one of my classmates, and I found her an inter-esting person to interview. My first question to her waswhy she chose CELOP to learn English. She said, “Ichose CELOP because I need to improve my Englishin order to obtain the admission at an American LawSchool, and also I think that CELOP has good experi-ence teaching foreign students. Besides, a lot of peoplerecommended CELOP to me, and I like it very much.”

When I asked Zulfia about her plan after finishingCELOP, she said that she is not sure exactly about herplan because it depends on the TOEFL score that shegets. However, if she gets the proper score, she will takethe LSAT preparation the three months followingCELOP.

Comparing Boston and Kyrgyzstan, she said thatBoston is much bigger than her city, which is Bishkek,and also that Boston looks more modern with its sky-scrapers. At the same time, Boston is like a mixture ofAmerica and Europe, which makes it special and differ-ent from the other cities, including the city where she’sfrom.

Zulfia is a lawyer and she works for a jet fuel com-pany. She specializes in tax law, corporate law, and con-tract law. When I asked her one unusual thing, she toldme that there is nothing unusual about her. She’s just anin-house lawyer who works more than twelve hours aday, and simply stated, her work is her life.

Stella HsiehTaiwan

Sameer Al-Ghamdi

I am introducing one of my classmates who is an inter-esting person to know. My first question was aboutCELOP and how she likes it. She said, “I chose CELOPbecause I want to improve my English skills, and theenvironment and the teaching are very good; however, ifwe could have more choices of classes, it would be bet-ter.”

Stella has been in Boston for three months, and thisis her first semester. When I asked her about her planafter finishing CELOP, she said, “I will apply for a job inmy country.” She also said that she wishes to have theopportunity to visit some other states besides Massa-chusetts before going back to Taiwan. Her opinion aboutBoston is that it is a small and free city full of educationalatmosphere.

Stella has worked for two years as a programmer,and her work was designing Web pages. I asked her oneunusual thing about her. She said, “I quit my job whichhad a high salary and instead of that I came here to learnEnglish.”

Out of curiosity, I asked her to tell me somethingabout her family, and she said that it consists of five mem-bers. Her parents both work for educational institutions,one of her sisters is a musician, and the other one is adoctor. What an interesting family, Stella! Her last wordswere that she wishes to be a successful woman. We wishyou the same, Stella!

STUDENT PROFILES

The Spring Semester Book Elective Class continued the effort, begun last summer, of interviewing students from manyof the countries represented at CELOP. This project also gave SBE students the opportunity to practice their inter-viewing skills and get to know some students they might not have otherwise met.

Student ProfilesStudent Profiles Spring 2003Spring 2003 || 1313

Sun Min LeeKorea

Jee Seon Han

Have you seen a charming woman with long black hairin CELOP? Do you want to know her? Okay! First of all,her name is Sun Min Lee, and she is 24 years old. Shecomes from Korea, and her family includes her parents,one older sister and one younger brother. She is a grad-uate school student in Korea. Her major is Child Edu-cation. However, she studied ballet until high school.

In the U.S., she studied English for 3 months in Con-necticut before CELOP. She liked Connecticut becauseshe met good people there; it was so beautiful and thepeople were friendly. But it was a little boring and calm,so she moved to Boston. She likes the old style buildingsin Boston, and the street lights. She said, “Many streetlights are very beautiful, like in a movie.” Her favoriteclass is Media News. She said that class helped her to getrid of her fear about reading an English newspaper.

In her free time, she usually studies, surfs the inter-net and watches videos. She especially likes to hang outat beautiful places and eat delicious foods. After thissemester, she’ll return home and finish her school.

Juan Carlos NatesColombia

Reo Kodera

He is a bright student who studies English eagerly inChris Antonellis’s class. Bogota, the capital of Colombia,is where he comes from. He knew about Boston Uni-versity, but he didn’t know there was an English programcalled CELOP until he found it online.

He lives with his cousins in an apartment which islocated really close to the CELOP building. Some ofhis friends are studying at B.U. He likes Boston becauseit has a great environment for study. He said there aremany students in Boston, and they give him good influ-ences to study harder.

His reason for studying English is to get an M.B.A.After this semester he is planning to go back to Colom-bia and get work experience. Then he wants to comeback to Boston a few years later and study. From thisyou can understand how he loves Boston. On the week-ends, he likes to watch movies, go clubbing, and workout at the gym. He says CELOP is wonderful for himbecause of the professionalism of the teachers, and theUniversity offers many resources to study whatever stu-dents want. The biggest reason is that he can meet manypeople from all over the world and he can get great cul-tural experiences. He has a message for all CELOP stu-dents. He says, “I hope you will get used to Boston’sincredible winter weather, and enjoy your life in Boston.”

Oumou CisseMali

by Rosa Rho

In my room, there is a girl who is very kind, nice andfunny, Oumou Cisse. She is my roommate. She is a 17-year-old girl who comes from Mali in West Africa. Shehas one older brother and two younger brothers. Shecame here with her older brother. She loves music, soshe is always listening to music. But especially, she lovesHip-Hop, R&B and Zouk music. She likes Aaliyah andAshanti, who are R&B stars. And she really misses talk-ing with her family and her friends because she loves tohang out with them! She told me so herself. She is a talk-ative and very outgoing person.

She thinks Boston is the best place to study in theU.S. That is why she chose B.U. But she really hatesBoston’s weather. This first time in Boston, she got someknee problem because of Boston’s cold weather. She is


going to move to Chicago after the summer semester.Actually, she would like to stay in Boston, but the life inBoston is very expensive, and she thinks Chicago is moreinteresting than Boston.

This is her first semester in the U.S and she reallylikes the CELOP program. She said CELOP is the bestplace in Boston! Because CELOP students and staff arevery kind and fun. But she is considering applying to auniversity in Chicago. She wants to study managementin a university because she wants to have her own com-pany in Mali.

Christopher A. NezivarHaiti

by Jee Seon Han

Christopher is a guy who loves standing. (I recommendedsitting down several times when I interviewed him, buthe refused because he loves standing.) Before startingthe interview, I took his picture. He put great care intohis picture, but he never smiled. However, he was reallya kind and nice interviewee.

This semester is his second semester in CELOP. Hisspeaking English ability is very good, so I asked how wecan be like him. He advised us, “Don’t stay just at schoolor in your room. Also, don’t worry about other people’sreaction after you speak.” Now, he is volunteering tohelp handicapped people in GSU. Also, he is working atWGBH (a radio and TV station). At first, he worked inthe radio part which transfers the music to micro wavemusic. But now, he is working in the TV part to answercalls to help televiewers. That job helps him to improvehis speaking skill.

In addition, he can speak three more languages:French, Spanish, and Kreyol (his mother tongue). InSeptember, he will apply to the B.U. School of Man-agement. He would like to study Business Manage-ment as his major and Computer Science as hisminor.

Actually, he doesn’t like Boston, because his coun-try is very hot while here is very cold. But he thinksBoston is the best place to study; that’s why he choseit. He looks really busy, but in his free time, he likes toread, play basketball, listen to music, and dance. Espe-cially, he showed me the dances like Chachacha, Hiphop, R&B, etc., which were very good. He has very var-ied talents.

Leona StollinovaCzech Republic

Rosa Rho

I interviewed a women who is from the Czech Repub-lic. She has been my classmate for two semesters. Sheis a passionate person in class. She is a registerednurse.

Before she came here, she worked in a hospital whichis the biggest hospital in the Czech Republic. It is calledI.K.E.M. and is a transplant hospital, especially for heart,kidney, pancreas, and liver. Also she worked in Syria fortwo years and Austria for three years.

She likes everything in Boston. She said, “Every-thing is interesting!” She likes to go to the Aquarium,the Museum of Fine Art, and the Museum of Science(especially the Omni Theater).

After this semester, she is going to continue theCELOP program.

Actually, he doesn’t like Boston, becausehis country is very hot while here is verycold. But he thinks Boston is the bestplace to study; that’s why he chose it.


Carlos OrlandoColombia

by Claudia Di Giacomo

Where are you from?

Barranquilla, Colombia— “La Costa”

Why did you come to Boston?

Because my sister has been studying here in BostonUniversity for two years, so she told me to come andI wanted to improve my English.

What are you going to do after CELOP?

I think I am going to do another semester here atCELOP because this is my first one, so I think Ineed to do another one, but I don’t know yet, I haveto think about it.

What is your hobby?

I like to play soccer and spend time with my friends.

What are you missing from your country?

The food, my friends, my family, the beach, every-thing! I miss my country.

What is the most beautiful thing that you likeabout Boston?

I like Boston because it is a small city and veryorganized, and the people here are very friendly. Ihave been making many good friends here. Over-all, the city is for young people; you can breathe thestudent climate.

How would you describe yourself?

I am very funny, calm, and easygoing. I like par-ties and sharing with my friends.

What is something interesting in your life?

I have many interesting things, but the most recent

was coming to Boston. It has been an excellent expe-rience, and it made an important change in my life.

Reo KoderaJapan

by Alvaro Ruiz

Where are you from?

Kyoto, Japan

What are you going to do after this semester atCELOP?

I’m going to take another semester.

How many semesters have you been at CELOP?

This is my first semester.


There are many famous universities and a lot ofstudents here, and I think this is a good environ-ment for studying because the people and theatmosphere are similar to Kyoto. Both are very oldcities and very cultural, so this is interesting for me.

What is your hobby?

I drive motorcycles in my country, and I like tocook.

What is your career?

I quit my high school when I was 16 years old, andI hung out with my friends and did nothing for twoyears. After that, my first job was delivering alco-hol with my truck to different restaurants for 1


year. Next I changed my job to work for an Italianrestaurant as a chef for 1 more year. Then I decidedto come here because I wanted to find somethinginteresting and improve my English, and I wantedto know more about the American culture because Igrew up here.

What is some interesting experience in your life?

I was born in Japan, and when I was 9 months old,I moved with my family to New Jersey and grew upin an apartment house with an Italian family. Ilived there for 6 years. After that, I moved back toJapan. And I felt so confused because in Japan life isvery different from American life, and I couldn’tunderstand the Japanese dialect because my Japan-ese wasn’t so good. At first, it was hard to convey myfeeling to Japanese people in the Japanese language.But the Japanese food was delicious for me. Andfinally, I realized that I was Japanese because beforeI went back to Japan I thought I was American.


I like to have fun, not only at parties with friendsbut also when I’m in class or studying.

Do you have any interesting plan for your future?

If I don’t find anything else interesting, maybe Iwill go to a culinary school in the U.S. or go back toJapan and find a job.

Jesus ArancibiaVenezuela

Alvaro Ruiz

Where are you from?

Maracaibo, Venezuela

What are you going to do after this semester?

I want to study another semester here.

How many semesters have you been at CELOP?

Three semesters.

Why Boston?

Because my father studied English at EmmanuelCollege in Boston, when I was 7 years old.

What is your hobby?

I love to play golf, but I also played university base-ball at George Mason University in WashingtonD.C. about 5 years ago. I was a pitcher for 6months on this team.

What is your career?

I am lawyer and I graduated last year in Maracaibo.

What is some interesting experience in your life?

When I played baseball in the U.S., it was great.

How do you describe yourself?

Open-minded, sincere and happy about myself.

Do you have any interesting plan for your future?

I’m going to do an MBA in the U.S., but I don’tknow where yet.

Federico RodriguezMolloSpain

by Claudia Di Giacomo

Where are you from?

Madrid, Spain.


Because I didn’t know another place to study Eng-


lish, and really because a friend told me aboutBoston, so I wanted to try a different experience.

What are you going to do after this semester atCELOP?

I am going to go back to my country and, I don’tknow, maybe I will search to get a new job. I haveto begin to work!

What is your hobby?

Well, I like to play soccer. I used to play it in mycountry a lot, but here it is more difficult for me.However, I have been watching the games on TV.

What are you missing from your country?

Many things: my family, my friends, the late par-ties, and THE FOOD!

What is the most beautiful thing that you likeabout Boston?

I don’t really know many things here, but I like theCharles River very much, also the trees and theweather… I definitely like the snow.


I don’t know. I think I am a good person, that’s it.Also, I like parties.

What is something interesting in your life?

Ufff . . . a lot. I have many important things inmy life, but I can not think of one now. I don’tremember. [laughing]

Sameer Al-Ghamdi,Nasser Sahem,Yaser Al-Ghamdi.

Minerva Di Giacomo, JesusArancibia, Carlos Orlande,and Federico Rodriguez.

Armandine Bonnard.

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GUL ARPAD

Gul is one of the CELOP studentsin the current semester. She is fromIstanbul, which is the business center ofthe country and located in the north-west part of the country. She has spentalmost two semesters at CELOP andshe does not know if she would be willingto continue or not. Gul chose CELOPdue to the good reputation that CELOPhas among all the students aroundBoston. When we asked her about herplans after CELOP, Gul said, “I wantto go to N.Y. to apply to any univer-sity for a Master’s degree in Commu-nication.” Gul is not in favor of Boston’sweather because it is very cold for her,and that is also why she wants to go toN.Y., but she said that she is trying toenjoy her time while she is here. Onweekends, she usually goes out to a clubwith her friends and sometimes has din-ner with them. Her plan for the springbreak is to go to N.Y. and relax!

OZLEM KOC

Ozlem is from Izmir, which is closeto Greece. She has been studying atCELOP for two semesters preparingfor the TOEFL, which she needs to getinto the university. Ozlem wants tomajor in the School of Management atB.U. as an undergraduate. We askedher about her weekends, and she said, “Iusually meet with my friends and goto see a movie. Sometimes I like to goout sightseeing.” Her opinion aboutBoston’s weather is that it is quite cold.When we asked her about her plan forthe spring break, she said that she willstudy hard for the TOEFL. Ozlemtold us that her future plan is to helpher father who owns a resturant inTurkey. We wish you good luck!

MELIKE YALOVA

Melike is one of the newest faces atCELOP in this semester. She is fromAnkara, the capital of the country.This semester is her first semester, andshe said that CELOP is a good insti-tution for learning English. Melikeheard about CELOP from her coun-selor in her country. When my partnerReo asked her about her future plans,she said, “I would like to apply to B.U.as an undergraduate student,” andwhat she wants to study is Interna-tional Law. Melike has been here forfive months trying to learn as muchas possible. Good luck, Melike!

by Sameer Al-Ghamdi & Reo Kodera, S.B.E.Three Turkish Girls

SnowstormSnowstorm Spring 2003Spring 2003 || 1919

T he 2003 storm dumped 27.5 inches of snow at LoganAirport, but it hit on a holiday, and temperatures

quickly warmed up to melt it away. The 1978 storm piledup 27.1 inches of snow, but was combined with heavy windsand cold temperatures, as well as a high tide that caused alot of flooding near the ocean.

I remember having a week off from school in 1978, butthis year we only got two days off including the holiday.

by Lesley AndrewsThe Presidents’ Day Snowstorm of 2003

Beacon Hill, February 1978

Boston, 2003

2020 || Spring 2003Spring 2003 Building @ B.U.Building @ B.U.

Artist’s rendering of completed StudentVillage and athletic facilities on Comm.Ave.See details at www.bu.edu/construction.

BUILDING @ B.U.

CO

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Building @ B.U.Building @ B.U. Spring 2003Spring 2003 || 2121

www.bu.edu/global

GLOBA L

• Learn more about financial services, information technology,and marketing than is offered in most MBA programs

• Study at one of America’s leading universities in a city that’s at thecenter of global commerce

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2222 || Spring 2003Spring 2003 Essay ContestEssay Contest

CELOP Essay Contest

The topic for the Spring 2003 essay contest, chosen by students in the Semester Book elective, was:“Cross Cultural Surprises”

Chris Antonellis organized the contest and managed the judging process. Judging was done by members of the SemesterBook elective along with selected faculty and staff members. Thank you to all who submitted essays and to the judges. Itwas an interesting set of essays, and the judges had a hard time choosing, but in the end, the winners were:

1st Place: Sekou Mamadou Barry, from Mali2nd Place: Monica Li Yuying, from the People’s Republic of China3rd Place: Marcia Galvao, from Brazil

1st Place: Juan Carlos Nates, from Colombia2nd Place: Thanyaporn Wongsaroj, from Thailand3rd Place Mohamed Aal Ali, from the United Arab Emirates

Sekou Mamadou BarrySeeing America in a New Light

C ulture has several definitions. Culture is whatremains or what you don’t forget after reading abook, attending a class, a show, or after visiting

a country. Culture can be also defined as a set of values,behaviors, habits and customs, from music to arts. I pre-fer to consider culture as a “light” that every country orits people has and provides to others. From these defi-nitions, it is easy to understand that when you travel toanother country, you will discover the other culture andyour level of surprise will depend on the stereotype orthe expectation you had before coming. When I firstlanded in the United States, I had and continue to havevarious surprises and cultural shocks.

Before coming to the United States, I had different

stereotypes and apprehensions about American society.This fear was enhanced by the European mass media,the tragic events of September 11, 2001, and the Amer-ican “War against terror.” The European media, espe-cially the French, describe this country as an imperialistand barbarian country where foreigners are not wel-comed. Even my friends and relatives were worrying forme.

Fortunately, what I discovered was the opposite ofmy expectation and anxiety. My first surprise started atthe Atlanta airport, my entryway to this wonderful coun-try. From the airport, I tried to buy a phone card fromthe machine. Despite several tries, I did not succeed. Ayoung American approached me and after learning mytroubles proposed that I use his cell phone. My inten-tion was to speak to the UC Davis (University of Cali-fornia at Davis) guest house and inform them about myarrival in the U.S. Moreover, when this gentlemennoticed my difficulty explaining myself in understand-able English, he patiently asked me what I wanted andreported it by phone to the university front desk. After

Group 1

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1ST PLACE—Group 1

Essay ContestEssay Contest Spring 2003Spring 2003 || 2323

Atlanta, we went to the Sacramento airport where Ineeded to reach UC Davis. At the airport a lady noticedthat I had trouble finding my way. After having a quickdiscussion with me, she also proposed to drive me fromthe Sacramento airport to UC Davis.

At UC Davis, where I attended a three-week courseat their English training center, every day was a specialjoy. The center was like afamily for me. I found all thatI had not expected from thiscountry. The staff of the uni-versity and our host familieswere so kind to me and myother colleagues that weoften wondered if we werereally in the United States wehad heard about. When wereported our surprise to ourhosts, they responded thatfor some of us who were going to Boston, WashingtonD.C., or other big cities across the country, it would bedifferent. But after six months in Boston, I have not onlylearned a lot, but also felt welcomed. Everywhere peo-ple are kind and helpful. Several times when you ask aplace or a way, people are willing to stop or to walk quitea long distance to show you your way. Even my six-year-

old son, the first day he came back from school, asked,“Dad, why are people so kind here?” In fact, my sur-prise is so big and I have made so many friends that Idecided to propose to the B.U. staff a student trip in mycountry. Then they can see and meet people and helpreduce the bad stereotype.

Although people do not greet each other for a whilelike in my country at everycorner of the street, they areavailable when you needthem. From California toNew England, Pennsylvania,and Washington DC, everyplace I have visited has sur-prised me by the kindness ofAmerican citizens. From thebeginning of my stay in UCDavis until now in Boston,my main surprise is people’s

behavior vis-a-vis foreigners. I am having a great timethat I was not expecting. Thus, my level of surprise isvery high because I was expecting the worst. It is why thisexperience here is a new light for me.

The writer, from Mali, is in Lori Lubeski’s Academic and Professional Writing class.

The staff of the university and our hostfamilies were so kind to me and my othercolleagues that we often wondered if wewere really in the United States we hadheard about. . . . But after six months inBoston, I have not only learned a lot, butalso felt welcomed.

Monica Li YuyingBecome a Stronger Fish

S ome describe culture shock like a fish out of water.Culture shock is a necessary experience when any-one enters a new country or region. If we prepare

for it in advance, we will overcome culture shock easily,and we will learn muchfrom it. English communi-cation skills, knowledge ofAmerican culture, and apositive attitude are impor-tant for a newcomer inAmerica.

English communication skill determines the rela-tionship between the newcomer and the people aroundher/him. If our English is good enough to understandour roommates or other local people, people will be morelikely to share information with us. I have never forgot-ten the first day that I arrived at B.U. My young Amer-ican roommate looked very happy. Though she was inclasses, she had left a message to welcome me. But afterthe first week, I found she lost her patience for my badEnglish. Later, she didn’t like to talk more with me if itwas not necessary. Understandably, who likes living with

a person who cannotunderstand one’s ownideas? With classmates it isthe same. Studying Englishis the most important workfor all alien students in

2ND PLACE—Group 1

. . . good English skills are the most use-ful tools to help us to know new friends, tofind more interesting things easily, tochange our lonely life in America quickly


America, so most students want to make a friend withpeople who speak in fluent English. Owing to lack of com-munication, life will become boring. It will be very diffi-cult to find a friend to confide in when we are in any emo-tional difficulties. The homesickness will be stronger withthe passing of time. But good English skills are the mostuseful tools to help us to know new friends, to find moreinteresting things easily, to change our lonely life in Amer-ica quickly.

Knowledge of American culture is also very impor-tant to help us to overcome culture shock. This is a keythat enables us to see into the mind or heart of Americaand understand the manner of America. When we leftour home, we were so longing to get warmth. We wantednew friends to have a concern for our problems. How-ever, most newcomers are disappointed in the relation-ships with their new friends in America.

But if we comprehendthe style of Americans, wewill feel better. Actually, tocompletely understandAmerican culture in a shorttime is difficult, but it is easyif we look at the history ofAmerica. From looking atthe history of America, wecan learn some basic ingre-dients of American culture,like American ideals: indi-vidual freedom, self-relianceand equality of opportunity.Then we can understand why most Americans are warm,but only temporarily, friendly but distant, equal but inde-pendent.

In our country, we have very intimate relationshipswith our relatives and friends. We are usually concernedabout each other. When friends or relatives are in trou-ble, we will offer proper help to them, even money. Butin America, pursuing independent or individual freedomexcessively makes a distance among people. Most peo-ple are essentially on their own, but they ignore relation-ships with other people, even relatives. From my experi-ence, the deepest impression of Americans is their internalsuccess. Though most people are interested in money andthings, I have met some ordinary Americans who pursuepersonal spiritual success. They work seriously and pro-fessionally, and they are not very rich, but they spend

much money for their interests, for example traveling,exploring, doing sports or art, etc. In many Asian coun-tries, people like to invest their savings in expensiveclothes, or on luxury cars in order to show others thatthey are successful and they are outstanding. Americanculture is the only way to know Americans and to knowhow to live with them.

However, only knowing American culture is notenough to overcome culture shock. The last importantwork is that we should have a positive attitude to face ournew environment. We should ask ourselves again andagain why we have come here. Is not America the placewe wanted to study? People are different; the culture isdifferent; the food and garments are different; even thewater and air are different. Actually, having discrepanciescan bring completely new experiences to us, and it is justthe main object for our trip in America.

Don’t complain, don’tbe scared, don’t escape.Defining and studying alldifferences between Amer-ican and our original cul-ture is one of our jobs. Ifyou have a positive attitude,everything will be simpleand easy.

Actually, English lan-guage and American cul-ture influence each other.Good English helps us tounderstand American cul-

ture more deeply. The abundant knowledge of Americanculture helps us learn English well. In addition, with apositive attitude, we will be confident of surviving cultureshock. I received an e-mail from an American friend whenI came to Boston. He was living in China. He said thatculture shock was very difficult. The first year when heand his family reached China was a very hard time. Buthe found the experience made them stronger. I reallythanked him for his insight very much. I have chosenAmerica for my study. I don’t want to be like a fish out ofwater. I want to be like a fish that becomes stronger inthe end.

The writer, from the People’s Republic of China, is in Chris Antonellis & Jeff DiIuglio’s class.

We should ask ourselves again andagain why we have come here. Is not Amer-ica the place we wanted to study? Peopleare different; the culture is different; thefood and garments are different; even thewater and air are different. Actually, hav-ing discrepancies can bring completely newexperiences to us, and it is just the mainobject for our trip in America.


Marcia GalvaoViva la Difference!

“W hy aren’t the movie theaters located in ashopping mall? It is the ‘logical’ place tohave them . . . It is so obvious. You have

plenty of parking, lots to do or to see while waiting forthe movie, nice restaurants and food courts to go to after-wards and hang around with friends. In short, it is muchmore convenient and anyone with eyes can see it!”

That was my son complaining soon after we movedhere. But there was much more yet to come. Some madenice surprises while others, such as the college admis-sion system, were more difficult to deal with.

First of all, each American college or university hasits own selection criteria to establish the “ideal” studentand make its choices based in objective data and subjec-tive evaluation as well. Generally, most of them demandthe school records, the student ranking, “honors” courses,extra-curricular activities, community service, SATscores, the “infamous” essay and a personal interview.They also request reference letters from the teachers andcounselor, and they verify the applicant’s interest in theinstitution. The student is judged as a whole person andnot as a mere statistic. It is complex, time-consumingand highly strenuous.

As a high school teacher, I can understand its positiveaspects since it’s based on several indicators and rein-forces the student’s commitment to the school. But to myson, it was such a reversal of his expectations that he suf-fered through it and even worse, complained all the way.Even after being accepted by two very well-respectedAmerican universities, he was still upset to have beensubmitted to what he considered an “ordeal” comparedto what he would have faced back home.

In our country “all” he had to do was to perform wellon one big standardized test called “vestibular” thatincludes almost all the subjects taken during high school,and also an essay. This system demands a lot of hardwork and tough preparation, and is very competitive.But I guess it is a matter of being familiar with it. As hehad always expected it, it was not so trying in my son’sestimation. On the other hand, once the results are

known, it all depends on your score. The college doesnot have a say in it. They have to accept the students bytheir rankings, and it does not signify if she/he is a goodor bad student since the academic history is not beingevaluated. The score itself is the key to your future.

If the situation were reversed and an American highschool senior had to face our system, I am pretty surehe/she would not appreciate it a bit. He/she probablywould find it distressing, unfair and anti-democratic!And it would be so by American standards.

Which system is better? What do you think? Why?We could go on and on arguing and would not reach anindisputable answer because despite the apparent simi-larity of the topic being discussed, which is “the collegeadmission system in two different countries,” we can notcompare what essentially differ in their social, political,economic and cultural contexts. Thus, that is the core ofthe problem: We don’t simply compare but we judgebased on our own values. What was “good” for my sonmight be “awful” for an American kid and vice versa.Who is going to be the judge of what is “best”?

Despite this reasoning, my son kept making com-parisons about what was “bad” and what was “good” inour new life.

At the same time, his younger sister had other com-plaints since her age, sex and interests were very differ-ent. She would not eat lunch at school, for example,because it was not “natural” to do so since she was usedto her own school hours schedule.

In our country, school usually starts at 7 AM and endsbetween noon and 1 PM, so the students come home forlunch, or you can choose the afternoon shift. Either way,the students are used to spending less time in school, andmy daughter resented that. No matter how much I triedto reason with her about the advantages of the Americansystem, she would argue back. “They may stay longer atschool, but most of the time is lost in study hall, lunch, andschedule blanks!” Just like her brother, she would com-pare and decide what was “better” from her standpoint.

On my part, I tried to keep an open mind, but I mustadmit it was not an easy task, especially when I had tocope with the problem in two ways: my prejudices andthe others’—that is, the local reactions to our differencesas foreigners or “strangers.”

Wooden houses, colorful front doors, flags in people’s

3RD PLACE—Group 1


Juan Carlos NatesA New View of Americans

A lthough Colombia is a country closer to the U.S.than other countries you can find represented atCELOP, and though I have been in the U.S. as a

tourist several times before, actually this time has been dif-ferent and surprising. I have met people from differentplaces and cultures worldwide and it has been wonderful,but there are people more sur-prising for me than I had imag-ined, the U.S. citizens.

In the last two or three yearsI had been hearing many peoplearound the world saying that theworld was tired of U.S. politics,intervention and their feeling ofsuperiority. Although I havealways admired the U.S., I needed to see this for myself,so that is why I decided to talk with some Americans toset up my own criterion about it.

I started by signing up in the CELOP ConversationPartner Program, where I have found different faces ofAmericans. My two partners have expressed different pointsof view about different topics, and they have shown to menot only a very nice face of the American people but alsotheir friendly feelings towards foreign people. Thus they

have been pretty kind with me. In my classes I have hadthe opportunity to hear my teachers’ opinions about sometopics and join with classmates in a pleasant gathering.And also, in a couple of conferences that I have been to inB.U. and Harvard I learned other Americans’ opinions.Even though my conclusion would be the same: I have dis-covered an America with stronger family values than Ithought. I have found that the Americans are beginning tobelieve that foreign people are not synonymous with ter-rorists, and most of the Americans think that undevelopedcountries may need U.S. help in special situations.

Now I can say that the international people should becareful before giving an opinion about U.S. citizens. For

instance, saying that all Americansare hateful, troublemakers or thatthey want to dominate the worldis a dangerous stereotype.Remember, generalizing could bea big mistake. However, I thinkthat the U.S. and most of its peo-ple are amusing and pleasant.

In addition, I can say that myexperience in Boston has been exceptional and my crosscultural surprises among Japanese, European, Chinese,Korean, people from Thailand and other Latin-Ameri-can brothers have been interesting and very nice so far.With some of my new friends I have built a fast friend-ship and enjoyed unforgettable moments around Boston.

Thank you, CELOP!

The writer, from Colombia, is in Chris Antonellis & Jeff DiIuglio’s class.

1ST PLACE—Group 2

homes . . . It took me some time to learn how to see thebeauty in the difference. As one of our popular songssays, “Narcissus can see beauty only in the mirror.”

Cultural differences themselves would not be so dif-ficult to deal with if they were not encased in prejudices.And this is the core of the matter. Differences are justthat, a plain fact and unavoidable reality of life’s diversity.But people usually do not just acknowledge it as that, butinstead tend to judge what is “good” or “bad,” “better”or “worse,” while making comparisons. When facing cul-tural differences, we usually apply our own values and

logic to them because we learned that our way is the “only”way or at least the “best one.”

This kind of attitude is very tricky and deceiving anda sure path to prejudice, animosity, and injustice. That iswhy I am trying my best to be self-aware not to criticize.I try to keep in mind the French approach toward the sexdifference: Vive la difference.

The writer, from Brazil, is in Lori Lubeski’s Academic and Professional Writing class.

I have met people from differentplaces and cultures worldwide andit has been wonderful, but there arepeople more surprising for me thanI had imagined—the U.S. citizens.


Thanyaporn WongsarojForeign Friends

S ince I came to Boston, I have met many peoplefrom other countries, for example, Korean,Japanese or American, and I could learn their

culture from them.

Korean culture

I am lucky that I have a close friend who is Korean.After I met her, I was so surprised about Korean cul-ture. She has many customs that are similar to Thaicustoms and some are inter-esting to me, such as an olderperson is respected by ayounger person. This customis not much different from inThailand. Koreans and Thaishave a word for older andyounger, but it is just a littlebit different because of theirlanguage. The age is impor-tant. I think this is an impor-tant and good custom. Thereare some customs that are different, such as eating.Koreans always use chopsticks, but Thais usually usea spoon and fork. It is just sometimes that Thais usechopsticks to eat noodles, but I think Koreans useonly chopsticks to eat rice or noodles. When I havedinner with my Korean friend, she always uses chop-sticks to eat rice. She said it was more comfortable touse them, and it was her tradition.

Japanese culture

I had a chance to get close with two Japanese

friends. One guy was my housemate when I stayed ina homestay and the other guy is my classmate now.They have similar customs. I think a Japanese guyloves to be free. I heard from my friend that he had toearn money when he was still young. He liked to beindependent, so he worked a part time job while hewas studying at school. When he studied in univer-sity, he left home and lived alone at his apartment. Hesaid his friends did the same thing. Other Japaneseguys lived with friends. I think Japanese guys like tohang around with friends and have parties.

American culture

I can learn from American people while I live inBoston. I can see Americans living every day. I foundone interesting custom. Time is important for an

American. Whenever youhave an appointment or go toschool, you have to arrive ontime or early. Many peoplearen’t late. It means that youare respectful to the personyou are meeting. This cus-tom has changed me to be aresponsible girl, becausewhen I lived in Thailand,sometimes I had an appoint-ment with friends, but I went

there late. Since I came here, I have been arriving ontime all the time. I think this custom has changed mylife for the better.

Every culture is interesting to learn. I think I amlucky that I have known many foreign friends, so Icould get many things from learning each custom.Every custom is profitable for my life.

The writer, from Thailand, is in Chris Antonellis & Jeff DiIuglio’s class.

2ND PLACE—Group 2

. . . when I lived in Thailand,sometimes I had an appointmentwith friends, but I went there late.Since I came here, I have beenarriving on time all the time. Ithink this custom has changed mylife for the better.


Mohamed Aal AliDiscover Other Cultures in Boston

S ince I arrived in Boston, I’ve met a lot of peoplefrom different countries. I’ve met people fromthe U.S., Spain, Italy, Argentina, Japan and Brazil.

I’ve met Muslims, Christians and Jews. I’ve learned alot of things from them thatI didn’t know before. Ithink it is a big advantage tolearn and discover othercultures. I was surprisedwhen I found out that thechildren in Brazil have aboy/girl friend by the age oftwelve. I couldn’t get overit because the teenagers inmy country don’t have a partner until they get married.I was also surprised when I learned that Jewish people

have Saturday as a day off. They don’t work and theydon’t play. In my country Friday is our religious daywhen the Muslim people go to mosque to pray aljumaprayer.

Surprise, surprise. This is all I can say about know-ing new people from different countries and religions.What I liked the most about my friends who I have metsince I came to Boston is the kindness and the respectthey have for everyone. Before I came to the UnitedStates, I was afraid of being ignored or hated by theAmerican people because I belong to a part of the world

which is having many prob-lems with the United Statesright now. But, since Icame here, I’ve seen thekindness of the Americanpeople. What I was alsosurprised about is thatmany Americans don’tagree with President Bush.

The writer, from the United Arab Emirates, is in Chris Antonellis & Jeff DiIuglio’s class.

3RD PLACE—Group 2

I was surprised when I found out thatthe children in Brazil have a boy/girl friendby the age of twelve. I couldn’t get over itbecause the teenagers in my country don’thave a partner until they get married.

CELOP

Ambassadors Program Abroad

•Were you happy with your experience at CELOP?•Would you be interested in helping CELOP get the word out about our

English language programs to people in your home country?

If you answered YES, why not consider becoming a CELOP Ambassador?

Being a CELOP Ambassador is easy and fun! All you have to do is give CELOP materials to offi-cials at your high school, university, and/or place of work in your country, and talk with them

about your experience studying English at Boston University. In return for your help, youreceive a Certificate of Recognition from Boston University, identifying you as an offi-

cial CELOP Ambassador!

If you are interested in becoming a CELOP Ambassador, please visit Nancy Choin Office 242 or E-mail us at [email protected]. Thank you for supporting

CELOP!

BS

ArAr t Puzzlet Puzzle Spring 2003Spring 2003 || 2929

WHAT ARE THESE GREAT PAINTINGS? IDENTIFY THE ARTISTS OF THESE PAINTINGS FROM THE MFA [ answers on page 99 ]

1 2

3 4

3030 || Spring 2003Spring 2003 Class PhotosClass Photos

Betty D’Angelo’s class: Noora Alkalbani, Min Seok (James) Jeong, Jae Ryoung (Leat) Jung, Hee-man Kim, OzlemKoc, Christopher Nezivar, Li-Tzu (Lesley) Peng, Fernando Salgado, Nestor Adolfo Velilla Guarin, Pei-Ching (Zoe)Wu, Jia-Heng (Jay) Sui, Yu-Ching (Claire) Tsai, Tuan Ha, Melike (Ipek) Yalova, Ana Geada Uzal, Naixin Kang.

Chris Antonellis & Jeff DiIuglio’s class: Jae Yoon Lee, Juan Carlos Nates Guerra, Mohamed Aal Ali, Yaser Al-Ghamdi, Anchana (Nina) Boondarigpornpunt, Apisit Kantinan, Reo Kodera, Yuying (Monica) Li, Carlos MartinezFranky, Hiroaki Nakamura, Aya Segawa, Thanyaporn (Gift) Wongsaroj, Zayed Almazrouei, Nasser Sahem,Mehmet Aslan.

Class PhotosClass Photos Spring 2003Spring 2003 || 3131

Jamie Beaton’s class: Hyung-Yong (Choi-Paul) Choi, Hamed Cisse, Akerke (Erke) Dossayeva, Wei-En Ho, VictorMatta Dall Orso, Laimute (Laima) Stankunaite, Wen-Chieh Tsai, Tsung-Hsin Yeh.

Lynn Bonesteel’s class: Ik-Bum Ahn, Julio Alonso, Yong Seok Jang, Sedat Kayhan, Je Hwan Lee, Consuelo MazaPincheira, Ye In Rha, Takeshi Watanabe, Jeong Wha Choi.


Jill Brand’s class: Maria Fernandez, Dareen Akbar, Ji Hee Ha, Takayoshi Ikoma, Fernando Jimenez, Hyunjoon Jun,Chieh-Wen Mo, Ji-Sung (Jay) Park, Michela Porta, A-Young Ryu, Maruli Simanjuntak, Pimara Chewakate, Hsueh-Yu (Lydia) Tu, Taner Akgul.

Ron Clark’s class: Apirak Yosaeng, Aida Al-Madan, Oumou Cisse, Luis Alberto Diaz, Tomomi Kanayama, Moo SeogKang, Eun Byul Kim, Mariangela Matta Dall Orso, Carolina Moncada, Suwit Srisaensuchat, Hsing-Ling Tsai,Konuralp Ural, Mario Barzola. Teaching Assistant: Jennifer Parham.


Margo Downey & Joanne Fox’s class: Alberto Barros, Emi Fujita, Jee Seon Han, Tomoko Hiramatsu, Min WookJeon, Sun Min Lee, Marie-Christine Nguyen, Da Eun (Rosa) Rho, Leona Stollinova, Sung-Joon Park, Boum (Jenny)Park, Akifumi Saruga.

Michael Feldman’s class: Tomas Buttazzoni, Alejandro Edwards, Juan Elizalde, Heejin Kim, Manuk MasseredijianJunior, Reiko Osaka, Lily Perez, Luis Rojas Duque.


Shelley Fishman’s class: Chia-Chun (Claire) Chang, Khalid Al-Ghamdi, Andrieta Gani, Kyo-Sun Lee, Sang YounLee, Ying-Tung (Tony) Liao, Ricardo Maldonado Cantu, Rosa Matta Fernandez, Carlos Orlando Torres, FedericoRodriguez Mollo, Hui-Chuan (Jane) Chiang, Minerva Di Giacomo, Jesus Arancibia.

Cynthia Flamm & Gregg Singer’s class: Ayako Oyama, Sameer Al-Ghamdi, Andrea Bernasconi, Maria Carolina DeLa Rosa, Chia-Ying (Stella) Hsieh, Jinmun Kang, Zulfia Kayrbekova, Hiroshi Kuroda, Sun Yup Lee, Hsuan-wen(Wennie) Lin, Atsuo Ogura, Elisa Garcia Lorenzana.


Roselyn Frank & Pam Steeves’ class: Sang-Hee Yoo, Fuad Al-Ghamdi, Panji Erlangga, Dong Ryong Kim, Jung-EunLee, Ya Hui (Cindy) Lin, Shinichi Narusako, Reanruedee Songpaiboon, Ninoslav Stankovik, Satomi Tanaka, JittimaTangnatthanakrit, Keun Chang Yang, Jorge Calmet, Pubenza Peters, Raul Rodriguez Leonardi, LubnaBukhamseen. Field Observer: Ming Fang.

Doug Kohn’s class: Aliya Rakhimbekova, Camila Angel, Ekaterina Asabina, Norah Bin Saeed, Heng-Sheng Chiang,Nuno De Morais Serra, Yoo Shin Kim, Chin Mu, Keiko Nakao, Valmore Rojas Figueroa, Chonlada Soonthonvasu,You-Sun (Claire) Yoon, Cesar Corzo Requena, Yoshiaki Tsushima, Woo Jin Kim.


John Kopec’s class: Haemi An, Andres Allende, Rodrigo Burgos, Alberto Cohen, Soo Yun Kim, Sachiko Koizumi, JaYoung Lee, Daniela Ponce, Andrea Schneider, Janine Schneider, Daniel Szmidt.

George Krikorian & Ellen Yaniv’s class: Liliana Beatriz Frutos, Shuling Wang, Ali Alfaifi, Veli Chabebe, EduardoD’Orey Correa Da Veiga, Kowan Kim, Eun Seok Lee, Chen (Kevin) Lee, Soo-Kyung Lee, Ana Matta Fernandez, Han-Ting Chuang, Shinnosuke Tsunoda, Hsin Hsien (Mark) Chiang.


Irene Maksymjuk & Renee Delatizky’s class: Claudia Brueggemann, Camilo Fernandez De Soto, Joo Hyun Han,Yuko Iinuma, Hyun-Jung Kim, Mitsuru Kuroda, Hong Liu, Esteban Marco, Andres Torres, Takeshi Toyokawa,Xiaochun Yang, Hsin-Hung (Tony) Yao. Student Teacher: Nadia Mamoun.

Doreen Miller & Jacquie LoConte’s class: Wannee Sananwatananont, Abdullah Al Dawood, Rassul Idrissov, ErdalKarahisar, Chin Hsin (Jason) Peng, Alvaro Ruiz Zavala, Dalia Silberstein, Sergio Romero, Claudia Di Giacomo,Thanet Sorat, Rocio Portugal.


Margo Miller & Bob Maguire’s class: Gul Arpad, Sara Al-Mufarrej, Ahmed Alzalzalah, Mammas Habtegiorgis,Kanako Hirano, Tae Hoon Kim, Eun Kyung Lee, Chiu-Ju (Candace) Liu, Nana Pipiya, Etienne Rochat, Jung-GookSeo, Yuan Xue, Armandine Bonnard, Waleed Al-Khamees.

Maria Tomeho-Palermino’s class: Jorge Yitani, Bashar Abaalkhail, Koji Ando, Alma Arteaga Asis, Anders Gylling,Bo-Young Kim, Emir Kocyigit, Soomyung Koh, Mike Lukowiecky, Juan Luis Natera, Murielle Otten, TinaUnterlaender, Kadir Candir.

ParPar t-time Program Studentst-time Program Students Spring 2003Spring 2003 || 3939

Pavlo Agoshkov • Mauricio Almeida • Karen Argandona • Supaporn AsawasittikitSekou Mamadou Barry • Mustapha Ben Jebara • Elena Cardoso-Martin • Juyoung Chun

Narda De la Torre • Martha Echavarria • Marcia Galvao • Arnaldo Godoy • Larissa GodoyKoonwah Lam • Eun Lee • Hee Kyoung Lee • Kuo-Mei Lee • Wipha LeethakulnumchaiAmie Lukalu • Peprone Margaryants • Yoko Mitobe • Chihiro Nakazawa • Ignasi Nieto

Keiko Ogasawara • Lina Ouyang • Hye Jin Park • Sally Peng • Yelena Popkova • Maria RivasDiana Romero Leon • Mariano Rubinowicz • Hae Eun Shin • Orit Steinberg

Tomoko Takeyama • Atthina Tuntrakul • Mercedes Valdivia • Tomoko YanagisawaJun Yokokawa • Huimao Zhong • Rui Zou

Part-time Program Students (Day)

Koonwah (Patrick) Lam, AmieLukalu, Atthina Tuntrakul.

Yoko Mitobe, Hye Jin Park, DianaRomero Leon, Tomoko Takeyama.

Mercedes Valdivia, ArnaldoSampaio de Moraes Godoy.

Supaporn Asawasiftikit, Heeky-oung Lee, Tomoko Yanagisawa.

Mauricio Almeida.

4040 || Spring 2003Spring 2003 CELOP AlumniCELOP Alumni

CELOPCELOP ALUMNIALUMNI

Carla Belucci | Argentinaby Sameer Al-Ghamdi, S.B.E.

C arla was a CELOP student last spring. She was oneof the cutest girls at CELOP. She said that she

enjoyed her journey with CELOP, and that she liked themix of cultures here very much. She could make a lot offriends from all over the world. She usually spent herweekends with her friends, going out to clubs or havingdinner with them.

Now, Carla is in her country preparing for the uni-versity as an undergraduate student. The reason why shestudied at CELOP is because she heard a lot about it fromher friends as a good school for learning English, and thatwould help her to use it at the university. When I asked herif she would be willing to visit the U.S. again, she said “Iwould love to go back to the U.S. and meet my friendsagain.” We hope we can see you again, Carla.

Mariaelena De Lamo | Venezuelaby Alvaro Ruiz, S.B.E.

My name is Mariaelena De Lamo and I’m fromVenezuela. I am 18 years old and I want to be anengineer because I want to make people’s liveseasier.

When were you at CELOP?

I was at CELOP last spring to improve my English.Also, my parents wanted me to have the experienceof living alone in a different place and meeting peo-ple from varied cultures.

What are you doing in Boston?

Now, I am studying Computer Systems Engineer-ing at B.U. as a freshman. CELOP really helpedme by improving my English and letting me knowhow B.U. works.

Did you like CELOP?

I really enjoyed CELOP because I met a lot of peopleand learned a lot of things besides English.

Do you recommend something to the currentstudents of CELOP?

I recommend that they take advantage of the best ofCELOP because it is a nice experience and they canuse it to reach their goals in the future.

Mariaelena and Carla.

CELOP AlumniCELOP Alumni Spring 2003Spring 2003 || 4141

Miguel Muñoz | Venezuelaby Alvaro Ruiz, S.B.E.

M iguel is 17 years old, and he was at CELOP in Fall2002. The reason that he came to Boston is that

he got information from people in Venezuela that it is thebest place to learn English, and he chose CELOP inBoston University because it has a good reputation forstudents from different parts of the world who want tolearn English.

His experience while he was studying at CELOP wasexcellent because, he thinks, he learned a lot of English ina short time, and that was very useful for him. Right nowhe has enough English to study in Massasoit CommunityCollege in Brockton, MA. He decided to stayin Boston because, since his arrival here, he hasmade a lot of friends, and he always has funhanging out with them and meeting other inter-esting people. He thinks that he’s going to stayhere for a long time because he loves the life inthis city.

He agreed to do this interview because hewants to share his experience with the CELOPstudents who want to study in the U.S. andencourage them to take advantage of theCELOP courses.

Alex Friedman | Venezuelaby Alvaro Ruiz, S.B.E.

A lex is 19 years old and wants to share with you all theexperience that he had studying at CELOP, because

it was amazing, from his first day to the last day there.That was very important to him even though he was atCELOP just three months. Learning English at CELOPis learning the best English in the United States, he says,because they have good teachers and they have good pro-grams. Therefore, he learned the necessary English tostudy in the United States in a short period of time.

Now he’s studying at Curry College. His life withAmerican people is getting easier because his English isimproved and he can understand almost everything when

someone talks tohim. Right now hecan see the benefit ofstudies at CELOPand would like to telleveryone that readsthis to take advan-tage of all the mate-rial that they havebecause it’s excellent.


Irmar Barraez | Venezuelaby Sameer Al-Ghamdi, S.B.E.

I rmar used to be a CELOP student in Fall 2002. Nowshe is a freshman at Fisher College. Her major is Com-

puter Support for E-Commerce.

Irmar has been in Boston for almost three years tryingto finish her studies. When I asked her about her future plan,she said, “I will probably go back to my country and find ajob.” On weekends, she usually goes out with her friends,and her boyfriend too.

I found Irmar one of the best friends that I have everknown in Boston. What I like the most about her is herreally friendly personality. “Esoooo, Irmar!”

Yun Kyung Jung | South Koreaby Sameer Al-Ghamdi, S.B.E.

Y un was one of the CELOP students in fall 2000, andshe said that CELOP is still her favorite place. She

was in Boston for almost 1 year. After CELOP, Yun wentto Columbus, Ohio, and she is about to graduate this year.Good luck! Yun has worked in several places and at dif-ferent jobs, but her most recent job is as a lab assistant atFranklin University, which is located in Columbus.

When I asked her how she likes Boston, she said,“Boston is a nice place and very active. However, it issmaller than Columbus.” She hopes to come back toBoston and find a job here after she graduates, and shewould like to work at a computer software trade companyso that she can apply her language skills and computerknowledge. One special thing about Yun is what she said:“No matter where I am or how much fun I have, my bestdream place is always Boston.” Mine too!

The Semester Book team is alThe Semester Book team is alwaways looking fys looking for neor new ideas fw ideas for content.or content. WWe we wouldouldliklike to hear fre to hear from fom former CELOP students about liformer CELOP students about lif e after CELOPe after CELOP.. Contact us afterContact us afteryyou leaou leavve CELOP this semestere CELOP this semester,, whether ywhether you rou return to yeturn to your countrour countr y or stay or stay iny inBoston or someBoston or somewherwhere else in the Ue else in the U.S..S. TTell us what yell us what you’ou’rre doing and send picture doing and send pictures,es,if possibleif possible .. WWe’ll tre’ll tr y to include yy to include your experience in the next Semester Book.our experience in the next Semester Book. E-mailE-mailJJohn de Szendeffy at <[email protected]> and <semesterbook@inboohn de Szendeffy at <[email protected]> and <[email protected]>.x.net>.


S ister Olga Yaqob studied at CELOP from Summer 2001 to Summer 2002. In addition to proving herself to bea truly extraordinary student of English—mastering the language in one year—Olga was known by just aboutevery teacher, staff member, and student at CELOP as a warm, friendly, compassionate person.

In December of 2002, Olga was giving a lecture at a church in Brookline and Tom Ashbrook, the host of theWBUR radio program On Point, attended and asked if she would come on his show. On December 23 she was the gueston this one-hour program and spoke about the suffering of the Iraqi people under Saddam Hussein and U.N. sanc-tions. Listen to the entire program online at www.onpointradio.org/shows/2002/12/20021223_b_main.asp

Former CELOP Student Interviewedon National Public Radio


Laura Rumbley was the Admissions and Marketing Admin-istrator at CELOP from May 1997 to December 2001.

S tudents regularly come to CELOP to learn andgrow, then move on to new challenges. Sometimes,staff members do the same thing. I had the good

fortune to work at CELOP from May 1997 until Decem-ber 2001. During my time at the Center, I helped torecruit new students and launch new programs, as well ascounsel students about their visa responsibilities and helpCELOP understand the newest immigration rules andregulations. This was a wonderful professional experi-ence for me.

After working several years with so many interestinginternational students from around the world, I becameeager to do some traveling myself. So, in January 2002,I took a position with the United States Department ofState as a Foreign Service Officer. This was a dream cometrue for me, as I had always wanted to the opportunity towork as a diplomat. I spent three and a half months intraining in Washington, DC, and then was sent to work

in the Consular Section of the U.S. Embassy in San Sal-vador, El Salvador.

In San Salvador, I was one of a dozen junior-levelAmerican diplomats who were responsible for interview-ing visa applicants. Some applicants were seeking touristor student visas; others were interested in immigratingpermanently to the United States to join relatives alreadyhere. The work at the embassy was challenging. Visaofficers conduct many interviews each day (sometimes upto 125!). They must be aware of all facets of Americanimmigration law as well as a wide range of security pro-cedures affecting the entry of international visitors intothe United States. As many of you know from your ownexperience, visa interviews are normally very short. U.S.consular officers must therefore be quick and competentin order to make good decisions and keep the long linesof visa applicants moving efficiently.

I loved El Salvador, but I realized very early on that Idid not love working for the State Department. It was aconfusing experience for me. On the one hand, I felt priv-ileged to serve my country, grateful for the opportunity toexplore beautiful, fascinating El Salvador, and happy tomake wonderful new friends in Central America. At thesame time, I did not feel that the work I was doing wasreally making the world a better place. In contrast, help-ing CELOP students learn English and get to knowAmerican society, in all its complexity, had always made mefeel that I was making a positive contribution to interna-tional understanding. Suddenly, it was perfectly clear tome that I needed to get back to my first passion—inter-national education.

So, after one year of work for the U.S. Government,I left the State Department in January 2003 and began adoctoral program in university administration at BostonCollege (BC). My focus at BC is on international issuesin university education, and I supplement my studies withwork at BC’s Center for International Higher Education.I hope that the expertise I am gaining from these advancedstudies will allow me to one day be the director of a pro-gram much like CELOP’s—either educating internationalstudents in the United States or guiding U.S. students intheir studies overseas.

March 1, 2002. On this day, I and my 90 “freshman”classmates were sworn in as Foreign Service Officers ata State Department ceremony. Secretary of StateColin Powell administered the oath.

by Laura RumbleyLife after CELOP


My husband Clark and I visited Antigua,Guatemala, a couple of times. It’s about a 4.5hour drive from San Salvador and has some ofthe most extensive and well-preserved colonialarchitecture in Central America (in fact, it’sbeen designated as one of those “world patri-mony” sites by the UN). Very cool place.

Flag Day, February 2002. I joined more than 90 of my fellowtrainees in finding out which countries we had been assigned.This was done in a fairly informal ceremony—in the gym atthe National Foreign Affairs Training Center in Arlington, VA.

A little Salvadoran town called Juayuya, in the coffee-growingregion of the country. Because of the bottoming out of coffeeprices worldwide in recent years, this region has faced sometough economic times. Juayua’s city leaders have taken areally proactive approach to these developments and are try-ing to promote the town as a tourist destination. They spon-sor a food and music festival every Sunday, held in the townsquare, and are working to develop a tourism infrastructurethat focuses on the coffee-growing history of the region.

I truly believe that bringing students together fromdifferent countries and cultures offers some of the mostpowerful opportunities imaginable for peace and under-standing. For that reason, I have chosen internationaleducation over diplomacy for my life’s work, but I alsofeel that these two fields are closely related and shouldalways remain so. I look back fondly on my time atCELOP, when I was part of such a wonderful effort tomake the world a better place. Hopefully, one year fromnow, whether you’re a doctor or a diplomat, an actor oran accountant, you’ll feel the same way, too.

Visit the Boston College Center for InternationalHigher Education Web site:

bc.edu/bc_org/avp/soe/cihe


3 March 2003

Two years at CELOP was a long and pleasant timefor me as a student in my fifties. I have a lot of mem-ories of different courses, marvelous young friends fromall over the world, and life in Boston. There are a lotof things to write about but which?

F irst of all, I would like to say that CELOP is one ofbest places to learn English for a foreign student.The courses and programs are products of a deep

and long experience, and the teachers are the best withtheir international experience in their fields. I saw manydifferent places and schools for English courses in manycountries, but I must confess that CELOP is the best ifyou want to get more. Now, I have very good memoriesof CELOP, and I believe that I’m going to be a goodCELOP Ambassador in Turkey.

• • •

Second, I would like to talk aboutwhat’s going on in Turkey, my first impres-sions of the political and economic land-scape in my country after two years. Thisis important because of the attitude ofTurkey as an ally of the U.S. and the Iraqcrisis.

When I was in Boston, elections wereheld in Turkey and a surprise resultoccurred. All major parties and old leaderswere removed from the parliament andjust two parties shared the chairs. Thereare forty-six political parties and seven-teen of them participated in the last elec-tion. One of them was originally Islamicfundamentalist, the Justice and Develop-ment Party, which won the majority in theparliament. An Islamic political party was

ruling in Turkey! What was going on in secular Turkey?

Was Turkey turning into Iran or Algeria under a fun-damentalist Islamic party? Never. The Justice and Devel-opment Party members were originally from a funda-mentalist party but had resigned two years ago andestablished the new one. This was a new chance for usbecause Turkey needed single party government. Fornearly fifty years coalition governments in conflict didunbelievable damage to the economy and political andsocial life.

The Justice and Development Party was a hope forthe man in the street. They did not get the majoritybecause they’re fundamentalist but because they seemedyoung and offered hope. They said that there was no rela-tion to the former fundamentalists.

Turkey can not go back to a secular nation. The armedforces and majority of the nation are the real guards ofmodernization, westernization, and reforms founded byAtaturk. At the beginning of his era, Ataturk’s westerniz-ing and secularizing reforms were under attack from

by Ismail Emen

ALUMNI REPORTSome Thoughts about Secularism in Turkey and War with Iraq

Ismail, seated in center, back at work, in London.


Islamic fundamentalists. It was difficult to transform theOttoman concept into a modern, westernized nation-state. Conservatives and reactionaries frequently arguedthat modernization did not necessarily imply westerniza-tion, that Islamic civilization was capable of generatingits own version of an advanced society. But Ataturkremarked in a speech given in 1924:

Surviving in the world of modern civilization depends uponchanging ourselves. This is the sole law of any progress inthe social, economic and scientific spheres of life. Chang-ing the rules of life in accordance with the times is anabsolute necessity. In an age when inventions and wondersof science are bringing changein the conditions of life, nationscannot maintain their existenceby age-old rotten mentalitiesand by traditional worshipping. . . . Superstitions and nonsensehave to be thrown out of ourheads.

• • •

When I returned to Istanbulin January, the new governmentand their reforms were on the agenda of the nation. Theywere a newly established party lacking experience and awell trained staff to implement their policies on issues likemembership in the European Union, reunification ofCypress, and the war against Iraq. The President of theparty spent great effort for EU membership just beforethe Copenhagen Summit and got good results. He visitedthe capitals of member countries, spoke to the leaders, andlobbied successfully. Mr. Erdogan, as the leader of themajority party, gave reasonable speeches about the solutionof the Cypress case. He also visited President Bush andmentioned that Turkey is a reliable ally of the U.S.

• • •

One of the most pressing issues in Turkey was Iraq.We were closely interested in this issue because we havea long border with Iraq. Turkey has been known as a reli-able ally of the U.S. since the Korean War. As a memberof NATO we also fought with U.S. troops in BosniaHerzegovina and Kosovo, Angola and Afghanistan. Wesupported the U.S. during the first Gulf War. We neverhesitated to support our allies for the sake of humanity,peace, and illegal invasions.

I was in Boston on September 11th 2001. I under-stand how the American people feel about terrorism. Wehad the same feelings. We are familiar with terrorism and

know what it means and the hazards to peace. I also believethat the U.S. actions, not just in this issue, but also inBosnia and Kosovo, are the real examples of U.S. effortsto protect peace and humanity in the world. When Euro-pean nations were just watching the massacre, the U.S.sent in troops in order to prevent the genocide there. Weappreciated them in Turkey.

I’ve been several times to Iraq for business and knowSaddam is a crazy dictator ruling more than thirty years.There is no democracy in Iraq. The people are not happy.The question is, is war the only solution to Saddam? This

question has been asked all overthe world. The world is hopingthat the UN or other forces canprevent a war. War means a lotof casualties on both sides, civil-ians, children, and military per-sonnel. It means also a lot ofrefugees, ruins, increased oilprices, effects on the world econ-omy—mostly to nations likeTurkey—oil importers, and an

increase in world terrorism. The U.S. has reasonable andsufficient evidence to commit themselves to war, but atthe same time, we have to think about the demonstrationsand messages coming from all over the world.

• • •

In the beginning, the Turkish parliament in Ankaravoted to let American engineers upgrade Turkish portsand military bases, but the ruling party was hesitant aboutletting foreign troops onto its territory to attack a fellowMuslim country. A war in Iraq is extremely unpopular inTurkey, which is in a difficult position. On one side, theU.S., an ally and long-time friend, supports Turkey everytime but now demands permission to use military basesand territory to launch an attack. On the other side, thereis a Muslim country suffering under the dictatorship andterror of a crazy man. A lot of innocent people and chil-dren will die. Millions will emigrate from their country.People in all nations are also against a war, and demon-strations are being held everywhere.

The Turkish parliament rejected by three votes a billto allow U.S. troops to use Turkish bases to open a north-ern front against Iraq. The Turkish government will try toget permission from Parliament again. Turkish action isonly to prevent war and keep peace in this region for thesake of humanity.


• • •

When you read the Semester Book and this article,the war with Iraq might have started or another hopefulsolution found. You and I, the people in the world, wishto see the second choice. Turkey suffered a lot in the lasttwo wars in a half century. War is never good for theworld, humanity, and innocent people. We have a lot ofproblems awaiting solutions all over the world, hunger inAfrica, Asia, and other parts of the world, epidemic dis-eases, pollution, immigration. We have to think of thoseinstead of war.

• • •

You are so young as CELOP students and come fromdifferent countries with different cultures. The U.S. is aunique country to witness the development of humanrights and democracy through the centuries. If you haveread the Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, written

over two centuries ago, you understand what I mean. TheOttoman Empire in 1453 gave civil and personal rightsto ethnic groups from different religions. They neverimplemented any assimilation policy. Our respect forhumanity is great if you look at the history.

Please pay attention and learn, not just the languageof this country, but human values, individual freedomsestablished two centuries ago, how they built this countryby coming from all over the world, and their success atbeing number one in the world. What is the key? I know,at the same time, you would tell me of your strange obser-vations about this country. You may be right, but please donot lose sight of the forest for the trees.

I wish each of you the very best in all your futureendeavors.

Orientation

Phone WorkshopE-mail Account WorkshopComputer Lab OrientationBanking WorkshopTransportation and Shopping WorkshopSafety WorkshopGeddes Language Lab TourB.U. Community Service Center Orientation

Clubs,Weekly Events

Book ClubShort Story ClubSitcom ClubFree Friday MoviesFamily Movie ClubConversation ExchangeAcademic Workshops

Arts & Crafts

Journal Making WorkshopHoliday Crafts (Valentine’s Day and Easter)

Trips & Tours

Providence, Rhode IslandJillian’s Billiards PartyMuseum of Fine ArtsOld Town Trolley Bus TourTrip to Wrentham Outlets

Shows and Sports (discount tickets)

Bruins HockeyCeltics BasketballBlue Man GroupShear MadnessCONTACT:The Musical

Occasional Events

Get to Know Your ClassmatesPizza Parties

SAMPLE CELOP ACTIVITIES

SP

RIN

G20

03

BS

News EventsNews Events Spring 2003Spring 2003 || 4949

Major News Events of the SemesterIn the World . . .

• A mystery illness dubbed “severe acute respiratory syndrome” (SARS) breaks out in

China, possibly affecting thousands and killing dozens of people.• In Venezuela, general strikes and protests against President Hugo Chavez end.

Venezuelans in the U.S. sign petitions at their consulates.• U.N. weapons inspectors search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq with mixed

cooperation from Saddam Hussein. • The Bush administration fails to get U.N. sanction to disarm Iraq and remove Saddam

Hussein, creating the most serious divisions in the UN and NATO. An American,

British, and Australian coalition launch a military campaign to remove Hussein and

the brutal Ba’ath party from power despite worldwide protests.• Diplomatic tensions between some European countries, particularly France and

Germany, and the U.S. escalate. The Bush administration resents French obstruc-

tionism and some European countries resent American unilateralism. • The Prime Minister of Serbia is assassinated. Police suspect organized crime or ultra-

nationalist Serbs.• North Korea continues to make provocative moves, including restarting a nuclear reac-

tor, resuming nuclear weapons production, test firing missiles into the Sea of Japan,

and threatening U.S. military aircraft operating in international airspace.In the U.S. . . . • At the Oscar ceremony, Chicago wins best picture, Adrien Brody is best actor for The

Pianist, and Nicole Kidman is best actress for Hours.• The Space Shuttle Columbia breaks apart on reentry and 7 astronauts die. Columbia

was the first Space Shuttle to enter earth orbit, in 1981, and the second to explode,

after the Challenger disaster in 1986.• The Super Bowl football championship game is played in San Diego between Tampa

Bay and Oakland. Tampa wins 48-21. • Movies playing at theaters: Bringing Down the House, Chicago, How to Leave a Guy in 10

Days, Daredevil, Old School, Shanghai Knights, Gangs of New York, Catch Me if You Can.

• Pop songs: Don’t Know Why by Norah Jones, Your Body Is A Wonderland by John Mayer, The

Rising by Bruce Springsteen, Steve McQueen by Sheryl Crow, and Cry by Faith Hill.In Boston . . .

• This winter is among the coldest in memory. A snow storm on Presidents’ Day holi-

day, February 17, brings the heaviest snowfall in weather history.• The new Massachusetts Governor, Republican Mitt Romney, faces difficult budget

decisions, proposing to reorganize public colleges in the state.At Boston University and CELOP . . . • Olga Yaqob, a nun from Iraq who studied at CELOP, is interviewed on national radio,

On Point, produced at WBUR upstairs. (See article on p. 43.)• Construction continues on the new sports facilities across from CELOP. • B.U. holidays observed this semester: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Presidents’ Day,

St. Patrick’s Day, Passover, Easter, and the Muslim holy pilgrimage, Hajj.

The Boston Globe

5050 || Spring 2003Spring 2003 StafStaf f Interf Interviewsviews

Gabriella Campozano | Ecuador

S he is a woman who loves to work with people and lovesCELOP so much! She was born in New York City.

She is a full-time worker on the front desk team.

Her job is Program Coordinator. She gets many e-mails from students who want to get into the CELOPprogram. She lives with her two kids. On the weekendsthey often go to sports events such as a basketball or base-ball game, and sometimes she hangs out with Nicole.

She has been working at CELOP almost two years.Her message to the students is, “Learn a lot of things frompeople who come from other countries and cultures.CELOP is the best! Everybody at CELOP is great. Idon’t want to leave CELOP ever!”

Shirley Yeh | Taiwan

Reo and I met Shirley behind the front desk while shewas working.

Sam & Reo: Hi, Shirley! Got a minute? Becausewe want to write a profile of you.

Shirley: Hi. Sure, I would be happy to help you.

Sam & Reo: What is your job?

Shirley: I’m a student worker, and I’m working ona Ph.D. in Second Language Acquisition at B.U.

Sam & Reo: What’s your future plan after fin-ishing your Ph.D.?

Shirley: Well, I want to be a professor in college.

Sam & Reo: Cool! What do you do on weekends?

Shirley: I usually stay with my boyfriend or I go outwith my friends to watch a movie or have a dinner.

Sam & Reo: O.K., last question: Do you haveany advice for CELOP students?

Shirley: Use more of CELOP’s resources to improveyour English, for example, the Academic Workshopsor the computer lab.

by Sameer Al-Ghamdi & Reo Kodera, S.B.E.The Front Desk Team

Gabriella and Shirley

StafStaf f Interf Interviewsviews Spring 2003Spring 2003 || 5151

Mona Asaad | Saudi Arabia

S he works at CELOP as a part time worker. She ishere one day a week on every Friday. Just getting

work experience is the reason she works here.

She really likes CELOP because people are so niceand she can meet people from many different countries.She is studying Business Administration at B.U. as a jun-ior. Her English accent is excellent! She told me that’sbecause her mother speaks English. She enjoys her lifein Boston with freedom, but misses her family and friends.She probably is going to go back to her country after shegraduates.

On the weekends she likes to watch movies, go tobasketball games and go out for dinner. Fugakyu, onBeacon St. in Brookline, is one of the famous Japaneserestaurants she often goes to in Boston. If you have achance to go there, you will enjoy it! But her favoritedish is paella, which is a Spanish dish.

Her advice for students is to enjoy your time inBoston, hang out a lot and have fun! She is such a nicewoman. You can see her only on Fridays, but visit her atthe front desk and say “Hi.”She’ll talk with you with herwonderful smile.

Nicole Buchholz | U.S.

S he is one of the nicest work-ers at CELOP. She is also a

member of the front desk team.Nicole’s job is helping both stu-dents and teachers; it’s a full-timejob. She is actually a B.U. studentand her major is Art Administra-tion. Soon she’ll graduate, in May2004. Break a leg, Nicole!

Nicole likes to go to a salsaclub on weekends, which canteach you how to dance salsa. Shealso hangs out with her friends,and sometimes they have dinnerin a Spanish resturant. Herfavorite plate is tapas. I have no

idea what it is! Her family consists of only one sister, herfather and mother. When I asked Nicole if she wanted tosend a message to all the students, she said, “It is great tobe part of the CELOP community.”

Andi Cili | Albania

H e is one of the front desk team at CELOP. He is ina training program named “One With One” to

improve his office work skills. Also he has a part-time jobduring the weekends, which makes him a very busy man,although he likes what he’s doing.

Andi has been in Boston for 9 months, living with hiswife and his mother-in-law. When I asked him about hisfuture plan, he said, “I’ll try to find an office job.” Goodluck, Andi!

Mona, Nicole, and Andi.

5252 || Spring 2003Spring 2003 Faculty InterFaculty Interviewsviews

J im is one of my favorite teachers at CELOP. His mission is teaching TOEFLpreparation, and he is really an excellent teacher for that. Jim said that CELOP

is a great place to teach and he likes it very much. He has been teaching at CELOPsince 1987. What a long time, Jim!

Not only does he have long experience of teaching ESL in Boston, but he alsohas taught abroad. At CELOP, Jim is a part-time teacher who can be seen only in thelate afternoon!

by Sameer Al-Ghamdi, S.B.E.INTERVIEW: Jim Kaplan

G regg is one of the most wonderful teachers I havefound at CELOP, and if you ask me why, I would

say because of his way of teaching English, which makesit easy for the students to understand. He has been teaching at CELOP for 21 years,and he loves it. He said that he prefers Boston because it is an academic city, althoughhe grew up in Cleveland, Ohio.

When I asked him if he has work experience besides CELOP, he said, “I havetaught in Ohio, Afghanistan, Japan, and Harvard University.” One unusual thingabout Gregg is that he spends several hours every day in the forest studying nature.Nice! Gregg has one daughter, who is a 21-year-old B.U. student.

by Sameer Al-Ghamdi, S.B.E.INTERVIEW: Gregg Singer

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FREE continued housing and meal planif you already live in a BU residence

5454 || Spring 2003Spring 2003 Student WStudent Writing—Orit Steinbergriting—Orit Steinberg

T his is a story about two people from differentcultures and different countries that usually don’tget along.

My story began a year ago when my husband and Igot to the United States since my husband was relocatedfor business from Israel. I had arrived in the U.S. just acouple of days after my wedding and I was exhausted fromthe long flight and the heavy emotions I had to deal withwhen leaving my friends and family behind.

We rented a lovely apartment in a nice apartmentbuilding right on Beacon Street in Brookline. The apart-ment was in good shape but needed some adjustments.And since my husbandwas working all day, I hadto take care of that. Icalled the rental officeand asked them if theyknew a good mainte-nance person who couldhelp me; they immedi-ately told me that themaintenance guy in thebuilding would be happyto help me out and gaveme his phone number.

After a few days he came. He called himself Frankialthough it is not his original name. He has a big smile andlaughing blue eyes, ones that when you look into themyou can imagine the ocean. Franki is not tall but you can’tmiss him. The moment that he enters a room you willnotice him.

I needed help installing curtains and Franki and I wentstraight to work. While we were hanging the curtains westarted talking. And he told me funny stories about theprevious tenant, Mrs. Fleishman, who lived in the apart-ment for many years and how much he missed her. I wastouched by the way that he still remembered people.

After a while I asked him where he was from, sincehe had a strong foreign accent. When he answered, Ifroze and felt a bit concerned; he told me he was fromIraq and I feared that when he heard I was Israeli he would

feel uncomfortable, since it is a well known fact that Iraqand Israel are enemies, but a small voice inside me toldme that it would be OK. And so I told Franki that I wasIsraeli and sweet Franki didn’t mind a bit.

To the contrary, Franki seemed very happy to learnthat my Jewish mother was born in Iraq before she immi-grated to Israel as a baby. From that moment Franki andI become good friends and he told me all about his pastand how he escaped from the Iraqi army and came toAmerica dreaming about a better future without fightinga war that he didn’t believe in.

We were two people in a new country trying to makesense of all the new things that we experienced helpingone another.

Since Franki was working every day in our buildingand I was at home trying to find the right school that I

could finish my B.A. in,we saw each other fre-quently. As weeks passed,our friendship grew andduring lunchtime weused to grab a bite andthen drink together teawith nana leaves (a Mid-dle Eastern herb fromthe mint family) that weboth missed from home.We talked for a longtime, discussing varioustopics such as his beauti-

ful fiancée in Iraq, how much he missed her or even thelast movie that one of us had seen. Franki knew some ofmy deep secrets and I knew some of his.

Although I don’t live in the same building that Frankimaintains anymore, we still keep in touch and call our-selves friends. We consider ourselves ambassadors fromtwo different cultures that found a way to cross a gap. Ifthe UN would give Franki and me the power to decidehow to overcome the differences between our two coun-tries, you can be sure that we will find a solution in a justa few hot steaming cups of nana tea.

The writer, from Israel, is in Lori Lubeski’s Academic and Professional Writing class.

by Orit SteinbergA Hot Cup of ‘Nana’ Tea

. . . we still keep in touch and call ourselvesfriends. We consider ourselves ambassadorsfrom two different cultures that found a wayto cross a gap. If the UN would give Frankiand me the power to decide how to overcomethe differences between our two countries, youcan be sure that we will find a solution in ajust a few hot steaming cups of ‘nana’ tea.

Student WStudent Writing—Zulfia Kayrbekovariting—Zulfia Kayrbekova Spring 2003Spring 2003 || 5555

M y story is not about afamous inventor,writer or artist

because the Kirghiz people havenot actually invented, written orpainted anything outstanding.Moreover, there are probablyonly a few people in the worldwho have ever heard about theKirghiz. So, I want to tell a story

about one of the Kirghiz traditions that demonstrateswhat role the traditionsand customs play in thesociety where I live.

The Kirghiz havebeen very traditional formany centuries, and noth-ing has actually been ableto change that, even theSoviet Union with itsCommunist Party thatcontrolled the country formore than 70 years.

The most important thing for every Kirghiz is his orher family, and all the traditions are mostly related to therelations between the members of a family or clan. Untilthe 1990s, the Kirghiz had a very interesting tradition toarrange a marriage. If a man liked a woman, it was enoughfor him to get the approval of his family and just grab the

woman by force on the street and bring her to the houseof his father. The family would usually put a cover on thehead of the woman, which symbolized that a womanbecame a wife. Unfortunately, the woman had no alter-native, and she had only one choice—to obey. She could-n’t return to her family because of two reasons: first, herfamily wouldn’t accept her, and second, she would neverget married again, because of disgrace.

The most interesting thing was that the Kyrgyz Crim-inal Code had a special section prohibiting the robberyof women and considered such actions a serious crime.However, for the whole of legal history, this section wasnever applied. Thus, in reality people preferred to followthe traditions instead of going to the court.

Finally, this tradition was eliminated because of a seriesof cases that happenedin the 1980s. Thewomen in the southernpart of Kyrgyzstan, inorder to protest againstthis tradition, commit-ted suicides using reallyawful methods. Theyspilt tanks with petrolover themselves andburnt themselves. Onlythese events brought aseries of cases against

the men who had stolen women.

I think that this story shows how the Kirghiz aredevoted to their traditions, even if they are really oldand gruesome. Nowadays, in Kyrgyzstan there are manyradical movements which want to revive the old tradi-tions even if most of them may impede the development

of the Kirghiz. For example, three yearsago, one party in the Kyrgyz Parliamentraised a question regarding the legalizationof polygamy for men.

The writer, from Kyrgyzstan, is in Gregg Singer’s advanced class.

by Zulfia KayrbekovaA Kirghiz Tradition

If a man liked a woman, it was enough forhim to get the approval of his family and justgrab the woman by force on the street and bringher to the house of his father. The family wouldusually put a cover on the head of the woman,which symbolized that a woman became a wife.Unfortunately, the woman had no alternative,and she had only one choice—to obey.

5656 || Spring 2003Spring 2003 Student WStudent Writing—Claudia Di Giacomoriting—Claudia Di Giacomo

T here are many fears around my head right now.What is really happening in my country? I can’ttell exactly. Is this just in my country? Or is it

in the whole world?

Let me start from the very beginning. Our dreamsbegan three years ago, when this man started a wonder-ful political campaign, totally different from other politi-cians. I think that was the most attractive thing that he didto capture everyone’s attention because the ideas that heproposed were sup-posed to be a radicalchange for Venezuela.In the past, he was in themilitary and he led acoup d’etat. Neverthe-less, people were inter-ested in him, and lots ofthem came to love him;of course, most of thesepeople were poor peo-ple because his speechwas mostly focused onthem. And the poorpopulation in Venezuelais now over 75% of theentire population. So hewon the elections in1998 and now he is ourPresident Chavez. Although he promised incrediblechanges in our lives, and his opinions and his ideas seemedto be excellent, he never followed through. That is whenour dreams became nightmares and our hopes becamefears.

The highly inflammable situation in my country hasgrown from our President's determination to impose anautocratic political, economic and social government sys-tem upon us, and upon the rest of the Latin Americannations around Venezuela.

For this reason, many people felt betrayed and becameupset. That’s why we have been demonstrating in thestreets for several months. One example of those demon-

strations was the march that occurred the last April 11th,2002, where an estimated 1.2 million people of all agesand levels of society took to the streets to demand the res-ignation of Hugo Chavez. That day, Chavez organized acrackdown on that pacifist march, mobilizing our ownarmy with snipers and armed groups to shoot against theirown people to defend himself. Eighteen people died thatday and many more were injured.

Now the economic situation has been getting worse,and the violence, insecurity, and poverty have been grow-ing quickly. Chavez has done nothing to improve thebusiness and industrial environment and to create newjobs for the ever-growing population. As a consequence,the unemployment rate is the highest ever reached in thehistory of the country. In my opinion, people have been

patient for more thanfour years now, waitingfor the results of allthose promises that henever fulfilled. Butpatience has nowexpired and we reallyneed a change!

While the countrygrows poorer everyday,Chavez spends moreand more U.S. dollarsnot only on his own lifestyle, including a newairplane with a price ofUS$80 million, histhird airplane, but alsofinancing a multi-mil-lion dollar self-defense

program in order to keep his presidential status. This self-defense budget includes not only large paychecks to thearmy generals, but also military weapons and refuges forhis Circulos Bolivarianos. These groups are composed ofcivilian soldiers trained to protect the regime.

But what he doesn’t know is that he does not need allthese people to protect himself, because no one is tryingto hurt him. We just want him to leave in a peaceful way,with no more blood. It’s exciting when you see hundredsof thousands and sometimes millions of people in thestreets, demonstrating their love for their country andprotecting democracy. Venezuela has been through sev-eral general strikes since Chavez won the election. Stores,

by Claudia Di Giacomo, S.B.E.

MY VIEW OF MY COUNTRY TODAYWhat is Really Happening in Venezuela?

Student WStudent Writing—Claudia Di Giacomoriting—Claudia Di Giacomo Spring 2003Spring 2003 || 5757

factories, restaurants, markets, big and small companieswere closed for more than two continuous months inprotest, but the President doesn’t want to yield.

It is very difficult for me to talk about my country inthis way, and it’s even harder when people come to youand tell you such terrible things about your own country.When I hear someone talkabout the problems in mycountry, I get depressedbecause of this situation,even though I am veryproud of Venezuelansbecause we are not thekind of people who give upafter the first attempt. Wekeep fighting for our rightsand our ideals. I love whenI see people in the streets,holding up our national flag in their hands and asking forpeace and justice and democracy.

Finally, I think everyone has to be happy and proud oftheir country. Now the whole world is in an economicdepression, and I really don’t know what Chavez wants,because I think it is obvious to everyone what the major-

ity want. Thus why doesn’t Chavez do something or givethem an opportunity to solve their problems? What isChavez waiting for? People are becoming crazy.

My conclusion is that we have to live our livesintensely and enjoy it as much as possible, as if it were thelast day. Be ourselves and do what we like to do, but make

sure that we never hurtanyone. All the time offer asmile and love to people.We need to fight for whatwe want and never give upour dreams and goals. Iwould like to wake up onemorning and be able tosay, “Oh . . . ! It was just anightmare . . . ”

Some of the information in this article was taken from the fol-lowing Web sites:

www.globovision.comwww.universal.comwww.vcrisis.com

. . . I am very proud of Venezuelansbecause we are not the kind of people whogive up after the first attempt. We keepfighting for our rights and our ideals. I lovewhen I see people in the streets, holding upour national flag in their hands and ask-ing for peace and justice and democracy.

5858 || Spring 2003Spring 2003 Student WStudent Writing—Rosa Rho & Jee Seon Hanriting—Rosa Rho & Jee Seon Han

K orea has two styles of New Year’s Day, the firstday of the western calendar and the first day ofthe lunar calendar. The lunar New Year’s Day is

different from the western New Year’s Day, because thewestern calendar is determined by the sun’s movement,but the lunar calendar is determined by the moon’s move-ment. The lunar calendar came from China. According tolegend, the lunar calendar was invented in the 14th cen-tury B.C.E. by the Emperor Huangdi. It’s based on astro-nomical observations of the longitude of the sun and thephases of the moon. This means that principles of sciencehave an impact on the lunar calendar. In the past, peopleused the lunar calendar because they expected weatherfrom the moon’s movement to grow their crops. The firstday of the lunar calendar is Korean traditional New Year’sDay. Koreans call that day Seol-Ral. Seol means “to becareful” and Ral means “day.” Let’s learn about Koreantraditional New Year’s Day, Seol-Ral. There are manyfoods, games and traditional customs.

Food

Se-chan is the food for New Year’s Day. Actually, it isfor Cha-re, which is a ceremony for ancestors. Se-chandepends on wealth and poverty and the size of the Cha-re ceremony. If I have many people in my family, I have tomake much more food than another family.

The most famous Se-chan is white rice cake (ttok). Itis made with sticky steamed rice. Once, Koreans usually

made it at home, but nowadays, they buy it at the marketbecause it takes a long time to make.

Koreans have a traditional food which they eat onNew Year’s Day. It is called ttok-guk. It is made with whitericecake, meat, egg, seaweed and soy sauce. Why do Kore-ans always eat ttok-guk on New Year’s Day? Because ttok-guk has a meaning. It means, “on New Year’s Day, the oldyear has gone and the new year is coming, so it’s going tobe pure and divine.” It is not only for Korean ancestors butalso for Koreans today. In the New Year’s Day morning,Koreans eat ttok-guk and they think that is a “year,”because their ancestors called ttok-guk, cheom-se-byung(“ricecake to get a year”). So sometimes people ask, “Howmany ttok-guk did you eat?” meaning “How many yearsdid you get?”

Koreans have a drink on New Year’s Day, Se-ju-bul-on.It means Koreans shouldn’t make liquor warm, so theyhave cold liquor. It comes from their ancestors’ custom.They thought that starting on New Year’s Day, spring wascoming, so they had to prepare for their work.

Games

In brief, Koreans have three kind of games for Seol-ral.One of them is paeng-e-chi-gi. It’s a boys’ game on the icyground in winter. The word Paeng-e is from the 18th–19thcentury and means “spin, round and round.” How to playthis game? Spin the Paeng-e on the icy ground, using yourhands. And then, hang a hemp yarn on a slender woodenstick. Use thatstick and hit thePaeng-e. Some-times friendshave Paeng-ematches.

Here isanother game forwomen. It calledNurl-ttui-gi. Ifyou want to play, you need Mung-soek, which is a straw mat.And you need a Nurl-pan. It’s a long flat wood. It’s like asee-saw, but you have to stand on it. According to legend,a woman who had a husband in jail persuaded another pris-oner’s wife to play each other in other to see their husbandin the jail. Another story is about women who always stayedinside a wall. (A very long time ago in our country, womencouldn’t go outside without their husband.) They played

by Rosa Rho & Jee Seon Han, S.B.E.Korean New Year’s Day

Student WStudent Writing—Rosa Rho & Jee Seon Hanriting—Rosa Rho & Jee Seon Han Spring 2003Spring 2003 || 5959

the game to look outside at another man.

Yout-nol-e is a game in which separate teams play towin with a Yout. The Yout is made of wood like a thickstick. There are 4 sticks which each have 2 sides. One ofthe sides is rounded and the other side is flat. There is aword on each side: Doo, Gae, Gurl, Yout, and Mo. To startthe game, you make a team—maximum four teams—andthen, you need a Marl-pan which is somewhat like a chess-board. When you get your turn, you have to throw fourwooden sticks. After that, you can figure out how manyspaces you can move your piece. If you get the Doo you canmove just 1 step, if you get the Gae you can move twosteps, and Gurl is three steps . . . If your team’s piecereturns to the starting place first, you win.

Customs

On New Year’s Day, Koreans usually wear the tradi-tional costume, Han-bok. On Seol-Ral, Koreans call theclothing Selbim. In the old days, people couldn’t havemany clothes because making clothing by hand was verydifficult and fabric was very expensive. So they had newclothes on the big holidays. That custom has remained.

In the morning of New Year’s Day, Koreans have aceremony to honor their ancestors with many foods. Theceremony is called Cha-re. That means to appreciate thattheir ancestors guard them and to wish that they bringgood luck in the New Year. Also, Koreans eat the tradi-tional foods: Ttok-guk, foods of Cha-re, fruits, etc. SoKorean women are always busy on New Year’s Day toprepare these foods. In addition, after Cha-re young peo-ple bow to old people, like grandparents, parents, aunts,uncles, neighbors, etc. Koreans call this se-bae. At that

time, usually people say, “I hope you are very blessed thisyear!” And among people of the same age, friends don’tbow, they just say, “Many blessings this year!” In this time,Koreans, especially children, have an exciting thing. Afterbowing to old people, they are given some money for theirhappiness. So many children wait for New Year’s Day.

On New Year’s Day, there are funny customs. In theearly morning, Koreans give bock-jo-ri to each other andhang it on the wall. Originally, itwas something for washing rice, butpeople believed it would bring luckbecause old Korea was a farm coun-try where rice was wealth, and riceis still treated as an important thing.In addition, from ancient timesthere has been a tradition to go to a fortune-teller at thebeginning of the year. Tojong bigyeol is a fortune-tellingbook from the Cho-sun Empire. That’s kind of a list ofstatistics about people’s life, so if you tell your birth day andtime, you can know your happiness and danger.

Closing

How’s your feeling? Do you have some interest inKorean New Year’s Day? Do you want to join them? Ifyou want, try! In fact, we had an experience of the NewYear’s Day with some Koreans in the U.S. Actually wewere limited in enjoying New Year’s Day, because Amer-ica doesn’t have a lot of Korean stuff, but we ate ttok-gukand played Yout-nol-e and said “Many blessings this year.”That was very exciting. Korean culture likes sharing andenjoying time together.

Han-bok

Bock-jo-ri

Se-bae.

6060 || Spring 2003Spring 2003 Student WStudent Writing—Camilo Fernandez de Soto • Pei-Ching Writing—Camilo Fernandez de Soto • Pei-Ching Wuu

I am Taiwanese. One of the most important holidaysis The Dragon Boat Festival. The Dragon Boat Fes-tival is on the 5th of May by the lunar calendar. It is

a special festival for Taiwanese people because it is toremember a patriotic poet, Chu-En.

In a past time, Chu-En wanted to rescue his countrybut the king didn’t believe him and just believed a badguy. The king even wanted to kill Chu-En, because hethought Chu-En was a troublemaker in his country. Chu-En knew this and he was so sad that he jumped into a river

by Pei-Ching (“Zoe”) WuThe Dragon Boat Festival

I ’m an ordinary guy from Colom-bia. Oh, Colombia! Ah, yes, thecocaine, the marijuana . . . Hey!

That’s not Colombia.

My country is a place where everyDecember all the people get touchedby the spirit of Christmas. This is themost important holiday for us. SantaClaus, the reindeer, the Christmas tree

with the big star at the top, and all the things that comewith this time of the year, start toshine from early December untilJanuary. Christmas is not one thingfor us. If you are going to celebrate,you will have to get on board untilit finishes.

It starts the 7th of Decemberwith something that we call aguinal-dos, which consists of a game thatyou play with your friends. Theobjective is to dare someone untilChristmas day—for example, not tosay a word, and every time the per-son says that word his opponent willreceive one point. The idea is thatthe one who has made more points by Christmas Daywins. I always bet for lunch in a good place with my friendGregorio.

A few days later, on the 12th, almost the most expected

day arrives, novena time. The novenas consist of gather-ing all your friends and family, singing the religious songs,and saying prayers in front of the manger. Of course wecomplement this with our typical food, such as bunuelo,natilla, and tamal, which are delicious, plus the typicalChristmas cookies. These novenas take place every dayuntil Christmas, and every day with a different prayer.

Finally, we get to Christmas, which we celebrate onthe evening of the 24th of December, different from inmost other places. The purpose of that night is to gatherall the family and close friends, and everyone has to get apresent for an already assigned member of the family, andput it under the beautiful Christmas tree. Then “Dinneris served,” are the typical words of my grandmother, whoblends all the food with pure love. We eat turkey, pork,

potato salad, pasta, rice, salad andbunches of desserts; then the onlything you can say is delicious,because it is. At midnight we cele-brate the novena and then we openthe presents. What a long night!When the children are asleep, theirparents leave a present that the chil-dren have asked Santa Claus for tokeep the immortal spirit of Santa.

So maybe the next time youthink of Colombia, or if someoneasks about it, now you know thatgreat things happen in this time ofthe year, that the spirit of Christ-

mas lives in every Colombian person, and that what theydo is have a good time and make people’s lives nice.

The writer, from Colombia, is in Lori Lubeski’sAcademic and Professional Writing class.

by Camilo Fernandez de SotoChristmas in Colombia

Student WStudent Writing—Chihiro Nakazawariting—Chihiro Nakazawa Spring 2003Spring 2003 || 6161

A t a cozy restaurant, adressed-up girl and a manare enjoying their chat with

pretty candlelight. They are drink-ing a glass of expensive champagnewith delicious and popular Italianfood. When you see the scene, youmay imagine someone’s birthdaydate. No. They exchange presents

with each other. This is the most important event foryoung Japanese couples.

This Christmas Eve event in Japan has no religiousmeaning. Young couples don’t go to church and don’t cel-ebrate Christ’s birth. However, they do celebrate this eventby exchanging presents. The major religion in Japan isBuddhism. However, people go to pray at Shinto shrineson New Year’s Day. People have their wedding ceremoniesin chapels. After their death, funerals will be held in tem-

ples. Similar to these events, non-Christian young cou-ples have beautiful dinners on Christmas Eve.

This event should be held only in the evening ofChristmas Eve. Young couples focus on that day, not onChristmas Day. The most important thing is with whomand how they spend this night.

We can find the wider difference between Japan andthe United States. In the U.S., many people spend Christ-mas vacation with their family. Japanese also spend win-ter vacation with their family. However, this family vaca-tion is not for Christmas but for New Year’s.

In the beginning of December, young people are anx-ious about this Christmas Eve event. Some people mayreserve a nice restaurant. Some people may look for apartner to spend Christmas Eve with. We can not findsome reasons why this is important for young couples.However, it is true that there is no young person whodoesn’t care about this event.

The writer, from Japan, is in Lori Lubeski’s Academic and Professional Writing class.

by Chihiro NakazawaA Big Date for Japanese Couples

and ended his life. That day was the 5th of May by thelunar calendar. At that time, everyone except the kingknew Chu-En was a good guy and worried about him, sosome people threw glutinousrice into the river and theyhoped the fish in the riverwouldn’t eat Chu-En’s body.Some people rowed a boat tofind him.

So when the day comes,Taiwanese people will eat ricetamale, which is made fromglutinous rice. Like in thepast time, we will row boats,but it is not really to find Chu-En. It has become a compe-tition.

Besides, there is anotherfolk story on that day. It says

a lot of ghosts will appear. To avoid these ghosts, Tai-wanese people will drink a special wine Su-Huang, a kindof strong wine, and put a special plant Chu-Po on their

doors, because Taiwanese peo-ple think the ghosts are afraidof both of these things.

The Dragon Boat Festi-val is an important and mean-ingful day in Taiwan. We eattraditional food and teach ourkids to remember a greatpoet.

The writer, from Taiwan, is inLori Lubeski’s Academic and

Professional Writing class.

6262 || Spring 2003Spring 2003 Student WStudent Writing—Marcia Galvaoriting—Marcia Galvao

I n a country as vast and diverse asBrazil, one can always disputeany quick general statements

about its culture, identity and society.However, despite all the contrasts anddifferences within the Brazilian soci-ety, I believe we can say that if Carni-val is not our most important holiday,it is very close to that.

Carnival is a Pre-Lent festival that starts on Fridaynight and goes on for five nights and four days until AshWednesday. It was brought by the Portuguese colonizersbut, like many of our cultural traditions, was blended withthe native and African ones, evolving from an aristocraticfeast to become a popular cultural manifestation. It is cel-ebrated in different ways all over Brazil, but the mostfamous, spectacular and daring one is Rio de Janeiro’sCarnival with the beautiful samba schools’ parade.

The “samba schools” are neighborhood associationsmostly from Rio’s slums, each one with its own colors,symbols, musicians, composers, dancers, etc. The wholecommunity prepares and organizes throughout the yearfor the parade, where the several associations competeagainst each other in different aspects such as theme, music,percussion, costumes, dancing and much more. Since 1984the parade takes place in a special area called Sambadromethat features an avenue surrounded by seats, luxury boxes

and other facilities like a peculiarkind of stadium. The processionunfolds in two consecutive nights,and it starts before sun sets andends in the following morning.The audience cheers, sings alongand dances as each group swirls, swings and sings stimu-lated by the wild beat of drums.

Carnival is about color, sound, dancing and beauty,but more than a show, it is a feeling. During these fourdays of celebration people sing, dance, drink and wearcostumes in the clubs or in the street groups or sambaschools. It is a time when the social rules (“mores”) aresomewhat reversed or at least relaxed. Straight men candress as women, respectable ladies can dress like show-girls, poor people impersonate rich or important ones. Itallows for a social catharsis that can make it easier toendure life’s hardships.

I still remember when I joined one Carnival parade inmy hometown many years ago. I was beginning my pro-fessional career as a high school teacher and was very con-cerned about making the proper impression on the stu-dents and my fellow teachers. But I joined a samba schoolas part of the opening group and was dressed as a “cabaret”dancer, wearing also a long wig and a mask so I wouldn’t berecognized. It was the most exhilarating feeling to be ableto dance and sing free from inhibitions and social restric-tions. For a couple of hours I felt like a star and it was reallyfun! Of course I was completely worn-out by the end ofthe presentation but at the same time was thrilled with theknowledge that my association won the first prize that year.

So, how would you like to come and joinour next Carnival? You can either watch theparade and delight in the beauty and emotionof the show or you can also be a part of it as aguest member! Many samba schools in Riohave special groups for tourists to join. All youhave to do is be willing and pay for the cos-tume, and you can even have a training sessionon how to dance samba. What do you say?

Come on, take the chance to live a uniqueand liberating experience. We will be waitingfor you.

The writer, from Brazil, is in Lori Lubeski’s Academic and Professional Writing class.

by Marcia GalvaoCarnival in Brazil

Student WStudent Writing—Jittima Triting—Jittima Tangnatthanakritangnatthanakrit Spring 2003Spring 2003 || 6363

T he most unluckyvacation I ever tookwas my trip to Hong

Kong last summer. My sisters,my boyfriend and I decided togo there for shopping. Weplanned to buy some clothes,cellular phones and an elec-tronic dictionary. The four ofus took the airplane fromBangkok to Hong Kong.When we arrived in HongKong, we stayed at the hotelnear the shopping place.

The first day, we walked around this area to survey it.There were many shops that were selling cellular phones.I asked for the cellular phones, Nokia 9200 and Sony-Ericson, that I wanted to buy. The salesman was a verytalkative person. He gave me a good deal for each cellu-lar phone, so I decided to buy two Nokia 9200 and theSony-Ericson. He said all of the stuff that I wanted to buywas not popular in Hong Kong. He had to call to order mystuff. It would take time.

During this time, he told me a lot of things aboutcellular phones in Hong Kong. He told me which oneswere of good quality and had become popular there, andhe recommended one of them to me. He said if I bought

this cellular phone he would give me half-price. I thoughtit was very cheap, so I decided to buy the Samsung cellu-lar phone. Afterwards, he had to test the Samsung phone.He told me to pay for this phone first and come to hisshop in two hours because it would take time to get theother stuff.

Three hours later, I came back to his shop. I askedhim for my stuff. He said the other stuff sold out becauseI hadn’t come back to his shop on time. So I couldn’t buythe Nokia and Sony-Ericson phones. After I left his shop,I found out the Samsung phone that I bought was moreexpensive there than in another shop. The difference wasabout 60 percent above the regular price. The salesmanwas cheating me.

The second day, I went to buy the electronic diction-ary for my sister. It was so difficult to find an English-English dictionary in Hong Kong. I had been walking forfour hours. Finally, I found the place on a small street nearmy hotel. I asked them for the dictionary. They had it. SoI bought it and went back to the hotel.

When I was packing all of my stuff in the luggage Itested the dictionary. But it didn’t work! Ithought it might have something wrong,so I wanted to return it. I went back to theshop on the same day and told them aboutthe problem. The salesman said it was nothis fault. I couldn’t exchange or return it.I lost a hundred dollars for the electronicdictionary that didn’t work. It was a veryexpensive experience and the most trou-blesome shopping trip that I ever had.

The writer, from Thailand, is in RoselynFrank and Pam Steeves’s class

(High C/Low D).

by Jittima TangnatthanakritUnlucky Vacation

6464 || Spring 2003Spring 2003 Student WStudent Writing—Satomi Triting—Satomi Tanakaanaka

I went to Hawaii and hadthe most impressivevacation I have ever had.

In 1990 I visited Hawaii forone week with my friends.

At first we tried sky div-ing. I really had not wantedto do it very much, but myfriends wanted to so I had nochoice. However, it was awonderful experience. I could

see beautiful scenery such as a large pineapple field, anirregular coastline, and an ocean by the grace of myfriends. However, I don’t want to do it again because itwas really scary.

Second, I ran the Honolulu marathon race. I hadtrained for a long time for this race. My time was four

hours thirty minutes. My time was not good, but I had anextremely nice feeling of satisfaction and it made me verytired. After the marathon race, I walked with draggingfeet for a few days. The marathon race’s dinner was ter-rific! We went to a Hawaiian restaurant. We ate a lotbecause we were very hungry from hard running and thedishes were very tasty.

We also enjoyed shopping. Hawaii has a lot of shop-ping places, which have many attractive things. Webought a lot of souvenirs for my parents and friends.

Finally, Hawaii has the most wonderful beach I haveever seen. We enjoyed playing there. There was the sweetsmell of coconut everywhere. The atmosphere was verynice.

So, we went through a lot on this vacation. It was avery nice trip. I want to go to Hawaii again. One weekwas too short for me.

The writer, from Japan, is in Roselyn Frank and Pam Steeves’ class (High C/Low D).

by Satomi TanakaA Hawaiian Vacation

A favorite place is where you feelrelaxed. It is a place you are farfrom your work or study rou-

tine. Westerners and citizens of mostdeveloped countries travel abroad toluxurious hotels, enjoy beaches, andvisit mountains for skiing or riding.Thus, after Spring break, for example,you hear talk about stays in Jamaica,Honolulu, the Bahamas and other

exotic places for Americans. For me each year after work-ing in the capital city of my country, Bamako, I go to my vil-lage, for several reasons.

In my village, people wait for my arrival with joy andcuriosity. My village is located 800 km from Bamako. The

journey itself is an adventure. I have to cross my countryfrom West to East. The road is along the Niger River for300 km. The landscape is diverse. The river bank iscrowded with birds. I usually choose the migration periodof birds to enjoy their company more. I sometimes losemyself thinking about the far countries these birds camefrom. I also wonder if it is the same flock I saw last year,which makes me melancholic. After that region, I crossthe beautiful mountains with old trees. When I meettourists coming from Europe or America, I discover howlucky I am to enjoy this area without leaving my country.

Once in my village, I am received with honors. My par-ents slaughter two sheep or a cow, when I come with friendsor my wife, and invite the whole village. While eating withmy friends and family, everyone wants to know more aboutthe big city I live in. Here family means all the village inhab-itants; we all know each other and are friends and relatives.No one is excluded from the feast. The debates continueuntil the night. At night there is no electricity and TV, so wesit around a petroleum lamp and resume our talks. While

by Sekou Mamadou BarryMy Favorite Place

Student WStudent Writing—Keun Chang Yriting—Keun Chang Yangang Spring 2003Spring 2003 || 6565

talking about Bamako, I ask about the village events dur-ing my absence. The answers focus on the crops, the cowsfeeding or the last big wedding ceremony.

The first morning Idistribute gifts to eachfamily. Old people receiveclothes and money or cola,but the younger ones shareonly my meals and tea par-ties. Each family alsobrings me two or threequarts of milk, a guineafowl, a chicken or a dozeneggs. The kids receive jamwith bread and sometime cakes, depending on my budget.There is no hospital in the village, which is why I alwaysbring aspirin, alcohol or other first aid supplies. Since Ibuilt the first school of my village in 2000, my gifts for kidsare now books, copybooks, pens and pencils, even pieces ofchalk. But if you ask children what their preferred gift is,

they will tell you surprisingly that it is my car they can seeand touch during the whole week of my stay, because thereis no car in the village. They see cars passing once a weekor less. Although it costs me money, every time I go back

to my village it is a friendlyand touching event.

Going back to my vil-lage each year is a pleasure.I not only go back in myroots but also build afriendship with my folks.After being one year in abig and distant westernizedcity, it is helpful to be back

in my own reality. It is an opportunity to see new landscapesand birds and contribute to your community’s developmentand share their happiness.

The writer, from Mali, is in Lori Lubeski’s Academic and Professional Writing class.

Once in my village, I am received withhonors. My parents slaughter two sheep or acow, when I come with friends or my wife,and invite the whole village. While eatingwith my friends and family, everyone wantsto know more about the big city I live in.

M ost Americans orother foreign peo-ple think that

Korean food, like Kim-chi, isspicy, but Korean food can bereally delicious and sweet. Oneexample is Bul-go-ki. MakingBul-go-ki isn’t hard or difficult.Following a recipe is the bestway to make Bul-go-ki.

First of all, you have tobuy some really thin sliced beef. The beef’s thicknessshould be ten papers thick. The next step is to prepare allseasonings. The seasonings are two big spoons of sugar,three big spoons of soy sauce, one big spoon of sesame oil,one big spoon of smashed garlic, one sliced onion, a littlebit of pepper and one cup of pear juice. If you have all theseasonings and thin sliced beef, you will be ready to cook.

Begin by making some cuts in the beef. Then preservethe meat in the pear juice to which you have added sugar.If you want to have more flavor, you can pour some whitewine into the juice. Let it stand for more than 30 minutes.After that, you have to mix all the prepared seasoning in abowl and stir well. After 30 minutes, add the beef to themixture. It has to marinate in the wine, sugar, and pearjuice. The last step is to put the marinated beef in a refrig-erator for more than 30 minutes. Finally, you can fry theBul-go-ki in a frying pan or on a grill. Its taste will be unbe-lievable! It is not spicy at all. Most Koreans likes Bu-go-ki,and you will enjoy traditional, fantastic Korean food.

The writer, from Korea, is in Roselyn Frank and Pam Steeves’s class (High C/Low D).

by Keun Chang YangFantastic Korean Food

6666 || Spring 2003Spring 2003 Student WStudent Writing—Ahmed Al-Zalzalahriting—Ahmed Al-Zalzalah

O ne of the most importantholidays back home in mycountry, Kuwait, is Eid Al-

Fitir. Eid Al-Fitir is not just a Kuwaitiholiday. It’s an Islamic holiday that allMuslims in the world celebrate.

Eid Al-Fitir comes right after theholy month of Ramadan. In this holymonth all Muslims around the worldh a v e

to fast. They fast from themoment the sun comes upuntil the evening whenthe sun sets. This fastingis done throughout thewhole of the holy month.The holy month ofRamadan was there sincethe day of the prophetMohammed, peace beupon him. This monthwas chosen because it wasthe month when the holy Koran was first brought intothis world. We respect this month and all of its rituals.

After the holy month we have Eid Al-Fitir. Eid meanshappiness or holiday, while Fitir means breakfast. Whenyou put both of the words together, you get the holiday ofbreakfast.

In this holiday all of our parents and families gettogether to have the first meal, lunch, in daylight. Themen usually wear the Kuwaiti national dress, while thewomen buy new clothes to wear. After lunch, all of thefamily just hangs around and talks, waiting for the dessert.After the dessert, the father of each family calls the chil-dren and gives them money. You get the money fromyour parents, uncles, aunts and grandparents. We call themoney present Eidiya. When all the children have gottheir money and they are happy, we go and visit the rest

of our relatives. Each fam-ily goes to the other sideof their family. For exam-ple, I go my mom’s sidebecause I was at my dad’s.We have the present of themoney all over again.

Eid Al-Fitir is actuallya four day holiday. I justdescribed the first andmost important day. Therest of the days you spendtime with family and

friends and go to restaurants and leisure places.

Eid Al-Fitir is the holiday when you know that thefasting is over. It is when all ofyour family and relatives gettogether and get close and seehow each person is doing. Thekids love it because they get allthe money they need, but mostimportantly Eid Al-Fitir is aboutreligion and respect for the reli-gion and of course always beingclose to your friends and family.

The writer, from Kuwait, is in LoriLubeski’s Academic and Professional

Writing class.

by Ahmed Al-ZalzalahEid Al-Fitir

After the dessert, the father of each fam-ily calls the children and gives them money.You get the money from your parents, uncles,aunts and grandparents. We call the moneypresent Eidiya. When all the children havegot their money and they are happy, we goand visit the rest of our relatives. We havethe present of the money all over again.

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6868 || Spring 2003Spring 2003 Student WStudent Writing—Amanda Brown’riting—Amanda Brown’s classs class

W hen we went to the Peirce Elementary School theother day, it was very interesting. We conducted a

survey in the library. Our topic was ice cream and choco-late. We met 44 children. We found out that children likeice cream more than chocolate. Maybe it’s because theyalways have chocolate but not ice cream. We also like icecream more than chocolate.

The children were very talkative and cute, but noisy,so we were sometimes confused. We became so tired afterwe came home. We felt the school was similar to schoolsin our countries (Korea, Taiwan, and Japan). This is thefirst time that we visited an elementary school in the U.S.,so we had fun.

Tsung-Hsin Yeh (Taiwan)Yoko Mitobe (Japan)

Moo Seong Kang (Korea)

W e had a wonderful school visit. We visited a pub-lic elementary school in Newton and conducted

a survey. For our survey, we investigated the topic of freetime. We asked ourquestions to 44 childrenfrom 9 to 10 years old.We found out that manychildren play soccer. Wewere very surprisedbecause we thought thatAmerican people playedAmerican football, base-ball and basketball. Inthat school, no childrenplayed baseball. Onereason may be thatnowadays soccer is morefamous than baseball.Another reason may bethat children play soccercomputer games.

We had an excitingtime speaking with the

children. They were very friendly. It was a new speakingexperience for us.

Eun Byul Kim (Korea)Victor Matta Dall Orso (Peru)

Laimute Stankunaite (Lithuania)

W e had an interesting visit in Peirce ElementarySchool. The children were cute and lively. They

were also spontaneous. We conducted a survey. Our topicwas about TV programs. We learned children have theirown opinions. Now we know what kind of cartoons chil-dren like. Sponge Bob is the most popular cartoon. Theatmosphere of Peirce School was more relaxed and freethan the atmosphere of schools in Japan, Korea and Tai-wan. We were very comfortable in the class. The childrenwere very helpful and tried to teach us some English.Maybe it wouldn’t be as easy conducting this survey withadults.

Hye Jin Park (Korea)Diana Romero Leon (Colombia)

Tomoko Takeyama (Japan)Wen-Chieh (Jason) Tsai (Taiwan)

All of the writers are in Amanda Brown’s Communications Class (A/B).

Amanda Brown’s classA Visit to the Peirce School

Student WStudent Writing—Rosa Rhoriting—Rosa Rho Spring 2003Spring 2003 || 6969

O n February 14, 2003, very early in the morning,I was in a car going to New York City with mysister because we had to pick my aunt up at JFK

airport. Also we wanted to hang out with her in the city.It wasn’t the first time for me. My first trip to New Yorkwas last Thanksgiving week with my American dormfriends. At that time I had wanted to see every place inNew York City, but I couldn’t enjoy the city enough.Because that was Thanksgiving week, I was just invitedby my roommate for Thanksgiving and we stayed at hersummer house in NY State.

This time was very different from the first one. BeforeI went to NYC, I had planned with my sister. First, wewere going to take the NYC sightseeing bus. And then, wewere going to see a Broadway musical. The sightseeingbus went everywhere. We started in front of the EmpireState Building. In spite of the cold weather, there weretoo many people, so we had to wait more than 30 min-utes for the sightseeing bus. Actually, I had wanted to siton the 2nd floor in the bus, but I couldn’t. It was verychilly weather. While we were taking the bus, I saw manythings, such as Chinatown, Soho, the site of the WorldTrade Center and Wall Street. Also, I saw a bunch ofpolicemen, more than I’ve ever seen. Maybe they wereworried about terror.

Before I went to NYC, I had read news about the “cam-paign on February 15, 2003, for no war all over the world.”When I was in the bus, I could see people who had signs like“No blood for oil” or “No war in Iraq.” When I saw thosewords, I wondered why they had signs like that.

But the answer was easy. It was the day to speakout against the war. While I was waiting to get aticket for the musical in Times Square, there weremany people against the war, so the police blockedsome roads off and I couldn’t move. Even they

couldn’t move. They still shouted, “World peace! Worldpeace.” I was so impressed. Many people in my countrymisunderstand that many Americans want a war becauseof some newspapers in the world. But I realized that iswrong. I’m proud of them. Also, it was time to rethinkabout Americans and the U.S. At that time, I wanted totake a picture. However, a policeman blocked me when Iapproached them. Finally, I could take a picture furtheraway from there.

Then I came back to Ticketbox to get the ticket. Mysister and I had made a list of musicals before we got toTicketbox: Les Miserables, Mamma Mia!, Phantom of theOpera, Lion King, Beauty and the Beast and so on. But wecouldn’t get any ticket on my list! Especially, Les Miserableswas going to end in early March. Finally, we could get aticket for 42nd Street. It was playing in the Ford Center,which is on 42nd Street in Times Square! It started at 8PM, so before the musical, I went shopping at Macy’s. Iheard before it is the largest store in the world. Yes, it washuge! I just looked around. And just before the showstarted, I got to the Ford Center. It was my first time to seea Broadway musical. I was so nervous. The story is abouta girl who wants to be a musical actress. It started withgorgeous tap dance. It was the most awesome tap danceI’ve ever seen! I thought musicals were usually with gor-geous music. But mainly, 42nd Street was made up of tapdance! It was different from other musicals I’ve seen. 42ndStreet is a very funny, exciting and beautiful story. I canrecommend it strongly! I can say the musical on Broadwaywas best time I had while I was in NYC. If I have anotherchance, I would like to see more.

by Rosa Rho, S.B.E.Plays and Protests in New York City

7070 || Spring 2003Spring 2003 Latin Clubs in BostonLatin Clubs in Boston

I f you like to dance and share with your friends, thereare many Latin places where you can go to spend an

excellent time with them. When I came to Boston, I did-n’t know how much fun Boston can be, but now let metell you something: You have to visit these places to live anunforgettable experience.

I love dancing, and if you love it too, you should knowabout many nightclubs. In Boston you can find differentkinds of nightclubs for different cultures: Arabic, Japan-ese, Chinese, European, American, and Latin. For me,the best of all are the Latin clubs. Here in Boston youcan find Pravda Club on Wednesday. It has a wonderfulred decor and it is for people over 21 years old. This clubis located on Boylston. Also you can find the Embassy orModern nightclubs with Latin music on Thursday or Fri-day. These nightclubs are located in the same place, nearFenway Park, but they have different DJ’s for each day.These places are for people over 18 years old, even though

by Claudia Di Giacomo, S.B.E.

Latin Clubs in BostonLatin Clubs in Boston Spring 2003Spring 2003 || 7171

you can only drink alcohol if you are over 21 years old.Another one is Venu. You can go to this place just on Sat-urday for Latin music, but here you can spend a greattime with your friends, and you have to be more than 21years old.

However, if you aren’t Latin, it doesn’t matter becauseyou can learn about different cultures. In these placesyou can learn how to dance to typical Latin music,

merengue or salsa. They are very famous kinds of danc-ing. Also, in these nightclubs you are going to find manyfriendly people from many countries—Venezuela, Mex-ico, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Colombia,Argentina, Spain, Peru, Brazil, Chile, etc.—which theywant to share with you. There you will hear almost allthe people speak in Spanish. However, that’s going to bean excellent experience that you don’t want to miss!

I love dancing, and if you love it too, you shouldknow about many nightclubs. In Boston you canfind different kinds of nightclubs for differentcultures: Arabic, Japanese, Chinese, European,American, and Latin.

A n American woman came to Tokyo for her busi-ness trip from Boston. I set up a welcome dinner forher at a cool Italian restaurant. We were enjoying

a wonderful dinner in the restaurant with the beautiful nightview of Tokyo tower. By the restaurant, a pool was lightedup in the garden, and the moonwas reflected on the surface ofthe water. After a while, sheand I took a trip to a restroom.While we were waiting, weheard an unusual flushingsound. “What’s that?” she saidin an undertone. I answered,“That sound comes from a toi-let noise-masking machine.Japanese women think beingheard by others is embarrassing.If we could not find the machine,we would flush twice. Oh, pleasego ahead and try it.” She pushedthe button of the machine andsaid, “This sound! Sound!” She keptlaughing inside the room. I was afraidthat the artificial sound might haveimpressed her more than the romantic night view.

A restroom is an obvious sign of cultural difference. Itsstructure and technology are based on what peopledemand. Besides a noise-masking machine, we have awarm seat system, which is called “Warmlet,” and a

shower toilet, a “Washlet”. These are products of TOTOCompany that is famous for bathroom accessories.

In Japanese houses, a central heating system is rarelyused except northern areas. We make each room warm sep-arately. In winter a restroom is usually cold because of noheat. In a cold room, to sit down on a warm seat makes usrelieved. A warmlet is definitely seen in public restrooms ofski areas. Next, I suppose a Washlet must attract a lot of peo-ple. I would like to applaud the innovator of this product. Ithas a nozzle that is hidden underneath a seat. The nozzle

moves out when you push one of the start buttonson the panel on right side of the toilet, and a

shower comes out from the nozzle. Need-less to say, the other button is for

ladies. The strength of the showeror temperature of the water canbe changed, as you like.

We do not have a noise-masking machine at home.We see them in some hotelsand departments. The latest

model has controls for soundvolume and length. Seeing is

believing. If you have a chance togo to Japan, please find one. It is notcertain if a men’s restroom has oneor not though. I guess you would liketo ask me if I flush twice because of

no noise-masking machine in theUnited States. The answer is NO.

“When in America, I do as the Americans do.”

The writer, from Japan, is in Lori Lubeski’s Academic and Professional Writing class.

by Keiko OgasawaraView from a Restroom

7272 || Spring 2003Spring 2003 Student WStudent Writing—Keiko Ogasawara • Alberriting—Keiko Ogasawara • Alber to Barrosto Barros

I n the last few years a lot of people have begun toquestion the 20th century practice of a special kindof judicial treatment for crimes committed by teens.

This special treatment consists of lower punishments than

the usual ones in several crimes when those crimes arecommitted by teens. Beyond popular thoughts there areheavy philosophical theories supporting this “soft” treat-ment developed among criminal law theorists, mainly inGermany since the 19th century.

Criminal law represents the most extreme weaponthat the state has against its citizens and that's why wehave to be very careful in its application.

by Alberto BarrosJustice for Juveniles

Chris Antonellis’Chris Antonellis’s Class Pars Class Par tyty Spring 2003Spring 2003 || 7373

O n March 5th we had a class party at our teacherChris’s apartment, instead of a class trip. Theapartment is located by a beautiful lake and you

can see the lake through the windows. These pictures arefrom the party, and one of our lovely classmates, Gift(from Thailand), made this collage for the Semester Bookso we wouldn’t forget that wonderful time.

Most of the students brought some dishes which wereeither their own country’s style or desserts, and othersbrought equipment. We had spicy pork, garlic-flavoredchicken, chicken stewed with Coca-Cola, Colombian breadmade from corn, Chinese chickenwings, brownies, banana cake, threedifferent kinds of cakes that onestudent brought, and ice cream.

There was so much food that we couldn’t finish everything,but everything was really delicious.

The party was also a small cooking class. Chris intro-duced a Spanish omelet called tortilla espanola. I guaran-tee that she is an excellent cook. She has many kinds ofrecipes. Ask her about the recipes if you want them, andshe will be happy to share them.

We played a game in which we had to convey a wordonly with gesture and compete between a few teams. Itseemed easy, but once you started it was really hard toexpress the idea without speaking. Also, some peoplebrought their huge audio system from their house. Canyou imagine the peculiar scene when they were carryingthat audio system on the T?

Everybody was satisfied at the end of the party, and webecame closer than before. I hopeno one forgets this great party andsemester for the rest of their life.

by Reo Kodera, S.B.E.Chris Antonellis’s Class Party

See collage by Thanyaporn (“Gift”)Wongsaroj on following two pages.

In modern democracies the main principle that rulescriminal law is “Rule of Law,” which means that the crimesand the courts whose decisions resolved those crimes musthave been established by citizen representatives (the Con-gress) before the action that we are seeing as a crime hadbeen committed. Without this specific guarantee nobodycould be safe from the prosecution of the state and terri-ble abuses could be committed by it.

With the “Rule of Law” principle, beyond the guar-antee there is a fiction too and the fiction is that we areassuming that every man, at the time when he faces thepossibility of breaking the law, takes a decision, a decisionthat implies that he knows what he is doing and what theconsequences of his acts are.

There are people who can't make decisions of thiskind (a mad man, for example) so the theory states theycan't be punished as other people (with jail or fines). Theonly thing that society can do is take some kind of pre-ventive measures (in the mad man example, intern himin a special institution for a psychology treatment).

Something very similar happens with teens. Can they

make this kind of decision? That is the important questionthat we have to ask ourselves when we are facing this intri-cate problem.

A lot of people now say that teens are becomingmature earlier than years ago, and that a boy of 16 or 17can easily distinguish between a good or a bad action. Ithink that too, but what about the other side of the ques-tion? Can a teen have the knowledge about the dimen-sion of the consequences of his acts? On this point I'mvery skeptical.

It’s not hard to see that the easiest way for the wholesociety is simply to clear these annoying boys and girlsout of the way and try to forget their existence by sendingthem on a long visit to a prison; I truly believe it's thewrong way. It may sound obvious, but they are our chil-dren, and their rehabilitation is our work, although some-times fear and blindness drive our decision and feeling towrong ways.

The writer, from Chile, is in Margo Downey and Joanne Fox’s class.

Collage: Thanyaporn (“Gift”) Wongsaroj

7676 || Spring 2003Spring 2003 Movie ClubMovie Club

Friday Movie Club @ CELOPW hat do you do at 3 o’clock on Friday? Have you

been going to room 269 in CELOP? It has reallyfun activity! Every Friday Jenn Kay prepares a movie andsome food. (You can confirm the movie title on the weeklycalendar in the lobby.) CELOP has played the popularmovies like Signs, Men in Black II, Ice Age, The Good Girl,and The Bourne Identity. So if you go there, you can enjoya good movie with delicious food!

I have been there twice. The first movie was Signs.It wasn’t about aliens at all, it was about God and family.At that time many people were in the movie club; somepeople felt bored because the story is very common. How-ever, some people were moved because the main charac-ter, Mel Gibson, tried to save his family. The second wasThe Bourne Identity, which starred Matt Damon. It’s a kindof spy movie. It begins when a man, Matt Damon, who isarmed is found floating in the Mediterranean Sea and is

hauled onto a fishing boat. He couldn’t even rememberwho he was when he woke up. He had two bullets in hisback and a capsule encoded with a Swiss bank accountnumber. He went to that bank and found that muchmoney, many countries’ passports and a gun were in hissafe deposit box. He was pursued by the CIA and startedto trace his identity and who was pursuing him. Next? Ifyou want to know, see the movie immediately! If you seethe movie, you can enjoy great fast action with suspense.

Pay attention! I have one more piece of news. Thereare two kind and cool volunteers. They are B.U. students,Priya Joshi and Tyler Posten. They help Jenn Kay andtake part in the club. They play the video, discuss themovie, and reply if we have some questions about themovie or American culture. So we can practice Englishand learn about the U.S. That’s the purpose of this pro-gram.

by Jee Seon Han, S.B.E.

Jenn Kay

The Sitcom ClubThe Sitcom Club Spring 2003Spring 2003 || 7777

W hich cartoon do you think is the most famous car-toon in the U.S.? Perhaps . . . that’s The Simpsons.

It has been playing for a long time, but many people stilllike it. What do you think is the reason? I think it describesthe American family life and their problems, and suggestssolutions very well.

Do you want to watch it? I’ll give you the way. Goto room 269 in CELOP at 12:30 on Thursdays. You cansee Jenn Kay and onebeautiful woman (she is aB.U. student and volun-teer at this club), and thenthey will give you somesheets of paper with asmile. After you have aseat, somebody will enterthere and bring deliciouspotato chips and cola.Finally, the door will beclosed, the light will beturned off, and then youcan enjoy the sitcom.

If you are worried itwill be difficult to under-stand the story or vocabu-lary, don’t worry! Jenn Kaywill give you copies. They

have the important vocabulary, the main story, informa-tion about the characters, and an article about the sametheme. The story one day was about the effect of violentelements in children’s cartoons. That’s a big problemnowadays, but many people don’t recognize it. Actually,the Simpson family is little weird (shape, voice and behav-ior, etc.), but I think it makes the point and gives us some-thing to think about. After seeing the sitcom, we had a

puzzle quiz, and the win-ner got a prize (it was thecard game UNO). Howgreat!

I think this club canhelp to improve your Eng-lish ability because you canpractice listening whilewatching the sitcom andyou can practice readingwhen you read the articleand solve the quiz. Also,you can practice speakingEnglish during the discus-sion about the sitcom withthe volunteer, Jenn Kayand other students. Try!And enjoy!

The Simpsons:The Simpsons: Sitcom ClubSitcom Clubby Jee Seon Han, S.B.E.

7878 || Spring 2003Spring 2003 Restaurant ReviewsRestaurant Reviews

246 Elm Street 617.629.4963Davis Square, Somerville www.divabistro.com

D iva is an Indian restaurant which is located in DavisSquare. For transportation, take the outbound Red

Line (to Alewife). The station is two stops past HarvardSquare. This place’s atmosphere is nice and romantic, soit is a nice place to add in your day’s schedule for a date.It’s pretty dark inside the restaurant and there are candleson each table.

There are many different kinds of dishes such as beef,chicken, and vegetable curries. For all the dishes, it is pos-sible to choose the flavor from hot, regular, or mild. Thereare many kinds of Indian barbecues with several side dishes,and a lot of appetizers, desserts, and drinks. There areabout ten different soft drinks and several kinds of alco-

holic drinks. I recommend trying the Indian beer. WhenI went there, I started with the appetizer platter, which wasmany kinds of barbecue meat on a big plate. For the maincourse, I ordered regular-hot chicken curry with yogurtand rice and Indian beer. It was not too spicy and theyogurt gave more depth to the flavor. It was delicious.

The service is O.K. They were friendly and refilledour water constantly. The average cost is between $20and $30. There is an Indian grocery store next to thisrestaurant. I think it would be nice to go there after hang-ing out around Harvard Square.

R e s t a u r a n t R e v i e w

by Reo Kodera, S.B.E.

Diva

M oby Dick is one of the best Persian restaurants inBoston. It is located at 150 Huntington Avenue

near Northeastern University. Moby Dick has such alarge menu that many people get confused about what toorder. The menu starts with a very wide section of appe-tizers. Then there are salads, soups, vegetarian dishes,meat dishes (lamb or beef), chicken, seafood, and finallya small dessert menu.

I have personally tried different meat and chicken

dishes. All dishes are served with rice, salad, yogurt andbread. Among all, my favorite is what they call “ChickenBiryani.” Chicken Biryani is yellow rice with small piecesof chicken and potatoes. I also order an extra side of saladand yogurt each time I go there.

Moby Dick is considered in the middle range, not anexpensive and not a cheap place to eat in. Usually the costper person is between $10-$15.

Moby Dick not only has high quality food, but alsoeveryone enjoys dining there because of the friendly envi-ronment and the high service they offer. The place caneasily hold 35 people, yet everybody feels happy and enjoystheir time there. I suggest anyone who loves Middle East-ern food visit Moby Dick because it is really the best placeto eat and enjoy the good food from the Middle East.

The writer, from United Arab Emirates, is in Chris Antonellis’s class.


by Zayed Almazrouei

Moby Dick

Restaurant ReviewsRestaurant Reviews Spring 2003Spring 2003 || 7979

I have recently eaten out at Montien Restaurant locatedat 63 Stuart Street in Boston. The atmosphere of the

restaurant is Thai Modern style. It also has a sushi barand a cocktail bar. I ate Naam-See-Krong-moo, Tom-Kha-Kai, Seafood-Jan-Ron, and steamed white rice.Naam-See-Krong-moo is fried pork spareribs in Thaistyle. The taste is a little bit sour. Tom-Kha-Kai is chickencoconut soup with coconut milk accented by lemongrassand galingale. It is very tasty. I recommend that you try thissoup; it is one of the most tasty Thai soups. Seafood-Jan-Ron is stir-fried assorted seafood served in a hot pan. Thisdish is Thai modern food style, and the taste is also verygood. If you do not like spicy food, you can try this becauseit is not spicy. These three dishes for four people costabout $44.99 (including 5% tax). I left the minimum tipof 18%. I think the cost was a little bit expensive com-

pared to other Thai restaurants, but it was the best tast-ing of the Thai restaurants I had eaten at in Boston.

Many Thai restaurants do not serve authentic Thaifood because some of the food has a very strong taste. Itis very sour and very spicy. However, if you want to tasteauthentic Thai style cooking, you also can ask them tocook in Thai style, but if you ask them at Montien to dothis, you should remember some of the food is going to bevery hot and spicy. In regards to the service, they are veryfast and friendly if the restaurant not too crowded.

I would like to recommend that you go to this restau-rant if you would like to have a delicious dinner under thelight of a candle. You can try some mixed drinks that arealso good, but make sure you bring your ID and you areover 21 years old. You should go to this restaurant early onweekends because the restaurant is so crowded. You hadbetter not drive to the restaurant because it is so difficultto find parking. There is a private parking lot close to therestaurant, but the cost for parking is too expensive, about$15. I believe you will love Montien.

The writer, from Thailand, is in Chris Antonellis’s intermediate class.


by Apisit Kantinan

Montien

N ud Pob is a Thai restaurant which we can find eas-ily at 708 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA

02215. There are many kinds of food there. For exam-ple, typical stir-fried Thai noodle dishes such as Pad Thai,Pad Kee Mao; typical Thai soups such as Tom Yam Kung,Kang Kaew Warn; typical spicy fried rice such as rice PrikPow fried rice, basil fried rice, and so on.

Pad Thai is a popular Thai noodle dish. Rice noo-dles are stir-fried with chicken, shrimp, egg, scallions, andbean sprouts. I always order Pad Thai. I really like it. It

is very delicious.

The atmosphere of this restaurant is simple. Some-times it is crowded. However, the cost is cheap. Forexample, Pad Thai is $6.25, and we don’t pay any tipbecause it is a self-service restaurant. The people at thecounter are kind, friendly and polite. The food comesquickly, so we don’t have to wait a long time, and the foodtastes very good too. It’s similar to original Thai cuisine.In some Thai restaurants in Boston, the taste isn’t good.It’s not original Thai cuisine because the food is too sweet.

I recommended that my friends from Japan, China,Korea, and Taiwan go there. They said that the food in therestaurant was so good. I would like to recommend thateveryone go and try this restaurant. I’m sure that they willenjoy the delicious food.



by Anchana Boondarigpornpunt

Nud Pob


O ne of the most pleasant things that I like to do inmy free time is to go out and enjoy a yummy dinner

in a restaurant. On this occasion, I will write a few linesabout one of my last meals out in Boston at the Italianrestaurant Bertucci’s.

On my last tourist trip, on a sunny winter day, my fam-ily and I were walking around Quincy Market in Boston’sdowntown. After a couple of hours we began the difficultwork of finding a place to have lunch—of course, not in afast food restaurant. We asked some people for a modestplace, but we couldn’t decide where to go. I saw two blocksaway a restaurant that looked good and in accordance withthe family budget, so we agreed to go there.

Once we got in, the restaurant seemed well decoratedwith Italian stuff and colors; however, it looked very sim-ple. We sat at a big wooden table and had a very kindwaiter. As the menu offered several alternatives, we spenta lot of time looking at the list of options. We ordered avariety of delicious pastas and pizzas and the service wasvery fast. For instance, in less than 40 minutes I ate a greatpasta al dente drenched in spicy tomato sauce with smallpieces of mozzarella cheese and accompanied by a freshsalad with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

The food tasted very good and we were satisfied withboth the quality and quantity of food. After we enjoyedhaving lunch, we asked for the check, and expected that itwould be high. However, we were surprised about theamount. It cost $90 for five people including tax and tip,so I can say that it wasn’t very expensive.

Dear friends, I can tell you that Bertucci’s is a goodoption for either a day or a night out.

The writer, from Colombia, is in Chris Antonellis’s intermediate class.


by Juan Carlos Nates

Bertucci’s

I f you love to eat sushi, I would recommend the ShinoExpress restaurant for you. It is a Japanese restaurant

that is located at 144 Newbury Street, Boston, MA. Thisrestaurant is my favorite restaurant in Boston and it is nottoo far from my apartment or CELOP. I like Japanesefood, so I have gone to this restaurant many times. Theyserve many kinds of sushi and sashimi, such as salmon,tuna, sea bass, snapper, salmon roe, eel, squid, octopus,etc. The atmosphere of the restaurant feels like you areeating at a Japanese restaurant in Japan. They have a sushibar that is decorated with pictures of Japan. You can seechefs making sushi in front of your seats.

When I went to this restaurant, I ordered a sushicombo set. It had 32 pieces for $25, and it was the biggestsushi set on the menu. I chose many kinds of fish for mycombo set. I ate them with my friend because it was bigenough for two people. I could share the sushi and payhalf price, so it became a cheaper price for me. The totalprice was $30, including the tip. My friend and I paidonly $15 each. I could eat my favorite food at a cheapprice. It was delicious. The fish was very fresh in thisrestaurant.

When I am very hungry, this restaurant is a goodchoice for me because the service is so fast, and all of thecooks are professionals, so they make the sushi quickly.Anyway, this is the best Japanese restaurant in Boston forme. I would recommend the Shino Express on NewburyStreet to my friends.



by Thanyaporn Wongsaroj

Shino Express

Restaurant ReviewsRestaurant Reviews Spring 2003Spring 2003 || 8181

T .G.I. Friday’s restaurant is such an American place.If you want to feel super-American, you should go

there. The restaurant has two floors. There is a bar sec-tion which you can also smoke in. It’s located in the mid-dle of the dining area on the first floor. On the secondfloor there are all dining seats. This restaurant is a verygood place to hang out or to have a birthday party. It’spretty dark in there but it’s nice.

There are many kinds of drinks, many different kindsof beer, cocktails and hard drinks. Most dishes are Amer-ican. There are delicious appetizers, large and tasty ham-burgers, great pasta, many kinds of sandwiches, meat,

seafood, and fries. The desserts are excellent too! I hada hamburger, pasta and dessert. The hamburger camewith French fries. It was a huge hamburger, but I could-n’t stop eating it because it tasted great. The balsamicvinegar-based sauce was on the top of the pasta. It camewith garlic and basil bruscetta. It was amazing. After themain dish I had a chocolate brownie with ice cream. Peo-ple must order this. It was astoundingly delicious.

The service was nice. They brought the dishes ingood time. I guarantee if you go there, you will be satis-fied. But be careful, you might get fat because there are somany yummy things. The prices are not bad. For anexample, my meal was about $20, including tax and tip.Maybe you will have the opportunity to meet Americanpeople. I would recommend this place to all CELOP stu-dents. Trust me! You won’t be disappointed. Once youget in, you’ll feel like you’re American.

The writer, from Japan, is in Chris Antonellis’s class.


by Reo Kodera

T.G.I. Friday’s

I have eaten at the Cheesecake Factory many times.There are two Cheesecake Factories that I know. One

is in the Galleria Mall, and the other is in the PrudentialCenter. They have many kinds of food such as steak andseafood. I have tried Cajun rib-eye steak, served withFrench fries. The portion was very big. The meat wastender and thick. I loved that taste. I have also tried thefresh strawberry cheesecake and chocolate almond cheese-cake. Both were served with whipped cream. The freshstrawberry is the original cheesecake with big sweet straw-berries. It is very yummy. So is the chocolate almondcheesecake. Both taste fantastic, but we will get pretty fat

if we eat too much.

The atmosphere of the restaurant is modern, and ithas an elegant bar. However, it is always crowded. Theprice totally depends on what you order. If we order steak,seafood and cheesecake, we usually pay around $30,including tax and tip. But you can save more. If you ordersimple food like a small pizza or salad and just cheese-cake, it becomes less. In general, it is not expensive toenjoy the food. I am always satisfied with my meal and thecheesecake there.

Most waiters and waitresses are nice. They are good,friendly servers. I would like to take my friends who visitBoston to this restaurant. There are always many peoplewho are waiting for the cheesecake. I think that thisrestaurant is the best restaurant of Boston. If you have achance, you should try the Cheesecake Factory.

The writer, from Korea, is in Chris Antonellis’s intermediate class.


by Jae Yoon Lee

Cheesecake Factory


T his restaurant called Marché is locatedin the Prudential Center. It is a

French restaurant, and it is famous for manydelicious kinds of food. Many people gothere to have their dinner at a late timebecause it closes at 2 a.m. You have to helpyourself by choosing your food from many

sections. You have to order what you want to eat, andthen they will stamp your “passport” which is given toyou when you first enter the restaurant. You can haverice, pizza, sandwiches, soups, fresh juices and many otherkinds of food. The price is quite high, but the food isreally delicious. For example, I had a pizza, French friesand strawberry juice, and I paid about $15, but there is notip. You can see the town from this restaurant. I suggestthat you go and eat there. Just try it. It is kind of a newstyle of restaurant.

The writer, from United Arab Emirates, is in Chris Antonellis’s intermediate class.


by Mohamed Aal Ali

Marché

I ’d like to introduce a restaurant that I love. It isknown as a dessert restaurant. It is called Finale and

is located at One Columbus Avenue in the South Endsection of Boston. The closest T station is ArlingtonStreet. It takes only five minutes to get there from thestation on foot.

It was three months ago when I wentthere for the first time. At first I didn’tknow the restaurant was such a greatone. Finale is known as a dessertrestaurant. However, even thoughit is known as a dessertrestaurant, the restaurantalso serves light mealssuch as salads, small piz-zas or pasta dishes and soon. I really love desserts

and love to bake desserts, so the restaurant is helpful forme to learn about food presentation.

I have been there more than five times so far. I haveeaten a lot of desserts there. Needless to say, all of themwere so delicious. But in particular, I’d like to recom-mend the Creme Brulee. It’s like a pudding, but morecreamy than that, beyond description. It comes withsome fruit. Don’t miss the presentation. It is fabulous.In addition, the Creme Brulee is not so sweet, so even ifyou don’t like sweet stuff, you can enjoy it. Also, thereare a large number of desserts. You can choose whateveryou want. You can eat there in a calm frame of mindbecause the atmosphere is cozy and chic. You can also gothere on a date or to have a party to celebrate other occa-

sions. The cost is about $30 for a light meal, onedessert and coffee or tea, including tip. Definitelyyou will enjoy Finale and be satisfied.

The writer, from Japan, is in Chris Antonellis’s intermediate class.


by Aya Segawa

Finale

Chef Nicole Coady’sPeanut Butter Joy.

Theater ReviewsTheater Reviews Spring 2003Spring 2003 || 8383

D id you ever go to the Wang Theatre? There weremany people when I went to see Contact. I heard the

musical was really good before I went there, so I per-suaded my friends to go with me. At first, we reallyadmired it because the Wang Theatre was very beauti-ful. Especially the wall sculptures and skyblue-coloredroof were so cool.

After a few minutes, the play started and we werereally expectant. Contact is divided into three parts. Themain theme was love, but they expressed strange rela-tionships and imagination. Their acting was short speak-ing and dance. Parts I and II were based on ballet andpart III was based on swing and Latin dance. If you likedance (especially ballet), you can enjoy it! How about me?Honestly, I couldn’t make sense of it because the storywas really weird (it was so sexual and fancy).

However, the dances were great. Especially, the lastpart changed music and dance continuously according tothe changing situation. In addition, in part II the mainactress’s dances were really beautiful. I think people likethis performance because of the dance, not the story. Afterthe play finished, I had to mollify my friends because theyregretted following my advice. But it’s not very bad. It’sworth seeing if you love music and dance.

H ave you ever seen the musical Contact? On March 4,2003, I went to the Wang Theatre with my friends

to see the musical Contact. It was my first time to see amusical in Boston, so I was excited. I didn’t really knowabout Contact. I thought it was not really famous likeMamma Mia! or Les Miserables. But when I went to theU.K. during the spring break, I realized that Contact ispretty famous! I couldn’t believe it. I know the perform-ance was very good. It was really like a ballet. Actually, itwas a ballet with music such as swing, rock ‘n roll, andsometimes very familiar classical music. I thought musi-cals weren’t made with classical dance and music like aballet performance, but this one was! So I was pretty inter-ested in the first scene.

But during the performance I began losing my inter-est in this musical because the story was very complicatedand sexually suggestive. There weren’t many words, butI still couldn’t understand the whole story. It was aboutlove, but each scene had a different plot. In short, thestory was not good. But not too bad. However, the balletand music were fabulous. And the heroes’ clothes werevery gorgeous!

Theater ReviewsTheater Reviews

Contactby Jee Seon Han, S.B.E. by Rosa Rho, S.B.E.

8484 || Spring 2003Spring 2003 Theater ReviewsTheater Reviews

Blue Man Group is best known for its award-win-ning theatrical productions which critics havedescribed as “ground-breaking”, “hilarious”, “visu-ally stunning” and “musically powerful.” These per-formances feature three enigmatic bald and bluecharacters who take the audience through a multi-sensory experience that combines theater, percussivemusic, art, science and vaudeville into a form ofentertainment that is like nothing else. People fromall over the world, from all walks of life and from allage groups have become fans of Blue Man Group'sshow in New York, Boston, Chicago and most recentlyLas Vegas.”

—Blue Man Group program

W e went to the Blue Man Group show playing in TheCharles Playhouse at 74 Warrenton St.

We enjoyed the show very much because they had avery good performance and also many jokes with the audi-ence that was having fun and laughing. The show and themusic were great because they made the music withinvented instruments like PVC tubes, drums, etc., andthe performance also had a rock band backstage thathelped the show with more emotion.

The Blue Man Group interacted with the audience,but they didn’t speak in all the show and also they never

smiled. However,they took two peoplefrom the audience tomake jokes withthem. The first onewas a girl and shehad to eat Twinkieswith a knife and fork,and that was reallyfun. The secondone was a man. Theyput him in specialclothes in order totake him backstageto paint him in blue,and they hung himby his feet to makehis shape on a whitepaper wall. Laterthey took him to thestage and he signed

that paper for the Blue Man Group. Thatwas great . . .

Finally, they threw long strips ofpaper on the people throughout the the-ater, which lit up under special illumina-tion, and they played great music. Thatwas an excellent close to the show. Thenwhen we went out of the theater they werein the lobby and we took some pictureswith them and a blue man stained myjacket with blue paint, I didn’t enjoy that. . . but the rest of the night was perfect, soif you have time and the opportunity, werecommend that you go.

Theater ReviewTheater Review

Blue Man Group

by Alvaro Ruiz & Claudia Di Giacomo, S.B.E.

Bruins Hockey GameBruins Hockey Game Spring 2003Spring 2003 || 8585

Jesus, Minerva, and Claudia in the Fleet Center.

F or years I thought that my country was the onlyone which had that kind of enthusiasm for sports,but now I have completely changed my mind. In

my country, Venezuela, we go to baseball games, and wecelebrate this game a lot. We like to go to the stadiumand share with our friends, including fighting with themif we are on different sides. So we are extreme fans of thissport, but I never could imagine that here in the U.S. peo-ple can be so excited about the sport of hockey.

When my teacher told me about hockey, I wanted togo and see if this game was real or if it was just in themovies, like in How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days, where yousee American people at the game, everyone yelling enthu-siastically and eating hot dogs. I was very intrigued, so Iwent to buy the tickets with my sister and a friend, andsoon, we were at the game. The arena was enormous,and everyone was dressed in a T-shirt from the BostonBruins team. We saw the Boston Bruins vs. the New YorkIslanders, and I have to say that both teams played well.Each team put forth their best just for one reason, to win.

Immediately, everyone started yelling a traditionalchant, “Let’s go, Bruins, let’s go!” On the other hand, thefans of the opposing team started to boo. However, thefans were all very excited, and in the center of the arenawas a big TV, where they appeared to do funny things.

The game was easy to understand. The hockey arenais under a roof and they play on an ice field. Each team hasfive players and they have to make a goal; the team whomakes most the goals wins, like in soccer. In this case, theBoston Bruins won. Also, they have to dress in a big uni-form with helmet and gloves. Each one has a hockey stick,and this game has just one hockey ball, called a puck, soeveryone can fight for the puck and skate all over the ice,but if they want to fight it is illegal. This game has four15-minute periods, and between each period you can goout and drink and eat because the break is 17 minutes. Ifyou go to see it maybe you can understand it better andspend a great time.

Actually, that game was an incredible experience. Itwas something new and completely different for me. Ifelt like I was in a movie. Everyone was eating Americanhot dogs and yelling, and I have to admit that I ate twoof these excellent hot dogs.

Finally, we took photos with the mascot of the Bruinsteam, and we really spent a wonderful time at this game.It was an excellent, different and fun experience.

by Claudia Di Giacomo, with Alvaro Ruiz, S.B.E.Hockey Game

Minerva and Claudia with the Bruins mascot.

8686 || Spring 2003Spring 2003 VValentine’alentine’s Day Surs Day Surveyvey

Almost all countries celebrate Saint Valentine’s Day.In the first chart it appears that 4 students answeredthat it isn’t popular in their country, but that doesn’tmean it is not celebrated.

We can see in the second chart that in some coun-tries there are different customs about giving pres-ents. Usually both men and women give a present tothe person whom they care about.

People are also used to giving different kinds of pres-ents. Some traditional gifts are those in the third chart,with candy and flowers the most common.

Saint Valentine�s DaySaint Valentine�s DayThe Semester Book staff made a survey about Saint Valentine’s Day among students at CELOPfrom different countries.We did this survey to know more about this celebration and what hap-pens on this day around the world.We didn’t discover much because only 30 students decidedto answer the survey in CELOP’s computer lab, but some of these charts are interesting.

Here are the number of people from each country who answered the survey: China 1, Colom-bia 4, Costa Rica 1, Finland 1, Haiti 1, Italy 1, Japan 1, Korea 6, Kuwait 1, Mexico 3, Peru 1, SaudiArabia 1, South Korea 1, Switzerland 1,Turkey 2,Venezuela 4.

VValentine’alentine’s Day Surs Day Surveyvey Spring 2003Spring 2003 || 8787

We asked this question because we wanted to know ifpeople celebrate this day because they are a coupleor just because they like it. We can see in the fourthchart that almost half of the people who answeredaren’t in a couple.

In the fifth chart it is easy to see that almost every-one is a very romantic person and likes to show affec-tion to the people they love. Looking at both charts4 and 5, we can see that 43.3% aren’t in a couple, butonly 23.3%don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day.

At first, we thought that couples were going to be themain group to celebrate this day. However, we werevery surprised when we saw that most friends as wellas couples celebrate this day.

We can see in the seventh chart that some studentsanswered that it is an obligation to return another giftto the person that gave the first present. However,these students were all from Korea and Japan; in therest of the countries it isn’t an obligation.

8888 || Spring 2003Spring 2003 VValentine’alentine’s Day Surs Day Surveyvey

We asked the question in the eighth chart not to learnmore about the countries. Instead, we asked this ques-tion to know more about the likes and dislikes of thestudents. Only 6 students of the 30 that answered thissurvey said “I don’t like this day!” But we are happythat 80% like to celebrate it.

Well, in the answer to the ninth question there issomething funny because some students answeredthat they both are and aren’t in love. We gave thechoice “Kind Of...” but we didn’t expect anyone tochoose it.

We can see in the tenth chart that 63.3% are missingsomeone in their country now. We guess that thepeople are missing someone because they are far fromtheir country.

In this chart you can find a variety of answers. Manypeople miss their family, friends, boyfriends and girl-friends, but to our surprise, 10.5% miss their ex-boyfriends. It is funny, but really romantic.

Visit the CELOP Alumni Web site and see all the Semester Books. Check out featuresunder “Quick Links,” too, such as the Boston Trivia Quiz, photo albums, and upcom-ing lessons and a guestbook.

www.bu.edu/celop/alumni

9090 || Spring 2003Spring 2003 Fall 2002 CELOPFall 2002 CELOP ExpoExpo

CELOP EXPO

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Fall 2002 CELOPFall 2002 CELOP ExpoExpo Spring 2003Spring 2003 || 9191

C ELOP students created exhibits reflecting their cul-tures or interests and demonstrated them to all

CELOP students, faculty, and staff on a day devoted tothis “Exposition.” The Expo is held the last week ofclasses, so these pictures are from last semester’s Expo.

9292 || Spring 2003Spring 2003 Fall 2002 CELOPFall 2002 CELOP ExpoExpo

CELOP EXPO

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02

This business is owned by a former CELOP student from Turkey, Cengiz Hocaoglu.

Beginning a University Program?

Why Not Continue Improving Your EnglishWhile You Pursue Your Degree . . .

www.bu.edu/celop/part-time

IMPORTANT! Students studying part-time are not eligible for a CELOP I-20. To remain in the U.S. onyour F-1 Student Visa, you must be enrolled full-time at CELOP, Boston University, or another qualifiedinstitution. See Marcella Framondi in office #238 for more information.

CELOPPart-Time

Day &EveningCourses

Hey!

Have You HeardAbout Our

SummerPrograms?✔ 12- 9- 6- and 4-Week Intensive Programs✔ International Business English✔ Legal English ✔ English for Media & Communication Studies

Check us out atwww.bu.edu/celop

9696 || Spring 2003Spring 2003 FacultyFaculty

For E-mail addresses of faculty, go to the Faculty & Staff section of the CELOP Web site: www.bu.edu/celop

Chris AntonellisJamie BeatonShelley BertolinoBarbara BlissLynn BonesteelJill BrandAmanda BrownMeredith ClarkRon ClarkPamela CouchLinda CoyneBetty D’AngeloJudith DanTom DavisonMarsha DeanRenée DelatizkyJeff DiIuglioJudy DiLeo

Margo DowneySammi EckstutMichael FeldmanShelley FishmanCynthia FlammMargo FriedmanJoanne FoxRoselyn FrankShirley GouldJoyce HoCatherine HowellJim KaplanDoug KohnJohn KopecGeorge KrikorianJacquie LoConteLori LubeskiDorothy Lynde

Bob MaguireIrene MaksymjukDoreen MillerMargo MillerAlex OliveiraPatricia PeknikJoe PettigrewCarol PiñeiroMichelle RemaudAdrianne SaltzGregg SingerNora SmithPam SteevesMaria Tomeho-PalerminoRamon ValenzuelaSusan VikEllen Yaniv

|| SPRING 2003 CELOP FACULTY ||

Elective TElective Teacherseachers Spring 2003Spring 2003 || 9797

ELECTIVE TEACHERS NOT ALSO PICTURED IN CORE CLASS PHOTOS

JudithDan

DorothyLynde

MarshaDean

TomDavison

RamonValenzuela

NoraSmith

ShelleyBertolino

PamelaCouch

PatriciaPeknik

CatherineHowell

LoriLubeski

SusanVik

BarbaraBliss

MeredithClark

JoyceHo

JamesKaplan

AmandaBrown

. . . and our indispensibleSubstitute Teacher . . .

GregEisenhauer

LindaCoyne

SammiEckstut

|| OTHER FACULTY ||

9898 || Spring 2003Spring 2003 StafStaf ff

Lesley

Andrews

Lab Assistant <[email protected]>

Nicole

Buchholz

Front Desk<[email protected]>

Gabriella

Campozano

Program Coordinator<[email protected]>

Nancy

Cho

Academic Advisor<[email protected]>

John

de Szendeffy

Multimedia LanguageLab Coordinator

<[email protected]>

Miriam

Fawcett

Assistant Director, Administration

<[email protected]>

Fabiola

Framondi

Senior Staff Assistant<[email protected]>

Alicia

Radl

Staff Coodinator<[email protected]>

Jenn Kay

Kosch

Student Life Coordinator<[email protected]>

Helen

Reynolds

Administrative Assistant

<[email protected]>

Marcella

Framondi

Admissions Officer<[email protected]>

Lara

Gordon

Administrator,Marketing & Admissions

<[email protected]>

Erin

Johnston

Senior Staff Coordinator,Academic Programs

<[email protected]>

Bruce

Rindler

Associate Director,Academic Programs<[email protected]>

Margot

Valdivia

Director of CELOP<[email protected]>

Jonathan

White

Technical Coordinator

<[email protected]>

Mona

Asaad

Interns . . .

andi

Cili

Shirley Yeh

(Wan-Gang)

Answers to ArAnswers to Ar t Quizt Quiz Spring 2003Spring 2003 || 9999

GREAT PAINTINGS FROM THE MFAANSWERS TO QUESTIONS FROM PAGE 29

Vincent van GoghDutch (worked in France), 1853–1890Postman Joseph Roulin, 1888Oil on canvas

El GrecoGreek (worked in Spain), 1541–1614Fray Hortensio Felix Paravicino, 1609Oil on canvas

Claude MonetFrench, 1840–1926Poppy Field in a Hollow, Near Giverny, 1885Oil on canvas

Rembrandt van RijnDutch, 1606–1669Artist in His Studio, about 1629Oil on panel

100100 || Spring 2003Spring 2003 CELOPCELOP Alumni WAlumni Web siteeb site

Stay in touch with your CELOP classmates and CELOPGo to the CELOP Web site “Alumni” section

www.bu.edu/celop

For information about the CELOP Semester Books, please contact John de Szendeffy <[email protected]> or the Semester Book class <[email protected]>. The Books are also available in Adobe Acrobat PDF format on the Web.

All material © Center for English Language and Orientation Programs, 2003.

Illustration: Jee Seon Han

Contents“Eid Al-Fitir,” by Ahmed Al-Zalzalah 66 “A Visit to the Peirce School,” Amanda...

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Transcript of Contents“Eid Al-Fitir,” by Ahmed Al-Zalzalah 66 “A Visit to the Peirce School,” Amanda...