Chinese Tiger

My Hometown----

    I was born in Hangzhou, which is one of the most beautiful cities in China. You can find it easily on the map of China. Because itís on the top of the "Trumpet Mouth", the only city that is very close to Shanghai. If we say Shanghai is famous for its industry, then Hangzhou is pound of its beautiful scenery. West Lake is Hangzhou's symbol. Writers usually exaggerate it to a mirror because of the limpid water. Walk along the lakeshore, peach blossoms and twigs of willows in spring; lotuses and their green leaves in summer; fragrant chrysanthemum and cassia flowers in fall; snow with white plum blossom in winter. You will forget to go home.
 

My Hero----

    He isn't a star like Michael Jordan, nor rich man has a peculiar way of becomes successful. He is just a man likes someone around you.

    His father was a businessman and the family was very rich at that time. As he was a child, father was very strict to him. Only 5 years old, he was told to go to school. But once there was a war, and his father was arrested by some political reasons. So life there became harder and harder...

    When he was in Grade 7, he went to another city with his elder sister. By his hard work, he attended a very famous university and chose chemistry for his main field. Because he was a literary talent, all his essays became popular in his university. But the world is unfair. After his graduation, he was assigned to a commercial foundry to become a foundry worker.

    Like the wait and see man, maybe it's not bad to him. During the days there, he was devoted to write his own book about some original philosophical thinking. After it was published, it became his large success. Some foreign publishing houses soon came to buy the copyright and the national scientific research institute invited him to do some research there for years.

    After that he was invited to be a philosophical professor in a university in his hometown. There he met a beautiful woman who became his wife 3 years later. After their baby was born, he thought may be he should change his life for his family. He wanted to make it better for his son so that when the baby is growing up, he could meet fewer problems than his father had.

    Two years later, he went abroad to start a new but harder life in a foreign country. After several yearsí hard working, he owned a sweater factory and now he has a reunion with his whole family.

    Now you've known a corner of my father's hard lift already. What do you think about him? Is he both very ordinary and very great?
 

Me----

    Iím from China, and my name Hua Hu, which means a Chinese tiger, is very easy to read and write. Iím neither too tall nor too short; neither too fat nor too thin; neither too strong nor too sick; neither too handsome nor too uglyÖ

    When I was a baby, my head wasnít very round at the back. The left side was more raised than the right side. My mother was worried about that. But Dad said that I would be good with numbers because the left side of the brain controls the logic.

    Itís becoming true several years later. I won lots of math contests in my hometown, some of which were the national contests.

    I gave myself some goals in different phases. In Grade 5 I told myself to get a rank in the biggest math contest for pupils. I got it. And before I attended my high school, some teachers had already known my name by the name list of the "city math contest winners".

    My last goal was attend Hangzhou No.2 High School that is the best in my state. Because after the exam that is for the graduated senior school students almost everyone said that was an easy one and each of them got a good result. So I was very afraid that I couldnít reach the grade line to attend the high school. I remember it was a sunny day in summer, which was my happiest day after the final exam.  I came back from a party when Iíd already forgotten the terrible thing. My friend suddenly called me at 10:30. It was very unusual. He said that heíd already known his result that was 456 in 510 total. That was very high, I though. And it made me more afraid to call the hotline to ask my result. But at last, I did. With the recording said, "your result is 467 in 510 total." I laughed, and went to the window to shout, very loudly. To throw away all my bad feelingsÖ That was the most impressive night.

    My next plan is very big, and difficult to make it up. Iím planning to take the credit-class next semester and transfer to U.C. two years later then. Iíll find a job here. But because I like to travel, so I think I wonít keep it for a long time. I want to go to Japan and Europe, and Iíll return to China when Iím retiredÖ
 

My friends----

    An American writer once said that one friend in a lifetime is much; two are many; three are hardly possible. I'm so luck that I have three friends who have become a part of my life.

    One of them is my partner with whom I shared a desk. We have a lot of things in common. He likes to play soccer. And me too. Both of us attended a summer camp and we played the ball in the sun every day. It was 100 *F on average! You won't believe it, I know. We both like math. After school, we often do math problems together. We discussed, even argued sometimes, but never fright. We like Cola, hamburgers and dumplingsÖ We attended the same senior school. When we went to high school, he was chosen to Singapore to study for his perfect grades. Later, he came back to us, we gave him a big party, and that's a wonderful night in my life.

    Another one is also my classmate in school. He was good at writing. And I liked to read his essays because both the penmanship and the contents were great. There was a very interesting thing that we always had the same total grades in big exams. His Chinese was a little higher than mine was; and my Math also was a little higher than his was. Sometimes we would say the same words for a question at the same time. In the exam, which I talked in "Me", we had the same title for the essay. Not only we know each other, but also we know each other's family. His mother was a nurse, and so did my Mum. On big holidays we often went to each otherís home to exchange the holiday food. On vacations we often went out together. People said that we were just like brothers or cousins.

    And the other is my new friend who was my high school classmate. He is so intelligent that now heís gotten the first in monthly exam twice! Itís never happened before. And he is very enthusiasm; he likes to help everyone if you have problem in studies. We all called him "A Niu" which means a little cattle in Chinese. He is the forward soccer member in the school team, and the one of our vice monitorÖ In a word, he is perfect. When I joined into his class after a placement test, which gave us a chance to choose art or science, I was very upset because I lost all my best friends in my previous class and I hadn't known anyone in the new one. He was aware of my feeling soon, and began to talk to me during the spare time. We became friends immediately. This summer, when he heard that I would come here, he made a CD in which he asked some of my friend to say something. When I listen to the music and the saying inside, his smile also appears in my head.

    Now I guess you're envious of me for I have such three wonderful friends, aren't you?
 

My new life----

    I arrived in San Francisco on Aug 24th, a sunny day. Of course, I had a good mood at that time because it's a new world to me. The United States, which was only appeared on TV news or in our geography book before now I can see its cities, breathe its air and stand on its land. All the things here to me was new. And lots of records of mine have broken then. The longest time to wait in the airport, the busiest traffic on the free way, the largest number of people from different countries in the ESL class, the biggest chicken--Thanksgiving's turkey I've ever see...  And my opinions too. Coming from a communist country, I've gotten much information here that I've never heard. It's really hard to describe my feeling in these days. But, freedom seems not as important as family to me. Several days later, I found that my father wasn't the same one that was very frugal and kind as the hero in my heart. He'd changed a lot. He smoked a lot, was used to gamble and even wores, he had another woman. How could he change so much, I have no idea. But one thing I'm sure is, if he hadn't come here, he wouldn't have been what he is like today. 16 years before, in order to change our life, my parents made a wrong decision, for which, my father came to the United States himself and has rised in life by his own efforts. He sent food to customers' houses in New York. And it's countless that how many times he's fallen down from the bicycle in raining days and snowing days. Even though that was a New Year's Day, a car crushed his bike and  he was narrowly dead. Then he borrowed some money from his friends and set up the clothes factory which named "tiger" until today.   
 
 














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Hua Hu   Dec 1st