The Earthquake

            On Sunday evening, March 17^th, 2013 I interviewed my father, James about the 1989 earthquake. That earthquake happened twenty four years ago on October 17^th, 1989 the Epicenter was near Santa Cruz and at around, 5 pm and it started and lasted for 10-15 seconds, measuring 6.9 on the Richter Scale which is very high. Because of that earthquake 63 people died, 3,757 were injured and 3,000-12,000 people were left homeless. The earthquake shook everything around San Francisco especially in Marina district.

“It was a beautiful afternoon, the streets were very quiet and no one was around. I was sitting in my living room watching a television, waiting for the World Series to begin” he said. The two teams remaining out of all the teams in Canada and the United States that competed in Major League Baseball were the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Ace. So, almost everyone in the Bay Area was near a TV waiting to watch the game begin.

When that earthquake shook everything, my dad first thought of his shoes because everything started moving and falling down from the walls and from the ceiling so if you are wearing only socks you really want to know where your shoes are. So, he was lying down on the floor, wondering “when will it stop”. Then, the building was moving so much that he rolled over to a doorway and looked down to the hall, to see how far his shoes were.

The walls were moving like sheets of paper, waiving back and forth like they were made out of rubber or something. And, of course you cannot ever know when it would stop. The 1989 earthquake was one of the biggest earthquakes in the Bay Area. For example, the whole city was shut down for two days and many buildings caught on fire. Also, a section of Bay Bridge roadway fell and people were trapped in the Bart tube that goes under the Bay and many people had to walk to their homes, even some people crossed the city on foot. For example, some people who could not get back home walked all the way to my father’s house near the beach from downtown to spend a night or so. 

At first, I thought that fifteen seconds is a short amount of time to cause great damage but I realized that if you count to fifteen it is enough time to cause a lot of damage. In conclusion, my father recommends that If there is an earthquake, make sure you have a flashlight, food that does not need to be refrigerated, water and camp equipment because if there is a big earthquake it is going to be like as you are going for camping for a few days or more.

 By  Udval Battulga 
 San Francisco International High School 
 Class E, April 23, 2013

Survival Immigration

Survival Immigration 

By- Jenil

Meet Vrajesh. Vrajesh was born in 1970, He was born in India. Now he lives in San Francisco, 7464 miles from India. He is tall like a tree. He wears glasses. He looks smart and handsome. His hair color is black. I interviewed him about his immigration life.

                One day he decided to immigrate to USA. So he talked about his immigrating with his dad and his dad said yes. When he came to USA he lives with his relatives. His first job started at manager of hotel. In San Francisco. His goal to come to USA is for his children to have good education and bright future.
            

                He always misses all his national and religious festival like Diwali, Uttrayan and holi. He loves his country and he always misses. He always complains about one thing. He doesn’t like when he see someone smoke who is under 18 years old. He likes different types of food and infrastructure. This is how my dad immigrated to USA.

Long-Distance Love

By Jin Rong Huang

                Everyone must have a question:” what is love?” In my opinion, love is a person very care about another person. Give that person all of things you have. Your heart will always be another person’s. “My heart is, and always will be, yours.” This quote is from book, Sense and Sensibility. It describes the person who is in love. Love experience can make people’s lives fill with joys, happiness and surprises. “Talking to the moon, try to get to you.” These are the lyrics of talking to the moon. This song perfectly describes the meaning of love, but also, there are still lots of different views from other people, here is a “Chinese Romeo’s story.”

                My friend’s name is JJ. He had a funny love starter. When he first met his girlfriend, Hua,”Did you eat your breakfast?” he asked. These are the first words of their love story, as the love started. Did you ever see the movie, Titanic? JJ and Hua were like Rose and Jack who are the characters of Titanic. They fell in love at first sight, and also their first movie they saw together was Titanic. It is a very romantic movie. When they saw this movie, they were exited. They imagined themselves as the jack and rose for each part of scene. As they watched the movie, JJ had a desire to hold Hua’s hand. After a few seconds he dare to hold her hands, but Hua didn’t realized that JJ hold her hand as she was focusing on the movie, for the reason that it was very interesting.  After movie finished, they were still on their image, and then JJ did romantic kiss Hua. That scene was very sweet.

                They did the same things as common lovers did. For example: date, go shopping, go to beach, etc. JJ remembers his special first date. Even if you think his date was one of his most important days to commemorate. Through the first date is special, but every date has different feelings. One thing they did change is they love each other more and more. The person who is not in love, he might wonder 2 people stay together and do the same things as normal people do, why they feel happy? JJ had this question, too. Until he met Hua, now he gets the answer: when 2 people love each other, be with him or her is happiness, even though just 1 second. Every second is important to lovers. They cherish the time they were together. Also JJ wants to create more memories with Hua. He wants to go to ocean with Hua, then have a good Titanic’ picture as Jack and Rose do when they at ship’s bow. He also wants to ice skate with her and holds her hands, skate together. They want to sit in the middle of lake and tell each other everything that another person wants to know.

                One day, Hua met a very big problem: she. As we know, in China, we need to stay in school for the whole semester, even is sleeping. They live in dormitory. JJ did not see Hua at school. He went to ask the neighbor of Hua. She said:” Hua went outside of the school, I did not know where she going?” JJ called Hua’s cellphone. And know she was in the hospital. He fled from school and went to hospital to take care of Hua. He met Hua’s father, but he very worried about Hua, he told her father that they are lovers, now I couldn’t talk with you, we could choose another time to community. He walked across her father and finally he saw Hua.  “What a pale face is this! Are you Ok, Hua. Did you feel comfortable now?” They had very long conversation. JJ did this day by day. And took care of Hua from his class over until 10 p.m. Her father saw all of these processes; he agreed Hua and JJ together because of JJ’s care. After he went back to school, the teacher got mad at him because he was late.

                Then a very big problem happened. JJ knew that he need to immigrate to United States from his mother. JJ did not tell Hua this. He wanted to have a good break with Hua until he went to United State. He seem this time as his most important time, he did everything that he could do with Hua. Leaving day was coming. JJ told this privacy to Hua, suddenly Hua embraced JJ and didn’t let him go. This embrace kept a long time until JJ’s mom called him. He promised that he would be back; he will not discontinue contact with Hua. Finally, they separated.

                But the story did not end. After he arrived at United States. He never discontinues the contact with Hua every day. Everyday is not very easy like we say. You know, sometimes you were tired or some bad things happened, you would what you doing, and relax. But JJ did not. He keeps doing this for these seven months. Every day he called Hua, to let her wake up, after her school done, he called again, and last call is when she prepares to sleep.

                Their love story do not stop even one second, they misses each other every second. Love is a n energy to support them to wait the day they meet each other again. They already thought their future, when JJ goes back to China, what they do and where they go. As Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie said, time is the longest distance between two places. It is a test for them; time is a most difficulty test for the lovers. If you overcome it, it may prove that your love is real. I trust them can do it as they trust each other, let’s hope they will be together one day. Let’s expect that day coming!  

Far Away Love

By Kelly Ou

Where there is great love, there are always miracles. Between China and the United States there is a beautiful love. Does time, distance affect their love? Can their love last forever? Nobody knows that, not even me! But I will try to answer these questions.

In the beautiful love, the characters are Li and Alice. I interviewed Li about their love. They both from China, but 1 year ago, Alice immigrated to the United States. Then they love each other and still now. He met her in middle school; in the first time, he thought she talked litter, never heard one bad word from her. And when she smiles, it’s like snowing, she has the purest white of teeth. So, he said he loves her smiles very much. I know that is like a sentence say: “love is blind, in love, and anything are beautiful.”

In love there are different types. They are love developed with time; he doesn’t believe falling in love at first sight. He thinks love is ‘never abandon and leave’. And he thinks when a boy meets a girl who merits loving and to expend, even have a distance, like her. But he thinks they almost can be together. He loves her more than her, he cannot be without her, and he just wants a plain boiled water of love.

Alice is his most important person in his life. Li meets her on the computer every day, he feels happy and wants to hug with her. He doesn’t like to hide anything for her; he doesn’t want one more lies between of them. He said that he remember an interesting was happened in the middle school, she was taller than him; but now, they are switch, he feels so happy about that. Even though, they cannot hand in hand with each other, but he didn’t complain about that. He tells himself they are like a husband and a wife. They are work on different place, but they both work for their future. Because he knows that they can hand in hand someday and can be hug with her. Even though between them have the Pacific Ocean, he never thinks about broke up with her and said that broke up are impossible forever! And he didn’t worry about another lover of her, he Is trust in her. And he said that if she has another lover, he will respect what she picks. So, because of her, he spend less time in the computer games, he wants to has a lot of time with her. In the future, he will work hard to get more money to buy a car for her, and he will be an exclusive driver for her to tour with her, and give her a warm house.      

Everything is not a problem for love. Li doesn’t worry about the time and distance. He think these questions are not a matter, the main points is on how to understand each other, the reason is that understand can help them to know what they want and feeling. And I had to talked about time with him, anything can change over time, but he just tell me that they are love develops with time; they will love each other more and more over time. They will help each other to face the any problem together, and they will use the trust, unremitting and wholehearted to keep their love. I think they can do it, the positive energy of love can support them, and this is the power of the great power of love!

Forever? What is forever? He doesn’t believe in forever, he just is sure that insist is forever. And he thinks the forever is around of him, as long as to insist to love, the “Forever” is less than 1 cm forever. Li wants buy a ring for Alice, make her to be his wife, he thinks they will have a happiness life in future. I agree with him because of my eyes, I believe what I see. I know that they are so sweet, I saw them talked with phone and computer, and they are look so happy. But I know in somewhere of their heart have a place has a lonely, and the love and lonely are fighting at their heart. It is like the love is a angel, the lonely is a demon. Angel is a person who persuades him to insist, but the demon told him to give up their feelings. But I know “love” is a winner, I want to witness the miracle belongs to them in the future.

There are many kinds of love, it can be between relatives, friends, lovers, but they both are beautiful, great and powerful, love can makes us stronger. I believe that no one can change the love, only you can destroy your feelings, anything are control by yourself. Love doesn’t have to be together every day, as long as the heart has a space for each other. And I remember a sentence of a song say “You are always on my mind, in my dream and in my heart.” Love is not to hang around all day, is to use action to prove. I think love is the positive energy, love are support them to solve the problems. The people who falling in love, love is all the things, So I just want to say “All shall be well, Jack shall have Jill” for the lovers!           

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