My life: 10/21/12

GoodEvening.

Fall has finally set in...=) the trees are so beautiful..its a great time to go hike in the trails and observe the colours of the leaves!
I tried to observe some trees while out and here are some glimpses of beauty:

I love the vibrant colour of red! My eyes are just drawn by that colour!

Oh the brilliant yellow, orange and red hues! Beauty!

And then the other day I was driving and I realized that the leaves on these trees have already GONE!

AWWW! :s That means...before you can actually settle and get used to the fall WINTER will be here soon time!!

The other day...THURSDAY to be exact. My class was having a guest speaker over. To speak on FSL (French as Second Language)...She was in her last year of PhD and she was just finishing her study at the moment...She presented her study on whether or not and the impacts of FSL for immigrant children where English is not their first language...basically the findings were that there were no negative impacts on children to be immersed in FSLclassrooms while learning English at the same time. However, the interviews showed that many teachers were very hesitant and reluctant for this occurence and suggested that ESL students NOT take French immersion...or until their English improved after a couple of years...LOL

This class I find interesting especially because I am an immigrant myself. The readings for this week/ class discussion was based on studies that showed that children who immigrate as a young child are often not put in ESL programs and fully immersed into the regular classroom. Often these children are thought to be fully functioning with the English literacy skills.

This study basically demonstrated that because the children speak with an almost native-like tongue (no accent) many times teachers decieved into thinking that they have no English difficulties. However, the findings show that students who come at an older age (e.g- Highschool) have a better advantage on learning English because of their depth of vocabulary and grammar skills in their L1 (native language). However, those who come at a young age lack these skills in their L1 language and thus when picking up the L2 (English mainly) they have more difficulty and it shows in their written skills...I choose to relate to this theory because no matter how hard I tried I felt like I always lacked the Literacy skills and did ....not poorly but not very well in English class.

There's this theorist called 'Cummins' and basically he developed this CALPS and BICS...I forget what they stand for but he split speaking and writing separately. So as a child you come and children pick up everyday speaking skills very quickly and early in their immigrating years. However, the school language (e.g- writing papers) is very different and the background knowledge in that takes years to develop....

Anyways, I think this is interesting stuff hahaha...am I boring you with school knowledge? lol

Here's some fun stuff I did: In University when you become a Master's student, they assume everyone is of drinking age and hence during break they served....

Yes that is WINE over there..

I felt like I should have been IDed.

LOL

But i looked around and everyone is of...having children age..

This is why many a times I feel really dumb in my class...

All these people in my class have so much experience..

The con of going into Master's consecutively after your Undergrad O.o

(*Right after I took this pic I got caught taking it by this girl and she laughed at me LOL. I felt super Asian hahahah)

Super Italian.

They had Goat cheese (YUM) I totally spread it on my crackers..

oh they also had BRIE cheese but..gack..its way too milky for me.

Grapes and a buncha carrots (I ate more than this)

Hummus (I don't like regular hummus) but it was garlic and red pepper =D

and RED WINE! Classy ;)

This morning for brunch I had:

Classic grill-cheese. I went out to the backyard to look to pick some tomatoes...

Have you ever sliced tomatoes or bacon in there? DELISH!

Unfortunately...I had neither and the tomatoes in my backyard are still green but now rottening because of the cold weather..the wines have all dried out :( poor tomatoes...

and I realized I put WAYYYYY too much butter on the bread..it got SUPER greasy that at the end of the food I felt kinda gross LOL

Then I got ready for church =)

(I have time to get ready now that I'm tutoring on Saturday mornings! YAY)

Blazer: Forever21

Coral top: Barney's

Tank: GAP

Jeans: American Eagle

Here are some of the accessories I wore:

My cross necklace (I actually found this while looking for my earrings LOL)

Heart shaped earring with a diamond stud

After I got home it was TIME for COOKING!

My bf has been challenging me (all the way from Grenada) of my skills as an fried rice cooker

so.....what must I do but cook the rice??

Here we go: SUPER simple but delish...

OK step1: cook rice in a RICE COOKER!!

This was my second time trying to cook rice on a stove

DO NOT DO THAT...it becomes super congee-like..

So I had to re-cook the rice in a rice-cooker -_____- omgish...

Mince all ingredents that you want:

Here I have chopped:

-broccoli

-mushrooms

-carrot

-onions

(olive oil the minced garlic - note: you can also slice the garlic but I like mincing mine small so it gets all mixed in with the rice later....and add rice and vegetables together...)
Main ingredient: SOY SAUCE! -

a little bit of ground pepper (no salt as soy sauce makes it salty)

I also wanted to add a bit of an asian-style sooOOoOO

In shaytards (Youtube reality show!) Princesstard buys them at school and calls them 'seaweed chips' and eats em on its own...actually white people...asian people eat it with rice as can be seen on the picture...so technically theyre not chips...not really snacks lol....part of a meal..but don't worry =) you're all cute soo you can do whatever you want with em...I chopped em up tiny bits with scissors and added em in