Thanksgiving Day is the most truly American of the national Holidays in the United States and is most closely connected with the earliest history of the country.
In 1620, the settlers, or Pilgrims, they sailed to America on the May flower, seeking a place where they could have freedom of worship. After a tempestuous two-month voyage they landed at in icy November, what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts.
During their first winter, over half of the settlers died of starvation or epidemics. Those who survived began sowing in the first spring.
All summer long they waited for the harvests with great anxiety, knowing that their lives and the future existence of the colony depended on the coming harvest. Finally the fields produced a yield rich beyond expectations. And therefore it was decided that a day of thanksgiving to the Lord be fixed Years later, President of the United States proclaimed the fourth Thursday of November as Thanksgiving Day every year. The celebration of Thanksgiving Day has been observed on that date until today.
The pattern of the Thanksgiving celebration has never changed through the years. The big family dinner is planned months ahead. On the dinner table, people will find apples, oranges, chestnuts, walnuts and grapes. There will be plum pudding, mince pie, other varieties of food and cranberry juice and squash. The best and most attractive among them are roast turkey and pumpkin pie. They have been the most traditional and favorite food on Thanksgiving Day throughout the years.
Everyone agrees the dinner must be built around roast turkey stuffed with a bread dressing to absorb the tasty juices as it roasts. But as cooking varies with families and with the regions where one lives, it is not easy to get a consensus on the precise kind of stuffing for the royal bird.
Thanksgiving today is, in every sense, a national annual holiday on which Americans of all faiths and backgrounds join in to express their thanks for the year' s bounty and reverently ask for continued blessings.
The Story of My Life by Helen Keller is the most influential book in my life. It abounds with courage, struggle and faith throughout. Helen Keller was once in deep despair in her childhood, but finally she decided to overcome her physical defects and live happily. Furthermore, she showed great patience in her long and hard learning period.
I have learned, above all, three lessons from her story. First, she taught me that often the road to success is to face hardships bravely. Maybe you are born under an ill star yet you can stand a better chance than others. It is therefore important that you screw up your courage when courage is needed. Second, the impairment of part of her senses did not prevent her from learning: on the contrary, she had made continual efforts to go deeper into the realm of knowledge, and her perseverance had thus helped her overcome many handicaps. Third, she advised that we should make the most of our sense organs as if we would lose them soon because this way we would observe the world more carefully than ever before.
The book is inspiring in that it is one brimming over with the unbending will of a gallant woman beset with seemingly insurmountable difficulties. I hope I can be as courageous as she.
I carry your heart with me I carry it in my heart I am never without it anywhere I go you go, my dear; and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling I fear no fate for you are my fate, my sweet I want no world for beautiful you are my world, my true here's the deepest secret no one knows
here's the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide and here is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart I carry your heart I carry it in my heart
3月9日第三天我们是去距离住处不远的Wekiwa spring park，这里像个主题公园，野外风情，可以划船，游泳，晒太阳……首先是划船，由于我们是五个人，他们俩俩一船，我自己一条，单人船比双人的轻，像漂流船的船身，手划势船浆，很容易上手。在湖中边滑动船浆，边欣赏两岸的景色很是惬意，不过当得知水中有鳄鱼和蛇时很怕，但是工作人员说通常情况只要不去逗鳄鱼它们白天是不进食的，水中养的鳄鱼都是小鳄鱼，大型的鳄鱼有围墙在水里圈着，可以看得见，但它们过不来。总算松口气~我们也接着这样的机会和鳄鱼近距离的接触了一番，还留下了珍贵的照片！
In my life and study, I have met a lot of great teachers, who teaches me not only knowledge but also the way to be a good person, the philosophy of life and the attitude to life.
Here I want to tell you the great importance my five great teachers have brought to me.
1．Violin teacher—Liu rong. She is my first teacher when I first started to learn violin. She was gentle and soft in daily life. But when it came to teaching, she was really serious and stric. We were all afraid of her at that time. My mother took my sister and me to her to learn violin once a week. Then ,we would practice the piece of music which we had practice for the week. If we did a good job, we would win her praise. Otherwise, she would tell us seriously “ if you like playing violin, you should practice everyday sincerely. If not, just stop learning it and shif to other subjects. It is a performance every time you play in front of me, treat it seriously.” Her strict words accompanied us everyday, urging us to practice with great attention.
I myself fell in love with violin and music gradually, and later on, I learnt the news that my teacher educated her own son in the same way and now, he has become o famous violin performer in China.
2．My Chinese viola teacher—Wing.HoAs a professor of Central Conservatory of Music, he taught us viola for four years . At the same age of our parents, he loved and taught us like our parents. He had 30 students and he treated us like a father and he always gathered us in his house and cooked for us , giving us his hands when we were in difficulties. We all liked him very much because we can see optimism and kindness in him.
3．My viola teacher in the USA— Pro.f .Doris. We saw her in Beijing and she gave us great help that we could come to study in Shenandoah University. I just feel that she is the present God sends to me, guiding me to the way I should be. I like to be in her class although my English is not good. The feeling in her class is really great and I can understand her by her vivid gestures and metaphors. She has more than ten students in the school and she says “ I love every students because they are all different.”This reminds me all the time to learn from others.
4．My English teacher—Sara White. The only class besides viola practice in the USA is English. From last August to now, Pro.f. Sara has been helping us a lot. Her way of teaching makes me feel warm in heart and she keeps encouraging students. Some students call her “ mother” because she does take care of us like a mother. I like her very mush because I can find my own mother in her. I hope her happy everyday in the new year.
5．In the past 23 years of life and study, my parents have always been my teachers. They teachme how to be a good person and how to do contribution to the society and my country. They are really traditional and they teach me in a traditional way too. In order to cultivate us to be a respectable and well-behaved person, they are really strict on me. I am grateful for every thing they have done to me, and they make me who I am.
Thank you again, for all the great teachers appearing in my life. You are my guide lights in my sailing of life. Best wishes to all of you .
Valentine's Day is coming . Do you know how this day come into being. There are many different origins of Valentine's day. I will talk about one origin.
In ancient Roman time, Feb 14th is the day for Yona. People respect her, she is the Queen of Roman Gods. People see her as the symbol of love and marriage.
Like in China, maybe like all places around the world, at that time, the life of boys and girls was strictly separated. They were not allowed to fall in love and date as freely as today.
But the boys could do something at that time, they could write the name of the girl they like on a bottle. On Feb 14th ,they could show the bottle to the girl, when the girl liked the boy too, she will say yes to his date, just with the bottle. Then they are blessed by the God of love and marriage, they will love each other and get married and have a happy life. So people name this day as the day to show our love.
Later on, a saint Valentine, he fight for the free love, because the King was cruel to lovers , he wanted men to be in the war . Valentine died because of this fighting. In order to remember him, we call Feb.14th Valentine's day.
In my eyes, the day comes into being because of people's love. It is not only the love between lovers, it is also a day for us to show our love to the one we love, like children, parents, teachers, and friends.
This day is also popular in China although it is from Rome. Young people give presents and say I love you to their lover. We Chinese people also have a day for love, that is July 7th. it comes from an old story of a common people and a god , they fall in love, but they are separated. They only can meet each other once a year on July 7th.
But the things people do in Valentine's Day are the same
That is the origin of Valentine's day , and remember it is for love, and don't forget to show your love on that day ,you can show your love to your boyfriend or girlfriend, or to your parents to you dear friends. I hope everyone can enjoy it.
The Chinese New Year is now popularly known as the Spring Festival because it starts from the Begining of Spring (the first of the twenty-four terms in coodination with the changes of Nature). Its origin is too old to be traced. Several explanations are hanging around. All aGREe, however, that the word Nian, which in modern Chinese solely means "year", was originally the name of a monster beast that started to prey on people the night before the beginning of a new year.
One legend goes that the beast Nian had a very big mouth that would swallow a GREat many people with one bite. People were very scared. One day, an old man came to their rescue, offering to subdue Nian. To Nian he said, "I hear say that you are very capable, but can you swallow the other beasts of prey on earth instead of people who are by no means of your worthy opponents?" So, it did swallow many of the beasts of prey on earth that also harrassed people and their domestic animals from time to time.
After that, the old man disappeared riding the beast Nian. He turned out to be an immortal god. Now that Nian is gone and other beasts of prey are also scared into forests, people begin to enjoy their peaceful life. Before the old man left, he had told people to put up red paper decorations on their windows and doors at each year's end to scare away Nian in case it sneaked back again, because red is the color the beast feared the most.
From then on, the tradition of observing the conquest of Nian is carried on from generation to generation. The term "Guo Nian", which may mean "Survive the Nian" becomes today "Celebrate the (New) Year" as the word "guo" in Chinese having both the meaning of "pass-over" and "observe". The custom of putting up red paper and firing fire-crackers to scare away Nian should it have a chance to run loose is still around. However, people today have long forgotten why they are doing all this, except that they feel the color and the sound add to the excitement of the celebration.
29号11点我们在宿舍吃完中餐上路前往Washington, DC（首都），最先参观的是National Air and Space Museum（航天博物馆），这里的博物馆很多很多，仔细参观的话3天也看不完，所以我们就像走马观花一样看个大概，以后有机会再欣赏几次！然后我们在Parliament Building（国会大厦）前拍照，专业的相机加上专业的摄影-何老师，我们每一张照片都很漂亮！之后我们徒步走路半小时看方尖塔，The White House，二战纪念墙，Linkin's Memorial.....下午5点在中国城吃得晚餐-拉面！由于太次了就不做评价了，晚上何老师又给我们做了特棒的夜宵，汆丸子热汤面！简直比拉面好一千倍！
2008.10.09-19 in Denmark to participate in The Carl Nielsen Masterclass, I am grateful to Jan Wagner and Akemi for giving us this opportunity. 7 peoples from Shenandoah University ,went in cluding me,my sister, Rafael, Rachel, and Andrew. The event was at Assens, which was 2 hours from the capital Copenhagen. This is a beautiful, quiet city; in Denmark, the temperature fluctuates a lot, one day will be rainy,one day will be fine. But it has beautiful scenery. We also went to other cities: Valdemars Castle, Fredericia, Vedstaarup. Everywhere was so clean, quiet and beautiful!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Everyday,I get up at 7:30,breakfast at 8:00, 9:00 start rehearsals in the afternoon at the Ministry of acoustic rehearsal and rehearsal Quartet in the evening .
The rehearsals and performances of chamber music is a total of 5 works to be completed: Little Suite for strings (Carl Nielsen) Whistle Bop Tour for Whistler and strings (Tony Osborne) Elegy for Viola, string quartet and strings (Herbert Howells) Scherzo for strings (Nancy Dalbeg) Divertimento for strings (Bartok) In fact, there was not much time to rehearsal, because the last four days was the actual performance, we had only five days of rehearsal time. Bartok,is very hard, Most of the time to rehearse the works! Our viola teacher in Denmark, his name is Finn, he looked like he was 70 years old, but he was very interesting, he was look kind and looked like Kentucky Fried Chicken grandfather, and we liked him! There were two students from BeiJing, the Central Conservatory of Music and two students from Shanghai Conservatory of Music we were very happy to see them in Denmark ,because we have not been in China for two months
Of course, Denmark accounted for most of the students, they were very good, but I also feel that the Americans and Europeans different. in the United States everyone is very friendy, Europeans is very arrogant, or that we Chinese are more easy-going, Encouraging applause! ! !
Although ,the rehearsal were very hard,the performances were very good,and eachone was better than the one before, everyone was very surprised.
People stood up and cheered for our performance,an elderly woman was very excited for John,she said that she had not heardsuch a good concert for several years! At the last concert, we performed at the local museum. The museum a collection of luxury cars, it is said that every car here is valued at more than 100 million.Before the performance we were in the cars and at the beginning of the concert we came out of the cars. very interesting way of playing, It was a the sponsors also let me try the Lamborghini car door, it was great! ! ! There were so many wonderful memories.Those moments are recorded in the photos, every photo is memorable .
Extras 
