Feathers268
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Posts posted by Feathers268
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You can take the bus to LA and a taxi to pick her up and go to your location in the desert nearby where you will have a huge one of your rockets set up which you two will strap onto and blast off and be home in seconds.
Unfortunately, ACME was out of stock. Something about a cyote convention in town.
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I agree with most of the comments here but one thing I have noticed in some Sino American couples I know where the American speaks passable Chinese. The Chinese spouse had no motivation to improve their English. I took a couple of semesters of Mandarin at our local community college. I was commenting to my wife that it is a difficult language to learn. She informed me that she thought it was a waste of money since we live in America and it is more important she learn English.
I agree with this, and I have seen this. The American learns Chinese, and gets the Chinese program package, and moves to a Chinese community, and then laments the fact that she doesn't seem motivated to learn English. Ladies, when you get together and only speak Chinese, you are hurting the ones less fluent in English by not giving them the chance to learn. As a non-English speaker in the US, you will never get past being a second class citizen. With the current state of the economy, employers have the luxury of being able to pick who they hire and not speaking well will keep you out of a lot of work.
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Batmaniac has it right. She will have to clear customs with her bags then recheck them after she clears the customs area. She will also have to navigate from the international terminal to the domestic terminal which is about a 10 minute walk, then go through security. 90 minutes is going to cut it very close.
Soooo, if she were to just keep her bags, and walk out of customs and meet someone in LA? Another thought I had, was just picking her up in LA. Labor Day weekend, the Bay Bridge will be closed. For those not familiar of the Bay Area, that makes driving to SFO interesting at best, and LAX is a hassle free 6 hours from Sacratomato. Hell, it might take that long in traffic in the bay area.
If you smell smoke, it's just me trying to noodle this through.
Having done this several times - for different reasons...DRIVE TO LA pick her up, eliminate the stress on the LAX portion, be there for her, and if it takes 3 hours at LAX -- it's OK, you are there to take care of her -- and then you can go to a hotel have a great dinner and "rest" - drive home the next day - she will get to see Hwy 5 - what's not to like. Best of Luck.....
It's more like 6 hours to LAX, but the result still looks the same. I can get her and head for the hills. She can sleep in the car, which she does very well, and me driving home is not a big deal.
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You may also want to alert her to the following scenario if she has a connecting flight inside China.....
Last November I flew from Chengdu to Shanghai to Chi town to Tampa. I asked in Chengdu if my bags would be checked through to Chicago and was told "yes, they will". I had a long layover in Shanghai, so for grins I thought I'd go check the baggage claim area at Pudong airport in Shanghai. Well, I was surprised to see my baggage circling around on the carousel, obviously not having been checked through. Tought me a lesson I hope I won't have to worry about repeating.
Bill
Fortunatley, her flight stops in Shanghai but she stays on the plane.
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Sounds to me like one hell of a great time to take a weekend vaca in LA...Mickeys House, KBF, perhaps a drive up the coast through Big Sur and Carmel, turn right and head to Sacto...
With all of the smoke, maybe not a good weekend for LA, besides, I couldn't do that to Jen after a long flight.
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I wouldn't worry about it too much. Jen didn't learn English in China, hell, it's hard enough trying to get her into school here, she just doesn't like to learn it. Once she is here, it will be easier when she starts to see the need for English.
As for the inerview? She will do fine. Jen did the interview in Chinese as have many people here without any problem.
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I'm really thinking that's the way to go. Jen wasn't crazy for the idea of having a connecting flight to begin with. If she has trouble, Panda fur really will be flying.
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It would be faster just to check the bags on through in the customs area should you decide to pick her up in SFO
Given all flights are on time, me picking her up in LA would add about 90 minutes to the time we would arive home with me picking her up an SF. Now adding in the potential for traffic as I take a round about way to get there, the margin narrows a bit more.
Now, the next part of my fear, going to China, her connection in LA was 7 1/2 hours late. If that happens with her homeward flight or customs causes her to miss that connection, I can see all sorts of problems that will be harder to deal with without her phone working.
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Batmaniac has it right. She will have to clear customs with her bags then recheck them after she clears the customs area. She will also have to navigate from the international terminal to the domestic terminal which is about a 10 minute walk, then go through security. 90 minutes is going to cut it very close.
Soooo, if she were to just keep her bags, and walk out of customs and meet someone in LA? Another thought I had, was just picking her up in LA. Labor Day weekend, the Bay Bridge will be closed. For those not familiar of the Bay Area, that makes driving to SFO interesting at best, and LAX is a hassle free 6 hours from Sacratomato. Hell, it might take that long in traffic in the bay area.
If you smell smoke, it's just me trying to noodle this through.
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This Saturday Jen comes home!
She is due in LAX around 1pm with a connecting flight at 2:30. Checking with the airlines, they insist she will not have to deal wit luggage as it will be checked through to SFO. I thought she had to take it through customs in LA. Is this not true?
She also mentioned that she did not have her charger for her phone, so she will not be able to call me if she has trouble.
Would anyone down south be able to wrangle her where she needs to go? Or does anyone know if LAX has any means of making sure she gets to her connection?
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I was in a concert band in high school that played at the World's Expo in Vancouver in 1986. It was an interesting experience.
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The problem is, getting money to repair roads or power lines is not very glamourous. Congress people can't have some fancy ribbon cutting cerimony for road repair of improvements.
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Hello all,
I have been in the U.S for one month since July 18,2009. Husband has done wonderful job to make son and me adjust well. The list can show what we went through during the past month:
1.Son has got his welcome notice
by mail from USCIS but I have not got either welcome notice or green card. 
2.Son and I have got SSN by mail.
3.Son will go to his middle school next week. He is looking forward to going back school and making new friends.
4.Husband has added me on our bank account. I will get my debit card next week.
5.Husband has helped me to apply for my ID card which I will get within 30 days.
6.Husband teaches me to drive.
My feeling?
1. I miss my family and REAL Chinese food.
2.I am eager to have a job to feel myself useful to sociaty.
Amanda in USA
Amanda, From one Chinese woman to the other!
My feeling?
1. I miss my family and REAL Chinese food.(I felt the same! The food you can get from Chinese market and cook your self) (don't worry about husband?)
2.I am eager to have a job to feel myself useful to sociaty. I am not sure what visa you are in U.S. from but i understand how you feel. I was in U.S. for one month and had no job, Relax! you will fine something soon. ( Your husband will take care of you) Just enjoy your new life.
I came to the U.S with CR1 visa.
Husband likes Chinese food. Everyday I cook Chinese food twice for lunch and dinner.
That may be true now, but a few years from now it might be different. Don't get me wrong, you shouldn't give up what you know and finding a Chinese supermarket and having some of the food you like from China is very important, but don't be afraid to try many of the different things now available here. One advantage of the United States is you can find foods from all around the world here somewhere. Jen has found she likes steak or shrimp fajitas (Mexican), Seafood linguini (Italian), and a grilled NY cut steak, medium rare with a salad and potato (American), just to name a few.
Each time I want to China, I promised myself that what ever was offered to me, I would try, as I am sure many of us did when we went to China. My experience allowed me to grow outside my comfort zone and I have discovered things like jellyfish, chicken feet, and yes, even durian fruit.
Sure there are things you won't like, but many you will. Just don't be afraid to try new things, you might be surprised what you find.
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If I were to limit my choice to Presidents during my life, hands down would be the Great Communicator, Ronald Wilson Reagan. He was the first President I truly eas aware of as a kid. I loved his ability to speak past the and strait to the people. Although he had an opposing Congress most of the time, he was still able to get through much of his ajenda. Also his shear respect for the office and his belief in America being that "shining city on the hill" was truly inspiring and again, after the turmoil of the Nixon era and malaize of Carter's administration, Reagan helpped us believe in ourselves again.
The otherthing I loved about him is that he understood that politics stopped at the end of the day. He could fight with the Speaker of the House, Tip O'Neal all day, and sit down and have a drink with him that night as if they were the best of friends.
He also had a special way of speaking that could stir emotions, like his speach at the 40th aniversary of D-day, or hiss address to the nation after the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded in 1986.
One of the most memorable moments for me was in 2004 upon his death and the full cerimony of a State funeral. Something I will never forget.
There's always been partisian politics in this country... sometimes more so than others. But on the relationship above ... when Reagan was shot who was at his bedside, eyes filled with tears, holding Reagan's hand and prayer with him? Tip O'Neal.
LBJ and minority Senate leader Everett Dirksen had cocktails in the White House almost every weekday around 6PM. They'd laugh (usually) at each others rhetorical jabs made during the day and often get down to horse trading.
To paraphrase from "The Dark Night", with Reagan, we got the President we needed at the time we needed him most. But then, I'm sure he would say he was just doing his job, and it was the strenghth and overt good nature of the American people that brought us through.
The good ones always seem to know that they are not there to lead us to prosperity but rather, to open the door and step out of the way. A free people will always rise to the challenge in front of them and find a way to prosper. That was not believing in Repulicans or Democrats, but believing in America and as a whole what we can be.
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Great thread and many great writings in this thread, no matter people agree with each other or not.
I don't know much about American history. I could only name several presidents' full names. I learned from everybody some history in this thread.
I enjoy very much reading Jim and Kim's writings about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln who are two top distinguished historical figures.
Myself would like to mention president Richard Nixon and Barack Obama. Without Nixon's bridging USA and China, I can not image whether I have the freedom to choose American to love. No other colored citizens have Obama's courage to run the President's Election. His intelligence and bravura challenges the prejudice that almost everybody has in him/her more or less.
Obama wasn't the first Black citizen to run for the office, but he was the first to be taken more seriously. In the 80's Jessie Jackson ran and actually had a bit of success with his Rainbow Coalition and in 2004 Al Sharpton ran but never made it past the primaries. The big difference was the prediminate attitude that they were running for their own people and not for America as a whole. True or not, that was how they were percieved. Obama was able to bridge across the cultural gap and have something for every one. Plus, he had some of the abilities of say Reagan or Keddedy in being able to speak well publicly. Obama captured that spark of hope that the great speakers can harness. There was just no way Mcain could have competed on that level.
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I actually had to go look though a bunch of speeches to find that. I was only in 7th grade back then. It was worth the research.
Too bad there isn't more honest debate and less sniping in DC these days.
Thank knloregon
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'.... Besides, as long as the President is being effective in executing the powers of the office, where the actual words spoken come from really does't matter...."
Actually, it does. Its called plagiarism... theft of another's text. It could have all been avoided if he had simply quoted John Winthrop...
I know I have told before of the moment in 1630 when the tiny ship Arabella bearing settlers to the New World lay off the Massachusetts coast. To the little bank of settlers gathered on the deck John Winthrop said: "we shall be a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us, so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword through the world."OK, there you go. This was pulled from Ronald Reagan's speech delivered on the eve of the election in 1980. Seems to me like proper credit was given.
Every President takes words and phrases out of context and makes them thier own when talking to the citizens. It's making trivial aguements that bog down our government and waists time on meaningless things.
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I've been reading the responses and not quite sure what to add. Of course Washington and Lincoln are at the top of the list, but that was way before my time. So looking at 'modern' times, I have to toss it to Ike. Ike's time was one of prosperity, a growing middle class and the creation of the interstate highway system. It was good times and lots of progress for the citizenry. We haven't a similar period since.
Now, that's not to discount Kennedy and the space program, Nixon opening China, Reagan ending the cold war, or Clinton's growth economy. Each of these presidents left a lasting mark on the US that made us better. Each had some issues, too. But in history's rear view mirror, we are better off having had them in the most powerful and important job in the world.
You know the amazing thing, As you look back at the accomplishments during the administrations, then think about the way they were portrayed during their term.
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"....and his belief in America being that "shining city on the hill" was truly inspiring...."
This is a problem I have with RR..... unlike Lincoln, who wrote almost all his own speeches, and to put the good orator currently in office in his rightful place, consider, for instance, the Gettysburg Address.
RR had speech writers, he delivered what they wrote.
But in this case, it was entire drawn from other sources, and he did not attribute those sources. The reference derives from: "the Sermon on the Mount according to Matthew (5:14). In America a more focused (and famous) reference came from a sermon by John Winthrop in the very earliest days of the Massachusetts ay Colony (1630)--- about this: "City upon a hill" which was to be a shining light for the new world..
I can see your point about the fact that the President now has handlers and speech writers and,.....But times now are different. When Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, mow many heard it? Compared to today where a speech will be delivered live on TV, then talked about, sound bit, laughed at and so on by millions. Besides, as long as the President is being effective in executing the powers of the office, where the actual words spoken come from really does't matter. If he does not like any part of it, He will just rewrite it himself of omit it.
As for RR, he was well aware of the refrence of the shining city, he remembered that from scripture and had always thought of the US. He also has writen and delivered many speeches from before he was Governor of California that are stunning in their own right.
Of course, I could go on about his record as Governor here, but that's a whole different story.
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If I were to limit my choice to Presidents during my life, hands down would be the Great Communicator, Ronald Wilson Reagan. He was the first President I truly eas aware of as a kid. I loved his ability to speak past the
and strait to the people. Although he had an opposing Congress most of the time, he was still able to get through much of his ajenda. Also his shear respect for the office and his belief in America being that "shining city on the hill" was truly inspiring and again, after the turmoil of the Nixon era and malaize of Carter's administration, Reagan helpped us believe in ourselves again.The otherthing I loved about him is that he understood that politics stopped at the end of the day. He could fight with the Speaker of the House, Tip O'Neal all day, and sit down and have a drink with him that night as if they were the best of friends.
He also had a special way of speaking that could stir emotions, like his speach at the 40th aniversary of D-day, or hiss address to the nation after the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded in 1986.
One of the most memorable moments for me was in 2004 upon his death and the full cerimony of a State funeral. Something I will never forget.
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I can't honestly say as I do not know enough about all 44 to be able to pick a favorite.
Just because you don't know about all of the presidents, doesn't mean you can't have a favorite, hell, I don't think I could name all of them.
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i will vote for the one who had the smallest govt spending/debt and the lowest taxes on the people .
An interesting idea, the problem is, spending as well a taxation is controls by the Congress. The President can only propose what he would like to see and he will sign off on the final version, but if Congress refuses to honor his requests, as they almost always do, he will be cornered into sign thing he really does't want.
It's though ignorance and a lazy media that the President usually gets the ultimate responsibilty.
Like the quarterback getting the blame for his team loosing the game, or the credit for winning.
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I thought, historically, it was the PACs that held the power to 'get things done'. H3ll, I've even started up a few PACs myself for industry protectionism...
I think that the 'inputs' are shifting, and the folks in power are paying attention to private citizens more than 'before' .. I can't say it's 100 percent, as what politician will pick up a citizen's cause when it's not in his/her best interest so to do? Well, that shift is coming - I see more and more 'private citizens' referenced by name and situation in the House when I'm watching CSPAN, as the CongressPeople are taking up the stories of said private citizens, using them speeches, presentations, and debates all inside the House during Regular Business.
OK - that's some input, I hope it wasn't too political or unfocused..
I think that's right on. Really all that is happening is enough noise is made and the politicians start running because the know they won't survive the next election. But then, that is probably what the founding fathers had in mind. Having to answer to the people keeps them honest, so to speak, and the more we realize it, the better.
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I met President Ford in 1978 at Kings Island golf course. He was a very nice man. He was playing a benefit with Bob Hope and Jerry Lewis. He then along with Bob Hope went to Miami University of Ohio to accept an honary degree.
I couldn't think of a better honor than to meet the President. The closest I ever got was seeing Presitent Clinton from about 400 yard when he visited Pack Bell Park in 2000.
Not sure how I feel.
in Culture & Language Discussion
Posted
That's your job. When I was waiting for Jen, I worried about the paperwork getting lost, in Guangzhou, I worried about the medical exam, I worried about her at the interview, after passing, I worried that we would not get the visa, on the way home, I worried that someone was going to stop us saying it was all a mistake.
It's all part of the game. Good luck.