Not until I came to study in the U.S that I realized how important Spanish is in this diverse country. It is the second popular language in the U.S now, of course just after English. It is also the third popular language worldwide. So why don’t we learn Spanish?

I still recall vividly four years ago when I first came to America as an exchange student and landed in a strong-Mexican-influenced city in southern Texas where 90% of people spoke Spanish. It was literally one of my biggest challenges so far in life since I had to figure out a way to communicate with everybody with blank knowledge of Spanish. So I took a Spanish class in high school and practiced with my host family. That worked out okay.

But ever since that exchange year, I haven’t had any chance to use Spanish; so I have lost most of its vocabulary as well as grammar. Now since I am in San Diego,  a great diverse city and also has a border to Mexico, learning Spanish again is something that I want to do. So I am taking a basic Spanish class at SDSU to satisfy one of the Humanity GE requirement. I learn quite fast, since I already some basics, and now I am able to have a simple conversation with the Spanish speaker.

So if you need to learn one new language, the most critical now is Spanish!

Since I came to the U.S four years ago, I haven’t had a chance to see any performance of somebody really famous. But just this last weekend, I did. I came to a concert of three famous singers and bands, and the best thing is, their songs are all my favorites.

At San Diego State University, there is a big arena where a lot of sport and music events of SDSU as well as San Diego take place. It is called “Viejas Arena”. This last weekend, guess who performed here? They are famous pop stars right now: Maroon 5, One Republic and new-star Bruno Mars. I have a lot of great songs of them in my iPod and that’s why I decided to come to the concert. Oh, by the way, I bought the ticket for only $40- as supposed to the average of $80 for a general concert. This is because the event is held at school, so the ticket is more affordable.

Now, for the main event, I just want to say one word “awesome”.  Bruno Mars rocked the stage first with number one song in America for the last 4 weeks “Just the way you are” and some other new songs. Then, OneRepublic just blowed up the whole arena with amazing songs like “Secret”, “Stop and Stare”, “All the Right Moves”, “Marching On” and all-time favorite “Apologize”. No one in the arena could turn their heads away when the song “Apologize” performed. Then the main part of the concert came when Maroon 5 did their best to conquer the hearts of thousand fans offstage. Some of their new songs I was not so familiar with yet, but definitely I love their “She will be loved”, “Makes me wonder”, “Wake up call” or ”I won’t go home without you”. I just felt so happy to be able to listen live to a lot of my favorite songs that night!

SDSU Viejas Arena glows with great concert!

With more than 2000 fans came, the atmostphere was fantastic that night!

 

“Apologize” just blew everybody away!

One Republic was my most favorite of the night!

Maroon 5 were awesome too!

I love all my classes this semester. All the design classes are much harder, but at the same I get to explore more and more. For my two GE classes, besides Spanish 101, Music 345 is my favorite one.

I take this class to fulfill my upper-division requirement for GE. For this class, we only meet once a week for 2 hours, but we have to attend the weekly concert held at the music hall at SDSU. The cool thing about this is that I get to listen to a lot of different kinds of music from all around the world – live! They are not popular music and some of them are really hard to listen, but they are all so interesting. So far this semester, I have listened to several music bands from Middle East, Senegal, Congo, Italian and they are all great! I can’t wait to every Monday to experience more about world’s music. The professor is so cool (Kevin Delgado), so I highly recommend this class!

After a month keeping myself busy with school and work, today I start blogging again. And my first post will be about the incredible nightshow of the annual Miramar Airshow in San Diego. Just check out some of these photos:

C-17

Super C-5 and C-17 Cargo Plane

 

 

 

 



 

Fall semester now has began and I get started with all the major classes again. It’s gonna be a tough semester for me with all the intermediate-level classes of graphic design. Three of those class includes Graphic Design 2, Typography 2 and Photographic Imagery. Along with those 3 classes I also take a Spanish 101 class (for Humanity GE) and Music 345 (for upper division GE); plus one 1-unit class of design software class. Totally I end up with 17 units this semester!!

Summer is almost over and I already finished summer classes. And now it’s time for me to drive back to San Diego and get ready for fall semester. And this means, another long roadtrip for me and my friend.

This time, after driving one day from Seattle, we decided to spend a night at Sacramento, the capital of California to rest. This city is not as loud and busy as some other major cities in CA, but is has its own characteristic as the government’s heart of the state. The capitol building along with many modern-looking skyscrapers makes the city look quite beautiful and formal.

Then the next day we drove all the way to San Diego.

Every year around August in Seattle, there is a traditional event that attracts thousands of visitors from everywhere called Seafair. This event last for a few weeks with different activities every weekend. A week before the final week when Blue Angels perform is the time when it comes the Torchlight Parade. The parade takes place at night, so it’s just beautiful and fun!

From the west of Washington, this weekend I just drove five hours to the East to see my friends in Spokane. This is one of the most developed cities in WA state and for me, it is nice a place with many old western-style buildings. Me and my friends had a good time here.

Germany finished this year’s World Cup in a competitive win over Uruguay for the 3rd place award. Even though they cannot win the title with the massive attacking, what they have displayed throughout the tournament was more incredible than any other team. I recall right before the World Cup’s ball was kicked off, Germany was rated quite lower compared to other big teams due to the injured absences of many important players- which included star captain Micheal Ballack. Having in the squad mostly young players and some even unexperienced, Germany has conquered the hearts of thousand football fans worldwide by destructive wins against giants England and Argentina, and of course Australia. Scoring more goals than any other team, having in the squad the golden boot player (score the most) and also the best young player of the tournament- Thomas Mueller, the German football this year has gone much further than expected.

Four years passed by since the day the football festival was held in home soil, Germany this year once again finish at 3rd place, but the story this time is much more fascinating. Cheers with them and I can’t wait to see how these young players gonna grow sharp and lead the team in Euro 2010 and World Cup 2014!

Spain was expected to win this World Cup right before the tournament kicked off. But what they have displayed didn’t satisfy the audience and now with only four teams left, Germany-my favorite, has become the number one expectation after their super impression over England and Argentina….

Ball kicked off in this semi-final, a rematch of the European Championship Final 2 years ago (Spain won). Without dangerous striker Thomas Mueller got suspended, and against one too-experienced Spain, Germany couldn’t play the fast and attractive football like previous match. In contrast, in the other end, the Spaniards really knew how to press the German. I was more anxious during the game than excited as before. Second half didn’t get better for the German either. And what had to come, sadly saying, came. Spain scored in the middle of the second half from a corner-kick and since then, they played solid defending and protected their precious win.

Tears again from the German, and of course from me. They got stopped again at semi-final by another European team, after losing Italy 4 years ago. And that means, through 3 World Cup in a row, I was all feeling that the cup was coming really close to Ger, but never did. BUT, reaching this far with the most goals by a team that lies among one of the youngest, without big star Micheal Ballack, was already a tremendous win for the German team this year.

As for Spain, with their first-time ever got to the semi-final, they made it to the first-time final as well. Congrats!

So, in the next few days, Spain is gonna play Netherlands in the final; and Germany will play Uruguay in the 3rd place game.