Greetings from the Director
Greetings from the Director
Dear Students,
You are looking at this session’s issue of our precious newsletter, “EsSentiaLly PALS”. In a subtle way, the newsletter is a reminder that the session is about to come to a close and of course, the final exams are at hand. Thanks for your contributions; it’s always a pleasure to read them.
This session’s cultural event, JOLLY HOLIDAY CELEBRATION was amazing. The holiday songs and music created a true magical environment. Thanks for making the event so special. Congratulations to all the participants! And, of course, a big bravo to all the winners of The Best Journal Entry Award.
If you are graduating or leaving PALS, please do consult with Mary Ellen to have your documentation taken care of. Also, do not forget to sign up for our alumni club - PALS ALUMNS – well the name got changed from PALS PLUS because of the redesigned website. This will help us stay in touch.
Here’s wishing you all good luck for the final exams, and after that, voila, Happy Holidays
Dr. Veena Kumar
Mary Ellen’s Corner
With Session II coming to an end, I’m sure we’re all looking forward to a break!
Remember, a break from classes does not mean a break from maintaining your immigration status! Before winter vacation, please keep a few things in mind:
-If you are in F-1 status and are transferring to another school beginning in January, please make sure you have submitted all of your transfer forms to me before December 23, 2010. The PALS office will be closed from December 24 until January 3, 2011. Please contact your new school to pick up your new I-20. If you are traveling home for the break, I suggest that you pick up the I-20 from your new school beforeyou leave or make arrangements for the new school to send your I-20 to your address in your home country. You will need the new I-20 to return.
-Speaking of travel, if you would like to traveloutside the United States for vacation, please bring your I-20 or DS-2019 to me for a travel signature beforeyou leave. The signature ensures that you will be returning to PALS when you return from vacation. You must pay a deposit for Session III before I can sign your I-20 or DS-2019 (this way I’ll be sure you will return to PALS). Please do not leave the US without a travel signature on your I-20 or DS-2019! Remember, the PALS office will be closed from December 23 until January 3 so I cannot sign your I-20 or DS-2019 during that time!!!!
As always, if you have any questions, please stop by the PALS office to see me.
I hope you all have a Happy New Year and I look forward to seeing you again next year!
From Denise and
LaToshia’s Desk
We hope everyone has a wonderful New Year! It’s sad to have it end so soon. Please do not forget these important dates:
-Fall IIends on December 23, 2010.
-The payment deadline for Spring I is January, 4, 2010. Please pay by this date in order to avoid being charged a late fee!
-Spring I begins on Tuesday,January, 18, 2010. Returning students may pick up textbooks and schedules in the PALS Office between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. that day.Please do not wait until the morning of the first day of classes to pick up your books!
The Love of Math
By Mohammed Almhieri
My name is Mohammed Almheiri. I am 17 years old. I finished high school thisyear. I got scholarship to the U.S. when I was in the high school. I love to study math. My teacher told me that I must study engineering. I think it’s a good idea I can earn many from this specialty.We don’t know what time does the oil will be finish so we must search for something else. I choose to study in Rutgers because I love N.J. also I study in PALS now.Rutgers has good bus so I don’t need to buy a car. The people are very kind and helpful here.I must reach my goals because I want to make my parent happy and when I will get a jobI am going to help them. I will be the happiest man if Iwill study at Rutgers.
“Comunicación y Poder”
By HernánChacón Ibáñez
This is one of the most interesting books that I’ve read in my whole life. Just its name (Communication and Power) is impressive. I found it about six months ago, while I was waiting for a plane in Barajas, Madrid’s airport and I was looking for something “light” to spent two hours. Obviously it was a mistake, but a “good mistake”. I’ve not finished with it yet, but every time that I have a free time I read a few pages. This book tells about the “social change” in the modern life and how the new ways of communications are related with the power. Until now the most important topics (in this book) to me is that nowadays for to have power, you need build “content” and for to do that you need the Media. This idea explains to me many changes in the Media industry and why many important economical, political and social groups fight everyday fir its control. There are many others interesting topic that I hope to read and understand soon, but it’s a huge book and its text is dense. Logically, I don’t have conclusions about it yet, but I can say that, when I’ve finished it, I would like to understand better the transformations in the industry, the “misinformation” to the people from some governments toward his citizens, the control of information in China or Russia, how Obama make his electoral campaign and the roots of many other things that are happening just now, but we can’t understand when they are occurring and finally we just see its results.
Thanksgiving
By SooYeon Park
When I think of Thanksgiving, I come up with two pictures. The first is a picture of
a family sharing abundant foods, and the second is the scene of the amazing number of people in line at the shopping mall. The two pictures are showing us both a similar thing and a different thing between the original Thanksgiving Day and the celebrations nowadays. Today’Thanksgiving is similar to the Thanksgiving of 1621 in several ways. In the past, it was the day to give thanks to God for surviving in the new lands, and now it is the day to give thanks for the blessings received in each year. Also, the first people of the USA ate the similar food as nowadays. They ate fowl, vegetables, fruits, and sea food. Both the people 400 years ago and the people of today enjoyed a splendid cornucopia of various kinds of foods on Thanksgiving.
However, there are also many differences. First, in 1621, their celebration was practiced during Three whole days, whereas today’s Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday in November, just one day.
Second, the kinds of food are different. It is certain that they ate venison, deer meat,
wild fowl, such as geese, ducks, swans, pigeons, and many kinds of sea foods, such as sea bass, cod fish, lobsters, eel, clams. However, most of those things are hard to see on today’s menu.
Moreover, there was no pumpkin pie in 1621, which is one of the symbols of the Thanksgiving today. At that time, because the flour was not abundant, they could not have made the bread. Instead, they might have eaten a boiled pumpkin. Finally, it was not long ago that Thanksgiving began to be celebrated repeatedly every year. It began to be observed repeatedly from 1863, when president Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in November as a national day of Thanksgiving. The first people today seemed to focus more on the chance to shop rather than the original meaning of Thanksgiving Day. If we think of the meaning of the Thanksgiving celebration more, it would be a more worthwhile day, not just a day for shopping.
Morrocoy:
My Favorite Vacation Place
ByMaria FernandaZubillaga
In the world are thousand of places where you could be able to spend a good vacation. But if you are looking for the best destination where to spend quality time, and forget about the routine, then you should think about beaches. Morrocoy is an excellent destination where to find excellent beaches. It is a National Park located in the North of Venezuela and it consists of many keys and sandbanks near to the coast. This destination has been my favorite vacation place for years, because it is a place with great weather, where I can relax, and have lots of fun too.
One of the reasons why I choose this as my favorite vacation place is because of the weather. Venezuela is a tropical country with only one station the whole year, which is summer. Actually when I lived in Venezuela and had any free time, I used to go to Morrocoy, no matter what time of the year it were, it was perfect to go to the beach. In here the weather is perfect to be at the beach. It is warm, but not too much, you can fresh up with just getting into the sea and having a cold drink. The weather in here is really pleasant if you go to Morrocoy you will really feel that you are having a really nice vacation.
Another reason why I love this place is because of the relaxing environment that involves this great location. The sightseeing in this place is wonderful. It is amazing the feeling of being under the palms and the clear sky with a shiny sun, seeing the great sea with white sand and also listening to the sounds of the crashing waves and the seagulls, everything at the same time. The sea food in here is also very nice. You can enjoy very fresh seafood, like all kind fishes, shrimps and oysters or also have any kind of drinks in front of the sea. It is incredible how relaxing can be this fascinating place.
But finally, Morrocoy is not only a relaxing place, it can be also very fun too. You can enjoy in here good parties. It is the perfect location to come with your friends and listen to good music and dance all day with beautiful people at the different beaches or sandbanks. As well if you like the water and beach sports this could be a good place to be at. You can find in here jet and water skiing or if you prefer you can also dive and watch the beautiful life under water. You can also play volleyball or soccer in the beach. I promise if you come here you won’t get bored, there are too many activities in here that you can enjoy.
I think that Morrocoy is the best place to visit because it is a relaxing and also fun place with great weather. I really would like to go this location as many times as I can. That is why I encourage you to go at least once. If you really love the beach, you will like this place as much as I do. I promise that you won’t regret.
The Crazy Ride
By ZeynepGulser
I have an interesting story about our sacrifice dinner. We, me and my other Turkish friends, were invited a festival dinner to celebrate our Sacrifice Festival. The dinner was arranged by Turkish Culture Center NJ and it was in a tent which was located in a church yard. We didn’t know where the church was so decided to take a taxi to go there.
One of my friends called a number and we started to wait. Half an hour later the taxi came and there were other two people in it. We tried to ask who the others are, but the driver lady could not speak English! Five minutes later other two people got out off the taxi. Then she, the driver, asked address to us and called someone.
My friend told the address to the person who was on the phone, in English. After the person describe directions our driver, in Spanish. She seemed confident and started to drive.
About fifteen minutes later we realized that we were drawing a circle in a same place. We tried to ask her what was going on, but she could not speak English, even a word! She called the person again, this time we tried to say where we were, and where we wanted to go. After the phone call she started to drive again. We were afraid, but we did not know what we could do! She was complaining in Spanish, we were complaining in Turkish, and we could not understand each other.
Suddenly, I started to laugh because I realized the situation that we were living was like a joke. Four Turkish people were in a Spanish driver’s taxi, they wanted to go a Methodist Church in order to celebrate one of the Muslim’s feasts and they got lost on American roads!
I said to my friend why I was laughing in Turkish and they laughed with me.At the end of an hour we found the church but everybody had always eaten their meals. In spite of we were late, that was one of the most amazing festival dinner I have ever had.
Korean Food
By Ae Park
Food is important not only to maintain our life but also to feel good. Also, food is an essential element which presents about a culture. There are many kinds of food in the world, but nowadays people are paying attention to Korean food. Many studies and researches tell people that Korean food is good for our health. There are some reasons why many people have started to eat Korean food.
First, the ingredients of Korean food are good for people’s health. Traditionally, Korean people cook their food using a lot of vegetables and fish. They usually have meals with rice, soup, and vegetables. The most famous Korean food, Kimchi, has already been shown as a healthy food. This kind of food style helps people to prevent a lot of disease eating their common food. Sometimes, Korean people enjoy having meats, but their basic food is rice, which has good nutrients.
Second, the taste of Korean food is good. Korean people usually do not use spices or artificial materials when they cook food. On the other hand, they put natural materials from nature into food to cook delicious food. Historically, they could not have enough materials for food, so they used to gather plants or hunt animals around their places. Eventually, they found the way of cooking that they can make tasty food without artificial materials. Even though the way of cooking is little complicated, the taste is good.
Consequently, Korean food is good for health and delicious. Unfortunately, it is not famous like Japanese food, but many people have been realizing about the great food. Some people may love Korean food, but some people may not like it because food is a so subjective part of culture. However, the fact that Korean food is healthy and tasty is certain from many studies.
Exciting Winter Adventure!
LaToshia Wells
There are so many fun things to see and enjoy during the winter in New Jersey. Museums, ice-skating, sightseeing and much, much more. Here is a list of great activities for everyone!
Liberty Science Center (
Guests can challenge themselves at the Rock Climbing Wall, walk 18 feet above the exhibition floor across a narrow beam and even practice some foreign vocabulary in Language Karaoke.
The Statue of Liberty (
The Hidden Valley Club Ski Resort
Starlight dance USA (
The professional dance instructors are from all over the world including Germany, Italy, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, China, Argentina, Australia and the USA. They are highly trained and many are currently competing on the world circuit.
NJ Premier Sports and Entertainment Center Bridgewater Sports Arena
()
Hockey, ice-skating, arcade, and lacer tag.
New Jersey Performing Arts Center (PAC)
(
All new for 2010, immersive concert features some of the best video games music performed by the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and accompanied by video game imagery, dazzling lighting effects, live action and audience interactivity.
Atlantic City,
Stay the night, eat at five star restaurants, play and gamble (
