Cause & Effect--My Hero Parents

My parents’ fortunes were changed because of their actions. There was an unforgettable event that happened in 1989. It was called “The Tiananmen Square protests and massacre”. The death of Chinese prime minister Hu Yaobang in April 1989 led many people to go to Tiananmen Square to commemorate him. He was the former president. He was hardworking, so people liked him. Therefore, many students and citizens were going to commemorate him after his death. In addition, students were protesting the lack of freedom and freedom of speech in the country. Eventually, the event turned into a demonstration against the government because the students wanted a democratic government. My parents also participated in this protest. However, my parents and students failed. Therefore, this event affected my parents’ rights to protest and free speech, and this also affected my parents’ right to democracy.

This event affected my parents’ right to protest. The government used force to stop people's right to protest during that time. Therefore, many people were scared to do or say anything against the government. My parents were twenty-three years old at that time. They were classmates at college, and they went to Beijing to join this protest together. In addition, the government ordered the army to ban students’ demonstrations.  My parents saw a lot of soldiers and tanks in Tiananmen Square, and the government allowed soldiers to shoot people and students because the government wanted to disperse the crowd and control the square. When my parents heard the shooting, they ran away because they didn't want to die. In addition, my parents didn't have enough food or water to stay in Beijing. Therefore, they had to leave Beijing. My parents had planned to stay in Beijing until the protest was successful. However, they had to go back home. Therefore, this changed my parents’ plan in Beijing which was to protest, and they had to left and went back home.

In addition, this event affected my parent’s right to free speech because the government didn't allow people to discuss this event. My parents saw the police arrest a lot of students. Moreover, they knew a person who was interviewed by an American journalist, and he was arrested later. At that time, the government only permitted news that was in favor of the government. When my parents went back home and watched the news of the day on the TV, they saw that the government made those who joined this protest plead guilty on TV. My parents were so scared to talk about this event because if they said something about this they might be arrested. Therefore, this event affected my parents’ ability to talk about this event and to speak freely. There is no free speech in China even today. In fact, the government today is cracking down on all kinds of speech including social media.

Furthermore, this event affected my parents’ right to live in a democracy. Before this massacre and since then, the Chinese government has not let people attend demonstrations and the government prevented people from gathering during the days and weeks after the massacre. My parents told me that the government checked people entering the city at all train stations because the government wanted to stop students at the train station, and they didn't let students go into Tiananmen Square to demonstrate. In addition, the government refused to talk to student representatives. My parents saw a lot of students make suggestions to the Chinese government, but the government ignored the students because they didn't want to implement any change. As a result, this event affected my parent’s right to make this country better and their chance to live in a democratic country.

In sum, after this event happened, my parents lost their rights. Although my parents tried to make China better, it was not easy to make the government change. They lost their right to protest and free speech. In addition, they lost their right to live in a democracy. In my opinion, my parents were brave to join this event. When my parents were young, they were heroes. However, Chinese politics today remains grim. People living in China still have no right to protest or speak freely. I hope my country will become more democratic one day in the future.

Cause & Effect Essay

 Divided Country

    Old generations say that young generations complain so much even though they can have everything what they want. I grew up hearing these words since I was young.  From their perspectives, the lives of young people seem so comfortable because many in the older generations suffered terribly from the Korean War. When my mother was five years old, the Korean War broke out. This clash was between communism and capitalism. Before the war, Korea was already being divided into the North and South based on their political lines. However, the Korean people couldn’t imagine that they would fight each other. The Soviet Union and China were behind North Korea and the U.S. was behind South Korea. The war lasted for three years and it left unforgettable deep pain on my mother’s family.

First of all, my grandfather’s business collapsed. He was a successful businessman who ran a furniture factory which was the biggest one in his hometown. Before the war, he built furniture for new schools after liberation from Japanese colonialism in 1945. However, the Korean war broke out in 1950, so all the plans were canceled. Therefore, he couldn’t get paid at all for jobs he already completed. After the war, he started a furniture business again. However, he couldn’t make money because everyone was poor, so no one could afford to buy furniture. Moreover, he ended up getting cancer and never recuperated. Thus, my mother’s family went from being wealthy to impoverished. 

        Furthermore, my grandparents lost their first son during the war. He was a handsome young man in his twenties who was very talented in every way and was my grandfather’s favorite. He was also talented in music and played the violin. When the North Korean army came to his hometown, they found him hiding in his neighborhood and kidnapped him for consolation performances of the North Korean army. After a while, some people who were kidnapped with my grandparents’ first son went back to their hometown. They said that while they were moving with the North Korean army, they were attacked by the U.S. army and most of them died including my grandparents’ son. My mother’s family was distressed to hear that and realized that there was no one standing on only one side in this war, but it was just a tragedy.   

        After the war, my mother had to be an independent child at the age of eight. She had six siblings and my grandparents were not able to take care all of them. Thus, my mother voluntarily entered an orphanage to ease the burden on her family. After one year, she came back home because the food was like garbage and she was sick a lot in the orphanage. Even though she could live with her parents, the situation didn’t get better. She picked up the wood and junk in the morning because even a single abandoned can on the street could be a household item for her house. She also sold one old book a day to buy sleeping pills to ease pain of her father who suffered from cancer. In addition, she loved school but couldn’t attend school often. Instead, she had to help her mother sell vegetables at the street market where it took three hours to walk from her house. Due to this reason, going to school became her lifelong dream until she went to college in her middle age. 

        To be honest, I couldn’t understand my elder family members whenever they criticized young generations and compared to their suffering from the war because it sounded unrealistic and felt like a story from a novel. However, when I heard from my mother about her childhood for the first time, because of my homework, I realized all the devastation during the Korean War that she and her family experienced. While listening her story, I felt really sorry for this young girl and ashamed that I didn’t ask about my family history before. She said that she had never told this story in detail to anyone. She cried like a child, and I also wiped away my tears. Finally, I was able to understand my mother better since I started to see vulnerable sides of older generations behind their strong sides. 

  

Winning Nothing

             Almost every country in Latin America has its own currency, but Ecuador is one of the exceptions. Twenty-two years ago, Ecuador changed its currency from sucres to dollars. In 1999, Ecuador was going through an economic and political crisis. The economy was deteriorating, and inflation was causing the country sink. As a result, the president arbitrarily changed currency, provoking a catastrophe. The dollarization started after the banks declared themselves bankrupt, and they started stealing Ecuadorian money. This event has been one of the most important historical events that Ecuador has gone through. Most of the population lost something with monetary value, savings, business, and houses, not even to mention people who lost their families. My family wasn’t exempt from losing something. The devaluation of the currency and the crisis economic caused two of my aunts had to immigrate to Italy. My mother was in the process of starting a small business and she lost everything she invested, and my grandparents lost money too. 

           Dollarization affected my family in many ways. Two of my aunts immigrated to Italy because of our family’s economic situation. They decided to help our family economically. In the beginning, it was hard for us to see them suffering the sorrow of being alone in another country. Moreover, they experienced racism and discrimination because of their race and language. They didn’t speak Italian. They had to do manual labor jobs that they would never imagine. However, my aunts helped my great-grandmother to build her house. They sent money to her every month to help with the expenses. They also help their sibling keep going after the economic crisis, sending money to them too. One of my aunts returned a few years later, but the other one still lives there. She always says that she is grateful to be in Italy despite all the circumstances she has experienced. 

           In addition, my mother’s new business was affected by the economic crisis. A year before my mother decided to set up a small business. She used to sell luxury brand perfumes. She traveled to Colombia to buy all the perfumes and do business with the providers who would sell her the perfumes that she would distribute. Everything was going well until the crisis and the dollarization occurred. My mother lost everything she invested and more. Despite Ecuador’s problem, my mom’s method to charge money for perfumes was unfavorable. She let the customers make monthly payments after they bought the product, so they would get the perfume first and pay later. As a result, they never fulfilled the payment commitment they had with my mother. They said as an excuse that they lost everything during the bankruptcy crisis and the dollarization. My mom had a lot of debts with her providers that took her years to figure out. Nevertheless, something good happened to my mother. She gave birth to me. She was pregnant while all this situation happened and at some point, I witnessed the crisis too.

        As I mentioned, this crisis involved my whole family. My grandparents faced difficult economic situations too. They were part of those people who had some savings at the bank, and they had lost it. It wasn’t a lot, but it represented their efforts over many years. They lost it with the crisis and the dollarization. Besides, they had a small business at their house. In Ecuador, it is common to see small grocery shops in houses where people can buy basic items like food or school supplies. They had this type of store. They didn’t close their small shop, but the business went through tough financial times. Customers weren’t frequent as before. As a result, they lost money and gained debts with banks. They asked for loans to keep going their business. Furthermore, it was hard for them to adapt to the new currency. They never had used dollars, so it was like learning again. 

           To sum up, dollarization changed the economic system in Ecuador. The country was affected by the consequences. My family faced the catastrophe of seeing our family getting separated, losing money, and hope. It took many years to adapt the country to a new era in the economy. What happened after dollarization and bankruptcy was horrifying, but also left a new hope that everything would be better at some point. Ecuador has preserved dollar currency for all these years. I consider it has helped the country not to be a complete mess. Even though the dollarization brought difficult times, the economy in Ecuador improved in a few aspects over the years. The situation would be worse if the country kept the old currency. Ironically, we got over what happened twenty-two years ago. It was hard at the beginning, but it has been better through the years. I don’t mean that Ecuador's economy is great now, but it is better than before the crisis.

 

    Coup d’état

        My family witnessed a very serious coup d’état in my country, Mali. In 1968, high military officials decided to overturn the Malian government which included my grandfather, Sekou Ly, and his close friend Moussa Traore, who was the president of Mali. My grandfather was the minister of defense. Conducting the coup along with protestors of the past regime destroyed the city of Bamako. Over two thousand civilians died during this coup d’état. That year all schools were closed due to the political and economic crises. The salaries of civil servants were very little, and they especially did not have enough money to feed their families well. Due to my family’s parts in this crisis, it was hard to go to places My family was looked strangely wherever they went by the citizens, so they stopped going out for a while. My family struggled for a while to rebuild their lives after this Coup d'état because most Malians knew who they were, and they were despised for it.

          This event traumatized my mother and her siblings, who were just kids at the time. According to my mother, the initial events took place while she and her siblings were at school. It was the end of recess, so everyone was supposed to enter their class. When they were entering the classrooms, students, teachers, and security guards heard gunshots coming from nowhere. At that moment, it was a mess in the schoolyard, and everyone was panicking. Students were running in all directions to hide, and the principal of the school tried to call the police, but nobody was responding. Suddenly, a security guard got a call from his colleague saying that multiple military trucks were passing and shooting their guns in the air near the school. It was the beginning of the coup d'état. My mother was trying to find her siblings, by looking everywhere in the school which was divided into two parts junior, and high school. She was also scared about what might happen to her siblings. She tried to call home, but no one picked up the phone. Therefore, she called their driver who usually stays at the school door with a bodyguard. With all the students running back and forth, my mother finally found her extremely terrified siblings, and they made it to the exit door. My mother and siblings found their driver and bodyguard outside, and they were taken to a safe place. Although they were safe and able to get out, my mother was still afraid of what would come next. This event has stayed with my mother for a long time.

         Another effect of this event was that my grandmother was not allowed to go out anymore without bodyguards for months. Before the event started my grandmother, and her driver were going to my grandmother's friend’s house without bodyguards. My grandmother explained to me that when she was going to her friend’s house, she stopped in the city center to buy some fruit for her friend. When they arrived, her driver saw some people running, but in his mind, it was nothing. At that moment, he heard gunshots and understood that there was a problem going on in the city. He tried to call one of the bodyguards to get some information, but on the radio, journalists were already talking about the chaos and the gunshots it was the beginning of a coup d Etat in Mali. In the area, my grandmother and her driver were stuck, so they decided to find a safe place to hide before someone got hurt. After hiding for hours, bodyguards rescued my grandmother and her driver and took my grandmother to her kids to a secret location where no one could find them. After what happened to my grandmother, she could not go out alone anymore because the country was not safe for her family.

      During the event, my grandfather’s family had no news of him for months. Military officials kidnapped my grandfather and the president. Before the kidnapping, my grandfather was at his office discussing a traitor in the government who stole money and gave insider information to the military officials with the president. Military officials already had their plan. In the middle of my grandfather and the President having a discussion, they heard gunshots and lots of commotion downstairs. My grandfather told me that he went downstairs to see what was going on. Then he saw a lot of soldiers with their guns pointed towards the building, so he ran as quickly as possible upstairs to warn the president. It was too late, some soldiers had already made their way upstairs through another entrance, and they had their guns pointed to the President, and quickly turned towards my grandfather as well. My grandfather and the president were detained and taken to an isolated place where no one could find them, they had no idea where they were. My grandfather and the president were not even allowed to talk to their family and tell them that they were fine. According to my grandfather’s explanation, the military officials were very mean. My grandfather and the other detainees only ate once a day. They were unable to take a bath alone, so they had guards watching them 24/7.

        Hearing my family explain what happened to them during the coup d'état, I have realized how difficult and traumatizing it was for them. Even after the coup d'état, my family was unable to focus on rebuilding their life, because they were still traumatized, and the country was not safe for them. My mother and her siblings didn’t go to school for months. Since the Malian government decided to close all the schools due to economic crises, my mother and her sibling’s studies were disrupted for another year. Overturning the Malian government whenever the military has the opportunity must stop because they are putting many people's lives at risk, especially innocent civilians.

Metamorphic

No war anywhere in the world has brought peace and hope to itself. The great powers of the world always make decisions in their favor, and ordinary people pay the price for their decision by losing everything and their lives. It has been more than forty years since the start of the Iran Iraq war. This imposed war on Iran lasted eight years, and like any other war, it inflicted irreparable damage on the country and the nation of Iran. My mother's family was one of the millions of Iranian families who suffered a lot because of the Iran-Iraq war, and that was the beginning of all the hardships they had to experience after the war happened.

With the start of the war, my mother’s family had to leave their city and take refuge in another place. Khorramshahr is one of the southern cities of Iran, which borders Iraq, and it was the first place to be attacked by the Iraqi president Saddam Hossein. My family was from that city and lived there at that time. My mother explained that she remembers the first missiles hit civilian areas around noon when people were at work and kids were in school for the first day of the school season. Moreover, my mother’s said that she would never forget the day, they were forced to leave their home and move to an unknown future. They experienced a hard time getting to Tehran to settle in my mother’s aunt’s house. However, they arrived in Tehran after two or three days of beginning the war. Many people had difficulty running away from the city. My family was lucky to find a chance to settle somewhere safe.

In addition, this war caused my grandfather to lose one of his legs. After my grandfather took his family to a safe place, he decided back to Khorramshahr to find my great uncle who had not come back since the beginning of the war, and help people, also move his other family members, with his car. At that time, the Ba’athists were a particular group of the Iraqi army forces, and they controlled many areas of Khorramshahr. In the meanwhile, my grandfather was helping people who were trapped in their house and city run away from the enemy. In one of these operations, a mortar hit the area and the fragments of mortar wounded him. Due to the hardships of living with one foot and an artificial leg, my grandfather could not return to his mechanical job for several years and this disability not only weakened his body but also his mental health as well. Therefore, he felt that his disability causes great inconvenience to his family for many years.

Eventually, my family found out that my uncle who was missing for a long time had become a martyr. Like many people, my uncle went to war with the invading enemy to defend his city and country, but he never back home since the first time, Iraq attacked Khorramshahr. due to the chaos in the city and the lack of proper communication ways with each other, my family had no connection with him. However, they thought that he had taken refuge in another city with the rest of the people, but when they didn’t get any news from him for a long time, they became frustrated; besides that, all the family wanted to believe that he was still alive. During those years, my family went everywhere and to every organization to search for him, but unfortunately, they came back disappointed every time. In the end, with the news of his martyrdom, my family and especially my grandmother understood that their child would never return home. My uncle’s martyrdom made my family unable to forget the bitterness of this war.

All the bitter events that my family went through made it impossible for them to ever return to their hometown. Even though they went there a few years after the war ended, they were faced with a city and a house that looked more like ruins. For this reason, they did not last more than a few months and returned to Tehran. Even today, after thirty-four years since the end of the war, people of the region have not yet been able to fully rebuild their lives, and the effects of the devastation of the war are still visible on the face of the city. In my opinion, the war has never made any land successful. War has always brought hardship and irreparable damage to the people of the lands. I have never understood the war of powers and whether gaining power is worth the bloodshed and displacement of millions of humans!! I only hope that one day, humans can be able to find a sense of peace and live the life as they deserve, happy and free.

 Displacement

 

Being in the middle of the gun conflict was the reality for a lot of families in Colombia countryside during the 60s and ’70s. When the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia Farc group was created in 1964, its main purpose was to combat the deliquesce and social problems in different rural zone of Colombia. Over time the group turns into a cruel group to try to get the government power and fight with the legal Colombian army for territory. In a lot of the territory, the Farc had marijuana crops and abducted people as an economic income. Over the years there have been multiples peace agreements between the Colombian government and Farc, but the last one was in 2016. The violence ceased in different years depending on each place where the Farc were. In rural zones in Colombia, forced displacement was the only solution to flee the violence for a long time. Although my father's displacement was not forced, he decided to leave his life of farming and cattle, the life that he liked. He left his town to avoid dying in the middle of the conflict between two armed groups. He was seventeen years old and moved to the capital city, Bogota to start a new life without education. As a result, he met my mother, and I was born in Bogota. My father’s displacement changed my life and has allowed me to live different experiences that I would not have lived in a town.

As a city girl, I didn't have to do hard work in the countryside during my childhood. It is common for kids in the countryside to work in farming or do a lot of household duties. In my case, I did not need to help with the guava harvest while the sun burned me, milk cows at dawn, feed and collet chickens’ eggs, or make fences. On the contrary, I was in my city Bogota enjoying the city and the cultural spaces, like museums and parks for kids. In Bogotá, I was able to meet an awesome group of friends. We have been friends for twenty years, we traveled together, and have incredible experiences together.

 Bogotá

In addition, I am thankful that I finished university because in Velez, the town where my father came from there are no Universities. I should appreciate the education I received because a lot of people there barely finished high school. Also, many teenagers there get pregnant which contributes to the cycle of poverty. The good news is my father always dreamed to go back to the land where he was born. When the violence ceased, he took my family and me for vacation every year to his town and we spent time on the farm. He has some cows and chickens that we took care of. I love it, but just for vacation. That experience allowed me to grow up with countryside and city experiences, which for me are a good balance. 

The last effect on me was that I was able to meet people from different countries and learn about their cultures. Back in my father’s town, there are some people who have never even left their town or seen other parts of Colombia. They are not curious about what is outside the country, what other people think about life, or how they lived in other places. For me, it is the most exciting thing that someone from the other side of the globe tells his or her customs or rules instead of reading about them. Now I am in the U.S.A. hoping to learn more about myself and others. Certainty Chicago will allow me to meet more people from different countries and have more experiences than the ones that I could have in a small town.

 

I cannot say that my father's displacement was a blessing. I think I can say it was a challenge, and the advantage was for me. When I visited my father's town, I realized how my life changed because of his displacement. I experience different situations than the people of his town, but I cannot say if it was better or not. Undoubtedly what I'm sure of is that I am thankful for the experiences in the city and in the town, for studying, for travel and learning about other cultures, but above all for being able to be my father's daughter.

 

Homesick

            

            When I came to the United States, food was a challenge for me because eating was a different experience. People living in the US like to eat raw vegetables, and a lot of Americans like to eat salads. Growing up in China, however, I was used to eating cooked vegetables. As a result, there are very differences both in terms of the type of food and the way we prepare food between China and the United States. When I arrived in the United States, I felt like I had lost my connection with China, and this made me feel homesick. For example, Chinese breakfast is very different from the United States breakfast. In addition, Chinese dumplings are also different from breakfast in the United States. Moreover, Chinese street food is different from United States street food. Therefore, moving to the United States made me feel like I was living in two different worlds. 

             One of the first aspects that made me feel homesick was the cooking methods such as the flavor, texture, and seasoning. For example, Chinese breakfast always includes steamed food or boiled food like steamed bao and tofu soup, and people always drink tea in the morning. On the other hand, the breakfast in this country usually includes cereal, eggs, and cheese, and people living in the United States like to drink coffee to start a day. Therefore, eating breakfast in this country is a different experience for me because it is two different worlds for me. When I ate cheese for the first time, I thought it smelled bad. In addition, after the first time I drank coffee, I felt my heartbeat faster and it made me very uncomfortable. Therefore, it took me a while to get used to eating breakfast in Chicago.

            Additionally, the way Chinese food is offered in the United States is not the same as it is offered in my homeland which is Liaoning province in northern China. For example, dumplings are different between my homeland and the United States. There are many kinds of dumplings especially from northern China like pork with green onion, beef with mushroom, chicken with shrimp, and leek with egg. Moreover, people always boil dumplings or steam or fry dumplings in China. However, the way these dumplings are offered in Chicago is limited. There are only a few dumplings in the United States like chicken and pork. I believe they are made by a machine not a human, so they obviously taste different for me. When I go to the Asian market to buy dumplings, I always feel it is so disappointed that I cannot make dumplings and I should learn how to make them from my mother. Therefore, I even started to forget the taste of Chinese dumplings which had made me feel like I had lost connection with China.

            Furthermore, what I also miss from China is the street food because there is almost no street food in Chicago. It is a totally different experience getting street food in the United States compared to back home in China. It is not all processed food like in the United States, but they feel that someone has made them and put work and effort into making these delicious meals. In addition, I miss the experience of going out with my friends. For example, my favorite Chinese street food is grilled chicken wings, and they taste so good it is something that I cannot get in the United States. In addition, I live in Chicago where there is almost no Asian street food even though I can see some Mexican street food. In addition, when I walk down the street after school in Chicago, I can’t smell anything of the food which made me feel very different because I can smell the food on every street in China. Lastly, I miss the experience of street food in China because it is a very special experience knowing that someone has cooked these foods. In addition, I also miss the experience that hanging out with my friends every time we went out for these street foods. 

            In sum, there are many foods that are challenging for me now. In addition, it has taken me a long time to get used to eating food in Chicago. Usually, I crave to eat bao, tofu, tea, and some other Chinese breakfast. Additionally, dumplings are offered in many ways in China where they are very limited. Moreover, I really miss the experience of street food in China. Especially, I miss the experience of socializing with my friends every time we went out for these street foods. All these experiences make me feel homesick.

New life

 

New life

    People in China were not free before the Economic Opening at all, and freedom is an essential part of people life. In the early years of the Republic of China, people life was hard for the average. China was also a closed country for thirty years. Before the Economic Opening, people wanted food to eat and wanted to have a bigger house, but China was undergoing a situation that everything was in short supply. People desired more comfortable living conditions. Therefore, the government made some adjustments in the Economic Opening. The Economic Opening was one of the biggest events that happened in the beginning of Republic of China led by Deng Xiaoping in 1978. The Economic Opening gave my father a lot of chances to change our family life. It brought my family’s a freer and more open environment for doing business and traveling.

    The first benefit brought by the Economic Opening was that my family started their own business. Before the Economic Opening, there were only few companies running by the country, such as banks, markets, restaurants and even hospitals. At that moment, individuals were not allowed to own the companies because there was no private enterprise. However, after the Economic Opening, everything changed and the restrictions on not being able to open a company had been cancelled. At the end of twentieth century, my family finally started own business. My family could do business with people around the world. It was not just those few regular businessmen that nationalized industry did business with. My family is doing commercial business now, and there are more policies that can help my family company improve.

    Moreover, Chinese people could finally travel abroad. There were only a minority of people that had the privilege to go to other countries in the past. For instance, only businessmen, scholars and government employees had the opportunity to apply to go abroad. Therefore, Chinese people had never left the country before. In addition, the typical passport had many limitations at that time. For example, most people had one-time passports to leave the country. Even if they could apply for a multiple passport, they needed to return it back when they went back to China. Due to some policies cancelled by the Economic Opening, Chinese people could go to other countries and make their own travel trip. Currently, there are no limitations on travelling now. People can apply for passport easily by submitting some documents. The cost of going aboard now is lower than before because the strict policy was lifted.

    Lastly, after the Economic Opening, my family could buy everything they want to buy without any permission. There were some policies in the past that limited purchase levels of average citizens. Chinese people needed tickets before they bought food, and those tickets were provided by the government. In addition, at times food was in short supply. Therefore, the tickets were used to limit the amount each person can buy. Even though my family was well off, my family still needed to buy food with the tickets. Otherwise, they couldn't buy anything. Another thing was my family could not buy a house easily in the past. Houses were provided by the government. My father could buy a bigger house if we had a large family. Therefore, my father had no choice but to buy the house which government provided or else my family had no place to live. After the Economic Opening began, the restrictions were all gone. My family finally could buy whatever they want. There are no quantity limitations now, and all Chinese citizens can buy whatever they can afford.

    China had a very difficult situation before the Economic Opening. Today, my father still talks to me about how difficult life was at that time. Since the Economic Opening began, people’s quality of life in my family has improved and it has become easier than before. My family is in more comfortable living conditions because there is a lot of food and houses are easy to buy. Although my country is more open now, I think the big environment in China will be better than now soon. In my opinion, there should be more freedom and more democracy in China.

Familiar Feeling

   Daniel Quan

 ESLINTG100 CE

 February 8, 2022 

Familiar Feeling

Food can cause people to have a longing for their country, especially the country's cuisine. I have had a longing since I moved to my new city, Chicago. Food and its taste are different everywhere in the world and influenced by the people, places, unique styles, and culture. I lived in Vietnam for almost twenty years. I tried and ate a lot of different kinds of not only traditional cuisine food, but also modern food in Vietnam. However, I think Vietnamese cuisine is so unique that other countries cannot imitate it. Thus, I really miss the real Vietnamese cuisine since arriving in Chicago.

Chicago does not have various Vietnamese foods and the taste is also different from back in Vietnam. A few months after arriving in Chicago, I spent time on arranging and getting used to the new environment. I tried to find places that serve Vietnamese cuisine. However, there are not so many popular Vietnamese restaurants in Chicago. When I arrived in Uptown, a Vietnamese neighborhood in Chicago, they had popular Vietnamese cuisine such as Pho, Banh mi, and Banh cuon. However, I tried to find other dishes such as Ho lo trung, Bun dau mam tom, and Banh bot lot. Bun dau mam tom is also one of the popular and cultural foods in Vietnam, but not in Chicago. A lot of people can eat Mam tom in Vietnam, but people who were not born in Vietnam don’t enjoy this dish in the same manner. Probably because people living in Chicago cannot stand the shrimp sauce in this dish. All of these are probably the reasons why some famous Vietnamese food is not available in Chicago. 

 In addition, one of my favorite Vietnamese foods is Pho. Pho is popular not only in Vietnam, but also in so many other countries and in Chicago. However, It is not as delicious or tasty as Vietnamese food in Vietnam, which makes me miss Vietnamese food a lot. The first time I tried Pho in one of the stores in a Vietnamese place,  the soup tasted lighter and the noodles were thicker than in my hometown. I could also feel the meat still had a bit of a frozen taste when I ate it. Even though I eat Pho, I cannot feel the familiar feeling. 

Besides, I cannot find a lot of Vietnamese food places nearby the area I live in Chicago. When I found the neighborhood, it took me an hour to get there. When I get there, it is hard to find parking places. Unlike Chicago, in Vietnam I could find food easily. When I walked out of my house, it took me around five minutes to get to the store and order. There is not only street food which appears everywhere in Vietnam, but also a lot of cars or bikes sell food in front of the school. I did not need to drive an hour to buy Vietnamese food. 

Furthermore, Vietnamese people also call Vietnam a culinary paradise. Not only are there a lot of delicious and cultural cuisines, but also a lot of food stores in Vietnam open twenty four hours a day. Whenever I felt hungry at night, I just went out and got food which was very easy and convenient. Whenever I go to a Vietnamese place to buy food or for the market, it is really hard to find a parking spot. Because it is always easily full, I  always have to wait for a long time or there is no place for parking. Unlike Chicago, most people in Vietnam use motor-bikes, so there are a lot of places for us to park easily. In addition, there are a lot of parking places and it is large.  

    All of my nostalgia has been around these typical Vietnamese dishes since I arrived in Chicago. I wish I could eat a lot of real Vietnamese cuisine food and get it more easily and conveniently. There is not a lot of cuisine in Chicago such as Bun bo hue, Banh cuon, and Thit kho to and the way to get the food is so far and inconvenient.  My mother tried to cook my favorite dishes, but she failed because she couldn’t find some spices and recipes. Because of that, my family and I are trying to get used to the change and wait until we travel to Vietnam to eat all of our special food. Someday in the future, I believe I will get used to living here and I hope I can find plenty of different Vietnamese cuisine nearby with similar taste to Vietnam. 

                                                                   

My Daily Prayers 

               I am a young Muslim, and I come from a traditional Muslim family. In Mali my family, friends and I learned how to practice Islamic culture to be a better Muslim. In Muslim countries, people must learn how to practice Islamic culture correctly. As a Muslim I have five pillars to follow, which is a traditional custom. When I used to live in Mali, I always started my prayers on time in a calm place, but in the United States I have not found a place to focus on my prayers. It is impossible for me to pray in the noise. Since I moved here, I have a hard time practicing my religion, especially prayers. 

 

                In the past, I always used to pray at the right time in Mali, but now due to my schedule in the United States it is hard. When I am in class, it is always time to pray. I am not able to perform my prayers when I am at school or other places, because of the noise around. I could mix the set of verses constituting chapters in the Coran, which is called suras. Some Muslims say:  when a person mixes his suras while he is praying, his prayer will not be accepted, so he must restart, and this is true.  I must pray no matter the circumstance, and there is no excuse for not praying. Before praying I must perform my ablutions, and then I pray. Every Muslim has an obligation to pray five times a day. A part of being a Muslim is completing all the Islamic cultures. When Muslims pray, it is a sign of devotion to Allah, which means God in Arabic. Sometimes when I see my family or just little kids praying, I am very happy for them, especially the kids. At the age of seven, all children must start praying. That is why parents learn some easy suras at the kids before the age to pray. 

                  In addition, I don’t feel comfortable praying in public areas. Currently, it is not easy for me to pray around people in public places.  I cannot pray in an area full of people who don’t really understand this part of the Muslim culture. I would feel judged by people because of the stares even though some of it is just out curiosity. Sometimes I feel that just because I wear a scarf, other religious stares at me strangely, which feels extremely uncomfortable for me. As a Muslim, I must wear long clothes and a scarf on my head to cover my body when I am praying. Women and men must not pray in the same area, which means that they cannot be next to each other while they are praying. It is a custom for men to lead women during prayer. That is why the women are always behind the men. I would not like to pray in public with all the judgment, and that is why I feel comfortable praying in a calm place without noises and stares.

                    Furthermore, in Muslim countries, there are specific places to pray in calmness. There are carpets in the mosque. The prayer carpets are usually used by Muslims during prayers, it allows the believer to isolate themselves from the outside world to better focus on the action while praying. There is one person who prays in front of the prior, and that person is called an imam. He directs them when they are praying. In Mali, I used to go to the mosque, so I could focus on my prayers. By always praying, I must head in the direction of the (QIBLA) which can be the north or south, it depends on the location I am at. According to traditional sources, the prophet Mohamed was ordered to pray toward (QIBLA) of mecca which is a sacred place. There must not be any noise in the mosque when Muslims pray. Making noise is disrespectful. All Muslims pray next to each other with the noise they cannot concentrate. There are some rules to respect. When the imam starts the prayer there is no noise. People must only hear the imam’s voice, and Muslims who are praying must recite their suras inside of them. The person who makes noise during prayer will be quiet out, those are the rules. Muslims must not bring kids under the age of seven to pray with them because some of the kids could make noise and confuse the prior suras.

 

                     Since I left Africa and moved to the United States, I have forgotten how to practice my Islamic culture. I have realized how difficult it is for me to continue to fulfill my duties as a young Muslim. Even though I came to Chicago for college, I really miss Mali. At least I had opportunities to learn how to be a better Muslim there. Under all the circumstances, I know how difficult it is for me and other Muslims to pray on time in the United States. I think it might be better if there were at least some mosques in public places for Muslims to pray on time without noise or stares from others.

                    

 

 

 

 

 

 

New place

 Seonghae Kim

February 9, 2022

limited                  

           Ever since I moved to South Korea from North Korea, I have felt I am an alien. To the uninitiated people about Korea, the Korean peninsula has been divided for over a half-century and is similar to Germany in the past. South Korea is capitalist and North Korea is ruled by a dictatorship and closed to communists. Due to the economic crisis, and freedom, many people have been moving to South Korea from North Korea for decades. There are many undeniable factors that make me different from others in South Korea: I have a Northern accent, and I do not know many words that South Korean people generally use. Furthermore, I went to the South as a refugee, and have been living in the US. All these factors have affected my sense of who I am and how I fit into both South Korea and the United States.

I lost my comfort of speaking, while I was adjusting to the new environment in South Korea. I was often asked where I was from because I have a local accent. I convinced myself that it’s okay to be different. In the face of reality, however, it did not work out well because people often left such a strong impression on me because I was speaking differently. I worked at several places in South Korea while preparing to apply for college. I worked at a bar responsible for serving and placing orders. One day on a night shift, without knowing what I was saying, I unintentionally used my Northern accent, and for that I was laughed at by a few young boys. For a moment, I was frozen and chills started trickling down my back. They continuously asked me many disrespectful questions, but I had no idea how to deal with the uncomfortable situation. Although my life was not devoted to prayer, I sincerely whispered to God to get me out of that place since my boss was watching over me with eagle eyes. A few days later I was replaced as a result of my accent. The boss did not say anything, yet it seemed self-explanatory. After that, I have tried harder to adjust to the South Korean accent and tried to maintain my Northern dialect  too because it still holds emotional sentiment in my heart.

I also completely lost my sense of humor and self-esteem while living in South Korea. People in the South, unlike in the North, have used many words that originated from other countries that made me more nervous when I spoke. As might be expected, the nervousness just changed my talkative and humorous character. One morning, I took a bus to attend school, and soon I recognized it was the wrong bus. However, I had no guts to ask the driver where it was because the word “driver” was different from one that I used in the North. I waited until lunchtime at which the bus usually stopped riding. Finally, the driver asked me to leave, and I asked him nervously where I was. He told me indifferently to use my GPS. I just nodded instead of saying yes, but I had no idea what the GPS was. Funny enough, I didn’t know the word for driver. Neither did I know how to take public transportation or use a phone. As time has passed, I have overcome these difficulties little by little, but still, I am nervous to speak to a person in a bank or store. Eventually, it feels like I have become less talkative and less funny.

Last semester in Pop Culture class, the students were assigned a few times to present something that represents their culture. It was the first time I shared K-Pop music and famous celebrities in South Korea. Later I found myself guilty of pretending to be familiar with Southern culture. However, in lieu of dwelling on that kind of burden, I wanted to move on. Worst of all, the final project was to present my cultural identity which made me reconsider my identity. I confessed to the professor that I had no clue about my identity and she suggested that I present something about North Korea. Anyway, I did my final project on North Korean culture, but I have still been struggling to find my identity. Every time I introduce myself, I have no idea where to begin, or how to make the conclusion about my identity.

 I lost my sense of belonging from having a unique background and accent, and of which I was ashamed. Throughout these times I learned my lesson that as long as I am staying active in my life and ready to be a better person in the present, where I was born and from, and what kind of language I used to speak are less important. It is a universal fact that people are not able to choose their parents, and countries to be born, but they can choose how to live today and make things better than yesterday.