ATATURK

By: Rahman SEKER

Ataturk was founder of the Turkish Republic and the first president of the republic. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was born in Salonika in 1881. He was the Chief of Staff of the Army Corps which entered Istanbul in 1909. He started to work under the Command of General Staff in 1911. In 1915, when Dardanelles campaign was launched, Colonel Mustafa Kemal became a national hero by winning successive victories and finally repelling the invaders. At the time of the Ottoman Empire, he attended to Tripoli War, the Balkans War and the First World War. When the Ottoman Empire succumbed to the First World War, Mondros Armistice Treaty was signed. This is the beginning of the invasion of the territory of the motherland in accordance with the Treaty. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk went to Samsun and launched the national challenge on 19 May 1919. After he published Havza and Amasya memorandums, he established Rumeli and Anatolia Law Society with Sivas Congress and combined under one roof all national community. After Sivas Congress, he met Istanbul Government which represented the Ottoman Empire. Thus, Istanbul Government was officially recognized the existence of the representation in the Committee. He led the Grand National Assembly in Ankara, Turkey and he was elected President of the Grand National Assembly. He managed great attack in Kocatepe, Afyon and he said that “Soldiers! The first target is the Mediterranean, Forward!” to encourage Turkish Soldiers. In July 1923, the national government signed the Lausanne Treaty with Great Britain, France, Greece, Italy. Then, Ankara became the capital of the new Turkish State. Ataturk married Latife Usakligil in 1923. After two years, the marriage ended in divorce. He created a new political and legal system, abolished the Caliphate and made both government and education secular, gave equal rights to women, changed the alphabet and the attire, and advanced the arts and the sciences, agriculture and industry. When the surname law was adopted, the national parliament gave him the name “Ataturk” in 1934. It means Father of the Turks. On November 10, 1938, the Father of modern Turkey died, but his legacy to his people and to the world endures.

by:Amy unforgettable experience in Halloween night

An unforgettable night Halloween party.

Halloween is a contraction of its original title "All Halloween’s evening"),also known as All Hallows' Eve is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the eve of the western Christian feast of all Hallows. Many scholars believe that All Hallows' Eve was originally influenced by western European harvest festival and festival of death with possible pagan roots, Others maintain that it originated independently of Samhain. However there are many scholars that believe Halloween has Catholic origins and was only slightly influenced by Pagan customs such as carving the pumpkin.  Most Halloween traditions have Christians origins such as trick or treating or dressing up in costumes which originates from French Catholics because of the black death plague which caused France to be more concerned with the afterlife.

In order to celebrate this special festival, people are dressed up with the character whatever they want to be. Kinds of costumes are seen in the night. To my surprise, UCR held a big party for international students in extension center. A lot of activities are prepared for the celebration. Which I have never experienced such a big experience in china. I was shocked by the different costumes.

One of my classmates dressed up like Captain America, he is really cute ,he is a Japanese boy .the jacket is made of three colors for red, white and blue. And this character is regarded as a symbol of American spirit. For his intelligence and courage. I love this character and this comic book.

It reminds of the movie of phantom of the opera, you will enjoy the beautiful character Christine. She is a beautiful girl with brown hair and white dress.  the love story talked about the loving attitude from 19 century to 20 century, which reveals a unforgettable experience. He is man who can handle all kinds of skills. And my friends told me that it is to dress up and you can save a lot of money.. one black suit, one white mask and a hat. You will enjoy it..

 

And there are also some symbolic character which has deep significant like peaceful. Hippies is kind of tribe for the sake of peaceful world. They are called peace activist, they should be act as an “earth friendly”they advocate for the recycle., no nig truck for keeping from the pollution and saving the world. this is the picture of it. You can enjoy the happiness when dress up like this.

Adversely, for girls you can change your character like quite , you can be more active like Xena warrior .she is a brave girl ,independent and very powerful. She wears a leather outfit with a red cap.

More importantly, we have great fun in the dancing pool, we got together dancing like a circle people from different counties. To my surprise ,we danced to the song of Gangnam style. All students cheered up.

I think this is a big experience for me, because in china I have never experienced such a special atmosphere like in America. I came to find out all the different cultures in America, which are very interesting ,unique and colorful .

To sum it up, I thought the various character abounds in Americans can arouse people’s imagination and stimulate your creativity to come up with more appealing movies and animations.

Appropriate Residence

By Rustam Rakhmetov.

Hi everyone! 

No one can cast a shadow of a doubt on the fact that everyone struggle of looking for the place of living before coming at UCR Extension Center. There is is controversy among different people whether new students should be live in dorm or homestay, someone may live in rent apartment. Let's define all advantages of every possible residence, and elect the appropriate for you.

The first housing offer I received from UCR office was IRC (International Residence Center). Of course one can read all merits of this comfortable place on the official site of UCR Extension center (http://www.iep.ucr.edu/housing/irc.html). But today I want write real comment of real students who lived there. The most common demerit of aforementioned housing all students said is absence of kitchen room. I think it is very inconvenient because sometimes food from restaurants and fast food shops can bore or irritate all people. Occasionally students want to prepare food themselves because in this case they able to save money. In addition, in time of traditional holidays it is necessary for students to make special dishes, especially in religious holidays. As another disadvantage of place in question is dark rooms. One of my classmates, she is a girl, felt very uncomfortable because of color of the room. When she entered the room her state of mood changed worse. And she left this place as soon as possible. I think to live and study in the same place might be boring because people like changes. The only one benefit of IRC for me is convenient location. You can sleep as much as possible before beginning the classes, but some students who lives there all the same late.

My grade for IRC is 4 from 10.

Moreover another housing for students is IV (International Village). Very comfortable and convenient place for living. There are some places for entertainment like soccer field, small gym, TV lounge, ping-pong place and  pool table. The different from IRC is presence of kitchen. And it is very big plus, because as I mentioned before you can save your money and etc. But there some underprivilege of IV is that there is terrible smell. For people, especially for me, who is not used to being there it very sensitive and spent time inside this building is not pleasure. As another drawback is fair alarm. For first time it may seem funny. But when it happen so often and at the night when people have a rest is irritating and terrible.

My grade for IV is 6 from 10

In addition one may chose homestay. I think it is the best variant for who wants to improve his oral skills and to know American culture more deeper. In homestay family all your free time you can spend for studding because you do not need to clean all house, you do not need to prepare a meal, and you always can ask for help in confusing study material from your homestay parents. But in this case all depends on a family you live in. Some lucky student have a really good time with their homestay family. They are traveling, shopping together and making the different kind of dishes. But if you will be taken by not friendly family is the biggest mines than much more than all pluses. Some student said me that they ate separately from their family and they needed permeation to take even water from kitchen. Student should took a bus to go UCR. Of course he lived there very short time but the bad feeling do not leave him and he never go to homestay family because of bad experience.

My grade for homestay is 8 from 10

In my point of view one of the best housing is a renting apartment. There are a lot of choices among renting apartment. The renting is more cheaper than aforementioned housing if you cooperate with other students. But you can spend a lot of money for furniture and all devices your need for every day activity. The vice of renting apartment is the fact that students usually rent the apartment with countrymen. And they speak the same language, not English, that do not help learning English.

My grade for RA is 7 from 10

As you notice from my grade I graded the homestay the highest. And I would like to know your opinions!!!

Benefits of Books

BY:GRACE

What gift will you choose for your friend’s birthday? That is a big problem for some people. But I have never been bothered by this question. I always buy different kinds of books for my different friends. Why do I choose this way? You may wonder. I am found of this way for books have many profits.  

First of all, “books are the stepping stones to human progress.”  In other words, book is one of the significant ways to spread and create knowledge. This affect acts on both individual and country. I can think of no better illustration than the following ones.

It is said that children say anything they want because being short of reading. Thinking about your brothers and sisters in your family, you will be amazed of their get great important changes when they enter school. You may wonder that why your sisters or brothers become to adult suddenly. The reason is that they come into contact with books in school. Books make potential influences on children’s growth. 

Another example is the well-known great calamity of culture in Qin dynasty of China. The dominator burned books and buried scholars to stop the progress of Confucianism, for this thought departed from his rules. The dominator buried Confucian books for fear Confucianism expanded. Although this measure brought temporary stability to the country, it also cased a pity of human progress. Obviously, books also have potential effects on the development of society.

These cases effectively clarify that book plays an important role of promoting the improvement of knowledge.

Furthermore, reading books is a fashion way to pass time. It has becoming an indispensable part of most people’s life. And it is wise to reading books instead of surfing online in spare time. Reading books has much more values than playing computer games or chatting online at least.

If we look around, we often find a lot of friends wasting time online all day long. At the same time, too much attention to Internet distracts their concerns to the real world. Books are good gifts for your friends who are indulging in Internet.

Last but not least, the kinds of books are various. According to the recent survey by Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, there are billions of new books are published every year. If you have time to go to bookstore, you will be surprised that you can find out all books that you imagine. Whatever style your friends like, literature, geography, history, biology, astronomy, or other styles, they can find the books they want

As has been mentioned, books have so many profits: they boost knowledge’s development, help us pass time in a valued way, and create chances for us to choose easily.

I believe that the problem of choosing gifts for you will not trouble you after reading this essay. When your friends’ birthdays come, you can give them books as gifts. This measure will please both your friends and you.

A Horro Night In Universal Studios

By:Eva 
  Last weekend, my friend and I went wo Universa Studios to celebrate Halloween, and we spent a real horro night in there.

  When we entered the park, we just saw some sexy girls were dancing in the cages as a show, so I thought the famous horro night was common. Suddenly, a clown with a snow-white mask and a huge saw appeared in front of me, I was so scared that loosed my friend's hand emphatically, then ran wild. However, running and screaming did not work, on the contrary, it made the clown happy and satisfying. He came up with me and my behaviour attracted another clown. There is no way to escape because two horrifc person around me. I had to stop running and tried to calm down. Once I calmed down, they stopped scaring me, and finally I compelled myself to say "nice job" to them,then they left me.

 

  After that, I didn't dare to move on any more, so I seated on a chair, but even though, ghosts still attenpted to frienghten me. One of them whose body and face were totally white except a big bleeding mouth stared at me for a long time, just stared at me without any word. I looked his eyes for one second, and all my fine hair stood up-right.

  There were several theme parks that night such as Walking Dead and Terror Tram, but I didn't want to try anyone of them. However, considering the expensive tickets price, we decided to choose one at least. Our choice was The Silent Hill which is the featured theme of Universal Studios this year. It was a long and narrow house that all visitors can only stand in line and go through it one by one. The real terrific thing was that when we went through it in the dark, different dreadful people would junp out from any corner, and sometimes visitor had to push aside the bleeding and lifelike organs which were hang over in front of them and can continue moving on. The most wisdom choice I made was that closed my eyes in the whole journey!

 

  That night was a really new experience for me. Although my decision is that I will never celebrate Halloween in Universal Studios again, it can not be denied that their jobs were amazing, and I will remember it forever!

About California Drivers

By Junyang Wu(YangYang)

I want to talk about California drivers because I was really shocked by two car accidents in these two weeks.

On Oct 19th, there's a big car accident happened on 60 East Freeway at noon, it caused 1 died and three injured. The big truck crushed and hited other three trucks .When I drive to the 60 East about 7 o'clock, the traffic is still stuck on the freeway. Not only because the police still work on cleaning the freeway, but also everyone on the freeway drove slowly in order to see the accident. The other car accident I 'd like to talk was happened on 60 west Freeway on Oct13th. This one I was really shocked because it happened just in front of me. When I were driving at that time, the car was out of contol and it cross from the first lane to the last lane, and it crashed just in front of my car. I would be hited if I drove little bit fast. That is my first time that really close to a car accident.

Since I got the drive licenses on February, I think people's driving habits in California are much better than in China. People in California will follow the traffic rules even the traffic lights doesn't work. However, I think there are still some bad driving habits in California. I found that people in California always like to watch what has happened on the street while they're driving. When they do this action, they always will reduce the normal speed automatically. This is a main reason that cause the traffic- jam.Another  problem is that some people like to slow their speed by purpose in the car poor lane and sometimes the big trucks like to use the car poor lane but they can not drive fast. Another problem is that some people like to keep changing  the lanes without turn on the signal light. I think those problems are the main  cause to car accidents.

 

My Visit to Santa Monica

by: Yamakawa Kyohei

　 In this post, I would like to provide you with information about my trip to Santa Monica, which is located in west portion of Los Angels. It was first time to visit Santa Monica for me, so I was really surprised since Santa Monica is completely different town from Riverside.

 　I went to Santa Monica Pier and Santa Monica Third Street Promenade that is very famous for its shopping mall on Saturday. I like Third Street because it is very lively place. There are so many cloth shops like H&M, American Apparel, and Old Navy, etc.; therefore, do not forget bringing enough money in order to enjoy shopping. There are not only cloth shops, but also nice-looking music shops, large book stores, and seafood restaurants. Smells of foods made me hungry, for customers was eating outside of restaurants. In addition, Street musicians and performers tried to make tourists fun. A group of two black young men danced reggae, whereas a band sang and played musical instruments.

　On Sunday, I went to Getty Museum which is located on top of the mountain. Due to the location, air is pure, and view from the mountain is really beautiful. It is like a heaven. Mainly, the museum displays painting in the Middle age of Europe and furniture used by French nobles like Louis XIV. They taught me livelihoods at that time. While commoners suffered from poverty, nobles used such gorgeous furniture. I can understand why the French Revolution happened easily.

　Through my trip, I met many kind people. One woman told me which bus station I should go politely when I was confusing. I could not visit everywhere I wanted to go such as Santa Monica Pier Aquarium, however I had a great experience that I cannot go through in Riverside.

By Hardy Mpanano

 

Procrastination

We have all had that experience when we feel that we should be doing something more important than whatever we are doing at the moment. Instead of working on writing an essay to hand in the next week, we’re sleeping, watching a movie or chatting on Internet with our friends, or we prefer to chill out with our friends when we should be working on fixing the broken door of the garage. In fact, we are conscious of our capacities and our duties but some kind of force makes us put off what we are supposed to do. Psychologists call that strange behavior “procrastination”.

In psychology, procrastination refers to the act of replacing high-priority actions with tasks of lower priority, or doing something from which one derives enjoyment, and thus putting off important tasks to a later time.[1]

Another and more simple definition talks about “the avoidance of doing a task which needs to be done - postponing until tomorrow what can be done today.”[2]

According to the psychologist Sigmund Freud, the main reason for procrastination is our research for immediate pleasure that make us postpone any task that won’t produce any pleasure in doing them. In a certain way it is an automatic mechanism used to protect ourselves from the stress that can be created by a stressful activity. On the other hand, in a world of constant commitments, this can only be a disadvantage to anyone. For instance, students must prepare their exams and hand in assignments, office-workers have reports to prepare, and many others examples that corroborate that reality.

Usually, the procrastinator reassures himself by thinking that he has plenty of time to finish his work on time. Unfortunately, this false sentiment of protection falls down when he realizes that there is not enough to get  started. As a consequence, works that are done in such conditions lack the perfection that provide those that have been worked on during a longer time. Thus, the procrastinator is overwhelmed and his concentration is not at his maximum. Procrastination may lead to stress, a sense of guilt and crisis, severe loss of personal productivity, as well as social disapproval for not meeting responsibilities or commitments.[3]

 

Everyone procrastinates sometimes, but 20 percents of people chronically avoid difficult tasks and deliberately look for distractions—which, unfortunately, are increasingly available.[4] A scary number and especially when we think that it keeps increasing in both public and academic environments, says Dr Noran Fauziah Yaakub.[5]

Reasons to procrastinate are not well established by psychologists, but mainly, here are the guilty ones:

·         perfectionism, unrealistically high expectations or standards. Everything must go completely right. It may either be imposed or self-imposed[6]. In fact we have such a high opinion of ourselves that we are afraid of not being able to produce a perfect work. We should be able to “forgive ourselves” and be able to accept that we’re not perfect;

·         Underestimation of time required to complete tasks: in other words, poor time management, often associated with a distorted sense of the time available[7];

·         lack of knowledge or skills to accomplish a determined task. It creates a feeling of frustration and self low-esteem. This might be linked to the need for perfectionism;

·         Belief that working when not in mood to work is sub-optional, which can be a real problem when we are not in mood for a long time;

·         Too difficult and feeling overwhelmed by the task. In that case we simply get rid of the task that bothers us and move to an easier one.

Luckily there are many ways to overcome that strange disease, and mainly they consist in working on our own behavior and the way we consider things. Why thinking that a work that we have not yet started is difficult? Why not allow that we are humans and that in the learning process we might make some mistakes that will allow us to learn more?

A good time management and being more humble on his own capacities when we feel overwhelmed by the task are a good start, then the fear and the laziness to plunge in the work should be overcome progressively. Finally, we should keep in mind that the there is a great satisfaction for accomplishing a work that we initially thought impossible to start.

 

 

My only advice is: “Get to work NOW”!!!

 

---

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procrastination

[2] http://www.ucl.ac.uk/support-pages/information/procrastination

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procrastination

[4] http://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/procrastination

[5] http://mahdzan.com/papers/procrastinate/, Procrastination Among Students in Institutes of Higher Learning: Challenges for K-Economy

[6] http://sas.calpoly.edu/asc/ssl.html, Understanding procrastination

[7] http://www.ucl.ac.uk/support-pages/information/procrastination

Something about Nanjing

by: Rain

The day after tomorrow in Beijing Time, my alma mater, Nanjing Agricultural University, will be 110 years old. Happy birthday to her!

Nanjing Agricultural University originated in 1902, its predecessor was Private of Jinling University College of Agriculture and the National University of Agriculture.

Nanjing Agricultural University is located in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. Nanjing is a very beautiful city with long history. It isn’t a very big city, but the Changjiang River divides it into two parts, one of them is on the northern bank, and the other is on the southern bank. The center of the city and most of the important buildings are in the southern part, including my school.

According to researches, Nanjing has been a capital for almost 500 years, and maybe it is known as the capital of dynasties much more. By the way, the fame of it is due to not only the economy, culture, but also the calamity called Nanjing Massacre. I don’t think it is just a disaster for Chinese, but the same for Japanese.

Now leave the sad thing behind temporarily. Let me introduce you some beautiful historical places. Tomb of Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang is the most famous place, by the way, this place of history interest is almost behind my university; the old city walls in Nanjing are also very famous as the longest walls in actual existence in the whole world; Nanjing Imperial Palace for the Ming Dynasty is also a place worth to go, it is the blue print of the Imperial Palace for the Ming and Qing Dynasties in Beijing.

 

In addition to these historical interests, there are also much landscape scenery. If you want to know more, please come to Nanjing , I’m sure you’ll have a good trip here.