Art of English: Guest bloggers One

Students from my BOCES ESL class post their favorite writings from Fall Session 2011.

My First Guest: Anonymous

(My first guest blogger wishes to remain anonymous.)

She is from Taiwan, has studied English in different places and has been in our class at Carver Center, Port Chester since September. She is in the picture.

Assignment: Write about a day you felt really happy to be in this country.

A Day in My Life: Happy to Be Alive

Light penetrated through the window and woke me up with bright warmness. The birds were singing and the squirrels were chatting. They seemed to welcome me to a new day. The aroma of coffee filled the air. It was a seductive morning call.

The newspaper was lying on the table waiting for me to browse. All of this cheered up the beginning of my day. My senses were alert and satisfied. I kissed my husband and kids and watched them leave home to go to work and school. Emotions were swirling in my heart. This is what I have always dreamt of. A family, happiness and health. I felt so content and thankful to be alive surrounded by people I love. And they love me very much too.

Assignment: Write a story that your parent or grandparent told you. (Her grandmother)

She wears a long dress, the wind blows through her golden blond hair and she misses her lover. Where has her lover’s boat gone? There is no information at all.

Has his boat met stormy weather? That makes her worry, but there is no one she can tell. She can only tell all her troubles to the wind, but the wind is heartless and teases her saying she is a fool. The wind doesn’t know first love with a trembling heart.

She misses her lover at the same time she misses her father. After twenty years she still doesn’t know who and where her father is. She misses her father and would like to meet him, but the only information she has is a golden cross he had left for her mother. Her mother told her that she was born out of wedlock. When she thinks about it sadness comes up in her mind. She doesn’t know whether her father is still alive or not. She only knows he is a Dutch ship doctor.

She thinks about both her mother’s and her own life. She misses and hates her father at the same time, especially when she sees some people who are close to their parents and she is the only one raised by a single mother. Today she is young and lonely and standing here waiting for her lover hoping that one day her lover’s boat will return to the harbor of An-Bing.

There is Miss Gold waiting till she hears the horn of the returning boat.

This is a Taiwanese legend.