i attended a neighborhood watch meeting yesterday at my neighbor’s house down the street. so as of last night… there is a neighborhood watch group on my street! yay! it turns out 4 of my neighbors has been burglarized and they’ve had it with the hoodrats. there was even a sheriff present at the meeting giving us a crash course on forming a neighborhood watch group. i’m assuming due to the bad economic conditions theft rates has risen especially in the heights. according to the sheriff, the heights is a really really safe neighborhood but recently car and house break ins has risen over the past 6 months or so. to be honest… there is really nothing good to steal at my house. the newest addition is the washer and i dont think that can be easily hauled out. any other “valuables” i guess would be my computers and game systems but all that is located in my room. if you been to my room, you’d know its like a battle ground. you’d need a map to navigate and a quality compass wouldnt hurt. it basically looks like a world war III battle ground. if anyone even remotely tries to get in from my window… i hope they dont seriously injure themselves in the process, it would suck if some guy tries to break into my room but i end up having to call the ambulance for them. what would suck even more is if some guy breaks into my house, looks around and cant find anything to jack and ends up feeling sorry for us then drops a $20 on the dining room table with a note that reads: “man, you guys are ghetto-er than me, here is a $20 please use it as how you see fit – mr burglar guy”

everything happened in 1st grade. when i first moved to the united states from taiwan. i didnt know a word of english and i was a huge fob. i remember 3 events very distinctly:

1) “My Very First Assignment” – it was the first day of school, each of us little kids had our GIANT name tags taped to the top left hand corner of our desks. the teacher passed out our very first in class assignemnt. she said something to the class – something i didnt understand because i didnt know english – then every one started writing. so… i did the first thing that came to my mind… i copied the whatever the girl next to me wrote. so i wrote “Alic…” then the teacher came over and said “no no” – she pointed to my name tag, then pointed to the paper where i attempted to write “Alicia”. okay i got it, so i wrote some one elses name on my paper. *FOB Strike One*

2) “The Spelling Test” - we have weekly spelling tests. on weds, mrs. hurfurt (my first grade teacher) gives us a “pre test”, but if we get 100% on weds we dont have to take the final test on friday. since it was our VERY FIRST spelling test she let us “cheat” on the weds test… like have us practice what its like to take an actual test. so we could look at our cheat sheet for the weds test. the 3 words that we had were: can, man, run. on friday, for the final test, we had the same words… BUT NO CHEATING this time. but of course i didnt know know. so i… “cheated”. of course i got caught and mrs. hurfurt made me put away my cheat sheet. i didnt study because i didnt know i had to, so of course i got an F on that test. i felt so bad. so i went home with those 3 words and took it up to my dad. told him about the spelling tests that we’ve been having. he helped me study those 3 words (can, man, run) all weekend. he tested me forward and backwards. for a kid who doesnt know a word of english… this was very difficult. i studied even monday through weds morning. then came the “pre test” on weds. before the teacher read out the words, i immediately wrote down “can, man, run”… all spelled correctly on my paper. i was so proud of myself, for sure i got 100% on the pretest and i didnt have to take the final test on friday. then i got my test back on thrusday… i got another F, the teacher pulled me aside and explained to me why. it turns out “can, man, run” were LAST week’s words. this week we got a new set of words. *FOB Strike Two*

3) “Going To the Bathroom” - its not easy being “the new kid” and not knowing a single word of english makes it even harder. so… i had to pee one day and all by myself i found the freggin bathroom to release my bladder. yay! i returned to the same bathroom quite a few times through out the week to take my daily piss until one day… i ran into a little boy in the bathroom. um, yea… i was just as shocked as he was. my first thought was “oh my… americans ‘hao sui bian’ boys and girls go to the same bathroom?”, it turns out… i was in the wrong bathroom. he pointed down the hall where another restroom was located, oh okay… i get it now. this explains the mystery of the urinals on the wall. *FOB Strike Three*

oh by the way… happy earth day!! i planted 2 trees yesterday!! =)

my brother came home from work and helped us set up the huge thing. my dad did the first load. the timer on the panel said 1 hr 12 mins. so the 3 of us watched the washer run for about 45 mins. we were acting like we’ve never seen a washing machine before and we’re so facinated by the spinning motion. it was basically entertainment. weird and pathetic, but it was damn funny. my brother even took a picture of all the excitement.

wow my hair is getting really long…