|
May 10, 2011 Hi friend,Here I am writing to you again this week. How have you been? I bet not much has changed in a week. As for me, everything is the same. You know, I've started to notice that I am adapting to the American culture little by little. At first, it was really hard for me to adapt and accept the American culture. When people see each other, they greet each other by asking "How are you?" which is a formal way to say hi. Young people ask "What's up?" or "how's it going?" or "How are you doing today?" There are many ways American say it. When I first came to the US, I felt confused when people addressed me like that. I thought to myself, I felt well. That was why I was there. Why did they ask me that? This was funny to me for a couple of months. We Burmese people do not say this, right? Only when we see someone whom we haven't seen for a very long time do we ask such question. Though I am adapting to this, I still feel exhausted when I have to greet all my coworkers at work. There is one thing I think it is beautiful. When people bump accidentally, they say "Sorry." I think that is good. Also, one thing I got confused about was that when people think that they are going to see each other in a day, they say "good night." I was really confused when my classmate said good night in the morning after class. I always wondered why in my mind. Now I know that this is just how American culture is. I just have to learn to accept it. I am not sure if this is funny to you or not. I hope that telling you some of my first American experiences at least makes you smile a bit. I hope you have a good week. Talk to you later. Sincerely, Myo  May 3, 2011 Hello friend,How have you been this week? As for me, my finals are getting closer and closer. I can't wait to finish my finals so that I can relax in the summer. But I am kind of thinking of taking a class in the summer semester though I am not sure yet. Please don't think that it is going to be warm as I tell you that summer is coming. It is very interesting what San Francisco weather is like. People say that the coldest time in San Francisco is in summer. As I live near the beach, I feel always cold when I am at home. I feel like spring is the coldest time of the year. Basically, we have spring, summer, fall and winter. But to me, I don't see or feel any differences between fall and winter at all because we get rain from fall to spring. But in summer around the bay area, the weather is really warm. The way it is warm feels uncomfortable to me. Even though it is warm in summer, it is still cold when the wind blows. So, I can hardly ever wear just a T-shirt. I have got to wear at least a thin sweat shirt to keep warm, probably because I am skinny. That is why I can not stand the cold. But you know, let me tell you something crazy about some people. I am not sure if I am just weak or some people just have great immune system. Even on some windy and foggy cold days some people do not wear any jackets or sweatshirts at all. They just have their T-shirts on. I am freezing on those kinds of days. And every year in the late spring, the weather becomes warm for a week. This week is one of the weeks I guess. It is going to be warm the whole week. I like it. Alright, my friend, I will be writing you more later. I hope I get to tell you something new this week, and I hope you will enjoy reading my letter. Have a good week. Talk to you later. Sincerely, Myo April 21, 2011 Hello friend,How have you been? My spring break is over, and now I am back to work and school. I wonder if you have been able to make some new friends since I came to the US. As for me, I can barely make friends because of the lifestyle of the United States. You might be confused about what I mean. Life in the US is just really different from life in Burma. You might think I am crazy. You might think I could make friends in college. I would say "Yes" that I can make friends in college. But what I mean is making close friends. It is really not easy to make close friends. First of all, I would like to tell you that people in the US are very superficial. They are nice but very superficial. When they talk with a stranger, they act like they know that person well. It is like they are very close to each other. Actually it is just what people do here. I found that really weird when I first came here. When people talked to me like that, I thought they had become friends with me. I was really glad at that time. But I realized they were not. It is just one of the cultural differences between Burma and the US. When I was in Skyline College, some of my classmates told me that we should hang out one day. I thought they were going to call me to hang out. Therefore, I was waiting for them to call me. Actually it never happened. But, I did get to learn something about American culture and value of friendship in the US. Ok, my friend. My semester is getting closer to the end in May. So my final exams are coming soon. I have to prepare for them. I hope you have a good life in Burma and enjoy what you do. Talk to you later. Sincerely, Myo April 12, 2011 Hi Friend, How are you? I am writing to you this week to tell you about my vacation during spring break. I requested a vacation break to my manager, and I got a week vacation. Now I am visiting my friends who live in Fairfield, California. My two friends came to visit San Francisco on March 27. We hung out and spent the whole day in San Francisco. At night, we took a bus to go to Fairfield. Fairfield is one of the cities in the Bay Area. I have been having so much fun so far. On March 29, it was my friend's birthday. We went to visit Old Town Sacramento, California and had lunch there. I also visited a shopping mall in Sacramento. It was fun. At night, we went to a Chinese restaurant to have dinner for my friend's birthday. We also went to hike in a park. Hiking is an activity that American people do. It is one of the things I learned to do in the United States. When I visited my friend, I got a chance to make some of our Burmese salads and let my friend try them. I was surprised that they really liked what I made. I made the long bean salad with peanuts and fried onions. Even though I am not good at cooking, it turned out really delicious. On April 1st, my friend held a party at night for his birthday. We had pizzas and watched a comedy show. I got to meet my friend's friends and got to know them a bit. I also visited a Catholic Church on Sunday. My friend plays for a mass every Sunday morning. I think the way Catholic people attend Church is beautiful. The songs they sing are amazing. I like the songs they played that day. On April 4, I came back to San Francisco because my school and work started again. I had a lot of fun during my spring break. I didn't even want to come back. Alright, friend. I will write you more later. I hope you are doing as great as usual. Take care. I hope you have a good week. Sincerely, Myo March 16, 2011 Hello, Friend.How are you this week? As for me, I am as usual. You know it has been over two years that I have been living in the United States. So there have been a lot of changes going on over these two years. I noticed that my body and image are changing because of the climate and my age. You know what I have gotten? I have an allergy. I didn't even know what an allergy was before I came to the US. It is horrible. I never had allergies back in Burma. I felt weird when people in the US talked about allergy. I am not even sure if I had been having it before I came to the US. I think there is something wrong with the climate and environment in the US. Many people have allergy symptoms such as itchy eyes, runny, sneezing, having hard time breathing, and so on, especially in the spring; it is also called allergy season. Isn't this weird? It is said that there is a lot of pollen in the air in spring. That pollen makes people get itchy eyes, runny nose and sneezing. You might not have any idea what I am talking about because we do not have such things and never talk about allergies. Well, maybe we are just not aware of having them or something. I don't know. But honestly, I didn't know about them until I got to the US. Surprisingly, now I have allergy too. It is terrible. Now I have a running nose, I'm sneezing and my eyes itch. At night, it is hard to breathe. I have to take a pill every day. This is just not right. And then people also talk about what they are allergic to. As I work in a restaurant, I hear people say that a lot. For example, they come and ask if there are peanuts in the fried rice and things like that because they are allergic to peanuts or something. The first time I started working in a restaurant, I got very confused when they asked and talked about having an allergy to something. This is totally weird. Anyway, I hope you have gotten some knowledge about something new. I have been telling you what is bad and good about living in the US. Now I wonder if you still want to come to the US  . But anyway, I had better get going and take my allergy pill because my eyes are getting itchy. I hope you have a good week.
Sincerely, Myo March 12, 2011 Hi friend!How are you? I have been busy with work and school. Every day there are always things to get done. Since I got to the United States, I have been like a robot. Even though I am happy that I have a job, it is very stressful and boring. But I have no choice at the moment. I got my job last year in June. I am working in a Korean BBQ fast food restaurant which is located in downtown San Francisco shopping center. It is cool even though I'm working in the downtown mall. We mainly sell barbequed chicken and short ribs. Those are what people like the most, I guess. We have barbequed chicken, teriyaki chicken, lemon chicken, short rib stew, barbequed short ribs, sliced beef, spicy chicken, spicy pork, stir-fried tofu, mackerel fillet, salmon fillet and spicy calamari. Those are the items you can get for the meal. We sell entrees. The entrée comes with rice, clear noodles, which are Korean noodles, broccoli and Kim chi. You know what Kim chi is, right? It's spicy cabbage, Korean style. We also have a two-item combo, which means you can choose two different meats. We also have noodle soups: chicken, beef, seafood combo, shrimp, clam, fish balls, and tofu noodle soup. It's also available with spicy broth. It seems like a lot to memorize all those. But I've gotten used to it already. The reason I say that my job is stressful is because we have to deal with different kinds of customers with different personalities. As I already told you, there are many people of different ethnicities from different countries, and it is difficult to deal with people from different cultures. Sometimes, some customers do not want to speak out to order. Instead, they use their eyebrows to point to what they want. It seems funny and annoying. Some customers can not speak English at all. At that time, it is really hard. They do not understand what we explain. They also want the food the way they want. But we can not sell it the way they want. That is why it is good to be able to speak a couple of languages living in the US. Sometimes, some customers do not care about other customers who are waiting in the line. They only care about their own orders, taking so much time deciding what they want. Well I know that there will always be some problems no matter where I work. But it is a good experience working a restaurant. All right! I will be writing you more later. Hope you have a good week! Sincerely, Myo March 1, 2011 Hello friend,How are you this week? I have been doing great. You know I really miss the food in Burma. Every time I think about food, I really miss the food that we used to go out and eat. But I am also enjoying different kinds of food that are available in the United States. It is amazing that we can get different kinds of food that are totally different from our country because there are people of different ethnicities from different countries living in the United States. So we can get all kinds of food: Mexican, Italian, Chinese, Indian, Korean, Japanese, Thai, Indonesia and Vietnamese. I think there are more. But those are all I know so far. And surprisingly, there are some Burmese restaurants in San Francisco where I live. I can't believe American people like Burmese food. They especially love tea leaf salad. They also like fish vermicelli soup. Actually, those are our snack and morning foods, but Americans enjoy those Burmese foods for dinner, which is really cool. And Thai food is also good. Even though Thailand is our neighbor country, I never got to eat Thai food until I got to the United States. Before I got to the US, all I knew about Thai food was papaya salad. Thai food style is kind of a mixture of Chinese and Burmese. Remember how we used to eat when we had burgers? We used a knife and fork to eat burgers. Now it is funny to think that. Here in the United States, the burger is a very basic food. Nobody eats it with a knife and fork. People just use their hands and eat enthusiastically. And pizza -- I love pizza. I wish I could send you some frozen pizzas. But it would be hard even to bake it since we don't have enough electricity and don't even use ovens or microwaves in Burma. Ok my friend. I will keep you up to date about my experiences in the United States every week. I hope you enjoyed reading my letter and have a good week. Sincerely, Myohan February 17, 2011 Dear friend,How are you? As for me, I am good. You know this is the season that we have to file our tax returns. You might not have any idea what I am talking about. But I will try to explain the best I can. Living in the United States, we have to pay taxes whatever we do. When we work, we get paid with a paycheck from our employers. Before we get our check, the government deducts taxes. But I have no idea what the government does with the money from our taxes. So, depending on our income, the government takes out taxes from our pay check like 25%, 30%, 35% and so on. The higher the income, the more taxes we have to pay from our checks. But this is not the end yet. When we buy things such as clothes and personal stuff and eat at restaurants, we have to pay taxes again. OH MY GOD. Isn't it sad? I feel like I do not even own the money I earn. It is like half of the money I earn goes to taxes. Except for grocery food, we have to pay taxes on whatever we buy. But every year from January to April, again we have to file our tax returns. But this time it's different. The government wants to know if we paid enough taxes for the whole year. Depending on the government process which I don't understand, they decide whether they will pay some of our tax money back or ask us to pay more. So, we get a form called W2 from our employers every year. Mainly, we have to use that form to file the tax return. If we have a house, children or a mortgage, there is a chance that we can get back some money back from the government. As for me, since I have been a student and just working part time, I can get back some money from the taxes I pay. My friend, it is horrible to pay taxes. But the good thing is that when we get old and retire, we can get a pension from the government. Ok, my friend, I will tell you more about the US later. I hope I've given you some knowledge about the US this week. I hope you have a good week. Take care. Sincerely, Myo February 8, 2011 How are you? As for me, I am fine and the same as usual being busy with school and work. How is your business and social life? This week, I would like to tell you about my first experience in Skyline College which was the first time I went to college in my life and also how the school system works. Skyline College is located in San Bruno. When I first got to the US, I went to study at Skyline College. I had to take two buses to get to Skyline every day. It took me two hours to get to Skyline from where I stayed, in San Francisco. So, every day I had to spend four hours on the buses back and forth from school to home. It was not easy. But I liked going to Skyline College. It looks very beautiful. The school is very modern. One thing that made me confused was the school system. As you know, our majors are decided depending on our high school scores in Burma, right? But in the United States, you can major in any field you like. That is one thing which is really cool. But for classes, you have to register to be able to study in a particular class that you want to study. This is totally different from our country and I never heard of this kind of system until I got here. I am sure you will be surprised how it works if you come to the US. When I first started going to Skyline, I was indecisive. So, I just took some general classes which were ESL, College Success, Human Biology and Tennis. To graduate, you have to finish your major classes and general classes. General classes can be all the same whatever you major in. Only the major classes are different depending on your major. It was a good experience. I made some friends and got one close friend in Skyline College. Every year, the school has three semesters: spring, summer and fall semester. The spring and fall semesters last four months. Only the summer semester is very short, about two months. I hope you find the different school system and my experience interesting. I also hope I've given you some general knowledge about school in the United States and that you've enjoyed reading my letter. February 3, 2011 Dear friend,How have you been? I have been very well except for a bit of trouble adapting to the American culture and language. Other than that, everything is great. The reason I am writing this letter to tell you about life in America. You know how much we look up to the United States in our country. Before I came to the United States, we used to think that people who went to the US would become rich and have happy lives. Now I am going to tell you. This is totally not true. Everyone feels a bit upset when they first arrive in the US because things are not as we expected. The first thing we have to face is the language problem. My friend, you can't imagine how difficult it is when a person wants to say something that he or she doesn't know. I starved many times even though I had money to buy food just because I didn't know how to order the food and didn't want to get embarrassed. The second is American culture. In our country, being humble shows that we are polite. It is a good thing in our country. But in the US, people want to take advantage of those who are humble and think that humble people are weak. So this is something that is completely different from our country. And then we also think that every city has tall buildings. Actually it does not. Only the downtown area has tall buildings, and most of them are work buildings. We have to live in a place where you can barely see people walking on the sidewalk. We can't see many people unless we go downtown. The only good things about living in the US are that I don't have to worry about getting bitten by mosquitoes or having limited electricity. Ok my friend, I will be writing more letters later. I hope you have a wonderful life in Burma. Your loving friend, Myo |