Final Slideshow posted here

Thanks for a wonderful closing ceremony, Leslie! We will miss our students. If you want to see the slideshow with all of the great pictures, click on the link below. 

Final Slideshow

The travel before come to UCLA

by Quick

About one month ago, I came to the USA. The place which I first is San Francisco, and we lived just behind the Pier 2. And in our room I can see the ocean and there were many private yacht. After we settle down, we went to the Pier 39---the most famous pier. At the second day I went to the Golden Gate Bridge. And before that, I went to the Oakland Bay Bridge, it is a huge bridge, much longer than the Golden Gate Bridge, I think the only reason that Golden Gate Bridge is more famous is because it was the first cable stayed bridge in the world. And when we plant to leave we saw a man who catch a huge fish and I even took a picture for him.

After that we went to the Lombard street, I think everybody knows this place, in China we called it” the street have nine turn and full of flower.” the whole street is really beautiful and it is full of flowers, and have many turns. Though the road is not very long but very high so that the fall is really huge and this why it is interesting. I still know that California is also famous for the wine manor, so after that we went to a huge manor, at first i saw many grapes and than we went into a house just like a church, and many people inside are tasted the wine, but I’m still not reach 21 years old even though i wants to tasted.

And next day we went to the Yosemite, it is a national nature park, we spent a long time on the way to Yosemite and we just stayed there for only one days and I saw many people are driving with their motor homes some are lived with their tents, and these guys could swim in the river or row a little boat, some of the tourist looks like they are going to climb mountains and they looks very profession because they always don’t wearing clothes but took a long rope. When I was on the shuttle bus I met many people who looks same age as me, we had a conversation he said he come here with the summer camp and he always stay here for one week and still one week last, he just lived in the tent, I think this kind of life is really fancy and free, you could also meet many different people who is from every where.

Then we went to a famous beach it called “17 mile.” there was a wooden road just beside the beach, and I also saw many people were playing golf and one of my relative who is lived here for a long time told me that here’s golf is really expensive and you should make an appointment before you go to play, but the people who lived inside is free to play the golf but these kind of house’s price is really really expensive, and they have a big island which is full of bird so that it name is “bird island.”

Next day i came to LA, begin my summer school life.

May day holiday

by James Y.                                                                                                                                                                                                       
This May Day holiday I went to Tokyo, Japan. Two days before the holiday I got a fever so I almost didn’t go there. Simply at the day I visit to Japan the fever brought down. Their culture have big difference with China’s. In my opinion Japan is much better than Beijing. Like polite, food quality, environment... When I  arrive to Japan is April 30th evening 11 o’clock. The 4 hours’ air travel made me dizzy, so after I checked in to hotel I took a shower, then slept.

The food that most impressed me in Japan is sushi, takoyaki, tempura and the bento. For sure we can eat them in Beijing, they taste much better than the Japanese restaurant in Beijing. My favorite place in Japan is Akihabara, there also is a dangerous place for my wallet. There are stores for games and high-tech products. 4 days in Japan I lost control at least 3 times because I wanted to buy so much.
  
 I have been to two tourist attractions in these four days. Two of them are Sony’s headquarters and “Tokyo sky tree”. Because I love technology, I couldn’t wait to go there. Sony’s headquarters in Tokyo is a huge building we can see from far away. The most interesting part in this building is they put all the old technologies in show case, like the first sony MP3, laptop and TV. They also have the new technology that are testing but didn’t sell yet, like the TV without the screen. This isn’t a projector because the picture are floating in the air.

Before, the highest point in the Tokyo was the Tokyo tower. Now it is a new building that was just finished few years ago called “Tokyo sky tree”. The tower is 634 meters high. At night the tower would show different colors.This is my whole journey of Japan in May Day holiday, I hope before I graduate I can have another chance to go to Japan.

The Unexpected

by Yuki

Real Madrid is one of the most famous soccer clubs in the world. They won the UEFA Champions League in May this year, and achieved “La Decima”, the first team to win the competition ten times. UEFA Champions League is the most prestigious tournament in football. If you won this competition, it means that the club is No.1 in Europe.

I did know that the players of Real Madrid are in the U.S for Pre-season tour. But I didn’t know that they are having a practice at UCLA. Therefore, when I first heard from Nicholas, “I heard the players of Real Madrid are here today”, I have to digest a moment to understand what he just said. I thought he went mad because of his homework, and telling me a bad joke. However, it was true. They come to UCLA every year in summer, and practice.

The happiest thing was an autograph from Gareth Bale. I also took some pictures of other players, but autograph is special. He is one of the top players in the world. It was unbelievable that he was standing in front of me, and gave me a sign. He is my favorite player before he moved to Real Madrid. 

He moved from Tottenham Hotspur to Real Madrid last September. The transfer price was expected to be over €100 million, breaking the world transfer record. It means that he is the most valuable player in the world.

This is my one of the best experience in UCLA. I want to come back to UCLA just to meet the players again.

LACMA

by Mindy

I’ve been to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, also called the LACMA museum. I really appreciate the artwork there and there were two pieces of artwork caught my attention. Then, I started to search for some information online in order to know the artist better and the symbolization for the piece of artwork.

“Cliff Dwellers,” which captured the view of the Lower East Side in New York, was painted by George Bellows in 1913. As George Bellows was famous for his bold portraits of life in New York City, this artwork definitely froze the street scene with a result from a flood of immigration. As you can see, the street was full of people and it was so crowded that the bus was stuck in the crowd. To me, when I first looked at this artwork, first thing to get in my mind is that the place was so crowded and their house might be really small that didn’t have a place hang their cloth.

“History As A Planter” was made by Edward Kienholz, who was an American installation artist and assemblage sculptor, in 1961. Most of Kienholz’s work highly critical of modern life and this artwork was no exception. There was lots of symbolization in this artwork and it was especially about history of Jewish struggle. The oven symbolized the Holocaust, which was genocide that German killed many Jews; the mannequin feet, placed in the oven, were symbolic for Jews that were incinerated in the Concentration Camps; the plants on the top of the oven were a kind special species called “Wandering Jew,” which can still be alive with nearly no attention. It represented Jews’ abilities to survive and it was placed above the oven maybe was a symbolization that Jewish people overcame the World War II. I felt really uncomfortable when I first looked at the artwork, but after these searching online, I am able to know what the artist want to show the audience and think that he was such a great artist that he had hidden so many thoughts in the piece of art work. 

Also, I was wondering why didn’t he paint it at first, but I suddenly realized the reason after knowing these symbolization. The door can be closed or opened, in my opinion, while the door is open, meaning that the Jews remember their history and all the persecution they been through; while the door is closed, meaning that the Jews have already overcame their tragedy.

Visiting the LACMA museum is a really great experience and I learned a lot from this visit. Next time, when I am visiting another museum, I will try to learn more deeply about an artwork.

The Cafeteria of UCLA

by Celina

 

I love food, so whether I like the school or not depends on the food it serves.  UCLA cafeteria looks neat and serves delicious food. Even though American food contains high calories, I can’t stop eating.

The first meal we had was when the day we first arrived at UCLA. It was almost seven o’clock in the evening. Our counselors told us to put our stuff in the lockers. Then, we used our room keys to access the cafeteria. The waitress at front desk is always friendly and cute. She says hi to every person all the time. This huge cafeteria amazed me. It’s clean and has a great variety of food. All kinds of people, such as summer sessions students, staff members, young kids, were lining up for food.

I took two slices of pizza and grabbed a glass of apple juice. The size of pizza was way larger than the kind that my school serves, and it tasted like Papa John’s pizza.

The following 3 weeks, I’ve tried food from each section of the cafeteria. UCLA’s salad and spaghetti taste fantastic. At salad bar, it provides all kinds of vegetables and sauces. In china, we usually have fried veggies instead of raw vegetables. There are always a lot of people waiting for spaghetti. Therefore, I’ve only tried it twice. In china, we also have a lot of western restaurants, which have spaghetti. But I think UCLA cafeteria has better spaghetti than those restaurants have. My favorite kind of spaghetti here is lasagna. It has layers of noodle, which are packed with tomato sauce. However, I feel so guilty when I finish the food, because it’s really fat.

 

 

Since I became heavier during the first two weeks, I don’t have dinner anymore in my last week here. So I always eat a lot for breakfast. I always grab a bowl of cereal and scrambled egg with bacon and potatoes every morning. I normally don’t eat cereal in China because Chinese milk tastes horrible. The milk here tastes fresh and smells good. In China, I always go out and have western breakfast with my friends at Element Fresh, which is a really popular western restaurant.  At UCLA, I feel like I have Element Fresh’s food every morning for free. I just love this cafeteria so much.

Even though I miss my hometown a lot, I don’t want to leave here, because the cafeteria has really good food. I will miss UCLA and the food here after I get back to China.

Bad Luck

by Celina                                                            

This is my first time in Los Angeles. I took an airplane from Shanghai to hear by myself.  Even though I’ve suffered ten hours sitting on an extremely uncomfortable seat, I was looking forward to my three weeks in UCLA. 

I’ve learnt a lot in these three weeks. Unfortunately, I fell to the ground twice and both my phone and SIM card are broken. Some of us went to Grove on our first weekend here. On our way back to UCLA, I was tripped by something. I used my knees to support my body. But still my left knee was injured and it was bleeding. In the next following 3 days, I could not take a shower like others do. 

Something horrible happened on me on my second week here, my phone was broken. I went to the mobile store, but the technician could not repair it. Therefore, I spent half of my money on buying a new phone. This reminds me of my experience back in London, 2011 when I was only 15. My phone was dead on the first day I arrived in London. I felt helpless and lonely because I was alone in a foreign environment. 

After I bought a new phone, my SIM could not connect to the server. To put it simply, I could only use my new phone as a itouch.  Luckily, it started to work again a day later. 

A week after I fell to the ground, I fell again on the downhill. I was almost late to study hall. So I was running. Unbelievably, my scab from last week cracked.  My wound was almost recovered, but now it became what it looked like in the first place. 

I hope my last week here will be peaceful and safe. Also, I wish I am not going to fall again this Sunday!