Léa Bourgoin

After some family problems and some bug with Skype, Vanessa and I can finally talk!

Vanessa was born in Taipei, in Taiwan and her parents are from Taiwan too. She is a first American generation. She can also speak Chinese which is her first language but she is more comfortable with English. She has travelled a lot and she’s going back to China and Taiwan every three years.

Last summer she went to Europe, one of her dreams. She visited France, Switzerland and Italy. Her parents believe that it’s good to travel when we are kids because we can learn things that are not in books.

To her mind, United States is a multicultural country because there are lots of races and it’s a country of immigrants. She thinks that Americans are proud of their culture. They like to help neighboring countries; they think that if they can change their country, they can change the world.

I was curious about Thanksgiving and I asked a few questions about it.

She told me that her friends who are not born here don’t do Thanksgiving but it depends on their family. For example, the step father of Vanessa is white so she does Thanksgiving and eats turkey. She also does it with her Asian family but they eat Chinese food, it’s their own way to celebrate that. And she also does it with the family of her friends.

It is interesting to see how its origins influenced her way of appropriating American culture.

Laura 5 Vanessa Hsia 10AM

J'ai parlé avec Léa la samedi dernière. C'était très douce-amère parce que c'était la dernière fois que nous parlons. Toutefois, je suis heureuse que j'avais l'opportunité de rencontré Léa.

Cette fois, nous avons parlé au sujet de nos origines et nos identités. Je suis première génération américaine. Mes parents sont Taïwanais et ils ont été élevés à Taiwan. Mais il a eu l'opportunité d'étudier aux Etats-Unis pour l'université, où ils ont rencontré. Alors, quand j'étais sept ans, ma famille avons déménagé en Californie. Je n'avais pas des problèmes avec Anglais parce que je suis allé en l'école privet et Américain quand j'étais petite, et aussi parce que j'ai voyagé beaucoup.

Léa et sa famille, au contraire, avaient été Français depuis le début. Elle est français, ses parants sont français, ses grand-parents sont français. Elle pense que la France est une payee multicultural comme L'Etats-Unis. Il n'y a pas de discrimination racial et segregation où elle habite, mais elle sait qu'il y a beaucoup de ça dans les banlieues de Paris. Léa voyage beaucoup avec sa famille parce que, comme mes parents, ses parents pense que c'est très important à voyager. Quand nous voyageons, nous pouvons appendre les choses qui ne sont pas dans les livres. Léa a voyagé aux Etats-Unis (Miami) et aussi l'Espagne. Léa a beaucoup des cousins qui habitent dans les autres payees. Elle a une cousine qui habite en Taiwan, et aussi un cousin qui habite en Allemagne.

Nous avons aussi parlé du patriotisme. Léa me dit que en France, les gens ne senti pas très fortement avec les partis politiques où le government. Pas comme l'Etats-Unis, les plupart de gens ne savent pas les paroles de leur hymne national. Je pense que c'est intéressant, la difference de la culture Américaine et la culture française.

Rebecca LISAK

Hello everyone!


All week I talked with Deanna, my californian correspondent. I visited California yet, it was three years ago, I had the opportunity to see West Coast, with San Francisco, Los Angeles, Grand Canyon,.. that was wonderful really, I want to go back as soon as possible, maybe with my training period ,that's what I'm hoping for, fingers cross.


Currently, my computer doesn't recognize my camera, I have to go to repair it so I can't Skype with her but I can speak with her anyway on Facebook. There is around 9 hours of jet lag between us so when we talk each other it's at night (10 p.m) for me and (1 a.m) for her. It's time to find my cosy bed for me and back to school for her.


I asked her about her studies and where she lived. She answers me that she studies journalism at her school and she has to stay four years, it's very intense for her and she would like to study public health too.
She lives in an apartment with two room-mates, friends of her, that belong to a residence for students like me but her parents live about fifteen minutes from her home so she can often see them, she's lucky! 


She takes the bus every day to go to school and added that it was shielded because many people take it like our tramway in Bordeaux when we want to take it early morning, that's awful.
She told me that she was dancing hip hop with her friends, she was part of a hip-hop dance team last year in a small group, but outside of the dance she doesn't practice any sports.
She loves dancing when she has free time and she enjoys eating chocolates like everyone else of course.
Deanna had a part-time job during the summer, she worked in a bar and made beverages and shaved ice called "snow fluff" too. The texture is soft like ice and already has the flavor of the ice with milk, it's making my mouth water. She had to send me a photo of his beverages and I hope to make me taste one day.


Currently, she's writting a blog with a friend of her on different topics like fashion, events, interviews, news, etc.. they hope that their blog will be popular one day and I hope too, she'll become the new J.K Rowling! She said she would show me her blog as soon as she had finished it.
For Chistmas Holidays, she will spend it with her family. Before, she was three weeks of holidays but now it's just two like me, any jealousy at least hihi

She would like to go in France but she didn't go there yet. I hope she's going to come here, I could visit her my city and all beautiful villages close to my home. It's always a pleasure to talk with her, she's very nice and we spend good time each time.

Toulouse, my hometown

Ice skating with my friends



Halloween party with my friend and me

I talked with Benjamin last week. It was hard to discuss because the network was bad. So we began with the video and we finished in writing.

We talked about his place of life and travels. His parents live in St Marcus. He has never left California. The farthest he went was Los Angeles, 2 hours drive from St Marcus. He really wants to visit Britain, Paris and New York.

His father is Vietnamese and his mother is Chinese. He can listen and understand Chinese and Vietnamese but don’t know how to speak a lot these languages.

Then, we talked about the 2^nd generation Americans. He is a 2^nd generation American. In fact, his parents arrived to the United States when they were children. He told me that a lot of international students come to the United States to study. May be, it’s because of the American Dream.

I forgot to post our talk before the last one, so I put it here.

We talked about our studies. He is at UCI which is very big with a lot of students. He studies journalism. But he used to be a computer science engineer. He didn’t reach to do this and a professor told him that he would be good as a journalist. Now he really loves it.

The campus is a giant circle with a park at the centre. He lives near the campus, in a corent.

He doesn’t have a work. We wants to have  one, but for the moment he doesn’t have the time. He need money. Indeed, he pay 30 thousand of $ for a year. I was very surprised of the price of the studies in the United States. Government gives them loans they have to pay later.

I also learnt that he had a A in French. I was really happy for him!

The UCI at Irvine

The ENSCBP at Bordeaux

I spoke with Nicole about our origins and about our travels.

She explained me that as americans, she has a lot of ethnicities in her family. Her grandparents come from China, Germany, Russia and Britain, so she looks like european. Her great-grandparents were the first who imigrated in USA, but everyone after in her family was born in USA.

Her family lives in California, but some of her relatuves lives in other states of the USA, like in Nebraska and Idaho.

Nicole told me that she speaks 3 languages : english, some french and a little spanish but she doesn't remember too much because she had classes of spanish in highschool.

About travels, she already has been to Mexico with her family, in Cancun. She told me that there are a lots of things to do, like swimming, snorkeling, ...

She also already has been in Europe, to London, Paris, Rome and Florence, but with the school this time, for a 10 day trip. It could seems not long, but she reall had time for sightseeing. She loved Paris, and she wants to go back in all these european cities. 

She also told me she has been to Hawaii this summer with her family, on the Kauai island.

I told her my trip this summer in Bruxelles, Amsterdam and Porto (here it's a few photos of my trip).

Porto downtown

A Belgium view by the plane window

Funny decoration of Delirium Café in Brussels (the big one in the world !!

And the best to conclude ...

In a coffee shop in Amsterdam with my friends from Brazil ...
#Oupsssss

Laura 5 Jamie Esguerra 10AM

J'ai des origines philippines. Je suis première génération américaine. Ma mère a déménagé aux États-Unis quand elle avait 16 ans. Je ne parle pas une autre langue que l'anglais. Ma mère parle Tagalog, le dialecte national des Philippines. Je comprends Tagalog. Je n'ai pas beaucoup voyagé, mais je veux voyager.

Alice a des origines françaises dans toute sa famille a toujours vécu en France. Je pense que les États-Unis est multiculturelle parce que de nombreux étrangers viennent vivre ici. Les États-Unis est très diversifiée. Je pense que la France est multiculturelle parce qu'il y a beaucoup de régions en France qui ont leurs spécialités, leurs cultures et puis de nombreux étrangers viennent vivre en France.

Laura 5 Rachel Krugliak 10am

                                                                            Blog 5

            Je suis une première génération américaine. Mes parents sont nés en Russie et ont déménagé aux États-Unis il y a environ 30 ans. Ma langue maternelle est le russe, mais je ne sais pas très bien parler cette langue, alors je prends des cours de russe. J’espère parler presque couramment le russe, le français et l'hébreu au moment où j’aurai mon diplôme. J’adore voyager et ma famille voyage beaucoup. Il est toujours agréable d'être immergée dans une culture différente de la vôtre. Les Etats-Unis est un pays multiculturel, mais certaines parties sont plus diversifiées que d’autres. Dans certaines parties d'Amérique différentes cultures sont très séparées. 

            Marine est une deuxième génération italienne. Ses grands-parents sont nés en Italie et ils parlent italien mais elle ne parle pas. Elle comprend un peu quand ses grands-parents parlent à côté. Marine apprend l'anglais et l'espagnol à l'école et elle espère améliorer les deux langues en étudiant à l'étranger. La famille de Marines aime aussi beaucoup voyager. Elle dit que sa famille se rend dans un pays différent chaque été et ils aiment rencontrer de nouvelles personnes et de découvrir différentes cultures. Son voyage favori était de Maldives en raison de la beauté des paysages et les gens sympas. Elle a également dit que ce est un merveilleux site de plongée.