My gift to you!

http://youtu.be/UV_27QuGCu0

Dear Students...

At the end of the semester, I always have conflicting feelings. On the one hand, I'm happy that it's over and that I'm going to get some time off. On the other hand, I'm sad that we have to disband after building our very own little international community and finally getting truly at ease with each other. So, bittersweet... 

You all should feel very proud of yourselves. You are reading, writing, speaking, living, breathing, maybe even dreaming by now, in English. This is quite an accomplishment and your levels of fluency are truly impressive. Each and every one of you has made progress. It's not easy to do what you're doing, but you're doing it. Some days better, some days worse, but you're doing it.

My advice for you? Stay focused and work hard and you will achieve your goals. The only one you are racing against is yourself. G-d gave you your potential--its your job to achieve it and do good in this world. It doesn't matter if it takes you one semester more or less to get there, what matters is that you get there. Everything in good time. Don't put too much pressure on yourself.

For those of you staying in Houston (Natsume, Paulina, Rena, Celia, Yichen, Fahad, Mohammed, Abdulrahman, and Nayef (?)--wow, that's almost all of you)--please come and visit me at the LCC or email me (holly_cin@yahoo.com) or call (713-721-3460) to say hi. If you throw a party, invite me and I will try my best to come. Also, if you need anything while you are in Houston, and I can be of help, feel free to contact me. Former students often consult with me on their academic decisions as well as their parking tickets and baby questions! Should you have a legal issue, my husband is a good person to consult. If in the future you lose my contact information, you can always call the LCC office and they'll know how to reach me. At the very least, you can remember my last name. That's Cin. C-I-N. Like cinammon. Or cinema. Of course I hope you will remember more than my last name!

For those of you entering the university (Aziz now and the majority of you later), I wish you tremendous success. It won't be easy but with hard work and determination you will achieve your goals. To be a successful student requires a good brain (which you all have) and a lot of hard work.

For those of you returning home (Mariana), I wish you a safe and pleasant journey and I hope you continue to learn and to practice, and I hope to see you in your country one of these days soon. Finally, I want to congratulate Mariana for being chosen as outstanding student. In this class there were many smart and hard working students so it was not easy to isolate the "most outstanding."

Thanks, 5A, for a really great semester. I will miss our class a lot!

Yours,
Holly

p.s. check back here on the blog for pictures. I will post them when I get a chance.

Love 5A

Love 5A

          Hi Holly, Hi guys, now that we have reached the end of this unforgettable semester, I wanted to say something to show how I enjoyed meeting with you all and I am going to start with my great teacher Holly Cin. Dear Holly, I just want to say thank you for being very patient with us even though you had a really hard time managing with our class and 6A. On top of that, not only that I have learned a lot from you but I also had a blast coming to your Fun Fridays, bowling, coming to your party which was just awesome, and please tell AV, Roven, and yo al for teaching me how to play American Football. Now, I want to talk about team gulf, what is up homies, meeting with you all was fantastic and the reason behind this is that each one of you helped me and supported me in some way when I needed the support, so thank you very much. Chinatown, “Ne Haw,” meeting with guys was like a great experience to me because I have learned more about the Chinese culture. For instance, now I know that if I went to a Chinese family dinner I had better put my chop sticks on top of my bowl or plate after we are done eating, so I thank you for that. Paulina, Natsume, and Mariana “The Coffee Team,” how are you doing? Probably drinking coffee aren’t you. Anyhow, thank you Paulina for being a good friend of mine and giving me the tickets for the basketball game, Natsume, say hello to the little leopard, and Mariana you wanted to learn Arabic and that fascinates me and I wish you the best. Bottom line, I had real good time with you all and I have enjoyed meeting with guys and I hope this beautiful relationship between us last.  Therefore I am going to leave my Facebook account to you and I wish I see you there.

    Alabbasi Mohammed: this is my Facebook account name

With love, your Student, your Homi, your Friend Mohammed Alabbasi.

Writing Sample on Monday

11 a.m. in room 102 of RC (LCC bldg):  It is advised that the students BE on time!

For the grammar test...

please make sure to look over the grammar notes on p. 400, especially note 2, which we did not review in class, but which will be part of tomorrow's test.

Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to post a comment. 

Were I you, I would review this material. 

Had I known that we wouldn't have enough time to complete the book, I would have kept you every day until 1 p.m. :D

Schedule tomorrow and some other information

FYI: The grammar test tomorrow will be given from 8:30-10:30 in your room (by me). You will have Greg's class second in the same room. Students are required to be on time in order to insure adequate time to take this extremely long, complicated, and exhausting final grammar exam :D Your writing grade: Students who have not turned in all essays will receive an F for your writing grade. If you receive an F in any skill level, you will not receive a certificate of completion for the course. If you have more than 40 hours of absence, you will also not receive a certificate of completion for the course.

Party Post-Script

Well, I hope you guys had as much fun as I did tonight. I wish the party would have gone on even longer! I would have loved to play poker with you guys! I'm so glad that nearly all of you came. Of course we really missed Paulina and we also missed Abdulrahman a little bit. I wish they would have been here, but we cannot change the past :(

Hope and Wish powerpoint presentation