Big G just dropped his first single, “Yes, I’m Chinese, But . . .” First released here on the thebirdonfire.org!
–by Gaven Li
Yes, I’m Chinese
But that doesn’t mean anything
I don’t eat dogs or kitties
Orange chicken is not always my favorite
Yes, I’m Chinese
But we no longer live in rural places
There are 14 million people in my city
Everyone will fall in love with her beauty
Yes, I’m Chinese
But not every Chinese is Bruce Lee
I don’t know Kung Fu
and never fight in the street
Yes, I’m Chinese
But we ain’t in the 1960s
Everyday after school
I don’t help my dad farming
Yes, I’m Chinese
But y’all should remember this:
Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan
They are all parts of our country
Yes, I’m Chinese
But I can still rap like Jay-Z
I’m a poetic “gangster”
Comin straight outta PRC
here, one in the Czech Republic.) It was already very unfortunate for me having to study for two high schools, but it was necessary to have it done. My journey was planned to begin on the 15th of December. I was all packed and went to a nice brunch with Trey. We were sitting in the restaurant with plates full of pancakes, talking and enjoying our last moments before I left when I remembered to check my flight, making sure everything was still planned and on time. To my surprise, it said that my flight was delayed by about five hours! There was no way this could work because I was flying from Palm Springs to Denver where I was supposed to have only a 45-minute layover. So, Trey and I went to the airport early to ask “What’s going on?!” When we arrived, a man working for United confirmed that I will indeed be missing my flight to Denver by exactly five hours. I started freaking out, so he said he would try to find another flight to get me to Czech on time. It was about 12:45 p.m., and the man finally found another flight and said I can fly to San Francisco, but I would have to go now, because the flight takes off in a little less than ten minutes. Not knowing that I would have to run to my gate, I had left my luggage and purse in Trey’s car so he had to run for it. They didn’t even let me put luggage on the belt and told me to run. So I took my purse, said bye To Trey, and ran to my gate. I had to pass all the TSA checkpoints and everyone was yelling at me that I am late. Finally, I arrived to my plane without knowing if my luggage would fly all the way with me. As I finally got to my seat, some woman was sitting there. So, I went to her and asked her nicely if she can move because it is MY seat, but she refused. I didn’t want to make a big deal of it, so I just put myself down in the middle spot.
never found out what happened. Everything eventually calmed down, and after a tiresome journey, I landed in Frankfurt. Glad I was finally in Europe, my relief was quickly erased when I found out that my remaining flight itineraries were left back in the Palm Springs airport. With no idea where to go, I finally found my gate. But with my luck, my terrible journey didn’t end there. The woman working at Lufthansa said that she didn’t see me on the list for my last flight to Czech, and she explained to me that I couldn’t fly anywhere. After an hour of her calling and me being utterly exhausted, she finally got clearance to let me go to the plane and I successfully flew to Prague.
correct one, catching my flight back to Frankfurt. Surprisingly, nothing too bad happened on this flight, and from there I landed in Houston where the worst part of my trip was still waiting for me. Everyone was leaving the plane, and I was slowly following the herd of people off. There was a huge line for immigration control. Luckily, I had a four-hour layover, but nothing would prepare me for what was about to come. I finally got in front and went before the immigration officer. He was going through my papers, passport, joking around, . . . and then he stopped, looked at me, and said that they don’t accept copies of an I-20 (document for international students). When I tried to show him an original one with just my name and a signature on it, he said that there is no date, so they couldn’t accept it. I started being very nervous. He told me to wait and sent someone for me. A police officer came for me and took me to a small room. My international student agency told me to call them if something like this happened, but no phones were allowed in the room. I stayed there three hours being questioned about everything, but I had no way to see the time; I was scared I had missed my flight. The officers there were very nervous because the room was filling up with people every minute. People had to start sitting outside, that’s how packed it was. Some of them couldn’t even speak English, which made the officers even more angry. There were also little kids crying, and I felt really bad after ten hours of them flying. I thought, “They will send me back to my home country,” or “I will definitely miss my flight to Palm Springs.” I would be stuck in Texas without anyone. The officer was trying to joke with me about basketball, but I really wasn’t in the mood for it. They finally let me go, and I didn’t miss my flight (surprisingly), but this experience will always stay in my heart. It was the spookiest thing that has ever happened to me.
order to maximize the profit. Chinese KFC’s offer not only fried-chicken wings and sandwiches but also seafood porridge, chicken wraps, puddings, corn, fried rice, and even egg tarts! China is the only country in the world where KFC makes more money than McDonald’s does, and a huge part of the reason is because of the diversity and localization.
long list of desserts including ice-cream chocolate cake, caramel brûlée, etc. Moreover, all of the Pizza Huts in China are designed as sit-down restaurants. They also have servers at the door to lead people to different tables and booths and waiters for each table. Moreover, the Pizza Huts in China offer a special packet for little kids. In this packet, kids get to go to Pizza Hut with their friends on their birthday and learn how to make pizzas. The Pizza Hut staff also arrange games for kids at their birthday parties.
hallucinations, paranoia, delusions and collapse in emotions. It usually starts in young adulthood, and symptoms are identified through a patient’s actions and perceived experiences.
symptoms are already apparent in his young age when he has an illusion of a roommate who helps him with everything. Even though our main hero is extremely antisocial and going to classes sounds stupid to him, he makes it through university with producing an excellent paper on governing dynamics and gets a great job at MIT. Unfortunately, he considers his new job uninteresting and boring. Some years later, people from the Pentagon come for him to break some important code, and he cracks it. After this event, another illusion appears. This time it is a man who works for the United States Department of Defense who wants him to break more codes to uncover Russia’s secret plan on attacking the USA. By that time, John falls in love with his lovely student Alicia Larde who soon becomes pregnant. With time, John Nash has difficulty distinguishing what is real and what is not. He attacks poor Alicia in order to protect her from his nonexistent boss from the Department of Defense. As a matter of fact, none of the characters or tasks from the Department of Defense are real. This attack makes her call a psychiatrist. Then, Nash begins treatment with medication for schizophrenia. However, Nash stops taking the medication after time because he grows too aggressive with it. He can’t take care of his own baby. And, he can’t think clearly. However, when he discontinues the medication, his hallucinations come back. By the end of movie, Nash is able to ignore his hallucinations, and he wins a Nobel Prize for his article regarding governing dynamics.
Boys get painted eggs, chocolate, and candies from girls. Men get painted eggs and shots of alcohol. I did not have a chance to “enjoy” this tradition much growing up. I live in the capital city where this tradition isn’t as widespread. Most of my family lives in smaller towns or villages which gave me the opportunity to experience this yearly torture four times.
Don’t get me wrong; some biographies are good. However, some biographies like Kim Kardashian’s Selfish, which contains nothing but her selfies, should be burned. Mostly, a biography exists because it can inspire people. However, Celebrity Biographies often offer very little under the cover. Do we really need selfies of Kim Kardashian? Remember, in our hypothetical situation, we are in a severe winter snowstorm, and we need to warm ourselves to fend off freezing. Those Celebrity Biographies are usually heavy (in weight), usually more than three hundred pages. Just one burning copy could keep us warm for hours.
I know many people believe in the zodiac and fortune telling. However, think about it seriously. We are now in a huge huge crisis that involves the existence of human beings in a snowstorm. At this moment, all kinds of zodiac and fortune-telling things would not work anymore. The only thing that we need to focus on, at this moment, is survival. If you’re about to freeze to death, do you really need your fortune told?
The reasons were mostly concentrated on the fact that Twilight is a poorly written book. According to one respondent, “Twilight promotes abusive relationships and is just bad literature in general.” The second most popular choice involves encyclopedias and dictionaries. The reasons are, “They have the most paper, so they have the most fuel”; “They are very big and fairly replaceable.” Surprisingly, the third most popular choice for burning for warmth and survival is the Bible. The reasons include more are available “in the future” and “the Bible is thick and burnable.” And, one of Henry’s personal favorite responses is “Burn Mein Kampf.”
ironment, the nature, the forests everywhere, the public transportation of the Czech Republic. But, some international students, really latch on to their new world. A friend of mine, Matouš Prokopec, was an international student in Canada, and he said: “I liked my host family more than my real one.” He absolutely fell in love with everything in that country as well as falling in love with his host family. This year, a wonderful person, Rosa Gillet, came to our school. She answered the question regarding what she likes about this program, with, “I like being in a new family because it allows me to get to know others’ life and culture.”