Gricelda Olvera ELI 31 Final Portfolio Rosie Speck Fall 2013 I M FROM MEXICO AND MY NAME IS Gricelda Olvera.
Week 1. First week of class!!! The first few days in college I felt nervous. On the second day of class, we had a tour around the college. I felt nervous and I was shy. *.*
Week 2. The first few days of class have past. In week 2, our class ELI 31 went to the Spiva Center for the Arts museum located in Joplin. In this museum, we saw many art sculptures.
Week 3. The next week we went to Joplin to see the waterfall, bookstore, and a restaurant. This place is new for me. I have never been there although I have gone to Joplin. We have fun in our class but
Week 3. at the same time we study!!! We go to the bookstore to find information about books.
Week 3. We go to eat at Red, Hot & Blue restaurant. In the bookstore we had our time to have fun.
Week 4. Now I know new people. We went to the Neosho National Fish Hatchery. Here I was with new students who are in other levels of ELI classes. In this place, we have tutoring about the fish. I learned about how they grow up and what kind of food they eat.
Week 4. In this place behind us they have many kinds of fish. The name of this fish is Rainbow Trout.
Week 5. The reason that we do field trips is to practice our English, meet new people, and know new things. During these past weeks I felt more comfortable to speak English with other people.
Week 6. I know about many cultures because in our class we read about many kinds of cultures. Also, here at Crowder College there are international students. And I learn from them about their culture.
Week 6. I got a toothache and it was the most pain I have ever felt. I made a dentist appointment and had to wait a week before they could help me. That is different in my country because they will attend to us right away. Because the government closed, they cancelled my appointment and now I had to wait until the 21 st of November. THEY WILL TAKE A MONTH TO ATTEND TO ME.!!! This made me felt sad and frustrated because I am in pain.
Week7. Here I went to visit Missouri State University with the CAMP group.
Week7. We had a tour guide to show us the whole university and they talked to us about the scholarships and all the opportunities we can have. MSU was beautiful and I would like to go there when I graduate from Crowder.
Week 8. Our class visited the ESL class at the Neosho Middle School to tell them how we came to school without knowing English well. We also told them about all the help they can get from the government.
Week 9. We went on a field trip to the chocolate factory in Joplin. They told us how chocolate is made and how it is distributed.
Week 9. We also went to Missouri Southern State University. We only saw the outside of the university and went to the student center.
Week 10. I went to a theater in Branson with the CAMP program to see The Adventures of Marco Polo. The CAMP program provides many activities such as going to universities and going to cultural events.
Week 10. I had never been to a live theater. Characters danced, acted and tumbled at the same time. It was a great experience that I will never forget.
Week 10. Some of the rules before entering to watch the show were: not take pictures or video and not try to get too close to the characters when they are acting. We had to wait at the end of the show to take pictures with them. For me this was a big experience, especially because it was my first time in a real life theater.
Week 10. After the live theater, we went to an Italian restaurant!!! :) The food and the dessert were very delicious. XPERIENCE Although there's a little bit of a problem with Italian food. It makes you feel too full and too tired. But other then that, it s very good!
Week 11. My friends and I celebrated Halloween and we used different costumes. I had a great time that day with my friends. We went to a party at the college with some friends. Then we went to another party. It was fun because we danced, sang, and played games.
Week 12. I went to the University of Arkansas with my ELI 31 classmate on a field trip. We walked around all of the university I felt tired happy at that time because the university is huge and pretty.
Week 12.
Week 13. I went to the museum located in Bentonville, Arkansas with ELI 31. The place is amazing and I really like it. In the museum there are pretty sculptures, drawings, places were the persons can walk, and buildings. I wan to go again but in the summer.
Week 13. Then we finished looking at all the museum. So we went to the cafeteria at the museum to eat. The food was good but I like the dessert more. I had a really fun day!!!
Week 14. My family and I celebrated Thanksgivin g day. I had a good time with them. We ate the traditional turkey. Wen we fished eating we made a circle and everyone said thanks for everything that was good for them.
Week 14. On Thanksgiving break I went to a Chinese restaurant and mall with my friend and my brothers. And the other days I spent my time with my family but more with my mom. I slept so late and woke up late, too. In this week of Thanksgiving day I fell conformable and relax and jet ready for my finales. And happy because I'm with my family.
Writing Assignment One of the assignments in my textbook was to write a story about someone. I chose to write about my parents. The next three paragraphs are about their lives. I do more than necessary in the assignment.when my teacher saw my writing she thought it was a good story so we decided to work more on the story.
ELI 31 1 Gricelda Olvera Rosie Speck 11-7-13 My Parents My parents lived in the same city and went to the same school together in Mexico, but they never talked to each other. Both of them have a big family. My father has 11 siblings and my mother also has 11 siblings. My father and mother dated other people. They liked each other but they never said anything about it. Some girls liked my dad and they thought my father liked my mom, so they fought with my mom. My father was the smartest of the whole school. He wanted to continue studying but couldn t continue. My father's father died in an accident when my dad was 15 years old. My grandfather died when he was riding his horse. The horse somehow got scared and my grandfather lost his balance and fell off the horse but his foot got stuck on the horse. The horse dragged him for miles until he died. So my dad needed to leave the school to help his family. But my mom did not like school because she would fight with other girls and the teacher would get her in trouble and would hit her. So my mother only graduated from middle school.
2 When my dad was 17, he decided to come to America to help his family. When he was in America, he sent letters to my mom. My mom liked the nursing career but did not want to go to school, so she went to a program where they teach how to use syringes and first aid. At the same time, she went to a school program where they teach how to make all kinds of clothes. She has a certificate for design and first aid. In America, a friend of my father s wanted to take him to immigration so that he could be legal in the U.S but he didn t want to because he was scared that immigration would make him go back to Mexico and he wanted to stay in America. One day, his friend took him to the store but they were really going to immigration. At that time he was 20 years old and he gave all his information so that he would be legal in America. When he got paperwork to make him legal, he went back to Mexico to visit and by then he was 21.
While he was visiting in Mexico, he wanted to see my mom. My mom escaped from her house in the night to see him because my mother s father didn t like my mom to have boyfriends or to have guys see her. My father went back to the U.S and they kept talking but they never had a relationship. The years past and again my dad went back to Mexico to visit. My father went to visit my mom's house pretending he was going to see her father but he was really going to see my mom. One night my parents decided they wanted to live together so my mom escaped that same night when everyone was sleeping in her home. She left with my father to live with him. My mom was 24 and my dad was 27 when they stared to live together but they lived in the house of my father with all his family. My mom's dad would not let them sleep together because first they had to marry. They got married when my mom was 25 years old and my dad 27. But then after they got married, my dad decided to go back to the U.S to work and raise money so that he could build a house in Mexico for my mom and our family to have a better life and education. So when my brothers and I were little he spent most of those years working in the U.S so we grew up without him. One day, he decided he wanted us together but in the U.S because he thought life was easier here than in Mexico and we would have a better life and education. So he made all of us residents and brought us here. When we got here, my brothers and I were trying to understand his personality since we never spent time with him in Mexico. We didn t like to live here because everything was different than what we were used to. But now we know him and we got used to living here. Now we like to live here in Noel and I thank my dad for bringing me and my family here and giving us a better life. 3
Conclusion This semester I feel that I've progressed with my English and has improved better. I learned many things for example: in my class of ELI 31 I went to places where I had not been before, saw new things, and off curse more vocabulary. I had good times this semester. In my next semester I set myself to do my best in my class study hard to learn more English.