Arriving in Seattle, WA, USA, I just felt like in a heaven, ‘a dream came true’. Wish you were here, as Mr. Alan said… I was eager to share experience with everyone at home what a wonderful time I was having. Before long, bad things came in threes and I’d come to that…… I didn’t believe it at first, the luggage carts which were conveniently placed throughout the SeaTac international airport available to rent for $4! Gee, you definitely can hand it for free at Juanda airport, Surabaya, Indonesia, a developing country! Yeah, we do have nice trolleys at your convenience for free.
Getting back to my story, Prof. Katie Barker was there, smiled, ready for picked me up. She had been waiting for me as an hour delay in the arrival. She’s so awesome American. She took me to my apartment and again gave me a hand with the bags. Then, she offered me to go to the restaurant for lunch. I excused as I was fasting for the month of Ramadhan, so she declared herself to take me around. Very right after the intersection, a police woman stopped us due to a traffic violation. “You didn’t stop at the intersection Mam.” (I have no idea about traffic rule in USA, so don’t look at me) On a serious note, Prof. Katie Barker was ticketed, and a total amount of $350 fine because she couldn’t even show the vehicle registration. The what? $350! She never ever did any wrongdoing on the road before, never ever ticketed before. The reasons behind this were she was busy explaining to me this and that at all times while driving. And secondly, it was a Mr. Barker’s car she got temporary use as her husband out of town for more spacious baggage. O’ I was so sorry for Prof. Katie Barker just beat the disbelief on the way home.
Last but not least, bad thing number three was when time for breaking the fast was coming. There was no single mobile food vendor in the USA! Conversely, there are many street food offering delivery and even mobile food vendors in Indonesia for cheap. Certainly, I got three meals a day: oatmeal, miss-a-meal and no meal.
Hi Lina,
Maybe a bitter experience, but whenever you look back on that day…I thing you enjoy. Looking back on it, How do you feel?
Sometimes you have to sacrifice something to pursue your goals.
Thanks.
I do, I do Mr. Kito. I am always delighted reading aloud your awe-inspiring stories. Yeah, they really inspire me as a reason I like the ESL Forum so much. Then, why don’t I try writing myself and give it a try reading aloud? I was strolling round ESL Forums and came across a nice surprise. Worthily, some members went on to mention me or asked me for helping out. The moments like this that make me glad I finally took the magnetic dip into foruming.
Hello Richard,
Nice to hear you. I do love living in the US for many reasons. You are totally right; I do love the people here, the lifestyle, the weather, and my goals are only a few of the highlights to say the least. Yeah, that was just an expression of my cruel honesty to write something different.
Thanks so much to all of you for stopping by. Lina
I was wandering what “foruming” means? I suppose there is a spelling mistake.
I think You heard from me.
I didn’t record my voice so that you can hear me.
I think you know the differences between (hear of somebody, hear somebody, hear from somebody)
Is the grammatical structure you have used correct?
Hello Richard,
You know what, I am just imitating how the people here in the US say. Beyond and behind that, I have no idea, so please let the moderator make comment on this if I have done any mistakes. Foruming means the act of browsing and/or posting on an online forum or bulletin board.
Nice to hear you or nice to hear from you means nice to receive news or information or a message or a letter from you.
Thanks a lot for bringing these up.
Lina
The word ‘foruming’ is very informal and doesn’t demonstrate good command over the language, so even though you might hear/see native speakers use it, you shouldn’t use it in formal situations. I suspect you might have found the term defined here - beware of using this particular dictionary for your work! It is a directory of very modern, and often informal, usage. As an alternative, ‘… into forum usage’ would be very acceptable, but I loved your use of metaphor ‘the magnetic dip’ drawing you into the forum.
Strictly speaking, you would use ‘nice to hear you’ if you were actually able to listen to someone’s comments (via a phone, recording device or face to face). As Richard indicates, ‘nice to hear from you’ is the accepted form when you receive written news.
I see. Thank you so much for your crystal clear explanation Beeesneees. That sure helped me out in learning English. Your suggestion to beware of the website was a good one, so how should I express ‘foruming’ instead? Thanks again for your advice. Lina
… so in your original message:
“The moments like this that make me glad I finally took the magnetic dip into forum usage.”
although in this context you could just as easily have said
The moments like this that make me glad I finally took the magnetic dip into online forums."
This thing did happen to me. Day three, time to wash clothes! I entered the laundry room. There were two machines which each of them required four quarters dollar to be worked out.
I checked mine. For I only had got four quarters from an automatic machine change $4 for renting cart out of $5 at SeaTac airport, I washed manually.
I was thinking that the first machine was a washing machine, and the second one was a draining machine.
So when I finished washing clothes, I put the stuff in the second machine, and inserted the four quarters. The machine started to work. Glodak, glodak, glodak… Bwak, bwok, bwak, bwok… Bump, bump, bump…
The machine was so noisy and interrupted.
“What the hell American machine is this?” I said to myself.
Anyway, I had no time to think of it for I was really tired.
My eyelids grew so heavy that they began to stick together.
So I went back to my room and directly fall asleep.
I awoke an hour later and gave me a little worry for I might be fine letting the laundry room unattended with that noisy machine. I immediately sensed that noisy machine boded no good and got in rush to the laundry room.
What a mess! It was very messy.
Water out from the machine spilled the floor. The room was flooding. Hurriedly I opened the machine door. The clothes were hot and very hot, but still wet and very wet.
Wondering of what happened, I read what was written on the machine. Drying machine?! DRYING MACHINE!!! Sorry… Sorry… Sorry… I beg your pardon Americans…
We didn’t have this kind of machine at our home land for our country has lied in tropical area, a place with a lot of sun, no need of drying machine at all.
At the end of the day, I cleaned up things, mopped the floor, and made it neat and free from dirtiness.
Again, it perfectly added my damp tired…
I think you are a natural storyteller. Although I’m sorry for your misfortune the way you recount it really made me laugh! I loved the way you imitated the noise made by the machine, and your exasperation when you finally read the notice on the tumble dryer.
Thank you very much for your lovely feedback Beeesneees. You really encouraged me while in fact I was poor performance, especially when writing.
Best regards,
Lina
This thing really did happen to me. Day three, time to wash clothes!
I entered the laundry room. There were two machines, which each of them required four quarters dollar to be worked out. (‘operated’ would be a better word.)
I checked mine my cash. For I only had got four quarters from an automatic machine change $4 for renting cart out of $5 at SeaTac airport,(I would reorder this part as follows - I hope I have the meaning right.)I had rented a cart (trolley?) for $4 at SeaTac airport and had four quarters change from the $5 that I put into the automatic machine there, but these were all the coins I had. I washed manually.
I was thinking that the first machine was a washing machine, and the second one was a draining machine.
So when I finished washing my/the clothes, I put the stuff in the second machine, and inserted the four quarters. The machine started to work. Glodak, glodak, glodak… Bwak, bwok, bwak, bwok… Bump, bump, bump…
The machine was so noisy and interruptedintermittent.
“What the hell American machine is this?” I said to myself.
Anyway, I had no timedesire to think ofabout it for I was really tired.
My eyelids grew so heavy that they began to stick together.
So I went back to my room and directly fall fell asleep.
I awoke an hour later and gave me a little worry forwas a little worried that I might be finefined forlettingleaving the laundry room unattended with that noisy machine. I immediately sensed that noisy machine boded no good and got in rushrushed to the laundry room.
What a mess! It was very messy.(This says the same thing twice so the second sentence isn’t needed.)
Water out from the machine spilled out onto the floor. The room was flooding! Hurriedly, I opened the machine door. The clothes were hot -very hot… but were also still wet - very wet. (I’ve changed the punctuation here because I didn’t want to change your phrases. the style of writing is lovely!)
Wondering of what happened, I read what was written on the machine. Drying machine! DRYING MACHINE?!! Sorry… Sorry… Sorry… I beg your pardon, Americans…
We didn’t have this kind of machine atin our home land for our country has liedlies in a tropical area, a place with a lot of sun: no need of a drying machine at all.
At the end of the day, I cleaned up things, mopped the floor, and made it neat and free from dirtiness.
Again, it perfectly added to my damp tired…
Dear Lina,
I am so sorry I forgot to go back to this and correct it. I suspect you will now look at it and think, “Oh my goodness! All those mistakes!” but you shouldn’t think that. The mistakes are small and there are several places where no correction was necessary at all… not the smallest amount! The flow and style of the story is what’s important here… and that is all yours!
In fact, for this sort of story, I quite liked the mistakes being there in the first place, because it gave more of a sense of the writer and where she came from.
Dear Ms. BN,
Thank you so much for your valuable feedback. Yeah, they call it a cart instead of trolley. Aha, I got it. I was thinking a lot to find the correct words for ‘I had rented a cart for $4 at SeaTac airport and had four quarters change from the $5 that I put into the automatic machine there, but these were all the coins I had.’
I appreciate the correction and advice you have given. Your expertise and help have been invaluable during my learning process. Again, I sincerely appreciate your generosity.