A half year will have passed since I moved here.

For the first two months, I had devoted myself to errands to help me settle into a new situation. Since my husband has a job during the daytime, I mainly took charge of looking for an apartment to live in and arranging to get a car. It was hard to drive in an unfamiliar land to a hotel on the day when we arrived, but I got my driver license quickly. This was the first and most significant event after the moving because the driver license is the most strongest Photo ID in this State. At the end of the second month, the ESL class I registered for was starting. Based on these factors, I had felt I almost learned the ropes.

Next three months were even calm, but a bit dull. After finishing the ESL classes in the spring semester, I felt it very helpful, but on the other hand, I felt my English skills had not improved at all. I was able to say only 20% of what I wanted to say. Making and answering phone calls in English was a great challenge for me. Although I quit my job before coming to this country, I still have a craving to work again. A few times I looked into job opportunities, but I felt like I was completely out of their league. I didn’t know how I could cheer myself up anymore.

And then, five months and a half has passed. My English is still broken and disjointed, but speaking English itself no longer bothers me. I don’t need to take a deep breath to calm myself down before answering the phone any longer. I believe that learning about the syntax was a major breakthrough for me. It helped me develop not only my writing skills but also my oral and reading skills. By being more confident, I enjoy learning English more so than before. Hopefully, as long as I keep at it, I would be able to go on the right track.

Photo by purplemattfish

By going to see a dentist, I have learned a lot of new words.

To keep your teeth healthy, you should have an annual checkup. You will have a teeth cleaning, bone level evaluation, X-ray, and checkup done by the dentist. During a teeth cleaning, your gums may bleed. If this happens, you will surely be recommended to use dental floss. The gums are the pink tissue that surrounds the teeth.

If you have a toothache, you may have cavities. An anesthesia is a shot used for blocking pain from a certain area of body. Before tooth drilling, dentists may use anesthesia. There are several types of tooth fillings. Inlay is the smallest one, crown is the biggest one which covers your tooth, and onlay is in the middle of inlay and crown.

When my inlay came off from my lower left back teeth, I called my dentist immediately so that I could make an appointment on the same day. My dentist checked my teeth and said that the hole was shallow, so I don’t need a treatment if I don’t want to. After having seen how it went for two days, I decided I wanted to get my teeth covered after all. Whenever I ate something, food would always go into the shallow hole, and I didn’t like it. Consequently, I went to see my dentist again, and got my teeth filled.

This ESL material helped me a lot, which includes short readings and conversations in everyday situations, such as “Dentist’s Office”, “Auto Mechanic” or “Car Rentals”.

• http://www.dailyesl.com/dental-cleaning.htm

Photo By Christaface

Recently, I started trying to watch movies without English subtitles. Having seen it once before in Japan, I’m rewatching David Lynch’s Twin Peaks these days. I really love this TV series. For a long time, I have been longing for the coffee, donuts and cherry pie which Agent Cooper ate.

FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper is one of the main characters of Twin Peaks. He is a little eccentric man who loves nature, Tibetan thought, coffee and cherry pie. Always having a microcassette recorder, he records everything in the spoken word what he has observed along with the investigation. When he takes a sip of coffee, after a pause, he smiles and says “Damn, good coffee!”. I love his this reaction. This sounds very charming.

At Double R Diner, he finds their cherry pie really good. Here is one of my favorite scene at the diner. After ordering coffee and pie to the beautiful owner, Norma, Agent Cooper says “How long you been in love with Norma?” to Ed, who is secretly in a relationship with the owner. It surprises him very much. Agent Cooper is excellent at people-watching.

I hope someday I go to Twede’s Cafe near Seattle, which was used as a location for the Double R Diner. However, for the time being I’d better to try to make a cherry pie by myself. I found this recipe, “Agent Cooper’s Favorite Cherry Pie”, which looks very tasty. I will try this before long!