Amanda

=Amanda=

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BIOGRAPHICAL/GEOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Amanda Wu is from Taiwan. Taiwan is an island that is part of the Asiatic Continental Shelf. It is the largest island in between Japan and the Philippines. Taiwan is also a very mountainous island. It has five large mountains.

Creative Writing
//So many different ethnicities surround me a beautiful statue holding a gleaming torch.// //__ Taiwan __// “Wake up Amanda,” my mother screams. “We must get final things for your wedding day tomorrow.” I must have been dreaming. I hate having all of my family in town. They put way too much pressure on me. They act like whatever I do just isn’t good enough and should be better and say I should be more like some of my cousins. I cannot wait any longer to get out of here and go to America where I can be free of all of my stress with my husband and raise a family. We go to the market and I get red, white, and blue flowers to symbolize the country I will go to two days from now. We get lots of other little things and go back home. __ //The Wedding// __ It is finally the day of my wedding. Just one more day till I go to a new country and start a new life with my new family. I dream of going on the plane over to there and seeing opportunity everywhere I go. I will come in through New York, the most famous city in all of the United States. From there I will go to a town in Ohio called Beavercreek where my husband got a job there. //__ The Plane __// “We are now one hour from New York city,” the captain says over the intercom as I wake from my sleep. I am on the plane to New York where I will enter the United States of America. //__New York__// I am in a big city with my husband and there are huge buildings all around us. We are surrounded by overweight people that act like buying things is just like breathing. They spend all their money and the banks have huge lines going out of them of people asking for loans from banks. //__ My house __// I’m at my house it’s a beautiful brick house with green shutters and a big backyard. “Do you like it?” my husband says. “Like it, it’s better than I ever could have imagined,” I say. We go inside the house and it is even bigger than it looks. I hope I never have to leave this country. The house is better than anything I had ever seen before. It is like a mansion.

**Transcription**
Trent: So did you feel any pressure from family members back home? Amanda: Yes I do Trent: What struggles did you face when you came over here? Amanda: The merge of the cultures. Trent: Do you have any family members back home? Amanda: Yes I do Trent: Like who in your family? Your parents? Amanda: My parents all my family members. Trent: So you’re the only one here in your family? Amanda: Yeah Trent: Do you think you made the right choice? Amanda: Yeah I did Trent: Why did you come?

Amanda: I got married and I stayed here. Trent: How hard was the language barrier? Amanda: Like how I learn English Trent: Yeah Yeah was it hard Amanda: No not really just some accent to get used to the different peoples accents Trent: Did you come to the US by choice. Amanda: Yeah Trent: What was the toughest part about moving here Amanda: Okay so many things to do it by our self that part is so different in our country we buy stuff and use it immediately Trent: What was your reaction to life here Amanda: feel free very free Trent: from what you heard about the U.S. was it accurate? Amanda: okay not really Trent: What wasn’t accurate about it Amanda: It’s more conservative than I thought Trent: Do you have a favorite food that they didn’t really have in Taiwan Amanda: not really I can testimony the Mexican food here Trent: Have you adopted any customs Amanda: I think health health. How to decorate our house or and how to how to cook American friends foods its not our cultures I know there are so many foods that they never want to try it Trent: What could have been done in your country to make you want to stay Amanda: Here has less pressure Trent: So less pressure Amanda: Less pressure yeah I can keep more privacy Trent: If you had a choice would you move back to your home country? Amanda: I have a choice yeah but I don’t want to move back Trent: Did anyone come to the U.S. with you? Amanda: Yeah my husband ( laughter)

ANALYSIS
In History class we learned that for many immigrants it was a very hard to get citizenship in the United States. For my immigrant it was not as hard as the stories we had heard in History class. She came from Taiwan in a time of no war, no famines, and no disease. She came to be free of the pressure of the country.