Re: Many stories...

Ola Terry,
 
I'm focused on your fascinating question this morning: what are other ways to say hello? It turns out, we have a gazillion ways to say goodbye, but we are very low on hello alternatives. I'll try to find a variety to include in my upcoming messages. One thing we do, however, is borrow "hellos" from other languages. For instance, I often say "ola" to my friends, which is Spanish for "hi." They always understand because many people know a little Spanish. We also say "Good morning" a lot, but in this situation, I'm not sure when you are going to read this message. Will it be morning or night? Or afternoon?
 
I was also interested to read that listening is the biggest challenge for you. I'll see if I can send you some spoken messages in the future. I'm not sure if it's possible to upload any, but I'll give it a shot. I can record short mp3s on my computer, so possibly I can upload them on this message board too.
 
I haven't heard about the fainting goats. What country are they in? Do you have a website or article about them? If so, please send me the link.
 
Thanks for the info on Icheon. This is the city where the international airport is located, isn't it? I didn't know about the rice. You also mentioned that your city is famous for peaches? Do you mean this kind?


 
If so, I am going on vacation tomorrow to the Okanagan Valley in my province and it is also famous for peaches. There's a lot of delicious fruit grown there, but peaches are definitely in season now. Oh, by the way, I'll still be on this message board as usual. Just from a new location.
 
Let me tell you about my city. First of all, you know I live in the Greater Vancouver area, right? This is composed of many smaller cities and together, they make a population of about 2 million. It's quite small compared to Korea, isn't it?
 
I live in one of the smallest cities in the centre of the Greater Vancouver area. My city is New Westminster. It is a really old city so there are lots of historic places. In the centre of the city, there's a beautiful park called Queen's Park, which looks like this:
 


 
The water park is not spectacular, but if you look beyond it, you can see huge, old trees. These make the park cool even on the hottest of days. The park also includes a stadium and lots of other facilities, including a petting farm for small kids. Queen's park really has something for everyone.
 
I don't live near Queen's Park, but I live in a separate neighborhood beside the Fraser River. I'd like to show you my neighborhood too because it's amazingly quiet and peaceful. In fact, even though we are in the centre of the Greater Vancouver area, people in my neighborhood have horses, sheep and chickens. It's amazing to find these urban farms!
 


 
This is just across the street from the elementary school where my kids have their classes.
 
This is a quick introduction to my city. I'd love to hear more about yours, especially your school. It sounds very high tech. Can you show me a picture of your school?
 
And now, I want to end my message in a new way. I usually write "all the best" but today I'm going to use a new sign-off. Here it is:
 
G2G,
 
Gwen
 
P.S. Do you know this one? It means "got to go."