Volunteer Work @ The Los Angeles Regional Food Bank

On December 3rd, our Downtown Campus teacher (Caroline) and a group of LSI students worked alongside Disney, USC, CAA & Americorp. It was truly a wonderful organization & all had a great time. They had a brief orientation before beginning & watched a video of LA Food Bank's great mission: to fight hunger & give hope.

Caroline is very happy several of her LSI students joined her for this volunteer event. They were all inspired & ready to come back to help again.

http://www.languagesystems.com

Discover L.A.: Cafe Gratitude

Cafe Gratitude is an organic vegan restaurant specializing in gourmet vegan cuisine. They select the nest organic ingredients and support local farmers, sustainable agriculture and environmentally friendly products. The entrees come in large portions that can be shared. The first time I dined at the restaurant was with my friend Mike, and have since taken many friends there. My favorite drink on the menu is the ‘I am Cool’ which is a mint chocolate chip milkshake with Vitamineral green and raw cacao nibs. Yes, the menu gives all of the dishes monikers like "I Am Liberated" or "I Am Festive," which are meant to add to the overall positive vibe. The menu is seasonal and is always evolving so if you have eaten there in the summer and loved a soup, you might be disappointed to not and it on their menu in the fall. What consistently stays on the menu is the ‘I Am grateful,’ their community supported grain bowl. Café Gratitude chooses a local non-pro t supplier and all pro ts from that dish are donated. The minimum donation is $3. Some of my other favorite things on the menu this summer have been the ‘I am Warm hearted,’ a grilled pesto polenta with a summer vegetable ratatouille, cashew crème fraiche, almond parmesan and basil, and the ‘I am whole’ a macrobiotic bowl with sea vegetables, summersquash, adzuki beans, sautéed kale, house-made kimchee, sea whip and black sesame seed gomasio. The prices are pretty reasonable and range from $9-20. And if you want to finish your meal off with a wonderful dessert I highly recommend the ‘I Am Lovely,’ gluten-free seasonal cooked fruit cobbler served with homemade ice cream.

Taken from our monthly e-Newsletter.

http://www.languagesystems.com

Three days of volunteering at the Midnight Mission!

Our LSI Downtown campus teacher, Caroline was allowed to bring about 10-15 volunteers to help out at the Midnight Mission-- they were fully booked already but welcomed them still.

On Saturday 11/23, they were 12 total who came to volunteer. Both Sushant and Daniel (LSI teachers) came to support as well. Very positive vibe in there, everyone was laughing and having a good time. All were eager to help out any way they could. Main job they had was cutting up LOTS of ham and vegetables.
Sunday, 11/24, she had 10 LSI student. Main job they had was cutting turkey. 

Monday 11/25, was the biggest group she had. 15 total. Finished cutting all turkey and helped with yam prep. Most had never cut turkey before but the head chef trained them well with the knife:) The LA Times interviewed several of them and took lots of pictures. 

Overall, Caroline was amazed and happy with the turnout since she had only four days to get volunteers to sign up!

We would like to thank Caroline and everyone that participated in this whole thing :)

Discover L.A.: Madrona Marsh Preserve - Torrance, CA

The Madrona Marsh Preserve, located in Torrance, California, is the last

vernal marsh remaining in the South Bay area of Los Angeles and one of

few wetlands located within an urban landscape.

Formed eons ago when the mountains of the Palos Verdes Peninsula

rose to the south, Madrona Marsh is a shallow depression fed by wet

season (spring) storms as the name "vernal" indicates. After the rainy

season, evaporation, percolation and transpiration reduce the water

depth by about one-quarter of an inch (6 mm) per day. By the end of

August, the wetland is dry and remains so until the following rainy

season. Situated on land that was set aside for oil production in 1924,

Madrona Marsh was never developed—unlike the surrounding

city—and remains a valuable natural habitat for birds, reptiles, insects

and even small mammals.

Ongoing e orts are restoring native plants including wild owers and

butter y species. The area has long been popular with bird watchers and

The Audubon Society has used Madrona Marsh for their annual bird

census since 1967. El Camino College uses it as an outdoor biology and

botany lab. Public access to the Madrona Marsh trails is o ered Tuesday

through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and guided tours can be arranged

by calling the Nature Center (310) 782-3989.

Activities include bird and nature walks, natural history classes and

workshops, habitat restoration, science and astronomy programs, art

exhibits, and children's nature programs. The center opened in 2001 and

features exhibits about the plants, birds and animals of the marsh.

The marsh and nature center are closed to the public on Mondays.

From Wikipedia

Taken from our monthly e-Newsletter.

http://www.languagesystems.com

Halloween Bash 2013

Friday night, November 1, hundreds of international students from the 4 LSI campuses got together for our annual LSI Halloween Bash. Oiwake Restaurant, in downtown LA's little Tokyo area, was the gathering place for zombies, pirates, ghosts, rockstars, police women, and many other characters. Our LSI students always do such a wonderful job dressing up for this amazing party. 

 

The party started off with an amazing all-you-can-eat buffet featuring favorite Japanese foods such as tempura, curry, California rolls, teriyaki chicken, karage, soba, mapo tofu, and much more. After that students from around the party were given the chance to win prizes if they could answer questions on Halloween trivia.  Believe it or not, not many of them realized that a black cat is the animal most commonly associated with Halloween in America.

 

After dinner there was an impersonation contest and a contest the find the funniest, scariest, and most original costumes. One amazing student from LA won the impersonation contest by dressing and dancing just like Michael Jackson. I hear that he spent many many hours practicing for the contest. So what did he win?  $200 cash!

 

The night ended with LSI students, fully dressed in their Halloween costumes, tearing up the dance floor late in the morning hours as the DJ dropped his jams for all to enjoy. I'm sure this party left a lasting impression in the memories of our LSI students. It was a great opportunity for them to experience how fun Halloween in America can be! 

LSI Beach Party 2013

On August 23, 2013, LSI students from all four LSI Schools (Downtown LA, Northeast LA, South Bay, and Orange County) were treated to a fantastic day of Beach Summer Fun at LSI’s Annual 2013 Beach Party in Huntington Beach, California.  Festivities started with the Annual LSI Beach Volleyball Tournament where representatives from each school participated in a competitive (but fun) Beach Volleyball competition.  All four Volleyball teams played an amazing single-set game against each other which ultimately led to a tie-breaker round between LSI-Northeast LA and LSI-South Bay.  The South Bay Volleyball team proved their mettle by taking the 2013 Championship cup in the end!

Following a brief period of lunch on the beach (courtesy of LSI’s fantastic culinary team), the schools gathered once again to participate in a number of Beach Water Game competitions.  Schools were first able to compete in a Tug-of-War competition where LSI – South Bay proved once again to be victorious in this event.  This was shortly followed by our Stick Game event, where one boy and one girl from each school raced to secure a “stick” in a number of elimination rounds.  In the women’s event, Yan Shan Lin (Linda from LSI-Northeast LA Campus) proved herself to be the fastest girl in LSI! 

The next competition was the Fill-the-Bucket game in which ten students from each campus raced to fill a bucket with ocean water.  Although it was a close race, LSI-Northeast LA students were declared the winners of this event.  Nobody fills a bucket like LSI-Northeast LA!

The final event of the day was LSI’s Disgusting Food contest.  In this food event, five contestants from each school competed in eating a variety of “strange foods” which included Bitter Melon, Dried Squid, and Snickers caramel/chocolate bars in the shortest time possible.  LSI-Downtown LA proved themselves to be the hungriest team on the beach by “wolfing down” all of their “disgusting” food in less than ten minutes!

Needless to say, everybody had an amazing day at the beach and we are all looking forward to next year’s Beach Event!  Thank you LSI for all the happy memories!

Discover LA: One of the world's most famous movie theatres

The Egyptian Theatre was built in 1922 by Sid Grauman, it's one of the world's most famous movie theatres, and also the site of the very first Hollywood movie premiere, Robin Hood with Douglas Fairbanks.

It's located at 6712 Hollywood Blvd, a 20 minute bus ride from LSI's Downtown Campus.

Tours are available once a month. 

For more information, please visit: http://egyptiantheatre.com/