The economy in the USA seems to be in recession, but Houston, however, is not in the list. My sister told me she couldn't really sense any trace of recession here is Houston. Parking spot was still hard to get, long line still exited when ready to check out. The information I got from newspaper was there were in total 240,000 new immigrants from other states and foreign countries this year. Local newspaper Houston Yearbook reported today,  this year, a number of more than 140,000 moved here from other states and 92,000 came from foreign countries. As a result, growth in population triggered growth in employment, housing price experienced 4.5% growth instead of falling down. There is new immigrants, there emerges prosperity.

Houston is becoming an internation metropolis by leaps and bounds. Taking a walk or going shopping, people of different races and contries are in sight, a sudden thought just came into my mind that perhaps people from different countries here are even larger than the countries which have joined in the UN in number. When I was playing with some children in children playground, I saw two senior ladies holding two young kids who are probably from east Europe, because I couldn't understand their language. By guessing, I assumed that they are here to be babysitters for their children. In my sister's neighborhood, there lives Indian by the right side and Hong-Kongnese on the left side. Chinese residents here reached more than 100,000. It was reported in newspaper yesterday, chinese smugglers were arrested in many small private airports by Immigration Administration Bureau. Those smugglers paid their snakehead $20,000. Snakehead smuggled them to Mexico then transfered them onto private jets and landed them in small airports. This year, there is a big rate of growth in chinese smugglers in the USA, a 50% increase of last year. Immigration Administration Bureau estimates, in the States, number of successful chinese smugglers is 290,000 for the moment.

Obama's on-vacation-half-naked photos in Hawaii were exposed and led to a nationalwide inquiry. Is Obama black or white? My sister and her husband did not vote for Obama, because they still don't trust him. Technically, Obama isn't black but he did take advantage of African Americans. Black people voted for no reasons as long as they see someone who is from their own race. Well-educated citizens voted for him as well, because Obama is one member of Havard Brotherhood Club. In this case, he got voted by the two sides. My sister's husband was not satisfied with the result however. Geographically, Houston is the South, Black people take up a great percentage in population and they are overweight. Newspaper reported today that average american's height is getting taller, except one group, which is low and middle-class African American females. Low and midddle-class African American  females borned in 70s or 80s not only shorter than their mothers, but also shorter than their grandmothers. Hence, there is a trend of falling of their height. Accroding to the analysis by relations between height and social economy experts, it suggested adiposity is caused by food. 80% of Low and midddle-class African American females are overweight which made them even shorter. However, high-class African American females are getting taller as the same as other groups.

I woke up early than my family due to jetlag. I was enjoying my tea while reading newspaper. After that, I took a tour in my sister's garten. My sister is a vegetable lover, so she plants various vegetables in the garten all around the year. Her husband always teases her by saying that she is making up here in the US that she did not get a lot of chance to practise farming in China. Houston is located in tropical area where green covers the whole city all the year round. My sister plants a lot of china-only vegetables, such as fennel and chinese cucumber. The fennels are growing fabulously. The dumplings which I had last night reminded me of mother's. Speaking of mother, I suddenly realized that in some ways, defination of a mother is something to get you full. Everyone was raised up by breast milk;When we grow up, mother is the one who cooks the best in the world.

All the stores and shops opened at 5 in the morning today, because it was after Christmas sale. My sister and I went shopping while the rest of the family were still sleeping. We did shop till we dropped and ended up exhausted. I bought 4 cutton sweaters, one for my sister, 2 for my mother, and one for myself. Besides that, I bought 3 accessories. I did have a terrific time.