BLOG REFLECTION

It hasn't been an easy semester, because I have various complicated classes, but yet it hasn't been impossible. This class has been very interesting due to the opportunity that I have had to express out my thoughts through the journals we have done in class. This has been a new experience for me. Posting blogs and commenting on others blogs has been a great way of truely expressing my opinion, my thoughts, my personal activities and on the lectures assigned in class.  

At the beginning that I started writing and doing blogs I didn't even know what I was doing, but now I have much more knowledge then at the beginning of the semester. Eventhough now I understand what I am doing, I admit that I still have much more to learn. Writing these blogs at first gave me a lot of stress, but now I feel that I write and express myself more fluently. Posting blogs gave me a feeling of liberting the stress I have acummulated due to work, school and home, and then I was like less stressed and I could continue my assignments for other classes much better.  

I don't know if I would have to continue doing this type of homeworks next semester  but I think that If I do it might be helpful for me liberating my stress once in the while. If I don't have an other class like this I can probable just write in a notebook a couple of things and experiences lived just to feel less stress. 

INTERNAL TOURISM WITH THE FREELANCERS

     At the beginning of this semestre our literature professor assigned different groups with six classmates. My classmates and I decided to name our group The Freelancers. We didn't know ourselves until we took this class together. Making this group was a great decision because my classmates and me have made a good chemistry.  One day on of the members of our group, George decided that besides communicating ourselves only for our literature class, it would be interesting to do something all together and we planned a roadtrip. We had the road trip planned for Halloween, but we couldn't make it, so we finally made it possible on November 14, 2015 and went to "El árbol solitario" in Salinas, Puerto Rico. We planned to leave early in the morning at about 4:30 am because we wanted to see the sunrise, but because of my fault we almost don't make it,  I didn't wake up on time if it wasn't for Bianca who called me and woke me up I would have not meet my group at our point of reunion which was in the Mall of Caguas. 

     As soon as I hung up with Bianca I showered, got dressed and left. I got there at about 4:55 am and we left immediately, and arrived in Salinas at about 5:50 am. The árbol solitario es on the top of one of the mountains in Salinas. George likes to hike and has done this several times, and in this roadtrip the main event was hiking to the top of the mountain of where the árbol solitario was. He had worned us that it was going to be a little bit difficult at the beginning, but that then it was going to be easier because there was going to be many trees to hold on to. It was just like he said it was going to be, and it was totally worth it.  Seeing the sunrise and the beautiful site view was an amazing experience, something definitely unforgettable.  This was my first experience hiking, and I would love to do it again someday, even more if it is to see again a spectacular site view and a awesome sunrise. 

JAMAICA KINCAID

            

 "Do you ever try to understand why people like me cannot get over the past, cannot forgive and cannot forget? There is the Barclay’s Bank. The Barclay brothers are dead. The human beings they traded, the human beings who to them were only commodities, are dead. . . . So do you see the queer thing about people like me? Sometimes we hold your retribución."

          -In the second section of A Small Place, Kincaid indicts the British colonial system and, by extension, the entire enterprise of European colonialism. She condemns the early capitalist system that traded in humans, turning them into a commodity no different from sugar or rum. The Barclay Brothers illustrate how historical acts of exploitation are never really over, despite our desire to pretend otherwise. After making their fortunes in the slave trade, the Barclays went into banking, and the financial institution they set up continues to operate worldwide. Ironically, Barclay’s Bank is the major banking company on Antigua, issuing loans and managing the meager funds of the descendents of the very slaves who were the source of the Barclay fortune. The Barclays are, in a sense, still profiting from those they exploited long after their deaths, which suggests the unending ramifications of actions that seem safely ensconced in history. Kincaid “cannot forgive and cannot forget,” because there is no way to undo the injustice of slavery, and, in a way, the injustice continues. The Barclays are beyond punishment, and their victims are beyond help. Kincaid can only keep the thought of them alive as a sort of “retribution.”

TOURIST FOR A DAY

            This is an experienced I did with my high school friends. I didn't have the opportunity to do a new one right now due to that I had to work the whole weekend. But this internal tourism trip was made at summer . My high school mates and me always plan a trip since we graduated from High School and this summer our trip was to the Cueva de las Golondrinas, in Manati, Puerto Rico. I had never been there before and none of them either so it was a real adventure. We first got lost finding the cave and when we finally thought we got there, we found out we had to go through a place which seemed like a forest, it was full of trees, grass and plants. When we got out of that forest we found two paths, left and right. We didn't know if we were taking the correct way to the cave, but we took the left side and in a few minutes we found a beautiful beach.  We put down our things, rested a while and then went into the beach it was nice, we were alone, we had the beach for ourselves. About two hours later a couple of tourtist who were not from Puerto Rico arrived to the beach. We talked a while with them and then unbelievable they told us that was not the Cueva de las Golondrinas that it was to the other side. So packed our stuff again and went back to take the right side of the two paths we had seen.  We found the path again  and in that side we had to cross a source or water and there was the cave.  We were amazed to discover that there was a beach right near the cave, and when we got closer we found out it was a nudist beach and it was not crowded but there were a few people.  

               After leaving the cave we made stops in different  places to eat. This was an amazing experience. First of all, we had never done an internal trip to a place none of us had visited before.  Being with my high school friends and boyfriend was awesome, he got along very well with my friends and this ment a lot to me. As of today I'm still surprised to know that most of us puertorricans don't do internal tourism and are missing of visiting our own beautiful sites.  This is definetly something we will do again some other time.

Gods Will

Me in Kindergarden

There was once a little girl who was born on July 21, 1994 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She was the second child and had a brother who was only one year and half when she was born. Her mother named her Miosottis that was her mothers name too. Her grandfather had a heart surgery done before she was born, but the surgery was a very extended and delicate one so the doctors planned the second part for June, but it was prolonged, because her grandfather wanted to wait until his daughter gave birth to the girl which he always said that was going to be born with light color eyes, brownish skin and curly hair, and when he saw her for the first time he said “Just as I said she was going to be”.  Unfortunately, he didn’t have the opportunity to have that second surgery and passed away two months later and she doesn’t have memories of him, just the stories her mom, grandmother and relatives say.  

When she was almost two years old her mother started teaching her and her brother how to write their names, numbers, colors, letters and prepared them for when they had to go to school. Miosottis took ballet and assisted to volleyball clinics, to learn how to interact with other kids. The first school she went to was St. Mary's School and then from kindergarten through twelfth grade she went to Espiritu Santo School. She had great memories of her elementary, junior and high school. She was in most of the clubs that were in school, and participated in the Talent Shows, dancing since seventh grade. Also belonged to the volleyball team since fourth grade until she graduated from high school. She was selected the treasurer from the board of her class since 6th grade until 11th grade, but in her senior year she ran for the treasurer of the Student Council, and she made it. This opportunity made her more communicative with the teachers, parents and students from different grades. She always had such an active life and her parents always backed her up in everything, specially her father.

my brother and me when we were little

This girl had a perfect life until the year 2007, when her father was diagnosed with hepatitis in his liver. She was only thirteen years old and this marked her life. She couldn’t count on her dad most of the time any more, he was always sick. His feet were always swollen, what ever he ate made him nauseous and with an upset stomach. He had to stop working and his attitude with his wife and children changed completely, while the condition kept progressing. It was necessary a liver transplant as soon as possible but since he had to stop working, it was difficult for the family to move somewhere else and try to cure the father, because in Puerto Rico this surgery was not done. Her mother found a job and took the responsibility of the house. The family suffered for three years the changes in the household, economically, the problems in the family, due to her fathers attitude and her brother got rebel. But her mother cried every night and prayed to God to help her and her family to get through those difficult moments. And finally in 2010 God heard her prayers. The father’s doctor got him an opportunity to go to Memphis, Tennessee to get a liver transplant. In December 2010, Carlos received his liver transplant and Miosottis received the news while she was in a Family Day in school and the priest said it through the speaker. She started crying and her brother too and thanked God for that big miracle, because he was running out of time and he could have died. That they was a great day, but the best day was when he return back to Puerto Rico and saw him totally different that when he left. It like he had life again. He was totally a new person physically and emotionally even though he had to continue drinking for life a medication, which avoids any rejection of the new liver.  

With my Mom and Dad

Now that she is in college she still has and active life, studying and have three jobs. Now she is coursing her fourth year of college in the University of Puerto Rico and is preparing herself to have her dream come true at being someday a Pharmacist. She is doing a Bachelor in Interdisciplinary Studies and then planning to do a Master in Pharmacy in the Medical Science Campus. With Gods help and her dedication and effort this will happen soon.

Reflection of Reading and Writing

   

Cover

            The writer was eleven years old and he wished to become a writer, that was one of his ambition dreams.  The boy lived in India and his father always read to him stories.  He participated in exhibition class of reading, he loved it very much and felt like if he was in a Cinema.  Unfortunetly, one day he had to move to the city, because his father got a job at the local paper and lost contact with the exhibition class.  But this did not break down his dream of becoming a writter and a good reader.  He was about twenty five years old, when he considered himself a writer and a good reader, but admitted his father was a much more better reader than him.

V.S Naipaul

              It is amazing the way the author describes to us this child and his story,  It is so perfectly described that you can imagine the places, trees, houses, people and city with her descriptions.   One of the things I found interesting was when the boy informs that the new place he went to live to was very noisy, I can compare that with tourists that visit our island. Most of the tourist love coming to Puerto Rico, because the opinion they have is that in our island the people are noisy, "fiesteros" and happy. This demostrates that when people want to suceed no noise or party can stop you.

My Journal Experience

A journal is a written record of our daily observations, experiences and thoughts.  You can write daily or just when you have that urge of liberating feelings you have inside or write about things you have done and want your spirit to feel free.  In my case I mostly did a daily journal with 40 entries. At first it was a little bit difficult but after a few days it became more fluent because I have a very active life in school, work, home and personal activities. I also had to do a compass; this is reflection of how I felt emotionally, spiritually, physically and mentally two times per week. So I will explain some of the things that I wrote in my daily journal.

At the beginning as I said before, it was a little bit difficult, because I was not suppose to think of what I was going to write, I’m not suppose to worry of my grammar and I wasn’t suppose to make any cross outs. In about the first ten entries that I wrote I tried not to correct thing but it was impossible I did it automatically. And I also thought of what I was going to write, but after a few entries I started writing fluently, I felt more secure of what I was doing and writing.  These observations and emotions made me feel better.

Front Cover Journal

            My first journal was about what I was doing in that moment and how I felt and thinking of my future in my education, my boyfriend and helping my family. Through the days I wrote of all the work I had in school, the stress I had with the child I give tutoring and then of my future, this thought most of the times was always present. I wrote one day of my future as an aunt. It’s amazing the things I feel and what I can write with the emotions and experiences I live daily. Some days I really didn’t know what to write and just wrote exactly that at the begging but then things came to my mind because I was either seeing my dog or hearing my mother about what she was going to cook and stuff like that.  The days I had to write in the classroom I felt more concentrated. When I was writing my feelings my thoughts came out more fluently written maybe the silence helped me feel more relax and I used that time to feel my emotions at that moment and simply wrote it down. Day by day I wrote almost about the same things, but what changed as I wrote my journal was that I started not to worry of my grammar and not making cross out. I wrote more and more everyday.

On the other hand the days I had to do a compass I noticed that my feelings where different. At first I was a little lost of how expressing my feelings and emotions on the compass. My first compass was after I did my first five entries and I did it in the classroom. I realized I was spiritually down my number was 1, but emotionally, physically and mentally I had 2. Even though I had a lot of things to do these were not affecting me, but spiritually they were. My rate for this first journal was 7. From my compass two through seven my rates where high 8, 9 and even 10; even though I had a 3 in the spiritual cycle and it was because I had a road trip and felt more connected with nature and relaxed. Meanwhile when I did my eighth and ninth compass at home and my rates where low 5 and 4. I assume that I got these rates because I had a lot of stress that week, I had two test that I was studying for, I had to help the child I give tutoring make a project for the Science Fair and my shift hours that week where in the morning, I was totally exhausted. And finally in compass eleven and twelve my rates went back to normal to 8, 9 and 10.

I liked this experience of writing a daily journal; it helped me feel more relax after writing and it also helped me to write much better with out errors.  I think I will continue writing a daily journal instead of writing in my diary. And save this first journal I did to compare and to see if there is any progress in my future or if it continues the same through the years.