The Globalization of Eating Disorders

I think that the eating disorders need to be resolved with education. Schools around the world should be teaching students about this topic. In my opinion there should be a balance, you can be slim, but if you are not healthy, it doesn't worth it. People should keep their shape and health because that is what keeps people alive. The media spread the image of a "perfect" body which is not real. Some of these actors work out everyday and live for that. A normal person doesn't have enough time to get a body of an actor. Also some of these bodies aren't healthy, they have a great shape but in the inside they aren't great at all. I think that being very fat, like in the African countries, is not good. This could bring heart problems and other circulatory system problems. With education from kids to adults will have a great impact with the image problems and eating disorders.

Blog #4: The Veiled Threat

On September 7^th the professor assigned us –a group of three people- to identify the thesis statement of "The Veiled Threat" essay and see what the author -Azar Nafasi- was trying to say on the paragraphs 15 to 18. First of all, the thesis statement is "By attempting to control and shape every aspect of women's lives, and by staking its legitimacy on the Iranian people's supposed desire for this control, the regime has unwittingly handed women a powerful weapon: every private act or gesture in defiance of official rules is now a strong political statement". On the above mentioned paragraphs Azar Nafasi is telling a story of a woman in Iran that was executed. This woman was in charge of higher education, where she tried to get more quality for education and to purge the school textbooks of sexist images of women. For doing this she was charged with "corruption on earth," "warring against God," and "expansion of prostitution." Parsa's photos never appeared on the news. No body really knows how she was killed because there are too much different stories. Her executioners "preserving" their "dignity" brought death to this woman, making her shapeless. Ayatollah Khomeini had the highest position on the clergy, so he ruled Iran. He made Iran an Islamic regime. He started to take all of the rights of the women. He justified himself by claiming that he was restoring women's dignity and rescuing them from the degrading and dangerous ideas that been imposed on them by the Americans. Using this excuse they took all of the rights of the women and taking their history down. Its impressive how today some places have such regime, and that does not have of the real concept of what is rights.

Reflection #3: Spanglish and Mute on an English only World

Both of these stories have to do with aliens on the United States. Every year hundreds of persons arrive on the US coasts searching for a better life. The main problem they have is the language barrier. That’s what the "Mute on an English Only World" talks about. That was a Korean family that moved to the US and the mother of the family didn't learn any English. This happens a lot in states like California, New York, Ney Jersey, Texas, Illinois, Florida, etc. That's a problem that people really don't need to worry about because there is a lot of schools that teach you English. In the other side, we read "Spanglish", this story talks about a student that had mixed up English and Spanish. He isn't the only one, in New York that is another way of speech, as in Puerto Rico, where almost every person talks in spanglish. I think that this is a new culture and that is us. However we need to empathize the learning of the original languages, such as Spanish and English. Because of the spanglish we are forgetting about our own language which is very important to our development. In this world we need to know the formal language 'cause this would help you get better jobs, and in consequence a better income. Also in some times it will help you get a better communication with other people. For that reason I don’t think there is no bad to talk spanglish if you don’t forget your own language. That’s why I exhort every one to continue talking spanglish, but don’t stop learning and practicion the formal language.

Journal #2: The Way to a Rainy Mountain

This essay tells us a story of a person that is remembering his roots. The author narrates how his culture was. He describes all the places, how his grandmother prayed and everything that has to do with this culture. In my personal aspect, I think that the situation this author is presenting is something a lot of Native Americans had went through in the United States. He is telling us how he is taking a journey back to his roots and how that culture was slowly disappearing. He expressed how it was with a lot of details and I think that some of them were really unnecessary. But he used good words to describe everything, the way he described it made me imagine and make a picture of it instantly without thinking too much.

Although I like real life stories, and this is a real life story, this particular one doesn't was on my interest because of the type of vocabulary he used. For me, the vocabulary was too deep, even for the simplest thing. I find this unnecessary, but, as I mentioned before, some of that words made me make mental pictures of everything he was telling. In the other side, when I read this story, I started thinking how in all these years teachers had thought us the story in the "white people" side, but this author is telling us the story in the other side, which has more credibility for me.

My experience of college life...

When I received the acceptance letter I felt like “I can’t believe it!” So I came here with only one purpose; study and get a degree. The first week here was cool, but I felt a little lost, I knew where was every building, but I didn’t knew were or who I had to contact to get the answers that I needed. Later on I met my professional adviser, Vilma Lopez. She was very helpful making my first week very pleasant. In every class of “UNIV” we learn how to get the best of Mayaguez without getting your grades down and have a successful career. I think she has taught us the real meaning of fun-study which is very important to the success here.
In the little time I have here, I’ve met a lot of cool people, which make me be more comfortable. The first week some students gave me “prepa” throwing me eggs, water balloons and even a lettuce! I gave a laugh about it. Also, I met all of me professors and it’s like everything, I like some of them, but there are some that I didn’t like at all. Some of them give a lot of class work and homework, others tell you to read hundreds of pages, but there are some that are more flexible with the students. Thursday I went to a church, it was very good, I really enjoyed it! I’m thinking to go to that church every Thursday, unless I have to study or get some exams. When I went back to Bayamon, all of my friends were waiting for me in home and started asking me how were my stay in Mayaguez. Some of my friends are thinking of study in Mayaguez when they graduate of High School. Seriously, “No me puedo quejar”, my experience here is very good.