Yet again, I managed to let my schedule get the best of me and it's been quite a while since writing last, sorry! Alright, I'll get right into it...

May 19 was our first day on campus! I went out this day with one of the staff on the project, Sarah. Because the only place we could really go on campus was the English department, and most of our team was already there, Sarah and I decided to look for students in the garden right outside of the English dept. Almost immediately after we started talking to a girl studying alone at a table, a crowd of people surrounded us. They were all her friends, but they were more interested in why two white, presumably British girls were talking to their friend and if they could get in on the conversation. [Since we were hanging around the English dept, it was a pretty safe bet that anyone we ran into was an English major and would LOVE to practice speaking with a native speaker.] The girls we were talking to ended up being three of Ashley and Christy's (the STINT girls) contacts so after talking that day, we never really got to meet up with them again. However, we did exchange contact info with the guy that stayed around to talk, Lamine. A few weeks later, Annie and I were already to talk with Lamine and a friend of his who had many questions about our faith. However, on this day, the conversation with Lamine quickly turned into an "argument." Though we refused to argue with Lamine, we did take advantage of his knowledge of the Islamic faith; we were able to ask him many questions which helped us to learn more about Islam as well as let him know how Christianity differed. One of the men who was hanging around our table happened to be a teacher in the English dept....he ended up inviting Sarah and I to help him teach his class that afternoon. It was basically just a quiz in which we read an article to them in English and they had to answer questions corresponding to the article; the teacher was really excited to have native English speakers helping with the quiz and it was fun to help and see how they run class in Senegal!


That night our team played a few games for our "team bonding" time--I even won the game of "family" we played :) This is a picture of some of us playing "Senegal Ball"--basically you just try to get the ball through other peoples legs and you can only use one hand!

First few days in Senegal...

Well, I guess everyone knows I'm home now. And good news! I've finally found some time to sit down and blog about this summer!

The first few days that we were in country were quite overwhelming. We ran into some delays at the airport and ended up departing from JFK much later than scheduled so we had to fly through the night. Anyone that's ever flown before knows how hard it is to sleep on a plane. As you can imagine, not being able to sleep made for an interesting first day in Senegal. As we walked out the door of the airport we were greeted by a group of malnourished children (I mean, it was Africa) called the talibe boys. ["Talibe" is of Arabic origin and literally translates as "a person in need of something"] An Islamic leader called a Marabout will take the boys at a young age from their village because their parents do not feel that they can take care of them. The marabout's promise is to take care of the boys providing them with a home, food, and education in exchange for the labor of the boys. This traditional education system works well in most of West Africa. However, in Senegal, the marabouts have taken advantage of the system exploiting the children. Generally, the boys are stuck out on the street begging for money and sadly, most of the time, they are not taken care of. These talibes are believed to be kept against their will, unfed, and forced to stay with the marabout until the age of about 18. And the education that they are given is much less than what they were promised. The marabout will usually only teach them to recite the Qur'an, which is in Arabic so many of the talibes do not even learn to speak the languages of Senegal. Below is a picture of some talibes hanging around outside of our truck later in the summer in hopes that we will give them some money to take back to their marabout. Our first day in Senegal we were told to ignore the children...giving them money would only support this system. Many of the older talibes experienced sexual exploitation and made unacceptable gestures to us during our stay so the best way to deal with them was to keep walking. Our team quickly learned to carry bread, vegetables, and fruit with us so that when we encountered them we would have something of nutritional value to give them.


After checking in to our hotel (pictures below), we split up into groups and the STINTers took us all to different Westernized "restaurants" for our first meal in Senegal. Anyone that knows me knows how picky I am with my food. I really wasn't sure of anything on the menu (we later learned nothing ever came out of the kitchen like the menu describes it) so I decided to order a chwarma poulet (some sort of chicken wrap) because the entire STINT team recommended it. I'm not joking when I say it was one of the worst meals I have ever had (for the record, everyone else liked it...sad to say I'm that picky). Luckily, I quickly learned which meals I would be able to eat so I never had another meal quite like this one (except maybe the goat we ate in the villages).



















The first few days were really a whirlwind; the STINTers gave us a tour of the campus we were going to be meeting students on soon and even had a scavenger hunt prepared for us to help us learn our way around. Though the campus was not much larger than UNCW's campus, I felt as if I had never walked so much in my life. Here's some pictures from our tour of the campus that day.

Though these pictures make the campus look vacant, there are actually MANY students who attend UCAD (Université Cheikh Anta Diop). The school was built for only 10,000 students but somewhere around 60,000 students attend! That means they have anywhere from 8-11 people living in a dorm room made for 2!!

So, normally the campus was packed! You couldn't walk around without bumping in to people or dodging out of their way. The streets were filled with people and taxis driving through. We took this tour on a Sunday and many of the students travel home to their village for the weekends so that is why these pictures make the campus look so empty. This picture to the right was taken on the soccer field at the university (what a pain it must be to play in the sand!). Those buildings in the background are some of the dorms.

Much of our agenda the first few days was receiving rules and tips for ministry with the students. Our second day there we split up into groups of 4 and did a prayer walk through the campus. We also had a party at our hotel where the STINT team invited all of their contacts and allowed us to have our first real interactions with the Senegalese students (one of my blogs below was actually after this night!) in which we were able to talk to them about their faith (and many other things). This is one of the only pictures from that night:



Well, that's it for the first blog. I'll be trying to get the rest of the trip on here soon! Sorry it has taken so long to get started and thanks for being patient everyone!

Week one update!

Just wanted to drop in a short update for prayer requests!

If you all could pray for the energy of our team that would be great! Our days are long and filled with many meetings with students, and much walking so we are all exhausted. More than that, the conversations we have with the students are also very mentally and spiritually draining so it seems as if we are all lacking energy to do the things we have been called to do this summer.

Pray for the students! Pray that God will send us the students He wants us to meet. We will soon be doing follow up contacts with students that came to the showing of our film “Magdalena;” there were many students who said they would like to meet with someone for CPC (Campus Pour Christ, we do not say Crusade here) so please pray that these students have an open heart and mind as we go into the meetings and that they will listen to hear the Gospel presented. Also pray for our team to be good listeners and to not just shove information down the students’ throats.

If you could pray that our team could find ways to help the students understand the Gospel better when it is read to them that would be great. For example, the Senegalese people have suffered much through life so far and sometimes they like to bring that up in conversation. I was talking with a man the other day who didn’t quite seem to understand that evil and suffering in our world are a result of our sin and the fall of man. So if you could pray for them to truly understand God’s love for us and that He doesn’t want His people to hurt, that would be very helpful.

Many of the women here seem to dislike certain things about Islam, as well as a few other things about the Senegalese culture. It is not unheard of for a man to have more than one wife and many of the women here, though they consider it very important, are fearful of marriage because they are afraid that their husbands will cheat, leave, share her with another man, or marry another woman as well. The other night we had a party and invited many of the STINT team’s contacts so we could interact with the Senegalese. One woman was telling the story of how she had been seeing a man for about 5 years now; just a little bit ago he just up and married another woman. She turned to one of my teammates to ask what she should do and how she could get him back. The women here have so much hurt in their lives that they carry around with them day to day and Allah does not offer them anything for that. Please pray that we will be able to convey the beautiful love story that the Gospel is to these women in a way that they understand that there is hope, forgiveness, grace, and FREEDOM in Jesus Christ; and that it’s not unusual to long for these relationships (though we often seek them in the wrong things/people), that is what we were created for, a relationship with Christ.

The Senegalese people are very literal; they have box minds so when confronted with the Trinity they can’t comprehend how God is only one. I have been told so many times that I am polytheistic since being here. Thought we have many examples that would definitely convince me if I were confused on this subject, the Senegalese are not satisfied with it and they just do not understand the Trinity. If you all could please pray for ways for our team to convey this more clearly to them and for them to understand this better that would be so helpful!

The men here are very argumentative and though the women are only supposed to minister to women, many of the men will start conversations with us asking why we are here (clearly, little white girls are the minority so I would probably be curious too). I have been in many conversations with men since being here and they all seem to go the same way; the mean are very argumentative. They know much more about their faith than the women do and they definitely want to defend it. But we are not here to argue, we are only here to make known the truth of the Gospel (Romans 10:14-15) so that they too can enter to Paradise (they don’t call it Heaven). So please pray for us to find ways to minister to the women without the mean flocking around and causing distractions; we have many men here who are more than capable to minister to these men with questions. Also, for the men to be less defensive so that they can actually hear the truth of the Gospel.

Throughout the summer I may be posting small updates or maybe more prayer requests. Thanks for the continued support and prayers! God bless!

First thoughts...

Hey y'all!

WE'RE HERE!! I'm finally in Senegal! We arrived on Sunday morning about 8am and started our first day of training; for many of us that was after not sleeping at all on the flight. I'm going to apologize now for any spelling/grammatical errors,this keyboard is different than those we are used to so it's taking some time for me to type. Also, we found out that our schedules don't allow for much internet time so I won't be able to blog as much as I had hoped while here. I'm going to try to post small blogs throughout the 6 weeks but I am keeping a journal that I'm planing to convert to blogs when we return to the states!

Today was our first real interaction with the students. I've found that it's very easy to turn the conversation spiritual. The Senegalese are all very friendly and open and love to talk about with Americans so that they can practice their English. After speaking with some students today, I've found that Islam is actually quite similar to Christianity. Their only problem is that they're missing out on Jesus. They are very literal thinkers here in Senegal so they have trouble comprehending the Trinity; they believe that "followers of Christ" are polytheistic, because we believe in God, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. (Throughout these blogs, you will hear me refer to us as either followers of Christ or Protestants. Senegal is 95% Muslim, 4% Roman Catholic, and the last 1% varies. The Senegalese refer to the Catholics as Christians but there is a difference so we must make a distinction to the students here.) As you can imagine, it's difficult to explain to them how Jesus IS God when they have believed that He was nothing more than a good person/prophet all their lives. I ask that you will all pray for our team as we try to overcome the language barrier and speak the Truth to these students who ARE clearly seeking something more than what they've been given.

My time on the computer is running up so this is all for now. But if you would all continue to pray for us that would be great! I'll try to get some specific prayer requests up soon. Thanks and God bless!

I'm going to Senegal y'all!

Originally this blog was created by request of my Eng 201 teacher; many assignments were due via blog. Once the course ended, I didn't keep up with blogging (you can see my previous post was in November). But now that I will be venturing to Dakar, Senegal for the summer, I will be using this blog to keep my friends and family updated on our trip!

I'd like to thank all of you for your support in prayer and finances. Without you all, this trip would not be possible for me and I'm so thankful for each of you and your call to help out with my missions this summer. As many of you know, I've been thinking about missions work for quite some time now and I am so excited to finally be able to do what has been placed on my heart. We will be flying out May 15--so that's 19 days & counting! I know the rest of the team is just as excited as I am to get there and start sharing the Good News! Though I'm going to update as often as possible, you might also want to check out the blog by the STINT-ers who have been in Dakar since October.

Again, thank you all for everything! Hope you enjoy the readings & picures to come!

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
-Acts 1:8

Well, my brother got married this past weekend. Honestly, I wasn't sure if it would ever happen. Not any time soon at least. Not because I thought he wouldn't meet anyone, I knew that would/did happen. He just likes to take his time with everything he does. He doesn't rush through life at all. He even took 6 years to get out of college! Anyway, the wedding was wonderful. Julie, the bride (and my new sister!), is from Salisbury so the reception was held in the historic Salisbury Depot. It was such a beautiful wedding! The photographer hasn't put the photos up yet but here are a few taken by friends who attended:

like cannons in the night

As you probably know, last night around 4am was the best time to see the Leonid meteor shower. I, of course, took full advantage of the fact that I live at the beach; I went with a friend around 3 in the morning down to the south end of Wrightsville to watch the meteors. I have never actually seen a meteor shower, or even a shooting star. So this was a new experience for me. Although it wasn’t quite what I was expecting, it was beautiful nonetheless.

We ended up staying out on the beach and watching the sun rise also. I’m from the mountains so I grew up spending a lot of time outdoors; I love being surrounded by nature, whether it’s hills and trees or sand and ocean. One of my favorite things to do is just bask in the beauty of creation. It’s just so amazing to me, everything He created. Whenever I actually stop and take the time—which is actually often—to notice how magnificent and breathtaking our world is, it reminds me just how big and sovereign He really is. To know that the God I serve created every single detail of this beautiful world we live in, just makes me feel so much more secure in His promise to take complete care of me.


"You are holy, great and mighty
The moon and the stars declare who You are
I'm so unworthy, but still You love me
Forever my heart will sing of how great You are"

For my advertisement I chose the Dolce & Gabbana jewelry commercials that feature gay couples. The commercial focuses on one girl and one guy who rush around the city to meet up with each other—so it seems. However, at the end, you find out that the two are actually meeting their gay lovers. Generally, commercials like these tend to be scandalous or provocative—but involving a straight couple. But Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce decided to throw a small twist in at the end. The purpose of the commercial is to advertise their wrist jewelry: watches, bracelets, etc. And although it does focus on the jewelry, the gay couples at the end are actually quite distracting. Some people had seen the commercial quite a few times before they realized it was for Dolce & Gabbana jewelry; they just kept noticing the gay couples kissing at the end. This commercial is definitely not only one to advertise their jewelry but to help raise awareness and acceptance of gays as well.

My overall impression of the commercial is actually that it was an effective advertisement. I wouldn't choose that lifestyle for myself, or necessarily agree with it, but I was able to look past that during the commercial and see what they were trying to accomplish. With all the city lights in the background, the music, and the intensity of the commercial, it left me wanting to go buy the D & G jewelry featured.

the weekend is finally here!

Ahh! It’s finally the weekend!! And thank God for that! I had an anatomy exam this morning, so I've been dying to get that over with. Plus, I’m about to leave in an hour or two for Charlotte for the Gravediggers Ball. It’s just a big Halloween costume party that a radio station in Charlotte puts on for anyone who wants to come. The best part is, the Backstreet Boys will be there! I know, it may seem strange that I still like-no, let me re-phrase that-love them and that they can still book shows but they actually have a new CD coming out soon and I am a dedicated fan. Their new music is just as good as their older stuff; the only difference is that they’re kind of burnt out now so they had more fans way back when... Michael Jackson’s tribute band will also be there, and I loved him just as much! So this should be a very fun night.

I had originally bought the Daphne costume from Scooby Doo, but it only came in a standard size and it was about 6 sizes too large for me; and the wig didn’t fit right, you could see my brown hair through the orange. Anyway, I sent that costume back and I threw together a different costume from my own closet. I didn’t get the Daphne one until this week so I had no time to go look for a new costume with all the studying I had to do. Now, I will be going as a hippie. It’s not the best, but it was very easy. And cheap too! I guess I’m happy enough with it.

My best friend from home goes to school at UNC-Charlotte so I’ll get to spend some time with her, and go to this party! I’ve been waiting for this weekend for quite some time now. I don’t get to stay for very long on Sunday though; I have a Cru community team meeting at 5pm that I have to get back for. But I don’t mind, I love that as well. I’m supposed to go see some scary movie with a friend on Sunday night, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to do that because I need to work on my outline for our research papers. I wanted to get that done this week before I left, but I just haven’t had time because I’ve been studying for anatomy. So, I guess my Sunday night will be filled with research and outlines. But I guess I don’t mind that either, I finished the rest of any homework that could be due so I won’t have anything else to do but relax and have fun the rest of the weekend!

Africa?

I believe a few weeks ago I mentioned something in one of my posts about going to East Asia this summer for a summer project with Campus Crusade for Christ. But, OH so much has changed since then...

While at Fall Getaway, I definitely felt the calling to go somewhere this summer; at the time, I thought that somewhere was going to be East Asia. So, of course, I’ve been praying about it. Lately, though, I’ve felt like that’s not where I should go this summer....I just have no idea where. I knew I wouldn’t be in my hometown, but I didn’t know if I should go somewhere or stay and work in Wilmington.

I want to back-track a little: This past year, I have been thinking a lot about moving to Africa when I finish school. I love helping others as it is, but especially those who are less fortunate and can’t always afford help themselves. I plan on becoming a Nurse Practitioner and either starting my own hospital/clinic like place in Africa or just going wherever other organizations will need me.

Now that that’s covered, let’s fast-forward again: I was thinking to myself a few weeks ago, why would I go to East Asia if I’m considering moving to Africa? I was talking to the most amazing guy ever the other day who went to Africa this past summer for a few weeks and said it was amazing. He said seeing the joy on the children’s faces and in their hearts is like nothing in this world. He told me all about his trip and explained what organization he went through (Empower a Child); he is even thinking about full time missions work after graduation.

I can finally feel it all coming together. I hope and pray that it works out, but if it doesn’t then I know that God will have me somewhere else that I can be used. I can’t wait to figure out where that will be!

Stressed to the max.

This week has been absolutely ridiculous. I only had two exams, but one exam was in microbiology, which is a very detailed course. The class is about the many different pathogens and their strains and which diseases they cause. Although the professor doesn’t go too far into detail during lecture, the book is very detailed and he expects us to know everything in the book as well. There are so many things to learn with each bacteria and so many different bacterias to know that you end up having to study nonstop for about a week, if not more. The problem is, I have other classes that each have their own assignments and exams to study for as well as other obligations throughout the week and I would like to be able to enjoy most of weekend seeing as how I don’t get any breaks through the week.

Needless to say, I’ve had a very stressful week filled with many hours of studying. I like to work out, or at least run, a few times a week, but this week I didn’t have time to except on Tuesday night. In my psychology class, we learned that our brains need a break from learning and studying all the time and that the best break is something close to exercising, especially in nature. I had been studying so much that by mid-day Thursday, I really thought I was going to go crazy. I hadn’t had much sleep at all, hadn’t had a break from studying or doing other assignments, and I felt like my brain was going to explode. I didn’t have any time to exercise but I did manage to ride my bike around campus a few minutes before one of my classes. And right before the exam at 5pm, I lied down outside of DOBO Hall and just soaked in the sun. It definitely helped me to relax before taking the exam.

But now, the problem is that I’m not sure if I got the A I wanted. Apparently, I’ll have to study for more than a week if I don’t want to settle for a B. I’ve figured out a new way to approach the class so that should help for the next exams; too bad I didn’t do this sooner though, we’ve already taken two exams. But I will definitely have to make sure I leave room for exercising before the next exam so I don’t overload my brain again. I’m just so glad to have that exam behind me, so I can quit thinking about microbiology for a day or two.

no football! seriously?

I just realized I never did the assignment from a week or two ago about our UNCW complaints.

So, I’d have to say my biggest complaint about the school would honestly have to be that there isn’t a football team. That may sound kind of strange…and it is. There are plenty of things I could complain about but this is one thing I find myself thinking about often. I grew up in a town near Boone, so when ASU’s football team started to improve and win national championships, I of course went to the football games with my brother and his friends who attended the school. I even took some of my friends many of the times I went. At these games, I realized there’s nothing that could bring the students together as good as school spirit does. Everyone at the games obviously wants their team to win so it creates a bond with people you wouldn’t normally bond with. It also brings out the school spirit; to have a team that’s actually good at the sport and to be able to cheer them on. I’ve learned that there’s not much school spirit on this campus. Yeah, people wear teal on Tuesdays but it pretty much ends there. We don’t really have any sports teams that are ridiculously good (baseball apparently wasn’t too bad last year). Since I don’t think they’ll be starting a football team anytime soon, I would say the best solution is for our sports teams to get better so people will actually want to come out and support them. I know that sounds a little ridiculous, seeing as we can’t really control who comes here to play sports. But on the other hand, the school could try to hold more pep rally-like events to pump up the spirit. Midnite Madness is coming up this weekend, and although I don’t think the basketball team will be any better this year, I’m still going to support the team and hope for a better season! Maybe they can arrange some more events like this to bring the university together.

Break

This past weekend was Fall Break. It’s supposed to be a time where we get a break from all the studying and stress from school and get to relax. While I did have a break from the studying, I wouldn’t say this past weekend was any less stressful or more relaxing than usual.

This summer I interned at my church at home and worked mostly with the youth group. The youth girls were taking a trip to Charlotte Friday and Saturday for the “Revolve Tour.” It was a retreat for girls that involved a few bands and many great speakers. After stressing over an anatomy exam all week and not sleeping very much I had to drive to Charlotte to meet my youth group girls. (I had promised I would help out during the retreat) Saturday afternoon when the retreat was over, I went on home, which was another hour drive. Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon I was able to spend some time with my family, which was nice since I hadn’t seen them in over a month. It was nice to relax with them after a stressful month at school and weekend with the girls in Charlotte. Monday, however, quickly became stressful again. I had so much to do and I didn’t hardly get anything done. And now, I’m back in Wilmington, with so much to do. Every time I go home, I never get anything done. I should know this by now, but for some reason I always think it will be different and I’ll actually do something. But I never do. So here comes another stressful week…bring it on.

Crazy for Swayze!

Patrick Swayze. I must have thought he was immortal or something. I seem to forget movie stars are just as human as we are and can die from cancer just as easily; I guess no amount of stardom and money can cure something if it’s your time.

Swayze’s obituary in Los Angeles Times basically only mentions his work. It doesn’t mention anything about Swayze or his character, but the movies he’s played in and how wonderful of a dancer he is. It speaks of how his mother taught him to dance at a young age and the different company’s he danced with until an old knee injury flared during his run with the Eliot Feld Ballet Company ending his dance career in 1976. It goes on to speak of the many, some unheard of, movies he was cast in, such as “Dirty Dancing”, “Ghost”, “Point Break”, “City of Joy”, “Next of Kin”, “Road House”, and many other cult films. The article quotes Swayze for saying “he was fed up with that Hollywood blockbuster mentality.” He didn’t want to be the leading man, which explains why he turned down $7 million to start in a “Dirty Dancing” sequel. But these cult films supplied him with the career he wanted for over 30 years. Although not a direct statement about his personal character, the obituary mentions how he continued working even after learning of his diagnosis with a deadly form of pancreatic cancer. It does show the readers and fans that he was very dedicated to his work.

Ain't no rest for the wicked..

After this crazy week, I was exhausted. Actually, after this month, not just this week. I usually make up for the sleep I’ve lacked during the week on the weekends. But since I moved back to Wilmington, everything has been so crazy. I’ve had different things going on every weekend: I had to drive all the way home for 5 hours for a wedding the first weekend, then my brother came to visit so I had to entertain him. The weekend after that was my birthday weekend and a few friends came to visit so of course that weekend was crazy! And this past weekend I went on the Fall Getaway retreat with Cru; needless to say, I didn’t get much rest that weekend either. So basically, I am exhausted. It doesn’t help that the past 2 weeks I’ve had exams and quizzes to study for, papers to write, etc.. I don’t get much sleep during the week, and I haven’t been able to catch up on my sleep during the weekends.

So this weekend, I finally got a break. Friday night was a very relaxing, but still fun, much needed night with my roommates. However, I can’t stay in all weekend, it just drives me crazy. Last night was my friend Angela’s twenty-first birthday! Needless to say, it was one interesting night! I actually don’t drink, but most of my friends do, especially since most of the people there were already 21. Even though I woke up early this morning, I feel so much more rested than I have in the past month. And it feels good.

I think I’m allowed to write about anything on here, so here goes…

I spend quite a bit of my free time doing things with Campus Crusade for Christ. This past weekend I went on a Fall Getaway retreat with Cru.

Before I get to my main point, let me just say that I’ve always been passionate about helping others, especially those who can’t afford to help themselves. I never used to want to actually do the physical labor to help others though; I always thought I would just get rich and help by donating money—nice how I just assume I’ll get rich, right? Too bad it never really works out the way I plan it. I kind of just assumed I would have money because I knew I would do something in the medical field—hence the wanting to help others. But now, I’ve realized I think I may want to actually take mission trips and use my nursing skills, once I graduate from nursing school of course, to help those who can’t afford trips to the doctor in other countries rather than just sending money to random charities—not that donating money is any less important. Without the funds, how would the charities do their great work?

So, back to the point: this past weekend I realized that I would like to take my first overseas mission trip to East Asia(maybe) this summer. It’s through Cru so it would be with people I know and it’s for about 6 weeks. I’ve done mission trips in the States before, but never overseas and I think it will be an amazing experience. I’m so excited and simply cannot wait!

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. - Matthew 28:19

It's a Southern Thing..

In “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan she explains how she grew up in a home where her mother spoke “limited” English. She stated that most people couldn’t understand her mother at all when she talked sometimes to the point where they thought she was speaking in Chinese, even though Tan had no problem understanding her. It seemed very clear and natural to her. I can’t really relate to this story because I grew up in a home where everyone spoke just plain English. None of my immediate family is immigrants so everyone speaks in a very clear, understandable fashion. But I can say that my father’s side of the family speaks a completely different style of English than my mother’s side. My father’s family is a little more “country” than my mother’s so the words may vary. They may say things like “well I reckon,” or “you-ins,” “’mater” instead of tomato, or “’tater” rather than potato, “ain’t cha,” and other words or phrases similar to those. Now, by no means does my mother’s family speak perfect English with every sentence grammatically correct, but it’s nowhere near as "incorrect" as my father’s family. To an extent, I can relate to Amy Tan’s experience with her mother’s “broken” English because my family speaks two different styles but at least other people outside of my family can understand them.

Just dance.

Well I’m not much for blogging when there isn’t an assigned topic but I’ll give it a shot and see how it goes….

I grew up with two older brothers, so when I was younger I hung out with them and their guy friends. Sometime around age 6, my mother decided that I was too much of a tomboy. Her answer to this problem was to enroll me in dance classes at a nearby studio. She was shuttling me from soccer practice to dance class and a few times I had to leave soccer early; so of course, I didn’t like it at first. I just wanted to play soccer. I had no interest in wearing tights and little pink shoes with those leotards which I used to think looked stupid.

However, eventually, just like my mom had hoped, my mind was transformed. I was able to find the balance between my sports loving, soccer playing self with my little girl ballerina self. I ended up loving dance just as much as soccer. Throughout high school, I made the choice to skip some dance practices because of soccer games and tournaments. But by senior year, dance had become very important to me, I really excelled at it and I loved to do it; rhythm and flexibility came naturally to me. I’m not much with words so dance was how I expressed myself. If I’d had a bad day, I would go to the studio and dance it out. I ended up choosing to only play on one soccer team rather than the usual two I played on so that I could be more serious about dance and attend more classes; I was taking 7 hours a week. Still to this day, I think I made the right choice; as much as I love being active and playing soccer, dancing gives me the best feeling in the world.

“Thousands of emotions well up inside me throughout the day. They are released when I dance.”—Abraham Lincony

Wise Guy Nation

It's been about three weeks and we’ve finally been assigned our first essay; we’ll be evaluating the effectiveness of an argument in a written text. It’s taken me a while but I’ve finally decided to analyze “Hip Unchecked” by Steve Rushin. This is an article from a 1999 issue of Sports Illustrated in which he argues that American conversation has become satirical. He claims we’ve exchanged sincerity and compassion for sarcasm and cynicism. Rushin’s argument is an example of an epideictic argument in that he is trying to convince his readers that America is currently sarcastic; he doesn’t mention the past or what will happen in the future.

Rushin provides quite a bit of evidence throughout the rather short article; however, something seems to be missing. All of his evidence is of the male population even though he is trying to prove that both men and women have become increasingly sarcastic. There are ways that Rushin could have made his argument more effective providing not more but better evidence and I intend to explore those ideas in my essay.

Whose fault is it anyway?

We’ve started out this year with a few readings about people being overweight, whether it was Fijian women or an American author. In each story, there was a different person to blame. In Ellen Goodman’s article, she wrote that as the Western culture expanded to the island, it changed the traditional Fijian way of thinking. Before 1995, essentially before television had come to the island, the people of Fiji thought women with curves were beautiful. “Big was beautiful and bigger was more beautiful—and people really did flatter one another with exclamations about weight gain.” Ellen Goodman and Anne Becker both blame the American media for this change in Fijian culture. Although the media definitely doesn’t help the situation, ultimately it is the woman’s choice what extreme measures she takes to make herself feel and look good according to her own standards. America definitely has it’s messed up standards for what looks good; however, we did not force it on the Fijians. They made the choice and the American culture should not be blamed for it.

Judith Moore’s book gives us a completely different outlook on this topic with her take no prisoner's attitude. She is mad at the many people who made fun of her and took advantage of her and she doesn’t mind voicing it. It’s not quite what most readers would’ve expected to read; I was expecting to hear a sob story telling me why I should feel sorry for her for being overweight. I was waiting for Jane Stern to say that it was a story of her excuses for why she was overweight as a child and why it continued into her adulthood. But that’s not what I received. There are real reasons as to why she gained weight as a child and she accepts them and has tried to lose weight but just can’t. There were factors that played into her weight gain; however, she did not try to blame it on someone else.