I can’t believe that this six weeks has come and gone. So pumped for the fall semester.

Link: First Year Experience

1) Wag the dog means that the dog is the one that controls the tail because he is smarter then the tail itself. The media is the dog because it is in control of the people. The media is in charge of what the american people believe and know.

2) Mr.Fix it is Conrad Breen who is in charge of fixing things in the media that end up looking bad for the president.

3)This shows the producer is much wealthier then the president and that he has a lot of power over the public. Almost seems like he has more power then the president.

4) The significance is that is we don’t actually remember what went on in the war, only the slogans because that was catchy and stuck with us. This means how the media is very powerful and able to control us.

5) This shows that we believe whatever we see on tv or whatever we read about. The media controls us and seeing pictures and videos, we automatically believe it is true.

6) The producer is definitely more powerful because he is in charge of everything, he choreographs the whole thing and also the fact that we never actually see the president shows how much more power the producer has.

7) This is product placement. This is used in many movies when a company pays to have their product in the movie. Examples in other movies and Tv shows are: In Modern Family an Apple iPad is used, in Transformers they had a Chevrolet Camaro, and ToyStory with many different types of popular kids toys at the time.

8) The reason people followed it was because it was what everyone was doing. Trends lie clothing trends, hair trends, and shoe trends, are all like this. People see other people wearing/doing something and they join and do the same thing just for the simple fact that everyone else is doing it.

9) Wag the dog demonstrates Media construct reality by the fact that they actually created a war. It demonstrates media present ideology and value messages by showing the people watching this movie how you can’t always trust the media because it can be fabricated. In commercial interest is shown by how they used the 303 burger in their campaign. Lastly, they used codes and conventions by the music and all of the extras they added to the war story like the main video of the war in Albania.

10) The were portrayed as being able to do and say whatever they wanted. This is a negative portrayal because people who watch this movie are going to be more skeptical of the media and what data they put out.

When I moved in to my dorm 39 days ago, starting my career as a college student, I was excited, nervous, and ready to start this new chapter in my life. I figured from what I had heard that this would be the best summer of my life, and that the work load was easy, and you had a lot of free time to enjoy yourself. I figured this is how it would be, I figured thats how college in the fall would be (besides the easy workload). Thinking about how I only had two classes this summer, I figured I would have a lot of free time to just do whatever. I thought I would be able to sleep well, go out and meet people, and also just relax because thats what summer is about. But once I started classes I realized how different summer session, and college is in general. After being here for one semester I now know things that I was expecting college to be like, are not true. College is not as easy and fun as everyone expects it to be. Its an adjustment and one I still have to work on for the fall. The following are things that I expected to be different about college, and how now I am prepared (preparing) myself for the fall.

1. You have a horrible sleep schedule. When I moved in and saw my schedule, classes not starting until 12:45, I was on cloud nine. I figured I would be able to get a great night sleep, wake up every morning without an alarm, and feel ready and well rested everyday. What I failed to take into consideration is how hard it is to get to bed at a decent time when you have hours of homework every night. This is the first shock I had. Every morning I wake up, unwillingly, to an alarm, barely able to keep my eyes open. I go through out my day until I get back to my dorm around 4, and lay in my bed. Next thing I know Im waking up at 6 o’clock due to the fact I passed out from exhaustion from the day. Then I am busy doing homework and such until late at night. Many nights even when I shut down and turn off my electronics, I toss and turn for hours until I can fall asleep. Basically, I have a horrible sleeping schedule that is hard to break and I feel like thats just the life of a college student.

2. You have so much free time you don’t know what to do with yourself. I imagined that I would have plenty of time to myself to do what i’d like. I figured i’d be able to walk around downtown, watch TV, take walks, lay out in front of old main, and maybe even go swimming. I figured I would actually be bored. But that has not been the case at all. I am always busy and barely have anytime to myself (yes I do sleep after class which could be my time to myself, but I need to nap to keep my sanity). From going to class, eating meals, doing homework and keeping my room, myself, and my clothes clean, I have little to no time to do anything. This was an eye opener to what its going to be like in the fall. With more classes means more homework, so I am going to need to buckle down and really get myself on a schedule, and try to make some time for myself to relax and be able to have a break.

3. Meeting people is harder then it looks. I believed when I came to Penn State I would magically meet people and I would some how make friends without having to put myself out there. I figured that I would just fall into a group, and I would immediately know that these people were meant to be my friends. Unfortunately, that has not happened. I have meet tons of new people and I have made friends this summer. But, it is not what I expected. I figured people would be friendlier and more inviting. I figured I would make friends easily. But being a very shy person, I don’t go out of my way to ask people to do things. I wait for people to come to me (obviously that isn’t working for me). I am hoping in the fall I am able to break out of my shell a little more and I am able to meet people who I really connect with and can see myself being best friends for a long time with. Yes there are thousands of people on this campus, but in a way that makes it even harder to feel like you fit in somewhere when you are one in thousands.

Overall, I feel I had a successful summer semester, I am not going to say it was one of the best summers of my life, but I will say it was one of the best decisions of my life to attend. I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything and going into my fall semester as a Penn State student I am a lot more aware of who I am, and what I need to do to be successful.

I grew up in a town that was not very racially diverse. With about 95% of my community being white, I was not around people of different races often. Coming to Penn State I was excited to be put into an atmosphere that I would be able to expand my knowledge and friend group from the people who were just like me at home, to meet people of other races. I met a girl named Victoria Wan and she was very excited to help me out on this paper. So thats where my interview with color began.

As I got to talking to Victoria, I quickly found out that she likes to be called Vicki.

Vicki went to Emmaus High school, which is in Pennsylvania. She lives with her mom and dad and a younger sister. I felt like this was a good place to start. Her family. We had something in common right away, the fact that we were both the oldest children. After we realized our similarities she told me more about her family life. She explained to me how her parents are very traditional. Her mother, Emily Iy, is from Vietnam and lived there until she was about 4. That is when her family moved over to America. At the time of their move to America it was during the war and conflict going on in Vietnam. Vicki explained it to me by saying “its actually interesting because my mom and her family had to flee Vietnam because of so much conflict and war going on”. I found this very interesting and felt like it was a cool story to have in their family history. This is where me and Vicki started to see our differences. Next she told me about her father, Joseph Wan. Vicki’s father is from Hong Kong. He was born in 1969 so when he was born Hong Kong was still under British rule. So, ever since he was little he had known American because in school they were required to learn Chinese and English. Now me and her both are similar in the make-ups of our family, but my parents were both born in the states, and my parents parents were too. To find the ancestors in my family that were the ones to come over from Ireland and Hungry (a few of the places my moms side of the family originated) we would have to go way back. I think it is very cool how her parents were born in another country and that she still has that culture with her today.

After we talked about the background of her family I wanted to talk to her about what her life now is like, and was like back at home before she came up to State College. I started off by asking her what it was like living as an asian in her high school and her community at home. She told me that there was not many asians from where she grew up and she was not friends with any from home. She also said that where she grew up since she was one of the only asians, she did not always see herself as an asian and neither did her friends. She was and still is able to joke about the asian stereotypes because she is okay with that and she said something that I felt was very true and a very powerful statement about stereotypes. What she said was, “I am able to joke about the stereotypes but they haven’t really affected me. I don’t let it define me, because I am my own person”. I found this to be a very strong statement and shows that she is accepting of who she is, loves who she is, and is able to joke and have fun with the parts of her that are different then her friends. I then asked her what were hobbies and things she liked to do and she said she enjoyed snowboarding and long boarding. She also really likes extreme sports. Also, she loves to shop and me and her both had that in common! Vicki told me how coming to Penn State it is weird and different how many asians there are. She never really lived around them when she was home so its different having such a bigger population here. One thing she said was that it seemed harder because people here see she’s asian and automatically put her in a stereotype, but what they don’t know is once they get to know her she does not really embody many of the stereotypes, she’s just a normal girl. So she feels that was a little bit of an adjustment coming to penn state and being with more people of her own race.

Next, I asked her about different customs and beliefs that her family and her culture had. Chinese new year was something she pointed out that was different and something I doth celebrate in my culture, as well as saying that many funerals and weddings were different from american weddings and funerals. Vicki explained to me how the region and places her parents are from practice the Bhuddist religion, and that they see it more as a way of life then a religon. feng shui is another belief that traditionalists in the asian culture believe, and this means luck. She explained how they have to take their shoes off in the house and that when they eat asian food for dinner they are all served a bowl of rice and the meats and vegetables are in the middle of the table and you serve yourself what you would like with chopsticks.

Vicki has traveled to Hong Kong, Macau, and Thailand and she said that they were great experiences and ones she may not have had if her parents weren’t from those places. She also said that her and her family often like to go to china town and get food and its one of the fun experiences her and her family have.

I am different from Vicki, but not in a bad way. I most likely will not go to Hong Kong, or Thailand. I don’t believe in feng shui and I am not a Bhuddist. But me and Vicki are still very similar in that we are both new Penn State students who want to be accepted and included in our university. Just because Vicki’s culture is different doesn’t make our wants as teenage girls different. We are both very excited to meet new people, join clubs, and especially go to the football games.

Overall, Vicki was a very interesting and nice girl to talk to, she made this assignment easy for me because of how inviting and willing she was to talk. I am glad I got to hear about her culture, which was a culture I knew little to nothing about. I realize everyday being at Penn State I will meet people everyday who are different then me, but I am excited for that opportunity.

Vicki didn’t want me to take her picture right then so she asked me to use one from her prom.