Moving to Penn State is certainly one of the greatest experiences I have lived thus far. Going off to college might not seem like a big deal to some people or perhaps it is but for different reasons. For some of my friends at least, leaving for college is about the freedom, independence and experiencing new things. Although, college meant all of these things to me too, it was more about the idea of having a college experience in this country. Moving into the dorms, stepping foot on a big college campus, experiencing all four seasons throughout the year, as opposed to the endless summer that is Venezuela, the excitement for American football and the school pride, all seemed pretty extraordinary to me. Although I knew I worked hard in high school and it made sense for me to end up at a school like PSU, once I got here, I could not wrap my head around the fact that I was actually here and I had made it. I kept asking myself how on earth I got from Carora, Venezuela to the amazing place that is University Park. Overall on moving day I felt incredibly lucky and promised myself that day that I would never take anything at Penn State for granted.
A street in the nicer part of Carora
Everything about going to college here is very different to what I was accustomed to. For instance, the idea of living on a university campus is very new to me since in Venezuela universities do not have accommodations for the students, thus everyone is expected to commute, which is actually a hassle in a city like Caracas and very inconvenient. Moving into a dorm was very exciting and something neither my parents or I had any experience with. The entire process was kind of complicated because I had to fly from San José, where my parents currently live to Baltimore, drive to Rockville, pick up my suitcases and boxes and then drive to State College. The good thing is that I had my mum there to help me, due to my family moving to San José that summer, I thought I would have to do all the moving to the dorms by myself.
One of the things that I have realized since I got here is how perfect my major is for me and how much I like studying International Politics. The Political Science course I took this semester was Comparative Politics of Western Europe. The course itself is really interesting and it helped me further develop analytical skills; it is definitely a course I would recommend, if anyone is interested in this field. As a result of my Political Science and German 003 course, I also realised that I am very passionate about Europe, more specifically, German speaking countries, so I decided I would double major in German. This is something I am very much looking forward to, as well as being able to travel to Germany for study abroad and actually take courses in Berlin, one of the cities in Germany that I have yet to visit.
My experience at Penn State overall these past few months has been amazing. I have met really nice people here and made great friends. Making friends has not really been hard for me but it has been difficult to create lasting friendships in the past because of my frequent moving. Now that I am in a single place for more than a couple of years, I can actually truly get to know people and I have the time to make more than surface level friendships.
My TED talk overall was alright but not all that good. Although I practiced it several times, I do not think I practiced enough because I did not deliver it as well as I wanted to. I should have perfectly memorised my talk, I only really had the intro memorised. One thing that went relatively well was that all the content was there so I did not skip any parts of the speech I had planned out. The problem was that I did not deliver it well enough, which is why watching the video made me cringe and it was just not a good time watching.
There were not many surprises after watching back my TED talk video. The only thing that really surprised me was the time. I did not want to time myself with my phone while I was presenting because I felt that it would make me nervous and make me be way to conscious of the time but now I think that it was probably a mistake. I thought I went under time after I gave my talk but it was actually over the time limit, even though when I practiced my talk it was perfectly within the time constraints. I think it was because I was nervous and forgot certain parts that I thought I had memorised so I had to explain them with my own words and I extended myself way too much, especially in the conclusion. I also saw that I clicked out of the last slide. I knew I was not supposed to do that and that I had to stop at the contraceptives picture but for some reason I clicked or maybe I accidentally pressed the button. I am actually not sure what happened.
I really liked the presentations of the other people in my group. I especially liked Christina’s talk on Disney Princesses and Johnathan’s on high school football, not just because they are both in my group for the history of a public controversy assignment. Everyone delivered their talks really well in my group and were able to keep the audience interested in their topic, they also showed how passionate they were about it, which I think was very important.
This past summer my family moved once again, this time, from Maryland to San José, Costa Rica. You would think that we would all be used to moving by now but it took time to wrap our heads around the idea, especially since none of us had been to Costa Rica before. We did not quite know what was in store for us.
Once I arrived in San José however, I began to warm up to the place, quite literally. It had been a while since I had been in hot jungle weather, not since I lived back in Venezuela and frankly, I did not know how much I missed it. While I was in Costa Rica those three months, I got to do all sorts of tourism, mostly zoos though because my two siblings, who were 4 and 7 at the time, were obsessed with exotic animals. In Costa Rica though, nature is much of what the tourism is about, people go to this country to enjoy the warm weather, the jungle, the wide biodiversity, volcanos and most of all the beaches on both sides of the country, on the Pacific and the Caribbean. Most people prefer the Caribbean beaches because they are warmer, the water is more clear and the sand is soft and white, as opposed to the beaches in the Pacific, which are the ones I was able to visit while I was there. We went to Playa Jacó, which is only a short drive from the city. To be honest, I did not like it at all, the sand was big pieces of rocks and it had a brown reddish colour, there were too many waves and the water was dark and cold. I am sure there are people who enjoy those kinds of beaches, especially surfers, but I suppose I am too used to the calm and crystalline beaches of Venezuela. Not to brag, but we really do have really nice beaches.
Playa Jacó, Puntarenas Province
Some of the zoos we visited were the Inbio parque zoo, Zooave and the Parque Zoológico Simón Bolívar. We also went to the Poás volcano, which was very beautiful, although we did not get to see much because it was raining and it was quite foggy. We took a nice hike to the lagoon as well, and were able to see different kids of birds there, which made my sister very excited. When we left the volcano, we also walked around the town of Alajuela, which is a small very typical Central American town just outside of San José.
Poás Volcano
I also went water rafting, which was incredibly fun, for me and the little ones at least, my mum was scared of falling off the raft the entire time. And I also got to hold tucans in my hand, that was probably the highlight of this trip.
You can see the excitement in their eyes
There is a vast amount of fun activities one can do in San José and in Costa Rica in general. I really love going to this country, I was lucky enough to return a couple more times after my summer trip while my parents were still living there and each time I had a lot of fun. You really cannot run out of fun adventurous things to do in Costa Rica.
This past summer my family moved once again, this time, from Maryland to San José, Costa Rica. You would think that we would all be used to moving by now but it took time to wrap our heads around the idea, especially since none of us had been to Costa Rica before. We did not quite know what was in store for us.
San José, Costa Rica
It was hard for me to be ok with the move at first because it was the summer before I went off to college. Having my family so far away while I was at uni meant I had to be much more independent than I thought and made sure my adjustment to college was as smooth as possible. I would have had to be independent and do things for myself regardless of where my parents lived because it is college and everyone has to adjust but there was some comfort in knowing my family was still nearby and I could count on them if anything happened. Similarly, if the adjustment to college was tough or I was feeling homesick, I could have just taken a bus to Maryland for the weekend. This is no longer a possibility, however, now that my parents live in Costa Rica. The other thing is that I am alone in the U.S. so I have to do adult things and be in charge of small things my mum would have probably taken care of otherwise, like paying bills, insurance, loans, taxes, etc.
There was also that question of what on earth I would do for Thanksgiving break since I would not be able to fly to San José, which is a minor thing but I worried about it over the summer because I knew the dorms closed for the break. It all worked out in the end however, because I adjusted to uni just fine and I made really good friends here, and now I will be spending the break with my friend Annabelle and her family in Kennett Square, PA.
I spent my entire summer in Costa Rica, which had its pros and cons. I always pictured the summer before college differently and thought I would have this really awesome time with my friends in Switzerland before we all went off to college in different parts of the world. However, this move changed everything and I had to be there to help out my family with the move and also do some things I was not really prepared to do. This summer my mum had to fly to Venezuela unexpectedly to take care of family issues only a week after we landed in San José. Me being the older sister, I was left in this new country, in charge of the house and my two 3 and 7 year old siblings, which was heaps of fun because taking care of little kids for so many weeks is not hard at all and not even that big of a responsibility. (This is sarcasm by the way, little kids are a lot of work and it was probably one of the hardest things I have had to do. It is also probably too much responsibility for an 18 year old.)
For this blog I would like to talk about, not one, but two of my favourite TED talks, one is in English and one is in Spanish. The first one is called “8 Secrets of Success”, it was given by success expert Richard St. John, the author of the bestselling book The 8 Traits Successful People Have in Common: 8 To Be Great. The second is a TEDx talk by Puerto Rican singer and songwriter David Rodríguez, who is known in the music industry as Sie7e. His talk is titled “Si cabe en tu mente, cabe en tu mundo”, which translates to: If it fits in your mind, if fits in your world.
Richard St. John’s talk is a short three-minute slideshow that summarizes his famous book and the conclusion that he came to after years of research on how people achieve success. The 8 traits St. John claims will always and without exception lead to success are Passion, Work, Focus, Push, Ideas, Improve, Serve and Persist. I really like this talk because I actually read 8 To Be Great and it was probably one of most influential books I have read, these traits can be applied to essentially anything you do. In terms of style, I like the fact that he provides a lot of visuals that help explain each one of the traits. The talk is also very concise, it is to the point and it efficiently delivers the message to the audience. This TED is too short though for our project, so I need to make sure I find a way to be concise without going under the time requirement.
8 To Be Great
David Rodríguez’s TEDx talk is about pursuing ones passion, never giving up and proving others wrong when they tell you that you cannot do something or go anywhere. The singer talks about his own experiences and tells the story of how he became successful and a Latin Grammy winner. In addition, manner in which he overcame the obstacles that came his way and the different paths he had to take in life to find his way back to what he loved to do and was passionate about, music. This talk is great because it finds a way to keep the audience engaged and it not only talks about Rodriguez’s life but gives advice, like always think yes people tell you no and always take the time to learn and the opportunities to acquire new skills because they may help you out and be of use in the future, as he puts it, “Autosuficiencia=Independencia”. This talk also provides a lot of visuals but only those that add and are key to his story, they are not simply random pictures that illustrate anything he says. He also goes back to the first slide with the title of his presentation after every story to remind the audience of what the point of all his stories is and to keep the main idea of the talk present throughout.
The two TED talks are varied in style and are by very different speakers from different backgrounds but they are in some way related to each other in terms of content. David Rodríguez indirectly talks about all the 8 traits for success but in a different order and in the form of stories and personal accounts. Rodriguez’s TEDx is the perfect example and the applied version of St. John’s research and talk on the 8 secrets.
The topic I am considering for the Paradigm Shift essay and the Ted Talk is the shift or the lack thereof of the political and economic condition of Venezuela throughout the past 14 years. I am very passionate about this topic because I am from Venezuela and I want to analyze its political issues so I can further understand what is happening today.
Fact: Venezuela has been in a very large state of crisis in the past few years but it is not a crisis that came out of nowhere. Venezuela was once a country with a decent economic system and a democracy so there had to be a shift somewhere.
The summer of 2013, when I moved to the United States, my parents decided that as a birthday present they would let me go to Switzerland for three weeks to visit my friends. I stayed at my friend Lucile’s house for most of my stay in Zug, and then I went to my friend Caragh’s house for the remainder of the three weeks I was there.
While I was in Switzerland I got to do all sorts of really cool activities with my friends. One of the first things we did was go to the Zuger Seefest, which is an event that the Zug Gemeinde hosts by the lake. They provide good entertainment activities and concerts and there are tents with various kinds of Swiss food and drinks, like Rösti, Schnitzel, Bratwurst and a lot of beer. Most of the time during the day, we spent at the Schutzengel, Hunenberg and Zug Badis, which are areas of the lake which are accommodated to make them look like nice beaches since Switzerland is a land locked country. We also went to open air cinemas, went on boat rides and took walks around the town centre in Luzern, Zurich and Zug.
Lucile, Mara and I with Freddie Mercury in Montreux
The highlight of my trip was definitely the tours I took around Switzerland in a single day. We had gotten cheap tickets from the town Gemeinde that allowed us to take any mode of transportation all across Switzerland but only for 24 hours. Our goal was to visit as many cities as possible while arriving to the Zug train station by midnight. The first time I did this challenge was with my two friends Mara and Lucile and the second time was the day before my flight back to Caracas with Caragh’s family. On the first trip, we went to three cities, the first two were on the French side and the last one lies in the Italian side of Switzerland. The first city was Lausanne, which was quite nice and warm. The very first thing we did when we got off the train was go buy some tea at Tekoe Thé, which according to my friend Lucile had the best tea in the city. We then walked around and went to La Cathédrale de Lausanne, which is a very beautiful Gothic church on a hill that overlooks Lake Geneva. The second city we Montreux, which was only a short train ride away from Lausanne. This city was probably my favourite because the city itself was beautiful but we also happened to arrive on the day of the Jazz Festival in Montreux, so there was all sorts of entertainment and movement going on. The third city was Locarno, which is a very Italian style city. Even though we were in the same country, we could tell it was no longer the French part. The town centre and the streets resembled those of Milan and there were a lot of restaurants with Italian cousine and Pizzerias.
During my two years living in Maryland, I was able to visit Washington D.C. more times than I can count. The city was a short metro ride away from my apartment, it would only take me about thirty minutes to get from Shady Grove metro station to Union Station. I tried to take advantage of this proximity to the city as much as I could. At first, I would go to D.C. all the time to visit museums and do sight seeing but eventually it came to a point where I would go to the city to simply chill after school by the National Mall Park or to take nice walks downtown on the weekends.
Some of the museums I went to in D.C. are the Holocaust Museum, which I went to with my friends Osnat and Julia, the Newseum and the National Gallery of Art. My favourite was this last one, I went twice as part of school trips; the first time was with my IB History and the second with my IB Spanish class. The great thing about the National Gallery is that there are all these great pieces of art from different periods and there are guided tours you can take in different languages, not just English. The painting that captured my attention the most was probably “The Sacrament of The Last Supper” by Salvador Dali, it is a classic Christian painting that uses modern techniques and Surrealism.
The Sacrament of The Last Supper
Some of the touristic sites I visited were the Lincoln Memorial, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the White House and the Arlington National Cemetery, where we saw the changing of the guard for the Tomb of the Unknown Solider. I visited some of these places on my own, some with family and others with friends from Venezuela that came to visit D.C. Another place I went to was the National Zoological Park, I went with my two younger siblings who are both obsessed with animals. Whenever we go to a new country, we siblings ask to go to a zoo and in Costa Rica, which is where my parents currently live, that is all there is to do, go to beaches and visit zoos.
After a year of living in Rockville, my dad’s company transferred him to Cairo, Egypt. My parents made plans to move there after my junior year but the IB programs at the international schools in Cairo did not have the same higher level subjects as my school in Maryland and I also only had a year left of high school. In the end my dad moved to Cairo and my mum decided to stay in Rockville with me until I graduated. That summer when my dad moved, we all went to Cairo to help him with the moving and spend time with him before we had to have that year apart.
Most of the time I was in Cairo I spent helping out my parents and babysitting my siblings but I did get to do some tourism. One of the first things I did after I arrived was visit the Egyptian Museum, which contains ancient Egyptian antiquities and the world’s largest collection of Pharaonic artifacts. On my way to the museum, I walked through Tahrir Square and learned more about the protests that took place in Egypt during the rebellion of 2011 from the perspective of an Egyptian. I also went to the pyramids and the Sphinx at Giza with my younger sister. My sister and I were able to ride a camel and take a nice tour of the pyramids. The last thing we did before we left was go to the Red Sea for the weekend and it was lovely.
The rocks of the pyramids are huge
It was interesting to see how different the customs are in Egypt compared to the ones in the West. Egyptians are mostly Muslim, and in Muslim culture, most women choose to only show their faces and hands or sometimes just their eyes. This is completely different from my outfits of shorts and a tee shirt so sometimes I would get looks from certain people. I was amazed to see how comfortable they seemed to be in their bukas or niqabs even though it was around 40 degrees Celsius outside. Egypt is very hot all year round but especially during the summer, it is even hotter than Venezuela, which I thought was impossible. We also traveled to Egypt during the month of Ramadan so I was able to learn more about how it works and the meaning behind the tradition. It is really cool how dedicated and devoted Egyptians are to their religion. My tour guide even managed to stop the urge to smoke during the days of Ramadan, which was very impressive.
For my rhetorical analysis essay, I am choosing an image that advocates for gun sense and gun control in the United States. In last week’s RCL post, I brought up the Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America organization. They are a “non-partisan grassroots movement” to strengthen gun laws and bring forth solutions to the issue of gun violence in this country. The advert I want to analyze in my essay is part of a series of images released by the organization as part of their campaign not very long after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. In each image they show a seemingly innocent and inoffensive object and a gun, the viewer is then asked to guess which item is either banned in the U.S. or unwelcome in a certain place. This advert in particular shows a child holding a Kinder Joy Surprise Eggs and another holding a very large gun. The image tries to reach out to Americans as a whole, they want something to be done about the violence and the mass killings; the laws will only be strengthened if the movement gains more supporters.
There are two aspects of this advert that appeal to emotion. For one, there is the name of the actual movement “moms demand action”. The use of the word “moms” appeals more to the viewer than the word “we” or “Americans”, it conveys this idea of moms trying to protect their children and families, it makes you think of the mothers of the children who died at the shootings and their grief. There is also the fact that they use children and a school in this image to emphasize the point of gun laws. Ideally, children should live as innocently and carefree as possible but the faces of these children is not one of joy, they are portrayed as serious and sad. It shows this idea of guns making children’s life less joyful and is an obstacle that stands in the way of them living their childhood. The logos in this image is the Kinder Egg in the child’s hand. It seems illogical that guns are sold and allowed in many public places quite freely but Kinder Eggs are banned and not sold at all within the U.S. The fact that action was taken to ban Kinder Eggs for the safety of children but nothing has been done yet about gun laws even after repeated mass killings in this country is portrayed as absurd, and it absolutely is.
