The English Language

Well, at least I found a way to write, but I still don't think I'll be able to press enter. Oh well this will do for now. This semester I have two TESOL classes (AKA ESL or English as a Second Language). One of my professors is from Turkey and the other one is from China or Korea or one of those Asian countries. My professor from Turkey is super pregnant and has this adorable accent and cute long, frizzy hair. Anyways, she was saying how when she first came to America she knew someone who would always end his statements with "you know what I mean?" Obviously, this was just a filler that he used like "ya know?" But she was so confused as to why he was always asking her if she understood. She thought it was because she was foreign and a second language learner. It's so interesting learning these little, pragmatic aspects about learning a second language. Another example was given by one of my classmates. He mom is a native Spanish speaker and often gets prepositions mixed up. For example, instead of saying "in you dreams" she always says "on your dreams." I totally get Spanish prepositions mixed up too. Then there are those common English saying that second language learners would be like "what the hell is this person saying?!" such as "it's raining cats and dogs," "I swear to God," etc. I know there are a ton but I can't think of anymore right now. Something else really strange/interesting; animals don't make the same sounds in different languages! In Spanish a dog goes "guau guau" and a cat goes "maiu" hahaha. I hope that I didn't bore you too much with this information about language variations.

Technical Difficulties

Ah! For over a week my blog had been messed up. It wouldn't let me type anything and it was very sad and unfortunate. The is one of the many reasons that I haven't written in ages, and I apologize. It still isn't working correctly because I can't enter and am in "HTML" mode, whatever that means. Uhhg so that is why the layout of this post is not ideal. Here is an entry that I wrote about a week ago that I couldn't post: What If... What if we went to class simply to learn what we should know and what we need to know. What if we actually remembered everything that we learned and utilized it in our lives and in our careers. What if there were no quizzes and no tests and no homework and no deadlines and no gradebook. What if instead of frantically trying to copy down an entire lesson via PowerPoint, or spending an entire weekend shut up in our room doing homework, We were simply required to sit there in class, taking it all in, writing down only the things that would be useful for us to know at some point in the future. Well, then any one and everyone could get a degree in whatever their heart desired. And we'd have inexperienced and unprepared doctors, teachers, lawyers, buisness owners. It would be nice though, if learning worked that way. What if we didn't have to work a 9-5 job every weekday of our lives? What if instead we could spend our time exploring and traveling and reading and writing and cooking and cleaning and crafting and working out and simply living life. Well, then the garbage wouldn't consistently be picked up and the mail wouldn't consistently be delivered and projects would go uncompleted. and products would go unmade. and the economy would be all messed. If would be nice though, if we didn't have to spend the majority of our lives working. That's my attempt at being poetic. So there it is, in all its glory.

Adventures to Kroger

Sorry that I've been absolutely terrible with updating my blog lately.  I've been sooo busy with school work and stressed about my upcoming tests and frustrated that I STILL am not able to run.  

I would like to say that I have something fun or interesting to share about my weekend, but I don't.  My weekend consisted of studying, riding my bike to Kroger, studying, riding my bike to the rec. center, studying, riding my bike to CVS...get the picture? 

My most "exciting" adventures of the weekend both involved shopping; one at Kroger and one at the dining center.  Before I went to Kroger I loaded a few e-coupons onto my account but I was a little confused about them.  One said that it was for a free box of these breakfast granola mix pouches.  There were some excellent deals at ghetto Kroger, such as a large tub of Greek yogurt for $2.99 and a large bag of spinach for $1.74.  My e-coupon was not misleading me, I got the breakfast-to-go things completely FREE. I left with a backpack full of groceries for $20. Hurrah!

My next exciting trip was to the dining center.  I was thrilled to see that today they had just about every fruit that your heart desires; apples, oranges, pears, plums, bananas, cantaloupe (wow, that's how you spell it??). Jackpot!  The other day I tested out a Pinterest recipe for english muffin veggie pizzas and it was quit successful.  Today they had slices of real mozzarella cheese, like the kind that comes in a big block and is somewhat slimy but not really.  The authentic stuff, you know?  Hopefully you get what I am talking about.  Anyways, I took some of that too because it will be perfect to make those veggie pizza's with.  

So yes, it had been an uneventful weekend.  Now I must get back to studying. Uhhg.

Herbivore

I went home this weekend to bring back my parent's car that I took to school for my injury.  We has salmon for dinner at my Papa's house, which led to the conversation with my parents that I've been somewhat dreading.  I originally began my vegetarian endeavor with eating fish (AKA a pescatarian).  However, I've decided that I am not going to eat fish while I'm at school because, is killing a fish really any different than killing a chicken or a cow or a pig?  The thing is I am still planning on eating fish when my dad makes it at home.  I don't want to be any more difficult for him to cook for than I already am.  Although on the outside my parents are very understanding about my decision not to eat meat, I know that on the inside my dad is judging me and doesn't understand it at all and my mom is just confused as to my reasonings and my stances and my feelings about the subject.  Am I going against my beliefs if I eat fish sometimes?  Fish isn't in the meat category on the food pyramid and Catholics can eat it on Fridays during lent.  Uhg I'm just so confused.  

I have prepared my own little speech for when the frequent question of "why are you a vegetarian?" arises.  I think that it is a bit on the long side though, so I'll condense it when I am actually saying it to someone.  But here is the long version of my stance on the situation at the moment:

Being a vegetarian is....
1. Better for the animals.
Personally, I think that there is absolutely no reason why we should kill a living, breathing creature solely for our own personal benefits.  It's just not necessary when you can get the exact same nutrients from other foods.  

2.Better for the environment.
If you know me well enough, you probably know that I am all for helping/saving the environment whenever possible.  A Vegetarian diet reduces the destruction of tropical rainforests and wildlife habitats.  It reduces waste and devastation of the earth's resources. it also reduces pollution in the land and waters and reduces the production of carbon dioxide. 
Fun Fact:  Aside from the gutted rainforests, up to 5000 gallons of water for is required to raise one pound of beef. According to the US Department of Agriculture statistics, one acre of land can grow 20,000 pounds of potatoes. That same acre of land, when used to grow cattle feed, can produce less than 165 pounds of edible cow flesh.

3. Better for your health.
 According to the American Dietetic Association, vegetarians have a reduced risk of heart disease, obesity, colon cancer, adult-onset diabetes, osteoporosis, gout, gallstones, kidney stones, lung cancer, and breast cancer. A low fat vegetarian diet, combined with regular exercise, helps reduce blood pressure and can control, or even eliminate, non-insulin dependent diabetes.

It's funny how people are completely fine with eating a pig or a cow but if you suggested eating a dog or a horse they would FREAK OUT.  They would probably say that doing so would be wrong and inhumane.  Why?  How is it any different eating a cow than eating a horse?  Just throwing that out there...

So there you have it.  Those are my reasons.  Now are you convinced that you should be a vegetarian too? hahaha I'm just kidding.  I am not here to convert anyone or anything.

  

I've been wondering...

A lot of things lately. For example,

Why do some people live the most cushioned, easy, and and carefree life while other people are forced to deal with sickness, death, financial issues, abuse, depression, etc. The list goes on.  

Why are some people so smart or so talented or so charismatic while others, no matter how hard they try, can't succeed academically or athletically or socially?

In my English class we had to do a 90 second presentation about ourselves.  We had to create a PowerPoint presentation with 6 slides, each only showing for 15 seconds.  My slides included a picture of my family, a runner, Granada Spain, ice cream with rainbow sprinkles, etc.  One guy opened up his presentation with a picture of a glowing cross and some deep little spiel about how God is what wakes him up in the morning.  God is what gets him through the day.  God is his best friend. God is... blah blah blah.  I am not in anyway trying to say that I don't support people being into their religion.  
I am just asking, why (and how) do people let it dominate their life to this extent?  It seems so silly to me.

I have also been wondering why, even though my overhead fan is constantly running and my window is open, my room is always 153 degrees.  I am getting a bit tired of waking up sweaty and gross in the middle of the night.

Lastly, on a happier notes, I wonder why I didn't discover how delicious cottage cheese is sooner.  Good thing they often have it in the dining center so I can sneak some out in a container.