A day in The Windy City

It was… the summer of 2012, I spent the summer participating in an internship at the University of Notre Dame. One weekend, me and a couple of friends from the internship, I decided to take a train to Millennium Park in Chicago and walk to a music festival. Little did I know, it was a Lot of miles between the train station and the street where the festival was being held. I walked the whole way, but it was an interesting experience and did a bunch of things I didn't think I was going do. First… There were large colorful status in the park, and I could walk around and take pictures. They were surrounded by water fountains, everybody had a good time.

Then… we stumbled upon an art exhibit for the blind, which was really cool because every piece was interactive and you could touch it. It was a weird feeling, because I thought someone was going to say something because we were touching the art. I had never had more fun in an art museum, or in an exhibit.

After that, we arrived at the festival, it was really loud, there were a lot of people, and most of all it was really fun. The thing that shocked me the most was the food selection at the festival. It was all weird fried foods. There was a fried chocolate and candy stand, were you could choose between a fried snickers bar, a Twix or a Twinkie… you could even have fried Oreos… But as if that wasn't enough, the kicker, for me, was that there was people in line for fried butter sticks… FRIED BUTTER STICKS, ok!!!!!!!! How disgusting can you get?! Needless to say, I didn't eat anything there because I felt like I would have a stroke in an instant. Not everything was that bad, there were good local artists showing off their work, and the live band was very entertaining. I tried to buy this cool wristband, but I couldn't understand the guy, because of his accent, so I decided to not buy anything (jajaja).

By the end of the day everyone was tired. Half of the group took a cab because they didn't want to walk back. The other half walked back because we were very hungry. It turned out that after five in the afternoon there is nothing opened to eat in Chicago on a Sunday -._-‘’. We ended up eating at this restaurant called “The Last Resort”. Which is named that way because it should literally be your last resort. Its theme is to treat you as badly as possible, and apparently people enjoy that. Don’t know why though  :/. Later, one of the girls got hurt walking back because she was wearing heels. Here’s a tip for women, if you know you’re going to walk long distances... DON'T we don’t heels!!! It was a real drag all the way back. All in all, it was a great experience. I enjoyed it very much and would definitely do it again, both taking a train somewhere new, and go back to ChicagoJ. 

Extra Credit conference

As part of the Annual Student Research and Writing Conference students collaboration and contribution across the disciplines were the main focus of the presentations. I had the opportunity to see the presentation of this physical science course, where they focused their class in geology related topics. The panel consisted of five students were they presented informative essays regarding earthquakes. One of them talked about safety during an earthquake and the precautions one should consider when preparing for one. Another essay was about the technology available for study and monitoring of this natural phenomena. It was very interesting to hear about energy, earth movement and how everything worked up to an earthquake. Overall, I think it was a very cool and different panel, because most of them were from English literature classes. It was refreshing to hear about something science related, and how it worked its way into an English department conference. After that panel finished presenting, the next one went right back to an English class, which presented essays on Pleasantville and its relationship to black history.

David was the typical teenager, single, lonely and not happy with his life. That’s why he looked for an escape from reality by watching Pleasantville. A 1950’s soap opera, where everything was exactly that, pleasant. His sister Jennifer, much more sexually active than David, gets in a fight with him over a very strange remote control. They suddenly find themselves in Pleasantville, as Bud and Mary-Sue Parker. After a series of events, suddenly, there is a red rose growing in Pleasantville. The more rules are broken, the more colorful life gets in Pleasantville. This movie was used as a good case study for presenting important issues like teenage problems and bullying, discrimination and racism.

I thought the conference was a good idea, with interesting panels of discussion. Although I will critique the evaluation forms. The questions it asked was for a narrower theme, and it didn't envelope the diversity that was brought by the various panelists. Next time they should either make the topics relate to each other a bit more, or… they should help the audience evaluate everybody fairly and how they deserve. 

Blog opinion

I've never blogged before… I've never had to do it as an assignment either, so I thought it might be an interesting experience to have. I’m always open to try new things, I enjoy new experiences. But then I thought... "this is my final semester, I have a LOT of work to do".

I've already written this to my professor, but I think this course asks too much for a senior student who is focusing on graduating, finding a good grad school, and working on his research. On the other hand, if you’re a sophomore or junior, you could very well handle the work load, and even enjoy it. I like the class, and actually, I would have liked to have much more time to give it. I think that it takes a lot of time to keep a blog up to date. Especially when you have specific topics to write about, deadlines, and requirements for it. If it were a little bit more personalized, and the student had a little bit more say on what it is we had to write about, then it wouldn't be so hard to do it. If the student saw it as “my blog” and not as the “class assignment blog”, maybe it would be more enjoyable. I think that maybe there should be a little bit of reevaluation in terms of the topics assigned for the blog. I think that the readings should be a bit more relate-able and easier to handle. Because not everyone has the same amount of time to keep up, to keep a blog, plus stay in check with all the other classes. I honestly saw it more as additional work I had to do, and not as an experience that I could learn from and to enjoy it. Which makes it a shame, because I was really looking forward to it, and I know it falls more on me and my personal situations. But it’s the only thing I have as reference to tell you about. 

Something about me

 Hello!!

I’m Alexis Guzman, and I’m a senior chemistry major from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras campus (UPRRP). I am currently taking an English literature course titled: “journey in Literature”. As a part of it I am required to write this blog, so… here’s a little bit about me. I’m from Puerto Rico, and have lived here all my life. I hate the hot weather, and dislike the beach. Like any other puertorican I enjoy fried foods, loud music and partying. I’m a pretty laid back person, and at times a bit lazy. My favorite things to do are to drink beer, sleep and eat (in that exact order of preference XD #priorities).

I don’t like to think about things too much. I enjoy living my life day by day, spontaneously and without regrets. I think that honesty is the best policy, and that you should always say what’s on your mind. I believe in second chances and that everybody deserves your 100% until they show you otherwise. I’m a very simple honest guy who tries to have fun and enjoy life while I can. I don’t have many friends, actually, I have zero childhood friends. But the ones I've made throughout my college years are friends I can actually count on.

I first got interested in science because both my parents have science related jobs. Also, I never found anything as interesting while in school, so I decided to major in chemistry, to see how it went. I’m fascinated by questions like: How? And Why? I love science because it gives me the challenge of trying to answer those very questions every time I’m faced with a problem or situation. Science is the only thing I see myself doing right now, who would have thought….I sure wouldn’t have, way back when I was starting off. Now, I’m about to graduate and to start my Ph.D. in the fall at NC State University. Despite everything that’s going on here in Puerto Rico and at the UPR, I decided to stay here and to get my education from where I’m from. I wanted to say that I was proud to have gotten my education in Puerto Rico, to give it a good name and to represent it with pride once I got out there in pursuit of a career. I think is more than you would want or care to know about me. Hope you enjoy my classwork, if there’s anything you need to say, please comment or contact me. Have a good one J

Analyzing my journal

One of the first assignments we got for this English course was to keep a journal. We basically had to do daily entries each week. The assignment consisted on dedicating ten minutes to just writing... we had to try to not think, clear our minds and to write whatever came out. I have to say that most of my entries resulted as a very crude, raw and very hard to understand piece of work. I rarely found a good place to do the exercise. I easily got distracted with the surroundings and it was very difficult for me to keep a clear mind. Though this was most of the times, I do have to admit it was a relaxing exercise. I found it to be soothing, and it helped release a bit of stress during the day. Also, it helped to clear distractions before going to bed, or before studying.

The most difficult thing about keeping this journal was to keep a clear mind. Something I had to do, or something that happened to me always made its way into the page in one way or another. I learned about myself that it’s hard for me not to think. That it’s hard for me to do things under pressure when I have to. For instance, I normally don’t mind writing. If I find a topic I like, I usually trail off into my thoughts and don’t even notice everything that I've written until I've finished. But, when I sat down to write an entry, I spent a lot of the time in a blank. So… in summary, I do think this type of exercise is useful to get through stressful times, it could even become some sort of hobby. Because one ends up writing things you wouldn't normally do. So, in a way, you could even discover yourself through a journal. But, I wouldn't recommend keeping a schedule to do so. This sort of thing should happen spontaneously and freely. Because the added stress of having to keep up with a deadline doesn't help you relax to actually do the exercise. I think it’s a great idea, a good interesting process. But the specifics of the assignment should maybe be reviewed and restructured. So that the student has the opportunity to enjoy it a bit more, and maybe even get more out of it. Another suggestion I could make is that maybe the journal should be done through the whole semester. Let the students work through it when their most relaxed, at the beginning of the semester, and when they’re most stressed out, during finals. That way, I think you would see a big change in how the writing process takes place, due to stress and time management. 

Oral Presentation

Listening is one of the hardest things to do in life. To be open and receptive of opinions and criticism, in my opinion, is a virtue and not something everybody can do. The perception and pinion of others towards you can, in most cases, be hard to handle, may come to you as a shock and even stir up emotions. When you listen or talk about yourself you can find yourself in an uncomfortable situation. You don't know how people will react or feel about you. On the other hand, then you receive positive feedback, or if what people think and say goes in some way with your train of thought, then you have no problem listening to others perception. 

As part of my English literature course we were assigned to prepare a presentation on the online perception of Puerto Rico. My group and I decided to research specific interesting topics on which we could find various perceptions to discuss. I picked the online perception of the criminality in Puerto Rico. We all know how bad things are in Puerto Rico. But we have to admit there are definitely worse. Also, criminality in Puerto Rico is something to be very concerned about, but not to the extent that you can’t go out with your family and/or friends. Or to the point that tourists have to worry if they come here. If you take care of yourself and know where to go, you'll definitely be safe and will have an enjoyable experience in Puerto Rico. Although that is my personal opinion, others obviously think otherwise. While some think that Puerto Rico is worth nothing because of high criminality rates, and others believe with all their heart that we would be nothing without the help of the U.S. Government, the overall impression I had from researching online is that outsiders have no clue of what’s going on in Puerto Rico. They all mostly go on what they see on TV, or from their one week vacation experience. The only thing I’ll say to those ignorant opinions is to get your facts right. Read, come visit the REAL Island and have a real Puerto Rican experience. There’s much more to us than what you see on the news, and the island goes way beyond what Yelp, Trip Advisor and any travel website can let you know.

So… After doing all of that work, we ended up presenting our findings to our classmates, and later on in a class conference of the English department. I have to say it was a very interesting experience. I had never presented in a conference outside of my field of study. I can definitely say I had fun doing the work and enjoyed presenting it. That being said, I would like to conclude with saying that, maybe hearing other peoples perception of you isn't for everybody. But for those who are strong enough to listen and respond, I ask that you stand up for what you believe in and to defend whats yours with pride.