'dem mighty greenbacks dun struck back again

So...the financial aid department at my school is officially a HOT MESS! They're giving me a hard time--what's new? I've been trying to get aid for my study abroad trip for the longest, and the process just got longer. Yay! (: I) What I don't understand is how the FAFSA keeps insisting that my parents can contribute a certain amount that they really cannot. And I don't understand why I don't have any other options except scholarships or to make my parents accept a loan. If I don't want my parents to pay, then why can't I just opt out of this and get a loan in my name? It's my debt!


Anyways, I'm so excited about my trip to Spain! And it looks like I might also get to go on an excursion to Morocco--Woot Woot! So, I got the email about this trip from the study abroad people, read it... 'Cool', I said, but "where is it again?" Yeah, so I posted a map for people like me. It's ok to admit it, you don't really know everything! lol. Now that I know where it is, I'm definitely siked. I've always wanted to go to Africa!


Check out this pic:

So, this is a picture of a belly dancer in Morocco that I found off of their tourism website. Looks fun, but I'm not really sure what the guy in the background is doing...it just don't look right! lol
If they offer belly dancing classes there, I will be the first one on the list!

Student bogged down by the letters J-O-U-R

Its seems now that ever since I have chosen journalism as a major of focus, therefore having classes that force me to write, I feel paralyzed because I am now not writing out of enjoyment, but out of assignment.: to make the grade. To distinguish myself among a hodge podge of other aspiring writers whose talent far exceeds my own. I feel as though my writing has gotten so much worse. What ever happened to “’beautiful paper’, ‘excellent technique’, and ‘I can see you have a flare for writing?’” I’ve gotten to “journalistic”, but reading the New York Times articles daily gives me hope.

Now every time I approach a paper or an article, I feel this unrelenting pressure to “prove myself”. I try way too hard now. Because I am a “journalism major” I must write perfectly. As absurd as this must sound, it resounds truth about how I think of myself even now. I wish I could write freely once again, which almost makes me want to change my major, and just keep writing on the side as a hobby. I’m truly interested in people and different cultures of the world, and history. This is what I would like to study as well, if I were to attend grad school. It’s like one of my friends from high school told me, who was in marching band with me: He loved music so much, he wanted to study it at the University of North Texas, a top music school, but by the time he got to his second year, he was burnt out because he felt ‘they,’ the professors, were “taking the fun out of music” for him. He lost his zeal, and his sense of enjoyment for the art.

Now I’m not sure what he’s studying, but he definitely quit studying music. I feel like I would almost rather be an English major, or history, international studies, or something no longer having to do with journalism. I feel all this knowledge is getting to be a little bit too much for me, and I’m starting to feel the pressure to perform under this journalism umbrella. What is so wrong about pursuing what I would like to do, which is work in media? I would like a way to do this, write and work in the media, while studying something more of interest to me. Naturally I’m interested in learning about media because it’s what I want to do now, but I feel like it’s getting to be too much, and I want a taste of something different. It’s like trying to eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches your whole life, or in my case, jelly sandwiches since I’m allergic to peanut butter!

As much as I may love my sandwiches, eventually I’m going to tire of them. Eventually, I’m going to have to eat something else to stay healthy, you know? Just a thought.
So I said all this to say: I am so looking forward to learning international relations and economics of the European Union when I go to study abroad. Don’t get me wrong, I will not stop writing, and I will not stop blogging and taking pictures and videos, but finally I can take a break from learning about what I liked to do so much already, and hearing about it every single day.

But can I do what I love, while learning something else?

Continued: I’m soo looking forward to finishing my international studies minor, taking anthropology, etc… and I can’t wait to be done with this journalism undergrad degree, and start interning, moving, and traveling (hopefully). If I do go to grad school, which I see now as a possibility, I want to study about people, literature, etc… a subject that is NOT communications or journalism. Maybe I can learn more about these things from experiences. I really want to do well on this paper about Jews in the American South! (I’m SUCH a nerd! Lol)