'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)

Invisible Children

Please watch this. This video dispays just a small portion of what I was talking about in my last post.

Fall Out Boy - I'm Like A Lawyer With The Way Always Trying

Today I was just sitting at home bored out my mind, and decided to listen to music on yahoo! I clicked on a video by Fall Out Boy. I was actually a little reluctant to watch it at first. The song was ok, but the video has like almost nothing to do with the song. Part of the story line with the young Ugandan children who got torn apart was cute, but the rest of the video was SO serious. I was like, "What is this?" Intrigued, I watched the rest of it, and was just beyond belief! I mean, the video was so impactful, with the story line displaying love juxedaposed with war and violence, and then finally at the end it said visit http://www.invisiblechildren.com , and I said, "Ok, why not? I'll check it out." I thought it was just another one of them save the children in Africa causes, and it was, but this one really touched my heart. We all know about the stereotypical violence, war and bloodshed along the ivory coast in Africa (which many refer to Africa like it's all one big AIDS fest of dying people...I'm not trying to be mean; I'm just being real because we always only see one side of "Africa" the stereotypical version, but believe it or not, people: It's actually made up of MANY different countries with MANY different tribes and cultures of people. Just thought I'd throw that out there before you stereotype this message, too, including the one i'm about to tell you about the "invisible children" in Uganda, a country in the continent of Africa. I love the name of this campaign because it's so true. These Ugandan children are invisible in our busy and hectic lives. They are accross the Atlantic. "Not our problem," we say. And true, in America we do have a plethera of problems to deal with in regards to our own youth, but these invisible children in Uganda never even had the opportunities and chances that kids in America have.

Now here is your chance to help: Buy a bracelet. It's only $20 for you, but that twenty dollars means a future for a child who had not choice to begin with. They didn't ask to be born into a sate of turmoil all around them. Please support their mission. That's all I have to say.

I just couldn't sit on this incredible cause after seeing just a snippet of the things on their site. It's an opportunity to make a difference. I don't want to forget about the invisible children because they are there. Except now they are no longer invisible, thanks to the guys who started this campaign, but are you choosing to ignore them now that they are seen?

Snow! Snow! Snow! Let it snow....

Let it Snow!!
Last Thursday, March 7, balls off white powder puffs showered from the sky above. The air, fresh and awry from the recent 60 degree weather that hit the Dallas Fort Worth area earlier in the week, was marvelous, even breathtaking! = ) I took a few pictures outside at my apartments.

Driving back up to Denton from Dallas, I was confused seeing cars cover in fresh white snow going South. Where are they coming from, and where the heck am I going?" I thought. It can't be...

Twenty minutes later I was siting in stop-and-go traffic along I-35. It took me almost 15 minutes to go about 100 feet finally exiting off the slushy roadway congested with cars desperately tryin to make it home. Later sitting at home wrapped in my navy blue blanket and sipping on not chocolate, I watched the reporter on television shivering in his socks outside at the corner at Teasley lane near the mall. "I was just there," I said shaking my head watching the rediculous traffic. But I wanted to go outside.

So i went took a few pictures. Once I coming back in I called my roomates to see where they were at. They were stranded on the bus trying to make it home. Took an hour after I was on the phone with them for the bus to make it to a place only 5 minutes a way. Texans and snow. They just can't drive in it! ...at least not in Dallas.

Later I heard laughing outside, so I peaked out the window. Lo and behold I saw a guy an about 6-foot tall fat white boy in his boxers. What?! That fool was about to jump in the pool...
"Are you serious?!" lol People are cRaZy. Others around started a snow fight. As one of my roommates and her finace finally made it in, stepping though the slush pilled at the foot of our door. Crazy right? I had never seem it snow like this in Texas, and I've lived here over 20 years! I have to admit though, it was nice. It saved me from shaming myself in from of my international PR class where I was scheduled to give a presentation at 2pm. I was soo not prepared for that presentation. I did pray about it. I guess the snow was God's way of saving my skin. Lol! Also, I got to relax, drink hot choclate and catch-up on much-needed sleep. = )

Defecit. Could this get any worse?!

From the Dallas Morning News (DallasNews.com):

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/031308dnbusbudget.49d21664.html

Federal deficit swells to $263.3B
03:56 PM CDT on Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department says the federal deficit swelled to $263.3 billion in the first five months of this budget year as record spending during the period outpaced record revenues.
The department’s latest snapshot of the government’s balance sheets, released Wednesday, shows that the deficit for the budget year that began Oct. 1 was up a whopping 62 percent from the red ink of $162.2 billion for the corresponding five-month period last year.

Barak Obama's Campaign For Change

Echoes of "Yes we can!" filled the auditorium at Fort Worth Convention Center on Thursday, Feb. 28 as presidential hopeful Barak Obama was scheduled to take center stage. Obama, a democratic nominee for president in 2008, came to Fort Worth to speak about his campiaign for change, and gave a speech of hope for thousands of American dreamers.
The crowd consisted of people from all walks of life, and all ready for something new. Currently as the only African-American in the U.S. Senate, Obama decided to run for president in the 2008 election with only a few terms of experience as a senator under his belt against political giant Hilary Clinton, New York senator and former first lady who had spent eight years in the White house. She's married to a former president, Bill Clinton who many regrarded as a great president, especially democrats . Despite his love scandal and near impeachment as a president, many believe that Clinton was still able to bring the United States to financial prosperity.

However, now his wife is in the hot seat. Can she do the same? Or can she do even better? Only time will tell. But at around 8:15 pm, Barak Obama took the stage at the Convenstion Center in front of thousands delivering his plans for the country.

Though the odds seem to be against his favor: him being Black, him having the least experienced of all the other candidates both democratic and republican, and people afraid of him being assassinated or not really sure if he could really deliver what he is saying, people still listen to him. He literally feeds off of the American people as he mentioned in his speech on Thursday. At one point as the crowd began to resound "Yes we can! Yes we can," in unison once again, he lifted the microphone to let it echo so that the American people (perhaps those who would be watching the 10 o'clock news later that evening) could hear how people are behind him. I believe this is what makes him a strong candidate. It's not necessarily because of his credintials or because he's the most experienced and he's had large significant results in the past for what he's done (if so, the media isn't reporting much on these things).

It's his ability to inspire people and stand up for real change and things a bit out of the ordinary for typical American politics. The fact that he may be able to rally an entire country behind him may be the very thing that allows him to be an effective president. Not only that, but also his determination to keep going and spur on despite threats, odds, and what the media says. And that's change we can believe in.