So its one week into my Italian adventure, and it is starting to hit me that Ill be gone from home for another 15 weeks. Not that I dont think the time will fly by and ill be keeping busy, but the comforts of home are definitely beginning to be missed.
The last few days have been pretty relaxed, just been going around the main parts of the city, getting used to the sights and sounds, figuring out the public transportation and hanging out with the newly made friends from the group. I did another one of those pub crawls i think i mentioned in the first post, but this one was completed in full. In the second bar we went to, a friend got a mixed drink with a twist...the mix was every type of alcohol the bar offered, a rather disgusting yet potent beverage but interesting nonetheless so i thought id share. The last place we stopped at was a club on top of a hill, half outdoor half indoor. Mostly american music, which so far ive realized the italians love to listen to (Kanye tracks bumping at a lot of the random stores along the streets in flee markets and what not). When it was all over we had no clue where the bus had taken us, and if it wasnt for my trusty Brazilian roommate with a keen sense of direction, we might not have ever made it home. Thankfully we did and the night was a great success.
I made it down to the beach yesterday, interesting experience to say the least. Small, crowded ass beaches with minimal sand and maximum capacity. beautiful nonetheless and somewhat warm, refreshing waters to swim in. Little italian boys approached me while i was dabbling in the water and began speaking Italian to me, all the while acknowledging I am an American who cant speak their language. I wasnt sure how the interaction went(and i guess in Italy it isnt taught that you dont speak to strangers as a kid) but by the end he asked me for a cinque while extending his arm with a open palm. High five kid, you got it. though he might have been asking for money... oh well. It was also pleasant to see that some italian women dont mind being topless in a packed beach, but no complaints from here, just wish america adapted some friendly qualities from the Italians :).
We took the train there and back, quite nice and easy to get around with and the night concluded with an amazing Italian dinner cooked by some of the ladies in our group, with the guys electing to do the dishes in return. Parmesan Chicken, 2 types of pasta with garlic string beans and garlic bread along with a tomato and mozzarella salad, spinach cutlette champagne and wine. My first GOOD meal of the entire trip, and after splitting costs it was only 5 euro. lovely.
School begins tomorrow, with Intro to Italian first on the menu at 830 am. 715 wake up to ensure i get there on time.
havent been sleeping well at all so it should be a problem waking up, but nevertheless itll be a quiet night. I just want to muggy heat to go away and sleep will finally be plausible.
Its looking like the angels might be playing boston first round, in which case itll be 25 on 1, but ill stand strong and support the troops and hopefully they will return the favor.
Over and out.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Rome. Day 3
Hello to everyone back home.
It is the third day of my fantastic voyage and I have just moved into my apartment that Ill be staying in for the remainder of my trip. I havent taken all too many photos yet because I havent gotten quite situated yet. Amazingly, if I look out my room window, and to the left, I see the Roman Forum. If I step outside and walk 50 feet to my right, The Colosseum stares me down. Everywhere you walk is something beautiful and historical. for the most part people are really friendly, with the exception of all drivers, who have no regard for anyone but themselves. PDA also seems to be quite fashionable as everybody partakes in it.
From my API group, about 60 students, i believe 40 or so are from Mass. with many others joining them from the Northeast. My roommates surprisingly are quite diverse. I have a Brazilian roommate who goes to school in Ohio, one who is from New Jersey, A Texan, and a Massachusettian for good measure.
Its humid as hell over here, but within a month it should be getting cooler. School starts on Monday and so far we have just had some orientations and tours of the historical part of the city.
Last night our group went on a "pub crawl," you pay 20 euro and you bar hop throughout the night. The first bar in our crawl provided free pizza, 3 jagger bombs, and free drinks for an hour. After that we moved bars but I got separated from the group and ended up walking around with a newly acquired friend across Rome from the Pantheon to the Colosseum, across the Tiber River and down to the Vatican City. Incredible.
I hope to keep everyone updated asap, and ill be posting pictures once enough are taken.
I miss you all back home and hope all is well, and good luck to those starting school next week.
PS Sorry for the bland post with little detail, those should get better with practice writing a blog.
PSS. The cookie trip on the flight from Philly to Rome was one of the most unbelievably terrifying, yet spectacular adventures of my existence. Thank you Minh.
It is the third day of my fantastic voyage and I have just moved into my apartment that Ill be staying in for the remainder of my trip. I havent taken all too many photos yet because I havent gotten quite situated yet. Amazingly, if I look out my room window, and to the left, I see the Roman Forum. If I step outside and walk 50 feet to my right, The Colosseum stares me down. Everywhere you walk is something beautiful and historical. for the most part people are really friendly, with the exception of all drivers, who have no regard for anyone but themselves. PDA also seems to be quite fashionable as everybody partakes in it.
From my API group, about 60 students, i believe 40 or so are from Mass. with many others joining them from the Northeast. My roommates surprisingly are quite diverse. I have a Brazilian roommate who goes to school in Ohio, one who is from New Jersey, A Texan, and a Massachusettian for good measure.
Its humid as hell over here, but within a month it should be getting cooler. School starts on Monday and so far we have just had some orientations and tours of the historical part of the city.
Last night our group went on a "pub crawl," you pay 20 euro and you bar hop throughout the night. The first bar in our crawl provided free pizza, 3 jagger bombs, and free drinks for an hour. After that we moved bars but I got separated from the group and ended up walking around with a newly acquired friend across Rome from the Pantheon to the Colosseum, across the Tiber River and down to the Vatican City. Incredible.
I hope to keep everyone updated asap, and ill be posting pictures once enough are taken.
I miss you all back home and hope all is well, and good luck to those starting school next week.
PS Sorry for the bland post with little detail, those should get better with practice writing a blog.
PSS. The cookie trip on the flight from Philly to Rome was one of the most unbelievably terrifying, yet spectacular adventures of my existence. Thank you Minh.
Monday, December 3, 2007
The finish line
Religion and Politics
Americans want to learn about religion, it is a topic they are interested in above all else being covered in the media, well newspapers at least. Sadly though, as has been popular thought for a while, reader's are most dissatisfied with the type of coverage that the media is giving in regards to religion. One main issue they have with America is the mass amounts of coverage the Christian Right get, so what about the religious left?It seems like when an issue arises that involves people on that end of the spectrum, the story is turned around to make it seem like they are making radical, immoral decisions, such as Bill Clinton's support of homosexual rights. Another argument they made was that
"Meanwhile, Islam, with its emphasis on social justice and racial equality, has been caricatured as violent, irrational and bigoted."
Now I have a biased view on something like this, as I see the only reason there is positive coverage of Jews with Christians is because they have ulterior motives having to do with their savior. But I do agree that for the most part, Islam is considered as a bigoted and irrational people. My personal opinion is that for the most part, they are a passionate kind religious group, their portion of extremists tend to outnumber and outdo the extremists in any other religion. Along with the fact that they use violence as an everyday solution to problems. But in the end, the media does need to better itself when it comes to something so important as religion. Tensions are bad enough already and the media needs to get over its selfish greedy ways and stop making biased reports that pin one group against another. One day we'll learn, hopefully it won't be too late.
Americans want to learn about religion, it is a topic they are interested in above all else being covered in the media, well newspapers at least. Sadly though, as has been popular thought for a while, reader's are most dissatisfied with the type of coverage that the media is giving in regards to religion. One main issue they have with America is the mass amounts of coverage the Christian Right get, so what about the religious left?It seems like when an issue arises that involves people on that end of the spectrum, the story is turned around to make it seem like they are making radical, immoral decisions, such as Bill Clinton's support of homosexual rights. Another argument they made was that
"Meanwhile, Islam, with its emphasis on social justice and racial equality, has been caricatured as violent, irrational and bigoted."
Now I have a biased view on something like this, as I see the only reason there is positive coverage of Jews with Christians is because they have ulterior motives having to do with their savior. But I do agree that for the most part, Islam is considered as a bigoted and irrational people. My personal opinion is that for the most part, they are a passionate kind religious group, their portion of extremists tend to outnumber and outdo the extremists in any other religion. Along with the fact that they use violence as an everyday solution to problems. But in the end, the media does need to better itself when it comes to something so important as religion. Tensions are bad enough already and the media needs to get over its selfish greedy ways and stop making biased reports that pin one group against another. One day we'll learn, hopefully it won't be too late.
Another one bites the Dust
A reoccurring theme in my blogs have been that religion is the fuel for the fire we know as war. I was in my International Studies class today and we were talking about 16th and 17th century European history. The specific time period was 1618-1648, the 30 Years War. The one that lead to the treaty of Westphalia. Up until now I thought that war was stemmed from city-states constant struggle for boundary lines to their territories, and today I learned that it was actually the war fought between the Protestants and Catholics as they battled for religious supremacy in Europe. It was said that over a million people died in this war.
This just adds to the list of events that have transpired over the hundreds of civilized years in our world that stemmed from religious feuds and ruined the lives of millions and millions of families and friends. Back then it was between the Christians, now it is among the Muslims and Jews. This one seems even more unlikely to end anytime soon, and the amount of lives that will be affected are seemingly infinite. The two biggest powers besides religion that can control people and bring order are politics(governments) and the media, who have done an amazing job persuading public opinion. We'll see who learns first, or better yet, who cares first.
Perfect Fit
Good timing
The basis of this class is to reveal the role that the media and religion play in the field of politics in the United States; this article broadens the argument and gives some insight to how the world reacts to a similar concept. While the Muslims feel that the world is blaming religion for many of the major crisis going on today, they feel that it is actually the media that incites the majority of problems by trying to pin on religion against another in attempt to increase interest in their product. The pointed out many examples of times where the media immediately pointed their finger at a group after a serious crime, such as the Oklahoma City bombings, a crime committed by an anti-US militia group. Now, I see where these leaders are coming from, it doesn't take too much work to realize the media loves to spark tensions between people because it is the easiest way to expand viewership. The issue I have with this claim though, is that it is trying to eradicate blame from the religious aspect, an aspect that I feel truly has caused a majority of the world's biggest debacles. I do not think there will ever be a day when the media reports fairly, because it would just not be an interesting and eye-catching. But again, I do not feel it is the media to blame here. It is not their fault the so many people flock to this type of news like quarantine patients to their cure. Until the American public, and the rest of the world can lose their arousal with the out-of-the-ordinary and be more in tune with reality, the media will continue to dominant opinion and sway their audience with biased stories created to cause controversy.
The basis of this class is to reveal the role that the media and religion play in the field of politics in the United States; this article broadens the argument and gives some insight to how the world reacts to a similar concept. While the Muslims feel that the world is blaming religion for many of the major crisis going on today, they feel that it is actually the media that incites the majority of problems by trying to pin on religion against another in attempt to increase interest in their product. The pointed out many examples of times where the media immediately pointed their finger at a group after a serious crime, such as the Oklahoma City bombings, a crime committed by an anti-US militia group. Now, I see where these leaders are coming from, it doesn't take too much work to realize the media loves to spark tensions between people because it is the easiest way to expand viewership. The issue I have with this claim though, is that it is trying to eradicate blame from the religious aspect, an aspect that I feel truly has caused a majority of the world's biggest debacles. I do not think there will ever be a day when the media reports fairly, because it would just not be an interesting and eye-catching. But again, I do not feel it is the media to blame here. It is not their fault the so many people flock to this type of news like quarantine patients to their cure. Until the American public, and the rest of the world can lose their arousal with the out-of-the-ordinary and be more in tune with reality, the media will continue to dominant opinion and sway their audience with biased stories created to cause controversy.
Teddy Bear Trial
Another Waste of Time
Hard to get off a topic that is so easy to discuss. Another sad story of close-mindedness and hypocrisy fueled by ignorance and an innocent mistake. As Prime Minister of Britain, Gordon Brown, phrased it, "common sense has prevailed." Now, if I were a Muslim hard-liner, this is a statement that would upset me more than the use of my prophet's name (also the most commonly used name in the world) to name a teddy bear for a class project. Though Brown's statement probably won't be taken out of context, in my eyes, he is claiming her release, against Muslim law, is logically the right thing to do. The other side of that pillow is that putting her in jail to begin with was illogical and irrational. Either way, the confusing thing for me are rules such as death by martyr can land a suicide bomber 70 virgins and honor to the family, but simply naming a teddy bear, in a elementary classroom can be "punished with up to 40 lashes, six months in prison and a fine." Really now? Not only do I not see the logic in this law, but I do not understand what kind of people could justify still enforcing it in today's time. Maybe I'm the ignorant one who doesn't understand how much pride and respect Islam has for their holy Prophet, or maybe I do not realize what true devotion. When it comes down to it, something like this should not cause this much outcry, it should not be headline news across the world, but because of the world-wide respect we have for a people destined to death, we have to deal with stupid situations like this.
Hard to get off a topic that is so easy to discuss. Another sad story of close-mindedness and hypocrisy fueled by ignorance and an innocent mistake. As Prime Minister of Britain, Gordon Brown, phrased it, "common sense has prevailed." Now, if I were a Muslim hard-liner, this is a statement that would upset me more than the use of my prophet's name (also the most commonly used name in the world) to name a teddy bear for a class project. Though Brown's statement probably won't be taken out of context, in my eyes, he is claiming her release, against Muslim law, is logically the right thing to do. The other side of that pillow is that putting her in jail to begin with was illogical and irrational. Either way, the confusing thing for me are rules such as death by martyr can land a suicide bomber 70 virgins and honor to the family, but simply naming a teddy bear, in a elementary classroom can be "punished with up to 40 lashes, six months in prison and a fine." Really now? Not only do I not see the logic in this law, but I do not understand what kind of people could justify still enforcing it in today's time. Maybe I'm the ignorant one who doesn't understand how much pride and respect Islam has for their holy Prophet, or maybe I do not realize what true devotion. When it comes down to it, something like this should not cause this much outcry, it should not be headline news across the world, but because of the world-wide respect we have for a people destined to death, we have to deal with stupid situations like this.
Hypocrisy
I've been looking for something like this for a little while now. Good image to tell the story that I have been trying to tell, along with Rabbi Miller's point in showing us the Arabic cartoons. Hypocrisy dominates the world, it dominates religion, it dominates politics, and it dominates the media. It's every where, and it doesn't need to be. One of my biggest beefs with religion now-a-day is the lack of logic involved, especially when comparing one religion to another. If you are going to have belief in a higher being, and have belief in a specific story that has been past down for centuries, and there is no way to tangibly prove these stories to be true, then who are you to criticize the beliefs of another person who believes something different. Furthermore, who are you to use the rules and guidelines you follow to judge people by the same standards. This is why logic is more useless as a tool to judge and create laws and standards. The media needs to start equally representing the various religious views, and with similar bias to all of them. If one is going to be condemned and looked down upon, the others should be held to similar standards regardless of how many people are involved or what the big shots in politics believe.
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