Final Blog Post

I am definitely studying abroad after this. This class has given me ideas on how to approach other cultures countries when we go. I also gained a good group of friends that I will know be able hang out with and get help with for engineering in the future.

We should have the study aboard people come over. They can tell us the deadlines and what we need to do to get on the right track. I wish that what we did learn about other cultures would be more interactive. Like they could bring a dish from what part of the world they were talking about.

After wanting the study abroad people to have talked to us I would also have liked more LC events. They’re were only a couple outside of the study times and I would have liked to had some more events not jus parties, like go to the corn maze when it was around or go paintballing. These other events would have helped us bond more.

Being Back At Purdue

I went back home during the Thanksgiving break and got to spend time with family. I really didn’t have enough time to spend with friends because I was only at home for 4 days. I left Tuesday afternoon because I had to stay here at Purdue until 4:30 pm to take a math quiz that was inconveniently scheduled to stress students out. Anyways, going home was nice and it was good to see family again. Thanksgiving was nice as I pretty much stayed home on Thursday and watched some movies and ate really good home cooked meals. Friday was pretty hectic as I went to a mall nearby at midnight only to find out that Best Buy and pretty much all the stores I wanted to go to all had ridiculously long lines. I ended up going back home and waking up somewhat early to go to Costco and an outlet mall that was about an hour and a half away. I bought a lot of clothes for winter and I think that I should be prepared for the terrible stories of the extreme cold. Leaving home to fly back to Purdue was a bittersweet moment as I definitely already miss my family and home, but I know that I am returning to see friends. I think that these next few weeks left of the semester are going to be very stressful, not only from the finals in three weeks, but also from the final projects we have to do for English class and Engineering 131. I only have two finals to take during finals week (CHM 115 and MA 162) and those two will be a pain to study for but I know that once it is over, I will be able to go back home and hang out with my friends back home, as well as family.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today marks the end of our much needed thanksgiving break. While most people decided to get out of campus during the span of this little break, my friend and I chose to stay back and catch up on the innumerable hours of sleep that we missed because of being overloaded with homework, projects and exams. My break started a lot earlier than most because all my classes on Tuesday were cancelled for one reason or another. Now, I was told by my roommate that the campus gets pretty quiet during Thanksgiving Break, but the definition of “quiet” only became clear when I woke up the following day (Wednesday). I have always had this habit of looking out the window as soon as I wake up. Normally I am greeted by a bustling campus with at least 15-20 students walking on a given street. However, on Wednesday, I was greeted with an empty First Street. I could not spot a single soul in the gaze of my eyes. Soon enough I started to wonder whether it was stupid of me to decide to stay back on campus. Since there was nothing I could do about that anyways, I decided to make the most out of my time on campus. I went on long walks along with a couple of friends that decided to stay back as well. These walks made me feel extremely special because since the campus was so empty, I felt like the Purdue campus was a little world by itself, created just for me and my friends. We could sing as loudly as we wanted or act as crazy as we wanted. On Thanksgiving Day, Earhart hall had organized a Thanksgiving dinner for all of the students that decided to stay back. Going to this dinner helped me gain a better understanding of what importance Thanksgiving holds in American culture. Later, my friends and I decided to indulge in some retail therapy, courtesy the Black Friday sales. Needless to say, it did get pretty ugly in most stores. Shoe boxes thrown all over the store floor was a common sight. Now that the break has finally come to an end, I feel like my decision to stay back actually did end up working in my favor. Not only did I get a chance to catch up on my missed hours of sleep, I also got to shop, eat some great food, and catch up on all the recent movie releases!

Week 14

It It’s a little late, but I figured, since I’m up I might as well be productive.

Why might engineering solutions that work in the West, not work in Africa?

I’m not well read on Africa, but I also think that is the heart of the problem regarding Western solutions to problems in Africa. Those implementing potential solutions in Africa may not have a full scope of the problems in Africa. If the only research we do is from afar, via secondary sources, ect., then we are not getting a first hand look at the Whole issue. When addressing issues in places that are not home to us then it is vital to find sources that are in the heart of the problem or it can not fully be understood.

Africa has so much wealth. Why is it not utilized?

Again, I’m not fully aware of all the issues concerning Africa, and it varies from country to country within Africa. Infrastructure is scarce which is an obvious and necessary foundation to complete utilization of recourses.

What is the danger in generalizing an entire continent like Africa? Why do I think it happens so often?

The danger in making such generalizations is that there are many smaller factions that make up the continent. Issues and success vary from country to country just as our problems here vary from state to state. I think because it does not seem to directly affect us we find it easy to disregard the details that make up the continent as a whole. Doing this is dangerous because when we do attempt at addressing issues within the continent, we are clueless. The lack of detailed knowledge will almost always result in failure in any large scale problem.

Black Friday!

This coming Friday, many of us will probably go shopping at some places during the best time of the year to shop: Black Friday. This traditional (informal) holiday is when all of the big name stores reduce the prices of their items tremendously for the Friday directly after Thanksgiving. I will be going back home for Thanksgiving and I will also definitely be sure to go to a Best Buy and buy a lot of things. I have recently looked at their website and checked out their Black Friday ads and there are many unbelievable deals that they are offering. In terms of movies, there are many new release Blu-Ray movies that are only going to be $10, while the DVD editions will be even cheaper. Many newer released CD’s will range anywhere from $4 to $10 and full TV seasons will cost anywhere from $15 to $30. Particularly, I am looking to buy a 42’ Sharp LCD TV for only $200. I might also buy the Blu-Ray movies for Die Hard ($8), Scarface ($12), and Pulp Fiction ($7). I am probably going to go shopping at some stores either at 12:00 midnight or I will just wake up really early around 5:30 in the morning and go to the stores then. I think a lot of people will also buy some winter clothes especially now that it is starting to get colder. I think Sports Authority or Sports Chalet will be the best places to go buy clothes for the winter. So, this Thanksgiving break, it will be nice for some of us to go back home (many for the first time since the semester started) and spend some time with our families, but I know that after dinner on Thursday night I will get in the mindset of waking up early and buying all the things that I need (and mostly want) the following day.

Fail? What fail?

“There is no substitute for hard work.” As I see a poster of this quote by Thomas Edison hanging on the backdrop of my study table, I am forced to think of whether it actually stands true to its meaning. Recently, we all had to go through hell (aka EXAMS), for us mere mortals at least. Before they arrived, I had set my mind on one thing- that I will put in every bit of effort that I possibly can because if the input is strong, chances are that the rewards will be great. Among all the courses that I am taking this semester, Calculus is, hands down, my most difficult course. So, going with logic, I decided that it would make most sense if I started off with Calculus and then worked my way up the other subjects. Going through all the chapters one by one and taking a note of every little detail while clarifying my doubts took me a total of 5 days. I was math-saturated to the core. In fact, many of my friends confirmed the fact that I was approaching the stage of being titled clinically insane. Nonetheless, I was satisfied with all the effort that I put in. I kept telling myself that I have done my part by putting in all the hard work. I couldn’t care less about the result because I was so content with all of the calculus that I had learnt. As I confidently opened my exam paper, I was greeted with shock. In simpler terms, the questions got the better of me. They were not like the questions that came in the past exam papers. Nevertheless, I somehow managed to maintain a smile after coming out of the exam. The fact that I completely bombed the paper didn’t seem to have any effect on me. At the end of the day, what mattered to me was that I gave it my best shot. I feel that in college, failure will knock our doors every now and then. So whenever it does, keep this quote in mind: “You cannot tailor make your situation in life, but you can tailor make your attitudes to fit those situations.”

Restruant Review - Ahoz

Ahoz

Chauncey Hill

This week I went to Ahoz on Chauncey hill. It is a small Japanese sushi bar squashed in between the Hookah and DQ. It has the best sushi that I have had in West Lafayette. The sushi also comes fairly cheap at only around $7 per plate. It also provides free tea, which is really good, as it gets colder. A big problem it faces is for those who are less adventurous. Its non-sushi items are not particularly good. The bento boxes in particular were not good at all. This leaves with pretty much sushi items to deal with. If you are not a fan of sushi I do not recommend it. If you are feeling adventurous it is a good places to stop. It is prompt and you can get in and out with little wait. It also does not have a line, which puts it ahead of some of the other Sushi places around campus. All in all I would give it 3 out of 5 stars for good sushi but not much else.

Sleep or Minecraft?

Over Thanksgiving, I have many things to do besides catching up on sleep. One of the most important things I must do is work on my team’s project presentation for ENGR 131. I will need to go over our past milestones and fix them. I will also try to get some sweet Minecraft-playing time in. Just last night I spent 7 hours playing Minecraft. I have now constructed my first fortress; it’s nothing fancy, just enough to protect me once I turn off Peaceful Mode. My fortress is constructed directly over a mine a built which doubled as a base of operations up until now. At the beginning of the game, I just decided to dig straight down as long as I could, and when I hit bedrock, I began to expand outward, eventually excavating a large area. Previously, my only means of returning to the surface was by killing myself in a lava flow I had found, and getting back down safely proved since the drop was probably the equivalent distance of a kilometer. To remedy the latter issue, I dug a trough from nearby water and let it flow down the shaft. I would then safely ride the waterfall down. I still had to kill myself to get back to the surface, so as soon as I had the resources and time available, I removed the waterfall and installed a ladder. This made things much easier. My next goals will be to begin farming and collecting animals in a pen. I also hope to set up a mine cart track that will take me down to my mine from inside my fortress. I also hope to soon construct weapons and armor so I can begin to actively seek out and kill the malevolent mobs. Anyways, I hope to begin some of this stuff during Thanksgiving break. And who knows, I might get some sleep?

Week 14

Why might engineering solutions that work in the West, not work in Africa?

We have to recognize the Africa has a different culture. Things that we do and utilize for the betterment of life might be social or cultural taboos. They are also not provided with the same choices as we are. They might think that we are forcing things on them whether it might help them or not.

Africa has so much wealth (mineral ores, petroleum, arable land). Why is it not utilized?

They might be unaware of its existence. Minerals are held deep underground and more often then not it will take modern technology to use it. Even if they did know were it is the may not have the start up resources to use it. Sights were resources might be sights that are not meant to be disturbed.

What is the danger in generalizing an entire continent, like Africa? Why do you think it happens so often?

Africa is a continent made up many different countries. Many of those countries can also be split into different regions. Many languages and dialects separate Africa. It is also a place of many different cultures. This cultures have clashed many times over the years and may hold grudges.

Almost Thanksgiving Break

In about a week and a half from now we will officially be on Thanksgiving break. For many students, this will probably be the time to catch up with school work or just get more sleep at night. I am very excited because this will be the first time that I go back home since I arrived here at Purdue. This semester has actually seemed like it has gone by pretty quickly but there have been times (especially during exam weeks) when the days felt really long. I have to leave for the airport next Tuesday night and catch a red eye flight, but I think that the flight won’t be too bad because I will be gaining three hours of time when I get back home. I think that many people will enjoy this break whether they go back home or not. The people that go home will obviously get to spend some time with family and friends. But staying here at Purdue may not be so bad either because some students can probably wake up early and go shopping on Black Friday with friends. I know that I will probably buy some things for the dorm room on Black Friday. My roommate exchanged rooms with someone who was a friend so now a good friend of mine is rooming with me. So we are probably going to buy a futon, a TV, and some carpet. I also definitely need to buy more clothes for the colder weather because I have worn some of my thickest clothes on some cold days here and I was still pretty cold. I will also bring back my stereo and guitar from back home when I get back to Purdue that way I have something fun to do on my spare time. This Thanksgiving break should be a good time for everyone as we all can look forward to spending some time with friends or family.

WK 13 International Studies

I have always been excited about studying abroad. I would really like to go to the Philippines to study, and if that's at all possible I will, but as of now, that is not an available option. Of the options available to engineering students I would like to study in Australia, Germany, or Italy. I know little about the academic opportunities in these places. I’m most interested in the adventure in Australia, the history in Germany, and many things in Italy. I think that is my top choice. Italy is full of astounding architecture, phenomenal food, a colorful history, and numerous amounts of festivities and traditions. In any of these places I plan to stay a full semester. Unfortunately these have little to do with my personal and professional goals. The benefits of studying in these places are gaining global experience and making connections with people from all over. My personal goals are to return to the Philippines for an undetermined amount of time. I want to go back to the area I was born in and help to rebuild the city into a more sustainable community. Out of the places I have shown interest in studying in, I think Italy or Germany would be the best choices. I chose these two because of how accessible the rest of Europe is. Germany has a strong engineering field and Italy has a strong sense of culture that is important to understand. To achieve these goals, I will continue to work hard in all my classes, research other options, and be confident in the choices I make when it comes to my future. The choices I make even in my early years of college will affect the opportunities available to me down the line, so it is important that I think about all of the possibilities that could come from my choices now.

Digital Archive: Michael Jackson

For my group’s Digital Archive project, we plan to gather information of the pop-icon of the past half-century, Michael Jackson. But because there is a lot of mystery surrounding his later years, as well as controversy surrounding him that can’t be verified as fact, we are going to focus our archive of the early years of Michael Jackson’s life. This archive will likely be about his early performing years in “The Jackson Five”, and how his relationships with others, such as his father Joe Jackson, shaped his life and later career. We may take about some of the rumors surrounding his life, but since they can’t be verified, we will emphasize that this information is not fact, but speculation and rumors. We may even go beyond Michael Jackson’s years in “The Jackson Five” up to when he became a solo artist and was really popular in the 1980’s. As most people know, this is the era of the Pepsi commercial incident, where, during filming for a Pepsi commercial, Michael Jackson’s hair was set on fire by fireworks, and he sustained enough injury to warrant the need for pain medication. He became addicted to this pain medication, thus being a major factor in the shaping of the rest of his life. One of the speculations we may cover in our archive is the report, from Michael himself, that Joe Jackson beat him as a boy. Joe denied these allegations. Medical professionals believe that the alleged abuse could be a likely cause to the skin condition Michael Jackson developed later in life, which turned spots of his skin a lighter color. This led him to undergo a procedure to turn all of his skin white, which was the color of the pigmentation. This action would forever change the face of Michael Jackson.

Week 13: Australia

Out of all the presentations we have had this semester, the place I want to go to the most is Australia. I would want to go to Australia because I recall hearing that Australia is rich in natural resources, which is leading to a large economic boom. This will especially mean a high demand for engineers. Since I plan on becoming an aerospace engineer, I would probably work for a private Australian aerospace company, or for a foreign office of a company such as Boeing. I would probably want to stay in Australia for 5 to 10 years. This would give me enough time to get to know my coworkers and become friends with many of them. In order to achieve this goal, I will need to look at the study abroad programs that Purdue offers and utilize this resource. Once I graduate, I will apply to aerospace companies in Australia, or U.S. companies with offices in Australia.

My Technology Integration plan

Today we talked about bringing technology to a poor a relatively undeveloped country. Here is my plan on what would be a good way to go about that.

1) Build one small building in a town that serves as the technological hub for that town/ region.

2) The caretakers of the building should try and engage the local community in liking the new technology.

3) Provide ways for those people who like the new technology to acquire some of there on.

4) Ounce most of the community starts to begin using the new technology the technology hub can become more of a community center.

This idea is a slow idea. It would be something of a 5 to 15 year plan. It would be more focus on engaging the locals instead of trying to force it on them. It would try to focus more on the younger age groups because they are generally more flexible when it comes to technology. This would take a while but would generally cost very low. The building itself would be the most class. It would not have to be to modern, but would need to include new technology. I also think it would be a good idea for it to serve as a community center as well. The biggest part would be the directors who take care of the new technology hubs. They would have to be nice and chatty enough to engage the local community while still being business and technological savvy enough to run the center.

Dorm Floor Pranks

Ever since the second or third week of the semester, some people on my dorm floor (including myself) have been participating in somewhat of a prank war. It all just started as we got to know each other better and we usually prank each other in friendly spirit, never doing anything to cause physical pain or extensive property damage to someone. It used to be primarily between myself and a friend named Andrew, but others like Devon and Hui have joined in. We all usually get Andrew the most and our pranks towards him are a lot more intense, or worse, than what he can come up with. I think I started the war by putting already rotten bananas in Andrew’s freezer. The bananas stayed in his fridge for five days until he found them and they were completely black (and smelled horrible) when he found them. He got me back by putting toothpaste all over the door handle to my room which was very unpleasant because I was running late for class. As the weeks progressed, we thought of small pranks but the major ones progressively got more intense. Hui has fish oil (for some reason) and he decided to put it all over Andrew’s toothbrush one day. Andrew later found out when he brushed his teeth and almost vomited from the horrible smell. Andrew usually gets Hui back by going into his room and locking him out or by loading inappropriate videos on Hui’s laptop when he isn’t in the room. The final prank that was pulled on Andrew involved Devon and I getting into Andrew’s room (via his roommate) when he wasn’t in there. We got Andrew’s mattress (but left the blankets, pillows, etc. there) and took it all the way down the hall to the garbage room where we hid it behind the door. When Andrew got back from class that day and saw that his mattress was missing he freaked out and got extremely mad. He chased Devon and me around until we were forced to tell him where the matress was. Since then, we have unofficially ended the prank war, although we pull small pranks every once in a while.

Reality Hits You...Sooner or later.

Today is Eid-Ul-Adha. It marks the beginning of a new year in the Islamic calendar and the ending of Hajj which is basically Islamic pilgrimage. Coming from a country in the Middle East, today was a big day for me. This time, last year, I was busy helping mom with all the family reunion parties and cleaning my room just so that the guests who visited us got the picture of me being the “not so notorious, trouble-free” girl. However, this year, the story was a little different. Keeping aside the fact that it was not even half as bustling as a regular Eid day back home, I actually got a realization of how important family is. Since breakfast is a major event on Eid days, I decided to wake up slightly earlier than usual and get to the Earhart dining court for breakfast. Since my friends hit the bed pretty late the previous night, I decided it was best to let them sleep. So there I was, sitting at some random booth, munching on my hash browns and thinking of how different my life had become! Soon enough, tears made their way into my eyes; not because I was not with my family (even though I wish I was!) but because I had taken my family for granted for so long! I always knew that they were there to cheer me up when I was down. They never let me down, never said my decisions (good or bad) were wrong. In short, I could always count on them for always being there for me. Festivals are usually responsible for getting the entire family together and they usually end up strengthening the bond between two family members. Today, I may not have been with my family, physically, but the realization that I got gifted with today was far more important for me. Being in college, there will be times when we wish to go back to our loved ones but we don’t get to do that very often. So instead of moaning about not being where you want to be, take some time to think of what those people and more importantly, those relationships mean to you. It truly improves your ability to appreciate those around you! :)

Resources in Latin America

Limited resources tend to influence energy policy through lobbyists from companies who wish to use the resources for profit. Usually governments are concerned with what companies want because they provide large percentages of tax revenue. Lobbyist from these companies will try to sway politicians into passing energy policies that will benefit the company rather than the country. Sometimes, limited resources of greater necessity are taken over by the government. This happened in Venezuela when Chavez had his government socialize the country’s oil industry. Greatly impoverished nations don’t usually benefit from the presence of limited natural resources because when these resources are utilized, they tend to be too expensive for the poor to afford. Therefore, the company (which is usually foreign) gets rich off of the resources while local populations remain poor.

Some issues I see in implementing technology in rural Latin America is conflict between local culture and the ideals of the companies/governments that are trying to use the technology in the region. Rural Latin America is also very remote, which means getting the technology to the final destination would be very difficult and dangerous.

I Strongly Dislike ENGR 131

This past week was really hard for me. I have been running really low on restful sleep, and I have been busy working on miserable amounts of homework. Right now, the worst is Engineering 131. Last week I had to stay up until 1 a.m. at Harrison working with my team on our Milestone 3 the night before it was due. And it was not like we had really procrastinated; we had already met twice that week. We spent both of those meetings revising parts of our first two milestones so we could actually start our third and get a good grade on it. So that night I got less than 5 hours of sleep, because I did not get to bed until after 2 and I had to get up at 7. This weekend has not been much better for me because I have had to spend most of my time working on my community project for English. The reason I appear to have put it off until the last minute is because of Engineering 131. Yes, all blame can be traced back to Engineering 131, however, I will admit I am partially to blame because, looking back; there were times when I had free time and selfishly used it as such. So, I have only gotten about 6 hours of sleep both Friday and Saturday nights, and I am starting to get a headache from the lack of sleep and from sitting in front of my laptop all day. I cannot wait until Thanksgiving break, when I can actually get some sleep. This upcoming week I have to complete my CCCD assignment, Milestone 4, Homework 11, and study for a test, and that is just from Engineering 131! I fear what next semester is going to be like. I am sure next semester will make this one seem like a cake walk.