Reflection of my External Journey:

Monday. April 14. 2014

Final Blog- External Journey: 

        During this second semester in my English course, Journey in Literature, we were assigned to made to types of journeys: external journey and a internal journey. As I already said in my other blog post, the internal journey consisted of having a private journal in which we wrote every single day our thoughts and feelings.The purpose of this journey not only was to develop new techniques about writing, but also was to find and know better our real identity. On the other hand, the external journey consisted of creating a blog in which we had to write our points of views on the topics that were discussed in class. In this external journey not only we reflected and learned about different concepts such as: identity, tourist, traveler, and Communication Model. Also we compared and contrast those concepts with some literary works, such as: Identity by Peter Roberts, A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid, and Down on the Island by Jim Cooper. All of these work, as references, helped us to analyzed and understand better the meaning of those concept. However, for me doing this type of exercise at the beginning was not simple at all, because I wasn’t familiar how this webpage work. But then, I had realized that one the best things that I had done and enjoyed during this course was to create my blog, because I had noticed that this is one of the best way or method to share my experiences, thoughts, and feelings with my classmates. However, when I was creating my blog, I had no idea how to name it. Then it come to my mind to named it “My Life in Words”. I named my blog “My Life in Words” because I am expressing and sharing my life with others by the use of words.

       Throughout the semester the professor gave us assignments to post in our blogs.  Since the themes of the course were journey and identity, we posted on our blog several reflections about personal experiences, journeys, literary works (essay and story), and movies. By doing those reflections I have noticed that not only this helped me to improve my writing abilities and my critical thinking, but also helped me comprehend the importance of the identity concept.

      The blog posts I liked the most was the ones about the A Day as a Tourist: at the Old San Juan, P.R.  The reason why I consider this blog’s posts my favorite is because I had the opportunity to act like a tourist. For me it was a great experience to become a typical tourist for a day and see Puerto Rico from another perspective. 

     Finally, I would like to say that this blog not only has given me the tools to improve my writing, but also has given me the necessary tools to expand my horizons and my knowledges . Definitely, this journey and this adventure that I had written, not has come to an end. I will continue exploring and sharing my journeys. 

         

1.) http://www.bubblews.com/news/74238-life-is-a-journey

2.) http://mabh1.com/1/life-is-a-journey-that-never-ends/

3.) http://www.iliketoquote.com/life-is-a-journey-with-problems-to-solve-lessons-to-learn-but-most-of-all-experiences-to-enjoy/

4.) http://notsalmon.com/2011/12/30/seek-out-the-joy-in-your-journey-in-life/

     

       

Reflection of The 47th Annual Literary Contest Awards Ceremony:

Thursday. April 10. 2014

The 47th Annual Literary Contest Awards Ceremony: 

       On Wednesday April 9, 2014 the English Department of the College of General Studies at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras welcomed students, professors, members of the University community, sponsors, parents, family and friends to its Forty- Seventh Annual Literary Contest. This event that I assisted for the first time took place at the Amphitheater 4, in DMN. The purpose of this contest was to present and honor student works in three different literary genres: the short story, the essay, and the poetry. However, this ceremony began at 11:30am with the presentation of Dr. James Penner, as the Literary Contest Coordinator and as the host of the ceremony. After he introduced himself, he began to name each judge of the contest. Then, the Dean of General Studies, Dr. Marta Medina Santos, spoke. Later, our English professor Dr. Cynthia Pittman imparted a speech about of how important and benefit is it to write during the morning. Overall, I liked her presentation because not only showed how essential it is writing practice, but also presented methods of how writing help you to learn more about yourself.

     

        After she finished her presentation, the audience had the opportunity to enjoy the amazing performance of the UPR Tuna Bardos. However, when they finished performing their pieces, Dr. Elsa Luciano gave a speech that I found it very educative and interesting, because she expressed and explained the importance of writing and reading. I want to pointed out one of the important things that she said in her speech that was when she stimulated all the audience to create a blog because it is a perfect way to organized and express your thoughts or ideas. Overall, she really gave us good advice about it. 

        Finally, they began to name the winners of the Literary Contest. As I mentioned the contest was divided in three categories: poetry, essay, and short story. And each of these categories were composed by 3 judges. The coordinator of this ceremony started with the mention of the winners in the poetry category. The first prize for poetry was given to Javier Acevedo Arus with his poem “Sanitation”. Then the second prize was given to Shalomir Gierbolini Vázquez, with her poem “Casting a Soul” and the third prize was given to Dannelle Llera Ortiz, with his poem “Contemplation of a Man”. In the essay category the winners were the following: First prize was for Yadmila Matos Serrano, with her essay “Winning the War”. Second prize was given to Natalia Pagán Serrano, with her essay “Drowning in Denial”, and third prize was given again to Javier Acevedo Arus, with her essay “Believing in Bi”. On the other hand, in the category of short story the one who took the first prize was my friend Claudia Cruz Rivera, with her story titled “Made with Love”. Overall, all did an excellent work. It was not only an amazing experience for me, but also for all students who participated in this Literary Contest. 

1.) http://floridawriters.wordpress.com/2010/04/07/enter-the-royal-palm-literary-award-contest-now-for-early-bird-rates/

2.) http://chandigarhliterary.blogspot.com/2012/08/award-function-for-short-story-writing.html

3.) http://daynalcheser.com/contests-2/15000-followers-new-website-contest/writing-contest-logo/

       

Reflection of my Inner Journey

Sunday. April 6. 2014

     “In a journal I do not just express myself more openly than I could to any person; I create myself. The journal is a vehicle for my sense of selfhood. It represents me as emotionally and spiritually independent. Therefore (alas) it does not simply record my actual, daily life but rather — in many cases — offers an alternative to it.”- Susan Sontag

      During my second semester in the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras campus, in my English Literature course, Journey Literature, the professor assigned to each student to elaborate or make two types f journeys: the internal and the eternal journey.The inner journal we wrote and reflected about our thoughts, goals and feelings. The assignment consisted of writing (everyday) in a journal notebook our first thoughts for 10 minutes. Then, we had to do a compass about how we felt during that day spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically and reflect on our writing process. This type of exercise that our professor assigned was based on 6 rules of the “First Thoughts” from the book: Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg. Before, starting writing down in my journal I first had to reflect or think clearly in the following 6 rules:    

1.) Keep your hand writing     

2.) Don’t cross out

3.) Don’t worry about spelling, punctuation and grammar

 4.) Lose control

 5.) Don’t think and don’t get logical 

6.) Go for the jugular.  

      

      When I started doing the inner journal I thought it was going to be arduous to express myself and my inner thoughts by using this writing method. Definitely, at first it was hard for me to follow these rules, but then with the writing practice I had notice the differences and the changes in this process. While I reviewed my 42 entries and 28 compasses, I notice that in my first time writing in my journal I experiences many factors, such as: many things were going through my mind, that I didn’t know what to write about. Also sometimes while I was writing I stopped to correct the misspelled word. Overall, in all the aspects I wasn’t feeling well with myself. But, throughout the daily practice I had learned and developed new vocabularies and form of writing.

       However, most of my entries of the inner journey were about my travel experiences, what I did during the day, the importance of writing, my experiences when I was a little child, opinions of the courses I am matriculated in, etc. . Basically everything was about my personal life  and what was going on around it. One of my significant and valuable entries that helped me be more connected with my feelings was when I wrote about my first trip to Spain. I wrote about this topic in my journal because I found that it had been one of my great and unforgettable experiences in my life. While writing about my trip to Spain, I was remembering about all the places I visited and all the kindly people I met back then. Writing all this took me five pages. At that time, somehow, I felt very inspired and connected with my own thoughts. During this writing process, I also visualized and countless of changes in my writing skills. Specifically, I increased the amount of writing, and also I lose control of it. Nevertheless, not only this process helped me to improve my writing, but also helped me to discover, as purpose, my true identity. 

      Throughout this process had helped me reflect on what’s going on within me. Writing in my journal is like carrying on a continuing conversation with myself. Through this I got more in touch with what I really believe and feel about what’s happening around me. It completely helped me to better know myself, my world, and my values. Throughout this practice I had learned writing things down on a journal helped me to clarify my thoughts and emotions in this regard. Reflect about about all the things had helped me to focus and actively participate in my development as an effective independent and critical learner. However, my journal will become a record of my progress throughout my study and will help me to discover the strategies and processes that work well for me. Writing itself is a way of learning and helps me to evaluate  and explore my own performance as a learner.

       

1.) http://www.writingforward.com/category/writing-prompts/journal-prompts

2.) https://www.pinterest.com/higherawarenes/awareness-quotes/

3.) http://www.paintingsilove.com/image/show/198087/insight

Reflection about the movie: The Rum Diary

Monday, March 24, 2014


The Rum Diary: 

     

          The setting of this story occurs in the year 1960 in the island of Puerto Rico. The main character, Kemp, come to the island looking to work for a known newspaper. Little know to this, the island is run by a corrupt group of people who have a lot of money and are looking into getting richer taking advantage of poor people. The first encounter Kemp faces with a corrupt police and justice department is when he attended a small bar in the beach and an argument ensued between his guide and the waiter. The argument is about the availability of food and the activate of the waiter. The main character end up leaving the bar with his guide after paying for the food, but the local people follow them and continue the argument in the road. The argument turns violent and the local police arrived and arrested the main character and accused them of violence and assault. In the courtroom the main character and his friends are denied the basic right of having a lawyer to represent them and are given a thirty days incarceration sentence. At this point, the main antagonistic character, Edward Thompson, comes into the play and manage to paid the judge 1,000 dollars for each accuser and they are kept free. This man takes the main character, Kemp, and tried to buy his conscience giving him a place to live, a sport car, and access to his house and the young woman that lives with him. A romantic attraction arises between Kemp and the young woman, Chenault, but the main character doesn’t take advantage of this fact until later in the story, when the girl tries to break the relationship and uses the main character to accomplish this. When his benefactor finds Kemp a job at the local newspaper and took him to the land he wanted to buy from the local people in order to built several hotels and a marina, the main character realizes that his benefactor plans will harm the poor local people that live in this island and changes his mind. Kemp attempts to publish the truth about his benefactor and his associates. This last attempt he tries to accomplished obtaining the money from the cockfight but the benefactor managed to steal all the necessary equipment needed to publish the newspaper. With no other alternative Chenault flies to New York and Kemp followed her stealing the sailboat of Mr. Thompson. The story ends up Kemp marrying Chenault and the formation of the newspaper “Bastards” which served to proper the right of the poor people.  

      On the other hand, the main problem with this poor society is their ignorance about the rights in society. The rights that the law has to provide them in society. The people that are trying to take advantage of them know this and use the local beverage, which is rum, to kill these happy people and made them unaware about the true purpose of capitalism. Therefore, I believe that the title of the movie, The Rum Diary, is an appropriate and a good title because in all the scenes in the movie that the main character gets him into trouble with the local police, justice department, and the local people. The common factor of these is that they have ingested alcohol and they have altered the reality in their environment. 

1. http://www.impawards.com/2011/rum_diary_ver2.html

2. http://www.fanpop.comwww.fanpop.com/clubs/the-rum-diary/images/25229478/title/trailer-rum-diary-screencap

3. http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/the-rum-diary/images/26156899/title/rum-diary-photo

4. http://theinquisitiveloon.wordpress.com/2013/11/23/the-rum-diary/

Reflection about The Interdisciplinary Topics

Monday, March 31, 2014

Day two: The Student Research and Writing Conference:

      I attended for the second time to the Student Research and Writing Conference on Thursday, March 27 2014. The conference that I assisted from 10:00am to 12:00pm was about Interdisciplinary Topics. The first student to present her topic was Dayanara Diaz. Her presentation was about her experience that she had during her first semester in General Studies course. What I like about her presentation was the way that she expressed and explained the importance concepts that general education offered to her. Also something that I liked about her presentation attention was when she ended her discussion with a quote by Einstein, that says: “Never consider study as an obligation, rather an opportunity to enter to the wonderful world of knowledge”. However, the next essay was presented by Rodriguez and was about  comparing two topics. She compared the essay of Paco Underhill,“The Science of Shopping”  with her experience that she had in Kmart of Vega Baja and Walmart of Manatí on Black Friday. Overall, all of the work that each student presented in the conference were very interesting and effective. 

   

                     

1. http://www.carmel.ac.uk/95/a-level-courses/general-studies.html
2. http://ois.truman.edu/required_courses.asp

Reflection about the Death Penalty conference:

Sunday, March 30, 2014

Conference Reflection about on Death Penalty: 

      I had the opportunity to assisted to the student research and writing conference offered by the English Department on Wednesday March 26, 2014. The conference I assisted from 11:30am to 12:30pm was about “Capital Punishment”, also known as death penalty.  As I remember, the students that were participating as panelist were: Andrea Chandia, Sergio Ortiz, Steven Rivas, Gabriela Rivera, and Pedro Álvarez. In this discussion, each member exposed very well the different stances of death penalty held by different countries. The countries that they mentioned were Puerto Rico, Spain, Nigeria, France, and North Korea. First, the conference began with an introduction of this theme, which was by Gabriela Rivera. In her presention she presented and explain very well the concept of capital punishment. As she mentioned, capital punishment, often referred to as death penalty, is a legal process whereby a prison is put to death by the state as a punishment for a felony. It has, in the past, been used as a method of crime deterrence since the very earliest societies. Historical records show that even the most ancient primitive tribes practiced methods of punishing wrongdoers, including taking their lives to pay for the crimes they committed. However, the death sentence was often made in public and some of the methods that they used were torture and execution. Over the time Today, more than two-thirds of all countries have abolished it; 130 countries have abolished its legal practice, and  countries use the death penalty only for exceptional crimes. In contrast, 58 countries retain the death penalty for ordinary crimes. 

     Overall, I really liked not only the way that each of these students showed important facts, but also their point of views about it. I shared the opinion that Death penalty is inhumane and unusual punishment. I do not believe that society has any power to decide if a person lives. However, I do not supports the criminals and their behaviors. In conclusion, I am against Capital punishment. I believe that life is a precious gift that no one has the right to take away. Even the criminals themselves should not be killed. 

A Day as a Tourist in Old San Juan:

Sunday, March 16, 2014

A Day as a Tourist at Old San Juan: 

El Morro, San Juan: 

     The Old San Juan is the oldest city in Puerto Rico and the second oldest in New World. It has also been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983. Every time I visit the Old San Juan I discover something fascinating and magnificent of it.

       For many tourist, who come for the first time, visiting Puerto Rico on cruise ships cannot leave without visiting and knowing the historical places of Old San Juan. One of the most impressive part in this place is El Morro Fort. El Morro Fort, also known as Fort San Felipe del Morro, is one of the more popular tourist destinations in Puerto Rico, receiving more than 2 million visitors annually. 

      Today, I started the morning off early with a walk through the streets of Old San Juan. There I spend my time visiting many historical places, and taking pictures and videos of it. One of my favorite attractions was to visit the Spanish forts in the earlier part of the day. I decided to start my tour at the Castillo San Felipe del Morro, a defensive fort built in 1539, because it is one of the two historic fortresses in San Juan that is surrounded by large grass fields and where tourists and locals enjoy the large open spaces with picnics, food carts, flying kites, people watching, or even an impromptu ballgame. The whole fortification and the surrounding grounds are encircle by the historical protective city walls well known as La Muralla. However, the walls on the southern and western side is the Paseo del Morro, which one can see a walking trail, lined with street lamps, with an extraordinary views of San Juan Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. 

     Then I went to explore on my own the other fortress, which is known as the Castillo San Cristóbal that is located at the opposite end of town. Built in 1664, this fort at one point it covered 27 acres of land and was constructed to protect San Juan from land attack. San Cristobal Fort,like El Morro, has several levels and offers a grand views of the San Juan coast and the city of Old San Juan. 

       San Juan demands a walking tour in order to know the city. As I saw different types of houses and shops adorn the blue glazed cobbled streets. I really had fun touring Old San Juan.

     

    

http://www.discoveringpuertorico.com/2010/04/san-cristobal-fort-old-san-juan/