My experience as a blogger

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Before this class I never had the experience of writing a blog. When I first heard that one of our assignments was going to be us writing blogs I got really nervous and stressed. The first time I logged in it was hard for me to find where everything was and how to custom everything. At the end of the day I was able to learn and it wasn't as bad as I thought I was going to be.

I can say that I really enjoyed writing on my blog. For me it was a fun way to reflect on all the assignment's we had. When I sat down to do my blogs it felt more like I was doing something fun than just doing home work. If you read all my blogs you'll see that I have a bunch of different themes (Go and read all of them). They are really fun to read. At first I was trying to be funny but that didn't actually work for me. I guess I'm not a funny person.

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 In my opinion this assignment was an extraordinary idea, because instead of our profesor telling us to write a paper which isn't fun, we got to write blogs and put everything from our points of view. By looking at someone's blog you can learn a lot of thing about their personality and how this person was feeling when writing the blog. I learned a lot about my self. The way I wrote said a lot about how I was feeling.  

Now I understand why bloggers find it so fun to write on your computer and have people see it. For me it was a way of relaxing and embracing all of my ideas. A blog is not as oficial as a paper so because of this I felt more open to express my ideas and let them flow.

If you want to learn how to do your own blog go to: http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/social-networking/information/blog3.htm

Tourist for a day

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For my English class we had an assignment where we had to act as a tourist to see the reaction and maybe feel how tourists feel. When I first heard this I was kind of nervous. I thought I wouldn't be able to pull it off because I don't look at all like a tourist but I did it anyways.




I and my friend went to Rincon in a hotel call Villa Cofresi. At first we went to eat in the terrace. We were speaking English so the waiter was speaking to us back in English. He struggle a little but I thing because Rincon is a place where they have a lot of tourist he was comfortable speaking to us in English. He was very polite but kind of distance.

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After that we went to the beach and some boys approached us and started speaking in Spanish so we just looked at them and didn't respond. They looked so confused and it was so funny. I started speaking English and they laugh and went away. It was kind of weird. I think they didn't buy tourist act.

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I thought I was finished with the tourist act. At night by friend and I went out to Tamboo. When we left at 2 am Rincon was so dark and we were lost. It was the first time I actually felt like a tourist. When I thought things couldn't get worst my tire popped. So I had a flat tire and my car was in the grass and I couldn't get it out of there to change the tire on the road. It was dark and we were pretty much scared.

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Some neighbors heard the notice I was making trying to get the car out of the grass and they came out. Because I have a lot of experience with flat tires I decided to compare the situation and act like a tourist. When they I approached us I started speaking English. They were really struggling with their English but they still helped us. A man brought he's pick up and pulled my car out of the grass/mud and changed the tire for me. I was so thankful.


This experience really surprised me. Like I said before I have a lot of experiences when it comes to flat tires. I popped at least 1 a month. Most of the times somebody stops to help me change it. I thought that when the people that came out heard us speaking English they were just give us a number of a tow truck and live us there but it was the opposite. They were really helpful and made us feel welcome.

Loneliness and reading

"One of the things reading does, it makes your loneliness manageable if you are an essentially lonely person."(Jamaica Kincaid).

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When I first read this quote I was so amazed by it. I'm a person that likes to read just for fun and I really enjoy it. I never really realized that what I read in this quote is true. I know I've experienced it but I wasn't aware of it.

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I live by my self in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico. When I'm feeling lonely I usually grab a book and start reading. What happens is that when I start reading I always feel like I'm going in to this world where I'm actually seeing what I'm reading. I don't really know how to explain it but with all the characters in the book and everything that's happening I feel like I'm inside that book.

Right now I'm reading Brida by Paulo Coelho. In this book there's a lot of story's of magic and adventure. When I start reading I feel like I go in to them and it does make the loneliness manageable.

Some people don't feel the same way thou. My sister Melanie is one that feels the opposite. She always tells me that when she's alone the worst thing that she can do is read because she feels depress. I don't really understand that. When I read I like to be alone so I can focuss on what I'm reading. When I have people nearby or If there's a lot of noise I can't really focus and understand what I'm reading.

The journey to happiness

The book "Geography of a bliss" is written by the author Eric Weiner. In this book the author Weiner tells us the stories of his trips in the search of happiness. We're going to look into chapter 3. In this chapter Mr. Weiner goes to Bhutan, which is supposed to be the happiest place on earth.

I believe that happiness is relative. It all depends of what's your definition of happiness. The author in this book is looking for the happiest place on earth. For me there's no happiest place on earth. Happiness isn't found in a place it's more of something we feel when we're with the people we love and doing the things we like.

I remember when I lived a few years ago in Texas. People there used to asked how was life in an island and they all thought that because Puerto Rican lived in an island and everything is so pretty that they're happy all the time. I mean yes Puerto Rico is beautiful, but we have all the same problems people do in the states.

For me happiness is where my family is. Happiness is just being around family , is celebrating christmas, going to the beach. It all depends on how we're feeling and what we want to do. Maybe one day you can go to the beach and have an awesome day. Then you can comeback the same day , to the same beach with the same stuff and not have the same fun you had yesterday. This is way a think happiness is relative from person to person.

Life changing journey

Experience and Situations we live each day are the ones that make up who we are. They define us and give us structures. Some more than others. There’s different kind of experiences we have. Some we don’t remember because they changed so little in our personality and some mark us forever. I’ve lived through a few experiences that have changed me, but there’s one that marked me forever.

On a Sunday morning my family and I were all together in the living room watching a movie. I was 14 years old and yet I felt like a still lived in a happy child’s world. I still remember that morning and everything felt so peaceful like we were all just enjoying sitting there as a family.

The phone rang and my step dad paused the movie while my mom answered the phone. Suddenly she started screaming and dropped the phone. We all asked her what was going on and she said something had happened to her dad but she couldn’t understand what. I remember a rushed upstairs to grab my phone to call my paternal grandfather because he used to live close by my mother’s Dad. I make the call and he answers with a sad tone. I didn’t even spoke when he says “I have to tell you something, but you have to take it easy”. Your grandfather hung himself.”

 It felt like the world just stop. While he’s telling me this over the phone I see my mom running upstairs to change and go over my grandfather’s house. I’m asking myself “How am I going to be the one to tell my mom her dad killed himself?”. I was still a little girl. I mean 14 years isn’t really nothing? My mom sees me holding my phone and she comes running to me and asks me “What happened?”. I try to talk but nothing comes out of my mouth. My mom loses patient and starts to shake me and I finally say it. My mom falls to the floor. It felt like I’ve crushed her heart.

This experience made me grow up. My mom went through a rough path. I had to help with my little sister, which she was only 3 years old, more than I should have. I learned that the world isn’t that perfect bubble I was living in. Bad things happen to good and bad people and we can’t prevent them from happening. We can only accept them and try to learn from them.

Naipaul and his journey in literature

Writing is not an easy task. Not so much the act of picking a piece o paper and a pencil , but to make art of it it's not something anyone can do. In my personal experience it's something I find challenging.

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Naipaul tells us the story of his journey on becoming a writer. I founded interesting that from I young age, 11 years old, Naipaul knew his dream was to become. It's interesting because knowing what you want to be when you grow up at that age is something unusual. Some people don't even know until there third year of college. I remember my hole life I wanted to be an engineer and in my senior year of high school I just changed my mind and decided to go into pre-meds.

It's so amazing the format Naipaul uses for his autobiography. He tells his autobiography in away that engages you and it feels like I'm reading a fun story. Not an autobiography. The way he uses his characters as mirrors is just fascinating.

Something I learned from this reading is that if you want something so bad, you can reach it if you don't give up and commit to it. When Naipaul started writing he says he was extremely awful. That he couldn't find his voice and he was terrible at English composition. After a lot of years of hard work he finally found his voice. "To be successful you have to be persistent and the fist secret of perseverance is a good start"(Charles Atlas).

A Journey Journal

Inner journey

Being able to write everything I was feeling helped me so much. I felt like I had someone to speak too that would just listen without any kind of judgment. This journal helped me because at every entry I could see what was bothering me that day. This semester was and still is very hard. Writing in this journal helped relax and just organize my thoughts.

             For me it's hard to talk about my feelings. At the beginning whenever something related to my personal life popped in to my mind I tried to fight it out but in that stream of consciousness it always came back. I think writing in this journal helped me express better my feeling and not be scared to talk about them and even embrace them.

Outer journey

            At first it was hard following the anti rules. They just seem so unnatural to me. It was like going against what I've been taught since I can remember. Going back to fix a word or over thinking before writing was almost inevitable, but as I wrote more and more in the journal I was able to let go. At the end it was the opposite. I could just write without thinking. I was able to let go and just write exactly what I had in my mind.

            This assignment helped me in many ways. In my personal life and in my studies. For my personal life it helped me to vent and express my feelings. Like I've said before I've had I really though last three months. It also helped me taking notes in class. My first years in college it was hard for me when it came to taking notes. I spent too much times fixing my grammar and over thinking what I was writing. Now I can take notes really fast and just write what the professor is saying.

            For my life compasses my numbers were always low.  My highest number was 9 . My numbers where high whenever I was at my house with my family. At my house is where I feel safe and relax. Well most of the time.

            I enjoyed writing in my journal. I learned that I'm a person that whenever something is bothering me I can't stop thinking about it. Whatever I'm going through is always in the back of my mind. I also have allot of things in my mind. I change from subject to subject so fast. I'll probably try to keep a personal journal because I really loved writing one for this class.