Blog 6

My opinion on Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen is that it is a good book with an exciting plot. I liked this book because iv never gone to the circus but iv always wanted to, so when i found out that it was about a guy who works for the circus i was excited to read on. I also liked this book because i never got bored while reading it, which happened with some of the books we read in class. I also enjoyed how Sara wrote it with the change of age, so one chapter you would be reading about something going on in the present, when he is old, but another time it would be in the past when he was actually working on the circus. It bugs me how Marlena and Jacob would not get together because i think that they could have been together longer.

Blog 5

In the last section of Water for elephants that i read, Marlena got hurt while doing a stunt during the circus. I liked this section because it was really exciting to read and you could tell the Jacob was worried about her. I also liked reading this section because i used to want to be a Doctor, so when they were trying to figure out what was wrong with her, i wanted to think back to those days when i wanted to figure out what was wrong with people, and if i still wanted to be a doctor, then i could have been really interested in this section.

blog:4

Durring the last section that i read in Water for elephants, it made me excited because i think that the jazz dancing secret club chaper was really exciting for a few reasons. The first reason why i liked it was because i think that i would have been fun to get all dressed up and go dancing like they did. I also liked it because Jacob and Marlena kissed, which made me really happy because i think that they should be together even though she is with August. I think that in this book they have some unnecessary parts to it. for example the part when Jacob came back to the circus area when he and Barbera met up. But overal i really enjoy this book, i like the way she wrote it.

Blog 2

During the last portion of reading in water for elephants, i really enjoyed reading. It was easy for me to relate to because when i was little i wanted to be a veterinarian, and Jacob is a veterinarian for the circus show that he follows. When reading i realized that he doesn't really have to do a lot of physical veterinarian work, but i wish that that would change because i liked reading about all of the different animals. I realized that i have not read about Jacob when he is 90 or 93 recently, so i wish that that would also come back up soon because i thought that the way he is so sarcastic was funny.

Blog 2:

In the second section of Water for Elephants that i read, i really enjoyed because i have never gone to a circus and it was nice to be able to read about the behind the scenes part of it. It is frustrating to read about Jacob and Marlenas relationship because i want them to be together, but i don't know if she is dating August or married or neither. I really enjoy the way that Sara writes because it sounds like the way people talk, and poor writers don't sound like that, its choppy and doesn't sound like actual conversations, or thoughts of the characters mind. This book kind of reminds me of Dumbo because of the circus aspect of it. this book is just starting to get interesting and i can't put it down!

Blog 1:

For my independent reading, i chose to read Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. I really enjoyed this first section of the book i read because the main character Jacob complains about how its a hassle to get old it reminded me of myself and my grandmother. I thought of myself because i don't want to get old like that and not be able to take care of myself scares me. I also thought of my grandmother because she is really frail, but never complains about how people take care of her, i think that she likes it. But this section made me think about her because i can see her starting to need more help with things like opening doors and walking down stairs. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of this book because i like the way that it is written.

Blog 6:Hope

Hope is something that can sometimes be pushed to the side. So many bad and tough things happen to one in a lifetime that we may doubt the powere hope has one one. It gives us the energy to move,gives us direction. It made me think about Night. and how the Jews whole life was haning on the fact of "do i still hope" and if you lost that hope, you would die.
Pulsifer, Catherine. "Poem for Hope ." Inspirational Words of Wisdom. 25 Mar 2009 .

Blog 15:Overcoming odds

I was tired of reading about depressing storys (all the books this year for english) so i wanted to read something uplifting about somebody doing something extrordonary. A 101 year old man was called the oldest marathon runner last april. This made me happy because it made me think about how old i can survive, and that people can stay interesting when they get older, they all dont have to be the typicall grandparent.
"101-year-old Buster Martin to run marathon." MSN april 12 2008 25 Mar 2009 .

Blog 9: Bollywood

I have been wanting to see Slumdog Millionaire for quite some time now. An i read that i was seen to have a Bollywood essence, but i would not know. I'm not really sure what exactly Bollywood is, but i think that its just like a bunch of Indian movies and songs and stuff like that, but placed under a category, like Hollywood.
"Slumdog Millionaire." IMDb. IMDb. 25 Mar 2009 .

Blog 8: Culture

I wanted to learn more about the type of food that people eat in India. I looked at an Indian recipe cite and it was very different compared to the food that i eat. Most of the food on that cite was out of the ordinary for me. It made me think about how people can be so different, but still have the same life goals. people dress differently, eat different food, worship different or no gods. But the goal in life is to survive. our life revolves around food, because without it, we would be gone. Then i started to think about Night, and that just proved my thought about us revolving around food, because the Jews at the camps only thought about basic needs even after they were liberated.
"India Food Recipes Forever." Indian food forever 25 Mar 2009 .

Blog 7:Change

I read an article about how melting glaciers may force Italy and Switzerland to redraw their boarders. when i was reading this, i started to think about how many different kinds of change can occur. there can be physical change, like in this article. there can be change of laws, change of relationships, the list just goes on and on. But i think that in this article, the physical change is scary, because it makes me think about global warming and how it is truly starting to effect us.
"Melting glaciers force Italy, Swiss to redraw border." CNN 25,3,2009 25 Mar 2009 .

Love:Blog 14

http://www.elyrics.net/read/t/taylor-swift-lyrics/love-story-lyrics.html
I was thinking about love and then i remembered this song. I liked this song when it first came out but then it got overplayed on the radio so then i didnt exactly like it that much anymore. But in this song, i liked how taylor swift sang about how they both had to be together and would go though whatever it took to be together. and when i think about love. thats what i think about.

War:Blog 13

I read an article about how a peacekeeper died in a Darfur shootout. I think that this article could possibly relate to Night. It could relate to that story line because the peacekeeper in Darfur was helpless and non-violent and was trying to help the country. Night is related to this because its on the camps in oushvits. non-violent and helpless Jews were killed for no reason, that that made me think of this article.
"Peacekeeper dies in Darfur shootout." cnn.com/world 17 3 2009 15 Mar 2009 .

genocide

http://www.genocideindarfur.net/

http://www.twf.org/News/Y2008/0521-Genocide.html

Colonization:Blog 12

nosotro, rit. "europe's colonization of africa." 15,4,2008 1. 11 Mar 2009 .
This article about the colonization of africa relates to Things Fall Apart because we know that in this book, people are going to start to "help" this tribe. this article talks about how the natives never asked for help, and that seems to be the case with all the the storys of colonization. i think that the british, and everyone else should stop butting into peoples lives, or if they wanted to truly help, they would do it less violnently.

global issues:Blog #11

in the world. starvation is a main problem that we need to focus on. we do not realize what the statistics are, but every year, aproximatly 15 million children die from it. this problem can be solved by giving one dollar to an organization of your choice. instead of buying a missle. you could feed a school full of children for 5 years. i think that peoples prioritys are off. http://library.thinkquest.org/C002291/high/present/stats.htm

holidays. Blog 10

St.Patrick's day is one of the more unusual holidays for us to celebrate. for some people, it is a time to look into their ancestry and look at their roots. for others. it means nothing to them, seeing as they could not be Irish, or they could just not know what it means and not think that its a big deal. i wanted to know more about this holiday because i am a quarter Irish and i did not know why we celebrated it. Saint Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland. he is one or Christianity's most widely known figures. he is best known for banishing all of the snakes in Ireland. but that turns out to be just an exaggerated story.

Religion. Blog 5

the monastery of santa maria de poblet is located in catalonia (spain). it was founded by the cistercian monks of france. the monastery was founded in 1151 and was abandonded in 1835. then restored in the 1940s. i find the history of this monastery very interesting because i went to it over the past summer for a wedding. it would have been a lot more interesting if i had known some of these facts back then.

Gender roles: Blog 4

In the catholic church, women can not rule it. women are not allowed to have any powerful position in the church. Because of this, men have to take control of all of the situations. Alexander was one of the popes who statred off at a young age of 12. http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/apope.html

Culture difference: Blog 3

I read an article about Indian culture because i thought that it would be interesting to learn a little bit more than i all ready know about Indian culture, due to us reading Nectar in a sieve in class. I thought that our culture of America differed from the Indian culture because they have a very high respect for family and elders. And all though some people have family and elders high on their respect list, some people do not. They also said that in Indian culture they tell people to share the sadness and pain. I did not agree with this statement because if everybody wanted to share their sadness,then nobody would be happy,and then nobody would be able to help them become better. People can share their problems, but do not make your pain hurt somebody else.http://www.indianchild.com/culture%20_1.htm
"india culture." indian child 1. 8 Feb 2009 .

Overcoming struggles:Blog 2

I read an article called "Survivor's tale: This is surreal". It relates to nectar in a sieve and animal dreams the most in my opinion because both of those books are based mostly on suffering and and how people have to overcome difficulties in their lives in order to survive. I thought that they could have done a better job of writing it because i thought that it did not really have this personal relationship with me as much as i wanted it to. They did not really try to relate the article to me, even though that could be hard seeing as iv never had to run away from a wall of water before. http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/26/asia.quake.moro/
Morison, Alan. "Survivor." CNN international.com 23, 6, 2005 1. 8 Feb 2009 .

Natual Disasters:Blog 1

I was reading two articles on hurricanes. They had some similarities and some differences. The two articles were alike because they both talked about how the temperature of the water rises in the ocean. But in the first article i read, it got very specific about the temperature of the water,and the amount of water that the storm pours down. A hurricanes season is in its highest point between mid august and late October. I thought that the first article was more informative than the second one because in 'Hurricane warning:in hot waters' they more talked about the effects of the tropical storm,which can be interesting, but i was more interested in whats really going on in a hurricane. I thought that the first article was more scientific and that the 'Hurricane warning:in hot waters' seemed like it was written for the average news reader.

Freckles

Today in class we did an exercise where we had to throw away 7 out of 8 cards that defined who we were. The last card that i had was my freckles. I kept this card because not everybody has freckles, and they do not run in my family. I had a hard time choosing which cards to throw out. If i actually had to deny parts of my life like my family or my religion, i would be very angry about it. In Nectar In A Sieve the characters are going to have to start denying their characteristics that make them who they are.