Final Reflection

When I compare my first blogs with the last ones, I realize that I gradually improving in the way of expressing my thoughts. At first I only wrote what the teacher asked us to do, but then I was opening myself

further and I began to give my opinion on issues. As time passed, my blogs were revealing more about my personality and perspective to the issues discussed. I'm a person who often finds it difficult to express what I feel and I think this blog definitely helped me improve that.

Of the things I liked most is that we have been able to write about different things like movies, books and topics discussed in class. This blog contains a variety of discussions on important issues in our daily lives. Many times we do not take the time to analyze the simple things that happen in life and we unnoticed. For example, if I would have seen the movie " A Room with a View" before taking this class, I had never analyzed it in the same way we did in this class. Similarly in many topics we discussed in class, I could tell that if analyzed well, I would change my mind completely, for this reason, it's good to do this kind of activities that allow us to develop our opinion on various topics.

For me the most important post was " A Day as a Tourist" because it made me see my island from a different perspective. I had never thought about how tourists see Puerto Rico and I that day I discovered things I never knew about the island. I was able to analyze the way in which we conduct ourselves Puerto Ricans, the places that most tourists visit, as well as the most famous meals of the island. It was a great experience in which I learned many things I did not know about the place where I have lived all my life.

Definitely the blog has helped me greatly, because through it I can express my opinion on various topics in public, which I do not usually do much. When I want to discuss a particular topic, I do it with people close to me and not like this, where anyone can come to my blog and read it. This blog also allows me to receive criticism from others about what I write and we can start a good discussion. I think this is an activity that must continue in this English course, allowing us to develop our critical thinking and this is something that not only helps us in this class, but also helps us in other classes as well as in our personal lives.

Inner Journey Journal

During the first months of my class in English Literature, I wrote a journal every day for ten minutes, where I reflected my feelings and thoughts.  Now that I reflect on it I can see that my writing has change and that my perspective of sitting down just to write it's totally different now. At the beginning of the journal I didn't actually understood how it worked to sit down and just write my thoughts, so what I did was to write of only one subject that I could thing off the whole ten minutes.  But as hard it was for me to just write what I was thinking, I had to do it so then I could achieve the purpose of the journal.  By the course of time I could visualize that I was feeling more comfortable writing and I was not thinking of writing about only one subject. That felt amazing and gave me motivation to keep writing.  Almost at the end I found myself taking the journal and writing everything that cross my mind without stopping my hand.  I really think that there was a huge change since I first started writing my journal.  I felt that I even had confidence writing it and no one could stop me. Sometimes I felt angry so I used that time to relax myself. It was a little time I took from my day only for my journal and me.

 There was a first thought process required for writing a journal.  The process was as follow: Don't cross out, Don't worry about spelling, grammar, punctuation, Don't stop, Don't get logical, Don't think, Go for the jugular, Keep your hand moving.  At the beginning of the journal it was extremely hard at least for me to not cross out.  I consider my self a perfectionist, because I want everything I do to be perfect, and when I wrote something wrong I couldn't handle my self to cross out.  Also the part of not worrying about spelling was a little bit difficult because I think every single person focuses on writing correctly.  In my first journals you can see there are some cross outs and that the idea was the same in the whole paragraph.  I found myself thinking too much of what to write and how to develop it, all this thoughts made me not to write continuously.  But I found that during the pass of time this rules help me to change my thoughts and bad habits. I learned to write my feelings and thoughts continuously without thinking if it made any sense or if there were all about the same theme.  In my personal opinion I think this rules were essential for this project, without them I wouldn't had changed my thoughts and relax while writing the journal.

 During the course of the journey journal we were supposed to draw a life compass, which was composed of four parts: spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical. I feel that during the pass of time doing the journal my spiritual part felt very open and accessible for different thoughts.  My relationship with God and with my family is very good and did not interrupt in the process of working the journal. In the mental part, there were some days that I felt drained for many reasons, my studies, having a job and not having time for myself, etc. I think this did affect my writing some days, but I learned how to deal with it. In my emotional part, there were some days I felt sad and anxious. I took the MCAT exam and I was waiting for my grade.  This obviously interrupted my writing because everything I could think of was about the MCAT exam. In the physical part, there were some days I felt tired and others hungry, on those days I really did not wanted to sit down and write a journal.  I think that the life compass helped me to stop for a moment and visualize myself. It helped me to see what were the thinks that made me get out of focused while I was writing.  It is an important part of the project and it can show your progress as time passed over.

      All the process of writing daily on my journal helped me so much with my internal journey. It made me think of my surrounding and the thinks I want to do in the future.  My internal journey is described in the course of the journal.  At first I started doing the journals because I had to, but this made me realized that it was actually a good thing to do so I could organize my thoughts.  By the end of the project it was not an obligated thing to do but instead a wanted one.  It was so good to now that when I felt angry I could take my journal and sit down and take every out of me! It was a relief and I automatically felt happy and my day could continue normally. My journey journal helped me to know that I really knew what I wanted in my life and that not only because everything does not come out the way I expected does not mean that everything is ruined.  Your plans continue the way they were you only have to keep studying and working hard and you will be granted with your most beautiful price: accomplishing your goal.

      I posted some pictures of my journey journal where you can see a collage of different journeys of my life. My friends and family are present too. These pictures helped me during the project because it was very gratifying every time I wrote a journal and I saw them; they motivated me. I would recommend everyone to make a journal; it helps you to get to know yourself even better. And if you feel lost and without a journey it helps you find yourself. So get up, take a notebook, and don't think just write!  

  

Panel Reflection: “Using Technology to Enhance Learning”

The other panel that I could attend was “Using Technology to Enhance Learning”, supervised by the professor Frank Flanagan. I have to accept that this was the panel I liked least because, I think that the people who were presenting were a little bit disrupted, however, I found it very interesting. I could definitely relate this panel with our English class, because we have used technology as part of learning the course. The elements that technology provides us are very useful, as we see in the blogs, where we can make our homework but at the same time we can share it with others who do not belong to our class.

Technology makes learning more interesting, especially for us young people who are very involved in social networking. This allows us to relate our studies with our daily life. I identify a lot with this, as I use much technology, so when I have to do a task that needs a technological resource, I am really interested in doing it. One example that struck me was the Google Drive, that lets you interact one -on -one with your teachers, as well as store all kinds of work. One of the things with I most identified myself, was when the students mentioned that using this, no matter if you forgot to put your name on your work, because once you register your account, all the work you do will be identified under your name. This seemed funny to me because I often forget to put my name on some works I have done.

We can also see how technology has helped so much to take online classes. This is one of the major advances that have been made, as currently many students around the world can take courses from the comfort of their home, if for some reason can not attend college. Similarly, using the technology we are also helping the environment because gradually we are replacing paper. More and more people choose to use electronic devices for things that they do in their daily life like reading, work and to make purchases.

In my experience, the opportunity I have had in my English class to use technology has definitely been a great learning. I had never done a blog and think it is a good way to interact with my classmates and the professor. Definitely I consider this kind of resource is very helpful for us college students.

Panel Reflection: “Immigration and Puerto Rico Today”

On March 26 I had the opportunity to visit Interdisciplinary Project and Creative Initiatives celebrated in the General Studies Faculty. I attended to three of the panels that they were offering. My English class participated in a panel called “Interrogating the Journey: Literature and Personal Experience” but sadly I cannot attend because I had a class at that time, but I could attend other panels.

One of them was “Immigration and Puerto Rico Today”, supervised by the professor Petra Avillán. This panel was definitely my favorite for many reasons. The first thing I would say is that I greatly admire those two students that were there talking about their lives even though they knew little English. These two young Dominicans had the courage to tell their story of when they arrived to Puerto Rico and all the adversity they faced, using a language that they did not dominate. Taking into account that in their country were not taught English, when they arrived to Puerto Rico they were not afraid to learn a new language and be able to speak to an audience, for this reason they earned all my respect.

About the panel discussion, I was very interested when they spoke of xenophobia, which I have heard a lot. I have a Dominican aunt that often told me about the discrimination she felt and that sometimes she still feels living on this island. It seems ridiculous to reject other people simply because they come from another country or belong to another culture. Definitely I agree with them and would like to quote one of the phrases of one the students that said, " Only water separates us." It is true, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico are two Caribbean islands with many things in common, and the only division we have is the sea. Why reject others who come to our country seeking a better future? We should not judge others simply because they were born in a different place than us.

As we have discussed in the different readings of our class, as in Peter Roberts about identity, a person can feel part of a place despite not being born in that place, therefore, we can see that many Dominicans may also feel as Puerto Ricans. This is the case of one of the girls who had participated in a beauty pageant representing Puerto Rico and not won because she was not Puerto Rican. I totally disagree with the fact that she was discriminated because of this. She is the one that can say if she feels Puerto Rican or not.  She is a young woman and Puerto Rican culture has influenced in her growth. Maybe if it were an old person, who has spent most of her life in another country it could be justified, but it is time to change our minds and respect those who want to come to our island and feel part of it.

The Rum Diary...

The movie The Rum Diary helped me a lot to visualize how a lot of Americans that lived in Puerto Rico really saw us Puerto Ricans. Shows how the Americans treat badly the Puerto Ricans and like if the island were of their own. This caused the Puerto Ricans to have a bad aspect of the Americans and to treat them the same way, which in turn caused a violently and criminality view of the local people. But they also show at the beginning a manifestation of Puerto Ricans in front of the San Juan All Star (the newspaper), which I found good in a sense that we don't let people do with us whatever they want, but at the same time is bad in a sense that they showed us as violent people.

We can see another perspective that many Americans have about Puerto Rico in how in the scene of the carnival they drank all the time like if it was something they couldn't do in any other place. That was interesting because as you can see with only the title of the movie, everything was about alcohol and things that had to do with it. Puerto Rico was seen as a place where everyone drank and party all night long. When Paul Kemp (Johnny Depp) made an interview to some Americans that were staying in Puerto Rico for a bowling tournament, they talked about how beautiful it was and how much they liked it. The funny part was when they said that they don't leave the hotel because is not safe.  Well how do you expect to know about a place when you don't even go out of the hotel? It is unexplainable how they show their ignorance and don't even care.

This film also shows how the Americans had in mind that Puerto Rico was a "sea of money" and how they planned to take the most advantage they could have of it.  They also called Puerto Rico "The American Dream" which I found odd.  I really liked when one of the characters said that Puerto Rico was like "someone you fuck and is still here", because he really showed his thoughts and feelings of the aspect he had.  In conclusion the movie really showed a perfect example of the relationship between Puerto Rico and United States and at the end they also show that even though it wasn't such a bad experience to be in Puerto Rico, to find a good future you have to get out of the island. I really liked the movie and I would recommend everybody to see it to learn a little bit more of how some Americans see us Puerto Ricans and our island.

Here is a trailer of the movie if you want to watch it!

Day as a Tourist

Last weekend I had the opportunity to spend a day as a tourist in a beautiful town in the North of Puerto Rico. Here is my experience (is narrated as a diary)...

Right now I am at Mar Chiquita beach in Manatí.

It feels really nice. The wind is really good. I was expecting to see less people though; there are a lot of people. There are a few young boys and girls in groups. Many people is drinking and it's only noon. Everyone seems healthy and in shape which is a really good sign. A few men wandering around selling water, beers and food. They keep going, walking the whole beach over and over again. I don't know how they don't get tired in this hot sun. Thank God it is not raining. It would be a shame to come to Puerto Rico to enjoy the beaches and to be raining.

Now I am at Costa Azul, which is a very good restaurant here in Manatí. The food is absolutely delicious. I ate mofongo with churrasco that is one of my favorite plates.

I feel like I am traveling in a cruise. The area is very clean and everyone seems really nice. There are people walking their dogs, jogging, riding bikes, and there are a few tourists in the area. Near there are a lot of apartments that people often use for vacations. Two of them are Brisas de Mar Chiquita and Chalets de la Playa. This is a very good area. Good restaurants, tourists, beautiful beaches, many condominiums. It seems like the perfect place for vacations.

Now I am looking to the sky and sadly is cloudy. Thank God that I already left the beach. At least the traffic was not that bad and the roads are not bad either. Puerto Rico seems a really modern place unlike many of the beliefs some people have...

This experience of being a tourist in my own country makes me reflect a lot. As a Puerto Rican living in here, it is hard to picture everything from the eyes of a tourist. After doing this and having the opportunity to see the island with different eyes I was able to write and state the things I liked. I realized that I was actually admiring all the things that before I maybe took for granted. Living here makes you walk through the streets, have fun in the beaches, drive through the island without really admiring many things like the exotic beauty of our island. I appreciate having been able to admire my island and connect to it as well.