The end of the spring Semester at ESL.

After months of much learning, this semester is coming to an end. A lot of memories fill our minds. Mixed feelings invade the air. Some of us will be leaving soon. Others will leave but they plan on returning after the break. Still others are going to start a new phase in their lives. But I have to confess that, after all this, it was worth waking up in the morning to go to school every single day. I am hopeful that my English improved not only in writing but also in other subjects. I am also happy that I achieved most of my goals for this semester. And I am confident that the ones that I didn’t achieve during the semester are going to be achieved through hard work later on my future activities. Before I forget, I want to give a special thanks to all my teachers, in particular to William, for making me experiment new styles of writing. I want to give a special thanks to all my classmates, too. And wish you all success in your life in your future activities. Thanks   

A weekend in Houston

A couple weeks ago I went to Houston for an Annual meeting with my sponsors. It was a really good weekend since I got together with friends from high school and left my dormitory room for a few days.

 The weekend started early on Friday when I woke up around 7 in the morning to get ready to catch the plane. Actually, I didn’t go by myself to Houston. I went with 3 more Angolans who happen to be my suite mates. So, we caught the plane and few minutes later we were in Houston. When we got there, there was one representative of our sponsor who directed us to the hotel. We got to the hotel and had to wait about an hour to get our keys despite the fact that we were tired. But after one hour we got our keys and went to our rooms to rest a little bit. However, we were starving which made difficult to rest. So we decided to go out and eat. Our chosen place was a Brazilian restaurant called Chama Gaucha. 

Turtle Pond

I'd like to share one more experience with whoever is gonna to be reading this. I just found a relaxing place in campus a couple of weeks ago when a friend of mine invited me to go to a place called Turtle pond. This place is located on campus and it's nearby the UT tower. First, I would like to make clear that that wasn't the first time "met" that place. In fact, I remember passing by the turtle pond a few times before. However, I had never realized how relaxing and pleasant that place was since most of the time I passed by I was in a hurry. Thus, I am glad my friend invited me and I accepted the invitation. Now, it's time to explain why that place deserves a space on my blog. The main reason why I am writing about that place is because I wasn't expecting for a place like that to be so meaningful. By meaningful I mean that that place surprised me with its simplicity. Maybe meaningful was not the best word to describe what surprised me about the place. Anyways, I hope my readers get what I meant. The turtle pond is a simple spot in campus but, at the same time, a place full of good energy. There I had such a good afternoon. I spent a few hours there and by the end of that experience, I felt like I should go back to that place again. While I was there, I sat under a  calming tree and enjoyed it's fresh air. Furthermore, I was gazing at the fish that were in a pond beside the turtle pond. That was a time on which I could feel the relaxing power of nature. And, while I was there, it felt as if I was in a world only by myself despite the bustle coming from surroundings that could interrupt that moment if I had paid attention to it. But, I have to say that it would be hard for me to pay attention to that energy because that place worked like a place where you could be isolated from the bad things regardless of what is going around. Furthermore, there, I was watching and trying to understand how a turtle life is while I saw the turtles trying to expose themselves to the sun while others were migrating from the turtle pond to the pond where the fish were.

Gun Possession

The more I talk about this subject the more I see why people tend to own guns. First, I’d like to look at the cultural reasons. Actually, there might be two different kinds of reasons for this practice. One is cultural which has been becoming more supported by the laws that have been becoming more lax. Another is “logical”. By logical I mean it is the less illogical, as I think that there is no reason for owning gun, especially in countries like USA. In fact, it should be the opposite since USA is a developed country, which is less likely to have a civil war.

If things continue like that, it will hard to distinguish the police from the public. The only difference might be perhaps the uniform.

Just for you to have an idea, I’d like to share my country’s experience. Angola went through a war that lasted about 27 years (After that, the country has been going through a period of reconstructing the country). People in Angola are so friendly after the war that they cannot even think about owning a gun. This is because they know that there is no reason for owning a gun. In fact, they had firsthand experience about what guns can generate. What I want to say is: Angolans have a logical reason for owning a gun in case we (Angolans) wanted to own since we just had a war not so long ago. As it turns out, Angolans don’t own a gun because they don’t want to go through the same thing again. That’s mainly why people in Angola don’t own guns.

Gun possession should be banned.

I can understand the fear of people on the possibility of a criminal break into their houses and kill everybody. However, I don’t condone the act of possessing gun. I believe that this can only raise the rates of accidental crimes and since a person with a gun can be killed by his own gun. And I think that there are other alternatives to possessing gun. For instance, the government should find other ways of solving this problem. Another thing that bothers me is the fact that in some states the gun laws are becoming more lax. For example, in Georgia now it’s allowed to carry a gun even inside churches and bars. Can you think of the possibility of someone get too drunk in bar and start shooting? This makes me think that the place we live in is a battlefield where everybody is ready to fight. Also, I think only the police should have guns because that’s why they exist (to keep the order). Some people may say that if we don’t possess gun we may become a pray to criminals. In fact, they are right that there are a lot of people that possess guns illegally. But how did they get their guns. That’s where we should focus our attention.

How do I look at future!

Future. This is an ambiguous word. One can talk about it in different ways. Rather than talk about "future" itself, I'm going to talk about my future, which includes my plans, desires and so on. Let's start by saying that I feel mixed feelings about my future. Sometimes I feel excited about it while in other circumstances I feel skeptical. However, I need to concede that I have been always a little bit skeptical regarding my plans. At the same time, I always try to be positive. (Looking at this description of my relation to my plans, it may seem that those description don't add up together. Nevertheless, they make sense at least to me.) When I talk about my future plans, I mean the plans that are not so far from the present. In fact, I mean " immediate future". I am advocative of that quotation that says "a person should live one day  at the time". Therefore, most of time I am concerned about my immediate future rather than the distant one. Right now I feel excited about my immediate future, by the way. I feel like good times are to come and I really hope it happens. Meantime, I am going to enjoy what life has reserved for me. I believe that that's the best way to wait for something. This all talking reminds a period of my life during which I waited so much for a thing to happen. Over that period, I tried enjoying my waiting time but sometimes I still felt anxious especially whenever I had spare time. At the end of the day that experience taught me a lesson, which is: the best way to wait for good things to come is by making good stuff happen... How one do that depends on each person.

New experience

A New experience that's what I will call it. I'm already calling it that way, actually. I didn't plan it at all. I just woke up after taking a nap and decided to go hike. I didn't believe myself when I realized that I was just walking for fun. I didn't even know how this feel like. But let me say that it feels wonderful when there are the perfect conditions. Speaking of perfect conditions, what are the perfect conditions to go for a hike?

I think the essential one is the sunshine. The sunshine works as if it was a vitamin that instill in me the sense of life. Second condition is the environment. I think that a rich environment would be one like this. By "this" I mean a quiet and peaceful place. Plus, everything that is the opposite of crowded. A day with no bustle. On UT campus a day like this is like rain on desert; hard to happen but when it happens it feels like something out of this world. So I took advantage of the fact that this is a spring break week, few people on campus, and took a hike. And it felt just amazing. I played some music and every music sounded like suited to my mood,which surprised me. I mean, I didn't know that there would be a day on which I would enjoy every single music regardless of singer, rhythm and pace. Another discovery has to do with my unbeatable willingness to play soccer. Surprisingly, today over my hike, I headed the soccer field but I didn't feel like playing. In fact, I just wanted to benefit from  the sunshine. Later, I wanted to write down this experience on my phone's notebook and probably share on my blog. It just felt perfect.

Laziness

Laziness is a feeling of laziness; actually, nothing better that the word "laziness" to describe this feeling. This feeling can become a  disease. This feeling impedes people from doing what they were supposed to do. In some cases, laziness can be fatal. For instance, you feel sick and you need to be seen by a doctor, but you don't want to get out of bed just because you feel lazy. This feeling could lead you to death. That's why I think that laziness is really dangerous. Another outcome that can result from laziness is failing a class. Let say you are an ESL student that was admitted to a University and you got the answer from the university in the beginning of the semester, which means you have about 4 months of english in future. This good news can have several effects on your overall performance. One effect is laziness ( here I go again).  Because you were admitted, you may get the idea that you don't need to attend english classes anymore. This will contribute to your lack of interest in classes and  turning in assignments. In other words, you'll become lazy. So, there come a question: What to do to avoid this kind of laziness? Well, I would like to be answered by a psychologist. Even so, I have something in mind that may work out. I think that in order to avoid being lazy an individual needs to have his goals set. That is, if you have always something to achieve through work, you are more likely to avoid laziness. For example, the same guy who was admitted to a college can have as his goal finish his english journey with great grades so that people will remember him as good student once he leaves. Thus, I believe that one way of getting rid of laziness is by setting up goals given that goals motivates a person to keep doing anything he thinks is worth doing. I try to think of why I should do something before I do it. That is because I like to motivate myself, so I think that setting up goals works in this situation ( at least for me).

Imitating a phrase

Original: Rather than continue my praise of their younger daughter, Valentina, who cooked alongside them at their small, local hotel, I sat back with the luxury of eyes narrowing in the island sun.

Imitation: Rather than wake up to have dinner, which was so tasty, I stayed in bed and kept dreaming about my future.

Response to the article " Mediterranean food "

This article is interesting. I was a little bit biased at the beginning so I took some time to realize whether repetition is good or bad. However, with some examples later, it was clear that the author praises the lack of surprise of the Mediterranean food. I don’t know whether it would be good to eat the same thing everyday or not. I might probably get sick of the food too quickly unless the food tastes really good. Anyway, it seems to contrast the author’s ideas, which are advocate of repetition. Also, I wonder how cook can be predictable and, at the same time, be capable of refreshing.