Eng112

This semester when I started English 112 I thought it was going to be a piece of cake, because first of all it was an eight week class, then I somewhat love to write. That all went away when I walked in class and learned that we were going to be blogging. At first I thought that was going to be easy, but it was not. I have really learned something in that class and that is called blogging. I am not perfect in this area but I can somewhat say that I am not horrible in it either. I’m sorry to say but I do not love to blog and do not think I will be doing it in the future but besides that I think it was an interesting class and pretty glad I took it.

After all said and done

When is it going to be enough to be over? Meaning when are we all going to live in peace and harmony and not all these stupid rules and regulations with everything we do?
I keep thinking that the older I get the easier it will be to get along with my parents and actually agree with what they are saying and where they are coming from. Unfortunately that is not how it is, I feel like it is just getting harder. What I do need to comprehend is that it’s not going to happen in one day, it is going to take years to get through to them but I am willing to take it one day at a time so we can get over this culture barrel. At the end of the day they are my parents and even if I don’t think so they know what the best is for me.

Nova has gone crazy!

So I am sitting on the first floor in NOVA at the Woodbridge campus at around 2:30 pm talking up a storm with my cousin. We were waiting to be called into the student center so we could pick out classes for the spring semester. I didn’t even want to be there the whole time because I had the worst headache and I had to be at work by 3 o’clock. All of a sudden we hear two big noise but we did not know what it was. Then one of the girls from the fourth floor comes down saying “Everyone run there’s a guy with a gun in his hand and he is shooting”.
I have never seen so many people running for their dear lives like what I saw this afternoon in my whole life. It really scared the life out of me because; it just proved to me just how unexpected life really is. One minute I was talking, laughing, and gossiping about everything, and then the next minute I am crying and looking for my cousin whereabouts frantically. I finally find my cousin, we try to leave but the school was on lockdown for about 3 hours and more.
Well, I didn’t call my parents to let them know what happened because I thought they really would not be concerned or even worried. All my parents were going to do would find a way to make it my fault saying something stupid like “Well, you shouldn’t have been at school so late” or something ridiculous like that. Surprisingly, both my parents called me, yelling at me because I didn’t call them and let them know what happened. For once I was in awe, because they made me feel special and feel like I was important to them, and for once there wasn’t all these rules and expectations but instead it was all about one thing and that was love.

Money/Love

What are dowries? Well first off a dowry is money, goods, or estate that brings women to a man on their marriage date. This is done so that the man can feed and house his family just in case he dies and she becomes a widow. This tradition is not very popular anymore because now they stick to bride pricing.

So the bride price which according to anthropological literature is, the groom’s family pays money to her family for the loss of their daughter. That just still does not make any sense to me. Sometimes I sit and wonder where people came up with the thought of giving women a dollar sign to their name. Well it all started back in 1790 B.C in ancient Babylon, with a code called The Code of Hammurabi. The code basically has a list of 282 laws of dos and donts that you are allowed to do and follow in the country it is basically like our Bill of Rights.

Code of Hammurabi:
• a man who paid the bride price but looked for another bride would not get a refund, but he would if the father of the bride refused the match.

• If a wife died without sons, her father was entitled to the return of her dowry, minus the value of the bride price.

In today’s culture there are plenty of countries that still follow these traditions they are not mandatory but they still practice it, such as Thailand, China, Africa and Central Asia. When I was reading this whole thing I bumped into a very absurd statement which stated that In Thailand it depends what the women is worth, if she is divorced or is heard around to have slept with many men she might be sold off for nothing. That was just so oblivious and arrogant!

So now I have a better understanding of this whole “bride price” tradition. I still as a person with my own opinion do not and probably will never agree with it.



^ http://www.historyguide.org/ancient/hammurabi.html
http://www.ask.com/web?q=dictionary%3A+dowry&content=ahdict|43811&o=10616&l=dir
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/th.html

Analysis Paper

This week I wanted to basically elaborate and add more on my sources for my upcoming analysis paper which is on relationships, love and family. With each source talks a little about each of those characteristics that I talk about in my blogs. You would never think that it would be hard to find blogs about my subject but it is because just because they have love in it does not mean that it is interesting. I have found plenty of blogs that makes me want to just turn the computer off and give up.


During my search I finally found one that got my attention, and also made sense. That is why I have decided to add another blog because I found a better source for my paper. This blog brings in the relationship part. The blog is called “Daily Articles with Today’s View on Relationships” by Ruth Purple. It is not exactly a blog more like an article, but she goes on it everyday and talks about relationships, how a women should love herself before loving anyone else, also she goes on to tell you some tips with relationships and all. It just got me so involved so I thought that would be a great blog for the paper. Now I have my three sources and ready to write and pass this analysis paper!

http://www.relazine.com/

3 sources

The first source is about cultures.The blog is called "Only a life lived for others is worth living"; the link is http://nkb247.blogspot.com/. In the blog she describes her culture, also how she does not agree with some of the things that go in her culture. She lets you know how that makes her and how it should be improved.

The second blog is about love. The blog is called "What is Love." The link is: http://whatislove-milind.blogspot.com/. She explains what love to her is. She also describes it with poems about how she feels about every situation that has loved to do with it.

This blog is called" First time mother;http://tiair23.blogspot.com/ .The third is about a first time mother. She describes what she goes through and what is right and not right with being a first time mother.

Holiday Loving

Now that the holidays are here what is it about? Well, the holidays are about stuffing your face with food such as; turkey, ham, macaroni and cheese. Of course there are also those nasty gifts like sweaters that your grandmother gives every year. However, the most important part is the fact that families come together to celebrate the goodness and love amongst one another. I know in past blogs I wrote about how family don't show enough love to one another, but around this time of year things are a little different.

One thing about Africans is that we love to party and dance, on every occasion; birthdays, weddings, and even funerals. We also eat like there is no tomorrow. So, we make a variety of traditional foods. I absolutely love the holidays in my house. It is a time when we all get together as a family and make tons of dishes. None of our values change in the process; meaning men are still highly respected. They do not even have to lift a finger because women in my culture feed them and treat them as if they are kings.

Shouldn’t it always be that way? We should be able to act like this all the time around family, on an everyday basis. Why is it that a date changes the way you act or feel about one another? It is like saying “I love you”, why do people say it when they are leaving someone, or when it is way too late that they say those words? It is because we take each other for granted and don’t realize what we have when standing in front of us. It is not right; you should be able to say it all the time when and how you want to say it; that is just the normal and right thing to do.