Let’s Go Abroad

Going to college is all about having a great experience, and what better way to enjoy college than to study abroad. In the summer of 2015 I will be on my way to San Jose, Costa Rica to study the language of Spanish.

Going through the process to study abroad is not that hard to do. There are many programs that every school has that you can chose from. They also have financial aid that you can apply for. Two great programs to look at for resources on studying abroad are cea.com and fifa.com. There are many different options you can chose from when it comes to where you want to go and what you want to study there.

Not only are you studying but you are experiencing a new type of culture that is in your interest. Exploring the world while getting credit hours sounds so much better than going into a classroom every other day seeing the same classroom setting.

Everyone should experience a part of the world whether they do it by studying abroad or not. There is so much in this world that is waiting for you to see.

Hold On and Stay Strong

What is life without a degree? Being in college can get a little difficult at times to where you may want to make a drastic change in your life by changing what you want to major in or sometimes you just feel like giving up,but there are other options that can help get you prepared for finals week.

As we are proceeding into finals week semester the more you have to buckle down and make sure the outcome of the semester is not a waste of money and time. Here are some suggestions I just received from my Spanish professor that I put into use.

Check your grades. Being able to know where you currently stand helps you figure out what you need to get on the final in order to get the anticipated grade you want.

Focus on finals during break. Being excited to see your family and to eat a five course meal is expected of us as students during Thanksgiving break, but making time for studying prevents cramming.

Get enough sleep. Having the proper amount of sleep helps you to retain more information while studying.

Last but not least, relax. Don’t worry about the final being 20-30% of your final grade. Think of the final being a normal exam, don’t be so hard on yourself.

Why I Hate Growing Up

Being a college student is the next step of becoming an adult. You are out of your parents’ house and you have more responsibilities, but with those responsibilities you have to do things on your own that you normally don’t do when at home with your parents especially when you are sick.

The one thing that makes me want to be back at home is sickness. Growing up we always depend on mom and dad to be there for us when we are sick; sometimes they call off of work just stay home to take care of you. You do not have to worry about anything when you are back at home with your parents.

When you don’t have anyone to take care of you when you are sick it makes you even more miserable. You have to call off of work or email your professors yourself when usually moms do that for you. You have to get up out of bed to go get medicine when usually moms do that for you. You have to get up and make your own soup when usually moms do that for you.

Those of you that are still home with mommy and daddy take full advantage of it because when you are out on your own the little things like buying you medicine and bringing you soup in bed are the best moments. In other words do not try to rush growing up.

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Blood-Sucking Lovers

As Halloween is approaching many costumes will be put together to either look sexy, funny or scary. The most common costume that can look either sexy, funny or scary is blood-sucking immortals, vampires.

Now a days vampires are not limited to just Halloween they are everywhere in theaters and television series. The media has captured vampires and took them to a whole new level. Back in the medieval times people were misconceived of what vampires were and where they came from.

It was told that in Europe when bad things were happening to the living the people blamed the dead trying to get revenge. On livescience.com one of the assumptions that were made about dead bodies were that if they were sealed in the ground their body should decay immediately, but that is not the case. When a casket was opened during the day they discovered that a body was indeed a body of a vampire because of the bloating of the body and blood surrounding its mouth. But the body appeared that way because of intestinal decomposition.

There is always a love story behind vampires. Now in pour generation we have the movie Twilight and the television series The Originals that depict vampires into having a love story. Even back in time there were Greek mythological stories about how vampires first originated from the Greek god Apollo cursing a young Italian man named Ambrogio. the Greek gods curse and gifts turned him into a vampire and of course he had a human lover named Selene who he wrote love letters to using swans blood as ink.

Get in tuned with the latest vampire stories. You can find them almost anywhere from on t.v., books and movies. I assure you that you would have some interest in the lives of the blood-sucking demons.

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Is it worth it?

College is nowhere near cheap in the United States. We as students have to bust our butts to get or apply for tons of scholarships. According to nces.ed.gov the average cost for a four year college is $23,000 a year. That is $92,000 for a bachelor’s degree.

If you are like me you don’t have $23,000 just laying around to pay for school each year until you graduate. Financial aid does help only if you go to school in the same state that you reside. But sometimes that is not enough so you have to borrow from the people that want their money back a little after you graduate.

Loans!!!!! You’ve got unsubsidized loans, subsidized loans, parent-plus loans and bank loans. They are more eager to give you money than scholarships. Projectstudentdebt.org says that seven in ten college seniors who graduated last year had student loan debt. From the year 2008-2012 debt has increased 6% each year.

Why is it that we have to pay for an education to better ourselves and help improve the world. Argentina, Germany, Denmark, Finland (which is the #1 country in science), France, Greece, Norway, Scotland, Turkey, and Brazil are all countries that have free higher education. Come on America are we that far in debt as a country? What are taxpayers money going to? Is higher education not worth it?

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Prepare for the Chaos

Fall is now here and these two days that come hand in hand are approaching. Thanksgiving and Black Friday!!!

Ladies are you prepared for being in the kitchen all day and the night before preparing for Thanksgiving. What about the after affect? The indulgence in all the deliciousness that has been prepared and expected for you to eat is nothing but temptation. So do not feel bad we have to control ourselves by getting the right proportions on our plate. Try to go easy on the gravy and don’t consume so much of the pumpkin or sweet potato pie I personally know how tempting a fresh baked pie can be.

Livescience.com gives five steps to help with overindulging.

1. Stick to healthy portions

2. Eat a little before you indulge

3. Substitute healthy ingredients for unhealthy ingredients

4. Drink lots of water and walk afterwards

5. Avoid snacking throughout the day

The day after Thanksgiving is like a war zone in most stores. Black Friday is the day where all stores will be open earlier than usual and have the greatest discounts of the year, which means more people out shopping.

With so many people being out at the same time there is nothing but craziness out. With that being said lets try to be safe this year and have your lists ready at hand so your shopping can be easier. Staying positive is the main goal that shoppers need to keep. Learn how to ignore other shoppers and their temper.

Here is a secret from someone who has worked in retail since the age of 16. Most of the items that go on sale on Black Friday will be on sale again closer to Christmas. They just advertise it more around Black Friday because of the history of that day. So don’t worry if you couldn’t get that game system that your child wanted there will be another chance for you to purchase that item at a great price.

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What’s So Great About Learning Another Language?

There are over 6,500 spoken languages in the world, so why should you be limited to knowing only one language.
The following list the top 13 languages in the world from the website nations online:
• Mandarin Chinese
• Hindi
• English
• Spanish
• Arabic
• Bengali
• Portuguese
• Russian
• Japanese
• German
• Tani-Kadai
• Korean
• French

Learning a second language has great psychological advantages. The psychology department of the University of Colorado did research on and proved that being bilingual promotes brain growth. The better you learn the more your vital areas of the brain grow.

Your memory is the most precious thing to have and learning another language can delay Alzheimer’s disease as much as five years.

Knowing more than one language improves your memory, native language, decision making, and multitasking skills.

The younger you are the better practice your brain has for having good memory. Studies show that children that grow up in a household that speaks more than one language score better on standardized tests. Learning a second language has no age limit.

It’s never too late to learn another language. Go on and pick a language to learn! You have over 6,500 options to chose from.

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Being Mentally Unhealthy

What does having a healthy life consist of? Staying active and eating healthy are ways that can keep you healthy in life physically, but what about mentally?

What is more important to you in life than anything in this world? Some people would say family if they have one of their own and others may say their IPod or some type of object.

Whatever is important to a person is something that they are passionate about and take pride in it. One day I hope to have someone that is important to me that I can be passionate about because objects can be easily replaced.

On the Better Health Channel website it gives 10 ways to stay healthy mentally.

1. Connect with others
2. Take time to enjoy life
3. Participate and share interests
4. Contribute to your community
5. Take care of yourself
6. Challenge yourself
7. Deal with stress instead of ignoring it
8. Rest and refresh
9. Notice the here and now
10. Ask for help

Healthy living is happy living and one way that helps me to live a healthy life is #1 on the list. Connecting with other people whether it is someone close to you or someone that you just meet that may have similarities in some way is the best way to get your mind off things that maybe bringing you down. Or it can help with being able to express your feelings to vent with someone.

Most of the points in the above list show that having someone there for you is a big part of healthy living mentally. So to stay sane you have to have someone to be there for you and you have to be there for someone else. So if you have that important person that is there for you, hold on and never let go and if you don’t get out there and see who you can find because you can’t be insane all your life.

 

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Maybe You Are A Bad Customer

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Have you ever thought about how one simple smile can change someone’s mood and make things a little easier? If not the next time you come across someone in customer service and you have an issue try being polite and see where it takes the situation.
I got this idea of talking about customer service from recently reading an article on the Huffington post that explains Maybe you get bad customer service because you are a bad customer. Humans attitudes affect each other even if it is not intent it just happens. The energy that you give off to people will affect you at the end of the day. The article on the Huffington post explains how a woman was in a fast food line giving the employee a hard time because it was ketchup on her sandwich and she specifically told them no ketchup.
On the Harvard business reviews it explained that when you have a problem with an employer ask for whoever is in charge and state your problem to them so the issue can be solved predominantly and be effective.
I can speak on a personal note with customer service because I have been working in customer service for 6 years and most of the time the issue that customers have are out of my control and bigger authority has to get involved.
Next time you are out and come across good customer service but you may have a problem with something, do not take it out on the employee just politely smile and ask for higher authority and it will make your life and the employers life much easier.

Good vs Bad

In the world we live in today everything is based on things that are good versus things that are bad. From being a child you notice watching cartoons that there was always a bad character fighting against the good character. Or even being in school and based on your behavior at the end of the day if the card by your name is green you get a treat and if it is red you get a phone call home. Society shows us at a young age that there is good and bad in the world and that they always go against each other.
So knowing how good vs bad has always been in effect since the world began why is it so easy for people to be ignorant to the fact that there is a God as well as there is the devil. All different cultures have some belief that there is a type of God and that there is always something antagonizing them to turn on their god.
New media ministries website show the works of scientists trying to prove that there is no God, but the scientists could not prove that God does not exist. A doctor named Gary C. Burger believes that science do not have 100% certainty.
So my question to you to ponder on is how do you cease to exist in this world where there is good vs bad?

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