Lessons from How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents

     How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents taught me the importance of family. Family plays a big role in the book. Each sister might have a story of their own but everyone of them affect one's story in one way or another. Through so much, they stay together. They back each other up. For example the time the youngest, Sofia, brought weed to Dominican Republic during one summer and the mother found it. All the sisters took the blame. The author did a great job showing the importance of family in  How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents.

     I liked how the sisters give each other advice when one is in the middle of a life crisis. For example, when Yolanda recently divorced her husband all the sisters comforted her and was there for Yoyo to vent. They have family gatherings once in a while, which i thought was so cute. I especially loved when Sofia threw her father a birthday party. Even though it did not end well, the family was all there to have a wonderful time. 

     Something else How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents made me realize was how privileged i am. The Garcia family was practically kicked out of their country. Not saying that the Garicas were poor, they were in a bad situation. They were limited in so many ways. I feel like i have so much freedom than the girls. In DR, how the gender roles played out always suppressed the girls. They had little to no say. Here and now I have the right to say anything i want. I never took that for granted. 

Movies

     Something I find very interesting is movies. I love to watch movies. Some movies are beyond amazing, but at the same time there are others that makes you regret the 1-2 (or maybe even 3) hours you just spend of your life watching a useless and boring film. Some movies are just for entertainment, but others are for different usage.

     The most recent movie that I have just watched was Dances with Wolves. It was an Apush project movie. I chose it not knowing that it was 3hours and 45 minutes. It was so long the movie had an intermission. However, it was worth the time. The ending was not very pleasing, but the rest of the movie made up for it. Somehow this movie was slow yet, it was intriguing. There were parts where I was unsure of what was happening or why someone did/said something, but later it was all figured out. I recommend this movie to everyone.

     The best thing about watching movies is that it can be done alone or with a few friends, or in a room filled with strangers. It’s a universal thing. My favorite movies are the ones that make me think about the movie even after it is finished. 

     I usually am not a freak about the Oscars, Grammy s, and awards for movies, but I think it is really neat that there are such awards for the best actors, actresses, films, soundtrack, and much more. 

Oscars

Grammy

The Cat in the Hat

The Cat in the Hat
     An art that I have recently enjoyed is the movie, The Cat in the Hat. It was originally a children's book written by Dr. Seuss, but it has been made into a motion picture.  In many ways the book is similar to the book, but at the same time the movie has its own twist that will make it fun for people of the older age.  Just like the book, the movie is very colorful. The town the main characters live in is so colorful and looks like it jumped out the of the book. I feel that the movie got every detail right. It is really amazing all the computer graphics they used. I found the movie hilarious. The things the Cat says and does is really weird, but its so weird, all one can really do is just laugh. I feel the director did a great job on this film. Dr. S very creative and the director did not downplay that in anyway . This movie might sound really stupid to teenagers, but it is really fun. They throw in some dirty joke, too. I feel the reason children movies are so entertaining is because in order to keep the child's attention the movie needs to have something going on every second. If there are any boring or slow parts in the movies, the children will just stop watching. If anyone enjoyed reading Dr. Seuss' book or watched Horton Hears a Who!, they will love this movie, too.
     I really enjoy watching Dr.Seuss' books come to real life. The first movie I watched from Dr.Seuss was Horton Hears a Who! I loved that movie, too. What I love the most is that every little story has a cute message hidden in it. Now that I think about it, i did not realize that Dr. Seuss hid a little lesson in his books. From Green Eggs and Ham, i learned to never judge a book by it's cover. From Horton Hears a Who! i learned that everybody, even the smallest person matters. From Cat in the Hat, i learned the importance of teamwork and siblings. As childish as it sounds, i cannot wait to watch the Lorax.

     I recommend this movie to everyone! The Cat can get a little scary looking. It is a person in a costume, but it looks scary. I guess that is the only downside, but that really should not get in the way of enjoying this movie.

The Hunger Games, Hair, and Ellen

The thing that you would recommend for everyone is the Hunger Game series. Once you read it, it kind of dictates your life in a way. It will always stay in the back of your mind. Once someone starts talking about, the conversation never ends. It is one of those books that you need to read in your life. It should be on everyone's bucket list. It has a hint of every genre known to man. The plot is so intriguing because it takes place in a different world. The author uses this clever foreshadowing, so when you finish the book you start making all the connections and its really cool. I especially recommend it to girls, because for 1/5 of the book its hardcore lovey dovey stuff, but the rest is action, comedy, and serious business. Its such an amazing story. Everyone needs to read it. I heard that C.B. West is having the students read it for their summer reading. So far I only know of two people that did not love  the book and one was because it was a summer assignment and they had to find like theme stuff in it. The Hunger Games is mainly for reading for pleasure, it's better that way. It sounds nerdy and dumb but its seriously one of the most amazing books out there.
The thing that annoys me the most is hair. I guess it is better than having no hair because that means everybody will be really ugly, but then if there was a world without hair then people wont know how pretty people will look with hair. But then there are those people that just do not take care of their hair and so they look mad grimy.
      The main reason hair annoys me is because its so time consuming. You need to wash it everyday. Imagine how quick a shower will be without hair. Conditioning your hair takes like an extra 5 minutes in the shower. If you do not condition then you hair gets all static-y in the winter or frizzy. And the longer the hair the more shampoo you have to use and the money you need to buy shampoo.  Taking care of it is so annoying. People have to straighten it or curl it to look more attractive. It just takes too much time. If there was no hair then there would be no lice!
A famous person alive today whom I admire is Ellen DeGeneres. She is abnormally funny. I do not know how she even thinks of all the things to say. All her pranks are hilarious. I greatly respect what she does and the charities she supports. She even advertises them on her show.  She makes her show fun by hosting activities and giving people chances to win prizes. Instead of only having older celebrities on her show, she also has guest that are very young. She does not only have guest that are famous, but she give a chance for ordinary people to become famous on her show.  She uses her resources to help people in need. Also, she is the voice of Dory, a Disney character i adore very much.

Sofia + Race

SOFIA'S CHANGE OF CHARACTER

           Out of the four sisters, I feel that Sofia has been affected by changes the most. At first, she moves to a whole new country with her family at a very young age. Then, when she is finally getting the hang of the new culture, experimenting with new stuff, like boys and weed, Sofia and her sisters are forced to spend their summers back in their homeland, The Dominican Republic. Sofia was beginning to blend in with the kids in America, doing whatever was in style, but when she goes back to DR, she gets in trouble and is forced to stay there and study. This is when the sisters notice the biggest change in Sofia. She went from a wild, boy-crazed girl to a relationship-committed, organized woman.

Also, because the gender roles are so different in America versus DR, as a little girl in DR she was told what to do. In America she was free, but then back in DR she became restricted again. 

+ POSITIVES +

           Although, many bad events happen in the book, I feel that Julie Alvarez does a good job reuniting the girls back together to have a warm, deep, yet fun venting session/ discussion. Even though the sisters talk about the events that went horribly wrong in their lives, it still has an overall positive united feel to it. Every reunion reminds each other that no matter how bad a situation, the sisters are always there in the end. If they are physically there at the reunion, it ultimately means the girls made it through whatever the horrible incident was. That hopeless even has, in some way, made them who they are. It made them stronger as a person. SO you ultimately have to look at the outcome and how happy they are now rather than what happened. I see Sofia is a positive character, because I think that she had it the hardest, but now she is happily living in Michigan with her husband, daughter, and newborn son. She is a happy story. Yoyo on the other side is a different story, but she had her positive moments with her husband. She has grown from that experience, and is now stronger as a person.

JEREMY LIN
            I can definitely see where this writer is coming from, because I am from a minority group, too. I really do not let small stupid things get to me. However, once in a while there will be something that will affect me. I play along with the jokes that everyone plays. It’s really not a big deal. The comment “Chink in the Armor” makes me wonder if the whole chink thing will ever die down. I do not take those comments seriously, but I know some people that do. It’s really annoying. I know that now, in 2012, racism has gotten so much better than in history. However, no one can say it is completely gone

I respect Lin for many reasons. He has really been through some tough times, which has made him into the strong person he is now. He does what he loves and does best, plays basketball. He does not let anyone or anything get to him. So what if he is excelling in a field where is it nearly dominated by one race. They are all there to do one thing and one thing only, play basketball. 

M.I.A., Valentine's Day, and Jeremy Lin

Person of Interest: Jeremy Lin Review

     Where did Lin even come from? Just last week I hear whispers about a kid that's Asian playing basketball. First I think that this Jeremy kid is in like a small sports club, not the NBA. I mean seriously, an Asian in the NBA (except Yao Ming). By the end of the week, all anyone can talk about is Jeremy Lin from the New York Knicks. Linsanity!!!. So, if everyone is talking about it, might as well read something about the new phenomena. 

     Although this article was two pages of boredom, I got some cool facts out of it. I learned that Lin graduated from Harvard. He hangs out with Yao after games. The crowd booed when he was benched at the end of the first quarter. There was a lot more information about Lin that  I did not know before. The article might be a little more fascinating to boys rather than girls, because I had no clue what the author was talking about when he was going off about Lin's moves or the play-by-play of the game. 

This Valentine's Day, Occupy the Romantic-Industrial Complex Review

    You know what the world is messed up when the one day couples are supposed to show their appreciation and love becomes a business deal. Reading this article reminded me of the episode of Gossip Girl when Blair gets married to Prince Loui, and it turns out that Loui does not even love Blair but wants the publicity of marring a New York's elite. Now everything is about the money. Nothing matters, but the money.

    Valentine's Day is the day companies plan to make millions of dollars on chocolate, flowers, cards, wine, jewelry, lingerie,, fancy dinners, candle lit romantic massages for two, romantic getaways, puppies and couples counseling. Although all these companies are selling all these heart shaped products, true love is slipping away. Couples are getting married, but a few years later they are getting divorced. For example, Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphrey, Kevin Federline and Britney Spears, and Katy Perry and Russell Brand. It's all so sad; more companies are losing their money.

M.I.A. and the Impossibility of Selling Out Review

     Never have I heard of M.I.A. I guess it is my fault that I did not watch the Superbowl halftime performance, but even after the Superbowl was over nobody talked about M.I.A. I heard small conversations about Madonna, however no M.I.A. She is definitely missing in action. The article did nothing to clear her up for me. What does it mean that she's subversive and she's not, she's original and she's a thief, she's sold out and yet success has only made her more unpredictable? How is she a sell out? All I know is that she is very lucky to have performed in the halftime show with Madonna and Nicki Minaj. When I read about the part about her putting up the middle finger up to the camera, that really shocked me. I still do not know what to think of her. I recommend this article to people who know and are fans of M.I.A, it will make give them something to think about. 

Gender Roles

     Gender roles have a come a far way from history to 2012 in the United States. Men are and always have been dominant. However, now women are now reaching the same level as men.When we think of lawyers, doctors, police, firemen, CEO, or anyone in high power, we associate them with men. There are many more women that have taken on this role now, which is an improvement. The society believes that men are expected to be in charge and bring home the money. Women are expected to have the lower income jobs or take care of the household. The husband brings home the bacon and the wife has to cook it. There are more stay at home moms than there are stay at home dads.
     I feel that women are looked upon as inferior and weak because of their physical state and different interest. Just because women like shopping and doing nails, guys think that is useless and weak and stuff like sports and  cars make a person more stronger. On the other hand, women view men as immature, because they may make thoughtless decisions, like speeding. Its really difficult to fully understand the opposite gender, merely impossible. The other gender will always be a mystery. 
     Advantages that men have is they always get noticed a lot more, especially in sports. WNBA is a joke. However, if a guy is nonathletic they are seem as weak. Many stereotypes that are attached to males are insensitive, egocentric, and immature. For women, they are talkative, domestic, and weak. The disadvantages that women have are they get paid less and they are not recognized as often as men are. Which I think is totally unfair because girls can do anything a guy can. 
Would you swallow the pill?
Yolanda Garica
If swallowing the pill meant saving my husband, OF COURSE. It would be terrible for me to see my soul mate go through pain every three years. Who knows what Alice in Chains sound like, it it was to save my hubby, then I'll do anything. Breaking your collarbones seem so painful, I would never want something like that to happen to anyone.