Turkey Time

Wow thanksgiving is almost here. Pretty soon it will be Christmas again. All the Christmas candy is already out and the elves are soon to follow. It’s been along time since I’ve last written. Senior year is where you separate the boy from the men indeed. Everything that I’ve learned in my time in Clarion is now starting to harmonize together. I’m beginning to finally see things I didn’t see when I first arrived here. It amazing when you actually get it. It snowed the other day!!! It was only a dusting but I can’t wait until it begins to lay. Being in the Snow Belt we get a lot of snow up here. When I return from thanksgiving break I’m going to bring my boots, scarves heavy coat, gloves and of course my snowboard and sled. It’s so much fun everyone goes behind Wilk and Nair (two of the dorms) and sled-ride down the hill by the Rugby field. But that will all start next month. Classes are going well. They’ve become intense now. I feel as though I’ll be prepared for anything when I leave here becoming the assignments that I have to complete deal with every human endeavor. The language department majors are great because we not only study language but cultures and history of the language and since the languages here are major languages in the world the history is mass. At first being a freshman you may think “Why do I need to know this” but when you get to your upper level courses you’ll see the connection. Once you make that connection you’ll understand the world so much better. Classes will start to mold into each other. This semester my geography class is molding with my Africa to 1800 class and all of my Spanish classes. My Spanish classes are molding with my French phonetics class. It’s wonderful. I can now understand why the world acts the way it does. That's very useful, especially if you have the mind to fix the problems in the world. You can’t fix a problem if you don’t know what it is and how it started. The Mr. Cu pageant was yesterday. I was Mr. IFC. It was a good time. We had a lot of fun and proceeds went to a very good cause. There were some really good acts and some very funny costumes. I would love to chat a little longer but I have a ten page to finish. I’ll see you guys later. Chao.

ALF

ALF was fantasic this year. Most of the other year I hadn't been able to attend or enjoy ALF completely because something would either come up at home or I had to attend a conference elsewhere, but this year I enjoy it to the full effect. Alf is one of the 2 greatest times in Clarion for me. There's so much to do. It's a huge county fair that everyone and there mother comes out to. This may be my last Alf is it was the best. My friends from home came up to help celebrate with me. Alf is one of those times where you can take time out to connect with your friends and the people around you better. You also get to see old friends who have coem back for home coming. One of my best friends graduated last year and she lives in Buffalo so it's been sometime since I've seen her so this past weekend she came back along with alot of friends that had graduated this last few years and we got together and remember old times..good times. I got to meet older fraternity brothers and they talked about how the campus has grown since their time. Another thing that's great about ALF is that it's a great thing to do outside before it gets cold. When it snows up her it feels like Antartica lol But when it snows then it will be time for sledding and snowboarding!!!!!!
I can't wait until next year.

Back to School

It feels like Clarion is now my home. When I go back to Pittsburgh during the breaks, I feel as though I've left my family behind. I know that sound sort of awkward but that's exactly how I feel. The experiences I've gone through up here are life changing and mind molding. Near the end of each summer I can't wait for the day that I can come back up.
Though I love returning to clarion, the summer was filled with fun education. I met a lot of people from different parts of the world and the taught me about their cultures and languages. I met someone from the Caribean named Sherkina. She's from St. Lucia. She taught me about the ways that they speak there and cultural diffences between here in there. French is a second language there along with Creyol and as a linguist I had to pick here brain. She invited me to the island for a festival during New Years. She said it's a major celebration down there and that they party fo four dyas straight. I can't wait. But I don't want to give the impression that partying is all that they do there. She also told me that there standard of work is a little higher than here and that the expectations of adults are far greater than here. Speaking with her, I learned that they wear suits to classes and if not in a suit the lowest style of dress is business causual. They also start college 2 years earlier than we do here. She had just turned 18 in August and already has her associates degree. she may also be coming to clarion nxt semester for international business.
I also got to interperet alot this summer. I worked as a teliservice operator for PRC. There I was dealing with accounts, and when a business or individual customer would call I was one of the guy that handled it. Usually I would work in english until oneday a lady called from Panama who didn't speak english very well at all so we handled all of her buisiness in spanish. My supervisor noticed and redirected every call that came to us from a spanish speaking country to me. It was great! it got even better when a french speaking customer called, then I had 3 languages to deal with at work. Seeing as how Spanish and French are the degrees I wish to graduate with, this summer really helped out.
This year I feel is going to be one fo the best years I'll have, if not the best. I have a big house with my frat brother, and we are going to try something new and somethign more sofisticated. I hope it turns out great. I'm impressed with all the new faces on campus. Everyone looks wonderful and seems focused and open to learn new things.
I'm excited to blog about my life. I lead a strange and abstract one so this should be fun. Chao!