FYS week 3

Now this week we had two completely different discussions.
Our first one being about the so-called "End of the World" predicted by the Mayans.  Now we only started a brief discussion but I have been informed that the world will NOT be ending.  Actually it refers to the world, as the Mayans know it, ending. We didn't exactly go into detail about what this means but I'm sure we will talk about it soon.

Now the next thing we talked about was OUR input on the whole sexual harassment ordeal occurring in today's society.  I would say one of the most important concepts we talked about was victim blaming.  It is ALWAYS the aggressors fault, no matter what.  Another concept we talked about was the Subjective vs Objective idea behind harassing women.  When a man yells at a woman, he no longer associates the woman as an equal human being (subject) but degrading her to an object which can be possessed.  As much as I would love for this problem to disappear, I don't see this problem just ending abruptly.

sexual harassment is WRONG

I feel that the street harassment is not even close to how severe as it is in other countries.  Maybe I'm just in a sheltered society, but I don't think sexual harassment is as bad in the US.  Other countries are always portrayed as much more violent in terms of sexual harassment but then I always wonder how the US is portrayed to other countries.  During the speech, she mentioned many situations, all of which were a man sexual harassing a woman.  Most instances of harassment were just verbal but there were cases of actual groping, public masterbation, and assault.  I don't believe there were any major differences, just the way in which people were harassed.  But nothing really surprised me, other then the amount of harassment that actually takes place here in America.  Most of these offenses also go un reported so it really makes sense as to why I believe I live in this "sheltered" society when really I could be misinformed with what is happening right around me!  This whole speech really got me thinking and actually looking for instances of harassment!

FYS Week Two

Again, we did our culture speeches again.  This time we were finishing up with the last few people.  Even though this sounds cliche, when my classmates open up and present their backgrounds (even though some were very short) it helps actually learn them as a person.  We have this class together for a whole semester and the least we can do is feel comfortable around each other.

GCP Fair

Truthfully, when we went to the GCP Fair, I did not think I would find anything really worth traveling abroad for.  Then I saw a program called JAFSP.  This is a program based in Jamaica that works in Jamaican schools to teach kids.  This includes Music Therapy, Tutoring/ Service Learning, and music education.  Even though I'm not really music oriented, I still think traveling to teach kids in Jamaica would change my life.  The reason I found so much interest in Jamaica was because my best friend is Jamaican and it would be nice to be able to connect on something after the school year.

First Week FYS

Now that we all know each other names, we needed to be informed of each others cultures. Learning about everyone else helps me to connect more with my classmates.  I realized that most of our class comes from the east coast and we all seem to be caring individuals.  Personally, I really admire the people who went on mission trips and have military oriented backgrounds.  Some peoples backgrounds seem to be a little too plain though, and they presented almost as though they weren't planned to share with the class.  Overall I think the whole "present you culture" speech was a good tactic to bring together our class and help each other feel more comfortable around each other...seeing as how we have a whole semester+ together, it makes sense to do that as an exercise.