homework 42 my last pod cast

http://www.gabcast.com/index.php?a=episodes&b=play&id=8538&cast=51986&autoplay=true

My last pod cast is episode 49 on gabcast! enjoy!

hw 37 my second pod fast

http://www.gabcast.com/index.php?a=episodes&query=&b=play&id=8538&cast=50906&castPage=

this is my second pod cast, it is number 27 on the gab cast page for 11/27/07 on the groups account! enjoy!

hw 36 my first pod cast

http://http://www.gabcast.com/index.php?a=episodes&query=&b=play&id=8538&cast=50060&castPage=

My podcast is episode 23 on the group gabcast account! enjoy!

HW 35: Farewell Blogger.com

I am sorry to say this is my last blog I will be posting on blogger.com, in the beginning I was skeptical of blogging however; I have found it being most rewarding especially by using it to post homework assignments. I have learned that it is most important to have good time management in order to keep up to date with my assignments. A timestamp occurs on every blog posted with the date and time of its posting down to the second. Not only can my professor use that to determine how to grade my assignment and its timeliness’ but also that I am up to date with my assignments. With the rare occurrence that I am not, she can determine when I did my back work for her to grade accordingly. I have had to do many assignments and I am required to produce all of them printed in a portfolio at the end of the semester and having them readily available on blogger.com it will make this task easy to complete. For others, I hope that my blogs on the readings I have done in this class will help other people understand the authors when they read the books I blogged on. Not only will they help better understand the authors but an opinion on them as well maybe to help them gain their own. I am most proud of my blogs when we were reading Virginia Woolf, not only am I a big fan of her but I feel that I stood very strong with writing about how to perceive her works. I feel like it was a tribute in a way to her and what she has written and her interests as a woman of her time. To be honest, I am not 100% positive if I will continue to blog because I am no longer required to do so. However, I feel as though I will take advantage of blogger to blog and do the same analyses of books I have yet to read, to keep up the contribution of opinions and summaries for others. I will not delete or cancel my account or any of the posts already posted on it, I feel like that sort of thing is good to look back at to see the growth in my writing and such. Thank all of you have read my blog thus far!

HW 34: Evening Tea

When reading Riverbend’s Baghdad Burning October 9th through 29th I read about the tea tradition in Iraq. The tea is served to the entire family at once while sitting in the living room together, the making of the tea is something that differs however, who the tea is served to and the serving time is not. Tea is served in many ways depending on the family but there is a basic 3-step process that tea is made in Iraq. The water is boiled then tealeaves are added and lastly it is all put in to a different kettle and heated until the leaves rise to the surface of the kettle and allowed to settle again (Riverbend 108-109). Tea is never served by a tea bag, in fact that is considered an insult to Iraqi’s due to their expertise of tea and the way it is served. The drinking of tea together is their family’s way to have conversation and enjoy each other’s company. The conversations they have range from the current political situation of Iraq to what each of their days consisted of, they do this voluntarily and often look forward to their evening tea as a family. This is a custom I am envious of, I feel that it is a time some families may take advantage of and use it for other things where most if not all would benefit from a time such as evening tea to be together and catch up on their lives and events in their area. “Unlike the typical family conversation around the world ‘How was your day dear?’ doesn’t get at typical answer in Iraq. Depending on who is being asked, the answer varies from stories of abductions to hijackings, to demonstrations, to empty gas cylinders and burned out water pumps” (Riverbend 109). This is something needed both information wise and bonding, the time spent making sure they know what is going on and how they feel about it is so vital to their relationship as a family.

Schooling in Baghdad HW 33

I watched "Challenges at a Girl's School in Baghdad" from the Life From Iraqi's to You series from Alive in Baghdad that was shot on 5/21/2007, to watch this yourself go tohttp://aliveinbaghdad.org/2007/05/21/challenges-at-a-girls-school-in-baghdad/. This clip was shot in Al-Safina an all girls middle school in Adhamiya, a place that due to the violence in Iraq is often difficult to get to and attend throughout the year. The school itself is a run down concrete building with chipped paint and is very small compared to the number of students and staff within its gated walls. The girls wear uniforms and their traditional head peices at school and at the beginning of the year there was around 300 students and today their numbers have decreased to about a little over 200 students. The decrease in students is due to the displacement occurring in their areas which forces the students to either not go to school at all or go to a different school, this decreasing the number of girls attending Al-Safina despite how much the girls wish to be there instead. I believe that the point of this video was to drive home the fact that education in Iraq is something that needs improvement. The girls as well as faculty are scared to attend school, scared to travel there and are in fear once they get there due to searches, explosions, shootings and other day-to-day violence they witness. This school is doing the best they can under their current situation and believe that despite the range in experienced teachers they are working with the girls are continuing to improve their grades and their spirits with help of the administrator who spoke in the video. She was very hopeful for the girls in her school as well as her teaching staff; she believes that the “clever” girls will make a difference for their generation. I think that the most memorable part was that when one girl was interviewed she said she was determined and insisted on attending school as much as she possibly could, despite all that is going on around her she is determined to finish school. This shows that there is still a hope for this country, its people and that they are not completely discouraged and are not giving up, this generation of girls interviewed will make a difference in their country. The lesson learned is that despite where you are, what conditions you are under life still goes on and essentials of life such as education still need to happen and there needs to be more action put forth to better the education Iraqi children are receiving.

HW 32: Aqila Al-Hashimi

On Saturday September 27 Aqila Al-Hashimi was buried in the south of Iraq after being murdered by an unknown attacker though there are suspicions as to who was behind it, nothing is official. One of the accused is Al-Chalabi, who was also accused of having apart in the attack on the Jordanian Embassy, however Al-Chalabi rerouted his accusation to Saddam, which Riverbend believes is sort of a cop out. Al-Hashimi was said to be made an ambassadress to the Un for Iraq, which makes things peculiar now after her death the UN is pulling out its staff to do “security reasons” (Riverbend pages 84-85). Riverbend believes that everytime the UN pulls out its staff something bad is about to happen “…the UN is pulling out…we’re getting bombed” (Riverbend page 85) This is how she generally gauges the political situations in Iraq, if the UN is in its going good, if their out its going badly.