My Event Story

On April 29^th, 2015, Wednesday from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. I went to one of the school event at Avila University. It is “Free neck and back massage”. This event is one of the stress relief week’s event. This event was sponsored by Wellness, GAP, Student Senate & RHA at Marian Center Lounge. There were 6 licensed massage therapists, and it took about 15 minutes for 1 person. Actually cycle was so fast in a good way, so most of the students did not need to wait for the massage for long time. I personally wanted to go to this event so bad, because I seriously needed the massage. I was having a serious headache and the cause was coming from neck and shoulder. So when I see the posters for this event, I decided to join for sure!

When I went there, I interviewed some people who were waiting for massage and people who was just done from the massage. The first person I interviewed with is Emily James, nursing major at Avila University. I asked her, “What do you think about this event?” She said, “Having neck and back massage for stress relief week, I think this is really great event and it really helps. This massage is relaxing and very calm, I think everyone needs to take a break, and refresh the wrong head. That’s great.”

The next person I interviewed is Yesenia Beltran, Junior, Nursing major. I asked her, “What do you think of the massage?” She said, “I think students stress relief week is really nice, and it helps you relax. I got a massage and it was super nice, so I recommend it.”

I interviewed Haley Baer next. She is also nursing major at Avila University. I asked “What do you think of this event?” She answered, “I think these massages are great, because it reliefs all the tensions you built up and stressful finals, and it’s just a good twenty-minute break."

The last person I interviewed at the event is Conner Hetzler, theatre major and dance miner. I asked her, “How did you know this event?” She answered, “I’ve seen it on posters, and I got an email about it. And I definitely wanted to get here because I need it.” Then I asked her, “Do you want this event more often?” She said, “Yes, I think definitely they should keep this around. Actually this is really good stress relief, and I think line moves fast so it’s really helpful.”

As you can see, obviously this event helps students to relief stress. After getting massage, I felt so much better and refreshed. This is final week, and everyone has stressed. So it is very nice to join like this event and relax. Also it helps get organized for coming final exams!

My Beat Story

When I thought of my “beat”, one of my very good friends came across my mind. His name is Ali Alshagrawi. He is from Saudi Arabia, and sophomore in Avila University. His major is Advertising and Public Relations. I met him almost two years ago when he transferred to Avila University from Canada. I chose him to be my “beat” because he is such a unique person. He always make people laugh and also he has a great leadership. When we hang out with friends, he is the one who make plans and let people know about the event. I was very interested in his roots and how he became the person who he is right now, so I decided to interview him first.

Ali Alshagrawi

I asked him to introduce himself. He answered, “My name is Ali Alshagrawi, 26 years old. I grew up in Saudi Arabia. I worked twice in my life in a company called Samrif, and I used to work there as an operation man for 2 years after my high school graduation. I’m a simple person, and I like to be kind, happy, and I love my family.” And secondly, I asked him how come he decided to come to the United States. He said, “I wanted to be an educated person. Then I heard about education in the United States is great, so I made some researches, and I heard from agent that I could come to Avila University. I also heard from my friend that Avila University is a great school. This is how I decided to come to the United States.” I asked him about his personality next. I asked, “Were you a happy person all the time like now when you were a child as well?” He said, “Yes. I was active and I loved playing with friends a lot.” I asked him, “Is there any advice you got from your parents for living your life?” He answered, “My parents advised me to be a good person, and be so kind and good with people. And also work hard to achieve my goals and to have a good future.” 

Ali and his best friend Zeyad Alammar

After interviewing Ali, I decided to talk to one of Ali’s best friend in Kansas City, Zeyad Alammar. He is a student at Avila University also, and majoring Computer Science. I asked him how he met Ali for the first time. He answered, “I met Ali like two years ago. He and I were taking a same class together. We have so much in common, so we became close to each other naturally.” Then I asked him, “What is Ali’s personality like to you?” He said, “Well, Ali is a very respectful person, but at the same time, he is so funny. I just like to chill with him.”

Next person I interview with is Salman Alghamdi, Radiologic Science major. He is also an Avila student and one of Ali’s closest friends. I asked him, “How did you meet Ali for the first time?” He said, “It’s been like a year for now. We were at my friend’s house, and then I met him. We hang out together for 2 weeks or something like that, and we became close to each other. Then I asked him, “What is Ali’s personality like to you?” He answered, “He is funny and so active, and whenever I need him, he just helps me. And he is like the closest friend, and he is a good guy.” 

Ali's best friend, Salman Alghamdi

My Profile Story

This time, I decided to interview three people who have different races. All three people are students at Avila University. The first person I interviewed is Gabriella Garcia, 20-year-old nursing major. I asked her first “What is your greatest fear?” She said, “My greatest fear would probably be ending up alone. Like without family or without a husband or without parents. Sometimes I think about it because people are focused on their careers and they don’t have time for anybody else like other people in their lives. So that is my greatest fear.” Then I asked her, “Which words or phrases do you most overuse?” She answered, “I definitely say ‘bro’ too much, ‘dude’ too much. I say it to everybody even to my professors. But I do say it to my friends a lot. Even to my parents sometimes and they don’t like that.” And she laughed it out. I asked next question, “Which talent would you most like to have?” She answered, “OMG. I would definitely love to be a performer, so singing and dancing. I feel like music is so important and it gives you so much freedom. I wish I had the talent to be able to do the right music.” I asked her, “Is there any person that you would like to be?” She answered, “I think about Alicia Keys or Beyoncé. They are so beautiful, so talented, and so smart. I mean I admire them.” I asked her favorite music next. She said, “My favorite kind of music is rap and R&B, and Drake is my favorite rapper.” Then I asked her, “What is your favorite food?” She said, “Hmm… My favorite food… well, anything my mom cooks is good. But I really really enjoy eating tostadas. Tostadas are my favorite.” During this interview, she was wearing her favorite t-shit, so I asked her why it is her favorite one. She said, “V-neck shirts are my favorite. Because it’s so comfy and you can dress them up and dress them down, and you can wear them with a lot of things.”

Next person I interviewed is Salman Bin Rawyah, 25-year-old, and he is studying Software Engineering. First, I asked him, “What is your greatest fear?”  He said, “I think my greatest fear is losing someone I love so much and I got to spend time with… This is my greatest fear.” Then I asked him, “Who is your greatest love of your life?” He answered, “I think my greatest love of my life is my mom because she is always there for me, and gives me the best advice, and she cares about me more than anybody else. So I’m sure that my mom is my greatest love of my life.” I asked the final question to him, “Where would you like to live after the graduation?” He said, “I’m not really sure. But there’s possibility to go back to my country and have career, and get married.”

Last person I interviewed is Djoudy Saint Paul. His major is Psychology/Pre-health. He is a good friend of mine. I have never taken same classes with him, however, we became really good friends. He always hangs out around Eagle’s Nest, and when I go there, I sit with him and talk about what is going on in my life and his life. He is graduating from Avila University after this spring semester. I asked him some of the 35 Proust Questions first. “What is your idea of perfect happiness?” He said, “Yeah, my idea of perfect happiness is peace. If someone has peace, then they will be happy. Without peace, there is no happiness.” And I asked him, “If you could change on thing of yourself, what would it be?” He answered, “That would be actually telling people the truth. I tell people the truths whatever it is, and they get upset. Because sometimes the truth hurts.” Then I asked, “What is your favorite apps?” He said, “My favorite app is Facebook. Because I can post anything. And also, ‘Candy crush’. When I’m bored, I play with it, but I’m so bad at it. Yeah that’s it.” And finally I asked him, “Why is that your favorite t-shirt?” He answered, “Because this is very comfortable, and this is my favorite color which is green. This was only t-shirt that I found with green and white stripes, and I really like it.” He also mentioned that this was the second time for him to wear that t-shirt. Because he doesn’t like to wear his favorite t-shirt a lot. He likes to keep it in the closet, and keep it clean.

It was fun to interview my friends, because I could get to know some stuff about them that I didn’t know before. They have their stories behind of the favorite things, and I enjoyed listening to them.

Me with Salman!

Joudy has some musical talent!

Having a good time with Gabby!

Favorite T-shirt

I interviewed 5 people in camous and asked them why they were wearing the t-shirts.

Rhda Alsharif, Software Engineering major

I’m not sure why I’m wearing this t-shirt, but maybe this is my favorite. And I wore this t-shirt 2 weeks ago.

Gabriella Garcia, Nursing major

I’m wearing this t-shirt because pink is my favorite color. And I match this with sandals. It’s chilly outside, so chose this long sleeves.

Kathleen Shreds, Business Management major

I’m wearing it because I had a presentation earlier today, so I wanted look nice!

Ricki Dunigan, Marketing major

This is Kansa City Royals t-shirt. It’s not my favorite, but I like it.

Dahkeel Al-Driweesh, Computer Science major

I wore it because I like this color and design, and I wanted to share this feeling.

Does Race Matter?

Does race matter? This is a very important question for the United States because there are many races live together in this country.  From Introduction to Journalism class, I went to have race experience at Avila University on February 18th. There was the photo machine called “Race Experience Kiosk”. According to Kiosk website, Over 300 colleges, universities, corporations and government agencies in the US and Canada have used race morphing as part of their diversity and inclusion programming. The Race Experience Kiosk helps us to have new ideas and perspectives about racism and identity. By using the Race Experience Kiosk, we can reach two learning outcomes. The first one is that users of the Race Kiosk will be able to reflect on the factors in our society that perpetuate racism and discrimination. The second one is that users of the race kiosk will be able to consider the value of diversity in our society. I also tried the Race Experience Kiosk, and it was easy to use. You need to answer 3 questions about racism then take a picture. Kiosk will change your face to Asian, White, Black, Indian, Arabian, Latino faces automatically. By experiencing and seeing your own face in different races and skin colors, it would make it easier to understand of different races than your own.

Some people say “Race matters”. However, I strongly believe that race should not matter. Simply we are equal. Look at Avila Campus. We have students who have many different kinds of races, and international students. We all should be treated equally. Because we were born on the same earth. I am not talking about only skin colors. Also LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) should be treated equally. We had no choice how we were born. I am an Asian girl, but I did not choose to be Asian. Please don’t get me wrong, I am proud to be Asian and I am happy with that. Even though I am happy with that, I did not have choice. Nobody had a choice. So why does race matter? Discrimination happens from blindness. Last semester, I was taking philosophy class, and we talked about discrimination. Most of the classmates said, they have discriminated someone in their life. My friend, Asian girl was discriminated once in the dorm. She told me that she was so disappointed and cried I her room at that night. My Arabic friend was discriminated at the airport. Securities took longer time than white people to check his stuff. And he also was screamed at by a stranger when he was in New York City. The stranger basically said something bad about Arabic people. I saw one time by my eyes when discrimination happened. I went to Disneyland with friends, one of them was an Arabic guy. And when we were waiting for an attraction, a white woman stared at him in weird way, and she move her child to not make him close to her child. That was really ridiculous and shameful. It is very sad, but we can see that clearly race still matters.

I strongly wish someday racism, discrimination, and stereotype become things of the past. This things are made by ignorance. In order to not make people racist, we need to have an education about race more. In the United States, we still have a lot of affairs over racism especially between Black people and White people. And actually, I started thinking of racism more since I came to the United States. In Japan which is my country, most of citizens have yellow skin like me. And even if there is other races, I don’t think it is a bad thing at all. Besides I think it is a great thing to be different than others. I feel especially in the United States, there are racism problems. And this is something we need to fix. 

Me as a White girl

Is it ever OK to cheat?

In my opinion, it is a big NO. Personally, I hate cheating so much for some reasons.

First of all, cheating is not fair to you. When you cheat, you are cheating yourself. This is so true. If you are honest and don't cheat at all, you would be a better person and would gain knowledge. However, if you cheat, you won't get nothing but fake prize or whatever. 

Second of all, cheating could destroy trust. If you cheated on exam or quiz and a professor found out about it, the professor wouldn't believe and trust you anymore. Besides you would get in a big trouble and it might ruin your life. 

Finally, you won't be proud of cheating. You would be so proud of yourself if you achieved something by yourself, however, if you cheated or got help by others, you wouldn't be proud if yourself.

Cheating hurts my heart. cheating means lie to myself and people. Even if I could cheat on someone well, I know the truth and it would hurt. I simply want to be an honest person to myself and others. This is why cheating is not OK.

The 87th Academy Awards

The last big entertainment event in February is 87th Academy Awards. It was on February 22nd, last Sunday at Dolby theatre. Academy Awards is the biggest awards for movies and has long history. In this year, the Oscars was presided over by one and only Neil Patrick Harris. In the opening of the Oscars, he sang a song and threw back to the history of movies with pictures. Anna Kendrick also joined him with the costume of Cinderella which she played in the movie “Into the Woods”. In addition, Jack Black joined them from the audience. Neil Patrick Harris successfully made the audience surprised and have fun.

The movie “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)” won Best Picture, Cinematography, Writing, and Directing. The film director Alejandro G. Iñárritu had never won any Oscars before, so this means he got 3 Oscars at one time. There is another film that won from 4 categories like Birdman. It’s “The Grand Budapest Hotel”. This film won Costume Design, Music, Makeup and Hairstyling, and Production Design. The most surprising thing from the Oscars was probably that Eddie Redmayne from the movie “The Theory of Everything” won Best Actor. Most of people thought Michael Keaton from the movie “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)” would win this, and Michael Keaton self thought he would win too. We can see that he was prepared to give speech with the transcript. Patricia Arquette won Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. On the stage, she gave the audience speech about women rights. Meryl Streep agreed with what she said and applauded. 

The Academy Awards is also about music that is related to the movies. Lady Gaga sang songs from a movie “The Sound of Music”. “It was “new” Lady Gaga.” Ali Alshagrawi, a student at Avila University said. “I had never seen Lady Gaga singing like this before. I have seen her wearing colorful cloths and crazy performances. But this time she seemed very classy and I really liked and enjoyed it,” he said. John Legend and Common also sang “Glory” which is featured on the soundtrack for the movie "Selma". They also won an Oscar for Music –Original song- with “Glory”. On the stage, they remarked about slavery, incarceration are true.

In conclusion, the academy awards was successful. And people well enjoyed watching Oscars. People who won the Oscars deserve them. College students watch movies a lot in their spare time, so the Academy Awards was related to college students more than other entertainment events. 

My Five Favorite Presidents

These are my five favorite presidents, and reasons why I chose!

1. Abraham Lincoln
He is credited with the emancipation of the slaves. This is very important.

2. Barack Obama
He is the first African American president and he did great things for the U.S. and he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

3. John F Kennedy
He did his best to protect human rights for African Americans. For example, he put army in action to let a black girl go to school that was for white people. He tried to protect her civil rights.

4. George Washington
The first president of the United States, and he laid the foundation for America.

5. Thomas Jefferson
In 1776, he drew up America Declaration of Independence.

What I'd buy with a $50 iTunes Gift Card?

So what would I buy if I had a $50 iTunes Gift Card?

I would buy 
1. Katy Perry's album "PRISM" $11.99
2. Ariana Grande's album "My Everything (Deluxe)" $12.99
3. Sam Smith's album "In the Lonely Hour (Deluxe)" $13.99
4. Beyonce's album "BEYONCE (more only)" $8.99

The total is going to be $47.96

NBA All-Star Game

February 15th, 2015. It is time for NBA All-Star Game! NBA All-Star Game is a special annual game. Eastern Conference and Western Conference play against one another. Players and head coaches are chosen in fan balloting. Since NBA All-Star game started for the first time in 1951, it became an annual event. Every year, it is held on one weekend, so it is called “NBA All-Star Weekend”. Usually on Friday, there is Rising Stars Challenge, on Saturday, there are Slam dunk Contest and Three-Point Contest, and on Sunday, finally there is NBA All-Star Game. As a result, West All-Stars won the game against East All-Stars with score 163-158. From West All-Stars, Russell Westbrook got MVP this year.

The game itself is important, but there is other important thing too. The half time show. As I mentioned about Katy Perry’s half time show for Super Bowl, it seems like for big sports games’ half time shows are common and popular to people. This time, Ariana Grande was chosen to sing during the half time show. She sang “Problem”, “Love You Harder”, “The Way”, and her ballad “One Last Time”, and “Bang Bang” with Nicki Minaj. Finally she closed with “Break Free”. Most of people might be watching NBA All-Star Game for watching a basketball game of course. However, half time shows attract attention, and give the singers status.

I interviewed some international students about NBA All-Stars Game this year. Zeyad Al-ammar from Saudi Arabia, Computer Science majoring at Avila University, told me that he had no idea what the NBA All-Star Game is. When I explained to him what NBA All-Star Game is, he told me that he is not interested in basketball at all. Because in Saudi Arabia, soccer is the most common sport. I asked other international student if she watched the game or not. Uyen Dang from Vietnam told me that she did not watch it. I asked her if she even knew that there was NBA All-Star Game last Sunday, and she said “no”. She told me she is not a big fan of American Sports. Other international students told me the same thing. They didn’t watch the game.

As a result, it seems like international students are not into NBA All-Star Game after all. Some of them did not even know what NBA All-Star Game is. They grew up in other countries and they might not had the opportunity to watch NBA All-Star Game before, so it would not be important for them. Everyone has opinions for themselves and we should respect that.

This weekend, there is Academy Award. Let’s see what is going to happen!

The 57th Grammy Awards

The second big event in February is here! The 57^th Grammy Awards 2015 was on 8^th February, 2015 at Staples Center in Los Angeles. The Grammy Awards is the most important music award in the entire world, and obviously it has a long history. Every year, the Grammy Awards is held in February. This is not only about award presentation ceremony. You can also watch performances by successful singers and interviews on red carpet. This is not only about music. Sounds like there’s a lot of entertainment in the Grammys. 

Lots of things happen in the Grammys, however, Sam Smith definitely got attention the most. He got four Grammys which were Song of the Year, Record of the Year, Best New Artist, and Best Pop Vocal Album. This is crazy and amazing! He was an unknown British singer just one year ago. Who imagined he would be such a successful singer like this? 

The other person who got attention was Sia. She is a great singer and her songs have strong messages. However, this time she got attention not because of her song, because of her outfit (or should I say her big wig?). She hates social media so she didn’t to want to take it off. Even during performing “Chandelier”, she didn’t look at the camera at all. Unfortunately, she didn’t get any Grammys this year.

Clearly the Grammys gathered momentum at the popular level, but what about for college students? I asked Katie Bryant, nursing major at Avila University if she watched the Grammys or not. She said, no. She had to work at that time. I also asked others but they gave me the same answer. College students listen to music a lot, and they grew up with iPod or other music devices and players, so music would have been closer to them than the parents’ generation. However, not a lot of college students didn’t watch the Grammys. It is not that important to them. And they have some stuff to do more than watching the Grammys, for example, taking assignment, working for tuition, and hanging out with friends or not interested. Even if missed the show, you can watch it anytime on YouTube if you want. This useful stuff make students think they don’t need to watch it on time. 

Even though it was a big event for the world, it wasn’t for most of the students. They are busy and got lots of things to do and not interested. Last week’s Super bowl was successful. Of course the Grammys was successful too. However, Super Bowl got more attentions from students more than the Grammys did. Maybe it is because the Grammys is not related to students well. Super Bowl is definitely related to students. There is a football team in Avila University, and Football is the most popular sport in the U.S. This weekend is going to be NBA all-star game. Let’s see how the students will react!

Super Bowl Night

Every year, this season is very important to football fans. February 1^st, 2015, Super Bowl was took place at University of Phoenix Stadium. Super Bowl is a football game played each year to determine the championship of National Football League. This year, the two teams that played were New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks. Super Bowl is a foot bowl game…. Is it? Of course main event is determining the championship, however, there are also important things are going on during the Super Bowl game.

 A lot of people are watching Super Bowl. Are they all football fans? I asked some of my friends and most of them enjoyed the half time show by Katy Perry more than the football game. Nursing major at Avila University, Gabriela Garcia told me she enjoyed Katy Perry’s show. “Her outfit was so cute and I was glad to listen Firework which is my favorite song.”  Singing in the half time show is important to singers, it means the singers are acknowledge. Viewer rate of the half time show this year reached a record-high. Katy Perry showed up with a huge gold tiger and sang Roar. Even if you really don’t like Katy Perry, you must have been impressed by her performance. She was riding the elephant, and dancing with sharks, everything was terrific. Perry’s half time show mast reminded you that the half time show is the one of the most important things in Super Bowl, and a lot of people are looking forward to it.

Other entertainments were commercials from sponsors. Usually, commercials and advertisings are annoying when you are watching a TV. However, commercials and advertisings during Super Bowl were totally different. Sponsors prepared Special commercials only for the Super Bowl night. It costs tons of money, but it’s worth it. Millions and millions people are watching Super Bowl, which means it would be a great opportunity to appeal the company or merchandises. Besides, some people watch Super Bowl to see these special commercials. Joudy Maestro, Philosophy major at Avila University told me that he personally enjoys the advertisings during the game because he can watch different commercials than always and it is interesting. For example, in a commercial for Victoria’s secret, models were wearing football’s uniform. And they gave us the sentence, “Don’t drop the ball” in the end of the commercial. The companies are trying to make us remember and give us strong impressions from the commercials.

Most importantly, New England Patriots got the championship, and Tom Brady, QB, Patriots got MVP. This is big deal for them because they had been training for getting the championship and MVP. Super Bowl is not just a simple football game. A lot of people and businesses are involved. Singing during the half time must have been big deal for Katy Perry.

Also it must have been big deal for sponsors. For everyone, it was a big deal day. Let’s look forward to what is going to happen next year. It must will be big deal for someone else.

The Presidents' State of the Union Speech impacts

After watching the Presidents’ State of the Union Speech, I found it is really important to listen to the president of the United States because Japanese economy is strongly connected to the United States. The first issue that I felt important was about community college. I thought the president made a good point. There are many people who would like to get education to get a better job. However, in order to get a better job, they need to have a better education. Therefore, he declare the new plan that lower the cost for community college. I like this idea because if more people get educated, future of the United States will be brighter and more wealth. Second issue that I felt important was when he talked about the difference between people. “We are the people who see our differences as a great gift,” he said. I like this quotes a lot. Maybe it is because one of my best friends is transgender, and obviously different from majority of people. If we all could see differences as a gift, I think the world would be a better place. Third issue that I felt important was when he mentioned about ISIS. Now, two Japanese people are in hostage. They are demanding money for ransom. In my opinion, it is very important to build a world that does not yield to terrorism, and in order to make like that world, the United States’ actions will be important.

After listening to the speech, I interviewed three friends of mine. First person I interviewed is Ali Alshagrawi, an Advertising & Public Relations major student. He thought the speech was good, and the issue he felt important most was about community college.

Second person I interviewed is Joudy Maestro, a Philosophy major student. He thought he was the greatest speaker ever. He just know what to say, and he care about American citizens. I can see a future in America, if the next presidents doing the work he began, there will be a change. He likes the humor he incorporated in the speech.

Third person I interviewed is Salman Mohammed, a Computer Science major student. He said “the speech was great, and I was amazed by how he talked in there. He did not even look at any paper while he was talking, and looking into people’s eyes. I could learn how to talk in public place from the speech well.”

My "1.14.15" Story

Hello there.

Since this is the first time for me to blog, please let me introduce myself to you real quick. I’m Hanae, and everyone calls me Hannah. I’m 23 years old and from Osaka, Japan. I love watching YouTube. I always watch makeup tutorials.
My hobby is dancing classical ballet and collecting cosmetics.
I am so excited to start blogging!

January 14^th, 2015.  

Today is the first day for this spring semester. I always get nervous on the first day of anything, so I was a little nervous but also excited too. I only had a one class which was Introduction to Journalism at 12:30. After attending the class, I went to eat sushi with one of my friends. Sushi is my favorite food. Sushi in the United States is different from Japanese one, however, I love them both very much. The United States’ one usually have sweet spicy sauce and mayonnaise on sushi. On another front, Japanese sushi doesn’t have any sauce on sushi, only soy sauce. Since I’m in the U.S. right now, I order the typical American sushi, and it tasted amazing.

 



After eating sushi, we went to an Arabic store to find my favorite tea.

This is Ceylon tea from Sri Lanka, and I like to drink it with sugar and hot milk. I usually drink this tea before going to sleep to make body warm and relaxed.

 

Finally it is time to go to Walmart. I don’t know why but I love coming to Walmart even though I have nothing to buy. Just watching groceries and cosmetics makes me excited. For today, I went there to buy some stuff for my hair.

They are hair spray and heat tamer which protects hair from the heat. I have curling iron but I didn’t have them, so I needed to get them. I tried them to see how they work with my hair and shoot the video of it.