rebeca'sblogcomp1

For this assigment we were asked to rant, rove, moan, and complain aout something that really annoys us. In my case I get annoy on how students that are around my age have a low self estime and they give in to bullying or just doing stuff just because they want to be accepted. Back in Mexico I used to hear about bullying and things like that, you did not heard them as much as I did when I got to America. Maybe I'm just 18 and certain people think that I do not what I'm talking about, that why would people would actually listen to me because I'm still young, but about this topic I know what I am talking about. I know a lot of people at FGCU that do things that they do not really want or that they would not normally do because that is what is now normal in our society, but that doesn't mean is what is correct. In my opinion sometimes this is because students have a low self-esteem or just do not know who they are. Ok, so now I'm talking about knowing "youself" and you may ask, if I'm complaining about people low self-esteem and not knowing who they are then in that case I must know who Iam. I just turned 18 but I am 90% sure of who I am, and I know my values. I know what it is that makes myself me. I know my strengths and weaknesses, what I want for my future and how I'm gonna get it. When I talked to friends that are americans or that at least studied in america for the last 3 years, they have no clue of who they are or what they want to do with their lifes. Do not get me wrong not everybody in America is like that, in the last months I have met really amazing people that are actually really inspiring and actually make me want to be a better person or just to give the world another chance and be happy that my generation is not completely lost. However I have also been dissapointed of the number of students that are not like that, especially in college where they feel free to do what they want. For example, alcohol. In Mexico it is common to see students getting drunk or just drinking but it is not as big of a deal as it is in America, mainly because alcohol is at reach at a low age limit. I'm not saying this is the solution because it actually can be dangerous if you do it without control. Another example can be how sometimes people think that they are not valuable enough, so they rather being in abusive relationships than actually defend themselves and look for something better, I'm not talking only about boyfriend-girlfriend relationships but also friendships. If you feel akward in a scene with friends then maybe is not for you, or maybe they are not your type of friends. Sometimes some people change themeselves just to be more accepted and have more friends, but it is better to have a few friends that actually like you for who you are than a lot of people that like something that you are not. Besides is more likely that more people will like you if you are yourself, some people can know when someone is being fake, plus you would be more happier. I'm not saying that those people are bad because they aren't, they just dont know themselves and I don't blame them, it is really hard to find out who you actually are especially in this era. For years when my mom asked me who was I, I couldn't anwser. I know my name, I know how tall I am, my favorite color, my favorite drink, meal, my kind of music, but I really didn't know what I wanted out of life, what made me different from all the people that also listen to different kinds of music, I didn't know what makes me unique. Is not something that happens from one day to another. It takes time, but it is definetely worth it because when you finally found yourself, you learn to appreciate life, the oportunities that were presented to you, the happy moments, and even the times the situations that were so difficult that it made you cry. This blog entry was supposed to give me ideas and inspired me to write my essay 3. Mission acomplished, I'm ready for my essay which it has to include a solution, which after writing all, I discovered.

Carbon footprint is the calculation of how many tons of carbon dioxide a person is realising to atmosphere. In a few words, how much are you contributing to the green house effect that causes global warming. Measuring your carbon footprint relates to sustainability because once you know how much carbon you are actually realeasing, you would try to change it. You can think you are not contaminating because you are not littering, but you are not doing anything either to helpe the world. However contaminating not only covers littering, but it aswell covers using too much hot water, not having energy efficient ligth bulbs or electronic items in general, and even eating a lot of red meats.
In my case I do not really eat red meat (chicken is meat but not read) or use a car actually I rather walk than use the bus, but I do use an airplane a lot and i don't really recycle that much. My carbon footprint is 17 tons of CO2, which is below of the national average which is 27, but it isnt good either. What I could do to reduce my carbon footprint is to have a reciclying bin in my dorm and make sure my roomates recicle too. I cannot stop using the airplane because I need to go home, but I can do little things like having short showers and put the termostate to a temperature that is close to the one outside so the air conditioner doesnt have to use more energy. It was really shocking because I thougth that I was not contaminating but I found out that I am, now I will have to work on reducing my carbon footprint.

Last class we had a tutorial at the library that was called "the search for the skunk ape". I found the tutorial very helpful because I actually had no idea how to use the library website. The libraries in Mexico are not good at all so if I needed information it is easier to just pull it out of the internet so it was really refreshing that I could find that much information without actually have to go to the library.
The three things I did not know that I learned in the tutorial was first, how to distinguish reliable sources to the ones that are not accurates; second, I learned how to find good sources with a lot of information that culd be helpful to write a paper; third, I learned the diference between paraphrasing and quoting which I found very important, since English is not my first language I found this tutorial helpful because it helps me to improve my writing.

For the third assigment we were asked to go outside to place familiar or unfamiliar and just look at it and basically enjoy it. Because for some reason I have been very busy, I decided to go to the chiki hut between R and Q before I had to go to a meeting. When I first moved to my building I didn't really like it, but today when I was in the chiki hut I actually discover that we have a nice view from there.
In the big picture I saw the main chiki hut, the waterfront, people getting tan or reading (as usual), palm trees, the north lake housing buildings, grass, flowers, cars, and very far away you could see the stadium ligths. In the other side of the lake you can see nice houses and a bridge; in the lake they were some boats and some people in kayaks. It was very relaxing, you could hear the grass being cut, the sound of the palm trees being moved by the wind, and my favorite sound, the sound of the waves crashing, which was interrupted by the sound of the shuttle passing through north lake.
Then I decided to analize the place I was in, not only what I could see from there. The chiki hut I was in was nice, but you could feel and taste the sand, there were trash cans and a french dude was doing his homework (I guess). I was about to finish with it when I saw a paper cup floating in the water.
I decided to focus on the nice houses because that was close enough for me to see it. Every house had a pool that was outside but it had a roof, they had white sand, and each house had a small pier so they can park their nice boat, but what I thougth was interesting that was there was no people, it looked desert. Then I realized I was taking too long and that I had to leave fr my meeting, so I had to leave. :)

My name is Rebeca Olivera and I'm an International student from Campeche, Mexico. I love music, I love movies, and I like watching soccer, because I'm not good at it. This is my first year at FGCU but it is my third time studying abroad. I studied for a few weeks in Truro, Nova Scotia, in Canada with 17 of my friends; it was really fun and I started to gain confidence to talk in English. Then my junior year of high school I studied in Stone Mountain GA, which is like 30 or 45 minutes away from Atlanta and althougth the experience was completely different than I had imagine, I learned a lot; it change my attitude towards life. I'm majoring in environmental engineering, and the main reason I'm doing that is because I want to help the people in my hometown. In my state we have a lot natural beuties that we could take advantage from to generate jobs but no one is doing anything about it, they just destroy nature and use the money to make the rich people even richer. Even thougth Environmental Engineering wasn't my first option I decided to choose that career because I think I know how to take advantage of that career. So instead of being the one that sits in their job and think only about me and ignore all the problems that my country is going trhough I decided I want to help. I see FGCU as a great opportunity because maybe in the US FGCU is not one of the best schools but in Mexico studying in another country is the best thing you can choose from, and not everybody gets that option. All my friends back at home are asking why would I want to go back and live in Campeche... well I think is my responsability as a mexican to go back and help. But is just the way I think, I preffer to be proactive that just complain about everything if I have the choice to change it. :)