The Gift of Fear

In the middle of his show that aired on September 24, 2009, after playing a clip of schoolchildren celebrating Barack Obama’s being the first black President by singing a song (during Black History Month) to the tune of the Battle Hymn of the Republic that lauded the President’s accomplishments, Glenn Beck encouraged Americans to “listen to the gift of fear: it’s there for a reason.” Wow, thanks for the inspiring words Glenn. I can’t think of a less helpful thing to say to an already terrified public mired in the midst of a recession that, while slowly lessening its grip on the American economy, remains a painful reality for many of those who have already or are about to lose their jobs or houses, not to mention the other things they already fear thanks to the 24/7/365 inundation of information that is omnipresent in today’s society. (more…)

The Fate of Europe: Lisbon and Ireland

There were many things that I noticed as different and new my first day here in Dublin.  The weather, for one, was so different from that of the hot, dry, stifling Central Valley, or that of sunny, sea breeze-swept Santa Barbara. Cars are driven here on the left side of the road, ice tea is nowhere to be found, and I, aged twenty, was able to drink legally. But what struck me the most were the political posters. I soon learned that on October 2nd of this year, Ireland will vote on the Lisbon Treaty for the second time, with massive implications for the future of Ireland, the European Union, and Europe itself. (more…)

An Introduction to ‘Going Dutch’

Hi!

My name is Sarah and I have been living and studying in the town of Maastricht, Netherlands at University College Maastricht for a little over a month now. “Why are you going THERE?” was the question I was asked over and over again by friends and family. How did I end up in this small country that is only an afterthought to most people? Truthfully, that was the first question we all seemed to want to know about each other when I initially met the other UC students on this program. For many of them? Certainly the idea of the “legality” of certain drugs. For myself? Not so much. The simplest answer is that I wanted to study in a country where I could enroll in an immersion program in a local university, but have everything be taught in English. You might be surprised, but those requirements seriously limit one’s options. I had always heard amazing things about the Netherlands, but nothing too specific, maybe because I have also heard that Dutch culture is hard to pinpoint. Armed with only this knowledge before coming here, you can imagine that I was a little nervous and had absolutely no idea what to expect. My goal by the time I return home in December? Be able to better explain what being Dutch is all about. (more…)

The Music Video

Long story short, I have a friend who works at a radio station where she met a Ghanaian guy who has connections to the relatively famous Ghanaian hiplife group called 4×4. I had heard of these connections through the grapevine but didn’t think too much about it until my friend asked me, “Hey, so do you want to be in a music video?”

To which I responded soundly, “Hell yes, I want to be in a music video!” (more…)

Pleasant Greetings From the Emerald Isle

Hey everyone!  This is my first installment in my travel-log-blog about my year-long stay in Ireland.  In the last week, I’ve traveled from Dublin to Dundalk to Carlingford to Knowth and New Grange and back to Dublin, and it has been one amazing journey.

First off, Ireland’s nickname “the Emerald Isle” is not without merit—everything is green!  Coming from dry, drought-stricken central California, where the landscape is not but the gold of dry (and flammable) grasses and the brown of bare soils, the view from the plane was incredibly striking-nothing but the different shades of green in the fields and forests, and the occasional dark brown of moist, peaty soil.  Here, where there is both adequate rain and adequate sun, any seed that lands in even the slightest bit of soil can grow and bloom, be it in the ground, the cracks in the pavement, in gutters, or even up on chimneys!  Plant life abounds in Ireland, whereas in California, save for the irrigated gardens and lawns and groves, everything is brown and dead until the first rains of winter. (more…)

Weekly Health Blog Returns: My Thoughts on Facebook

The social media hype: Facebook, YouTube and Twitter (what’s that?) are going to change how we communicate, get news, and live. Okay, sure. But remember you weren’t born with a Facebook profile.  Real life, with all its joy and pain, is happening right now. Your human connections and this moment are more important than your status updates (this 3 minute “Antisocial phone tricks” clip makes it clear). (more…)

Abroad On a Budget

Before my arrival, I heard through the grapevine that Copenhagen is one of the most expensive cities in the world. All the international students are baffled about the prices. At first, it took a lot of time for me to adjust from US dollars to Danish Kroners; my wallet is heavy from ores—1,2,5,10,20 Danish Kroner come in coin form—and (hating math) I find myself dividing everything by 5 to convert it to US dollars. In the beginning, I came with the mindset that everything will be pricey, but after a few weeks I’ve come to the conclusion that it really depends on what you are buying. Many things are actually only $1-2 dollars more expensive. I still have not found coupons yet (or ways to pay less than 320 DKK for a monthly 2-zoner Metropass without sneaking around the pass-checkers), but I just want to share a few tips of eating cheaper here, now that I have some knowledge about living cheap. (more…)

The Faith to Persevere

A few days ago, my fellow Daily Nexus political blogger Audrey wrote a piece detailing the “disinformation” that she believed Obama was spreading about health care reform. After reading her post, and feeling entirely unmoved vaguely interested, I knew that my terrible impulse control would, per usual, betray me and before I realized it, my fingers were already flying. While I will not deny that I left a somewhat snarky comment, her response to my comment bewildered me. She wrote, sarcastically of course, that next time she wrote a post she would not, and I quote, “back up [her] statements with so many facts; it might send the left into a tailspin.” While I would not exactly call my five sentence, one paragraph response a “tailspin,” it was her sheer confidence in her beliefs and unquestioning loyalty to her party’s line that really blew me away, not her attempt to hurt my feelings by referring me to the dictionary. (more…)

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