The Weeping Camel

I was very impressed with this movie we watched in glass. It was the first time I had ever taken a look into a culture didnt then the one we live in. The importance of the camel in these peoples lives is more important then almost any posesion that we own. The indepence they give their children also opened my eyes to a way of raising your children. Also when the boy wanted to ask his parents for a TV I thought it was ironic because today all kids do is sit in front of TV.

Can Xue: The child who raised Poisonous Snakes

Cardiac Arteriosclerosis- is a disease affecting the arterial blood vessel. It is an inflammatory response in the walls of arteries. It is commonly referred to as a "hardening" or "furring" of the arteries. It is caused by the formation of multiple plaques within the arteries.
Bungarus Krait- a type of snake found in India and South-East Asia.

Victor Erofeyev: The parakeet

The Name Spiridon- means basket
Babynames.com
Parakeet- One of the various type of parrots. It is medium sized with a long tail.

Antonio Tabucchi: The riddle

Harper's Bazaar- An American fashion magazine which orignated in the UK and was called Harpers & Queen

Hispano Suiza- A spanish automotive and enineering firm known for their cars, engins and weapons before WWII

Field Trip

Kathryn by Silver Gelatin Print. This was a picture of a girl sitting on a toilet. She has a cigarette hanging from her figures and she has a visible attitude about her. Between the clothes she is wearing and the dark makeup around her eyes you can tell she doesn’t care what people think about her. She has a loot about her that no one would not want to mess with.

Hanna by Silver Gelatin Print. This was a picture of a girl sitting in a long, narrow hallway with torn up pictures under neither her. She has a beautiful dress on and you can tell she is into fashion. It was ironic that there were pictures below her.

Henry Thoreau

“Any fool can make a rule and any fool will mind it.” Henry David Thoreau

During the time that Henry David Thoreau wrote his novels was a time when everyone wanted to be a leader and anyone would listen. These people were called transcendentalists. Transcendentalism was an idealistic, philosophical and social movement developed in New England around 1836 in reaction to rationalism. Mostly it taught that divinity pervades all nature and humanity. Henry David Thoreau was on of these central figures. In this quote I feel that he was speaking about what was happening to the people of New England. Everyone wanted to be a leader and everyone was making laws in which lower class citizens followed because they could do nothing else. I think that Thoreau wanted people to think about things in life and realize the rules they were making and why you followed it. When Thoreau went to Walden Pond he got away from the world, culture, rules and regulations.

The Way Home

The love a grandmother has for her children could not be spoken in words. The love for grandchildren is surprisingly greater. You can teach the lesions that years before you taught your own children. They are replicas of your own masterpiece.
My grandson has so many lesions to learn. Electronic devises will not always be a part of his life. For some reason my grandson learned this lesion the hard way. His longing for batteries made him go on an adventure. For once he had to learn, on his own, that he could not get his way.
The attitude of my grandson is one that I do not like. He is disrespectful to elders and uses harmful words. I know that one day he will get over this stage in his life but for now I will let him ride it out. I see the way he treats his mother and I would never have let that happen. I think my grandson growing up with no father is a terrible idea. He does not understand the quality of hierarchy. Because he didn’t have a father to look up to and receive discipline.
I have to let my grandson learn these life lesions on his own. I will always have love for him and do what he want. If he wants Kentucky Chicken, even though I don’t know what it is, I will do anything I could to get it. When he feel from the crazy cow I will always be there to clean his wounds. I feel my grandson has begun to learn the lesions of life. When I found the coco cupcake I knew he began to learn to share. The feeling in my heart grew stronger and stronger when he stepped off the bus and handed me the colorful paper.

Duong Thu Huong: Reflections of Spring

Equanimity- calm state of mind
Hanoi- The capital of Vietnam
Rice wafers- A Sourth-Eastern cuisine that is usually in a wrap

Banana Yoshimoto: Helix

Sashimi- A Japanese food consisting of fresh, raw seafood that is thinly sliced

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2044.html
One flew over the cuccoo's nest- A movie made in 1975 directed by Milos Forman about a man who get patients together to take on Nurse Ratched.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073486/
Prisms- a device used to refract light

Compare, contrast Gorilla, My love and The Glasstower

Both Gorilla, My Love and The Glasstower have many similarities and differences. Both Arenas and Bambara are contempary writers published in The Art of the Story. They write about main characters that show different personalities and characteristics throughout the story. Alfredo shows his other side when all of the characters in his head start to come out. Hazel started as a tomboy and soon became emotional when she find out her uncle was getting married. Arenas grew up in Cuba while Bambara grew up in the United States. Also the language of the story shows many differences. One is very formal while the other is written in a southern draw.

Reinaldo Arenas: The Glass Tower

Cuban Danzon- The official music of Cuba
http://www.arhoolie.com/titles/7032c.shtml

Toni Cade Bambara: Gorilla, My love

Persian Lamb Coat:

"Moonlight Sonata"- One of Beethovens most popular pieces of work.

Julian Barnes: Evermore

bayoneted- A knrife or a dagger that is designated to fit over the muzzle of a rifle.
Parcel- a situation when future events are forecast.
Cabaret Rouge- It is a cemetry started in the Middle Ages made for the Germans in December 1870 and then was taken over by the French in 1915. http://www.webmatters.net/cwgc/cabaret_rouge.htm
Caterpillar Valley- Cemetery
Thistle Dump- Cemetery
Quarry- Cemetery
Blighty Valley- Cemetery
Ulster Tower- Memorial

Love Poem

The First Day
by Christina Rossetti

I wish I could remember the first day,
First hour, first moment of your meeting me;
If bright or dim the season it might be;
Summer or winter for aught I can say.
So, unrecorded did it slip away,
So blind was i to see and to forsee,
So dull to mark the budding of my tree
That would not blossom, yet, for many a May.

If only I could recollect it! Such
A day of days! I let it come and go
As traceless as a thaw of bygone snow.
It seemed to mean so little, meant so much!
If only now I could recall that touch,
First touch of hand in hand! - Did one but know!

I chose this love poem because I feel that the author is really in love. She feels passionally in love with someone who she recently kissed and can not remeber what it felt like. In a way this poem makes me remember crushes from when i was little and they way i felt about those boys. I really liked this poem and the feelings that relate to Valintines Day.
http://www.lovepoetry.com/poems/random_classic2.asp

Nicola Barker: G-String

Canvey Island- A small island of the coast of Essex, England
Aston Martin- A high performance car.http://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.photo.gif
Frock- A middle aged piece of clothing for men and women. It was a wide article of clothing with full sleeves.
David Lee Roth- American rocker who sings, song writes, acts, an author and a radio personal.

Patricia Duncker: Betrayal

Crockery- dishes from which people eat (plates, blowls)
Herrings- A small fish found in shallow water
Giotto's school- Some sort of Catholic school
Vendettas- A fued between 2 different parties with acts of revenge
Tolstoyan- Follows the religious views expressed by Loe Tolstoy
Rota- Means wheel. It could be used for measuring distances.
Conquistador- Refers to a soldier, explorer or adventure. In the terms of the story i think it refers to a resturant.

"Family is a mixed blessing. You're glad to have one, but its also like recieving a life sentence for a crime you didn't commit."
- Richard Pryor
You can not help what family you are born into. There is no game to play before you are born for the better family. Family will be there for you from the day you are born until the day you die. Generation after generation your family will grow and deplete all the time. If you do not like your family or get along this is somthing you will always have to deal with. Family is unstopable.

MFA & Family

"Longevity" by Iizuka Rokansai is a piece of Japanese bamboo art. Like the woven basket I found at the Museum of Fine Arts my family is tightly woven to make a master piece. We are a close nit family that make each other whole. There are different people in my family that is represented by the different pieces of bamboo. These baskets take years of training and lots of time to make. Like the basket my family’s relationship took years or work, trust and loyalty to make it what it is. The different layers of the basket created by precise details represents the generation’s that make up my family. Like this basket my family sticks together while always supporting each other.

Kazuo Ishiguro: A Family Supper

Fugu- A pufferfish that live in salt water. This fish defense themselves by inflating their bodies much larger then themselves and then poisening their predators. The fish contains lethal amounts of poisen in their internal organs.
Kamakura- A city in Japan
Tatami- Mats on a traditional Japanese floor
Chou Enlai- China forign minister
Samurai-military nobility
Kimono- traditional clothing of Japan

A Family supper is the story of a boy going back to his home in Japan to spend time with his father and sister. His mother passes away years before because of consuming a fugu. In the prefous story, The Englishman, My Father, and I, it is mostly about the specific time a young boy spent with his father. Both these storys are about time spent with fathers. They think about their relationships.

In both of these short stories the character thinkgs about theirs fathers and their relationship with their parents when in reality we find out more about the actual character. We find out what they feel about their family and why in certain cases they need more attention.

Nuruddin Farah: My Father, the Englishman, and I

Ogaden- Part of the Somali Region in Ethiopia.
Pygmy- A member of any human group whose male adults grow less then 59in.
Factotum- An old world meaning a servent or a person with many responsiblities.
Eunuch- a castrated man. Usually refers to a special function.

Russell Banks: My Mother's Memoirs, My Father's Lie, and Other True Sstories

" My mother tells me stories about her past, and I don't believe them, I interpret them."

Peyton Place- This 60's soap was the story of a girl names Allison MacKenzie who liked in a small town in New England.
Dan Rather- Anchor for CBS Evening News for 24 years and contributions to 60 minutes during the 80's and 90's.
Sonny Tufts- American Actor during World War II.
Grace Metalious- An american author knows for the novel Peyton Place.