Alitalia Update

Not much new...I just had my Italian oral, so now I'm only down to one final E BASTA! I tried calling Alitalia to see if they knew if they were going on strike for my flight or not earlier today, and they still don't know. They said to call back tomorrow sometime in the morning to find out for sure. So the children don't even know if they're going to carry out their childish plan yet or not. I'd rather know for sure that my flight wasn't going to take off than to be stuck here in limbo waiting to hear word.

Alitalia is on Strike

Great. I'm already stressed out enough with finals, and I find out this morning that Alitalia (along with other Italian-run transportation services) is going on strike. If you didn't already know, I've already had the last leg of my flight cancelled, which resulted in me having five connections. I fly from here to Milan, Milan to London, London to San Francisco, San Francisco to Los Angeles, and Los Angeles to Ontario. Alitalia is the first two legs of that, up until London. So if Alitalia strikes and my flight isn't flying on Friday, that screws up the rest of my flights, possibly resulting in me missing my main flight, from London to San Francisco. I don't even want to begin to think what might happen if that were to occur, with me joining in the thousands of other angry travelers trying to get put on later flights that have only two seats open. Not a pretty picture.

They just had to strike on Friday. Out of all the days that we're here, I just want to go home, and they're not letting me. But we don't know for sure if our particular flights will be canceled or if we'll be lucky and the strike won't go into effect until later in the day.

Fireplaces

A little something I wrote in writing the other day; rather than have it go to waste, I decided to publish it on here (it was the result of an assignment that I didn't understand the question, but luckily I read the question again and I can re-do it now). So here it is:

“There’s something about fires—and specifically fireplaces—that I will always hold dear to my heart; I never knew something so primitive could instill so much joy in me, as it has for millions of people over thousands of years in the past. I’m finding more and more as every subsequent day passes that it seems to be the small things in life that mater the most, and seem to take the pace of life by the reigns just long enough for you to step back and enjoy it for a few seconds.”
I remember parting with the property my parents swore to live on for the rest of their lives, going on a long, solitary, walk covering almost the whole section of property and giving me plenty of time to reflect on my boyhood. I came upon one of my favorite spots on the property, with a hidden view that I discovered when I was eight years old and that remains one of my treasured secrets to the best of my knowledge. I climbed up the tree and simply gazed out over the view for what must have been hours, soaking up every little detail of the natural beauty that surrounded me. I knew that I would be moving to suburbia, with the distance in between my neighbor’s houses going from two miles as the bird flies to two yards at best. But I tried not to let that bother me, as I erased unnecessary thoughts from my memory and started over with a blank slate and recording each and every sensation, not letting an ounce of information escape. And as a result of this, I have one of the most vivid memories of my life, too much information to express through writing, through art, even through a movie—its true and uncompromised expression accessible only to the mind of the boy who wasn’t ready to let go.

A Mighty Wind

"Non altrimenti fatto che d'un vento
impetuoso per li avversi ardori,
che fier la selva e sanz' alcun rattento

li rami schianta, abbatte e porta fori;
dinanzi polveroso va superbo,
e fa fuggir le fiere e li pastori."


"It sounded like a mighty wind, made violent by waves of heat, that strikes the forest and with unchecked force shatters the branches, hurls them away, and, magnificent in its roiling cloud of dust, drives on, putting beast and shepherd to flight."

-Dante's Inferno

Jesi/International Fencing Tournament

Yes, Jesi is in Italy, east of Florence and near the coast. So let me begin with what happened Thursday night.

Andy's birthday was on Friday, so we decided to celebrate it Thursday evening since two of us weren't going to be there on Friday. So dinner that night was very good, at a place near Faces. If you want directions, just let me know. After that, we decided to go to Michael Collins, and that was packed full of people from NYU who happened to be there the same night. When that bar closed, we went over to JJ's for a little while, then I decided to leave. Since I wasn't willing to spend € 15,00 getting myself back home by taxi, I decided to walk it. I hadn't packed for the weekend trip yet, so I was a little nervous. I arrived back on campus roughly around 2am, and packed in about 15 minutes. I went to bed, all set to go for Friday.

My alarm woke up, and me being my usual self I let myself hit the snooze button several times before I actually woke up. When I did, I took a brief shower, and went looking for the pants I had worn the night before to get my wallet and keys out of them. But for some strange reason, they were nowhere to be found--and after about 15 minutes of searching with the help of my roommates, who had been rudely awoken by my searching, they were still lost. Finally, I got the idea to go looking in the room next door to ours (they're frequently in our room, especially after a night of drinking (ooh that sounds bad--don't take it in a sexual way or anything....wow I'll shut up now). And sure enough, one of the "sister" roommates had taken my Levis unintentionally when she apparently picked up her jacket. Now over 15 minutes later than I had anticipated leaving, I had to run to catch the bus. Of course when you're late, there's always more traffic than usual, so the bus got to the train station just 5 minutes before my train was set to depart. Already exhausted and out of breath, I boarded the train as they were blowing the final boarding call whistle.

After changing trains in Foligno, I boarded a Eurostar train bound for Jesi, my final destination. I sat down and began to listen to my iPod, and I looked over and noticed a woman reading a book. I did a double-take, and I said, "Barbara?" she quickly looked up, and then her eyes lit up, and she quickly said "Hi Christopher!" then nudged Jessica, who was asleep at the time, and told her I was sitting next to them. We caught up with what had been happening in our lives since we last saw each other at Prom, then we talked about how things had been going at NYU and Stanford of late. The train arrived at the Jesi station, and I used my Italian skills (yeah right) to get us to the hotel. We checked in, toured around the town a little, and joined the rest of the team for dinner that night.

Saturday: the day I will remember for quite some time. It was my first time seeing a fencing competition, and an international one at that, so I was pretty excited despite the fact that we had to be up and ready by 6:45 in the morning. Jessica fenced and was unfortunately placed into a small pool of fencers (5 instead of six) automatically lowering her standings overall in the tournament. (The rules for fencing and for the tournaments are extremely complicated, so I won't bother to talk about it too much). But in the end, she went up against the person who ended up winning the whole competition during eliminations, and was thus eliminated, as was most of the USA team, during the first tier of eliminations. Only two USA fencers made it to the third tier, the top 16 fencers. Then the number one USA fencer at the tournament was eliminated, and a rookie that has been showing extreme talent recently at the age of 13, made it to the top 8 international fencers. Unfortunately, that's as far as she made it, eventually tying for fifth place overall with another fencer from Belgium (I think). An Italian fencer ended up beating the French fencer, and the day ended over 14 hours after it had began. We were all dead, and we were just spectators the whole day; I can't even begin to imagine what the fencers felt like.

We went for some quick pizza to go from a local place that was recommended by the bellhop of the hotel, and it ended up being pretty good. After that, we called it a night since we were deadbeat tired, and I woke up this morning, got ready, arrived at the train station without a hitch, and got back in Florence around 12 o’clock.

Now, time for work, and time to hunker down until the end of the semester. But I did download a bunch of Christmas songs, so I’ve been listening to those, getting me in the mood of the season and making me anxious to go back home.

Procrastination

I thought it would end after high school, but it only gets worse. Here I am writing this, and I have a two-page essay due the day after tomorrow (with other 6-7 page essays due not too far in the future). And I plan on going down to the gym to work out later tonight. I've had since Thursday night (well, maybe Friday because Thursday nights are always party nights anyways) to do all of my work, and I've decided to wait until after nine on Sunday to start my work. I guess it's really true that I do work better under pressure...but it feels like I'm always pushing the limits. Usually when you feel that way your behavior changes, but procrastination has the opposite effect on you--you end up doing it more and more, seeing how far you can push yourself, always starting to work later and later and challenging yourself more and more. That's what I see it as: my life doesn't have enough challenges in it at the moment, so I have to wait until they build up and then use them all together to fulfill the needs of my extreme version of a Type-A personality that I was born with. So now would probably be a good time to start writing that essay, but I'll probably just let Facebook take up the empty spaces left in the time between now and when I go to bed.

Gratzie Roma, e ciao!

Weird, spontaneous, and random freewriting:

I look outside the window and see pitch black. It’s too early to worry about what time it is, and I have to be at my meeting place at roughly the same time that my train arrives. Not happening.

Two red lights stare back at me from the outskirts of the train station as we are departing, most likely a train being serviced. The wheels grind against the cold steel rails and vibrate the car I’m in; we’re slowly but surely gaining speed. A train just passed, but it wasn’t a blur so I can tell that we haven’t been cleared for full speed yet. We just passed through the second largest train station of Florence, “Firenze Campo Marte.”

Thinking about later today, I realize how long ago it has been sine I have confessed. I’m going to try to do that today at the Vatican. So many people asked me to pray for them at school yesterday. I’ll keep my promise.

The woman seated across from me looks as though she has been having personal problems lately, and also looks like she’s headed to Rome for business. She’s trying to sleep in an awkward position, as anyone who has ever flown an overnight flight or train well knows that the seats aren’t the most comfortable things in the world. Her husband just came back to comfort her, possibly after the loss of a loved one.

It’s amazing to me how many people on campus call themselves religious, yet none of them go to their churches or synagogues or temples. Sometimes I feel as if I’m a lone piece of debris, scattered by the religious bomb that hit the world the generation before mine. “It’s amazing that you go to mass every weekend. I can’t even remember the last time I went. Maybe for Christmas last year.” Phrases like that are not all that uncommon anymore. It’s scary.

The train is moving along at top speed now, and I have to look into the distance in order to see things without having them blurred. There is an eerie fog that settles like a blanket over the ominous lake outside, and the first light of the sunrise is just beginning to utter its first breaths. Numerous cypress trees in the distance line the roads and stand tall like proud soldiers waiting to bravely serve their country.

After a nap, I realize that we’re here, in Rome already. The train operator announces the obvious, that we’re entering the Rome Termini station, in Italian of course. Time to put this laptop away, to rush off of the train, find a taxi, and see the new Pope in person for the very first time.

Grazie Roma e ciao!

Politics abound: cafeteria food, the elections on tuesday, and my classes for next semester

First and foremost, the story behind the cafeteria food. For those of you who aren't on the Florence campus, or who don't eat here, let's just say that I'm not the type to complain, and for me to be complaining about the food here is a big statement. On tuesday, after getting absolutely fed up with the food here on campus, I decided to finally write and put into action the petition that I had promised my fellow roommates and students on campus to write. I wrote the whole thing in a day, and went around knocking on doors that night getting signatures. All in all, we were able to get 83 signatures out of the roughly 100 students on campus, with only two students who were asked to sign refusing to do so. So I think it was a general concensus that something had to be done about the food on campus. We were so successful in getting attention from the university community that it hit back home, and an article was published in the Washington Square News, NYU's newspaper. (You can see the article here, which is cool because it mentions me towards the end). Alexah Farah and I met on friday to discus what could be changed (within reason) and what could be added to the food to make it more tolerable. So hopefully in the next few days we'll see some drastic improvements in the quality and variety of the food here on campus.


That said, since this is a blog about politics, I would be a fool not to comment on the election results on Tuesday. For me, it's bittersweet: my home state, California, re-elected Arnold for Governor, which was definantly a good thing; but I'm afraid I can't say the same thing about the House or the Senate. Now, America, we have a psycho liberal left-wing extremist who is third in line to run our country: Nancy Pelosi. For those of you who had Coach Klein with me last year, you know the famous talks that he gave about Ms. Pelosi, and how he pointed out specifics about here that made it almost impossible for anyone in class to see any good qualities or values in her that could prove to be beneficial to the country as a whole. But ignorant America too busy with their own lives to care about politics followed the stance of the liberal, agenda-seeking, biased media and voted Democrat. I must say that the Republicans had their fair share of screw-ups, from Rush Limbaugh's attack on Michael J. Fox (I disagree with the way he worded what he had to say, but still think it carries some clout), to the Florida scandal, to Rumsfeld's handeling of the war in Iraq (which happens to be blamed solely on Bush by the liberal media, by the way). But these are all very personal problems, and if the american people would have taken a second to step back and to see this point, I think we would have had a very different outcome in the elections. But the bottom line is that the decision has been made, there's no changing it now. I just hope the people realize that they elected the party, especially in the house, that is in a phase of radical extremism behind Pelosi, and the power they trusted them with to completely devalue and screw up our country. Can't wait until 2008!

And lastly, my registration for next semester is a little complicated. I've decided not to take Italian next semester, as I have already taken 4 years of Spanish in high school and can test out of the language requirement for NYU's CAS next year. So in its place, I've decided to take a rigorous poli sci course, "European Union Policies and Politics" taught by one of the two original professors here at the Florence campus, Roberto D'Alimonte. He is the main contact for any political news for CNN, MSNBC, FOX, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, the Wall Street Journal, and the San Francisco Chronicle, and his class isn't offered back at the NYC campus. So I've decided to include that information in my petition that I have to write to our dean, explaining to him that a) I can indeed place out of the language requirement and b) I have significant reasons why I want to take this particular course in place of the Italian class.

So, bottom line, my life has been filled with politics and the political processes involved with them lately, and I'm loving it.

Train Tickets, Hostel Reservations, and Bank of America Fiascos

After finally deciding between going to Rome and visiting my great Aunts and Uncles or going to Germany (specifically Munich) and Zurich (in Switzerland), I decided on Rome. So I went online and bought my train ticket last night, and after researching many hostels in Rome, I had picked out the ideal one. The train ticket confirmation email came, with me (supposedly) leaving this morning at 7:53 for Rome on a high speed train. I went downstairs to print it out, came back up, and when I tried to book the hostel, it said that my credit card had been frozen and that I needed to contact my bank. I thought it was just a glitch, so I tried again, and the same thing happened. Well, then I tried to book the return train ticket, and that didn't work either. I started to get worried, but decided that I would try in the morning, thinking they put a hold on the train ticket for a short period of time.

I woke up in the morning, went online, and tried again. I checked my balance, just to be sure, but I had plenty of money left on the card. But no, it still said that it was frozen. So then I panicked, and not realizing what time it was, I called my parents. My mom helped me through it, and after moving the train ticket to tomorrow at 7:53, using her credit card to pay for the hostel, and getting the fraud freeze taken off of the card (which, by the way, took 2 hours, because you can't exactly dial toll-free numbers from Italy, and the credit on my cell phone ran out from talking to my mom, and and and....it was horrible.).

What a great way to start off the month.

So, now I'm leaving for Rome tomorrow morning at 7:53, I have a hostel reserved, and I can use my card again in about two hours once California processes the info.

But the morning wasn't a total loss: you know how sometimes you have something important to ask someone, but you don't really know how to ask it? Well, that person asked me what I've been meaning to ask for quite some time, and now I feel so much better, finally coming down from the clouds and standing on solid, hard ground.

I'l post again when I get back!

Ciao!

Midterms are OVER!

Midterms are over! Finito! Sopra! BASTA!

Ora è tempo al partito! Vado in Svizzera!

2 down, 1 to go

I got my Italian midterm back yesterday, and I did better on it than I expected, so that got me in the mood to study a lot last night for today's midterm (cultural, with Nicholson). That went extremely well, and I had one of those feelings that you get after you take a huge test that just makes you feel--accomplished. Social is tomorrow, and that one I'm a little more worried about.

I decided to go ahead and donate blood today, even though I had a midterm, and it all worked out well in the end. But ever since I donated I've had an upset stomach that won't seem to go away with pepto, but I still feel good about donating. Good feelings all around, I guess, which is a little weird in the middle of midterms. But starting friday we have 10 days off, and I can't wait.

Well, time to study, again.

-OUT-

Midterms

I got a 24/25 on my Italian Oral midterm today, so that gave me a little confidence for tomorrow's written midterm. Then next week on wednesday I have my Social midterm, and on Thursday is my Cultural midterm. So basically, I'm going to have my face buried in notes and books, and not surface until next friday. Well, I might go out this friday night.

We'll see.

Chocolate and Brothers

Saturday we took a trip to Perugia, about a two hour train ride outside of Florence, for the annual Chocolate Festival. There were signs proclaiming everywhere that over the years this chocolate festival has made Perugia the "chocolate capitol of Europe." I have to admit, I was a little skeptical at first, assuming that Belgium or Switzerland would be more chocolate oriented than Perugia, but I tried to remain open minded. We came up out of the train station to the main street of Perigua, a quaint city in Umbria, Italy, and were immediately rushed along by the rivers of people streaming through the streets. Hundreds of chocolate "tents" had spiced hot chocolates, chocolate dipped bananas, churros with chocolate, chocolate crêpes, chocolate spaghetti, and of course, millions of assortments of chocolate bars, balls, candies, and liqueurs. By the end of the day, I had tried many things, and I thought I would have a huge sugar high, but I really didn't. All in all, it was well worth getting up at 6:30 in the morning in order to catch the train down there, although I still remain skeptical as to whether or not it can be called the chocolate capitol of Europe.

I was sitting in class today, taking notes on an intense (and therefore extremely boring) lecture about Tacitus' The Annals of Imperial Rome, when all of the sudden my professor looks down at her cell phone (which was on silent) and immediately blew up in front of us, as it seems all Italians have the genetic ability to do. "Dunque, WHY does my fratello (brother) ALWAYS insist on calling me on a Monday morning when he KNOWS that I might be a little busy with this concept of WORK?" in a heavily accented italian accent, which instantly brought me back up to my senses from the state of drowsiness I had already begun to fall into. "He always says, 'Why you never answer, why you never pick up?' and I tell him every time that I DO have a JOB, and can't exactly stop the world for a few minutes to GOSSIP. 3 times he has called me in the past 10 minutes." Someone in the class said, "Well, maybe it's an emergency?" Then my professor said, "Well, I can't imagine who it could be, because I JUST talked to my mother on the DRIVE OVER HERE! AARRUUGGHHH! [my poor attempt at trying to phonetically spell what noise came out of this stereotypical short Italian woman]" and seemed as though she was about to run out of the room. Then, just as is the cultural norm, she picks right back up where she left off on the lecture, in a perfectly normal tone of voice, and acts as if nothing had just transpired. Why can't we do that in the states? Just learn to say whatever's on your mind at the moment, not matter how embarassing, crude, annoying or rude it may be, then get over it in a matter of seconds. If you've never seen it before, you're definantly missing out on a unique adventure.

I love Italy

Myspace Profile Update Finished

I had a lot of time on my hands today, and instead of doing homework like I should have I decided to finish updating my myspace. There's lots of pictures added as filmloops under the "interests" section, a new song, new background picture...almost everything is new or updated. Check it out: http://www.myspace.com/bmw_teen and let me know what you think.

You know you're from California when...

I found this on a facebook group, and immediately joined. Everything is so true! You'll really appreciate it if you're from California. If you're not, well then you can read a little about our state that visitors usually find out the hard way when the visit.

You know your from California when...../Californians are better because............

Everyone hates cops

You live next door to Mexicans

You say "like" and "for sure" and "right on" and "dude" and "totally" and "peace out" and "chill" and "tight" and "bro" and "hell of" and "hella"(Nor Cal only) and "faded" and "stoked" and "fo sho" and I say them often

You know what real cheese taste like.

All the porn you watch is made here, cause we fuck better and thats how it is.

You don't get snowdays off because theres only snow in Mammoth, Tahoe, Shasta, and Big Bear.

You can wear sandals all year long.

You go to the Beach - not "down to the shore."

You know 65 mph really means 100.

When someone cuts you off, they get the horn and the finger and high speed chase cuz we dont fuck around on the road.

The drinking age is 21 but everyone starts at 14 (legally 18 if you live close enough to the border).

Our governor can kick your governors ass.

You can go out at midnight.

You judge people based on what area code they live in, and when asked where you're from, you give your area code.

You might get looked at funny by locals when your on vacation in their state, but when they find out your from California you turn into a Greek GOD.

We don't stop at stop signs... we do a "california roll"
No cop no stop baby!

You can get fresh and REAL Mexican food 24 hours a day.

All the TV shows you "other" states watch get filmed here.

EVERYONE smokes weed. no exceptions.

We're the Golden State. Not the Cheese State. Not the Garden State.....GOLDEN!!!

We have In-N-Out (Arizona and Vegas are lucky we share that with them).

We have the most representation in the House of Representatives, which means our opinion means more than yours, which means we're better than you.

The best athletes come from here.

We got disneyland....wut now!

We call it soda, not pop.

Oh, and no one from California calls it Cali... that's how we know you're not from around here.

The fastest part of your commute is down your driveway.

You were born somewhere else.

Your sense of direction=Toward the ocean and away from the ocean.

You eat an In n Out burger at least once a week!!!

You know how to eat an artichoke.

The primary bugs that you worry about are electronic.

Your car has bullet-proof windows.

Left is right and right is wrong.

Your monthly house payments exceed your annual income.

You can't find your other earring because your son/brother is wearing it.

You drive to your neighborhood block party.

Your family tree contains "significant others."

You don't exterminate your roaches, you smoke them.

You see 25 lawyers chasing an ambulance.

More than clothes come out of the closets.

You go to a tanning salon before going to the beach.

More money is spent on facelifts than on diapers.

Smoking in your office is not optional.

You pack shorts and a T-shirt for skiing in the snow, and a sweater and a wetsuit for the beach.

When you can't schedule a meeting because you must "do lunch."

Your children learn to walk in Birkenstocks.

You'll reluctantly miss yoga class to wait for the hot tub repairman.

You consult your horoscope before planning your day.

All highways into the state say: "no fruits."

All highways out of the state say: "Go back."

The Terminator is your governor

You can't remember . . . is pot illegal?

It's barely sprinkling rain and there's a report on every news station: "STORM WATCH"

You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from California.

Your coworker has 8 body piercings and none are visible.

You make over $300,000 and still can't afford a house.

You take a bus and are shocked at two people carrying on a conversation in English.

You don't care what race people are because you're too busy wondering what gender they are.

You have a very strong opinion about where your coffee beans are grown and can taste the difference between Sumatran and Ethiopian.

You know which restaurant serves the freshest arugula.

It's barely sprinkling rain outside, so you leave for work an hour early to avoid all the weather-related accidents.

A really great parking space can totally move you to tears.

A low speed police pursuit will interrupt ANY TV broadcast.

Gas costs $1.00 per gallon more than anywhere else in the U.S.

A man gets on the bus in full leather regalia and crotchless chaps. You don't even notice.

Unlike back home, the guy at 8:30 am at Starbucks wearing the baseball cap and sunglasses who looks like George Clooney IS George Clooney.

Your car insurance costs as much as your house payment.

The normal symbols on restrooms mean "people wearing pants" and "people wearing skirts".

Your hairdresser is straight, your plumber is gay, the woman who delivers your mail is into S &M, and your Mary Kay rep is a guy in drag.

Both you AND your dog have therapists.

You have to leave the big company meeting early because Billy Blanks himself is teaching the 4:00 PM Tae Bo class.

You pass an elementary school playground and the children are all busy with their cell phones or pagers.

[Source: http://nyu.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2211572727

At the hands of Nokia's Wibree, could Bluetooth be on the ropes?

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/wp-trackback.php?p=3707
Worth reading for you tech buffs out there. This is hot off the press. Google doesn't even have it in its search engine yet.

By ZDNet's David Berlind -- Now this is interesting. In an incredibly bold move that has all the makings of a gauntlet, Nokia, a company known for including Bluetooth support in its handsets, has released what appears to be a Bluetooth substitute that it's calling WiBree. According to a Reuters story that we're carrying on ZDNet's News channel (subscribe), Wibree [...]

Supreme Court Hears Deportation Debate

"The Supreme Court wrestled with the question of whether convictions for minor crimes should force the deportation of legal immigrants, as justices heard the first oral arguments of the new term Tuesday."

Hhmm, let me see now. I'm going to attempt to see what the attourney from the New York State Defenders Association has to run with here--oh wait a minute; they don't have anything to run with. I think it's ridiculous that the case has gotten as far as the supreme court, and that they actually decided to hear it. I point out the majority of other countries and their policies on the issue to back my case. I'm studying in Italy under a student visa, so in effect I am a legal immigrant (for a year) under Italian law. However, since I am not a citizen, if I were to even forget to buy a bus ticket (the buses in Florence are state-run) and failed to present one after boarding a bus, they can legally drag me off of the bus, take me to the nearest ATM and have me withdraw the anywhere from € 70,00 (roughly $89.00) to € 240,00 ( $305.00). If I didn't have that much in my bank account, or refused to pay, etc. I, as well as any citizen, can be arrested and put in jail until I either pay up, opt out for community service, or serve time. In many EU countries, if you are arrested and you are a legal immigrant, they have every right to deport you. Another example: the Carabinieri (a form of police here) catch me publicly intoxicated, ask for identification, see that I am here on a student visa, and can immediately revoke my visa, and thus have me deported. It's that simple.

Now here we're not just talking about forgetting to buy a bus ticket, we're talking about drug possession. So the NY State Defenders want to make sure that the aliens can continue to possess drugs during their visit, because we want them to continue trafficking and feeding the supply lines that pump drugs into our schools and society. A little cocaine never hurt anyone, right? We should wait until they have multiple offenses under their belt, rather than nip the problem at the bud.

"...an immigration judge and review panel as well as a federal appeals court all concluded that his crime should be considered an aggravated felony, which severely limits immigrants' ability to fight off deportation, be granted asylum or become naturalized U.S. citizens."
[Source: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003288044_scotus04.html]

If they all concluded that this should be classifed as "an aggravated felony" then that's the least I would expect. But let's look at what Deputy Solicitor General Edwin Kneedler said:

"Defending the government's approach, [he] said the law as Congress wrote it "looks to state law." If a drug crime is a felony under state law, it is a felony that leads to deportation under federal law."

Uh, what's the problem here boys? I say that precedent stands in this case. Deport them after their first offense. Period. We tend to have this forgiving attitude towards immigration and illegal acts relating to immigrants, including immigrants that are illegal themselves. I don't see the logic in forgiving someone who has broken the law. And that goes for both citizens and non-citizens alike.

Don't give me that BS that, "Oh, you don't know what it's like to try to get into the US, and how selective they are." I had to work my butt off my whole life in order to get to where I am now; in life, you get what you work for, and if you take all of that hard work for granted by breaking a law, then you should be punished accordingly. It's that simple.

A Heartfelt Pick-Me-Up From my Cousin

I was debating for a while whether or not I should post this--if it was too personal, or if it was blog material. Well, I obviously decided to post it, and since today is "The Feast of the Guardian Angels," I thought it was appropriate. I dedicate this to all of you out there who are going through a little homesickness.



"The thing is, though the days will be long and sometimes seem to drag by as you are homesick, just do everything you can to be anywhere but wallowing in that, because in two blinks you will be coming back home, and then before you know it the year will be over and it will have felt like a short summer camp and you will be looking back wishing that you had done more, seen more, experienced more, learned more, laughed more, felt uncomfortable more,met more people, ate more, looked around more... you get it. This is something old people say, but life goes by fast. A year is the smallest amount of time and don't let your head convince you otherwise. Don't worry you are not missing a damn thing back home. When you get back everything will be exactly as it was- you are the most exciting thing happening, just because you are experiencing a lot and changing a lot don't think that the same thing is happening to everyone here without you because it just isn't!

I love you!
Send me some pictures!"

Isn't having a large family a wonderful blessing? It always seems to be the little things in life like this that make you or break you.

Too Far Behind

I was going to post about politics, but there's just been too much going on and not enough time for me to post. I have articles that I emailed to myself from a week and a half ago, so I just decided to finally post after feeling guilty about not posting in a while.

I got a job on campus, and basically all it's been so far is me buzzing people in to one of the villas on campus, and me doing my homework for four hours. But I'm getting paid $8.50 per hour to do my homework, so I'm not complaining. I just got a part in this semester's play, "Lysistrata," but I don't know that any of you have heard of it before (I hadn't). In case you're curious, I'm one of the two "Male Chorus" members that narate the play. I didn't want a lead part, and specifically told thm that, because I don't think I would have time for it, so I'm glad I got that part. Three out of five of my roommates are also in it, and one of my roommates (the one from San Francisco) got the lead.

Other than that, not much has been happening other than studying. I had my second Italian test today, and have written a couple of papers per class. So far I love my writing class, and my social and cultural classes aren't too far behind. I think Italian is my least favorite, but I'm not sure why. Maybe it's just because we have to go to it every day.

So much news, but too sick to post.

There's so much news going on, but I've been too sick to post. Sorry. I'll get to all of it this weekend. Out.