One more thing I am really excited about is going back home for Christmas break. I believe my Dad is booking my ticket today or tomorrow. Either way, I am flying back home on the 14th of December, and so is Taylor; the friend I wrote about in my previous post. I hope we get to sit next to each other in the plane. I’ll be so happy if that actually happens. It would be one hell of a plane ride. I can already picture it. I wonder how he is getting to the airport. I’ll have to call him and find out.

I forgot to mention in my previous post that during my drive to Sebring to visit Allison I will be making a detour to pick up another friend. This friend also went to the school that both Alli and I attended; his name is Taylor. Taylor came to Aruba his junior year in High School; either his junior year or sophomore year, I can’t quite remember. Anyways, Taylor was in my class, and we both graduated together this year. Right now he is attending Northwood University in West Palm if I am not mistaken. I will be picking him up on Friday so we can both drive up to Sebring and see Allison.

Oh my God! I am so excited! I am going to be spending the weekend with a friend from the school that I went to back home in Aruba. Her name is Allison and I can’t wait to see her; I know that we are going to have a blast. I have known her since I was in Middle School, or even elementary maybe. She lives up in Sebring; that is approximately four hours from here. I hope it is less though. One thing that I am going to hate is driving for that whole period of time it is going to suck.

I have so much to do today. First of all I have to go to this store called Michael’s that is right next to where I live. I have to go get stuff for my presentation for Dandeo’s class. I also have to go to the mall and get some stuff, and I also have to start writing my paper for Psychology. I hope I can get everything finished just in time. I just remembered that I have two Psychology tests on Thursday; one of them is because I did not show up for it. I hope I pass the both.

Oh, I almost forgot. I also have to do my final draft of the song that I analyzed for English class. I have so much to do; I am going crazy. I think that my hardest problem is going to be citing the paper. I sometimes have such a hard time citing, but I think I’ll do well. Let me just say that the weather today has been kind of crappy. Just when you think that it won’t rain, that is exactly when it actually does. The weather down here is so unpredictable; I think I’m going to have to start watching the weather channel.

This week is definitely going to be one of my hardest ones here at Lynn University. I have about four gigantic projects to do before Christmas break. I have a huge final presentation for Ms. Dandeo’s class where I have to make a product and then try to sell it to the class. I also have to do a PowerPoint presentation for my Mass Media class; I barely know how to use a computer. How am I going to make a PowerPoint presentation? I bet that the next one I’m about to mention will be even worse. I have to write a whole six or seven page paper for my Psychology course. This week is hell!

Ok, so Christmas is coming up in a couple of weeks, and I can’t be more excited. I’m going to Aruba for the holidays, and I know that it will be a blast. I am going to get to see all my friends, and I am going to try to steal my dad’s nice sports car like I did last year. It’s going to be so much fun, lol! I already told a couple of friends, and they are also really excited that I am going to be on the island; we are going to have a really good time. Aruba is the best!

One movie that I am really looking forward to is “Deck the Halls,” I think that is what it is called. Anyways, it is some Christmas movie, but it seems really funny. Another movie that I really want to see is the one about the birth of Jesus; I do not remember the title though. Oh wait, now I think I remember. No, I don’t! I thought I did. Anyways, it seems really interesting. Besides those, I can’t think of any other movie that looks good. Oh, no, there are a couple movies that I want to see, they’re called “The Queen,” and “The Fountain.” Those seem really interesting as well.

It has been great having my parents around for a couple days, my mom is a great cook, and she has been cooking quite some stuff for me. I love home-cooked meals. I am trying to see what I can write about, but nothing is coming up. Ok, everyone has been telling me how great the new Bond movie is. At first, it did not appeal that much to me at all, but now everyone is telling that it is amazing and that they know I’ll love it. So I guess I have to go see that as soon as I can!

Today I found out what I got on my psychology test; I got a C. At first I was kind of bummed, but then I figured I still passed. So it was not a big deal, but I thought that I was going to get at least a B average, and that’s what I was expecting, but oh well. Maybe next time I will do better. Now I remember, I still have to do an exam for that class that I missed, and that particular exam seems much harder than all the other ones. Let us just hope I pass it.

So, today I walk into Professor Dandeo’s class thinking that we were just going to go over a test we did last week, and go over the grades we got, but instead we end up taking the test. I know, this sounds strange, but the thing that I forgot to mention was that I thought I took that test last week. Instead it was postponed for today. I didn’t study at all for the test, and I barely knew some of the answers. I hope that I passed, because that is seriously the hardest class I have and I do not want to fail it.

For some reason, I have not been getting enough sleep lately. These past few days I have been sleeping really late, that is because I just can’t shut my eyes. I get sleepy, but no matter how hard I try to sleep, I just can’t. It is the worst thing ever, and whenever I do fall asleep, I wake up in the middle of the night. It is horrible, but I am hoping that it’s only temporary; that it would soon go away. If it wasn’t for my sleeping problem I would probably attend more of my classes. Maybe I have insomnia!!!

Ok, it has been quite some time now since the last time that I posted something on here, but I’ll continue today. So my parents came over here and paid me a visit for thanksgiving; instead of having me just fly back home. I have to say that it was kind of nice to have them here, but at the same time it isn’t. I don’t know how that works out, but it does. I would have been nice if I flew home and got to see all my other friends. It’s still great that my parents came here, they got a bunch of stuff my apartment, and they furnished the other bedroom. So I guess it was all worth it, lol!

So, finally Harry the cable man comes today. He came early in the morning before I went to class and hooked me up some cable. I had to wake up really early, because he said he was coming at 8:30, but he showed up around 7:30. I am not a morning person at all. I’m so excited, because I am also getting High Speed Internet, but I have to go to Best Buy first and get some modem router thing. It has been really crazy; I have been without Internet since the day I moved. I think that by tomorrow I’ll be hooked up with Internet as well. I can’t wait to go home, chill and watch some TV; I’m so excited, I can’t wait.

I am going to continue my previous story on this post. Ok, so I get back home around seven in the morning, and I my parents are awake, so I go and say hi. My mom was busy getting ready for work, and I offered to open up the store for her; I needed something to keep me busy. She agreed on my offer, and off I went to open up her store, it was nine at the time I got to the store. I stayed there until around noon, my Mom got their eventually, but by noon I was so tired that I couldn’t drive back home. I felt really dizzy, probably from the lack of sleep. So I called my Dad and told him to come get me and drive me back home.

Last week was amazing. On Wednesday I flew to Aruba, and I got there around seven in the evening, and just laidback at home for a bit. I left the house around one in the morning to go out. I picked up a couple friends and we went to this club called Karma until that closed. At Karma I saw some more of my friends, and after it close we drove over to a beach and just chilled there; it was awesome. By the time we left the beach, the sun was already rising. Then I thought why not just stay awake, there’s no point in going to sleep since I wanted to visit my old school, so I stayed up and went back home around seven in the morning. I’m not going to lie, I was a bit tired, but not that much.

Finally, Halloween is coming up and I am really excited about it. I am going home for the weekend as well so I can celebrate it with my friends; and by celebrate I mean going to all the parties. Yeah, and I might also go home a couple days before like I posted earlier, because of paperwork that needs to get done. I can’t express how excited I am to go back home to visit. It will be a blast. Another reason why I am going home is so I can bring my dog over. I am moribund without her. I miss her so much. She is a female Chihuahua named Gia. I cannot wait to see her reactions when she sees me. Dang, I’m talking like she’s a person. She is to me… lol!

Ok, so today Harry the cable man was supposed to pass by the apartment and hook my cable and my internet up, but unfortunately he couldn’t. He called me and told me he was sick, which for some reason I think is bull! I was looking forward to it too, because right now I don’t have internet, and it sucks. I have been feeling great the last couple of days. I went to the movies twice this past week, and I watched “The Prestige,” and “Marie Antoinette.” They were both great movies, I liked them.

P.S. I have no idea where confluence would have been relevant in this entry, so I just decided to write the definition of it down below.

Confluence: a flowing together of two or more streams, rivers, or the like: the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.

This morning when I stepped out of my really amazing apartment, I noticed how chilly the climate was. It was really fresh and breezy; I think it was nice. The past couple of days have been really hot and humid, so that is what I was normally expecting of today until I stepped outside. It was so nice out. My parents are still here, they are leaving tomorrow. There is also a chance that I might be leaving with them, because there is some paperwork that I need to get done back home. I’m not sure yet whether I am going with them. It’ll be nice to go back home for a bit though, even if it’s for paperwork. I wonder how my influx will affect my friends.

All the paperwork for my car is done, even the high-priced insurance. I never knew insurance was so expensive. I mean seriously, I won’t say how much it is, but I think it’s stupid; I know it probably isn’t, but I think it is. Just because I am a teenager the price of insurance goes up. There are so many factors that make up an insurance cost, the car, the driver, and so on. Do they actually think that we party that much, drink that much and all that jazz? Seriously? Anyways… that is all that I wanted to say, that insurance is really expensive! I do not think it should be that pricey.

P.S. I think that insurance companies need to apply ergonomics to their businesses so that their workers can feel better, because that lady that helped us out at the insurance place looked very sick and bored.

Another thing my parents came to check out for me was a car. So we went around a couple dealerships to check some out. Now, for a couple years my Dad promised me a certain car that I got to like over time and that I got obsessed with, but he is not getting me it. The reason he is not getting me the car I want is because I’m also getting an apartment; I understand when he puts it that way. So after so many discussions I finally decide on a reasonably priced car, and we agree on getting it. So we go to the dealership and do all the paperwork which take forever. Now, all I have to do is wait until the wire-transfer clears and then I’ll be able to get my car.

P.S. We had to use the word pontificate in this post, but I didn’t think it was possible, so I just decided to do this instead.

Pontificate: The office or term of office of a pontiff (n.).

It has been a while since my last post. The past week has been really arduous, I was so busy; my parents finally came. My Dad got here first, and then my Mom arrived a couple days later. I have been telling how I hate the dorm rooms, and how I can’t stand living in them; I was even offered a single which I turned down. The dorm lifestyle is just not my thing. My parents are here to get me an apartment. During the past weeks I was assiduously checking out apartments. When my parents got here we checked some out and I finally decided on the one I liked. I wasn’t sure if they were going to get me the one I picked but they did, and I’m really happy they did. They’re the best.

I have thought a lot for my idea on my research topic, but I still have not figured out what I want to do. Right now I am leaning towards cosmetic surgery in teenagers as an idea, but I am not sure. I think that this will be a good idea, because people nowadays need to understand the hardships that come with being a teenager and the pressure to fit it. With the pressure of fitting in comes the pressure to act or look a certain way. Teenagers nowadays are not going to the gym nor eating nutrional food, they are simply giving it all to lie on the operating table. Of course, with the media displaying perfect images, these kids seem to think that this is the way they need to look in order to be accepted. I want to research something along the lines of cosmetic surgery and why it has become part of our culture.

I am so excited, my Dad will be coming this Monday and I can't wait. He is coming to get me a car, I hope. I am also really excited about visiting Aruba for Halloween. It is going to be the best, the people there really go all out with this celebration, everyone dresses up, everyone parties, and everyone stays up all night. I am going to be leaving on Friday the 27th and coming back on Sunday the 29th; it kind of sucks, because the visit is really short. I am probably going to want to stay, because I am going to see all my friends and I am pretty sure that I am going to have a blast.

On Wednesday, the 18th of October I have my written and driving test for my Florida Driver’s License, and I am a bit nervous. Tomorrow I have a driving practice, and a written review for the test; I only hope I do well. Coming from a small island with just two-lane roads I find it a bit nerve-wracking to drive in a place where there are like 5 lanes on each side, but everyone is telling me that it is no big deal. I only hope that everyone is right as well. The visage of my face is going to be so funny when I get behind that wheel. Wish me luck with that too!

Okay, so today I get my Intro to Fashion Test, and while I thought that this time I was going to do better than my last test; I was wrong. On my last test I got a grade of 68, and on this test I got a 64; that is not good. I seriously thought that I was going to do better, but I guess not. I’m fortuitous in some ways though, because other people got much worse grades than what I got. My next test is on Halloween, I am going to try my best to raise my grades. Wish me luck!

Yesterday I had a test in my Intro to Fashion Business class, and I seriously think that I did not so well. I studied a bit for it, but Ms. Dandeo uses many words that don't appear in our book or in our review sheet. I know they are probably there, but it is so hard. I think that this is my hardest class, and I thought it was going to be easy. It definitely is not. I got a grade of 64 on my last test, and that is with some studying done, so I have no clue what I am going to get on this one.

On this post I will be talking about a show that I saw while in Orlando. The show takes place every night around eight at Disney’s MGM Studios. It’s called Fantasmic! The show features Mickey Mouse fighting all of the Disney villains; it actually portrays Mickey as indomitable. It is quite a spectacle. There are water jets, fountains, fireworks, pyrotechnics; all I can say is that this show is amazing. I have never seen anything like it, and I have already seen it twice as well. I don’t think I could ever get sick of it.

Indomitable\in-DOM-ih-tuh-buhl\, adjective: Incapable of being subdued or overcome; unconquerable.

Up to this point I think I have been really keeping up with the posts, even though we are all a bit behind. I never thought this would work out, but so far I think I have been doing well. I have about 14 or 15 posts right now, and I need 45 posts by the end of the semester in December. The posts really give you an opportunity to express yourself and to say what's on your mind. It is similar to a diary I guess. Sometimes it gets kind of tricky though, because there are times where you don’t know what you can write about.

Alejandra just gave me the Driver's License Handbook that I need to study from, and it seems really long, even with the highlighted parts. Now, I feel kind of nervous, but whatever; I'm going to do whatever it takes to get a car. I hope my dad buys me the car I want, not the car he thinks is right for me, because parents are like that. One thing I forgot to mention earlier when writing about my trip to Orlando was that I lost one of my hats at Disney. It was a white Ed Hardy hat. That was kind of sad. I hate when I lose things, I’m sure everyone does as well. It sucks.

In about a week and a half my dad will be coming to Boca to visit me, and get me a car; hopefully. So this week I have to go to the DMV and set up an appointment to get my Driver's License here. Alejandra is lending me her books so I can study. She passed the test a couple of weeks ago, so she's going to help me study for it.
She told me not to worry, because it won’t be as hard as I am assuming it to be. I only hope she is right, because I really want a car. I can’t live without one.

This past weekend was a blast. I went to Orlando to see my family and had a really good time. We went to most of the parks such as Disney's Magic Kingdom, MGM, and Universal Studios. We spent quite some on my niece though, so I didn't get to go to most of the rides that I wanted to. She is 9 years old and she kind of wanted to do most of the kiddie rides, so we had to go with her to most of them. We also had the best meals, the food was really good. Overall, I had a really good time. It was fun seeing some of my family again. Now I feel homesick!

I am so excited. Tomorrow I'm going to Orlando to see my brother whom I haven't seen since Christmas. He lives in Europe, so I barely get to see him. He is also bringing my niece with him. I really can't wait to see her; she lives in Aruba with her mom. I love her so much. I have to leave campus at 4:45 tomorrow so I can get to the airport on time. I guess I can go to English class for just half hour; I hope Prof. Drew won't mind. I have already packed my things, and I am all set to go.

I felt really depressed today, because my friend from Aruba is going to L.A. and she's staying in FT. Lauderdale for a day, and we had plans to meet each other. So I got really excited to see her, but then neither of us had a ride; so we didn't get to see each other. I guess that's why I got depressed. I miss all my friends back home, and it felt really good to at least get a chance to see her, but I didn't. I don't know if this is unusual, but I usually get weird mood swings. I may be in a good mood, then all of the sudden I get really angry or depressed; it's kind of weird.

"Clueless in Academe" by Gerald Graff talks about how we students have so much to learn, and how it sometimes gets confusing. Even teachers nowadays still have to learn more that what they already know. The students learn from the teachers, but the teachers can also learn from the students. Graff talks about the academic world, and students that do not get enough education; all this is associated with “cluelessness.” However, Graff's goal is to clear up the opaqueness that shadows academia. Students nowadays are smarter than ever, they are street-smart, but colleges find themselves taking all that away and making them feel dumb. The goal is to find ways that will make the students smarter and eventually letting them to keep on getting smarter.

My response towards the hypothetical question today regarding whether or not to smoke, drink, or make out on campus is very simple; I think that it should be allowed, but only if it is done somewhere private. I agree that it should not be done in public, because some people do not like it, and some people might find it to be offensive. Especially here at Lynn where there is an enormous, and very diverse student body and where most of them come from backgrounds that might not possibly tolerate any of these actions; it should not be done in public.

I am heading to Orlando this weekend. I thought it would be a great idea since my brother, my niece, and a couple of friends are going to be there. Plus, we do not have classes on Monday, so that makes it even better. We are all planning on going to Disney. I do not know why, but I am in love with Disney, ever since I was a little kid. I love the movies, basically everything associated with it. The parks are awesome; one of my favorite parks is MGM. This weekend is going to be awesome, I really can’t wait.

When I first saw the clip that was posted on our class blog, my reaction was that I seriously would not know what I would do if that happened to me. I guess it also depends on the mood that you may be in. If the teacher broke the cell phone, he would obviously have to pay for it. I can understand how a teacher feels to be interupted during a lecture. It is rude to begin with and it distracts the class. Students should take their teachers into consideration as well. Therefore, put your phone on silent not vibrate, because when the phone vibrates it makes as much noise as when it rings; so what is the point. Enough said, put your phones on silent, it is not that hard.

I had two tests today, my mass media test and my psychology test. I was relieved at the first glance of my mass media test, it was piquant. I thought I did pretty well on my mass media test, I am pretty sure that I will score a B+ at least. On my psychology test though, I am quite certain that I did not do as well as on my mass media one, but I am assuming that I did ok. The psychology test had very difficult words, and sometimes it was hard to comprehend. There were questions where there could have been several similar answers; I would get ambivalent when these came up. At some points during the test I felt anomalous, because I felt like I was the only one who’s not going to do so great; but afterwards I thought I did fine. Overall, I think I did quite well, so much for my nervousness. I hope that all my tests work out this way.

Today I'm deciding to write about how Alejandra got stung by a bee. Well, Friday morning Alejandra happened to be sitting outside Psychology class having a smoke, when all of the sudden this bee comes flying towards her and stings her in the eye. She commented about how painful it was, and literally wanted to extradite the bee. She immediately had to go the nurse whom was very amiable and quite dexterous. She had to be examined and found out that she was allergic to bee stings and had to be rushed to the hospital by ambulance. She had red spots all over her arm. Luckily, she turned out to be fine; besides for the big bump that was on her eye. It gradually decreased over the weekend though.

Doing My Laundry.

Well, what can I write about? I did my laundry for the first time ever the other day. I was so scared that I would ruin my clothes, but everything went really smooth. I did everything the way I was told, and everything turned out fine. My friend Luis’s laundry didn’t turn out well though; he stained most of his white shirts. Although I did my own laundry, I did not like doing it. I thought it was a lot of work. One thing I also didn't like was folding all the clothes when I got done, but at the end of the day I finally learned how to do my own laundry.

Authority in Its Social Context

This chapter talks about writers in general trying to become authors. Young writers usually strive for that perfect article that will catch any reader's attention, and usually that is not an easy task. Authority is not only one who completely understands the writing process but one who can also make it relatable to people with less comprehension skills. Writing is a social activity, and it does not only reflect on the author or the quality of the writing, but also on institutions that sponsors the writing. Here is where authority makes greater sense, because writers have to create their work within the context of their institutional sponsors. The institutions are the real authorities.

For the last couple of days I've been saying that in order to live in Florida, you definitely need a car to get around. Well since I'm from Aruba, I have to apply for a Florida drivers license, even though I have one from Aruba. Anyways, I have been looking at the DMV site online to get a clear understanding on what all this is about. I have to take an online exam which is required by law, they also tell me I can look at this other site to understand some more about the exam. So I juxtapose both sites to see the difference, and it's about the same; the difference presented on the sites were mimesis. The other site was basically a paradigm for the actual DMV site.

Introduction:

Hi, my name is Hiram Vrolijk, I'm from Aruba and this is my first blog. I never thought that I'll ever be doing one of these, but I guess it's true; never say never. I'm thinking the theme of my blog will be somewhat like a circus. There will be something to interest everyone, something everyone can relate to and most importantly, something that can manage the readers of this blog to understand my thoughts, my feelings, and the points that I'm trying to get accross.

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Now, some details and information about me. I was born on June 12, 1987. Lived my whole life in Aruba. For any of you guys who don't know where Aruba is, it's an island in the Caribbean, off the coast of Venezuela.

Some interests of mine include movies, music, fashion, nightlife, food, and travel. Basically, the media industry. Hobbies of mine also include some of the same things. I like to sit back and watch movies, hang out. I enjoy listening to most kinds of music, I also like to sing. I have done a couple of musical productions which were successful, but I never really kept on going with it, possibly because some other obstacle got in the way. I think I'm going to try it again.

I have also been in the fashion industry for some time now, fashion has been a part of me since I was very young. My mom is a designer and has greatly influenced me. She has her own business, and is doing quite well. I have modeled for many people and companies down in Aruba, and have been very grateful for all the opportunities. I was recently in a modeling competition, "Aruba Model Search," where out of hundreds of teens who participated, I was down to the top 20 at the main event. As this was also a reality show, every week contestants got kicked off. I worked really hard and was also told by countless people that I was a shoe-in for one of the top 5 spots, but unfortunately that was not the case. There has been tons of rumors, controversy, and scandals surrounding the event and its selections, but I choose not to get sucked in by most of them, although I believe most of them to be true. In December of last year, I was also awarded the first ever Teen Fashionista of the Year award by Focus -- a renowned magazine in Aruba.

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I am very grateful for all that I have accomplished so far.

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My passion in life is to be an influential person in the entertainment industry, whether that be a succesful model or a successful performer. I just hope that my goals in life are reached.