A Time Jorney taking us to the Past

         Few weeks ago we had a trip that made me feel I have been to the past

The trip was to the Monroe County Village Museum. There, We learned that the land was bought in the 1960, and all the houses were brought and collected from different places in the country, which is fascinating. Those houses were once long time ago, belonging to real people who lived way before the 1960. For example, one of the houses in the village was George Eastman's childhood house. The whole atmosphere provided in the village was set to make you feel as you were really back in the past. All the staff members working there would be wearing what people used to wear, both males and females, children and adults. The children were so cute in those outfits I had to take photos of them and of almost everything. What amazed me was these people working there were actually working and not just acting to. Like this one old lady that was baking cakes and desserts, and offered me a cinnamon water, which is known to lower your body temperature  in such hot days like that day of the summer. I didn't get to see a lot because I spent about an hour at the gift shop. Where they have all their cooked food in the village such as the maple sugar dough and the corn flour grounded by themselves.

My Pet Peeves

“You need to get over this” Said my brother, yelling angrily as he was driving the car. This was the third time we have been to a concert to have a good time with family and friends; yet  I had to interrupt it by my obnoxiousness. “I would never use these public rest-rooms” I said, disgusted by the thought of it. Respectively, my mind got carried away with more thoughts” going to public rest-rooms would get me killed; God knows what type of germs are in there”. Next, I snapped out of my thoughts’ bubble saying these words out loudly “How gross, how Horrible!!” My brother was rolling his eyes, “If it is that bad, why didn’t you go to the bathroom before we left?!  God! You are such a child. He said. “A child?!”  I said, as I am starting to get angry too. “How could I?  When you and mom are always rushing me up as if we’re about to miss the surviving aircraft of the last day on earth! What difference 5 more minutes would make?”. “Sigh” Oh well; maybe I am a fun breaker. There is not much I can do about it.

 This is how it always has been in my family; whenever we are going out someone must be rushing me up “Hurry up! Come on, we’re going to be late! Why are you taking too long?! ” Shouting my name repeatedly. I hate it, and it gets on my nerves; that so many times I would just change my clothes and stay home after going through all the trouble of getting dressed up.  That is one of my pet peeves. “Never rush me up”

When I do stay home after all that fuss, I could have the entire house for myself; enjoy a relaxing time watching TV. Not to mention getting to avoid the dilemma of using a public restroom. I have always been a germaphobe. I never go anywhere without a hand sanitizer. The worst part of my day out, would be looking for a restroom. I would not mind using public restrooms that are somehow clean, or really clean. For instance, I like the restrooms inside the malls of Dubai City, unlike the ones placed in concerts, those are just too dirty, and usually people would be lining up to use them. To stand in a line and wait, knowing the end will not pleasant, is almost like torturing a person before completely killing him. That was my second pet peeve.

 Who am I kidding? It is one of my nightmares.

The Olympics 2012

        The Olympics is a big sport related event that occurs every 2 years including both the summer and winter Olympics, which means each occurs once every 4 years. This summer the Olympics were made in The United Kingdom, London. The opening ceremony was creative and fun, though lots of people thought it was weak compared to what China did last Olympics. Over 200 country participate in this event, over 13.000 athletes from all over the world compete for winning the medals, which are the Golden, silver, and Bronze.  In the ceremony each country was represented by its athletes marching, with the flags of their countries. They star the marching alphabetically from A to Z , but I believe Greece always go first, because Greeks were the ones created the Olympics thousands of years ago. Olympics include so many types of sports, my favorite ones are, gymnastic, swimming, diving, tennis and track and Field"running". The country that has been doing so well, actually the best based on the numbers of golden medals they won is the United States. Second best is China. Third is Britain then its Russia. Sometimes it feels like its a competition between USA and China only. Few things amazed me about these sports, like how swimmers would go on swimming non stoppable for 4 minutes. How both physically and psychologically  strong these athletes are, as they compete with all they have of power in body and mind. These athletes dedicate their whole lives to the sport, practicing constantly, everyday of their life. On American swimmer, Michael Phelps amazed me when I heard that he won 22 medals; 18 of them were Golden.  When he answered the interviewer, other American swimmers were laughing  because it is just crazy, that no one ever had this many medals before. He actually comes from Rochester. Another local athlete (from Rochester) . A woman who played soccer in the Olympics was Abby Wambach. The last one that impressed me was a female runner from Jamaica who won the race even though she was the shortest among all the other runners, and that disputes what I always thought, that is the speed of a runner goes hand in hand with the height of that runner. My country participated in the event in different sports, yet haven't won any medals, which is some how disappointing, oh well one thing to illustrate here; this month of the year, Muslim people fast and it has been mentioned that some of those athletes were fasting .which minimize their energy, consequently their chances of winning. However, even if Saudi athletes were  not fasting. They wouldn't have won. But that's just what "I" think.

Learning About Others Past

Meeting new people and making new friends is a part of life of which there’s no escape. The difference is that some people care about knowing a little more than others do. I see nothing wrong with that. In fact I believe it is for the best to know as much as you can about your new friends. I also believe that would give the people who really love you, and care about you such as parents some sort of peace of mind, knowing exactly where the person you are hanging out with has come from. “We are the sons and daughters of the present” once somebody said. Yeah, I agree a person can be who he/she decides to be but that takes a lot of strength, a very strong will and consistency. Just by reason think of how many are the people who were able to change before it was too late!! Not many at all. Do you really want to risk spending time with someone who had a history of crimes or doing drugs?! I know I wouldn’t. Only the idea of it scares me.                                                    
          First of all, to know or not to know that is your own choice. I respect and understand those who would say “I don’t want to know and I don’t care to; this person is my friend and no past will ever change that” but speaking of my own point of view I did hear people saying they would do anything for their friends, mostly it is because they have been friends for over 10 years, some knew one another since they were kids, and some spent a whole life time together. That means they know everything about each other, and that is a true friendship.  So to me “ A True Friendship” is the relationship you have with a friend who you have grown to trust, and this can only be built over knowing that friend’s past, present and even anticipated future.
         MY second reason to support my opinion is that knowing others past really helps you understand them better, have more things to talk about, and get close to them. For instance, you met a handicapped person and you became friends. You never knew what caused his disability, although you always wondered but never dared to ask. I am sure that not asking about it would make that person feel you don’t care. Not mentioning that giving him the chance to talk about it would make him feel much better. It is obvious that most people avoid getting into emotional and painful conversations, but if it’s going to make someone feels better, then why not!  Catharsis can be so relieving to some individuals, so you better be willing to hear them out.
       The third reason is that I strongly believe that your past forms a part of who you are today, because the past can never be deleted forever, nor forgotten even if nobody remembered it, you will, even if you did not, those memories of that past will have a subconscious influence over you, thus will affect your behaviors and feelings. In fact, one of the most important things to know about people is their childhood. If you really want to know someone, you should probably ask, " How would you describe your childhood?"  Statistics show that people committing crimes, suicides, or just suffering from depression are most likely to be people who had bad childhood, who were victims of child abuse, or were simply neglected.
      My fourth and last reason is that people's heritage is a big part of their past. To know that about people explains a lot about their cultures, traditions, believes and behaviors. For instance, you wouldn't really know me if you didn't know that I have mixed roots, because that forms a difference some way or another.
    In conclusion, knowing about others past will give you more knowledge about their different cultures, will make you understand others more, feel safer around some of them, take precautions around others, and give a peace of mind to your loved ones, when you are not in front of their sight.

Community Service

         Community service is donated service or activity that is performed by someone or a group of people for the benefit of the public or its institutions. Community service also reduces the chances of suicidal actions or questionable behavior in children,teens or young adults. Community service increases chances of getting into important colleges and jobs.
Volunteers may provide community service, however, not everyone who provides community service is seen as a volunteer, because some people who provide community service are not doing it of their own free will; they are compelled to do so by:

• their government as a part of citizenship requirements, in lieu of military service;
• the courts, in lieu of, or in addition to, other criminal justice sanctions;
• their school, to meet the requirements of a class, such as in the case of service learning or to meet the requirements of graduation, or, in the case of parents, required to provide engagement and community, and to help them achieve their educational, developmental and social goals.

Youth service hours and/or projects is often required for advancement, e.g. for a Scout to advance to the next rank or for a high school student to graduate.
Service learning is the deliberate connection of community service to stated learning goals. A common misconception among educators, youth workers, and young people is the notion that service learning can be assigned. Several experts attest to the necessity of engaging youth in deliberating, planning, implementing, and reflecting on their community service, thereby sustaining high-quality service learning. This is intended to make community service an effective learning tool.
The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at the University of Maryland, College Park researches young people and their community service. CIRCLE analyzes trends in community service/volunteering over time and by subgroups, such as sex, race and ethnicity

The Tour of Rochester

       On July  the 7th ,  which was about 2 weeks ago , all my new classmates, a bunch of other new students and I went on a bus tour to explore and know more about the Flower city, Rochester. Which has beautiful flowers and special flower Festivals such as the lilac’s every year during the summer. Although this name has been recently used, Rochester once was known as the Flour City. This name was based on the enormous amount of flour Rochester was producing time ago. In fact, Rochester was the largest flour-producing city in the world, later the city came to be known less for its flour, so the name was changed to the Flower City. We got to learn about the history of Rochester when we stopped by the Genesee River, Where our tour guide Ron told us all about it.  The city of Rochester was actually found by a man named Nathaniel Rochester, who was a business man and a slave’s owner, who of course the city was called after. As shown in the Photo, the High falls is a waterfall along the Genesee River and in a past where people had no source of energy this water fall was used as a source. It was utilized to power mills which produced the flour. It was very interesting for me to learn more about the city I’ve grown to love for the last 2 months.

 

       We also stopped by Susan's B. Anthony house and walked to the Square named after her at the Historic park. Standing next to Susan's and Fredrick's Douglass statues, Ron told us about Susan. How she stood up for women rights and about the friendship that gathered her with Fredrick, as they were both going through the same thing. She was fighting for women's rights, he was fighting against slavery, for black people's rights.

 

       That day was nice regarding all the information we learned and the sight-seeing, but it was a horrible day when it came to the weather. It felt like the hottest day of the year. We were all thirsty and dehydrated from the heat, so our next stop was the Charlotte beach. There, we got some cold beverages and ice creams to cool our bodies.  After a walk at the beach and taking group pictures, we headed back on the bus and back to Nazareth, which was the end of the tour for me and Juan. It was around 6:30 PM and I was exhausted, while the rest of the students carried on to The Wegman’s to have their dinner there.

 

GEORGE EASTMAN

George Eastman's Life: 

He was born on July 12, 1854 in the village of Waterville, New York. He was the youngest of three children of Maria Kilburn and George Washington Eastman. When George the son was 5 years old his father moved the family to Rochester where he worked on establishing Eastman Commercial College. Unfortunately, the college failed due to George’s father death of a brain disorder in 1862, leaving behind a wife, 14 years old son and 2 daughters Ellen Maria and Katie, one whom was severely handicapped. Due to the bad family circumstances George had to drop off school and start working as a messenger boy in one of the insurance firms. A year later he got a job as an office boy in another insurance company. He was getting raises with time and doing well at his work, but it was not enough yet. George studied accounting in the evenings at home to be able to get a better paying job. After 5 years George finally got a job as a clerk in the Rochester Savings Bank and his salary tripled then. George Eastman has been a great example of a self-educated person. At the age of 24 George planned for a trip to San Diego, after a friend’s suggestion of taking photos of the trip, George didn’t go. He was absorbed into photography and thinking of a way to simplify the complicated process of taking photos used to be. After three years of photographic experiments, Eastman had a formula that worked. By 1880, he had not only invented a dry plate formula, but had patented a machine for preparing large numbers of the plates. He quickly recognized the possibilities of making dry plates for sale to other photographers. In his final two years, Eastman was in intense pain, caused by a degenerative disorder affecting his spine. He had trouble standing and his walking became a slow shuffle, a narrowing of the spinal canal caused by calcification in the vertebrae. Eastman grew depressed, as he had seen his mother spend the last two years of her life in a wheelchair from the same condition. On March 14, 1932, Eastman died by suicide with a single gunshot to the heart, leaving a note which read, "To my friends: my work is done. Why wait?". His funeral was held at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Rochester; he was buried on the grounds of the company he founded at Kodak Park in Rochester, New York.



 

Inventions:

        The camera was as big as a microwave oven and needed a heavy tripod. It needed a tent so that  could spread photographic emulsion on glass plates before exposing them, and develop the exposed plates before they dried out. There were chemicals, glass tanks, a heavy plate holder, and a jug of water. It was a very complicated , expensive and out of reach of all . George Eastman invented a dry-plate photographic system, and later the system of film on rolls of gelatin-coated paper. In 1888 he invented the "snapshot" camera, under the name Kodak. George Eastman was the first to make photography available to everyone and easy enough to be taken anywhere, by his genius invention of the dry, rolled films and the hand-held "snapshot" cameras. His invention changed the world, everyone was having their own cameras an taking their own photos. Beautiful memories and special moments were not lost nor forgotten anymore.

Kodak:

• In 1888 the word Kodak was first Registered as a trademark.
• George Eastman invented the word Kodak which was turned into a world wide trademark.
• The letter K was George's favorite letter so he thought of a word that starts and end with " K "
• He and his mother devised the name with an anagram set.
• George had three concept principals that he followed in creating this word:

1. It should be Short
2. one can't mispronounce it
3. to not resemble or be associated with anything but " Kodak"

• The first model of Kodak camera appeared in 1888.
• in 1892 the Eastman company was renamed " The Eastman Kodak Company" after that the first line of products known as Kodak was in the market.      

Philanthropy:

        after he made a fortune of his company, George wanted to dedicate something to the world and since he came from a family with a history in philanthropy, it was in his blood too.

• He began giving to nonprofit institutions when his salary was $60 a week -- with a donation of $50 to the young and struggling Mechanics Institute of Rochester, now the Rochester Institute of Technology.
• He donated about $20 Million anonymously under the name Mr.Smith to the M.I.T (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). that shows how generous yet Modest he was as man.
• He devised complete plans and financial backing for a $2.5 million dental clinic for Rochester.
• He established and supported the Eastman School of Music, a theatre, and a symphony orchestra. He just loved music and wanted others to enjoy the beauty of it.
• He promoted and brought to fruition a program to develop a medical school and hospital at the University of Rochester in addition to signing away $30 million to the University of Rochester, M.I.T., Hampton and Tuskegee

       Most of his gifts were dedicated for Education as noticed, and that's because he believed in the importance of Education and that the progress of the world depends almost entirely upon it.