City Life v. Suburban Life

This past week I went on 2 college tours, 1 school was located in a college town and the other was smack dab in the middle of a city. While I was visiting the college town school which was University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, I felt like I was right back in downtown Naperville. With basically no college kids, the town had the feel of a quaint laid back town that’s been around for centuries, after a little bit more exploring we found an area resembling the woods and farms that dotted the landscape, the amount of rural space in this town so close to Detroit was ironic since the city is merely an hour away. Later on that week I took a spur of the moment tour of DePaul University’s Loop campus. The Loop campus is about a 10 minute walk from Union Station in downtown Chicago so of course there are a ton of people trying to get to a million different destinations. My downtown journey started at the route 59 train station in Naperville, as the train jerked over the tracks I remembered that I wasn’t going to a quaint college town isolated from the hustle and bustle of the real world, I was headed full fledge into the city. When I got out of Union Station I was greeted by honking, yelling, and the thick haze of pollution in the air. After getting lost a few times (I was taking this trip solo) I finally made it to the Loop Campus attached to a Barnes&Noble, the first thing I noticed was that the campus considered its hallways the streets of downtown Chicago and to thrive in this school and city you have to be thick skinned and ready for the rawness. Although I preferred the college town campus in Michigan, I can understand the advantages of going to a school in the city. While the city may not be the cleanest and friendliest place in the world, the odds of interacting with a diverse set of people are greater, there is always something to do, and being in a cut throat environment tends to bring out the best in people.  With that being said, I was able to reach the conclusion that my years of being a suburban girl will not end any time soon.

The Importance of Location

After reading Peter Dykhuizen’s post about the success of the little hot dog joint called Gene’s &Jude’s Red Hots, I found it necessary to reveal the dark side location can have on a restaurant. I know of this hot dog restaurant that is called Mickey’s Hot Dogs. It is located on the rough end of Maywood, Il, a place where there was once a shooting on the same block at a boys and girls club of America. So yes the area is a little shady with its fair share of crime, but the hot dogs are good. I have gotten my hot dogs from Mickey’s Hot Dogs for years, and although my family rarely let me go there I still enjoyed the hot dogs. The problem with this restaurant is not because of the quality of food or the employers who make the food itself, it is the area around it. If you were to ask somebody about Mickey’s Hot Dogs the conversation would go like this; “Yes I’ve heard of it, but do you remember that shooting down the street?” Sure the building looks a little run down, but in this economy who can afford to renovate the place when your customers are too scared to get out of their car. It is sad that an area that was thriving and filled with blue collar citizens has evolved into a culture filled with citizens involved with violence and crime, unaware that its effects have trickled down to the owner who viewed his purchase as a prize years ago, now struggling to make ends meet. At the end of the day it’s all about location and the citizens, because all is not fair in commerce and economy.

Arizona

This weekend I received some pretty bad news. My family’s vacation to Arizona has officially been canceled due to my mother’s hysteria over the recent dust storms that have hit that area. It all started last Tuesday night when the dust storms began to hit Arizona and took the electric power and ability to see with it. The dust storm started in Tucson and was a part of the Arizona monsoon season, beginning at  5,000 feet when it reached Phoenix  and ultimately reaching a height of around 8,000 to 10,000 feet. I believe that my mother wanted to go to Arizona so bad because of its geographical location in the Sun Belt. The reason so many people like to be in warm places like Arizona is because of its near constant sunshine which promotes happiness, rather than the dreariness we’ve seen in the Twilight town of Forks, Washington. I like Arizona because of the warmth’s ability to make me feel at ease, and I believe that when an area is so hot people do not have as much energy to commit crimes and act in anger since the heat makes your body want to be inside the coolness of a building or just relaxing (my idea of sleeping) outside. All I can say is thanks a lot dust storm, because you have officially ruined my summer!

Mayan Land Regionilization

After Reading a National Geographic article, I was intrigued by the discovery of the bones of 6 humans found in a Mayan Sinkhole in Chichén Itzá, Mexico, the location and items in the sinkhole imply that these humans were the victims of the Mayan cultural practice of sacrificing. Mayan culture put an emphasis on human and animal sacrifice because they believed that it was their way of servicing the gods in exchange for help with bad situations that the Mayans had little control of. Since the Mayans held the gods in the utmost regard, sacrificing for them and building temples for their worship, I wonder what the Mayan’s would think of the regionalization that has taken place on their home turf. The regionalization process started with the Spanish conquest and ended with the Mexican Revolution, through all that I would imagine the Mayan’s would be displeased about losing their land, happy that there is still a majority of people that believe in some form of god, but mad about the issues in Mexico that the rest of the world is observing. When there are constant drug wars, rapes, murders that are not in the name of god, lack of family structure, and poverty, you can only imagine that the Mayans would be disgusted by how the regionalization of their area has led to the lack of values in not on the Mexican Culture, but everywhere else near and far.  

FIFA World Cup Reflection

In the quarter finals of the 2011 Women’s FIFA World Cup located in Dresden, Germany, the USA women’s soccer team defeated Brazil with a nail biting shootout that advanced the USA team to the semi finals, but failed to defeat Japan in the finals. While watching the game, I couldn’t help but marvel at how far human relations around the world have advanced since the age of world wars and discrimination. By watching the FIFA World Cup the past 2 years, I have realized what the tournament truly symbolizes: country redemption and country pride, as opposed to pure winning and losing. While I am proud to see the USA, Japan, and Germany working together despite their turbulent history, it was last year’s FIFA World Cup that hit closest to home. Although rich soil and high rise buildings now occupy South African terrain, South Africa has evolved from its practice of apartheid when times were so bad that it imprisoned world leader Nelson Mandela for 27 years. In the past decade South Africa has worked to shed its image of hatred and racism, thus resulting in being named the host country for the 2010 Men’s FIFA World Cup tournament.  As I reminisce on watching a slice of the world occupy one stadium with the colors and flags of their respective countries, I am proud to see both black and white South Africans coming together in solidarity to cheer for their national football team.