Monday, December 3, 2007

HW 42: My THIRD and FINAL podcast!

hey guys, so glad to let you know this is my last blog post, and podcast everrrrr. Check it out please!!
http://www.gabcast.com/index.php?a=episodes&b=play&id=8538&cast=51913&autoplay=true

I'm episode numba 48.

Thanks for reading and listening, good luck with finals! :-)

Thursday, November 29, 2007

HW 37: Two Down, One to Go!

Howdy! Here is the link to my second podcast! Check it out, lemme know what ya think!!
I'm episode 39 :-)

http://www.gabcast.com/index.php?a=episodes&b=play&id=8538&cast=51166&autoplay=true

Monday, November 19, 2007

HW 36: My first podcast!!!

Hey ya'll!! Check out my first podcast! It's about Riverbend explaining Ramadhan, and also some things I've learned and found interesting!

http://www.gabcast.com/index.php?a=episodes&query=&b=play&id=8538&cast=49847&castPage=

I'm episode number 13!!
Thanks,
MLE

Thursday, November 15, 2007

HW 35: My Farewell

After being enrolled in the course “A Blog of One’s Own” I have learned a lot after maintaining a blog for the past 13 weeks. Academically, I have learned to be very responsible and staying on the ball as far as getting the assignments done, and on time. I think it would be a little easier to slack off when we are to write online for our homework because there are more attainable excuses for not doing it. So I have learned to really keep up a good blog and homework responsibility. As far as the course goes, I have learned more about responding to specific readings and about blogs themselves. I have learned so much about different blogs, and that there are many, many blogs out there. I never realized the never-ending options to blogs. I find it so cool that people all over the world can maintain a blog as well.
I would hope that whoever reads my blog posts understands that I do my work. I also hope that for anyone who reads my blog can comprehend and follow along with the readings we as students had to do, but the reader could almost follow along just by reading my blog.
Overall I’m proud of all of my blog posts because of the details I put in. I always make it known that I read the readings and I include informative, relating quotes.
Once this class is over I’m just going to stop writing blog posts, but I’ll keep my blog up. This way, I can check it now and then to see if I ever get any comments, and to see who is reading my posts. I also will keep my blog so I can look at other people’s blogs both in my pod, but also the blogs I’m watching i.e. jezebel.
Overall I just want to tell my readers it has been a very interesting class and I enjoyed it. I feel proud of myself because we did have a lot of work in this class, and I feel successful for completing each and every HW assignment on time. I also would recommend this course to anyone because you learn a lot that you would never know if you didn’t take the course. It’s very interesting, and fun.

HW 34: Riverbend talks about Gold and Tea

Riverbend explains the custom of evening tea in Iraq on Saturday, October 18th. 2003.
I never realized how important tea was to Iraqi families. Riverbend explains that they drink tea, “with breakfast, they drink tea at midday, they drink tea in the evening and often drink tea with dinner” (Riverbend 109). She explains that tea is very important to their culture, and they always set time aside for tea time, where they all sit down together and drink their tea while talking about, “blockade, war strategies, bombing, and politics” (Riverbend 109). Riverbend also explains how there is a specific way of making tea in which there is a 3 step process. (Riverbend 108). I wondered why tea time was so important, and Riverbend answered that question by explaining, “tea is so important in Iraq, that it makes up a substantial part of rations we’ve been getting ever since the sanctions were imposed upon the country” (Riverbend 109).Another informative post I read that Riverbend explained was the role of gold in family savings in Iraq. She wrote this Thursday, October 9th. 2003. I found this post very interesting! Riverbend explained that when the money fluency was fluctuating the Iraqi’s would buy gold since the prices of gold would stay the same, this way when the family was in need of money, they could sell a little bit of their gold. (Riverbend 100). Specifically, “gold is a part of [their] culture and the roll it plays in “family savings” has increased since 1990” (Riverbend 100). Riverbend also explained that when the American soldiers invaded houses, they would take the gold and were surprised that the Iraqi’s have gold. The truth is that, when two Iraqi’s get married-regardless of religion-the man often gives the woman a “mahar” or dowry, composed of gold jewelry. When a couple has a child, the gifts are often little gold trinkets that the parents can sell or keep” (Riverbend 100). I found this very interesting that gold was used to almost save money in a sense, it is a very good idea, and very informative.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

HW 33: Alive in Baghdad, Challenges of Everyday Life

The title of the episode I watched is “Challenges at a Girl’s School in Baghdad”
The title of the series it was part of is “Alive in Bagdhad”
The date it was published was 5/21/07
The link to the site is http://aliveinbaghdad.org/2007/05/21/challenges-at-a-girls-school-in-baghdad/

The general topic that the episode covers is the many factors that play into why it it so dangerous to be going to school in Baghdad.
The people who appear in the podcast are the students, teachers, and the director of the school.
One person who appears in the podcast is the physics teacher they interviewed. She was wearing a long sleeved professional jacket, it doesn’t show what she was wearing for pants. And she’s wearing a burqa. Her face doesn’t appear to have any make-up, except for reddish lipstick.
The scenery in the background is very depressing. There are no decorations in the classroom, the buildings look as if they need work, they didn’t show the roads.. however when the students described the driving conditions they said they were very bad.

A viewer might learn form watching this episode how totally different it is to go to school here in America than in Baghdad. We never have to worry about going to school, usually. School is never cancelled due to random checks of the town/city. It is just a totally different atmosphere.The video I watched compared to other video footage was actually a little more pleasing to see. Other video’s I’ve seen are more abour the war and soldiers. It was nice to not hear sirens in the background and have it more focused on the school and not the war. I find the one of the students reaction most memorable about the podcast. When she was asked if she was scared that there would be a bomb or shooting near her home and school, she replied no..Hail Allah. It made me realize that she had all her trust in her God’s hands.

HW 32: Veils, Hijabs, Rabtas, Abayas.. Same thing right? WRONG!!

Wednesday, October 01. 2003
Riverbend gives her opinion on what Dr. Stanley Kurtz has to say about the reasoning behind women wearing veils. Riverbend uses sarcasm to express her disagreement with Dr. Kurtz, who states that it “took hundreds of years of wearing the veil for religious reasons and relegated it all to the oppression of females by their male cousins” (Riverbend 92). Riverbend sarcastically replies to his statement with “wow-human nature is that simple” (Riverbend 92). Riverbend then points out many examples as to why Dr. Kurtz is so off in his statement that Iraqi women wear veils due to their cousin’s superiority. Firstly, Riverbend explains that Dr. Kurtz used the term “veil” as if it only pertained to Iraq. This clearly made Riverbend upset, because she gives a lengthy explanation the in fact, very few women in Iraq wore veils, and if and when they did it had nothing to do with their male cousins making them do so. She then explains that the term “veil” can have a different definition in a different country, and that Dr. Kurtz should have used the term “hijab” which means headscarf. Riverbend explains that, “Muslim females do not wear a hijab or veil because their male cousins make them wear it. They wear it for religious reasons” Riverbend 93. She explains that these women wear it as a symbol of their belief, a conviction, something that is pure etiquette out of their religion. She explains that if these women are persecuted for wearing it, Christian women should be persecuted for wearing a cross, and Jew’s wearing a yarmulke. I learned a lot from this post by Riverbend because even I didn’t know all the different definitions of head pieces, who wore them, and why.