The end of the semester

Its almost thanksgiving which means its time to give thanks and almost time to kiss another semester goodbye. This is my senior year, so this year is especially sentimental to myself. My last home football game and the last time I get to see the leaves change colors in West Lafayette. Although I am very excited to graduate and to move on and challenge myself in different ways I am really going to miss this place, it has been my home for the past four years. I am moving to Chicago upon graduaion and I cannot wait to challenge myself in ever more ways! I have definitely learned alot in this class about things that I would have never known about without the class so Thank you!

I just recently did a follow-up report on my visit to the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Warhol is a Pittsburgh native and innovator of pop- art. He is known for his wild portraits of the stars that he so eagerly associated himself with. Warhol was hungry for fame and money. He wanted only to surround himself with people who had had their "15 minutes of fame", a phrase that he had coined. There is much stipulation of whether or not Warhol was a sell-out for concerning his art with advertisement. While this is a legitimate concern, I disagree. His advertisements paved way for the marketing world. In fact, Campbell's still uses the label that he designed. I also disagree because of the type of person that Warhol was. He was obsessed with money, so buy selling his art to companies for advertisement, he was being true to himself.

Ayuda y Aprende

I currently am a volunteer at Klondike Middle School, helping the english as a second language students. There are students in this class from all around the world. For example, Jordan, Libya, Mexico, China, Japan, and Argentina. I am a volunteer with the Ayuda y Aprende program within the foreign language department. I am minoring in spanish so a majority of the time I spend there it is with a spanish speaking students. I learn from these children everyday and they really are an inspiration to me and those around myself. Although they are much younger than me most of them have been through things I could never imagine. Some being forced to leave their homes to live a better life in the united states. This may not sound that difficult but leaving the place you have always known, leaving your friends and family is extremely hard for young children. I have much respect for these children, they not only help me with my spanish but they also teach me life lessons they have learned through their experiences from moving away from home. So I would like to thank the children from Klondike Middle School.

Time for a new topic

As I was reading over my previous posts, I have come to the conclusion that I need to change the topic. I think "my job" has become too boring. So, instead of blogging about a certain topic I think that it would be best for me to change it up every blog. So I think I am going to blog about past or present experiences. Or things that I have read or seen on television or in reality. My first topic is in response to some of the business that have closed on chauncy hill. In the past several months Pita Pit, Fazoli's, and the Wabash Yacht Club have all closed shop. Currently 2 of those businesses have been replaced. There are many rumors going around that Purdue is pressuring the owners of chauncy hill to increase their lease rates in order to drive out business and leave room for chain restaurants. Whether this is true or not I think that this has both pros and cons. On the pro side although these beloved businesses are gone for good they are being replaced by new places for people to eat and hang out. The con being driving out locally owned business and replacing them with big chain restaurants that a person can find in almost every city around the United States. In my opinion, a college town is suppossed to be unique in the fact that they offer restaurants that you cant find in many other locations and this is being spoiled in my opinion. Whatever the reason may be for these closure I hope that it is a ethical reason. Here is a link to the Purdue Exponent relating to the recent closing on Chauncy Hill. http://purdueexponent.com/?module=article&story_id=17249