HW 42 "Last and Final Podcast"

Gabcast! A Blog of One's Own #58

HW 37 "Podcast #2"

Gabcast! A Blog of One's Own #31

HW 36 "First Blogpost"

Gabcast! A Blog of One's Own #9

HW 35 "Last Blog Post"

Having a class where I had to read about a certain topic in a book and be able to give my own opinion to questions on the reading and how I feel about what the author is discussing was really a lot more effective then just answering questions on what I read. I enjoyed being able to say how I feel, even if I completely agree or disagree with what the author is saying. I learned that I was able to speak my mind and give my own opinion and put it into words better through my writing. In the future, if someone were to read my blog posts would hope that by reading them they would be able to get something out of them. Maybe not learn something of what I read about in a story, but at least the style of writing and how I responded to another person’s opinion. The work on all of my blogs I am most proud of is the chapters of the stories I read and where I summarized what happened. From the book, “They Say, I Say”, it gave me many tips on what to always include in a summary and what’s not important. I probably won’t keep the blog posts that I have written about for the past thirteen weeks for this blog class. I won’t delete them, but I will always keep up just in case I need them for future reference to help me with another class. If I ever need some info from for example, the book “Baghdad Burning” I can easily log in and access a summary of the first few chapters of the book. I feel that this class really helped my writing skills and gave me a good idea on what is expected in an opinionated response based class.

HW 34 "Gold and Date Palms in Iraq"

“Gold is a part of our culture and the roll it plays in ‘family savings’ has increased since 1990 when the Iraqi Dinar began fluctuating crazily” (Page 100). Gold is played as a huge role in Iraq when it comes to the Iraqi’s jewlary. Since the value of the gold in Baghdad did not change, they transform their gold into all different sorts of jewelry consisting of necklaces, bracelets, earrings, etc. Usually the jewlary they receive isn’t bought at a store. People get them when they are married, have a child, or have a special event occur in there life where they would receive a gift. When they receive this gold they can either keep or sell it. “People pulled their money out of banks before the war, and bought gold instead” (Page 100).
Date palms are used for syrup which is used for rice, syrup used for bread and butter, sugar used for Iraqi sweets and vinegar. There are over 300 different types of dates. “Every bit of a palm is an investment”(Page 104). You can also use them to make furniture and some use the seeds to make beads. They are considered so important to the Iraqi people because they have so many different uses. In a typical garden of Iraq, you will always find a palm tree. Everyone has one. They are used to protect flowers in the garden. When the U.S. troops go and cut down these trees it is considered an appalling and terrible act to commit.

HW 33 "Challenge's at a girl's school in Baghdad"

The title of the episode of the “Alive in Baghdad” podcasts that I chose was called, “Challenge’s at a girl’s school in Baghdad”. It was published on May 1st, 2007. I provided a link to the episode I have just previously watched and it can be found at http://aliveinbaghdad.org/2007/05/21/challenges-at-a-girls-school-in-baghdad/ . This video is about an all girl’s school in Baghdad and is trying to help the Iraqi children educate themselves and better there life. This school is in a dangerous area of Baghdad. In this podcast they talk to students, teachers, and directors of the school. Some of the students tell this interview how sometimes there are explosions around their school and they find themselves not even being able to walk to school. Although the school is a good distance away from their homes, they are striving to continue their studies and do well. In the opening scene you see groups of girls and they show the inside of the classrooms in the building. There are not many but a few decorations on the wall. A viewer watching this podcast will learn what a typical all girls’ school in Baghdad is like. They will be able to see the differences of a classroom there versus one we are used to in the U.S. This video compares to other footage I have seen of Iraq in that all the schools and outside of the schools they have the same dress code and wardrobe. What I find most memorable about this video is the fact that even though this war is going on all around them, children are still trying to better themselves and going to school acting as if it is not as big of a deal than it really is.

HW 32 "School Supplies"

Riverbend starts off by discussing the first day of school and the first day of the new academic year (Page 94). School supplies were the main topic in which she explains her first day of school. The start of a new year of school for me is full of mixed feelings. I’m excited for a new year to begin but also sad because what usually a great summer I have has come to a fast end. When I was little, I loved going out to the store to buy all my new school supplies which consisted of new pencils, pens, notebooks, paper, folders, etc. Riverbend goes out shopping for her cousins’ daughters. Her cousin doesn’t allow her children to go out themselves because of the war that is still occurring and it is very unsafe as a child to be aimlessly traveling around Baghdad. Riverbend chooses a theme for her cousin’s daughter’s school supplies such as Lion King, Winnie the Pooh, and Barbie. I feel bad for the children who cannot go out themselves to pick out what they want, but they’re lucky that they have Riverbend to be willing to go out for them. As excited as she was to go out and purchase these things that they could not get themselves, the children ended up not liking the certain theme of Winnie the Pooh that Riverbend picked out, but instead wanted Barbie. If this war was not occurring, innocent children of Baghdad would be able to go out and pick exactly what they wanted.