Money Represent Happiness?

Bob Marley Quote

Reading the book, The Geography of Bliss written by Eric Weiner, I discovered that Happiness could be seen differently depending where you are and what culture you live by. Everyone has their own definition of happiness and happiness can found be found in anywhere in the world. Weiner has been to Bhutan and has found that every person he has met there is happy in their own way.  While being in this country, Weiner always had in mind “can money buy happiness”. This idea seems to be emerging very so often in the book and has capture my attention. Furthermore I feel that this idea may be true sometimes, because sometimes we need money to keep ourselves happy and to keep others happy, without money where would we be. I think money is the key to happiness, if we have money we will have more opportunities in receiving an education which will lead to open doors to a great career which will result in happiness. But money doesn’t represent the whole happiness. Weiner points out, “Maybe the secret to happiness is money. Lots of money. And if money can buy happiness, or at least rent it for a while, then surely Qatar, by some measures the wealthiest country in the world, must also be the happiest”.  I agree with Weiner’s believes because we all need money at one point to start off somewhere in order for it to lead to a happy ending. In my opinion, even if theirs a wealthy country I believe theirs still people living in that country that aren’t happy because they might be suffering from a disease or poverty. I believe that at some point money can’t always buy happiness, but there are other things besides money that can make others happy like love or trust. Weiner acknowledges, “Money sometimes buys happiness. You have to break it down, though. Money is a means to an end. The problem is when you think it is an end in itself. Happiness is relationships, and people in the west think money is needed for relationships. But it’s not. It comes down to trustworthiness. I agree if you don’t have trust in a relationship then you won’t be happy but if your relationship consists of trust and honesty you will be a happy couple. That’s all you need in a relationship, trust and honesty, if you have both those things then you will be happy and won’t need much money to make each other happy.

Things You Can't Buy

Outsiders vs Insiders

Book

“It is as if, then, the beauty—the beauty of the sea, the land, the air, the trees, the market, the people, the sounds they make—were a prison, and as if everything and everybody inside it were locked in and everything and everybody that is not inside it were locked out. And what might it do to ordinary people to live in this way every day? What might it do to them to live in such heightened, intense surroundings every day”  (Kincaid)

In this passage from the final section from Small Place, Kincaid addresses the mixed blessing of Antigua’s beauty. Once again, she does so by considering the difference between the Antiguan point of view and that of anyone not from the island. The landscape cannot make Antigua wealthy in a material sense—there is no oil, timber, or great fertile prairie to be developed. Instead, the landscape’s beauty is Antigua’s great natural resource, which means it is also one of the great determining factors of Antiguans’ lives. Tourists are drawn to the island because of this beauty, and, for them, the inhabitants are part of the scenery. In this sense, outsiders are “locked out” of understanding what the lives of the insiders are truly like. The insiders are “locked in” in a similar way—they belong to the landscape more than it can ever belong to them. The surroundings are so “heightened” and “intense” that they seem to negate some of the intensity of people’s actual existences. As Kincaid says, the beauty of the island is so perfect and unchanging that change itself seems impossible. When everything is extraordinary, making judgments about what needs to change is difficult, and the fate of becoming simply a passive observer of a beautiful cage seems unavoidable.

Tourist for a Day

The last weekend I went to Nassau, the largest city, and commercial centre of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. During my stay on the island, I was able to see the whole city, its culture and tourist attractions. I could also talk and interact with people there. In memory of this great experience I decided to write a little about how it feels to be a tourist for a day.

My day started when the sun enters my room, through the balcony. I took a bath and got ready for everything I expected to do. When I went down to the lobby, I went to where they were getting breakfast. When I started eating, he took me by surprise, how spicy was the food. My mouth began to catch on fire. However it was very good. When I finish I went to the surrounding area of the hotel, to do what all tourists do... take pictures. I took pictures of the beach, the pools, the aquarium, the fishes, the rays, and the sharks; also I took pictures of details of the structure of the hotel. I took about 200 photos that day. Then I went to the waterslides and pools. There I talk with many people from other countries. Everyone asked me, where I was from, they said that we were very friendly and cheerful. When we said we were from Puerto Rico, they laughed and said, "I thought so." Sometimes I was a little difficult to understand them because their English was a funny accent. When I finished my tour in the hotel I went to the downtown.

There we went to eat at a place called "Fish Fry". There we ate their typical food name it “conch”. Then we walked to see the streets, houses and shops.  When we came back to the hotel, we did it in a taxi. The unusual of the trip was that I was sitting at the front, on the left side of the car but I was not driving. This is because in the Bahamas they drive on the opposite lane as lead in Puerto Rico. They drive like in England. I finished my great day with a bath and a bed that was very comfortable.

Being a tourist for a day I learned the value of culture. Each country has their meals, their language and their way of being that is what makes this world so varied. I loved the experience of being a tourist for a day. Undoubtedly one of my best. I recommend you visit the Bahamas, it is a beautiful island.

Creative Patterns In The Reading

Autobiography Image

The Nobel Prize for literature has gone to someone who deserves it. Like the great masters of the past, V.S. Naipaul tells stories which show us ourselves and the reality we live in. His use of language is as precise as it is beautiful. Simple, strong words, with which to express the humanity of all of us. One of those stories is one that we discussed in class name it “Reading and Writing”. In this one he described by the publishers as a "literary autobiography", was written for the Charles Douglas-Home Memorial Trust. And in it the Trinidad-born Naipaul reflects upon the books and experiences that shaped his imagination and persona and brought him closer to his childhood ambition at as young, as 11 years old, to become a writer. Naipaul tells of deciding to become a writer at a young age but acknowledges that for most of his youth his ambition "was a kind of sham". He didn't write (having little occasion, need, or desire to do so), and he didn't read much either. It is a disarming admission, not what one expects from someone who became such a important author. But his certainty about his destiny, his ability and his need to continue to think of himself as a writer, even when there were no indications he would or even could become one, is also striking. There is little detail, about the individual books and the circumstances of their creation, but what he does reveal is very different. 
Convincing too and a main point of the book is his a literary background and its consequences. He approached writing without the weight or the help of literary tradition. He did not read much, and when he began to read more he also approached and understood literature as an outsider. Naipaul is a craftsman and clever, too. He expresses himself easily and clearly though his skill also allows him to manipulate the reader, as he perhaps too readily does. In his autobiography, he uses an easygoing way to tell them. He didn’t write with hard or well-bred words. He told it like a story without a continue order of event. Also He describes all the people around them like characters of a story. He is very brilliant. I think that this manner of write a autobiography is very useful to draw attention to more people, because the reader don’t feel anytime boring.

Journal Reflection

As everybody knows, I’m a student from the University of Puerto Rico Río Piedras Campus. To fulfill my college curriculum, I will take many classes that are not in my major. We must do, in order to graduate. But I'm not complaining, I think that we as future professionals, we must need to know about a lot kinds of themes and skills. I really know that its help to everybody to become successful people in society. One of those classes is an English literature.

This semester I am taking this class with Dr. Cynthia Pittmann. The class name is Journey in Literature. As part of the class assignment, we had to make a journal (notebook), in which we write our personal experiences and thoughts. We were supposed to keep a travel journal during 3 months, writing 5 entries each week, with a total of 40. The journal is not a typical diary, we had to follow some rules given to us by our professor from the book Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within By Natalie Goldberg. We were meant to follow these rules, which were called "The Anti-Rules"; these are, keep your hand moving, don't cross out, don't worry about spelling, punctuation or grammar, lose control, don't think, don't get logical, go for the jugular (difficult emotions). Honestly when I first heard, I thought it was something very weird. That first day I start writing and in my mind I said, “How I start? About what topic I want to write?” I continue writing and I start cross out some misspelled words. Also I was very carefully with the spelling and punctuations. From the beginning I was failing with almost all the rules. I need to do not get logical, do not cross out, do not worry about spelling and punctuations. Honestly that first day was a totally mess. The next days I put in my mind that I can follow the rules. Through the weeks I put more and more effort to all my entries. Each day I felt that my skills with the anti rules are improving. At the finals entries honestly, I felt that I was not writing. I felt that my hand are moving apart of my mind. I think that finally I get to the jugular, the hardest part. I finally master the anti-rules.

In the same journal the professor assign to the entire class to also write a Life Compass. We were supposed to write 2 of them each week, with a total of 12 at the final. This Life Compass it's very similar to a normal compass, but instead of North, South, East and West we have S, E, M and P; each letter means spiritual, mental, emotional and physical, respectively. At each letter we need to score with a scale of 1 to 3 representing how we felt in that moment and in what place we were. Also we had to write a few sentences explaining why we took this score. I was writing the compass about for 3 months and I giving different sores for each letter. When I finish all of them, I took the time to watch them and reflect on them. I saw that my lowers scores were days that I was in college, I had a lot of work to do, or had exams. But when I was in my home, when I had took some break to chill we my friends, or simply I was doing what I like, my scores got high.

 Both exercises help me to find some thoughts or ideas that were deep inside me. Also helps me to improve my English vocabulary and my fluency. I challenge you to try it too. I hope that helps, as it did to me.

Journal

The Transformative Magic of Travel

Judith Fein is an award-winning travel writer, speaker and videographer who lives to leave. She is the author of the acclaimed book, Life is a trip: The Transformative Magic of Travel. With her photojournalist husband Paul Ross, she travels the world, learning about how other people live, love, laugh, worship, eat, celebrate.

In Life is a Trip Judith Fein takes readers on l4 exotic journeys where she learns from other cultures new and transformative approaches to family discord, death, success, fear, faith, forgiveness and overcoming trauma.

Book

       In the chapter 8 of her book, she wrote about her trip to Guatemala. In this trip she was surprise with the Mayan Culture and their gods. Being a spiritual seeker, Fein makes a point of connecting with healers, wise and holy persons, those who seem to have some deeper connection than most to enlightenment. If not in person, she finds the experience that is more intense than the every day.  In my opinion this experience we new cultures helps people to realize and think about the life. The next year, I am planing go to Cusco, Perú and I'm so excited to know other culture. I think that cross-cultural experiences and activities involve an exchange of ideas about people's identity.

"The difference between being a tourist and a traveler is that a traveler is open to unplanned experience and doesn't have her nose stuck in a guidebook, tracking down famous sites. She ventures out from behind glass windows (in hotels and touring buses) and meets people. She connects. The difference between a traveler and a travel journalist is that the latter is always searching for stories. But it occurred to me that any traveler can travel like a journalist--looking for cues and clues, diving into   new cultures, and coming home with great stories and new ways of responding to life."