GL 350; week sette

                                                      The ending is just the start of a new begining

            Wow, I cannot believe that this is the last blog I will have to do for this trip of a lifetime. This experience has been life changing and full of memories I will never forget, this is somewhat bittersweet. The memories made and the great people to have met, the humbling moments and tough learning experiences. As writing about week 7 and what we did it was definitely an amazing week filled with a day of possibly the second greatest moment of my life so far.

            The papal audience, it is where we went on Wednesday morning, bright and early. I have been excited and waiting for this for the past 7 weeks and it did not disappoint. We were less than 50yrds away from his holiness. When he walked in their was just so much emotion in the air and all around me, when he walked into the room, I got tears in my eyes, it was an amazing moment for me. That was the second greatest moment of my life so far, with the first being this Easter when I was baptized into the catholic church. A very special thank you to Danilo Mori for making that possible and being that close, I am beyond thankful and appreciative.

            As for the rest of the week we went to Nettuno, to see the American Cemetery of Italy. This was also an emotional moment, not because I had a relative in it but the emotion that grew from being an America citizen. It was amazing to see the two American flags wave proudly in the air that was just a sight in itself, for me anyway. I have never been a very patriotic person except for supporting the troops but I feel like this experience has made me grow into a more patriotic and proud American citizen. Going to that cemetery was a humbling experience, just like the Arlington national cemetery. Then, the city of Nettuno in general is beautiful, kind of like Florida, even though I have never been there. Was went to the beach for a while, the second beach I have ever been too, I can now say I have seen and been to the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic Sea.

The Talented Mr. Ripley, what can I say about it? Well, for the first comment it surpassed my expectations because I thought it was going to be difficult to keep my attention and be a hard read but no, it was not. I loved the book, especially how in the book Mr. Ripley went to Naples and stayed in Venice for a while. I could relate with him going to Venice because I was there and seen what he saw. Now, Naples on the other hand, they talked about it being a place you could go and eat and enjoy yourself but when we visited it for a short period, it was somewhat unnerving and nerve racking because now a days it is a not so friendly and safe place. The book as a whole was good but for the ending well, I was in my room getting close to the end and Tom kept seeing or thought he was seeing police. He thought he was going to get caught, his heart was racing and he was becoming nervous and while, I was reading it I was getting excited because I thought he was finally going to get caught. Then, at the last page, he got off scotch free! I thought it was horrible because I was all ready and excited for him to get caught but he was a free man. I was an excellent book though, a really good read.

This experience, going to Rome, seeing everything that we have seen, it has been amazing. I am so thankful and grateful for this opportunity and being able to live in Italy for eight weeks. I have learned many life lessons from this trip and made memories that will last for forever. I was able to grow deeper into my new found faith, something that I had planned or at least hoped for. I was able to become a more indepenpendent, assertive , patriotic and humble person. This experience reinforced that good old saying that everything happened for a reason, like maybe I did not get into the nursing program and move to the 5 year program, so I would be able to be apart of this experience. All the readings that we have ahead to do, the blogs we have done, somehow made this trip better, I think. As for this last week, I will take in all the scenery, everything that is around me and live this last week to the fullest until that Friday morning, when it is off to America!

GL 350; week Sei

                                                            The Beauty of Saint Peter's
           Catholicism, something that is not really what I thought would be in my life plan but in a strange but life changing coincidence, it is. For me, becoming catholic was because of something I felt deep inside myself, a feeling when I first stepped inside of the chapel at Walsh and attended my first mass that I seem to get every time I enter a church and go to mass. I decided to pursue this feeling and become a part of the Catholic Church this past Easter of 2012. So being able to go to Rome and see the history of my religion and some of the greatest churches that are a part of my religion is very special for me. The atmosphere in the churches we have been in over here are just indescribable for me and am enjoying learning more about all the different saints and development about my religion. Now, out of all the churches we have been to so far, Saint Peters basilica is a sight to see.

            What to say about Saint Peter’s basilica? Well, it is an enormous church, with its arm like pillars stretched out welcoming all the visitors or the vast amount of history within its walls; it is a church to definitely see when you go to Rome. Now, I would consider this church to look modern for its age because it is filled with light colored marble and brightly light unlike the other beautiful churches I have seen. I was able to go to Saint Peters two times and see everything all over again because a church that big, you need to go a second time. Also the fact that the Pope lives nearby is pretty cool. We were able to go underground excavations and to be honest, it was not the most exciting experience I have had except that the guide I had looked like Harry Potter which amused me a lot! At the end of the underground tour it id however become really interesting because there was the remains and burial place of Saint Peter, along with some of the past Popes. We were about to also go on top of the Dome of the basilica, wow, was that a sight to see and even with the over 500 steps, it was amazing. The views of Rome from above and the view of the inside of the church at the bottom were simply amazing. I was very impressed with Saint Peters.

            “Rome was also God’s seat on earth, the rock on which Christ has established His Church…” this was said in “The Italians” on page 295, this was it for me, Rome was were the Catholic church pretty much started, Saint Peters basilica is essentially the center of the church, it is where the pope is located. Rome really is the spot where the center of the Catholic Church first started, quite amazing to think about. Also in “The Italians” on the page before these lines struck me as interesting “The barbarians crowded the museums, filled the concert halls and the Comedie Francaise, honored the dead French cultural heroes while they tortured the living French patriots. Rome, on the other hand, was spared nothing”. The poor city of Rome, always having to rise from the ashes and its people hardly ever catching a break, always being destroyed or pillaged. After six weeks of reading “The Italians” and “The Smiles of Rome”, we are finally done reading them, I was quite happy because that meant we had less reading to do but then I realized “Oh wait, we still have the talented Mr. Ripley.”

            Before I left on my glorious trip to Rome, I watch part of a movie called “The talented Mr. Ripley” on TV. Well, I thought the movie was boring and I did not understand what was going one, partly because I caught it half way. As for the book, as I started to read it, I was immediately bored and thought it was going to be a heard read, after a couple of chapter, it became interesting. At the beginning, I did not understand why Mr. Greenleaf came to Tom in a bar or how Tom knew Dickie, still this confuses me and  was thinking like what kind of person asks an acquaintance to go bring back his son from Italy? But, as I was reading and realized that Dickie was living near Naples and the author was writing about the area around Naples, it hit me that I was going to be around the area he was talking about, even in Naples but for a brief time. As the chapters pasted by I immediately recognized that Tom was a psychopath or at least acted like one, pretending to kill friends girlfriend because she is trying to break up their relationship or the fact that he, Tom, pretends to be Dickie, dressing in his clothes and acting like him, a bit weird and creepy. I was on the train this morning and was reading “The talented Mr. Ripley” when Tom finally did the expected and well, I was not shocked but surprised he did not do something else, I do not want to say because I do not want to spoil it for someone not as far. I had to close the book after reading this because the train has arrived in Termani and I shall expect that the rest of the book will get better and hope that it does!

            Saint Peters square, the basilica, the underground and even the museum, all of it was amazing. The museum, I forgot to talk about it earlier, it was good, felt like, looked like and smelled like a museum but when we got to the Sistine Chapel, it was such a sight to see. Michelangelo’s painting of the last judgment and the ceiling, just amazing to think about how he could have done that. While we were inside the museum, just before the Sistine Chapel, I went to the little café shop to get a bottle of aqua and an espresso because I was very tired and thirsty but what I did not realize is that it was busy and after I paid for my espresso, the line to order was long. Needless to say, I did not get my espresso that I paid for because the line was taking too long and I was afraid for my group to leave me again and, or, miss the Sistine chapel. Luckily, I only paid uno euro for the espresso, so I was not too frazzled about it. For this week coming up, I not only get the chance to go back to Saint Peters basilica but also to see the Pope! I am beyond stoked to attend the Papal audience; I will be bringing all three of my camera’s for that day, Wednesday to be exact. An experience that I think will strengthen my faith a little more and leave a lasting impression.

Soc 490; week sei

                                                     The Italian Market experience
                      

Can a disease be cured through the power of prayer? This is a question that can be answered many ways, yes, no, maybe, it depends. My answer to that question is miracles can happen, they happen almost every day and that through prayer, a disease cannot necessarily be cured by it but the suffering, pain and/or depression from it can be helped. There is indeed the power of prayer and with that it can help a person deal with the disease and whatever comes with it. The power of prayer works in mysterious ways, correction God works in mysterious ways. God will not give us anything that we cannot handle and through prayer we can handle whatever comes at us better.

             The Italians healthcare system is different than that of ours in the United States; t.hey have a complete universal Healthcare system. Yes, the United States is implementing a full Universal healthcare system soon, some parts have already begun, but Italy is a little different. For instance the government employs the doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals like fire fighters and police officers. There doctors and nurses are given a lower salary than that of their counterparts in the United States. As for the quality of healthcare given verses the United States, well, that is a question I cannot answer. So this week for our sociology we were given the assignment of surveying ten Italians about their healthcare system, questions like “Do you like your current doctor”, “what is your age” and “do you like your healthcare system”?

            When we got to the market, I was not nervous about asking complete stranger’s questions or not understanding them because most people me and my partner asked said yes and I never really understand what Italians say anyway so it was no different. Me and my partner, Sydney, we to a university where there were a lot of college students and well, all the ones we talked to smirked at the questions we asked and laughed. Most of the college students, I had answer the questions said “no” about liking their healthcare system and laughed at the question and also said some things in Italians. Then, there was an instance with a group of people where they found a mistake in our Italian translated survey paper, medico was spelled on the paper without the c and, two other people that day pointed it out and scolded me for spelling it wrong, which it was not my fault to begin with. I felt like that most of the college students did not take the survey and the questions seriously but thought it was a joke. Now, when we went to the food/ meat market, it was another story.

            As soon as we went into the food and meat market I felt more comfortable asking the older people the survey because they took it seriously. Most of the older people said “yes to liking their healthcare system and almost all considered themselves to be in good shape. There was a specific gentlemen I remember, he was in his 50’s and was very happy to answer my questions.  As soon as he was done with his survey, he made his son, I assume, fill out the survey too, but as his son begun filling out the survey, the man started talking in Italian to me. I nodded my head and said “Si” even though I was clueless to what he was saying until the very end, “Obama, Obama”, that was the only thing I heard clearly and his son raised his hand in excitement. I told professor about this and he said that Italians love Obama. I thought this was very interesting and wondered what the reasons were as to why they liked him so much? As much as I would like to talk about Obama and my opinion of him, I shall keep my feelings to myself on this one, not like that Italian gentlemen that, I think wanted to talk about Obama and really liked him.

            As for our assigned readings for that week, nothing really caught my eye except for Johnathon Ross’s article where he talked about Massachusetts healthcare model. I was unaware of the fact that Massachusetts has a universal healthcare system in place and that it is working for that state. Now, in Ross’s part where he mentions the states system he complains about it and giving negative facts about it like “Costs continue to rise sharply” and “insurers keep 15-20 percent of the premium dollar for their operating costs and for shareholder profits” and then Ross makes a good point about making universal healthcare nationwide “Do we really want to multiply this complex state experiment by 50 before we see if it can actually work?” I think that this point is excellent because Massachusetts is struggling on how to make universal healthcare work and multiply this by 50 like Ross says and well you will have a mess. Another interesting and 100% agreeable quote he makes is “America needs guaranteed, high-quality, affordable health insurance for all, with “everybody in and nobody out.”We cannot attain this goal if we rely on schemes designed by Wall Street and the for-profit health insurance industry.” I agree that the healthcare system needs some work to provide a way for everyone to be able to get healthcare and get high quality care that is universal from the poor to the wealthy but I do not entirely agree that the Universal Healthcare Obama is enforcing is the best way.

            While I do not believe Obama’s way of going about healthcare is the best, I do not have a choice nor does anyone else because it has been passed and America must agree with Obama because he was reelected. Is the Italy’s Universal healthcare working, yes it is, but just because it is working there does not mean it will work in the United States? As for myself being in the medical field and my future is going to be in the medical field, the whole topic of healthcare is very important to me because I am going to be at the center of it, as a nurse helping the sick, the poor, the wealthy, people of all backgrounds, colors and age, people with no insurance or with it. I am already an STNA, working with people of different backgrounds, ages and reasons for needing care, I see that something needs to be done about the healthcare system we have not, especially Medicaid and Medicare, I just do not know what. Well, I do have several ideas but I do not feel like rambling on and on, more than I have to. We did talk in class about how the Universal healthcare document is available for the public to read but it is over 1200 pages long. I would love to read this document, so I could see the true program for what Obama and congress has said it is but it is not only 1200pages long but is full of small print and full of mumbo jumbo, no doubt

Soc 490 week cinque

The good old debate of Healthcare

            Your health, is it something in our hands or in the hands of God or whoever a person might believe in? Can we control it? Well, this question about our health being something we can or cannot control will always be an open ended question. For me I still believe that your health is something you can and cannot control because there are certain factors about health that you can control and cannot control. Also everyone’s definition of health or good health is different; everyone has different opinions and views. In our assigned readings throughout the weeks, I have not really came across the subject of controlling your health or that topic in general just healthcare, expense of healthcare and insurance or if healthcare is a right or a privilege.

            In our readings in “Gaudium” several things throughout the pages caught my attention. On page 79 there were two small passages, “to bring about a politico-juridical order which will give better protection to the rights of the person in public life” and “there is wider cooperation to guarantee the actual exercise of personal rights to all citizens and not only to a few privileged individuals.” These two passages immediately made me think of President Obama and what he is trying to do with Universal healthcare, making sure everyone has the same rights and exercising people’s rights equally. But, the world is not a fair place and everyone is not treated equal, it is a hard solid fact. Obama is pushing for healthcare being a right, which is something “Gaudium” or “the pastoral constitution of the Catholic church” is for. There were two other interesting passages and they were on page 85, “and also to pass moral judgment in those matters which regard public order when fundamental rights of a person or the salvation of souls require it.”, “While faithfully adhering to the Gospel and fulfilling her mission to the world, the Church, whose duty it is to foster and elevate all that is found to be true, good and beautiful in the human community, strengthens peace among men for the glory of God.” So as I was reading the first passage I relate it to the church being the final judge on healthcare being a right or a privilege and well “Gaudium” points to it being a right and with the second reading, well I just thought it was a very interesting sentence about the church in general.

            As for the other readings we were assigned in the “Universal Health care” book, well I ended up being frustrated about the whole thing. For the past six years of school high school and college, it has been drilled into my head about always having sources cited as to where information comes from. Well, this book and none of the authors have said citations! How do I know that their information is credible or let us discuss that none of the statistics or facts are from the year 2010 and up. How is data about the uninsured or poor from 2006 and 2007 relevant to todays? The job rate, economy and number of uninsured fluctuate with just a day, let alone a couple of years. There have been several authors on both sides having excellent points that capture my attention and sometimes sway my opinion but then I realize “where are the sources and oh, this information about the unemployment rate is from 2007!” It is an informative book and good at weighing the pros and cons but where are the citations.

            Now, for the assigned readings for the universal book, I accidently read an extra article not in the assigned reading, but it was interesting more specifically a passage about a pregnant woman. In Atul Gawande’s article he uses a story about this pregnant woman from Ohio. Starla is due for delivery and she received a letter that her work was going out of business and she was going to lose her health insurance. The bill for the delivery was going to be $9,000 without insurance and with her husband being unemployed it would be difficult to pay. So she talked her midwife into inducing labor, so insurance would be able to cover the charge well, this did not work out in their favor, she had a difficult delivery and problems, that ended up costing them $17,000 dollars which insurance did not cover. This not only made me furious that a mother would do this because the dangers of this were, in my opinion, outweighing the cost of just delivering when she was suppose to but the fact that her midwife agreed is just poor taste and a horrible decision to make. I was appalled, she not only put the baby in danger but also herself and in the end she had to pay double and go through a more difficult labor.

            On the discussion of healthcare being a right or a privilege, we have discussed back and forth about our own views. In “Gaudium” there was a quote that made me think a little more in depth about the subject. On page 82 “Citizens must cultivate a generous and loyal spirit of patriotism but without being narrow-minded.” Maybe those who think healthcare being a privilege, including myself are being close-minded? Not thinking what is best for the whole country and not having faith in our leaders of America but only thinking about our views we are raised with and developed from where we grew up from or the little of the world we have seen around us. I always try to keep an opened mind about things but I feel that I have been looking at healthcare close-minded, not thinking about America as a whole but only a small group of citizens, a very small group. I will be pondering more about this little quote trying to be open-minded about healthcare because to be patriotic you have to be for the whole country, like the soldiers overseas fighting for our freedom, they are not fighting for the freedom of one small part of the country but for the whole country  of the United States.

GL 350; week Cinque

The Gving of Thanks          

  Week five already, wow! The time has sure passed by. It is starting to feel like yesterday that I just rrived.We have seen a lot of amazing sites in Rome, around every corner, you are able to find a site marked historic or found in a history book. In Rome there are no skyscrapers and plenty of green space, more than I had expected. Now, last week I was able to go to the Roma zoo located in Borghese gardens and then this week Gabby and Aubree took us on a tour which included the gardens. We also saw a private museum owned by the Borghese family and it was very impressive.

            Now, at the start of Gabby and Aubree’s tour we walked from Termani to Barbarini and then to the entrance of the gardens. Along the way we stopped at several churches, which were beautiful, Santa Andrea was the name of one of them I do believe, right beside Santa Susanna, the American catholic church of Rome. We were able to walk past the United States Embassy, the American flag waving through the wind and it seemed very special to see for me. We finally made it to the gardens and while we were not given a tour of the gardens, due to the size of the gardens, we were given a summary of them. In relating our readings to what we saw, in “the Smiles of Rome”, the article was about the Italians and their gardens. “These gardens have excited so much admiration that little thought has been given to the house…”, now, the house the museum was located in had a private garden attached, gated in, not to mention the rest of the gardens located around the building. Unlike the quote from the book, this house looked, I think, detailed and expensive, a quite impressive site with the garden filled with fruit and flowers attached. “The result is extraordinarily romantic and beautiful…”, the Borghese gardens were beautiful, well maintained trees, shrubs and flowers, beautiful playgrounds for children to play and a beautiful zoo to attach people of all ages.

            Now, in the readings from “The Italians”, one little passage in chapter nine really caught my attention. “How old are the little boys in Naples who steal nags from parked cars…The eight year old boy who was kidnapped by the Mafia, a few years ago, with his grandfather, one of the great Sicilian landowners, knew, without being told by anybody, that he must show no fear, see nothing, hear nothing, and later remember nothing of what had happened to him.” First the little boys at Naples stealing stuff, well, this coming weekend I am we are traveling to Sorrento, and having to pass through Naples. Apperently, Naples is not exactly know to be that safe of a place to vist so luckly we are only passing through Naples. Second, the other part where the grandfather had to forget about his grandson, well, that was absolutely horrible and just because of the Mafia. I have seen television documentaries about mafias all over the world and they are not the people to mess with or cross paths with. There was another quote in the readings that caught my attention, “These people, however, also discover that all official institutions are weak and unstable in Italy; the law is flexible and unreliable…”, I have noticed here that the Italian law really is flexible, for instance to parking and the driving laws, I have seen people park in the craziest spots where anywhere else in the world, they would have been towed. As for speeding , I have not seen one person pulled over for it and people fly here or that a two lane road really means four lanes, two cars in one lane. I want to try this in the United States but I would prefer to not cause an accident and get arrested because when I tell the nice police officer that they do it in Rome, that is a bad excuse! Now, the one thing we have been told that the police are strict on are the men selling knock off bags, it is illegal and they crack the whip of this activity.

            This week we celebrated Thanksgiving, a holiday all about being thankful for what you are given in life, the family and friends you have and the freedom of living in one of the greatest countries in the world, the United States. We started off that Thursday going to a thanksgiving mass, something I have never done before. The mass was just like any other mass except for at the end the ambassador of the United States to the Holy see read the proclamation of Thanksgiving by President Barrack Obama and then we sang Oh beautiful. The proclamation was not very exciting for me, possibly blaming it on the fact that I am not a fan of Obama but changing the subject, when we sang Oh Beautiful, I was tearing up and it gave me goosebumps. Then it was time to head back to campus and take a nap before dinner. Thanksgiving dinner in Rome was better than I thought. I expected the food to look Italian and taste Italian not like our thanksgiving dinners back home but wow, were my expectations blown away. It was amazing and we all sat around a table eating our thanksgiving dinner together as a family, along with some guests.

            To end this blog I am going to talk about what I am thankful for. First and most importantly I am thankful for my family and friends that I have. Without my family well, I would not be at Walsh, be on this trip and not have all the loving support that I have. Second, I am thankful for the beautiful county that I live in, the United States, while I strongly, very strongly dislike the way the country is going and who is running it, America is still my home, where I was born and where I belong, being in Rome has made me discover this about myself. Third I am thankful for the life I am given and the opportunities given to me, four years ago, I could have never been alive to be doing what I am now and breathing, just plain breathing but I am thankful everyday for this opportunity to be living. To give a little short story I was in an accident and broke my neck, not knowing if I was going to live or die and or function normally again. I am also thankful for this experience and opportunity of going and being in Rome because well, it’s Rome, who wouldn’t want to go to Rome?



Soc 490; week quatro

Healthcare across the world

            So this blog is considered a two for one because we are blogging for not only this week but last week. For sociology class these two weeks we were able to go to the museum of the mind and the museum of medical arts, probably two of the most interesting places I have been so far because the human mind is a very interesting topic for me and the being in the medical field, the medical history interreges me. This blog will contain a variety of of topics, like the two museums, our readings for the week and what caught my eye and, the Romans approach to health care and if health care is something we can control.

            First, I will start off with healthcare and if it is something we can control. In my opinion, yes and no for several reasons. Yes, you can control your health because of the personal choices you make through your life and the lifestyle you chose to live. If you exercise regularly and eat right then you can control a great amount of your health and if you eat poorly and do not exercise regularly just be prepared for the consequences. No, you cannot control your health because of several factors like, genetics, environmental, economic or illness factors. For example, if a person is diagnosed with cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer or even skin cancer, it is all not preventable and more than likely will lead to health problems, something that is out of your control. For example, my lifestyle ad health when I was younger was poor, my diet was unhealthy but I did get exercise and then now I am healthier now a days with the help of weight watchers, maturity, higher impact of sports, parents lifestyle changes and educating myself about the food I eat and what is around me. A person’s health is something they can control but at the same time they cannot control.

            Now, a person health in one country is different from another because of several reasons. Like comparing Rome’s lifestyle compared to the USA. In the United States, there are more wide spread smoking bands, like not in public places or only in certain areas outside but in Italy, I do not think they have such a thing. I have seen people smoke everywhere, blown in my face by a person walking by. If a person chooses to smoke then fine, it does not bother me because that is a person’s right to choose the habit but I do not like Italy’s way of not supporting the greater good against second hand smoke and this is one thing I think Romans need to take from our country. So on that note, the United States needs to take notice on some of the healthy habits of the Romans. Italians do eat healthier or should I say, the food that they eat is healthier. The Mediterranean diet is considered what most Italian people eat, healthy oils, breads pastas fish, nothing deep fried. American diets are filled with fast food or unhealthy food, lots of sugar or fat. Personally, I ate very healthy before coming here but one approach that I will take from the Roman lifestyle is using only olive oil and vinegar for salad dressing, a very healthy habit that I love. The Roman lifestyle is, in my opinion, healthier that of Americas lifestyle because of the options we Americans are given daily, the variety in our foods and ability to go get whatever is on our mind.

            For the readings that we did this week, well the reading in “Gaudium”, seemed to stick with me the most. “The economically more advanced countries and other countries is becoming more serious day by day, and the very peace of the world can be jeopardized thereby” or “Feed the man dying of hunger because if you have not fed him, you have killed him, and really to share and employ by supporting individuals or peoples with the aid by which they may be able to help and develop themselves”. These two quotes for the selected readings caught my attention because they swayed my opinion of healthcare being a right or privilege, go to being in the middle. The more of a gap there is between the poor and the better off people will lead to problems, whether it is in the country or the state that we live in. The more people we leave uninsured, not by choice, the more people unable to afford or get care and we need to take care of those who cannot take care of themselves. While it does make no sense to help those who can help themselves, I do not think it is possible to separate the people that really need help verses the people that don’t need help, you can either give insurance to both groups or do not give insurance to both groups. In Gaudium, it always talks about the “universal common good” or the common good”, this phrase is said a lot and I am thinking more and more toward the common good but it is difficult to change the way you think.

            In the other readings for this week it was all about other countries healthcare system verses ours. The biggest problem I have with the universal healthcare book, Is the fact that there are no citations or ways that I can look up the information or the fact that I have not found a single fact an author has given from any year past 2010. Data from 2009 and older serve as no evidence for today’s statistics and figures of the medical care given today or people uninsured and the lower economical class of the United States. Or the author, Michael Tanner, giving statements like “you could lose your current insurance, Are you happy with your insurance? Too bad.” Or “ no matter, the government know best”. And another “higher taxes…estamates of the new healthcare program run from $65 billion to $600 billion…..money ultimately coming out of the pockets of hard-working men and women.” Tanner is making all that “could” statements these things could happen but we will not know until it happens or doesn’t happen. The estimated cost he gives, well he does not give a source for this information and the fact that everything fro buying a car, fixing a car, student loans or building a new school has an estimate of what it would cost, something’s can go over a given estimate and somethings can be under estimated.

            Overall, I have learned that the Roman approach to healthcare is not exactly as healthy as it seems, like the way they approach food is healthy, like olive oil and vinegar for everything and fast food not as readily available, but for the more open smoking atmosphere, that is not. Or, that your health is something you can and cannot control no doubt about that. I am controlling my health to be better and I am in fact getting better, healthier over time, 60lbs gone and still losing. As for healthcare being a right or a privilege well, I am now on the fence, ideas inside my head are just swirling around and around, bouncing off the walls, so as of now I am undecided on which is the better choice. As for the best part of the past two weeks the museum of the mind was the best, absolutely exciting and it made me look forward to learn even more about the human mind through my upcoming years of nursing and psychology classes!

GL 350; week quarto

                                                                        Roma, the beautiful

            Oh, Lions, tigers, and bears, a day at the zoo that is filled with animals and a place that is my favorite to go to. So I was able to go to the Roma zoo in the Borghese gardens. The zoo was small but fun either way, I saw a lot of monkeys, there was probably over forty in this one exhibit. I felt like a child again going to the zoo, getting excited over all of the animals. Also written in my agenda for that weekend was seeing the new James Bond movie, Skyfall and, it was better than I thought because I have never seen a Bond movie before. Then on that Sunday we went to Santa Susanna, the American Catholic Church in Rome, for mass. So as the week began, we were given our schedule that included Piazza della Rotonda and Navona and Aventine Hill.

            On the first for the week were Piazza della Rotonda and Piazza Novona. Now, to get to Pazza della Rotonda we had to ride good old bus 64, not as terrible as our first experience on it. The bus was worse the very first time because none of us had been in a situation like that before and we were all still jet lagged, in my opinion. In the Rotonda, there were no cars in the square, well big oval but there were a ton of street artists. We saw the four rivers fountain in the piazza, very cool and the detail on the fountain was amazing. I was most impressed by the lion and alligator at the bottom and the fact that people back then knew how to create fountains like that back in the day. We went into this church well, we went into several churches that day and each one just as beautiful as the next. We also saw and went into the Pantheon, an amazing structure with a hole in the ceiling but the coolest part is that it has catholic saints inside and Roman Gods as well, a common display of different religions. The only part of the tour that was a little disappointing was the fact that subway was closed for lunch when we went but it was funny and interesting when the hostess to the restaurant next door was telling us that they bought out subway and should eat at his place, which we did not.

            Then, on the agenda for the next day was Aventine Hill. We got off at the metro station of Circo Massimo and the first thing we saw was the Circo Massimo, where the first chariot races were held in Rome. Our wonderful professor, enlightened me with a little fact about these chariot races, the races went counterclockwise and that is the reason why the Nascar races now a day’s goes counterclockwise! Then we went to this door or structure at this church and the old folk tale about it is that if you tell a lie when you stick your hand in the mouth of the figure, it bits your hand off and, I told a lie, my hand is still attached. We walked a lot on this tour but I enjoyed it the city was beautiful. We had class on top of this hill and overlooking a balcony, you could see a panoramic view of Rome and Saint Peters basilica off in the distance, beautiful, just beautiful.

            So in the readings this week, it was all about “The Smiles of Rome”, we had two stories to read and one especially caught my attention. The first reading, well it was about this author who lived in Rome and always lived in some kind of historic apartment, a semi- boring story. Now, the second story was about this author, Alice Steinbach, who visited the city and had a frightful experience. It all started when she went for a coffee at cafe Greco in Piazza de Spania. While she was drinking her expresso, she noticed this man in a coat at the bar, she did not think much of it until she left and figured out she was being followed. She kept walking and then faster because she noticed more men and knew that she was in trouble, more specifically mugged. She ran and screamed, luckily getting away. This story caught my attention because the other week in Rome I went off by myself to explore. My plan was to go back to the Jewish ghetto and get my brother a star of David. I was not scared or nervous at all, achually I was excited because I was free to be on my own schedule and do what I wanted to do, I got lost in Rome and was able to find my way around. I accomplished a lot that day and did not have any issues besides the flats I wore not being water proof. After reading that story, I was a little sick to my stomach, thinking “oh my, what if something like that happened to me”, but it did not so no worries.

            As the week was winding down, we were all prepping for our trip to Florence. I was over ecstatic to be riding a high speed train, hitting over 230 kmh. It was again a good week in Rome, no issues with anything and things running semi-smoothly. The only thing bad that happened this week was my camera dying on me, twice. Why? Because I forget to charge it, so maybe I will learn from my mistake and remember to charge it. Actually, I will still forget to charge it and forgetting to charge it will happen again, no thinking positive on that one.