In 2007 I visited my homeland country Mali for the first time with my family .Mali is located in West Africa and the city that I am from is known as Bamako.As soon I arrived in Mali I immediately felt displaced because the scenery was so different from New York City,where I came from.The first thing I did when I saw all these people who seemed to know who I am was cry. I wanted to go back home to a place I was comfortable .As days went on I had to adjust to the Mali lifestyle .In Mali there is a big families per household so there was about 20 people living in a fairly large house.Since it is okay in Africa to have multiple wives I was confused when I had to call two different women grandma and had to know the difference between my first and second aunts and uncles . This was not easy but as time passed I got use to it .As for the food in Mali ,about 6-7 people eat together in one bowl.I was so shocked that this was happening and could not adjust to this displacement so I was served with my bowl and a utensil since they ate everything with their hands.During my stay I tried to fit in with the lifestyle of my cousins like playing games outside such as jump rope since I am familiar with that and I learned some games that I did not know about.Considering I was young when I attended Mali I do believe it was harder to adjust to their lifestyle .The next time I visit Mali God willing I think I will not have the feeling of being displaced as much because now I am more familiar and understanding of my culture.

Topic:Adoption

How is it adjusting to displacement once you find out you are adopted?Do you always feel displaced even if you did not know you were adopted yet?

Topic :Nursing Homes

How is adjusting to the change of leaving your family to living in a nursing home affect you as a whole ?Psycholgical?Physical?

Topic:Experience of being an illegal immigrant

What does the displacement of being an illegal immigrant feel like plus the stigmas on it  and how do you deal with it ?

In Gossip Girls all of the main characters come from wealthy families and live  in the upper east side and go to a prestiguous high school because of the money their parents have saved up for them.They do not have to work hard to go to Ivy leaugue schoos as well because of their family name.That was not the case for Dan one of the main characters Dan was not like the rest of the characters he came from lower Manhattan and wen to the high school because of his hard work and recieved a scholarship.He was dispacled because he was the “poor” kid no one knew trying to find a way to get used to the change and that is why he created gossip girl.It was his way to get accumstomed to the upper east side.He had to learn how to keep up with the scandals and dramas even though he came from a simple life and then entered a world full of somebodies when he considered himself a nobody.

Transition from being with my friends everyday,from having to make new friends and spreading away from my same crew from high school was a very different hard experience for me .When I entered Baruch , I was very stubborn and promised myself I would not join anything I would stay to myself and go straight from school and home . I did this for about the first two weeks and I was not happy at all .I would call my friends and explain that this school sucks everyone is about their books and no one is friendly ,but it was really all me.The reason it was hard to make friends or join anything was because I did not want to step out of my comfort zone to know anyone .It felt strange to not be going to the same classes with the same people Monday through Friday .Taking the boat to school by myself,riding the train back by myself I thought it was making me a loner and weak ,but instead it was only making me stronger and I found out more about myself then I ever did within last semester .I realized I am a very social person and love to communicate with others so why not go and start fresh with networking .That is what Baruch is all about networking and meeting new people so that is what I did .It was hard at first because I was shy.As soon as I steeped out of my comfort zone all opportunities began to come my way.I made friends with classmates ,club mates ,and even people in tutoring .Getting out my comfort zone saved me and it allowed me to feel more confident and comfortable with myself although it wasn’t an easy task and beat it even though there were obstacles in the way.Change is not always a bad thing it actually just allows you to view what was actually hidden inside which in my case was opportunity .

The art-a-thon event I went to was the sentence one.At first I thought it was going to be boring because there is not much in a sentence .I believed they were just going to be explaining how we can formulate different sentences.What I learned from the workshop is that there is actually so much that can come from just one sentence .The sentence we focused on was “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”Jane Austen,Pride and Prejudice(1813).The sentence starts with the word “it”.The first thing that was asked to us was what does that “it” mean exactly.The “it” is actually referring to “that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife ” or the it could be referring to the ” truth universally acknowledged “.The sentence has a lot to play around with and during the workshop the Professor who was hosting it used a diagram to separate each clause and said every sentence has a clause ,but not every clause is a sentence.Also in the sentence the author wants to to believe that what she is saying is true but she doesn’t mainly say it’s true by the word placement.She wants everyone to believe that a man should have a nice wife and frames it in a way in which you will believe her but she is not stating that is completely false or true .The workshop was very interesting from the parts that I stayed for and it made me think about word placement and it is something I will look out more for.

Why did the counselor stop and ask Dina why she said she wanted to be a revolver when she said it clear to understand?

Would they have treated Dina the same if she wasn’t a colored girl and said revolve?

What caused Dina to be a misanthrope and why did she let Heidi in if she did not like people?