Pack your bags!... wait PACK MINE!

As it was briefly discussed in class, travelling has changed. The book cited some very meaningful examples, however the article did not take into account the way in which the Internet has changed how we look at the world and how we get to know it.

Your assignment for today is to organize a two-week-trip for me, my wife and eight-year-old daughter to a destination in Central or South America. WE want to visit at least three cities in the country you have been assigned. You must book hotels, transport and recommend where to eat, and costs.

RULES:

• Do NOT copy and paste.
• Do NOT use a translator
• Research in more than one site.
• Explain why I should follow your recommendations.
• Further down the page there is a format on how bibliographical references should be cited. Follow it.
• Be creative and critical
• You will write an INDIVIDUAL report in WORD, and mail it in as an attachment saved as DESTINATION_LastnameFirstname; example MEXICO_OrtizRafael.
• Attachments which are not saved as instructed will not be accepted.
• MAIL IN YOUR FINAL REPORT to ralfortiz@gmail.com BY Saturday, March 24th at MIDNIGHT at the latest.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

• Go to http://www.tripadvisor.com/ to see the opinions posted by other travellers.
• Visit video sites such as http://www.travelchannel.com/TV_Shows/Anthony_Bourdain to gain a different perspective.
• Read travel columns.
• Check online periodicals like http://www.nytimes.com/ or http://www.guardian.co.uk/ which have very respectable travel sections.
  

TEAM 1 Argentina
TEAM 2 Brazil
TEAM 3 Costa Rica
TEAM 4 Ecuador
TEAM 5 Chile
TEAM 6 Paraguay
TEAM 7 Peru
TEAM 8 Uruguay

Empathy & Solidarity

What does empathy mean to you? What about solidarity? I want you to write down some ideas about what those words mean to you. I also want you to look for several definitions. Look beyond a simplistic answer. Look them up in a regular dictionary and in an encyclopedia. Can these words be defined as a philosophy or an ideology? An approach to life?

After you have some idea of how you view or understand these terms you need to watch a video on lecture called The Emphatic Sociaty. The video is nearly 11 minutes long, so you need to factor that into your time because the video also needs to buffer. You should try watching it at least twice so you can take extensive notes. By the endo of the class, you need to have full understanding of what the lecture is about, as well as, being able to point out the main ideas.

With the notes you take during THIS class, and once you go through this presention, you will write an essay on empathy, to be turned in on Monday, June 6th, 2011.

Topic Sentences.

Organizing a pragraph.

Sentence combining & Clarity.

Leave a comment after you download and read the documents.

1st Semester Projects - We can be heroes, just for one day.

Kids did great. Ralf is super proud.

Just do it

Your blogging assignment is very simple. As all of you have been working very hard on your proyects, you will wrtite an entry (180 worns minimum) where you describe your product, what you have discussed with your team mates, name of the product, and how you all agreed on the chosen product. In your entry you must use INVERSION in conditionals at least twice.

Once you have completed your post, you will send the link for that entry to my mail ralfortiz@gmail.com . Do NOT just send the blog address. Your assignment must be completed to its full extend during class.

WHAT THE BLOG!

What is a blog? Why would you do it? Wouldn't it be just easier to walk on over to the smoking zone a lite up a cigarette? It might be, but how creative is that? Not much, my dear kids, no much.

Many years ago, when I was a college student, I had this little publication, which I made with my friends. We would gather what money we could to buy the paper. We would ask our teachers to give us as much blank paper as they could. As time passed, issues had better content and design. "El Osio" (that was the name of our little endeavour) grew in popularity. The revolution was not going to be televised, it was being printed. or so we thought. Regardless of its innocence, the powers that be crushed our efforts. We were censored, as John Mellencamp sang " I fight Authority, and Authority always wins".

Long gone are the days of the photocopied or stenciled fanzine, the shotty graphics, the running ink, the type writer font. Now we have blogs, cyberspace fanzines. People post freely, unless you want to give away intellectual property... but you can do that too, as many do.

Your assignment is to create a blog and post entries in relation to your;

1. Visits to museums
2. Culinary recommendations, innovations
3. Visits to restaurants,
4. and how to make the best of San Luis Potosí

• Your first be posting should be finished by Friday evening (March 5th), and will deal with your first two visits to museums. As you can guess, you will have to visit EVERY museum in the city. This is an on going project, with weekly postings.
• You postings MUST be published in English, with NO spelling mistakes or grammatical errors, so work carefully.
• Your postings should be informed, and well documented. You must upload images proving you were at each of the places and events.
• You will send me an email to ralfortiz@gmailcom with your link.
• You must follow your classmates blogs and comment on their postings.

As an example I have linked blog for you at thhttp://anthony-bourdain-blog.travelchannel.com/read/im-not-angry?fbid=5CDesbkc637.

There are endless online tutorials on blogging. BE CREATIVE!

Group 12 webproject for October

As you know, there are many festivals and celebrations in different towns an cities around the world. For this project you have to find a festival (holiday, celebration or annual event), and IN YOUR OWN words describe what people normally do for the festival, as a community and a family and as individuals. You have to describe the habits and facts of the holiday, celebration, festival or event.

RULES:

• NO wikipedia.
• Only check pages in English.
• DO NOT copy and paste.
• Report all the websites you use.
• Expand your vocabulary.
• Be creative.

Work groups:

• Alejo to Gómez - Latin America
• González to López - Africa
• Martínez to Rodríguez - Asia
• Salinas to Vargas - Europe

You have 2 weeks to finish (by October 22). Attach a Microsoft WORD document with the title G12WEBPROJECT_last name_first name (for example, G12WEBPROJECT_ortiz_rafael).

This counts for your 10 participation points.

GOOD LUCK!