China and Japan: A Closer Look

As far as I can tell the Chinese and the Chinese nation as a whole appear to celebrate several national/regional holidays including ones like the "Festival of Decorated Cannon Rings" or the "Knife-Pole Festival". Both of those festivals are unfamiliar to us as U.S. citizens, but to the people of China they are both known and celebrated. Somewhat more familiar holidays however would be their Christmas and New Years celebrations where they are celebrated in much the same way as they are celebrated in the U.S.. Although China and Japan celebrate the New Year in the same way we do and on the same day (Dec 31st/Jan 1st), they also celebrate their own New Year in a different way and on a much different day.

The traditional artwork of China and Japan and it's people is also different than ours. Some of their more modern or less trasditional artwork, however, is the same or at least somewhat similar to the modern artowrk of the U.S.. Mostof their traditional art is very 2D or lacking in the realism and natural structure of the contemporary artwork of the time. Many of the images depicted in the art show people with very little depth or any other means of depth related spacial relations. regardless though, their art is still some the oldest and mst beautiful art found on our little planet.

The food in China/Japan is primarily based around traditional rice and sea food based dishes. Many of more popular foods in China/Japan include sushi, tofu, egg drop soup, and these little wraps of rice, pork, and I think lettuce. I can't at this particular moment remember what they're called but they taste good. Regardless of what they're food is made of or how you pronounce it(which I also find frustrating) they're food is by far some of the best traditional, non-american food.

http://web2.wku.edu/~yuanh/China/holiday.html

Facts of India

India is about one third the size of the US but has nearly three times the population. Much of the country suffers from poverty and nearly half of them are vegetarians due their religious belief in hinduism. The cow is one of their most sacred animals as well as goats and many other animal related object type things. Luckily nearly everyone in india over the age of 15 can both read and write. The average life expectancy is around 60 years and the brith rate is three times the rate of death in the country. Simply put, their population is growing. Overpopulation is already a major issue in India but it doesn't seem to be a major care in the life of most of the people who call India their home. If you consider that India has about 3 times the US population and is only one third the size of the US then you can figure that about 80 people per square mile live in the US and nearly 720 people per square mile live in India! Thats' just crazy. India is also renowned for their spicy food and their excesively expensive restaraunts in the city of New Dheli.

Sources
http://www.wikipedia.com
http://www.cia.database.com

India Freewrite

India from my persepctive is a very crowded and vey uhhh less than technologically advanced. the food from india to me seems like it wouldbe very good and the people very friendly but it doesn't seem like any town their would be overly clean or wondefully great tostay in for an extended period of time although i no that's not true i'm just not sure what else to think because i haven't actually been theirbefore and everything i no aboutit is just from the things that i sen on tv and on the news and in movies. i'm sure that if iwent there myself or atleast went to one of the more unrbaized or more uhh.....well built areas that i might find the experience rather enjoyable- otherwise im not sure what im doing right now because ive ran out of things to think about but uhh...no actually i would excited to go to india because ive never been anywhere except the US and parts of canada so anywhere i could go that i havent been to andthats in another country would be an exciting thing for me and im sure i would find something that i would enjoy in india.

Response to Islamic Misconceptions

I believe that many of these misconceptions aren't true in that we, as a nation, have basically decided that anyone of islamic or arabic decent follow many of these misconceptions. One of the misconceptions being that Islamic people are terrorists due to the belief that they fight in "Jihads" or Holy Wars and do so to please their god, but in fact, according to the Allah, will only fight a war when oppressed by others or forced to do so because of great oppression. And in that way I think that they are very similar to us because we do not usually enter wars unless provoked or oppressed enough by the effects of the war to make us want or need to enter it. Much like many other misconceptions these are almost always stereotypical and usually not true.

Another misconception is that those of Islamic faith in no way tolerate those of any other faith. When, infact, part of this is true and is stated in one of their religious texts as something similar to "those who do not follow Islam will not, in the end, be accepted into paradise." But it also says that those who do not follow Islam must be tolerated by all Islamic peoples or they to will never see the light of paradise either. So in my mind they have a very specific form of religion, but they don't try and force it upon others or "shun the non-believers" and in that way keep to many of the "rules", so to speak, of other religions. Even if other religions aren't as strict in these guidelines they are still followed to some degree. In the end the Muslim or Islamic worlds aren't much different than ours except in their perspective of the natural order of things and they should be treated the same as everyone else in the world without all of these misconceptions clouding our judgement.

Part of the Middle Eastern culture that many people dont think about is the celebrations of those that live their such as birthday celebrations. Many people in Egypt and in parts of the Middle East don't even celebrate birthdays because they think it's "Un-Islamic" or simply not part of their culture. One man even stated that "I don't like it when someone tells me happy brithday. It's like a reminder that I'm getting closer to death."
Some symbols of the East or in this case in Egypt included the Ankh or symbol of life that looks like a modern day religious cross in almost everyway except that it has a loop on the top. Another symbol is the All Seeing Eye or Eye of Horus which is found all over the world, including all U.S. paper currency, and shows a pyramid with the top slightly raised above the rest and containing an open eye that supposedly overlooks all that goes on in the world.


_-={}--Sources for this blog are listed in order of appearance--{}=-_
http://www.shira.net/culture/birthdays.htm
http://www.shira.net/symbols.htm

Middle East Freewrite

The only thing that i no about the middle east right now is that it remindsme of a big open desert with lotsf little settlements of people carrying backpacks while leading a camel with the occasuional dude walking by with an RPG or an assualt rifle screaming their ..uhh..whatever kind of war crythey scream ...but mostly im dont think that a very large percentage of the population over their actually does those things becasue i no that a lot of them actually live in very decent cities next to fresh markets and other neccessities that our country has and the places that i mentioned first with the camels are more or less like or ranch style living or rural areas except i dont think that most of our farmers have RPGs and camels...but other than that they're pretty much the same... atleast they seem similar to me...the people with the guns and the nukes and all that fun stuff are the people that live in the cave hide outs in the hills without their camels and who just sit their and wait for a US troop to drive by and then shoot them with sniper or wait for them to hit a road mine...even though this isn't true for most of the country its what ive seen and what gets stuck in my head everytme i think it so regardless of the truth factor here its the only thing that going throught my mind right now other than the fact that i didnt eat a whole lot of breakfast so im pretty much starving to death ...anyway i dont really kow of anything else that i need to get out there right now so im jst goin to keep typing and hahahahaa were done i think oh well.

The thing I might be surprised to learn about the middle east is that they probably dont donearly as much of the terrorist activities throughout their daily lives as many of us percieve themto be doing but i think that oneof the most surprising things ill learnis that how similar they are to us.

Life Changing Experience

The most memorable life changing experience that I can remember happened when I was about 10 years old. I was in the fourth grade doing some kind of work and my teacher asked me to follow her out into the hall along with another student that I don't remember to well. As we were walking out into the hall I was trying to think of what the other student and I might have done wrong to get into trouble. But when we made it far enough into the hall so as to be out of earshot of the other students the teacher told me that I was being selected to join R.A.P. or the Radical Activities Program for the small amount of artistic talent I had in the fourth grade. And the other student was being selected for her exceptional reading skills. When we returned to the classroom there were several people asking us why we had to go into the hall, but I didn't say anything about the R.A.P. program or give an excuse as to why I might have been in trouble. But this program basically gave me all the time I needed to doodle without any restrictions and to develop the talent I had. Because of this I became very fond of drawing, something that I had previously done only as a way of procrastinating when doing my homework.

Now I've become fairly good at art in general, but I'm sure that I wouldn't have the talent I do today if it weren't for the teachers that had selected me for the program. So I'm glad that I was pulled out into that hall with the false sense of shock that was placed on me by the teacher as I was pulled out into the hall. Because being taken out of class once per week to do something that I wasn't very good at, but still enjoyed, was the major turning point in my life as a compulsive "doodler". I think that this just goes to show that practice does indeed make perfect and if you do something you enjoy you'll never stop learning and you'll only improve your skill each and everyday. The person I am today comes directly from having this life changing experience and is definately the most important change that has happened in my life so far.