Memphis yeaaaaaa going to the final four!!!!! People didn’t think that we were going to make it but here we are and we are here to stay and go to the championship game probably against UNC. That is the match up that I want to see and it’s probably a very good game. The Tar heels should have no problem with Kansas they should beat them on a very big margin. Now the UCLA vs. Memphis is the game that should be a very good game in the final four. UCLA have very good players and they have a history over us. They have 11 NCCAA tournaments titles and many more experiences; we have 0 titles and almost no appearances. If we play the way we played against Michigan St. and Texas then there no team that can beat us and we should be able to go all the way and win the championship.

Memphis the underdog or not. they have had a veruy good season but they have been over shadow because of their conference. Now even Ut knox is gone and we move on to the elite eight. There are still some people that think that we cant make it and that we will loose especially because the game is going to be played at houston and Texas is going to have the advantage. But all we have to do is focus on day at a time point to point. I think that the tigers are going to go all the way to the championship and there we just need to see who comes out to play. Becaue even tuogh i want the tigers to win is all goin to come down to the day of who ever come out yo play and who ever wants it more that will be the winners of the NCCA tournament. Go tigers all the way.

reading two

The second writer was much better because I was more interested in the baseball theme and he just didn’t seem like a regular writer. He was not the stereotype he was cool at least I tough he was. It was interesting to see how he put his book together and how he arrange his thought and kept the book away from him and more of a story from someone else until the last chapter where he put a little of his info from his perspective. It was good information and the most interesting. The third reader had a different theme than the other two. She talked about was in Kosovo and how the guy at the US help out the guerrillas over there. It was really interesting to hear the story and learn all these new information. What was also surprising was that she was involved in a law suit that this guy accuses her of defamation. Over all it was great experience in which I learned a lot. I tough t all the reader where very open to answer any question and they looked really excited to be there.

reading two

reading in the mansion 1

So the reading at the mansion was actually not as bad as I tough it was goin to be. The first author was good but was the least interesting of the three. Her topic of writing was linguistics. To me this was not very interesting I almost fell asleep but I did learn about her style and how she comes to her books. She was from Australia and I’m from Puerto Rico so I had some troble understanding the reading at many points in the reading. Overall it was a really good experience in the big mansion with all these people that I did not know the majority of the people. When I got to the house I was not sure if it was the house or not but Mauricus and I where sacred to approach the door and not be the right house. It was funny but we fortunately saw some people that we knew going into the house. But the funniest part of the night was when we got hit on by these girls that where at least twice our age.hahaha

ole miss

Today is the first volleyball tournament of the season in Ole Miss. Now is the time when we have to travel everywhere and get fat. I say that because we eat out all the time and am so tempting to have all the delicious food in the restaurant. At least there not that many tournaments and we barely travel but when we are in regular season in the fall we eat out at all these nice restaurants like Olive Garden and Pf Chang. Everything with no limits, one or two times a week but on long weekends we eat out for breakfast lunch and dinner. Last semester I gained so much weight and is not going to happen now because I am going to try hard to stay away from the fating foods. Try to go for the salads little dressing try to stay in shape. Is hard and the temptation will be there but no pain no game.

Music is a part of all our lives it doesn’t matter what type of music you listen to but everyone has something they like. For me are the reggae, reaggaeton, Spanish rock and hip hop. For me music was very influential when I fist move here. With my music I felt that I was closer to home and I didn’t miss it that much especially at the age that I move here is the age over there that you start going out to parties and all that good stuff. Well it was really hard for me because the language and culture change. It was a reminder from home and it kept me from going crazy in my apartment in which I had never lived in an apartment before. Music can be really influential in all cultures and every culture and race has their own that makes them who they are.

So the tournament has begun Who is your pic? some people dont have faith that MEmphis can make it all the way and its really not their fault. The fault goes to the conference because is a really crapy conference. If we hadnt played the games at the begining they probably would have us out in the first round. I rally dont think that is going to happen if they are determined and are ready to play every game then they wont have any problems. In most brackets in ESPN we get to the final four but i think that they have a better chance than that this year. If everyone plays well and stay healthy we should go far. But we really have to be carefull because the other team has nothing to loose they are going to cocme out and put everything out there on the court.

volleyball

So today we played for the fist time volleyball in the fraternity. I had to give them a clinic so they learn what volleyball is all about. They knew i had some experience in volleyball but they didnt know all my background that i have in it. After a couple of games the questions started poping out where did you play before did you play at home. Well i had to explain to them that i started playing when i was eight years old and i have been to the junior olympics twice and brought back a bronze medal and a gold medal those where the years of true fun. I was seven days a week in the volleyball courts and in the class room. i was in three teams at the same time it was crazy but it was super fun. so after that and a couple of spikes it was on.

Greek week has been ok I guess to be my first one but I had some interesting activities. For instance they had speed dating for Greeks and battle of the sexes it was fun. But the end was weak we just stood around for an hour and then we had to stand around for a little more to wait for the results. At the end of the day we lost but it was fun either way. Probably for next year they probably are going to make it different and have it more organize than this year. This been my fist year in college and in a fraternity it has been and experience never to forget even if I don’t do it next year it was awesome. I have learned to balance the Greek life with a student and as an athlete for the University of Memphis. I encourage everyone to try it out.

Ok so I’m not going to lie but the Memphis river reader was very boring yet interesting. To me what the most interesting thing about the reading was his illness and how he recovered from it. He basically had to start from the beginning in learning how to eat, think and talk. If he had not said anything about that I would have not know that he had undergone all of that. He says that the sickness help him to become a better writer overall. He has written poems and memoirs, I liked the one he read to us about his mom and dad meeting up it was comical. I’m not a literature person but is really cool to hear the thought process that the writer goes through to write his work. Even though it sometimes got boring it was cool I liked it. I guess the real moral of the entire thing is that you should never give up on anything and if you put your mind set to something you can make it happen.

Iraq

My brother lost his job because the company where worked for shut down. He had a big problem to get another job so he tried to enlist in the army. Well this happened before the war in Iraq broke out. When the us declared was he was in basic training so when he came back from basic training he was at home for two weeks and then he got the call to go to Iraq for a whole year. It was really hard for us to accept it but he left and thank to god he came back alive and kicking. But then after some time of rest he was called again to Iraq for another year. this was even worst because they told him that he could change his MOS(Military Occupation Specialty) but they didn’t so he had to go again this time he had to come back early because of a family emergency. During his leave the person that took his job was killed in the same tank that he drove doing the same thing that he did. This to him was very devastating because it was his friend and could have been him. Well when he finally came back he had problems because he said that he use to see the guy that died and couldn’t sleep. From war past we can already know that this is PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) now he is going to get help as many of the soldiers that come back from there. He is getting better.

WArm WEATHER

Why does it not just go to the warm weather? I come back from spring break in an island to snow. Then the next day is really cold in fact it was still some snow out on that Monday. We are almost in April and still moves back and forth. I’m just ready to finally wake up and just wear some shorts and a t-shirt and walk to my eight a clock class without a jacket. I don’t like the cold weather at all especially here in Memphis because it can get windy and really cold but there’s barely any snow but when the snow falls I’m not even here. Well what can you do I guess is just part of the real crazy weather that I already talk about here in Memphis.

cell phones

I didn’t notice how dependable we are of cell phones. Yea right just look around you everyone has a cell phone some people have two with different companies. I remember when my mom had her first cell phone it was humongous I was cool at the time but you look at it now and it’s ridiculous. Now if not all most of them come with cameras and color screen you have the touch screen PDA and all that good stuff. When we went to the DR it was crazy how I actually missed my phone I was going through withdrawal. I’m just playing it wasn’t that bad but I did miss it until I turned it on in the middle of the week because I could reach my parents and they could not reach me so I called them well we got carried away in the conversation and ran the bill up sixty dollars in just one conversation. It was bad when I found out that they charge me two dollars for each minute. This is what phone companies do because they know you are going to use it because of the dependencies on it. The world of technologies is a world of evolution in with we live in today.

MEMPHIS

It’s getting to that point in the basketball season where it is do or die. This week Memphis will have the conference tournament with a home court advantage. I’m ready for the real tournament the NCAA where I hope that we win. It’s been if not the best season one of the best seasons and I think they deserve it if they keep working hard all the way. They have brought down two opponents and they are ready for the finals to go to the big one. Coach Cal has done a really good job with the team and he will continue to do that in the NCAA tournament. Even though there are some really good teams out there that might get in our way if they play with the intensity and aggressiveness we have done all year then we will not have a problem playing against those tough opponents. Even though we where number one for most of the season they haven’t been talking much about us. Which is not a bad thing because they think we won’t make it, most of the talk always goes to Duke and North Carolina and all those schools that are known for having good basketball programs. We might be number one turn Sunday if we are not were still kicking butt.

DR

my experience in the Dominican republic was a real eye opener to all the things that we have but we don’t pay attention to them because there common in the society. It was sad to see how some of the people had to live and in the conditions they have to live in. We had two groups and we both went to different places but each group was supposed t see 100 families with a maximum of 5 people in a family. Well is was so hard to turn down all the people that where asking for help that they looked like they need it so we allowed the group that was standing outside so our number or families at that point multiplied so we had 100 more families to see. At the end of the day we were running out of supplies and still had some people to see. One we saw the last one pack everything and left we saw over seven hundred people. To me the most satisfying feeling was when they left the little office we had for them they were really grateful that we were helping them. I will definitely do it again if I can because is really rewarding to see all those people with little resources and to hear their stories it was really a magnificent experience.