Honduras

I was offered a great opportunity at my church a couple weeks ago. Last year, a few ladies from my church went to Honduras for a mission trip. They taught Bible School for a week while they were down there. I am in charge of the VBS at my church this year and I just asked them if they were going because we would make our offerings go to them to buy the materials if they were planning on going. She told me that they weren't planning on going this year so I started looking for another mission project. Then the next week she came to church and said since I had asked they decided to go again! Then she invited me to go along with them. I got really excited and decided that I wanted to go! But then I went home and I checked my calendar and it was a week in July. I was already going to be gone for 2 and a half weeks in July and couldn't handle missing work for another full week. I had to then tell her that I wasn't able to go because I need to be working and making money this summer. So since I couldn't go this summer, they are going to plan another trip for next summer and I am planning on going with them when they go! I'm so excited for it! I'm still bummed that I can't go this summer, but I'm just thankful that I can hopefully go with them next summer and experience something so cool!

Names Around The World

I searched the name Parrish first, to see where all my last name is around the world. The list that it came up with was: United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Spain, Ireland, and Germany. I wasn't surprised to see some of those countries, but I was surprised to see Australia for some reason. Then I searched Vandeberg, my mom's maiden name, and I got fewer countries. I got Belgium, Netherlands, United States, Germany, and Norway. My heritage is Dutch and German, so I assumed that both of those would be in my list somewhere. This is a cool website that you were given. It is so interesting how people make websites of the most random things, like where all is your name in the world! I also, just for fun, checked out where my boyfriend's name is. His last name is Crotty. His name was in Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, United States, Luxembourg, United Kingdom, Canada, Denmark, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. We have our names in a lot of the same countries.

South Korean Parliament Free Trade Brawl

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqvdJSO6Ssc
This link will take you to a you tube video that deals with a brawl that broke out at a South Korean Parliament meeting. I chose this video because this is something that would never happen here in America. One person made an interesting comment though, he said, "This is basically the governments way of doing what the American government do best... filibuster. it's just the Korean government doesn't have the patience like the American government has. But both countries do use the same corrupt tactics to get their ways." Times are rough in South Korea, along with many other countries in that region. It's hard to even imagine what life is like over there. We think that right now we are having major issues with our government and economy and the like, but really, if you think about it, we are not that bad off. It could be so much worse, like it is in South Korea.

Food Around the World

It is so interesting to see what people eat all around the world. Off of the videos that I watched on the website, the weirdest thing to me was the ice cream flavors in Las Angeles. As normal as ice cream flavors are, I think it's just weird to me because I expect to see things different from what I eat in other countries, but I thought that in the U.S. we were all basically on the same diet. But obviously not because I would never eat banana peanut butter bacon ice cream! I can't imagine people who would enjoy that and they are not even that far away from me.
I am not a very adventurous person when it comes to trying food. I did one time eat at a restaurant in Lincoln called The Oven. This is Indian food. I was so nervous going there because I knew there would be nothing that I like. They eat a lot of lamb and pork rather than beef or chicken. All of their sauces and everything were just really weird to me. I ended up not liking it of course, but it was a good experience.
The reason I think that we eat so differently around the world is due to culture and where we are in the world. Being in Nebraska, it isn't convenient for us to be able to go out fishing every day and come home with fish for dinner. But in Japan where sushi is big, that's what is common. It also has to do with what we grow up eating. I'm not very apt to try things because I never ate anything that wasn't considered a pretty American food growing up! These things influence what we eat and don't eat in our lives and when we get the chance to try someone else's culture of food we should do it so we can experience many different things!

Members of the G-20

The members of the G-20 for 2009 are:

Argentina
Australia
Brazil
Canada
China
France
Germany
India
Indonesia
Italy
Japan
Mexico
Russia
Saudi Arabia
South Africa
South Korea
Turkey
United Kingdom
United States
European Union

The World in a New Perspective

It's so interesting to think about how our world can look so different if you just change the view a little bit. Google Earth is helpful because it helps you to recognize places around the world even at a different angle or different perspective. I've been using Google Earth lately to help me with my map quizzes and it just helps so much to see the different places in a different view. I thought this view of the islands between Asia and Australia was cool. If you just looked at it without knowing that it was at a different perspective I'm sure a lot of people wouldn't even know where it was. With the features that Google Earth has, it is a learning process to figure out where things are and understand that it isn't always on a flat surface with north at the top and south at the bottom. It's cool to look at the world in a new way.

Slumdog Millionaire

This was such a great movie! I would recommend this to anything! I've never seen a movie before made how this one was. The flashbacks and everything made it seem more personal to me. The plot is more or less, Jamal, who is from the slums, is on the show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire." He is doing very well, getting all of the questions correct. After the first night of him being on the show they take him and accuse him of cheating because how could a boy from the slums know all of this information? But as they are questioning him, it goes to flashbacks in his life where he has experienced different situations leading him to know the answer to the seemingly impossible questions. By seeing his life journey they see that he is not cheating at all, but just being lucky that he's getting the questions that he knows the answer to. It was so hard seeing in the movie how the little children were treated. They were take by men who were only searching for ways to make money. These men had them practice singing and doing certain skills. Then they would do cruel things, like squirt some sort of acid or something in the kids' eyes and make them blind. They did this so that they could have them stand out on the street corner and sing to make money for the men. Their thinking was that if they were blind children, they would in turn make more money. Ultimately people wonder what is a boy with no desire for riches doing on this game show? We find out that it is to send notice to Latika, his lover from his childhood. He never stopped loving her and tried to find her many times in their life. He knew though, that she watched the show and she wanted her to see him and then they could live happily ever after. Luckily, like all good movies, it does end this way. He uses his phone a friend call and calls his brother. But his brother had given his phone to Latika, so when she answers they profess their love to each other. And they live happily ever after. And to make things even better, he ends up answering the final question correctly and wins twenty million rupees. As far as who this makes me think about geography, it just makes me very thankful for me to be where I am. Mumbai seemed like a decent city, but there were just so many poor people. It was unbelievable. I've never had a chance to go somewhere and help people in need like that who are being treated poorly to make money. I would like to go someday to somewhere like that and help them out because my life has been so blessed I can't even really comprehend what it's like unless I was really there.