Journal Entries

Week 5: 6/29-7/3

Journal 5:

HOW-DEDEDEDEDDYYYYY!!!!!

So, I feel really bad about this. I have gone home for the week for a family renunion. Before I get into the details about that, I feel like I need to explain this. Before I began and accepted my DREU program, I talked and discussed the possibility of leaving for the week of fourth of July for a family event. My mentor agreed to let me go back home, as long as I was able to continue to work and send in my work digitally. Once I made it to Texas, I discussed the same thing, confirming it with the Graduate Student mentor I work with. I was allowed to leave, as long as I agreed to work online over the week and work extra hours to make up the time I was gone during my DREU stay in Texas.

PHEW! That was long.

So off to the fun part! Once I got back home, I hanged out and ate dinner with my parents. The following days, Sunday through Friday (except for Wednesday), I hanged out and explored Los Angeles with my family and my extended family. It was so much fun! We went to the Avenue of the Stars, hanged out in Hollywood, went to walk around some of the touristy beaches, went to an amusment park, and overall had fun. Unfortunately, a group of my family members (my aunt, her husband, and their five children) were unable to make it. Over all, it was a lot of fun! On the fourth of July, my family and I all hanged out at my grandmother's house (our main place to hang out at), we did some fireworks, and then when I got a little darker, we went to one of the beaches to watch the fireworks show. We had to park really far away because the beach was really crowded, but it was worth it, just to see the fireworks in the sky. On Sunday, my family members and I were all preparing to leave, to go back home. For me, I was home, but I had to get back to Texas.

What I've learned this week:

1. I bring the heat with me from Texas to California and when I leave to go back to Texas, the cooler weather returns DX.

2. ALWAYS WEAR SUN BLOCK! I DON'T CARE WHAT ETHICITY YOU ARE! YOU MUST ALWAYS WEAR SUN BLOCK!!!!!! I was at the beach with my cousins, forgot to put on sun block, and I BURNED! I'm Latina, so my skin is dark, but I was STILL ABLE TO BURN!!!! I now have a really obvious tan and my arms were realllly red.

3. It's possible to work from home.

4. I AM A GIANT PLAY TOY FOR CHILDREN!!! XD

5. My family now calls me Dora..... WAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

6. Grandmother wifi + My laptop= Nothing works

7. I MISS MEXICAN MEXICAN FOOD!!!!!!! The Mexican food in Texas is good, but there's just something about California Mexican food.

Work:

So even though I went home for the week for the family renunion, I had promised to get some work done. I was supposed to create: 1 quiz for the Saturday I was leaving (did), 1 quiz for Monday (turned it in I think either Monday or Tuesday night). We also had a Digital party on KidGab. I had to, along with being online and active during the party, create a couple of things for it. I had to create one new quiz, turn in a Choose Your own Adventure story that I had finished and had gotten approval, and create a new badge. I went to my Grandmother's house to do this, believing her internet and my laptop were going to get along, but ran into unfortunate technical problems. My laptop was not connecting to the internet, so I had to borrow my cousin's laptop and his usb drive to transfer some of my work. Then my cousin's laptop was acting slow so my communication on KidGab was lagging. A kid would post: "I love Mulan", then I would post: "Me too!", but it wouldn't show up for a couple of minutes. Regardless, the Digital party was a success! We had at least 3 kids sign in (better than our last attempt at 0 kids) and I wsa able to turn in all of my work.