6 days 2 hours 16 minutes and 14 seconds

Everything is becoming surreal. With less than a week to go, I am flying out and spending an entire year in China. I have done a ton of research about China so I have an idea on what to suspect and I have also packed early to make sure my bags fit everything. I still have a bit more to pack and a bit more things to buy. Also, I am still waiting on a few things to come through the mail. Until then, the wait continues.

To be honest, I am not too sure of what to expect, but I hope I learn from all of my experiences while I am there and also practice the very LITTLE Mandarin I speak. But I plan to improve it and build my vocabulary while I am in China.

I am ready to experience something different and most importantly try new food!

HelloTalk - An Alternative Way of Learning a Language

When it comes to studying languages, I was never big on reading text books or memorizing the words/phrases for the big test for school. Luckily, thanks to YouTube, I found this app called HelloTalk where you can exchange with others around the world wanting to learn your native language in exchange in learning their native language. Since I will be heading in China in about a month, I want to improve my oral Chinese by speaking with other native students.

I have begun using it by exchanging with many other Chinese people and it has been quite successful. My vocabulary is not the best, but I use what I know to communicate with them. Most of the time I am helping the Chinese people with their English because they know more. From my friends, I have learned that it is required for Chinese people to learn English in school, which makes it understandable of how well some of them know it. They have to take a big test every year and many probably use this app to practice or just become fluent in another language. I recommend this app to anyone who wants to learn a new language. It is very useful. Give it a try.

What am I bringing to China?

As my days windle down in the states, there a few things that I need to make sure to bring with me because these things are either scarce or expensive in China.

1. Big Jambox Bluetooth Speaker
Although not a necessity, if anyone does not know me very well, I love music. I breathe music. I listen to a vast range of music and I love to have this item with me when I am traveling to play some instrumental music when doing work or just jamming to some old tunes in the shower. Off the charger, this Jambox last approx 10 hours. The great thing is that it talks to you to let you know when its about to die and you can click the button to know the status of the battery power. I love this thing. Now, I just need to find a secure case online to carry it with me.

2. Deodorant 
As common as this may be found in American stores, this is quite the opposite in China. Chinese people are not known to wear deodorant because they are not known to smell when they sweat. Even if they do sell it in China, it will be in liquid form and expensive. To avoid this, I will be buying a year supply of this before I go. A stick normally last me 2-3 months so I won't need much.

3. Shoes, shoes, shoes! 
Anything above a size 39 (Size 8 Women's) in China is very hard to find. To avoid this, I want to bring most of my shoes and buy a few more before I go. Where I am particularly staying in China (Shanghai) is known for their rain and flooding. It is time to invest in a pair of rainboots!

4. Camera?
After traveling to Japan in May, taking pictures with my iPhone 6 was pretty cool, but looking back at those pictures now, the phone did not capture the full beauty of the scenery. Also, my phone died majority of the time making it hard to take pictures consistently everyday. Having a camera would be awesome! I still haven't bought it, so we'll see.

5. Pants
Asian people are a lot smaller than the average American. I don't think any of their pants will really fit me because of my assets and my waist size. Time to hit the stores!

6. Toiletries
As much as they say "packing less is more" is a valid point, but with my hair type, I know I won't find what I need in China. Avoiding it, I have already bought most of the shampoo and conditioner that should last me about a year. If not, I will just have to order online! Also, I am going out to buy my favorite soap just in case I can't find it in China. I have heard alot if not all of their beauty products contains "whitening" which bleaches people's skin complexion. I love my skin. I will have to pass.

US Schools are questionable

Going into my junior year of college, I have begun to receive these persistent emails about the word no one wants to hear: STUDENT LOANS. When will you start paying off your interest? Can we get started with your payments? And it goes on...but I really question the US Education System. Especially the colleges and universities.

Why are we being charged these exuberant amounts for school? Is school really worth the amount? Where is this money actually going? I understand that schools have to pay their employees and fund to keep the schools open, but when did it came to the point where it had to not only cost so much but have so many students in DEBT and some students not go to school because they can't afford to go or to avoid debt.

People mention that there are SO many scholarships out there to apply for, but when it comes down to them, they are harder to come by. Many have certain requirements such as having a certain income, GPA, and classification and depending on the scholarship, someone can be competing for it locally, regionally, or nationally making the chances of winning very slim.

From my own perspective, I feel as though people who grew up in the middle class get it hard the most when it comes to paying for school. FAFSA calculates how much aid each student will receive every year from the government and if you was to fall into the middle class (not making too little and not making too much), many students do not qualify for aid because FAFSA claims that parents can afford to pay for their children to assist in college, but in reality many cannot. Many parents probably don't make enough to give and depending on the families, some may have multiple children making it more difficult for parents to pay for their child's education.

Students who are considered being lowered class citizens from my observation has a higher advantage of going to school and not being in so much debt because of the more options they have when it comes to scholarships and programs to join.

Those who are part of the rich class have the money to pay for school and depending on certain circumstances, students from this class can probably even go for free to their school because of mutual relationships between their parent and the school.

I honestly just wish school in the US is much more affordable to attend so not only myself, but many other students would not have to worry to much of going in debt and taking out loans. Schools in the US are so prestigious that they turn this so called getting your degree moreso into a business wanting nothing but money from the pockets of the students. This has to change.

Just say NO

Sometimes, you have to lower your expectations. Friends come and go and I am not sure if it is just myself being over the top or the people I am interacting with, but a lot of time I don't expect much because I hate relying on others for anything. I prefer to do things myself which can be both a good and bad thing. Sometimes I may find those people who would not mind me doing all of the work while others want to be involved and help out. There has to be some kind of balance and in this particular situation I am going to mention, I felt it coming.

I have a friend who I have known for almost three years now. And I told him a few weeks ago I will be in San Francisco and we should meet up. He's all excited and up for it. Long story short, when I arrive, I text him letting him know and normally he responds within a reasonable time. I wait 2 days and no response. Texting is just one of those things where there can be some kind of miscommunication so instead of jumping to conclusions of asking "Why haven't you responded?" or "Have you received my text?" I text back again adding in some information. He tells me that he was sick but is feeling better at the moment. Personally, I found that a bit fishy, but I said hey let me let it slide. I pick a date for us to meet and he says "Sounds good" The week goes by and I wait till Friday to let him know that I am on the way to San Fran, he says "What's up?" as if he has forgotten about the plans. Sir, if you don't want to see me. That is fine. Say it. Man up. No hard feelings. So hours pass by and nothing. I tried calling him several times and he declined the first time because he was busy. The following time, he did not pick up. I texted him several times and no response neither. I am not sure if it was a bad day, if he was confused, if he forgot, hiding something, or just bailing out. I am upset, but had a feeling from the start that this was meant to happen. I am not too sure why, but it is once again a learning lesson.

Life Lesson: ?earn how to say no. I know many people are afraid to hurt feelings or want to please people or for whatever reason, but you can't do everything. Not everything will work out and that's ok. Not saying that you have to say no, but there's other ways to show your point across the spectrum. To this day, I still struggle to say no in certain situations, but I let he/she know through my words or actions that I have no interest in whatever it may be.

One thing to note, I really dislike making plans through texting because many times the directions are not clear. Either face to face or talking on the phone. Otherwise, forget it. I have a few friends who I would text them plans, but I do that because I know they understand me and we are at that level to make plans and possibly not have any issues. As for the guy I was attempting to meet...I am not too sure if he remembered/understood that I was serious. And I am not sure if I would want to speak with him again. 

There has to be a better way...

One of the great advantages of traveling in the Bay area is the transportation. Their trains, street cars, are busses are very convenient and easy to use, but I do question one thing...the proof of payment method. Unlike DC and NYC where you have to type or swipe your card before entering, San Fran follows their honest system where people are expected to have a ticket in hand to show to the Fare Inspectors if requested. Or if someone is using a Clippers card, they need to tap it on one of the kiosks before boarding the train. The problem with this proof of payment method is that the ticket is not being checked consistently so the staff may overlook the few passengers that ride for free. And certain people use the clippers card, how can they track if passengers tapped their card? I can only imagine how much the Caltrain, the VTA, and other modes of transportation lose so much money every year. Of all the times that I have boarded the Caltrain and VTA, not once was I asked for my boarding ticket. And what makes it more confusing traveling in the Bay area, depending what part, the mode of transportation company is different requiring to figure out the cost and how to get there. The good thing with it is that if someone owns a clippers card, they can use it on the different transportation systems. For example, I can use it on the Caltrain and then switch to the BART in the city. As long there is money loaded on the card, the person is set to go.

But at the same time, it would be hard to implement the systems made in DC and NYC in San Fran because of the design of the stations. First and foremost, most if not all are outside and its not gated. It is completely open. On many stops, you can walk out the physical track to get to the other side of the station. So attempting to force people pay before loading on would be difficult. There has to be a better way...

San Francisco

While in Atherton, CA, I had the chance to travel to San Francisco, which is easier than I thought. Many people opted to take Uber and Lyft, both modes of transportation can be quite expensive. Luckily, San Francisco is known for their great transportation system and thanks to the Caltrain and their BART systems, I decided to take both of these transportation instead.

Atherton, CA is located outside of San Francisco and in order to travel to San Fran,  the Caltrain will take you there. The Caltrain system is seperated into 6 zones. The more zones you travel to, the longer your ride and the cost. For example, I was traveling from Zone 3 from the Menlo Park Station to Zone 1, San Francisco. The one way fare was $7.25. That is expensive and this is only one way. There were other options such as the day pass, monthly pass, and so on. I can only imagine if there are people who make this commute everyday to go to work, On the train itself, it took approximately 50 minutes to get from Menlo Park to San Francisco. And from the San Francisco station, we walked about 2 miles to Chinatown. It was very windy, but nice weather. On our way, we stopped by H&M to buy sweaters because we knew it would get cold later on.

Chinatown in SF is beautiful. Tons of shops and places to eat. We noticed two women hustling on the streets trying to drag people into their shops. I read about this in China and is done often to especially foreigners. We went into one restaurant and was not satisfied of the people inside nor we smelled nothing so we left. The lady was very upset. We headed to another Chinese restaurant and I had this spicy chicken with rice. It was good. I wish it wasn't so dry (in terms of having additional sauce around it) and had some vegetables on the side. Otherwise it was not bad at all. From there, we walked a ton more to the Zig Zag street AKA Lombard Street. People drive down this narrow street. It is filled with a ton of flowers on the sides and to get to this particular street, you have to walk up these steep streets of SF. Not sure how people bike on the streets or if people are able to bike on them. There were a decent amount of people there taking pictures. The walking did not bother me too much, but the other people I was with were struggling.

Our last stop was the Golden Gate Bridge, which did not turn out too well. We had to take an Uber there because of time and by the time we got there, it was dark and way too windy. People were complaining of how cold it was (I can't blame them) and wanted to go as soon as we got there. After a 30 minute wait or so, we caught an UBER back to the Caltrain station where we had to wait an HOUR before the last train of the night arrived. What a pain. The big difference with the trains in DC vs SF is that these trains in SF are MUCH more expensive (just to go one way) and move a lot slower. But what I really like about SF is how biker friendly it is. There are a ton more people on bikes than in DC in my opinion. I can see myself living here. 

45 Days More

As I am preparing for my big trip abroad, there are many things that I need to prepare.  The most important item of all is my visa. A visa is a official document of approval that I can enter into a particular country. Each country has their own rules and regulations of how one can enter into their country. Also, depending on the country you are traveling from, each has their own laws and regulations people of that  country must abide to it. In this particular case, China has very strict laws when it comes to visas. No matter if someone was coming for a day or a week or a few months or more than a year, a visa is required to enter China.

Since I will be going for a year and studying at a university in China, I will apply for the X1 or X2 visa. These visas are one of the easiest visas to obtain and all you have to do is show the original acceptance letter from the school along with your application letter and pay the fee. The difference between the X1 and X2 visas are the length. The X1 are for stududents studying for more than 6 months and the X2 for students studying less than 6 months. Unfortunately, since the school I am particularly attending only accepts students on a semester by semester basis, I will have to apply for the X2 visa meaning when I go back for the Spring Semester, I will have to renew my visa. What a pain!

Currently, I am still traveling and working so until I am home and have my materials, the visa is still in progress. Upcoming, I will talk about what I plan to pack, buy, and leave behind.

A new beginning

Finally having a break off from school, I have been able to get away and just think about all of the great things I have achieved while at the school while at the same time reflect on my sophomore year. I was given a scholarship to attend the SC14 conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, was a publicist for my school's SAC club, a member of the APO community service fraternity and so on. While I was at school, I made a ton of new friends and close relationships with a variety of students. But at the same time, I faced many who were genuinely nice people, but the priorities were quite questionable. At the end of the day, I had to pull myself back and think if I wanted to be around these kind of people and I decided to step back for the betterment of myself. I need to put myself around people who will encourage me, challenge me and give me the support I wanted and I wasn't receiving such things from them.

Now being away from school and working with an amazing group of people who share similar goals, it is refreshing to talk to them and express our opinions of the latest topics and receive feedback from others on what I can do to better myself. Working with the kids this summer has given me clarity of certain ideas and things that I would want to pursue in the future. Although I was aiming for an internship this summer, I felt as if the internship fell out for a reason. Something was telling me that I needed more time and I had to work another year with the same company for a better understanding of what I want to do in life. I still don't know exactly what it is just yet, but I have some big plans coming up soon.

FOOD

While in Japan, I had so many different kinds of Japanese food. Below, I will list and explain each one that I had:

• Yakitori - Grilled Chicken placed onto a bamboo stick along with vegetables, other meats, and tofu
• Tempura - Deep fried fish and vegetables in light batter. To be more specific, I had fried shrimp with fried seaweed, pumpkin, radish and some other vegetables. 
• Mochi - Pounded Japanese rice found commonly in desserts
• Okonomiyaki - Japanese pancake with a ton of vegetables put together (mainly cabbage) topped with this amazing sauce (taste like barbecue sauce)
• Natto - Smells terrible, but does not taste too bad. The taste reminds me of the beans my mother makes at home that originates from Nigeria, which are called Oqua beans
• Onigiri - My favorite snack. It is a triangle shaped rice with some sort of filling inside wrapped around seaweed on the outside of the rice sandwich. On the inside, it can be from fish to eggs to just about anything honestly. 
• Japanese Curry Rice - Amazing curry sauce filled with carrots with white rice on the side to eat. So delicious!
• Udon - Very thick noodles served in some kind a broth topped with tempura, vegetables, and other items as well. 
• Yakisoba - Fried noodles with a thick sweet sauce. I had them when we stayed at the seminar house for a few days. Delicious!
• Dango - Japanese dumpling served on a stick. Very chewy texture and tasted like sweet soy sauce. I did not really like it unfortunately. 
• Tonkatsu - My absolute favorite! Deep fried prok cutlet served with thin shredded cabbage! Absolutely delicious! Served along with this amazing tonkatsu sauce and the cabbage can be eaten with dressing. 
• Miso Soup - Served mainly for breakfast, but I had it for many meals of the day. Consists of a variety of vegetables, seafood, and meat. 

There are definitely many other things that I have eaten during my two weeks in Japan. These are the food that really stood out to me. 

Hot Mess

As I wrap up my first week working at the leadership conference for the second year in a row, I have one thing to say. It was a hot mess. Way too many last minute plans, organization, and lack of communication made things turn sour, but for the most part, I kept positive and fought through it. What makes it even worse that there's people working over us that has never worked for the program in the past so they had no idea what to expect and the help of the fellow coworkers who have worked. And from the way they facilitate, you question if they were trained properly for their positions. Despite the troubles from not having enough rooms from the students, early arrival of the parents from inaccurate information on the website, and the linens not coming in time for the students, we were able to pull through successfully.

Throughout the remainder of the week, we had way too many switch not only classrooms, but dorm rooms because of angry parents calling wanting specific children to be together, small incidents of things getting stolen? or missing?, homesickness, fighting, and scholars making their suitemates feel uncomfortable. I was in this program last year, but the difference was that I worked with elementary school kids and they were not as bad as the middle school ones. I feel like the middle school kids are entering puberty and everything is changing for them and this is the time where they figure out themselves and their body going through so many changes.

We also encountered some crazy things happening such as a parent coming in to give her daughter some Advil because she had an headache? Really?, a boy peeing on his suitemates stuff for who knows what? Another child who brought in over $1,000 worth of items and lost his bag which contained these items for his mother to come in and get mad at us. Really? But to later find the bag in the spot the teacher mentioned for him to check. Really? Many students overslept meaning that they missed breakfast. It is not our responsibility to wake them up, but if we have to, we do. I had to physically go into the suites to knock on a child's door to wake him up. What a pain. In order to do that, I have to call the RA to use the master key and blah blah blah. It was too much. What really blew me away were many students who switched from overnight to day scholars just because there was no Wifi or a TV in the dorms. Some students even had their angry parents call demanding a room change to be with their brother/sister or their close friend.We are not here at camp to glue ourselves to our electronic devices and surround ourselves with the same people. We are here to make new friends, learn how to interact with other people, and to have fun. If the parent is so concerned about their child's safety, them just maybe they should not enroll them into an overnight camp. 

The struggle is real

While sitting around waiting to start my job, I realized that these past few years, we all go through something tragic in our lives whether its something physical or emotional, we find ways to conquer them and learn to get by when things were tough. Just recently, since I have been back from Japan, being broke sucks especially living in a city. I become so tempted to go and buy things, but know I can't since there is no money availiable meaning there's no money to go out too. Despite the issues, I go out and still have a good time riding my bike around the city, but let me list you a couple of things that I had to go through these past years to get by:

• In the 7th grade, I grew my love for the Sims 2, but lacking funds, the only way for me to buy these games were with my lunch money. I spent months saving the small $1.50 lunch money I had along with receiving gift cards here and there from friendly church members, and stealing money from time to time, I was able to buy not only the Base game, but also all of the expansion packs by the end of my 7th grade year. Unfortunately, my computer crashes after the summer of 7th grade and I was unable to play the game again. Karma is a bitch. 
• By my 11th grade year, I became bored of taking the train to school and began to take the bus. Although longer wait time, I did not mind. But also during this time, I lost my wallet meaning the student pass I had in there was gone for the month. Fortunately, I was able to obtain a new pass and had to take the bus to all of my locations. As of why? Well the bus is cheaper than the train and as long as you take the bus within. A two hour range, your transfer to one bus to another for free. The situation was indeed a struggle yet, I learned more about the bus system and what routes I can take from where which came along in the future. 
• Now that my main transportation is a bike, no longer need to worry about money to take a train, but sometimes your friends want to go places where a bike is unreachable. To save money, I ride my bike to the farthest station I can ride then take the metro to the unreachable stop. May seem like a ton of work, but with a little bit of planning and timing, it can be done.
• Ran out of soap and stopped by the travel section in Walmart to buy my soap. #thestruggleisreal
• Most recently, my negative balance on my metro card and not having enough money to put on the card to take out for my trip. #oops. Called my sister to travel to metro stop to put money on the card.

These are only a few of the struggles I had to go through, but sometimes you have to cut corners to make ends meet. 

Back from JAPAN

Almost 2 weeks ago, I was in Japan for 2 weeks on a cultural exchange trip with my school. I had an amazing time. It was my first time abroad and I spent a good amount of time traveling around Japan from Yokohama to Nara to Tokyo, to Yugawara  and to other locations as well. I had the opportunity to stay with a host family where they have 3 cute girls just like my family. I had a great time getting to know them and they were so sweet to me. Also, I had the chance to meet students from my school who are currently studying in Japan and other students as well. I had an amazing time in Japan. The trip was organized very well and I commend the Study Abroad advisors from my school and the school in Yokohama for putting this wonderful trip together. I had a great time with the people I traveled with and I hope to one day go back and venture on my own.

Favorites of the Favorites

Below is a list of my favorite albums of all time. For these particular albums, I like majority of the songs and their sound/vibe stood out to me. Also, I have listed below my favorite song from each album. There are a few more albums I plan to list here. More to come soon! Check back to see what has changed.

Title: In A Tidal Wave of Mystery

Artist: Capital Citites

Fav Song: Patience Gets Us Nowhere Fast

Title: Bankrupt!

Artist: Phoenix

Fav Song: Bourgeois

Title: Clarity

Artist: Zedd

Fav Song: Hourglass

Title: Graduation 

Artist: Kanye West

Fav Song: Big Brother

Title: Futuresex/Lovesounds

Artist: Justin Timberlake

Fav Song: Pose (ft. Snoop Dog)

Title: The E.N.D.

Artist: The Black Eyed Peas

Fav Song: Rockin' to the Beat

Title: Bangarang

Artist: Skrillex

Fav Song: The Devil's Den

Title: Epilogue

Artist: Epik High

Fav Song: Word Kill

Title: Insomniatic

Artist: Aly & AJ

Fav Song: Division

Title: Lucifier

Artist: SHINee

Fav Song: Quasimodo

Title: Hypnotica

Artist: Benny Benassi

Fav Song: Get Loose

Title: Tetra

Artist: C2C

Fav Song: The Cell

Title: I Created Disco

Artist: Calvin Harris

Fav Song: Disco Heat

Title: Infinity on High

Artist: Fall Out Boy

Fav Song: You're Crashing, But You're No Wave

Title: Supermodel

Artist: Foster the People

Fav Song: Pseudologia Fantastica

Title: The Moment

Artist: Kenny G

Fav Song: Havana

Title: Party Rock

Artist: LMFAO

Fav Song: I Shake, I Move

Stuffpoints.com

Stuffpoints.com is this awesome website where you can complete offers such as surveys, download apps from your phone, and watch videos to earn points. Once you accumulate enough points, you can redeem the points in exchange for all kinds of rewards. Things such as gift cards, gaming cards, and virtual world currency. If you dedicate your time and energy placing accurate information for the offers, in return you will get great results. If you would like to join today to start earning some cool rewards, click this link here to get started!

I have personally used this website a lot for the past 2 years to exchange my points for Lindens in Second Life. And it works perfectly! It takes a few minutes for the transaction to occur, but otherwise StuffPoints is awesome!

Exciting News!

Ever since my high school days, I have always wanted to study abroad. Unfortunately, it did not work out, but I made it a goal in college to do so and now its finally coming true. During my junior year AKA 2015-2016 school year, I will be studying abroad in Shanghai, China. Why China? So many people have asked me that. There is not much too it except that I have met several Chinese students here at school that have influenced/encouraged me to go abroad and I have always wanted to and just meeting them have narrowed down my decision. I am so excited for this trip. Although everything has not been finalized yet, I have read a ton about China and what I will need to bring and do ahead of time which are the following:

• Deodorant: Chinese people do not wear deodorant and are not known to perspirate as much as African Americans, so I must stock up on this before I leave. Otherwise, I am screwed.  
• Food Poisoning Pills: Chinese food is extremely different from the Americanized Chinese food here and depending on how well my body adjusts to it, I want to bring some pills with me just in case. I have never had food poisoning, but it can happen. 
• Unlock iPhone: I am currently using an iPhone 6 with Tmobile and I think instead of just buying a new or prepaid phone, I will just unlock my phone when I get there. I hear it is very common and can be done for a very low price through a vendor. 
• Banking Issues: Transferring money will be a problem for me so maybe I can just take the risk and have it all with me when I travel? Not too bad (because China is known to be very safe), but at the same time risky at the risk of losing the money or someone stealing it. I hope to figure this out as time comes near. 
• Suitcases: I will buy some trolley suitcases because they are much more convenient to carry than regular suitcases. As of how many? I am not too sure yet. 

This is all I plan to buy, but hopefully more to come soon. 

Back at School

I am back into swing at school and let's just say - I cannot wait till its over. It is not stressing me out, but I am so tired and I want it to just end. School is great and all, but after awhile, I am just over all of it. The excessive fees we have to pay for a "quality" education, the endless work that one professor gives out, the club meetings, the activities, and other events just get so tiresome. I do so much at school so I can stay busy. I do not like have nothing to do. Sometimes it is good, but it can drive one crazy after a certain point. I cannot wait for the summer.

I cannot believe I have 6 more weeks till the school year is over. I would say that my sophomore year has been pretty good besides the difficult obstacles I had to go through yet the rewarding opportunities I had has definitely weighed the negatives. I was able to attend a conference for free, I am in the process of studying abroad, and I have amazing teachers in my major that has helped me revamp my resume, cover letter, and other needs. It is just awesome to have that kind of support along the way of your college career. I just wished the school provided more in terms of gaining actual experience our field to get our foot in the door. They do provide workshops on these topics, but I would want something more. And I am not sure if the school I am attending can give me that.

Friday the 13th!

As you know, today is May 13th AKA Friday the 13th! Also known as an unlucky day in the US. As of why, I honestly do not know, but I came here today to talk about a show I watched for the first time in forever. The Simpsons.

When I was younger, my father told me starting around the age of one or two, I would sit down every Sunday evening around 9pm to watch the Simpsons and I learned how to turn on the TV. If I was to turn on the TV and find that the show was not on, I would turn the TV back off, but what he would do is keep the channel of the TV on FOX so I can sit down to watch it. He told me I would laugh and was amazed by this show to the point where it became one of my favorite shows. To this day, I honestly still like it. I just haven't given myself the time to watch the newer seasons.

But before that, I went way back and at one point in time (I think around the 10th or 11th grade), I was renting out DVDs from the library to watch the Simpsons starting from I think season 1 -12 or 13. Although extremely old, there were very good seasons. Some were recaps of episodes I have watched and some were brand new to me.

From reading online, many people say they aren't the same as what it used to be, but this can only be based upon one's own personal judgement. So over the course of two days, I watched two episodes and these episodes were the most recent ones from this date which are Season 26 Episodes 15 and 16. Luckily enough, both episodes have reached my expectations of the Simpsons and had made me laugh a bit especially Episode 15.

Starting with Episode 16, The Simpson family was complaining of how much they hate going to church. Marge is the one behind forcing people to go and everyone else were praying to God hoping that the church is burned down. Lucky for them, as they arrived to church, the church has burned down. A few of the faithful church goers like Ned Flanders, Marge, and a few others I cannot name were pretty upset. These group of people all met with the priest and were trying to find a way to get the church fixed so they can have their Sunday mass going again. Marge stepped into the Kwik-E-Mart and somehow, Apu had an idea of how they can raise the money to fix the church. Gambling.

Church Members first walking into the Casino

Many of the church members were against it because of gambling being once of the deadly sins in the bible, but in this special case, since it is for the church, it is not considered as a sin. Long story short, Apu teaches them how to gamble while playing the game Blackjack and they go in the first night at the Casino making a ton. The second night, they went in disguised to prevent anyone recognizing them from the first night. Homer finds out through his kids that Marge has been going to the Casino and he gets put into jail for interfering in their scheme. They pay the money to the contractors to fix the church, but Marge wants to take it back to bail out Homer. Going back to the first scene, prayer has helped get Homer out of jail for free. A very entertaining episode.

This is where it gets interesting.

Homer and the Nigerian Princess are talking in the hotel room. 

In Episode 15, I can totally relate to. In this episode, it was about Mr. Burns creating a new business relation with a Nigerian King. The king brings along his daughter AKA the princess and it is up to Homer to take care of her or should I say, make sure she does not leave the hotel room. I cannot remember her name, but she is 25 years old and this was her first time reaching to America. The last thing she wanted to do was stay in the hotel and watch TV. She wanted to explore Springfield so bad. After several negotiations, Homer finally decided to take her out, but as soon as she took her out to Mo's Bar, he lost her and somehow got locked up by the police. We find later that she stepped out and came back to meet Mo and immediately gained a friendship for each other. Mo took her out on a scooter to see a ton of sites in Springfield and she was loving it. She never felt so free in her life.

After Homer got out of jail, he is running all around Springfield to find the princess. He fakes his voice to Mr. Burn's assistant thinking that Homer is the princess on the phone, taking cars and those bike tours until he finally found Mo and the Princess. The princess says goodbye to Mo and kisses him on the forehead and the paparazi takes a picture of this kiss. It ends up on all of the dirty websites like TMZ and Perez Hilton's website. The Nigerian King finds out and cuts off the deal of receiving 10,000 goats from Mr. Burns. Mr. Burns was not amused by this at all. All characters are found at the end of the episode in Mr. Burns's office to find the Nigerian King confronting Mo assuming that he was having a love affair with his Princess. The Princess backs up Mo and let her father know that they weren't having any kind of love affair and only kissed him on the forehead to show how much she liked him (as a friend) and appreciated the time spent. If you guys are not familiar with the Simpsons, Homer says very dumb stuff from time to time, but he has his moments. This was his time he really touched me. He mentioned to the King that he needs to learn how to let their kids go and be free. But he gave a reference to his one year old child, Maggie who was crawling out the door on her own. Very funny Homer. Pretty much from here, the episode ended.

The letter Sent to Mo where he sent $5,000 dollars over to him.

One really funny thing in this episode was when Mo brought up the Nigerian Letter scam. If you are not familiar to the scam, in the past especially in the early 2000s, a Nigerian would send an email to their address saying that their uncle died and they need money to pay for the wedding and if the person was to pay a certain amount to them, not only would they get their money back, but they would also get an fixed amount of more money. A ton of people fell into this trap and never heard back from them. And it really made me laugh because I have met people who have fallen to this trick and I myself have actually have been sent the email. (I have a dark sense of humor, don't mind me.)

To keep things brief, why this episode really speaks volumes for me because in general, Nigerians (not so sure about other African ethnicities or races) are very strict when it comes to their children. Especially those who stick with the tradition (like my parents and many others I have met). No matter how old you are, as long as you live in their house, you follow by their rules. And I find this to be very annoying especially at my age now (I am currently 20), I should not feel to be talked down upon especially if it is something if it was something already discussed about. No need to repeat yourself. I just wish they were more open and interesting in doing different ideas and activities. It would make my life living at home a lot better, but I know for sure it won't change, so I work my way around the system to make the best of it. If that includes not going home for the break and traveling as much as I can over the summer, its better than nothing. And when I say rules, I am not talking about "You need to clean and cook at home" but "You can't go out" or "Bed time is at 9PM". No. I am at the age where I should be able to make these decisions at the same time be able to come home at a reasonable time and compromise, but that may never happen. So until then, I have to endure the pain.

Feature Points

There's this app I use called Feature Points where you can download apps from their list and accumulate points. Once you receive a certain amount of points, you can exchange your points for real prizes. For example, you can win real money through Paypal, use your points to buy apps from the App Store or Google Play, giftcards from Amazon and the App Store, and even an iPad. This app may seem like a scam, but it is not. It is real and I can vouch on that. To make sure that this app was truly legit, once I accumulated enough points, I bought GTA China Wars from the App Store. Within 24 hours, I was sent my code to retrieve my app from the app store. I was soo happy!

 Now, I can play the game anytime on my phone. If I was to lose my phone, I can easily retrieve the app back from the App Store because Apple saves the items of which you have bought from their store. Several things you need to know about Feature Points (if you have an iPhone, I am not sure if it works the same way with an Android) but if you have already downloaded an app they have listed on their app, you can't re download it again to accumulate points because the information has already been saved to your iCloud. Also, you must download the app from Feature Points. You can' t go straight to the App Store to download it because Feature Points won't be able to keep track of wheter you really downloaded the app. One big thing that really messes people up is that once you do download the app, you should open it and use it for at least 2-3 minutes. This is the best practice to follow in order to receive points. There have been times I did not retrieve points although I did download and use the app, but that's ok. Also, each Feature Points account is tracked by the phone it is assigned to. If you were to break or lose your phone, the only way you will be able to retrieve your information from Feature Points is if you had a backup saved in your iCloud or on your Computer. Otherwise, you are screwed unless you have an email attached to your account. I remember when I switched from my iPhone 4s to my iPhone 6, I had moved all my information to my iPhone 6. Once I opened the app, they asked if I was using a different phone for my account and they just transferred my existing information to my new account. Like I said earlier, the only way if you wanted to have 2 separate accounts on 2 separate phones, you must be using a different Apple account. There are also so called hacks for this app, but I honestly do not trust them. Stay away from those because a lot of times, they do not work for the most part and your information may get taken without you even knowing it. It has happened to me in the past with websites, so I highly suggest you don't even try. I hope you found this helpful and possibly something you may want to try. And if you do try it, you should add my referral code if you sign up, which is NPAQTA.

I once I get to 30,000 points, I will use them to get an Amazon gift card because I LOVE Amazon and from there, buy the new GTA V! Although I can't play it right at this moment (computer issues), I can have it in hand! The game will be releasing in April of this year. Did you know they moved the date of release 3 or 4 times already? It was supposed to come out March 2014, then moved to March 2015 to April 2015. How crazy is that?! The PS3 and XBOX 360 versions came out on September 17, 2013. Then, the PS4 and XBOX ONE versions came out November 2014. Rockstar always making us PC gamers wait. Let's hope the wait is worth it.

Going through everything

I am going back to my old blogposts to as early as 2011 and laughing at all of the things I wrote. Who knew I was like that at that particular age? Reading back has shown me of how much I have grown. I was thinking of actually starting a new blog and deleting all of the old posts from my blog (because some of if is a bit inappropriate), but I decided not to do that because I want to see the growth of not only my writing, but of the actual content that I write to this blog. I am also going around and changing the spelling and the grammar, but no actual content because I don't want this blog to lose its original content.

One thing I will try to shy away from is writing about my negative thoughts. I want to keep everything positive, but sometimes it is hard to when things aren't going your way or things aren't going as planned.

I am really excited because I have so much to share, but I will gradually over the next few weeks introduce these things. I also probably may change the layout of my blog again. I am not really liking the layout of my new blog. It is very dull. Just a plain black, gray, and white feel to it and I don't really like that. Plus, I am big when it comes to customization and unfortunately, I can't do that right at this moment because the layout does not allow customization unless I was to go into the code and change some numbers, but that is a tedious task and I have already tried and failed. The item I wanted to change the most was the picture and I failed so I rather just change the layout altogether.

Applying for jobs are impossible?

Currently, I am in college and if you don't know, applying for internships specifically in your major is a tedious task. For one, you have to spend a lot of time searching online to find where you want to work. You can apply to programs that provide housing in different states, or nearby your home. The opportunities are endless, but what takes forever is the application itself. What I hate the most about it is that some applications ask you to upload your resume to their site and then ask you to fill in all this information on their website that is already on your resume. How redundant. And some may even require previous internships and experience you have taken on. How can I apply for this internship if I have never had past internships that I can add? The whole process itself is very frustrating, but I am praying that I hear back at least from one that I got in. At the end of the day, a degree in the US counts for nothing because many people have that now. What they are looking for are leaders and those who have experience in their field. With experience, you are one step ahead. All you need once you land that interview is finding the best way to sell yourself. But I haven't reached that step yet and I am not giving up just yet.

Favorite Albums

These are a compilation of most of my favorite albums of all time. More will be added as time goes by. Most of these albums, I either have listened to completely and love EVERY. SINGLE. SONG. or some are I like a majority, or some I only like a few, but they really stand out and still have myself going back and listening to them all the time. More will be added as time goes by so check back to see what has been added. Also, I will write a post on my favorite albums of all time from this compilation .