Suddenly I See

Sunday, December 31

Mexico 2017

We were visiting in late December and temperatures ranged from 60-80 degrees.

Sayulita

Our stay at Anjali Casa Divina was perfect. Itchel, the owner, really makes you feel at home and the place is beautifully crafted and nested away
The Real Fish Taco: mahi mahi and shrimp tacos near the beach
Barracuda for Peruvian ceviche and the best margaritas

Puerto Vallarta

We stayed in the Romantic Zone, at this VRBO
Cafe Olla for dinner
Nacho Daddy for live music
This website has some good maps of the different zones of PV

Yelapa

Renting a boat to go snorkeling and fishing was the highlight of my trip! Every seems to charge about $60 per hour. We went with Luis of Garcia Charters (whom I would recommend) for four hours.
Defintely go to La Playa Escondida Islas Marietas, also called The Secret Beach. Boat rides cost about $85. One option is to go with someone who has a permit to take you inside. With the other option, they will take you around the island (maybe do some snorkeling or kayaking) and provide food and an and open bar.

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Packing List

Carry On

Passport
Sunglasses
Hand sanitizer
Kindle
Small travel wallet
Travel pillow
Writing pens

Suitcase

Bathing suits x3
Tops

Blue tank top
Long sleeve
FFF cover up
Sheer sarong

Bottoms

Exercise shorts (black old navy)
Green linen shorts
Jean booty shorts
Jean shorts
Yoga pants
Palazzo pants
Jeans
Maxi skirt
Blue sarong

Dresses

Tight dress for going out (Green dress)
Black bathing suit cover up
Maxi dress

Jackets

Jean jacket
Roxy jacket

Shoes

Chacos
Flip flops
Birkenstocks

Accessories

Sun hat
Purse for going out (green NY purse)

Toiletries

Sunscreen SPF 15, tanning lotion, after sun lotion
Bug spray & anti itch cream
Antacids (margaritas, guacamole, and etc. Very acidic food equals constant heartburn)
Probiotics
Imodium and Cipro (just in case)
Dramamine and sea bands
Baby wipes
Bronners
Q-tips

Electronics

GoPro & charger
Bluetooth speaker & charger

Misc

Headlamp (of going to a remote place, like Yelapa)
Hydroflask for beach drinks
Nalgene for water (all places we stayed at provided drinking water to fill your bottle with, so save the plastic)
Wine key/bottle opener
Bathing suit bag
Packing cubes
Snorkels

What Not to Bring:

Beach towels- every place we stayed at provided beach towels. Anjali Casa Divina even provided chairs for us to take down to the beach.
Curling iron and makeup- I brought these items and did not use them once.

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Money Spent

Flight: $450
Food: $153
Transportation: $16
Beverages: $80
Excursions: $144
Misc: $73

TOTAL: $916

Wednesday, May 27

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/education/18college.html?em

1. Is professor Grossman off the mark when he says “I tell my classes that if they just do what they are supposed to do and meet the standard requirements, that they will earn a C,” he said. “That is the default grade. They see the default grade as an A.” why?

Yes, I believe he is off the mark with this statement. Students who do everything that is required of them should receive an A. If that standard grade is a C, how are students supposed to know what to do to receive an A. For many students, such as myself, they are planning to apply to programs that don't accept a C GPA. If all of my teachers functioned on Grossman's philosophy I wouldn't be able to achieve my goals.

2. What do you think is causing students to feel entitled to receive a good grade? Is it because a grade of A is now the expected default for "average" work where in reality a grade of A denotes "above average"? Are the students prior experiences in high school or earlier the cause? Are parents to cause "my child is perfect so it must be the instructors fault"?

I think there is some entitlement that comes into play. Some students don't try very hard and are used to getting by in K-12. I believe some of it is play to expecting an A as an average grade. For most students, we understand that we must go above and beyond to receive an A. Students prior experiences definitely think high school or early has an impact on this expectation. There are students who worked really hard in grade school to receive A's and there are students who expected to be able to copy those that worked really hard's work and test and receive the same grade. Some parents can potentially be a factor in this. Many parents enable their children by blaming it on the teacher or not impressing the importance of schooling.

3. Give your honest opinion of the article. Do you feel you deserve grades based on your effort or is it that you earned the grade you receive because of your effort? Anything else you would like to add?

This article was very interesting. Grossman really frustrated me with his stance. I strongly agree with Greenwood's opinion that effort should be the measure because if you put in all you effort and receive a C, what else can you do?

Saturday, February 16

Photo Shoot with Kat

Friday, February 8

Padmasana

Lotus Pose- first time :)

A New Decade

On Tuesday I celebrated my Twentieth birthday. It was a very odd birthday being 8000 miles away from the only country I've known. I got to celebrate my first Indian birthday which entails a very odd happy birthday song, putting out the candles with your fingers- no blowing allowed, and of course cutting your cake, then being hand fed pieces of cake by multiple people- can you say awkward? It represents the feeder wishing the feedie a happy birthday. Mary (left), her birthday was the day before and Katarina (right) shares my birthday..which is awesome!! And loved celebrating with them! This is the first year I didn't share my birthday festivities with the superbowl. I actually don't even know who played in the superbowl this year. It's almost as if I live under a rock. Stoked to take on a new year of my life and make this one the best yet!