Volunteering

According to UN definition, “the volunteer is the young or the adult who, because of his personal interest and his public spirit, devoted most of his time, without any remuneration, to various forms of activities, organized or not, well welfare, or other fields… ”

Recently I discovered the satisfaction of being involved in this kind of activity helping LASA (Latin American Student Association at SIUC) in its activities. I am very happy to contribute in some way, and I believe that voluntary actions have the transformer potential. Besides, it contributes to growth within the individual.

Read Full Post »

Congratulations for us!

About woman…

Woman think with hearth, acts by emotion and wins by love…
Woman nowadays works and even maintains the home…
Woman is warrior, but she knows cry…
Woman is mirror, hair and smell…
Woman creates life…
Woman is so simple and so complicated…
Simple because she has the most pure love…
Complicated because she wants to do everything…
Happy is the man who, at least for a day, knows understand the soul of a woman.

Read Full Post »

RRJ #5 (Brazil digs deep for future fortune)

Reading Reaction Journal #5

Reference

Clanton, B. (2011, February 25). Brazil digs deep for future fortune. My SA. Retrieved February 27, 2011, from http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/article/Brazil-digs-deep-for-future-fortune-1031133.php

Summary

This article discusses a real possibility of Brazil becoming a global oil superpower. With the recent discovery of the pre-salt, Brazil has reservoirs that are estimated to hold 50 billion to 100 billion barrels of oil — enough to turn Brazil into one of the world’s top five producers of crude. The layer called pre-salt is a range that extends over 500 miles between five coastal states of Brazil, below the seabed, and includes three sedimentary basins.Oil found in this area is at depths that exceed 7,000 meters, under an extensive layer of salt, that according to geologists, retains quality oil. The article also mentions that development of the field comes during a time of turmoil in the oil markets, which seems a good moment for Brazil.

Reaction

Recent discovery of enormous reserves of oil that exist in the largest country in South America made the eyes of the world return to Brazil and broadens the debate about the pre-salt layer inside the country. Brazilians believe that the oil wealth from the region could be one more way to improve the Brazilian economy, which is already growing strongly.

It is obvious that there remain many technical challenges until the extraction is completed. There are many difficulties to be faced until the area of petroleum is reached. But the most important is that the lessons learned with problems in the past seem to take effect. Today the Brazilian government has a concern with the regulation of exploitation of the pre-salt by both economic and environmental issues.

Brazilian citizens have the consciousness that this discovery is not the solution to all problems of the country. We still need to resolve issues such as corruption, which today is the biggest problem in Brazil. However, how Brazilian politics has been showing changes in the last ten years, the population believes that this can be a great opportunity to improve investment in major areas like education, health and infrastructure which will bring positive changes to the country.

Read Full Post »

RRJ #2 (Record Level of Stress Found in College Freshmen)

Reading Reaction Journal #2

Reference

Lewin, T. (2011, January 26). Record Level of Stress Found in College Freshmen. New York Times. Retrieved January 27, 2011, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/27/education/27colleges.html

Summary

This article discusses the influence from stress on emotional health of college freshmen. According with survey showed by the author, the emotional health reached the lowest level since the collecting data started, two decades ago. Information is given that this index represents a common situation that more students are entering the universities with problems. The economic factors are putting a lot of extra stress on these students who are worried about their own college debts and job prospects when they graduate. There is also a gender gap. The women have a less positive view of their emotional health than the men.

Reaction

I was very interested in reading about the theme discussed in the article considering that  this is  a current problem which we encounter in various universities regardless of their location.

This article gave me some new information. The fact that students are worried about their economic situation is harmful because each one of them already has a very large load of stress during their university life. The students should learn to cope with the pressures and worry about work, exams, and their future professional life.

Another interesting aspect for me was how women and men’s reactions are different in how they spent their leisure time. The men tend to spend more time in activities that relieve stress, like sports, while women tend to take activities that include more responsibilities, that do not relieve stress.
Maybe universities should be more worried about the emotional health of their students. Investing more in recreation centers and creating psychological support centers could be a good start.

Read Full Post »

SOMETIMES I MISS…

Today it is very cold here in Carbondale. The cold wind is running outside and my inspiration took vacations… While it do not return, I talk about what I miss. Yeah, today I wake up a little bit nostalgic. I miss my family, my friends, maybe my routine, and today in specially, I miss my hometown.
Maybe this is because of the distance of my original place or simply because there is not a family routine. The fact is that reflections and feelings, beyond the conventional ones, are awakened. Everything win a different value than what they had before. The more simple details, the way the people talk and the fact you feel yourself like part of these people. These things change from simple daily habits to nostalgic remembrance and without a date to transform it into something concrete again.
While the day to return to Natal has not arrived, I will enjoy my cold days here, because, maybe, someday I’ll be writing other posts, this time missing this city so calm and hospitable, and which brings me such good experiences.

Read Full Post »