Final Project

For our final project, we had the great opportunity to construct one of an old Mayan civilization. Of course we chose The Temple OF Inscriptions, which happens to be the largest mesoamerican stepped pyramid structure in the city of Palenque! Your probably thinking "how in the heck could they construct something like that" believe me...we asked ourselves the same question. Eventually we decides to use Rice Krispie and kit kat treats! Of course when creating anytime type of structure, you must lay down a foundation. So we layered about a good 6 rows of stabilized Rice Krispie treats, we then used a hot glue gun to glue it down to the surface, which happen to be a thick piece of cardboard. From there on we followed a model, and kind of molded our construction to look somewhat like what was seen back then. Once we had the structure completed, we used kit kats as stelae towers. At first it was a little difficult to mold them to the Rice Krispie treats so we used toothpicks to put in between the kit kat and through the foundation so it looked as if the kit kat was standing on its own. 

After all this hard work, the only thing that was roaming in my mind was "we just wasted so many good treats on this civilization". But it was cool and fun and interesting to construct!

Imagine the pic below full of Krispie treats and kit kats!!

FYS CLASS PROJECT

      It is really crazy how fast time goes. Looking at the fact that in 2-3 weeks...we will have completed this course. 

     The idea of choosing a Mayan civilization and constructing it is absolutely great! Being able to collaborate as a class and as a group makes it even better considering the fact that we all came into this class practically strangers. Today was the first layout day of our project. Just being able to mess with the hot glue gun and box cutter seemed absolutely childish but we all had a good time. Sometimes all you need to do is keep simple in order to get the best results. 

FYS Fair

Honestly, going into this fair I didn't know what to expect or what really to do. As I wandered around to  find something, the Tai Chai tutorial lesson caught my eye. Going into it I expected it to be along the lines of Kung Fu and Martial Arts. You know, only used for defense kind of physical interaction type of thing. I was so wrong! As I stood there and took the online lesson is was more along the lines of focusing your "chi" and "chakra"  It was very relaxing but focused at the same time. I don't really want to compare it to meditation because of that being more relaxed. As I did it,'my body honestly felt weird, but a good weird. When I was younger I used to watch a show called "avatar the last air bender" and the way the water benders worked and moved is really similar to the method of tai chi!

 It was new, I'll just put it like that. But it was a good new!

Conspiracies&Theories

Although our class isn't based off of Mayan conspiracies and theories, I was very interested in Ricky's overall presentation. Just the whole idea of another philosophy being proposed differentiating from something we've grown up being taught, is absolutely amazing to me. Could the Mayans have had interaction with "aliens" leading to the drawing of the space shuttle?  Who knows! Just the overall idea and proposal of that possibility is great. Taking in the fact that there are sooo many discoveries about our world that haven't even been revealed yet is frustrating to me. We have so much advanced technology today that it seems as if we should be farther ahead. I'm the type of person where I would love to know what lies beneath the ocean and what's been buried in the mountains. You never know what could be discovered!

Appreciation

I've been on campus long enough to realize who the good and not so good professors are. Dr.Pearce Gonzalez "Dr.PG" without a doubt is one of the best professors I have had so far. We are currently studying Mayan culture/civilazation, but even before that he really pressed for a positive class collaboration and just overall understanding of each individuals generational family history. We spent a good 3 class periods watching and presenting each of our presentations dealing with our family backgrounds, religions, traditions and just overall interests. And at least for me, I dread the idea of presenting infront of people! But of course I presented and it felt pretty good! And as I observed the other presentations, some of us discovered we had a lot more in common then what we gave each other credit for. I thought I was the only person who had a parent in the military, I soon realize that 2 other people in the class did as well.

I think just the fact that, he is always positive,welcoming and just willing to go out of his way to open up opportunities for each and every student that is interested is very rare. 

Ultimately I'm just really thankful for Dr.PG

Contribution to the world

     I feel like each and everyone of us goes through something specific in life that defines who we are today. Whether that thing was positive or negative, I feel it is our obligation to use that experience to empower/warn someone else. Each and everyone of us can learn from someone else, whether we would like to or not... it could break or make us ultimately. From this, I feel the idea of counseling is appropriate for me. Although I may not have the qualified degrees, I do believe that going through and actually having different experiences is somewhat of a big contribution to counseling.

   

Mayan Gods

Hunahpu Utiu *PV*                       Qaholom *PV*
Hunahpu-Gutch *PV*                   Oxlahuntiku *CHB*
Ajtzak *PV*                                    Ahmucen-Cab                   Cacoch
Ajbit *PV*                                      Alom
Xmucane *PV*                              Bitol
Xpiayoc *PV*                                Cabaguil


The names you see above are the 13 creators of mayan civilization. I think its very interesting that there is more then one creator considering jealousy. In speaks of christianity religion, God in there eyes is seen as a very jealous God. No one else shall be worshipped but him alone. Hence Ten Commandments "Thou shalt not have any other Gods before me" as well as "Thou shalt not make any idols before me". The idea of sharing power amongst 13 different Gods/Creators, actually really surprises me. You would think there would be intense fights, arguments etcc... I guess that really shows how much the 13 of them were really in unity/harmony.