Volleyball, terrorism, and photos-shoots

This week went by super fast, so I didn't have a lot of time to write out a lengthy blog post. According to Debs (aka my mother) lengthy blog posts aren't good anyway, so I guess this is me listening to her advice...sort of.

Nothing exciting happened this week, and I mean nothing... we had 19 hours of class (not that much), ate meals, slept, played a lot volleyball.... sand volleyball has become my newest passion! It's not like I can just go out and row on a lake around here... and even if I could, there are no lakes! I play about 6 hours of volleyball a week... which is nothing compared to my rigorous crew practice schedule from highschool, but its a lot for being stuck up in the middle of nowhere on a mountain! I'm not very good at V-ball...yet! I'm good at spiking though! I have two giant scrapes on my legs because the sand is really rocky and coarse, so it scraps us up pretty bad every time we fall. But it's ok, they make me look legit ;)

I really hate side-ways emoticons...yet I just did one, weird. If I didn't do one you guys wouldn't be able to tell that I was being kinda sorta sarcastic-ish!!!!

I try to include some of the things I learn each week, in my blog posts. This week in Politics class Bauman talked to us about terrorism, for three evenings in a row... it's been really interesting though! Here's some thing's I've learned:

Terrorism- deliberate and systematic murder, maiming and menacing of the innocent to inspire fear for political ends.

• Terrorists kill children because they're potential soldiers, and women because they're soldier producers.

• Terrorists call themselves “freedom fighters”

We talked about how the media really actually helps the terrorists instead of helping the anti-terrorists.... terrorists want attention. They want everyone to know what they did, they want to be internationally broadcasted to tvs everywhere! So when some big attack happens and the media freaks out and puts it all over the news for hours on time....it's just encouraging the terrorists. Bauman gave us a list of things the media could do to help fix this problem:

1. Authorize self-discipline- no more free rights for terrorist propaganda. Tell the facts but dont celebrate it by hours of global broadcasting.
2. Make sure to avoid rationalizing for the terrorists. why doesnt America like the word “ terrorism”?! Call them what they are!!!
3. Media is sometimes so out of bounds that it sometimes injures anti-terrorism attempts! The media is THAT stupid! They only care about people listening, reading or watching what they broadcast/ prints.

Isn't that interesting?!

Bauman went on to talk about prevention of terrorists attacks and then he called on me and asked if I thought that killing a terrorist was the right thing to do. If a terrorist came and attacked us, and I had the chance to kill him, would it be right of me to do it? What do you think? Personally, I would totally kill that idiot. If he comes and attacks me! Then I totes have the right to defend myself and kill him! I think I have the right to, and a reason to.

Bauman went on and read us some tips for being in an airport, and I think their quite hilarious.

Personal things you can do:

• Since so much terrorism occurs around/in airplanes, make note of your passport numbers etc... so that you can have it some where safe after they take it on the plane...
• don't fill in the names of loved ones on your passport
• Dont have your passport stamped if you ever go to Israel... because hijackers will look at your passport and if you seem to be sympathetic to Israel you're a target
• don't put meds in check baggage in case you need it....
• don't carry alcohol or pornography... (well duh....)
• don't have anti commonest or Islamic literature
• clothing: don't wear veterans clothing or military uniform/apparel. Loose fitting comfortable clothing, don't wear outstanding clothing, fit in.
• While in airport, go through lines quickly. While by gate, sit away from windows or trashcans
• if your under attack in an airport and theres no directions, hit the floor!

So thats just a little bit of what I learned this week!

Oh!!! Something exciting did happen this week!!! My two “best” friends here and I had a photo shoot!!! Andy (one of the boys here) is a professional photographer, and he took some pics of us! I think they're pretty awesome! So here's a few of them, although most of them will be on facebook too. So if you're my friend on FB go check 'em out!

This reminds me of twilight!!! To my right with the curly hair is Sarah, and to my left is Natelie.

This is looking out from “Cell phone hill” aka the only place I can make phone calls from! So if you ever call me...this is how high up I have to go to get a decent number of bars!!

This is my favorite puppy in the world!!! His name is Cheerio and he's about 10 weeks old!!! We hangout a lot!!

We like to do the peace sign and say “holla” a lot. And thats not a mis-spelling of hola...its “Hollar” shortened!

We were supposed to look tough... but I think I'm the only one who actually looks tough... haha.

Tune in next week for another episode in the crazy life of MaFa!