I Guess I Have To Work Harder!

According to the University of Alberta Express News, students will be expecting a tuition hike of 4.6 percent and another 8.75 percent if you live on campus. This has all been approved by Alberta`s board of governors. So, let’s do the math here, my tuition for winter of 2010 was about 3000 dollars. Now, working 5 days a week at 10 dollars an hour for 8 hours a day during the 4 months that I get off equals about 6400 dollars. Usually, that is a perfect amount so that my tuition and spending money balance out quite evenly. Now with the tuition hikes, the article states that tuition just for general arts and science will average about 4900 dollars. I doubt that I will make exactly 6400 dollars over the summer, but being optimistic and saying that I will means that I will be left with 1500 dollars minus about 500 dollars for books which equals 1000 dollars. That leaves me with an optimistic 1000 dollars. That means I have done nothing over my break except work. Honestly, who can resist not having any fun over the break. I would like to do something fun with my spare time and let’s face it, most fun things cost money; I guess I will be working a lot harder this summer. Let’s not even consider living on campus, I do not know how those people do it. As far as loans are concerned, I’m sure my parents would help me out instead of having a loan but I would still have to pay them back and that is just another burden that I have to carry around. I understand that people need to be paid and renovations need to be done and when times change so does the value of money, but there must be something to help with our tuition problems. I just haven’t found it yet.

The Tenant: Whats With The Ending??

I believe the ending reflects what Maya made clear in the beginning of the short story. Maya says early on that “all Indian men are wife-beaters.” This can also mean that she believes Indian men are controlling as well. Ashoke Mehta may have been a controlling, persuasive individual who was able to take complete control of Maya. When Ashoke says that he was honest with Maya, she is breathless. This could mean that she is stunned or maybe there was something said that we do not know or perhaps she really does like this guy. I believe that this guy is a real control freak because he does not ask if Maya wants to go to Hartford, he almost expects that she will go. It strikes me as odd that Ashoke is not married even when his description says that he is handsome, strong and a doctor. What surprises me even more is that he uses words like, “you ARE the one I’m looking for.” The use of the word ARE in his description shows that he truly is a controlling person. We know that Ashoke has been talking about himself a lot. This shows how controlling he is because he needs to be in command and at the center of attention. Even when he tells Maya to say a little about herself, he keeps control by asking her the questions instead of letting her speak for herself. This man is everything that Maya tried to avoid in the beginning but now she cannot avoid him.

Convent by Rukmini Bhaya Nair pg. 254

After reading the poem, I had to find out what the title Convent meant. I found out that the word Convent is a house or residence where religious people, mostly nuns live. Every stanza of the poem seems to contrast two ideas; this makes the poem very interesting to read. The first stanza shows how something so simple light candle light can burn with such color and light but the nun stays colorless (black and white) and lifeless. Stanza two describes how she lies above the trap of the world that is full of sin. Stanza two puts so much emphasis on the height to show that she is on a different level and almost closer to god than the others. Stanza three shows how prayer is supposed to be pure, however, it may not be as interesting in her mind. In the fourth and fifth stanza, it shows the nun staring down at the faces having fun and in contrast, the other nuns praying. At the end she finds herself wondering if being a nun is really for her.

I believe this poem describes the sacrifices one has to make to become a nun/priest. It shows that one will sometimes have urges to be like the others but in the back of their mind, they know that they have made a commitment. Sometimes the urges may be enough to start questioning their religion and start doubting the practice of prayer.

People should read this poem because for any religion, there are sacrifices and traditions that individuals have to make and sometimes people can get fed up with these sacrifices and traditions and start to doubt them and maybe not do them.