Book Review: Crime and Punishment (choice)

For A.P. Literature and Composition, I had to choose a novel to read outside of class during the Fall season.  I chose Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky because I thought it would be really interesting to read.  While it was extremely interesting and I'm glad I read it, the novel was incredibly long.  I never thought I'd be able to finish it.  I think one of the reasons it seemed so long was that it was incredibly depressing.  It takes place in 1860's St. Petersburgh, and is extremely bleak.  It is always blizzarding, and all of the characters are either living in poverty or are living tragic, empty lives.  For example, the main character, Raskolnikov, is a former student who cannot pay his rent bills.  He wastes most of his time either sleeping or at the bar, and has little to know contact with his family.  He is extremely bright, and he thinks quite a bit about the ideas of morality and justice.  He gets into quite a bit of trouble when he decides to act upon his ideas on this subject.  After he commits this crime, he suffers through much guilt and trauma.  He is unable to decide whether to turn himself in or cover it up.  He essentially goes insane, and ends up having to turn himself in.  While the ending is not exactly a happy one, it is a relief because he did what he had to do in order to get better.  Raskolnikov is in a much better place at the end of the novel in comparison to where he was in the beginning, along with many of the other supporting characters.  While the book is incredibly sad, it is almost addicting.  It is very suspenseful, and the reader can really feel sympathy for many of the characters.  Overall, it is a great novel and a must read!

Paris in the 1920's

If I could go back in time to any other time period just to explore, I think I would go back to the early 1920's.  I would want to spend most of my time there in Paris, France.  This time in history, especially in this area, was really free and laid back.  It's just after World War I, but before The Great Depression.  There was little concern about pretty much any topic.  No one thought that there would be another large conflict at that point, and that there would be peace from that point on.  I would love to be able to just go and experience old Paris.  I would love to walk around the streets, experience new food, speak the language, and meet new, interesting people along the way.  I would love to be able to run into some of my favorite authors and artists at this time, and would be able to have a conversation about their works with them.  I think it would be so fun to meet new friends and just experience life at this time.  I would love to be able to see the Eiffel Tower at night and go up to the top to see Paris all lit up.  I also think it would be great to go shopping at this time.  Fashion was changing then, and it would be really fun to get some jewelry from this time period.  Having authentic jewelry from this time would be really fun.  While I'm there, I'd love to go out and just experience Paris at night.  There used to be really fun places to go eat dinner and dance.  Bands would play and everyone would be able to dance whenever they would like to.  The music at this time was great, and it would be fun to listen to the French lyrics while dancing.  I would love to explore the fun and interesting areas around Paris as well at this time.  Overall, I think I would enjoy the experience of going back to the care-free 1920's. 

An Interview with Brian Stoldt

Brian Stoldt, a member of the sophomore class, is kind of a big deal.  His favorite color is blue, and he loves the sport of football.  He is, in fact, the quarterback for the Varsity football team.  In school, his favorite subject is history, and more specifically, American History.  He also finds English class very interesting.  After high school, he would like to become a college football coach or a Physical Education Teacher.  Outside of school, he likes talking to his friends, especially Michael, and playing more sports.  His favorite book is a novel written by Jon Gruden.  The name of it, however, was escaping him at the time of this interview, and is still unknown.  His favorite television show is The Office because of how funny it is.  "Jim is my favorite character, but Michael brings a lot to the table," he said.  When asked what his favorite type of music is to listen to, he said that he will listen to "whatever," depending upon what the other people he is with at the time want to listen to.  He has no preference in genre.  Although he tries to seem tough, he stumbled upon the question about what his biggest fear was.  At first he said spiders, then moments later added snakes.  About a minute after that, he added bats to the list as well because of one in his backyard that is "low-flying."  Surprisingly, if he could have any superpower in the world, Brian would want to be able to fly.  "I would be able to do a lot of things if I could fly," he said.  If he could be any animal in the world, he said that he would want to be one of his dogs because they don't do very much, but then changed his answer to an "adventure animal."  When asked for clarification as to what this was exactly, he said "something that lives in the woods."  This did not make things any more clear, and finally he settled on just being a monkey.  In closing, I asked him if he remembered the incident where Mr. Currin spelled his name wrong on the wiki page for everyone to see.  He said that he was still very disturbed about this, and had much anger toward Mr. Currin.  Apparently, he holds grudges as well. 

I don't Speak any Italian, and my French is really bad.

My freshman year of high school, I had the wonderful opportunity to go to France and Italy with the French Club.  During this trip, I had Laura Slojkowski as my roommate, which was great.  She's one of my good friends, and we had some really fun, hilarious times.  She even forgave me after locking her out of our hotel room when I fell asleep during her appointment with a doctor for a terrible ear infection.  The entire floor of the hotel room ended up waking up because of it, and it was a bit of a situation.  Later on in the trip, we went to the garden of Versailles, and were given some time to walk around the gardens with our friends.  They were absolutely beautiful.  We got a little lost in the mazes, but it was worth it.  When we were standing on a path in the courtyard, this girl and her father were riding bikes around.  The girl ended up falling of her bike, and she was okay but had a bad scrape on her leg.  Everyone was trying to find a band-aid for her, but no one had one.  Finally, someone found one, but it turned out to be the smallest Band-Aid ever created.   The size of the scrape in contrast with the size of the Band-Aid and the impracticality of it was incredibly funny to us in our sleep-deprived state.  Everything turned out alright, and we all went on our way.  On the last morning of our trip, Laura and I had to be up by five o'clock in order to leave the hotel at six o'clock to make our flight.  We were incredibly tired at this point, and knew it would be hard to get up.  As a precaution, we set three alarms just in case.  The next morning, I woke up to Mr. Dimmig knocking on our door saying that everyone needed to be downstairs in fifteen minutes.  I immediately panicked and woke up Laura.  She started panicking and ran to the bathroom trying to pack what we had left out.  Suddenly, I look over and a pair of pants are flying at my head.  In a blind fury, Laura was just trying to get everything out of the bathroom that we had.  Somehow, we managed to get ready, pack, and get downstairs to the lobby in a little less than fifteen minutes, which should be considered a record.  When looking back on this incident and the hilarity of it, I always laugh.  That trip was a fantastic experience, and I now have a really great friend!

Disney World isn't really the Happiest Place on Earth

For Easter Vacation when I was thirteen, my family and I went to Disney World.  I was really excited because I did not remember anything from the last time we went, and thought that it would be really fun.  For the most part it was really great.  I had a lot of fun on all the rides and in the warm weather.  We stayed at the Animal Kingdom Hotel and were able to see giraffes from our hotel room balcony.  However, my trip to Disney World was also a traumatizing experience for me.  Through a series of unfortunate events in Epcot, I now have a terrible fear of birds.  I am incredibly afraid of seagulls and anything that flies near me now, and I don't think I will ever be able to enjoy them again.  On one of the last days of my trip, we decided to go to Epcot for a few hours to walk around.  We went on a few rides, and then decided to stop for lunch in "Mexico."  I got a taco, which looked pretty good.  I sat down and began to eat, and the food was delicious.  I put it down for one minute to talk to my brother, which was a really bad idea.  Suddenly, a seagull swooped down at me.  I saw it heading for my taco, so I picked it up off the table thinking that it would just go away.  I was terribly wrong.  It started flapping its wings and squawking in my face.  I screamed and tried to get away but it stayed with me.  It tried to peck me, and I just barely escaped that.  I threw the taco down at it, and it finally left me alone.  I sat back down at the table calmly, but I was still terrified.  The guy at the table next to me tried to tell me that this sort of thing happened all the time and it was no big deal, but I strongly disagreed with him.  For the rest of the vacation I was unable to eat anything outside, and to this day I am still terrified of seagulls.  Every time I see one I run or duck for cover.  I hope that someday I may be able to overcome this, but until then I'll just steer clear of them. 

What is Boxing Day?

For my choice blog this week, I was unsure of what to write about.  Later, as I was looking through a calendar at my house, they had Boxing Day labeled as a Canadian Holiday on the day after Christmas.  Much to my surprise, it was not about the sport of boxing, but about a cardboard box. The idea of Boxing Day in Canada could have been brought over from England.  Some think that it has some ties to the holiday of Christmas and biblical times.  More people believe that it originated from aristocratic English families.  On the day after Christmas, they would give their servants and hired help boxes full of gifts.  They were then allowed to go home and spend some time with their families for the rest of the day since they weren't allowed to on Christmas day.  From what I can understand, in Canada, it is much like our Black Friday.  The stores have the best deals and sales, and everyone goes shopping.  Children are off of school, all government agencies are closed, and many businesses are closed.  Most people are off of work.  In some Canadian provinces, the stores aren't even open even though the holiday is now generally associated with shopping.  In the provinces of Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, Ontario, and Labrador this is the case.  The shopping in these provinces starts on the twenty-seventh of December.  A lot of sporting events and tournaments, namely hockey are also played on this day.  Many people choose to stay at home with their family and friends to watch their favorite Ice hockey team play a game The Canadian Ice Hockey Team also plays in a tournament in Switzerland on this day, which is also watched frequently amongst hockey fans.  I personally think that this holiday sounds like a good idea.  Two of my favorite activities in winter are shopping and watching hockey.  A day where these two things are put together into one day sounds fantastic.  I could definitely get used to that.  The greater Buffalo area should really start thinking about partaking in this holiday.