India: Moving on?

As you may have heard, Mumbai, India suffered another round of attacks recently. These were all too close to the attacks that happened just three years ago leaving hundreds hurt and millions terrified. Speaking as someone who has just come from this area (I went to India for 10 days earlier this summer) I am honestly surprised more chaos didn’t take place. This is one place that just has so many people! It could have easily escalated to a stampede possibly injuring many more. The Indian government does not want to claim these attacks as terrorist attacks, but personally I think they are and they were meant to evoke fear. That is simply my personal opinion. One article that I read stated that the home minister said that life was beginning to return to normal for the people there. I’m grateful for this because they don’t deserve to live in fear, but honestly isn’t that what has to happen. We have seen it countless times with many tragedies around the world. Haiti, Japan, and now India have shown that they won’t let disasters keep them down. Check out this article that I read about this topic here.

Are you kidding me? A Clinton Wedding = $$

So I’m usually not one of those girls that gets all excited and needs to know everything about the latest in Hollywood, but there is something about this past weekend. “Supposedly” on July 31 Chelsea Clinton got married to her fiance Marc Mezvinsky. All of the details of this wedding were kept hush hush and the guests were not told a specific place to go for the event. The press was buzzing about where and when and also who. It has been rumored that Oprah Winfrey and President Obama were going to attend. Give me a break! What I care about in this wedding is the pricetag. Check this out:

Video: $25,000 — For a woman who has grown up in the national spotlight, it’s probably a given that her wedding will also be captured on video. This is not a family that has shied away from the cameras.

Lighting: $75,000 to $100,000 — The perimeter of the estate needs to be illuminated along with each of the estimated 50 tables inside for the guests.

Hair and Makeup: $20,000 — The members of the bridal party need to look their best.

Invitations: $40,000 to $50,000 –”I would guess that they would go with a very nice, classic invitation,” Hanlin said. That means $40,000 to $50,000 for the invitation, menu card, details about security, calligraphy, programs and postage.

Party Planner: $175,000 — Hanlin said she didn’t know how much Rafanelli would charge for this event. Hanlin would charge $75,000 to $125,000 for a normal, upscale wedding. For something like the Clinton wedding, with its massive issues of privacy and security, she said the price would be between $125,000 and $225,000, probably right at the $175,000 mark.

Rehearsal Dinner: $250,000 — Josh Kroner, owner of the local Terrapin Restaurant, is said to be catering the rehearsal dinner at the Grasmere farm estate on the edge of town. Hanlin said it could cost $1,000 a head for each of the 200 guests, and probably another $50,000 for simple flowers and decor.

Security: $30,000 — This is a tricky one. The Secret Service will be providing its normal protection for the Clintons – and yes, you the taxpayers will be covering that – but there might be additional private security needed for the A-list guests. (President Obama, if he comes, will presumably also be bringing his own taxpayer-covered security detail.) Hanlin said private security for a typical celebrity wedding runs about $30,000.

Miscellaneous: $50,000 Add another $10,000 for valet parking, $8,000 to $10,000 for the wedding cake, $5,000 for welcome gifts, another $17,500 for favors at the end of the night and a few extra thousand for those unexpected last-second items that you never thought about.

Are you kidding me?! This is absolutely ridiculous. Her wedding will cost more than I will make in my life and the rehearsal dinner alone is more than double my entire college tuition at a private school. Really? What is this saying about America? Our tax dollars are going to pay for some of the security for the wedding of the daughter of a former President and poverty in our country keeps increasing. Wow is all I can say.

Traveling the World

In my office I have been called a world traveler because I recently went on my second out-of-country mission trip. For two weeks in May I went to Bangkok, Thailand. This was a trip scheduled through my other school.  So our group of 21 total- 17 girls, 1 boy, 1 Adult male leader, and 2 female Adult leaders-set out from Chicago, IL up and over Alaska and then down to Tokyo, Japan. Our trip was slightly halted before it began because our plane broke in Chicago so this caused us to spend the night in Japan and break up our travel a little. So after a great night in Japan, we were actually on our way to Thailand.

As soon as we stepped out of the airport, we experienced extreme heat and a Buddhist influence. While we were there, we mostly worked with disabled children at Rainbow House. This is a foundation run by CCD (Christian Care for Disabled Children) that gives the children therapy in hopes that one day they may be adopted. The children quickly stole our hearts the more we spent time with them. We had a lot of fun on our trip with balancing our helping along with being tourists.  We got to take 2 different canal boat tours, ride a river taxi, several varieties of buses, tuk-tuks, and best of all, we got to ride elephants! We also attended a cultural show, ate authentic Thai food, and visited a local orchid farm. All of our experiences truly made our trip worthwhile. I won’t lie, there were also some emotionally difficult things that we have to process still. Some images will be with me forever. I’m very grateful for this experience to learn and grow as a person. Now if you are interested in traveling there are some options for students from a smaller school. I suggest you take a look at these websites or do your own search:  http://takemetovolunteertravel.com/ , www.StudyAbroad.com , http://www.statravel.com .

Best of Luck and Happy Travels!

Hello World…

Hello fellow bloggers. I am new to the blogosphere and just wanted to introduce myself a little. I am a student employee here for MTC so not only do I work here I am also taking a class for the summer.  Now, my story is a little different than most.  I have taken PSEO classes through MTC from my junior year of high school until I graduated. Now I am about to start my second summer class. In the fall, I will be a junior at Olivet Nazarene University about to start the Social Work program. As a student in the middle of getting my bachelor’s degree and taking classes at a technical school, I can tell you there are differences and similarities regarding each school. Olivet is based in Bourbonnais, IL and is a religious 4-year university. It is a fairly small campus compared to most, although it is over twice the size of MTC. Let’s just say tuition is a little more also. Olivet is community based with many opportunities for students to do outreach, whereas MTC is community-based for the purpose of providing work. MTC is a great school for its purpose. I have enjoyed my class time and the people that I get to work with. I think taking PSEO classes and courses I need for my other school’s program has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said I’m so grateful that I took that class at MTC. Living in a small community in both places has also been a great experience and very personable.  I love ONU and I love MTC so being in both places for a time has truly been amazing. I look forward to sharing my thoughts about my schools and some current issues with you all throughout the rest of the summer.