Lonely Cellphone

Not using my cellphone for 31 hours was close to impossible. I wanted to talk to my friends back here in Virginia while i was in Miami, and i was incapable of any contact. It drove me absolutely insane not being able to text or call my friends, and the moment the 31 hours was up i had to read through tons of messages and answer people back. The only plus was that i did save a bit on my phone bill.

While in Miami, I had a great conversation with a half Swedish, half Spaniard lady named Magali Palacio. It was great to get a chance to talk with someone as acculturated as her. She spoke fluent English, Spanish, Swedish, and French, and had lived in Spain, Cuba, Sweden, France, and now the U.S. It was great to hear about how different things are in all the countries she had lived in, and especially great to hear her say how much better the U.S. was than anywhere else.

Over 70 Interview

I interviewed an old Cuban man named Jorge while in Miami, an old friend of my grandfather's. While the interview was very difficult to perform with my terrible Spanish, the gist of it was mainly about how life is as you get older, and how much things have changed. It was not so much an interview as a conversation, and it was great for me to learn about how much he had struggled, immigrating to America 45 years ago and fighting in Vietnam. He is so proud of the greatness of our country and the fact that anyone can achieve riches that he even refuses social security and welfare, and works even now at 73 years old. His tale of toughing through the bad times and enjoying the good ones touched me, and I hope to be able to emulate his can-do approach to life and everything that he does.

I held up a sign just to see how the people in Miami felt about living there, because i enjoyed it so much. I was surprised that only one or two people beeped, and they were probably tourists anyway. Maybe the excitement and fast paced life gets old, because clearly the people there were not feeling Miami too much.

Selling their Rights to Vote

When i asked people how much money could buy their right to vote, the results surprised me. Almost every person i asked said that nothing could buy their vote, and i was impressed by this. People felt that their right to vote was their voice, and one lady said that she didn't even vote but that having that right meant too much to her for any amount of money.

While some people did admit that they would sell their vote, the majority still said that they would not sell their vote, and again i was very impressed, but saddened to see that some people would value money over their right to vote.