Mongolia so far has been absolutely amazing!!! Its like nothing I expected. Yesterday was our first day here in the village and although its extremely freeezinng cold (minus 25 at night) the sights are breathtaking! We’re surrounded by beautiful snowy mountains all around and the people are really great they’re all so eager to get to know us and help us out with anything we need including carrying our heavy backpacks. I knew coming to Mongolia would be great but I never expected to love it so much, including sleeping in our gers (tents) out in the middle of nowhere. Ahhhh but thats all I can write for now. Bayartai, Hairtai veronica 
So last week we were assigned a project, to make a 30 second video explaining globalization. My group started working on it last week (and we filmed it today) and during that time I realized a few things.
1) Its nice that the groups were with different people because I got to know two people which I didn’t know very well. This therefore made me realize that we still all don’t know each other very well but I think little by little we’ll get there
2) I also realized, in more depth how much of an influence the people in developed countries have in developing countries. In my group we were discussing what the positives and negatives and what we wanted our main theme to be. One of the main thoughts we came up with is that we’re all interconnected. Our actions in the first world have great effects on the third worlds, because we’re the ones that have power over the large factories and companies. It made us think about how we’re the ones that truly control everything. The reason why large companies are making sweat shops in developing countries and hiring people that are willing to be paid for less than a dollar a day is because WE are the ones that are boosting their sales up by keeping their products high in demand.
3) In my group we also came up with away to show that things can still be changed for the better and we in the first world can make choices like not buying those designer kicks made by a young Vietnamese girl and instead go with something that’ll better the situation for people who are struggling in developing nations. This made me see that not all is lost and it’s never too late to make a better choice and think about our actions and how they affect others.
So it’s been roughly six months since we’ve all found out we were chosen to be in this amazing program and I just realized that I haven’t even blogged about how I felt that moment I found out and how I still feel today. I actually haven’t blogged much at all (which I’m ashamed of), but I find it a little difficult, because we are writing about our feelings and our thoughts about everything and global ed is really important to me and its just weird to think that anybody in the world can read my little blog entry by just a click of their mouse. But I guess I’ll have to really try to get over that since these blogs are a huge part of our class.
Well then…where should I begin? It probably all begin in elementary school. I remember the students from the global perspectives class coming to my gr.5 class and talking about their trips and everything they did. Now I don’t remember every little detail or everything they said but I do remember thinking that I wanted to be where they were. I remember thinking that everything they talked about just sounded so awesome and I had to be a part of it as soon as I got to high school. It just seemed like they were making an impact on the world, and changing it for the better. Another huge factor which really really made me want to get into the program was because my sister had been in it. Her class had gone to Cuba. When she came back from her trip she had met so many great people, and she had so many amazing stories about those people and new things she experienced. But I realized it wasn’t just about how “fun” her tip was but she seemed to really learn a lot about herself and gained a greater knowledge of the world and the people in it.
Once I was finally in high school I realized… I had to wait another 4 years to be a part of global perspectives!! But time passes by so fast and soon enough grade 11 rolled by.
I knew I just HAD to try and get into the class (it had been on my to-do/wish list for so long) but I have to admit I was a little pessimistic about making it. After seeing the list of all the people that signed up I just didn’t feel like I had that good of a chance since there are a lot of amazing people in our school. But nervously I went to the interview and hoped for the best.
I think that’ll be one of the moments I’ll always remember because I was just so anxious the whole day and worried about my interview and the questions I’d be asked. What if I answered wrong? What if the teachers didn’t think I was sincere enough? What if someone’s answers were better than mine? Question after question mixed with worry just kept going around in my head. But after the interview I definitely felt relief and knew that I had answered honestly and sincerely. Then all that was left was to see if I actually made it.
When I received the email from Mr. Matheny saying that I had been accepted to be in the program I couldn’t believe it and I think I jumped up and down and started screaming 
I knew that I was going to be a part of something greater than words; something that would make a lasting effect in my life and would make me take a step into the real world and see how it works and somehow in a small way help out and make it better. But its not only about helping people that are less fortunate than us, and even if they are less fortunate in terms of materialistic things like money, a big house, and a nice car it does not mean they’re less than us or that we’re superior and better for going to help them. We just have the means and the tools to go and do something. Isn’t that what all people should be doing? Shouldn’t those a little better-off be helping our neighbors? Maybe if we did our world would be a far greater and peaceful place. Maybe they’re wouldn’t be so much poverty and hatred and war. What is it that makes a person truly happy? Is it the examples above I’ve mentioned, that big house with the nice car in the drive way and all that money in your bank account? I don’t think it is. I think we’d all be miserable and empty without the simplest things in our lives, like giving our family members a hug, laughing with our friends or running freely outside, its love and life its self that make us happy. It’s the simplest things that we take for granted and that I think a lot of people don’t realize is what makes us happy.
This is why I wanted to join Global Perspectives because it makes me think about all these things and it makes me see that we have a beautiful world, but if we don’t start taking care of it and taking care of each other AND if we don’t start appreciating all the things we have it won’t last for very long.
This class so far has already changed me for the better and has opened my eyes.
I just can’t wait for everything that’s coming up! I’m so excited that I’m a part of the global (and I think I’ve said that about a trillion times but I just can’t say it enough!)
Wow I don’t even know where to begin! This is my first blog and soooo many things have happened so far. I know I should probably recap on all of the things we’ve done, because there’s been so much already but I think I’ll just talk about what we’ve done this week. AND I probably shouldn’t have waited to long to finally write my first entry but here we go! Ha-ha.
So this week we’ve talked about communication skills. In every event or fundraiser we do communication is key, ESPECIALLY on our trip to Mongolia. So Mr. Matheny made us play a game in which he gave us each a little piece of paper with a different personality type on it. We had to walk around talking to people about global perspectives, in the personality we received. Mine was a show-off, I had to use big words and tell people they should read books and talk about how intelligent I was ha. Right of the bat it was pretty difficult going around because everyone was just so in their own little world talking about themselves not even listening to the other person. Pretty soon the class was bursting with all these loud personalities and crazy, pointless conversations that were going nowhere. But that was what Mr. Matheny was trying to point out. We all have our own unique, great and sometimes not so great aspects to our personalities and we will get in arguments and clash but we’re still a team and we need to work together. It’s pretty certain that on our trip we won’t always get along but if we have an issue with something we do need to address it in a mature manner, which is what we talked about in our class today. If we get frustrated or upset in a situation or with another person we really can’t just go crazy on a rampage because of our emotions. We need to relax, take a breath, calm down, maybe go for a walk or something and figure out why exactly it is we’re mad.
One of the things Matheny said that I really agreed with was that once something is said, those words come into existence and there’s nothing that can be done to take it back. So if something hurtful is said to another person, it’ll always remain there and will probably be hard to apologize for. It’s a matter of thinking before speaking. Which is why calming down before saying something is sooo important! I hate to say it but I’ve learned this personally from experience, where there were situations in my life, where I was either frustrated or upset and I spoke to soon and said things that in the end I regretted. I think the same thing has probably happened to everyone but the discussions we had in class were really great because we talked about how we need to come up with ways to make those bad situations better, and even try to fix them. What’s important is to try and deal with whatever it is that’s irritating us and to be respectful with one another. All in all it was an awesome class that really made me realize what lies ahead of us on our trip and that yeah it’ll be an amazing and life changing experience but things aren’t always perfect and we’ll all probably be grumpy from lack of sleep or homesick missing our mommies and daddies.. haha but its okay! As long as there’s respect and we’re moving forward having fun and taking everything in, and working together as a group and as a team it’ll be a great experience. Which by the way I can wait for!!!!
Welcome to Global Perspectives Canada. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!
which I’m really sad about because I’ve fallen in love with the people of this town and I’m going to miss them a lot. But I can’t deny that I’m really excited to take a shower 
! Right now we’re at the worksite and lemme tell you, it’s looking incredible! The windows are built and so is the door and right now the floor is getting finished up. It’s looking really really good and it’s amazing how we’ve accomplished building the school in only about 3 ½ days. Tonight is also our closing ceremony where we hand over the school to the town. Rest assured lots of pictures and videos will be taken 
