Post 5
The past week we have done a lot of stuff. We learned about American culture and how different it is then others. Americans tend to be more individualized and really care a lot about the future. What really shocked me was that other countries have American themed party's and all the party's had red solo cups. I know that I am effected from American culture because of my huge value to go to college and get a job afterwards. But as for the family part of American culture I am fighting against American Values because as of right now I don't know if I want to get married. The past few days we watched Tuesdays with Morrie and it was a sad movie but more of a lesson. Morrie tried to teach Mitch about the important things in life and how those important things are the ones to spend the most of your time on if you want to be happy. I think that most Americans are afraid of death. Yes death is a taboo topic who are afraid to die but those who aren't afraid to die don't mind talking about death. Materialism and death can be related to each other through how people tend to work themselves to death because of certain materialistic values people have. I also tried the 10 minutes of doing nothing and I tried to think of nothing but it was almost impossible for me because my mind kept drifting off into thinking of what I'm doing later that day, who I was going to be with, and where I was going to be. I think this is due to the fact that I'm extremely busy and my mind is always thinking about the future but I know now that if I don't enjoy the little things in life they will be gone. For example I've been waiting to go on spring break with my friends for months but its all I can think about so I am losing out on the happiness that's right in front of me.

Over the weekend I volunteered at a non profit organization called Orphans Of The Storm which helps cats and dogs find homes. Before going to volunteer I was excited because I have volunteered there before and knew what it was going to be like. My hopes were that at least one animal was going to get adopted and actually two dogs got adopted. For the service I did not go directly to their shelter I went to North Brook Court Mall where they have their own little store; where they bring a few cats and dogs to put on display for adoption. I came into contact with a bunch of different people from all ages. I would explain the cat or dog like what their story was, how old they were, what type of cat and dog they were, and where they came from. The interaction was more of just a lot of  small talking. All the people I came in contact with were very nice and all felt really bad for the cats and dogs. Besides explaining the animals stories I had to take the dogs for walks, put water in there bowls, and make sure the store was clean. The entire experience was nice and as I was doing it I was happy because I was trying to get the cats and dogs a better home. Nothing really surprised me except how clam the dogs were with all the people around them. The walks would take around thirty minutes. On the way home I thought that I'm glad that some dogs got adopted and hoped that more would in the future. I volunteered on Saturday March 8 11am-5pm and Sunday March 9 11am-3pm. The supervisor in charge was Jackie Borchew email jackie@orphansofthestorm.org

Through out sociology the past two weeks we have learned a lot about culture and with everything we have learned we have all been applying it to the movie we have been watching "God Grew Tired of Us" we have watched as these refuges from Sudan experienced a huge culture shock by moving to the America when these refuges have never even learned how to turn on a light. The refuges in the movie had no idea what material culture was or our norms. They soon learned that our norms were completely different then theirs. Also the refuges went through cultural relativity when in America because they thought it was right in America to talk to strangers when in fact it is wrong. Ethnocentrism is judging a culture solely by the values of ones own culture. As I was watching the movie I was thinking of what I would have done from what I have experienced but I realized I couldn't do that because our cultures are completely different and I had to change my view point on the situation. We also learned about subcultures and how our high school was its own subculture with how we value the future, with our unique symbols such as the patriot, unique words when we call the library the ILC, our folkways which is something not so serious to do, mores which is something serious to do that people will call you out on, and our material culture how we dress. I realized that even though our neighboring high school is so close we have completely different subcultures.