TSA's New Pat Down

Security is something every human being wants.  It is instinctual for survival, but what happens when security comes at a cost?  The TSA has implemented new rules for traveling that allows for TSA agents to pat you down while moving through security.  While everyone would like to be assured that they will be traveling without the worry of terrorism, the TSA’s new rules are a violation of rights.  There is a difference between a pat down and the new safety rules where agents are allowed to run their hands in much more personal areas.  It is a humiliating procedure for anyone having to go through it.  We also have to worry if it’s being done correctly and not in a sexual nature by TSA agents.  Another problem associated with the pat downs is the longer lines going through security and the added travel time on trips because of it.  Also where do the new rules end?  If the pat downs aren’t enough are strip searches next?  While security is extremely important it is not more important than your rights to not be touched and humiliated just to travel and it is not worth the extra time now needed to go through security. 

Something to Never Forget

One of the worst experiences of my life happened when I was nine years old.  In 1999, at around 1:20pm, there was a terrible earthquake in Armenia, Colombia.  I had just finished eating and I was about to take a nap when I started hearing explosions and the house started to shake.  My father grabbed me and we tried to get out of the house as fast as we could with my mom.  When we got outside everything was still shaking and houses were falling all around us.  I remember my father leaving with my mom and getting into his car to drive to my grandparents house.  When he got there he saw his brothers outside and that my grandfather was still in the house and that the water tank had fallen on him.  My grandfather died in that earthquake along with so many people from my town and the towns close by.  The aftershocks lasted throughout the night until the morning and for a few days.  For a week we lived outside and in cars while we could get our homes ready to actually live in them.  We were lucky that our houses were not that badly damaged but so many people lost everything in the earthquake.  I remember leaving for two weeks to live with my aunt in Bogota while my parents stayed with our house.  When I came back so much of my town was still like it had just happened.  Being so young and experiencing something so tragic was very difficult.  Till this day I remember it all like it was just yesterday.

Food for Thought

I have always been good with food in that I’m not afraid to try new things.  There are of course some types of food that I don’t really like, like fish and mushrooms etc.  Growing up in Colombia I was accustomed to the foods there and how they were prepared.  When I came to the United States I saw that there was such a large variety of foods here from all over the world.  I was able to try so many good types of food like Italian food, Mexican food and Peruvian food that don’t exist in Colombia.  I love pasta so Italian food is ideal for me like chicken francese over spaghetti, it is so good.  As much as I enjoy the new foods here I will always love the Colombian arroz con pollo, a bandeja paisa and frijoles.  After trying a lot of different foods my favorite food now has to be ropa vieja with congri which is a Cuban dish.  Its shredded flank steak in a tomato based sauce that served with fried plantains and congri which is rice that is cooked in a black bean stock.  It is definitely worth trying if you ever have the opportunity, you won’t regret it.

Meteor shower

On Wednesday night into Thursday morning was the peak of the Leonids meteor shower.  It is one of the best chances to see shooting stars.  It happens every year when the Earths orbit passes through the Tempel-Tuttle comet’s particle stream.  I had read about it and decided to wake up during the night to see them.  I went outside and of course it was really cold but it was a clear night so I was optimistic that I would be able to see a few shooting stars.  I waited and waited and I didn’t see a single star. I didn’t want to give up after waiting so long.  I felt that as soon as I went inside that that’s when I would have been able to see at least one go by.  I decided to go inside and make a hot glass of tea and came back out for one last try before going to bed.  I couldn’t believe it when I finally saw one!!!! It went by in less than one second after I had waited close to 45minutes.  In the end it was worth it because it’s not something you get to see very often and I was also able to make my wish, which I hope comes true especially after waiting so long to make it….

My First Football Game

I went to my first football game on Sunday with my boyfriend. The New York Giants were playing the Dallas Cowboys. I really don't know much about football but it was a really fun experience. I have never seen so many people in one place. During the game my boyfriend was explaining to me what was going on and how the game is played. All of a sudden some of the lights went out at the stadium. After a few minutes they decided they could still play until all the lights went out and we were sitting in complete darkness. I was scared because I didn't know what was happening. The lights came back on and they finished playing the game although the Giants lost which I guess was a bad thing seeing as how my boyfriend was really upset lol. My first game and the lights going out is an experience I will never forget.

A Father's Story Part Fifth

The night was coming and finally we found two men in which I don’t remember very well because we were very weak.  The only thing that I remembered was when the two men took us a car came and the next morning I woke up in a bed next to my wife.  Those men helped us and we spent two days in that home while my wife felt better.  Two days after, those men brought us to the bus station in Texas and I was happy because I was stepping on America land.  We were very thankful to those men but they made part of our guide from Colombia.  My wife and I took a bus and everything was fine but we spent one day and that bus that was very difficult because we didn’t feel good but the really hard part was when the driver moved all of us into a truck.  That was very hard because the people were crying and I felt unable to breathe.  Finally arriving in Stamford the truck left us near the bus station of the downtown and my wife and I were very scared because we felt strange.  We knew nobody, but the only person that I knew was my cousin who was very happy to see me and I felt very emotional because our trip was over.

I was very thankful to God for having me stayed here with my family and my beautiful girl, who is now going to college.   She is studying to be a lawyer and my wife and me are very proud of our girl.  The only thing that we are waiting is the day that we can go back to our country to see again our family and especially our parents.

A Father's Story Part Fourt

Three weeks later a beautiful lady came to our room and to the others.  She gave us a map and some instructions to how cross the border.  My wife and I follow the instructions one by one as how she explained to us. When we arrived at the border I felt so nervous but I knew that we had to continue.  This place was very different of how I had thought.  We started to walk, but the other people that were with us we didn’t know where they went.  We walked and walked, but this was very hard because for more that we walked we thought that never going to end.  That experience is an experience to never forget.  We had to run and run because there were some “coyotes”, the people that catch the people that cross the border.  But we escaped them, although that was difficult because my wife was pregnant and we had to pass a deep lake that had all kinds of animals. We have to pass that lake with our clothes in our hands without letting them get wet.  My wife was sick and I was very worried because she had fever and she needed to drink some water but we didn’t have anything to drink and eat.

 

A Father's Story Part 3

The day of our journey had started morning in which my wife and I took the bus to go to the bus station toward Cartagena.  That is one of the coast of Colombia, and is near to Panama which would be our stop arriving in Cartagena.  My wife and I waited ten hours while a bus coming for us and bring us to a boat during five hours.  In Panama we didn’t know anyone and we didn’t have the correct change to buy something, but a solitary person helped us buying us some food.  When the bus arrived for us, it brought us to a small town of Panama.  This country was very beautiful for us.  We stayed four days in Panama in a house were the family of the person that would help us with the visas to go to like touristic to Mexico.  My wife and I were very nervous but the day to go to Mexico had come. The day twenty of February 5:00 a.m we went to the airport in which departs 8:00 a.m without any problems, but everything was fine. Arriving to Mexico I felt happy but and the same time nervous because I didn’t know how it was going to go.  We went to a hotel in the D.F of Mexico.  There we stayed with ten people more. 

A Father's Story Part 2

My two brothers were finishing the last year of their school and my sister only had two years left.  One year later my two brothers continued help to my mother to make and sell the empanadas, bunuelos and coffee, but my sister was the unique one that went to the university because she had moved to another city and found a woman to help her pay two years of university in the which she was graduated as nursing. One year later I got married to the woman that was going to give me the most precious gift of my life.  I know that I wanted the better for my baby so; I decide to go find a better future for my baby and my family and logically for me too.  One day I had the great idea to immigrate to the United States and be somebody important.  I decided to take strict measure and this was to plan the way to go the U.S.A.  The only way that I knew that was more ease to go to cross the border that connects to Mexico but I knew too that this way was dangerous for me and for my wife.

A Father's Story

A father always wants the best for his children and I am not an exception for that rule.  When my dear wife revealed the surprise that she was pregnant, I felt very happy but and the same time, I knew that many things were going to change.  A child for me is the most important thing in my life.  Immediately, I started to think about my child’s future. It all started in a small town in Colombia named Bogota. I knew that with my income misery was only in store for my family and especially to my child that was going to born.  I didn’t want my child to go through the same bad moments that I lived in my childhood.  For example, being out of my school to help my parents and my little brothers that are two boys and one girl for what they continued studying.  When I was seven years old I started to work with my mom.  She woke me up at five o’clock A.M to help her to make “empanadas, bunuelos and coffee” and than I went to the bus station, some towns and parks of my city. I continued to do this until I was eighteen years old.