Almost Sisters

I couldn’t keep my feet from fidgeting as I sat in the back seat of the car awaiting our arrival at the airport. The two hour drive seemed like ten. I was so anxious to meet the girl who had been the center of almost every conversation for the past few weeks. Everyone was so eager to know everything about the girl who would soon become my new sister for the next year. I reflected back to the night when my parents asked what I thought about hosting a foreign exchange student. We had had an exchange student four years before, and I hadn’t minded having another brother around. I actually enjoyed hearing stories about his life in Venezuela. After a short period of contemplation, I agreed to the idea of hosting another. After all, one more brother among the three preexisting ones couldn’t be so bad, but my parents weren’t exactly on the same page as I was. I had wanted a sister when I was younger, but as a freshman in high school, it had been awhile since the thought had crossed my mind. I had been the only girl all my life, and I wasn’t enthusiastic about the idea of changing that now. I tried to convince my parents that a boy would be more what they wanted and that they wouldn’t want another girl around the house, but they insisted that a male exchange student just wasn’t an option. After careful deliberation, I reluctantly decided to give it shot. The next few weeks were spent getting everything prepared for the infamous newcomer. From interviews to paperwork, it all seemed so pointless. We cleared the room that was once my oldest brother’s and made it suitable for a teenage girl. My brother was now doomed to the couch on his sparse visits home. The time went by quickly and before I knew it, it was the day before the beginning of what I projected to be the longest year of my life. By the time we got home with Vartushick, or simply â€Å"V† as we learned to call her, I was already beginning to like her. There was something about her inviting smile that let me know that we were going to have a good time. Throughout the weeks leading up to the new school year, I introduced her to friends and classmates that we ran into around town. When school finally started, I made it my personal responsibility to show her to her classes and make sure she didn’t get lost. Having a sister wasn’t as bad as I had anticipated, in fact, it was actually somewhat fun. The first month or two was full of ruts in the road. Although she knew some English, there was still a big language barrier that made it difficult to understand each other. We became easily frustrated with one another as I attempted to teach her simple tasks such as sweeping and using the washing machine. There were times when I felt like she would never learn, but despite our disagreements, we eventually became as close as real sisters. The year went by much quicker than I expected, and soon, it was time for V to go back to Armenia. I was disinclined to let her go, but I knew she missed her family back home. I realized how important it had been to persevere through our struggles. If I had simply given up, like I had so often wanted to do, we both would have had a miserable year, but I hadn’t, and it brought an extraordinary friendship.

Scientific Method Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Scientific Method - Essay Example According to a survey conducted by American farm policy as documented by Blatt (2008), the increase in obesity in the American society is not caused by eating more food, but by eating more processed food instead of fresh farm produce. As outlined by Deutsch (2010) most Americans obtain their food supplies from supermarkets and grocery stores and it is important to establish whether they just prefer processed food, or there is reduced availability of fresh farm produce. The following study will conduct a survey on three supermarkets on the quantity of processed foods in kilograms and compare them with the quantity of processed foods in kilograms. The three grocery stores were visited from 1pm to 2pm on 1st and 2nd which was on Thursday and Friday Most Americans buy their weekly supplies during weekends and a previous inquiry from the managers revealed that by Thursday and Friday they are always fully stocked in readiness for the weekend shoppers. The study employed the services of two high school teenagers who went to two grocery stores while the researcher personally went to one store. The researchers were supposed to visit the grocery section of both processed and fresh cereals and then record the quantity of foodstuffs in each section in kilograms. They researchers were provided with scientific calculators to convert units that were not in kilograms to kilograms. The researchers were also given excel sheets (sample provided in Figure 1) with separate sections for processed and fresh foods. Each section had provisions for recording the type of cereal and the quantity in kilograms. After the collection of data, the data was computed and presented in a percentage form to show which type of cereals had the highest percentage and whether the difference was significant. Percentages for each grocery store was also computed to

Richard Wright's view about religion (according to the book, Black Essay

Richard Wright's view about religion (according to the book, Black Boy) - Essay Example In an effort to ascertain Wright’s overarching perspective on religion, this essay considers the development of Wright’s views on religion throughout his autobiography. Wright’s first confrontation with religion comes as a direct consequence of his going to live with his grandmother after leaving the orphanage. Up until this point Wright has made no attempt to gain overt sympathy from the reader, and indicates a number of uncouth actions that he participated in as a youth, including frequent cursing. Upon moving in with his grandmother the reader witnesses the confrontation of these two cultural perspectives. It is no surprise then that Wright’s early views of religion are an oppressive and overly restrictive oppressive system. Even as Wright enjoys the rural environment that surrounds his grandmother’s home, he openly rejects the restrictive internal environment. While one of the initial restrictions that Wright objects to occurs in regards to his grandmother’s belief that the only thing that should be read is the Bible, perhaps Wright’s first-outward objection to the religious restrictions is through the symboli c utterance of a curse word while he was taking a bath. Throughout the novel there are a series of such restrictions that function to characterize religion as an oppressive belief system, further articulating Wright’s views on the subject. For instance, Richard is unable to work on Saturdays because his grandmother so strictly follows religious principles; similarly, he is forced to become baptized in chapter 6 – after which Richard tells the others that were baptized that he feels no different after the ceremony. At the age of twelve, before I had had one full year of formal schooling, I had . . . a conviction that the meaning of living came only when one was struggling to wring a meaning out of meaningless suffering. At the age of twelve I had an attitude toward life that was to

Environmental Science Paper Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Environmental Science - Research Paper Example Middle Eastern cultures also used resin, combined with beeswax, specifically because it could be chewed with a softer texture. The first gum in America was noted in as early as the 800s when spruce tree resin was taken from the bark and chewed on. This chewing gum continued to be used until the 1800s when it became a commercial product (Ford Gum, 2011). When chewing gum was first processed, it began with taking gum from spruce trees. There were also options to have a silicone base with the gum. However, neither of these options allowed for continuous manufacturing of the gum. The process used today began by Thomas Adams. Adams was introduced to chicle, a rubbery textured tree sap that is found in both Mexico and in Central America. The chicle is scrapped from the trees and immediately consists of a rubbery substance that can be chewed. The gum is then processed to make a different consistency and size. The chicle is placed in hot water until it begins to reform into a putty type of c onsistency. After the putty is made, the gum is processed into different flavors. The ingredients include sassafras and licorice, which creates the main taste for general bubble gum. Other types of gum will also add in other flavors, such as mint, peppermint or fruit flavors.

SOFTWARE ENGINEERING - assignment 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

SOFTWARE ENGINEERING - assignment 2 - Essay Example The waterfall model here helps in processing the individual steps before stepping into another one. It incorporates this stepwise approach into an iterative framework that more realistically reflects the real world. The waterfall model is accommodated where there is low specification risk and no need for prototyping for risk resolution. Thus the activities of the second quadrant of the spiral model can be skipped. In another pass of the loop the same stages are revisited and both the waterfall and prototyping model works once again. 1. Data design: It transforms the information domain model created during analysis into the data structures that will be required to implement the software. The data objects and relationships defined in the entity relationship diagram and the detailed data content depicted in the data dictionary provide a basis for data design activities. 2. Architectural design: It defines the relationship between major structural elements of the software, the â€Å"design patterns† that can be used to achieve the requirements that have been designed by the system. It represents the framework of a computer based system and can be derived from the system specification, the analysis model and the interaction of the subsystems defined within the analysis model. 4. Component level design: It transforms structural elements of the software architecture into procedural description of software components. Information obtained from the project specification, control specification and state transition diagram serve as a basis for component design. 1. The subsystem Layer: It contains a representation of each of the subsystems that enable the software to achieve its customer-defined requirements and to implement the technical infrastructure that supports customer requirements. 2. The class and object layer: It contains the class hierarchies that enable the system to be created using generalizations and increasingly more targeted specializations. This layer

Relationship between American Revolution and French Revolution Essay

Relationship between American Revolution and French Revolution - Essay Example No other revolution that occurred either in Europe or in Americas during that period could be compared to the French Revolution in terms of violence (Doyle 2002). The American Revolution that began in 1776 and pursued the same principles of the natural human rights the French Revolution later did was over in 1787 without leaving any disgraceful legacy of terror that might be used by the participants of the French Revolution as an example to follow. Perhaps the major reason for this was that the American Revolution took place in an absolutely new country without almost any history, while the French Revolution occurred in one of the eldest European states. Consequently, the participants of the American Revolution did not have to overthrow the established aristocratic society and absolute monarchy in order to proclaim either equality of people (because they were equal) or sovereignty of their new state (the British monarch was geographically too far from them). In other words, the birth of the new society in the United States occurred without major tension. The French Revolution began in an absolutely different situation. It was a daring attempt to establish the principle of equality in the traditionally aristocratic society and cultivate political freedom in the most powerful European monarch (Doyle 2002). Economic factors played equally important role in the onset of both revolutions. The American Revolution was largely caused by the economic pressure of Britain, which was economically dependent on the colonies, but often failed to adequately justify the increasingly burden heavy burden of taxes. This problem – often termed ‘taxation without representation’ – is reported to be one of the most essential factors that eventually led to the revolutionary situation (Wood 1998). A similar situation was observed in the pre-revolutionary France where the absolute monarch kept increasing the

External Environmental Scan Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

External Environmental Scan Paper - Essay Example The analysis of the external environment has made Apple has spread its operations to different parts of the world like Korea, Cork, China, Ireland and Czech Republic (Hassan, 2013).   The most important external environmental factor in the remote, industry, and external operating environments of Apple include political, economic, social, and technology. By operating in different parts of the world, political factors normally affect the operation of Apple. A country with stable governance systems like UK and the US provides the company with a favorable environment for the operation because such countries hold an enviable and strong position in global politics. However, there are risks posed by terrorist elements that hinder their operation. The current political challenges that affect the company are, therefore, the sagging popularity of some countries like the UK and the increasing terrorist threats (Newlands & Hooper, 2009). Economically, the company has been greatly affected by the economic downturn experienced throughout the world. This has affected the financial systems of many countries as it has resulted into fluctuation in exchange rate particularly when dealing with their foreign trade. The global crisis has also led to slow economic growth that has reduced the profit margins for the company particularly in weak economies (Hassan, 2013).   These factors have massively contributed to the companys success in terms of increased sales volume. Increased education levels and increased the number of people, institutions and companies that buy through the internet has resulted in the tremendous increase in growth of the company. Another factor that has greatly impacted the company is a technology. Due to fast technological changes and heavy competition, the company has increased its expense on research and development so as to be ahead of their competitors by improving their design and performance continually (Hassan,