SOC 490 Week 5

Do we have complete control over our health? This question has a variety of answers; and it can not be a simple yes or no. My opinion has two parts to it. I think that for the most part, we do have control over our basic health. We can control what goes into our bodies to monitor our weight. We can make sure we are dressed appropriately to walk out in cold weather to avoid catching a cold. Now, can we avoid getting sick in general? Probably not, but then we have to take care of our bodies with the correct treatments. On the other hand, cancer is not something we can particularly avoid. It can be cured, but we don't necessarily have control over it as human beings. 

One of the arguments presented in class this week was the idea of "moral hazard." Moral hazard is basically saying that the second universal health care is applied that millions and millions of people that were previously uninsured would knock on the doctors office doors. Gladwell says this is simply not true. On page 60 in our universal health care book, he makes a very interesting point. Basically what he says is that just because we can go to the doctors office, doesn't mean we will. Would people really just wake up one day and feel like just going to the emergency room? Gladwell doesn't think so; and I am in agreement with his viewpoint. 

Now, lets look at the opposition. Would there be more people going to the doctors in the first year or so of universal health care? Absolutely; BUT, can we be prepared for this? Most definitely. The United States is one of the most advanced countries in almost every sense of living except the health care system. We are behind Canada in all health statistics. Our infant mortality rate is extremely high compared to other countries. And on top of that, we even spend more of our GDP per year on our health care system. So do we want this same system? The time for the change is now. 

I would like to end my blog this week by stating my personal opinion on everything we have discussed in class so far. The main argument is obviously universal health care and whether or not it should be inserted in the United States or not. I believe that it should. And for my counterparts, the main argument presented is "why should the work I do help others with their health insurance?"  Ok so when we receive a paycheck there is a lot of money taken out for taxes, and I know on my pay stub, I can see where exactly my money is going. Basically, I will never see more than half of that money and some of it has absolutely no benefit to me whatsoever. And what can I do about this? Complain, that's about all. And where is that going to get me? Nowhere. So my point is that if one more tax was added, what's really the big deal. It isn't hurting you specifically because you will be insured. I believe that this is a good outlook to have on the insertion of universal health care in our health care system.   

GL 350 Blog Week 5

In 1994 my grandma revisited her sisters in Italy after not seeing them for over 20 years. When she went in 1994, me, my mom, and my aunt went as well.  Ever since that trip ended, all she talked about was taking me back there after I graduated high school. I remember her always talking about it when I was growing up and I always told her I would take her back. When I graduated high school, she was ready to go and I couldn't because I had a scholarship for golf in college and a good job. I felt like I broke her heart, but I had no other choice. In the first few months of my college career my best friend, Danny Krier, had applied for a study abroad program in Rome for the following year. I thought that would be perfect to go and take my grandma and she can stay with her family while I stay on campus in Rome; however, there was one problem: I would sacrifice my golf season.  Something else I was not willing to do. A few weeks after Danny told me about his program, a stranger to me at the time introduced me to another program that allowed me to study abroad in Rome, and not miss golf season. By the way, the person that told me this is now my girlfriend. As soon as she told me about it, I made up my mind and applied, and the rest is history. Now, I am typing this blog on my last day in Pescolanciano, which is my grandmothers hometown. 

I was nervous and excited about coming to meet my grandmas family. She always talked about these people and showed me pictures, and to think I was going to meet them was unbelievable. The day was planned that on Thanksgiving day, her and a few family members would come pick me up from the Walsh campus.  When I saw my grandma in the building standing next to her sister I sensed pure joy in her smile. Her sister, my aunt, hugged me with such a tight grip I could not breathe. Both my grandma and my aunt had tears in their eyes of pure joy. I saw my grandma cry with her sister at that moment, and then I saw her laugh with her. I have seen siblings laugh and cry with each other, but it was nothing like this. My grandma being reunited with her sister was the happiest thing I have ever observed, and it was only the beginning. 

After a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with my classmates and faculty members, we were on our way to  Pescolanciano. Before I left, Danilo, the Walsh University Site Director, told me that I was going to see the real Italy. That what I would see in Pescolanciano would be nothing like what we have gone to in Rome. Danilo was spot on with that comment. Everyone was so excited to see me. The last time anybody saw me, I was just a baby. My cousin, Anthony, called my grandma five times on our way home to see when we would be home. When we arrived at my other aunts house, all my grandmas family was waiting. Her other sister, her brother, and all her nieces and nephews were all crying and hugged me. It was such a happy house because I was there. I was like a king at that moment, and not to mention pretty much the whole weekend. 

My grandpa passed away about nine years ago, but he has one brother that still resides in Pescolanciano and my grandma took me to visit him on Friday. Once again there was about 15 of my grandpas closest family members, his brother and his nieces and nephews, and they all hugged me with tears in their eyes and then we gorged ourselves with a lovely three course Italian meal. All these people feed me until I feel like I am going to burst. When I left the house, they gave me so much money for a gift to buy whatever I want. Everyone, all my family members, gave me so much I can't even explain it.  The love I felt this weekend was something I never felt before. 

In his book "The Italians," Luigi Barzini claims that Italians never want to leave their country. As soon as they leave the country, they go through withdrawal, and they want to return. My grandma would completely agree with this statement. When she was twenty years old, she was married and had one daughter, my mom. My grandpa decided he wanted to go to America to start a new life, and my grandma had no other choice but to go with him. She said she was sad and depressed for years. She always misses Italy, even though she has been back to visit, it is still not the same. Barzini is correct. A true Italian, never wants to leave Italy.

This last weekend may not have been the most "fun" for me, but it was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. I saw the cemetery where my grandmas parents and two brothers are buried. I saw the bed where my mom was born. I saw where my grandma grew up. I saw my grandma reunited with her family. To think without me she never would have seen her sisters again makes me feel pure joy. Everyone in this trip has their favorite sight, such as the colosseum or a specific church, but mine is the sight of my grandma crying, laughing, and smiling with her family. There is no word in the dictionary that can describe the pure joy and happiness in Pescolanciano this past weekend. 

SOC 490 Blog Week 4

In every health care system around the globe, there are flaws. The trick is to find which flaws work best within a specific nation. Another idea is for leaders of each country to learn from other mistakes and make sure that those issues do not come upon their respective nations. So for the United States to look at the Roman approach of healthcare, the question is what is better about the Italian health care system? First, what are the main differences between the American health care system and the Italian health care system? Universal health care. Italy has it; America does not. This specific reasoning will vary among whom the question is asked. Somebody else may think that this is the worst part about the Italian health care system, but I truly believe that universal health care is what is missing in the United States. 

Karin Robinson writes in her essay, The Universal Health Care Systems of Other Countries Provide Better Care for Less Money, that European countries' health care systems involve a form of universal health care and they are cheaper than the US system, they cover everyone, and deliver a better quality of care.  She goes on to compare the Britains health care system to ours in the United States; keeping in mind that the Britains system is similar to Italy's. I thought a good point made besides the other three points I already pointed out is that Britain spends 8% of their annual GDP on their healthcare system while the United States spends 15%. Imagine if we could create a healthcare system similar to Britains, and use the annual GDP that should be left over to fill in the flaws with the new system. Sounds like a plan to me!

There are certain parts of our health that are in our control. For example, one has a choice to be in shape and workout rather than sit on the couch and eat unhealthy food. This can lead to obesity, which is not good.  Also, if one chooses to smoke they are not doing good to their body and could cause heart problems or lung cancer. Those are some of the ideas of health that we have control over.  Getting certain terminal issues, such as cancer, are sometimes out of our control. We also can't control our heredity of health.  If my ancestors have had a history of colon cancer, the odds of me being diagnosed with colon cancer are greater. These are some examples that are out of control. It is easy to control our "basic" health such as exercising and eating right, but there is nothing you can do about your heredity. 

Two of our most recent tours have related to some form of health care. First I would like to start with the museum of medical arts.  I literally have no idea how anybody could enjoy this! Well, I guess I do understand why some people enjoy it because it is their profession, or soon will be, but I was ready to pass out at any point. We observed wax models of how some babies say incorrectly in the uterus. We also got to see babies that were preserved after dying following birth. Yes, this was enough to make me vomit, and it was the first room we visited! The final rooms contained old tools doctors used to perform their procedures. All I have to say is thank god we are much more advanced than we used to be! 

The museum of the mind did a lot of explaining about how the nuns took care of the "crazy" people. These patients were all scitsifrenic. We went through a few illusions to the eye, which I found pretty interesting. The technology used in this museum to present tourists with information was like magic! All we had to do was touch a specific part of a table and a video would be shown.

GL Blog Week 4

I am typing this blog as we take the train from Florence back to Castel Gandalfo. Once again, I had an unforgettable weekend. We arrived Friday morning and walked around the city the entire day. Florence was nothing like Venice. It was more comparable to Rome in my opinion. We had one super fun when we found a disco on saturday night! It was awesomeFlorence had one beautiful church.  It was very unique, just like all the other churches we have seen here. We actually got the opportunity to attend mass Sunday morning. The inside walls were very simple. But, it had a dome that had beautiful portraits above the altar. The mass was in Latin, so I didn't understand one word that was said; however, I did get to collect the offerings for the church during the offertory hymn. It doesn't sound very fun, but it was pretty memorable for me. After mass Sunday, I had about 300 euro in my wallet. When we got to the train station, about three hours later, it was all gone. No, I was not pick pocketed. I spent about 200 on souvenirs and about 100 on myself. Nobody tell my mom! Nonetheless, it was a spectacular weekend. 

We actually had quite a bit going on last week. We had a midterm paper due and an Italian test. It stressed me out a little bit, but the Italian test turned out to be super easy.  Our paper was for SOC 490 regarding universal health care. I feel like I have strong view points on the matter, so ill find out in the near future if I did good on that. We had two student led tours this past week on Monday on Tuesday. Guess what we saw? If you're guess is beautiful churches then you are spot on. I apologize that I have no clue what the majority of these churches are called, but that is mainly because I see one and walk straight inside and explore. So at least I have tons of pictures! Thursday we had class in Rome and visited the museum of the mind. By the way, having class in Rome is awesome! Anyway, museum of the mind had a lot of history behind it. They had some neat little illusions for us to try, and I enjoy doing those little eye joke things, so I enjoyed those parts. 

I really connected with Muriel Spark's journal entry in The Smiles Of Rome.  I felt like it was a journal that a tourist like myself would have composed. If I could use one sentence to sum up the trip so far it would have something to do with the fact that everywhere I walk in Rome I find a majestic piece of work, whether it is a statue of some sort, a fountain, or a church. Spark writes something very similar in her opening paragraph. "I think what attracted me most was the immediate touch of antiquity on everyday life. If you live in central Rome you only to walk down the street and you come to a fountain by Bernini in which children are playing or a Michelangelo embassy or some fine fifteenth-century building with today's washing hanging out."  I think this an excellent quote. Not only do I think can relate to this quote, but I believe plenty of my classmates would agree as well.

I really feel like this trip is coming to an end, but we still have a long time left, which is what I want. I get sad to think that a month from now I will be sitting at my house with nothing to do. I have made friendships that will last a lifetime with all the students on this trip. I love everyone and I feel like we have become more uniform the last week or so. It's like one big friendship, and it doesn't get much better than that. Looking forward to the last few weeks!

Ciao Bella Gente!!

GL 350 Blog Week 3

These past few days haven't been the craziest of days.  I have been doing a lot of homework and just hung around campus the last couple days. It hasn't been the most adventurous week, but it was relaxing for me and I feel much more caught up on homework. Even though the last two days were relaxing, the weekend was crazy! 

In "The Smiles of Rome" there was a phrase that really caught my attention and I really felt applied to my experiences I have had so far.  In Muriel Spark's essay My Rome, she said that one of the things that she liked most about Rome was that you could simply go down a street and turn the corner and there was a monumental landmark. It is just one after another in Rome. I think I have basically said this since day one and it was neat to read it in a professional essay. 

This past weekend the group traveled to Venice. We were all scared to go because the city was flooding with water. I really didn't want to go through water that was up to my waist. We actually got lucky and didn't have to deal with that. (Phew!) Venice turned out to be one of the most amazing places I have ever been. I know I use the two words "amazing" and "awesome"  in my blogs, but they are the words that always pop into my mind when I think about Italy in general.  The whole idea of all the different little islands in Venice was so cool! Our hotel was located in a small island called Lido. It was a cute little place, but nothing like Venice. We had to take a ferry to get to St. Marco square; which is where a lot of the main attractions are in Venice. Gabby and I went on a gondola ride together. Our gondolier talked on his cell phone the majority of the time but it was still the most romantic event I've ever taken part in.  It was just so peaceful and relaxing; and not to mention everything we saw was beautiful. 

When people think of Venice, two things come into mind: water and glass. Venice is very popular for its glassmaking.  On Saturday, we got a tour of the glass factory. We saw how they make some types of glass objects as well as seeing many of their master pieces. They were all amazing. (I know, there I go using that word again) We walked around Venice and did a lot of shopping and exploring.  Dave and I walked for a long long time on Sunday and ended up extremely far away from Lido. We obviously found our way back, but it was just a longer ferry ride then we expected.  Venice was just a great experience and I would go back in a heartbeat!

Monday was a pretty long day. We got back late the night before from Venice then got up early to travel into Rome. Emily and Dave started out the day with a great student-led tour of some beautiful places. We went into a few churches, that just like all the other ones we have been in, we're beautiful. I just cant grasp how people built these things! After that we enjoyed a nice class discussion outside.  It was a beautiful day so it was perfect for that! We then explored the ancient catacombs. I'm not gonna lie, it was a little creepy down there. We saw all the tombs where people were buried and what not. Not my kind of thing; but it was interesting and our tour guide did a very good job. Once again I have an early departure Friday morning. I will be leaving campus at 4AM to head to Paris! We will stay in Paris for a day and leave friday and fly to Dublin. So yes, on Friday I will be in three different countries. It may be another exhausting weekend ahead of me but it will be worth it!

SOC 490 Blog Week 2

In my opinion, health care should be a right to all American citizens.  I believe that it is the right thing to do based upon what this country was founded on and what our Founding Fathers would beleive in.  We all have a right to live and live well and universal health care supports this right.  Now, in high school I took Advanced Speech and one of our topic in that class was a debate against one another.  In preparation for the debate, not only did we need to perfect our viewpoints on our topic, we also had to be familiar with our opponents viewpoint. So now I will look at the perks of our health care system the way it is now; a privelge.

Responsibility.  This is the word I hear thrown around the most in class regarding students that feel health care is a privelege.  I can see their point.  If I as an individual work every day and earn my health care and pay for it on my own, then why should somebody who doesnt work nearly as hard as me have health care?  Not only that; but, if we did have a universal health care system then my taxes would increase.  Micahel Tanner also had some very interesting points in his essay found in our Universal Health Care book.  With universal health care, those of us with good health insurance may be stripped of it.  Tanner also said that with universal health care our treatments and procedures would be "cost effective."  That doesnt sound very nice to me.  So I could easily understand why many of our students, along with millions of other Americans, favor the way our health care system is now.

The Cleveland Clinic is located in Cuyahoga County, and yes it is the best hospital in the world.  The Cleveland Clinic treats patients from all around the globe, but not everyone in Cuyahoga County is healthy.  Why is that?  Well from my understanding it has a lot to do with the citizens of Cuyahoga County not having health insurance.  So just because the greatest hospital in the world is right down the road, does not mean that everyone can utilize it.  Some people do have the option of being treated at the clinic, but those individuals may take a sever chance of being in great debt depending on the treatment/procedure they are looking for.

With health care, there are so many opposing views, just like abortion, religion, politics etc.  No matter what happens with our health care system, not everyone will be fully satisfied.

GL 350 Week 2

To say the least this week was much different than last week. I don't mean this in a bad way at all. The first week I was so amazed by everything I saw, and now I realize that there is something amazing no matter where you are in Rome. I feel like I am really starting to adjust to the lifestyle and fitting right in. I still can't say a sentence in Italian, but I'm working on it!

Just like back home in America, we have had some pretty poor weather; windy and rainy. It had adjusted our schedule nearly everyday, but it gave us free time to catch up on homework which turned out to be a good thing because I don't feel nearly as stressed as I was last week.  I learned one thing for sure; I'm pretty out of shape. I decided to go on a run with gabby and I really though I could keep up with her and I was sadly mistaken. Everywhere we turned there was a humongous uphill slope; I don't remember any down hill stretches. Needless to say I didn't make it the whole run and my legs still feel like jello.  

Luigi Barzini talks about in his book how Italy is a place that everyone wants to travel too, but Italians hate to travel outside their country. I can definitely understand why everyone wants to travel here. Nobody can put a price on this trip for me, I really don't want to be anywhere else right now. Italy just has some sort of "Fatal Charm," which just happens to be the title of chapter 3 in The Italians written by Barzini. 

On Monday I explored Rome with Katie Dodds and I couldn't believe some of the things we saw.  We went through about three churches and every one of them had similarities and differences. They were all obviously all beautiful; but all in their own unique way. The churches here might be the most amazing part to me so far. I thought my church at home was gorgeous, but everyone I have been in here puts it to shame! They have sculptures upon paintings. It's something that only pictures can describe. We did go on a bike ride today (about 8 miles) and ill probably be feeling a little rough tomo, but that's ok because I'm in Rome!! We are traveling to Venice Friday morning at 4AM.  I am pretty sure we will all be zombies. Not to mention there are parts of Venice that are flooded up to my shoulders. Should be a fun weekend! Gonna make the most of it for sure.