Well I am full on Hispanic, but I was raised in the whitest of towns, so I have mixed feelings when it comes to parties that are predominately one race. I mean I feel probably more comfortable when it is a party of white people than a Hispanic party, sadly. I understand Spanish, I can speak it, but I mean it is not perfect, so at times miss a few things. Also the music, the music at a Hispanic party is great; the bachata, salsa, merengue, it is all great stuff, but I do not know how to dance to that type of music… so I am just chilling there not really doing much. But nonetheless, I have a fucking blast when I go to Hispanic parties, I still interact with them, I pathetically attempt to dance, and we talk about the shit Hispanic parents do, so overall I have a great ass time. Lately I have been going to more Hispanic parties and I have been getting to know the people, so that definitely helps. I feel like no matter what race, it is the amount of people you know that would decide how comfortable you are. Here at Penn state it definitely feels like most races stick together, so if you find one Asian, you find them all. So whenever I go to frats it is predominately white and I feel completely comfortable there. I go there with my friends, chill, and then dance to the shitty music they play. But I feel if I went to some apartment party, no matter what race, if I knew absolutely no one then I would be uncomfortable as hell. They would also probably look at me like who the hell is this kid. So I feel the number of people you know definitely effects how you act in certain parties and how comfortable you are. This one time I was headed to some apartment that my friend told me about, and before we even got in the building I see all these Indians walking the same direction as we were, and then our elevator was filled with all Indians, and so were the halls of the apartment building. Then I realized that they were going the same place we were and I concluded that this was an Indian party, and it most certainly was. I just started laughing honestly; it thought it was pretty funny. I had never been to one so I was curious really. Obviously at apartments there not as many randoms than at a frat, so everyone knew each other and me and my friends were just standing awkwardly at a wall. I mean they weren’t like international students, I was sure that most of them were American born because of the fact they spoke perfect English. So that definitely made the situation better. I can see why my white friends don’t want to go to a Hispanic party because everyone there is speaking Spanish and that language barrier makes things less comfortable for people.

I believe the reason that many guys do not ask woman if they had an orgasm or not is because we honestly just do not care. Yeah we want woman to think we are good in bed, but if it is a one night stand then the only thing we care about is making sure we are pleasured. And clearly, it is way easier for the guy to be pleased then the girl. When we go out most guys obviously go out in search of woman, for the sole purpose of having sex, and therefore pleasuring themselves and probably not giving a rat’s ass about the girl. At times you might not ever see that girl again, so there is no need to know. This one weekend my friends and I went out and one of my friends left with a girl, needless to say he slept with her. The next morning he was talking about it and he honestly did not even remember her name, or what she looked like, but he was just happy that he got his fix of sex. Another reason why guys might not ask is because they do not want to know if they did poorly, that they are inadequate; and taking a hit to their man pride. If we never actually hear from the girl that we were not able to satisfy her then we can walk away thinking that we did. It is kind of twisting the truth; because she never actually said she did not have an orgasm guys can tell their friends she enjoyed it and what not. Not finding out the truth is a comfort thing, you may know certain things that people are hiding from you, but a part of you wants to believe it is not true, so as long as you never actually hear it you feel a bit better inside. And as long as the girl does not say anything, you can let yourself think that you did well. But obviously if you are in a long term relationship, it is more likely that the woman will be more open and willing to tell the guy that certain things are not working. I feel that is why sex improves the longer you are with someone. I remember when I was in a relationship there were certain things that I did that the girl did not enjoy and some things that that I did not find satisfying. So as the months went by we told each other what we could do to improve our sex lives, and as we worked on those things, we were both getting the satisfaction that we craved. But there is so much pressure on the male during sex, because everything depends on when the man cums. If the man was not worried about then we wouldn’t have to keep thinking about that in the back of our heads and concentrate on the woman.

I feel that the reason we are not focused on improving our education is because many white Americans are so persistent in not letting in any foreigners; mainly Mexicans. But I find it so hypocritical that they feel us as Hispanics are taking over when white people themselves took the land from Native Americans, yet they feel like they belong here more than anyone else. Even some of my white friends have said, ‘oh they are taking all of our jobs since they are getting paid so little,’ but the thing is they have never been outside the country and do not know the conditions that they live in. Even though they may be getting paid by such a small amount, it is usually better than what they have gotten in their homeland; white people don’t consider that. Like Sam said, though some of us may feel like we are poor, we are actually rich compared to the rest of the country. So some of these kids have never left the country and just do not know what it is like to live there. Hispanic parents I feel are the most unselfish people, they are willing to leave their homeland, where all their friends and family live, leaving their entire lives behind, living in this country where they know no one, and not even be able to communicate with others, just so their families can have a better life. It is possibly one of the hardest things to do and white people are so narrow-minded and they don’t take that into account. A parent will do anything so that their children can have the best possible life, and my parents, like a lot of foreign parents, did what they thought was best. Yeah the education may not be the best in the world, but it sure ranks higher than any South American or African country. The U.S. ranks 17th in the world for best education system, the education definitely could be better here and should be improved if we want to compete with the rest of the world, but 17 out of however many countries there are in the world is not that bad. So you can’t blame certain families to want to come here for a better life. However, we are definitely lacking in the quality of pre-college education. There are some schools that are very impressive and what not, but many more are not up to par. I myself feel like I was not properly educated and not as prepared for college as other kids were. My school wasn’t terrible exactly; it provided a couple opportunities, but just the basic ones. Like I hear from kids here that their schools offered engineering related courses and clubs, which my schools did not provide. I also feel like a lot of the international kids that go here are so much more advanced education wise, they just seem a lot smarter to me. So if we would like to be able to compete with other countries we are going to have to revamp our education system; making sure that every school has the same opportunity.

Not that I do not agree with helping other countries in need, I believe what we do is great. We aid many countries in desperate need of help who have no way to better their lives. The aid we provide has changed and helped many lives, yet there still is a lot that needs to be done. With that said, I do believe we should focus a bit more with the issues in our own country. We should still help foreign countries, but a bit less, with a bit more focus on our own. In some way I feel it is hypocritical, we offer all these donations to these countries, making it seem like we do not need it and we are in such great shape. Like many of us do not know everything that is going on in the world, I bet many countries don’t know what is going on here. They might not know all the inequality in wealth that we partake in, they might not know about the Native Americans, they may not know of all the ‘urban’ towns that are well below the poverty line. I feel like countries would not judge us for setting back the amount of aid we are sending and keeping some to ourselves so we can be better off and solve our problems. I know helping these impoverished countries is important, but how can we embrace how our country is so great and one of the dominant countries when we have so many shitty things going on. It is ridiculously sad how bad the Native Americans have it. At one point in history, the Native Americans owned this great land, they took care of it, they nurtured it, the land was still rich, and I am sure they were much happier back then than they are now. They have been relocated, their pride and dignity has been stripped, and all they have left to show is their demolished reservoirs and high suicide rates. The conditions they face are so similar to the ones people in foreign countries face, so why help them first instead of the ones struggling in this country we find so high and mighty. We give well over billions of dollars as aid, if we just reduce about half and use the other half to assist the impoverished parts of our country, then I feel we are able to complete our obligations to help the ones in need. We might not be directly responsible, but I feel like it is an obligation as a human being to help those who can’t help and provide for themselves.

I do support affirmative action, because there are so many factors that we might not account for for why someone might not have been able to reach their potential. Maybe it has to do with lack of resources, maybe they suffered from a natural disaster and lost everything, or possibly their parents are foreign and were not able to obtain good jobs, therefore affecting the lives of their children. But I mean that is not always the case, many times it may be because the man slacked off, and just did not care much for his future. So I feel when it comes to affirmative action, at times foreign people, who usually lack the same opportunities as whites, they really need to look into the person, and make sure that they truly are hardworking, want to succeed, and do want to better their lives. I honestly do hate slackers and people who just don’t care for the future. So I did try my hardest during high school, I knew just because I am Hispanic I was not going to get my education handed to me. I believe there were some obstacles that I had to face that not many people had to, which I feel affected my school work in some way.
So I know I am not the smartest kid, there definitely might have been a white kid who was smarter than me, but I took his place so the school would make their quota of Hispanics. This probably is the one downside, people who do get offered certain positions because of their ethnicities might doubt their skill or intelligence. But they have to not think about that and just make sure they take advantage of the opportunity and make the best of it. Everyone lives their lives in a selfish manor, no matter what they say, there is always some bit of selfishness in every act of kindness. So if there is a certain handout that is offered to you, though you are qualified but maybe not the best, take it. If you know this handout will impact your life in a positive way, why not. I know for sure that I would not have denied my acceptance here if I found out that I got in because I am Hispanic. But I will make sure my acceptance here won’t go to waste. And when it comes to nepotism, I agree with it hundred percent as well. I really don’t think anyone will deny a beneficial position that someone they are aquatinted with offered. There is nothing wrong with that, a lot of life is making sure you are social, approachable, and have good people skills. So throughout life you befriend people, you make sure you stay away from people who are trouble, and associate yourself with people who are a good influence, who you know will make something of themselves.

There are certainly ¬¬¬many topics that are still taboo for people to talk about, some pertaining to sex. I myself am pretty open with all that business, I will openly talk about and answer shit that people ask. I mean I do not go out of my way or anything and like brag about it, but if the topic comes up I will definitely add my two cents. Because I personally think the topic is a fun one to talk about it, and if you kind of joke around while talking about it then it doesn’t have to be such a serious topic. Most of my friends are real open with their sexual ventures; we’ll even talk about the last time we masturbated. Because I think that the more you try to shy away from the topic, the more and more you will be squeamish about it. But if you laugh about it, if you laugh about yourself, then you realize it is not that big of a deal. And it does not mean I am immature, I am just comfortable about it and there is no need to make anything so damn serious. But even though sex is such a natural part of life, many people refuse to talk about it openly. Some will shy away from the topic, because the act only involves two people and they feel they should be the only ones to know about it. I do agree with that to point, if I am dating a girl then I probably won’t tell everyone what we do just because they might look at the girl in a bad way. I mean I would not want them picturing her in that way, so it is out of respect to the girl. But eventually I might tell my really close friends, the ones who can keep their mouth shut at least. Another reason is because the act of sex should be saved for marriage, and if you do it beforehand then adults would possibly look down on you. I once heard someone say to a friend of mine, “if you want a gentleman, you need to act like a lady,” so openly talking about sex, especially women, might make them seem unclassy, or slutty. Which I do agree with, because if I hear a girl constantly talking about the sex she has, I would not want to date her or anything, possibly fool around with, but never date. So I feel that sex is becoming less taboo as the years go by, but the main reason why so few people are so open about it is because they do not want to be perceived in a negative way. Most might talk about their sexual activities, but only to a select few, and maybe that is why it seems like no one talks about it.

I feel that people censor themselves out of both respect and fear. I mean it all depends on the situation and what the subject is on.
For me, I know I greatly censor myself when I am at my friend’s house. His family is like a super conservative Christian family, so when I am at their house I refrain from any swear word, any sexual, racial, provocative joke. I am honestly on my best behavior when I am there. I know one time that I was there I said the phrase ‘you suck’ and I kind of got scolded and was told I was supposed to say stink instead. So in this instance, I censor myself out of respect, I am not afraid of what they will do if I said something they were not comfortable with. But I feel like I should do it because they are good people, I do respect them, and it couldn’t hurt me if I took a break from all the vulgar things I say. I usually do this when I am with people I do not know or people of importance.
Oddly enough, I do not usually censor myself when I am with my elders, the ones in my family at least. They are the type of people who do not censor anything, so I grew up with them saying dirty jokes and swearing in most sentences. This is probably where I get most of my vocabulary.
A time when people censor themselves out of fear probably have to do with racial jokes. If someone just met someone of a different race, they most likely will not say a joke pertaining to that race just because they do not know how that person will react. They are not comfortable with that person yet. But if you have known someone of a different race for a while then you might be comfortable of saying those types of jokes without worrying about how they will react, you will have no fear.
If people do not know that you are definitely not a racist, but say a certain racist joke to the public, you can quickly be considered a racist. I do not know why one little joke can target you as a racist and offend many, but you are not considered racist when you say a joke about white people. I do not know why that is but I feel like that is how it is. And just because you say a joke, does not mean you do not have respect for that race. It is just a little humor; I mean I am not super offended if I hear a Hispanic joke. So I feel that people censor themselves, mainly white people, in fear of being considered a racist or something of that nature, just because many are so sensitive to that topic.

First all of, I am one who does not know what to believe in yet, just a confused college kid. So I will try and predict what the atheists would react, and how the hardcore Christians would.
I feel that if there were news that somehow proved that God did not exist that a couple of things could happen. The first would be that all the people who do have faith would not even dare hear the news; they would refuse to acknowledge it and continue their faith in God. I just do not think they would believe anything that the news or newspapers were saying. If the first event did not happen, and the believers did in fact believe what they heard, I feel like there would be all out panic. Some people have such strong faith that I do not know how they would react if they heard such news. They realized that the way they were living their life was kind of a lie. Some might react in a calm manner, but others could react in a more severe way. On the side of the atheists, they could possibly act in an “I told you so” attitude. Overall, it could lead to more crime. I mean if there was no heaven and hell, then it might lead to people being less sincere and caring, since there would be no afterlife for which they would have to pay for their actions. There’s people whose fear in hell is greater than their faith in God, and if there is no God, there might not be a hell, which would cause people not to care.
On the other hand, if there was news proving that a God did in fact exist then not much would change for the already believers. It could only strengthen their faith, and secure the faith of others who were confused and questioned their belief. For the atheists, I feel like they too would not believe it at first, because some atheists are so narrow-minded and so set on the fact that God does not exist that they could not stand to believe they were wrong. Some atheists might convert to a certain religion and start practicing it so they would not face eternal damnation, while others might continue their disbelief and closed-mindedness. For the world as a whole, it might lead to a better future. I mean if there was a hell, some people might start to ‘believe’ in God. Some might not partake in such harsh actions and start acting kind. Though the ones who only started believing once they heard the news might not have the same ‘treatment’ in the afterlife as the people who had always believed in God before the news revealed he was real.

I definitely enjoyed talking to Maziar, it was really interesting and a lot of fun. He is a funny man, so it was very amusing. I definitely liked to hear is thought and perception of America. It definitely shows how most people’s perceptions of Iranians are wrong. I like how excited he was to talk to us, and was glad to answer any questions we had. He really like’s Americans, he wants to visit America sometime, and he would like us to visit. He even offered us to add him on Facebook. It was very interesting when Sam mentioned guns, and the Iranian said that most people there hate guns and that nobody really owns any. He mentioned how it is probably more dangerous to live here in America, where most people have the right to possess a gun. It is such a shame that the media shows Iran’s possibly few dangerous places. But I mean probably every country has at least one location that is in not the best of conditions and a bit dangerous. I doubt America would appreciate it if every country just showed their citizens all the mass murders that has been happening lately. So then every time someone thinks of America, they associate us with killing our own people. Iran deserves more credit.
Although this answers the question to the other video, I would like to mention how cool Iran seems. I definitely did not imagine it that city-like. Like because of the media, my first thought of Iran was like dirt roads and mud houses. I tend to think for most countries that do not seem well off, but I am sure most countries are not as bad as it seems. The video made Iran seem like such a sweet ass place to be; the clubs, the woman, and the overall wealth of it. So if I actually had the chance to go there, I would definitely take advantage of the opportunity and go there.
The one part that actually that threw me back a little was when the one kid who is from that area asked Maziar what he thought about the government. Sam quickly interrupted and did not let him answer; Sam said he was going to answer for him later so I thought nothing of it. But later Sam said that Maziar was out on a limb talking to us, and that if he possibly talked bad about his government that he might actually be in danger. So that part was a bit sketchy, and thank god that I do not have hide any of my opinions and I have a lot of freedom here.
But overall, talking to him enlightened me. He is actually into a lot of American music and television, so it shows how they are not that different. The conversation definitely made me interested in visiting Iran.

I feel that someone is considered gay, lesbian, and or bi, if they have a sexual/emotional attraction to people of the same sex. Someone is gay if they either have repeated sex or are in relationships with another person of the same sex. I feel that if a girl hooks up with another girl one drunken night, then I do not consider her gay. If she previously did not have any curiosity or attraction towards her or any other woman prior to her having sex, then she definitely is not gay. I have one friend who had sex with her friend after they had a couple drinks and after that night they never spoke about it and continued their lives as straight girls. My friend has never hooked up with any other girl and continues to have sex with dudes. Although I do feel like there is a double standard for guys, like if two dudes hook up one night, then I, and probably most people would automatically assume they are gay. But I mean there could be the possibility of them actually not being gay, and it turned out to be one drunken gay incident. I do not know why there is a double standard, and I do not know why I think that way, but that is just the way it is. Furthermore, I feel like a person must also have an emotional attraction to someone to be considered gay. If a man/woman is in a committed relationship with another man/ woman, then I believe that that is a clear indication of someone being gay. I do not believe that there has ever been a same sex couple where one or both partners were straight. According to most of the men from the acapella group, they all knew they were gay from a very young age, so I also believe that someone is gay should have some of those thoughts at a pretty young change. I do not think a person like in their thirties suddenly realizes that they are gay. I mean I am not totally sure, but that is what I think
I also feel that being gay, lesbian, or bi is not a choice and is just a way that someone is born. I like the way the one man from the acapella group said it in lecture; the only choice there is, is the choice of being miserable or not. He said if you are gay and you try to be straight and date someone of the opposite sex that you are going to be miserable. He also said that if you are straight and you ‘choose’ to be gay but you actually are not, then you are going to be miserable as well.