Beautiful Disaster

Oh the irony that just as we are learning about the droughts and water struggles around the world, North Texas is hit with a freak storm almost flooding campus.

Many parts of the Big Thirst talked about the magical qualities of water, all the ways in which we rely on water, and just how beautiful as a substance it is. Last week though another side to water was revealed. The brief yet intense rain and hail storm showed just how destructive water can be. Like so many other things in life, water has both good and bad qualities.

The aftermath of the storm could be seen everywhere. I had to drive somewhere a few hours after the storm hit, and I was amazed to find multiple major stop lights broken and roads shut down. Crazy traffic problems and auto accidents were caused just by a short but strong release of water from the sky. Driving down University even a few days later one can still see the destruction from the storm. Massive trees that were torn up lay down on the grass by the road along with dozens of large branches.

TCU campus comparatively wasn't even hit that hard. Across North Texas over 300,000 homes lost electricity, some for over a day. Trees crushed homes and roofs were ripped from buildings. Wherever you were when the storm hit, you were essentially trapped there until it was over. You don't really think of water as something that can trap you, until it does. We need water for so many things that we often forget that water isn't just here to serve us, it almost has a mind of its own, causing everything from small storms to large-scale tsunamis.

Blessed as we are to get rain when Texas is experiencing such a drought, the rain came so fast and hard that it actually didn't help the drought situation very much. As I have begun to learn about Texas weather (I'm a transplant from the west coast), water likes to come in freak, short storms here, but its going to take more than one storm to make a real difference. Much of Texas still is on a drought warning, and DFW is currently experiencing its driest September on record.

Yes, water is a beautiful and essential resource that we should value and can no longer afford to take for granted, but we also cannot forget the dangers that water can bring. Water is not a stagnant resource. It is a force of nature that is out of our control and should be feared as much as loved in times like these. After last week's storm I can't think of a better way to describe water than as a beautiful disaster.

Collapsed back wall of a building in the Stockyards.

Creative TCU students run for cover to escape the freak storm.

Learning to teach

We've been learning our whole lives. We know how best we individually learn and how to be a successful student. But what about teaching? Is that something that we all do also? As a nursing student I am required to take a course called "Teaching Strategies for Professionals", and if that class name is a little vague to you, trust me you are not alone. On the first day of class my friend and I showed up and both admitted that we had no idea why we were here or why this class was a nursing requirement. We aren't studying to be teachers, why are we enrolled in this vague teaching class taught by the nursing school?

We are now multiple weeks into the semester and the class still sometimes seems like an odd requirement for nursing students, but we have finally figured out (kinda) what we are supposed to be learning through the course. If you think about it, as much as we always have been and always will be learners, we are also all teachers, even if you don't teach in a classroom.

For us as nursing students, we have to learn how to effectively teach a patient how to manage their chronic diseases such as diabetes, explain to them why they are sick, and simply show them what medications to take. This idea applies to most majors, no matter if you are going into the business, health, or education field.

We've learned different learning and teaching styles and strategies and how to implement them into a lesson plan or presentation. Learning to be a nurse is not just learning the medical science behind it all. We must also learn how to teach and educate patients, families, and other medical professionals.

So what have I learned this semester? I've learned that learning to teach is something that is actually a valuable skill for all students to have. I've learned that being able to teach effectively is actually just as important as knowing how to learn effectively.

P.S. Come by the flu clinic on Wednesday, October 8th and check out our different health-related presentations we've put together through this vague and yet unique class!

Janaina

I first met with Janaina at Union Grounds this week, and I was completely unsure of what to expect. I had no idea how old she was or what she looked like and I was worried I wouldn't be able to find her. Luckily she found me and we enjoyed a nice conversation about everything from her family to her english studies here at TCU.

Janaina is 40 years old and lives in Wetherford, Texas with her two teenage children and her husband (who participates in horse competitions!). She has only been living in the U.S. for less than a year and came here knowing next to no English. This amazed me because although she clearly was still learning English, her speaking was surprisingly good.

She is from the north of Brazil, the "amazon" as she called it, where she lived with her family on a ranch. Janaina said that she and her husband moved to the U.S. so that her kids could learn English while they were still young. Her kids go to private school in Wetherford where they sometimes don't like all of the religious teachings in class but nonetheless still enjoy it all. According to Janaina, her kids have picked up English much faster and easier than she has. They are also much better at multitasking as she pointed out multiple times, something she says is a generation thing.

Janaina has struggled with learning all of the different English pronunciations and writing, but she exclaims just how far she has come since she started at TCU. She loves her professors, remarking that they are so helpful with everything. In her free time she loves to ride horses, read (although now she tries to only read in English, which is still difficult for her), shop, and go to the movies.

One of the things she said multiple times about Texas is that everyone must follow all of the rules, and she feels much safer here than in Brazil. Her example was that in Brazil if there was a sign saying to not park somewhere, everyone would still park there. Here, she didn't realize this and got a ticket. Good ol' TCU campus police and their love of parking tickets. Also, in Brazil her teenage son could walk into a bar and be served alcohol, whereas here he cannot, something that she really likes. She thinks that all the rules are good for her kids growing up.

Overall the whole conversation was very fun and unique. I love that we are getting this opportunity to meet people from other cultures and learn about their new experiences here in Texas.

When microbiology hits too close to home

Every headline today has read the same thing: "First diagnosed case of Ebola in the U.S." Yes, you read that right, that African disease that people have been talking about for a while has now jumped the Atlantic and landed in good ol' Dallas, Texas. 

Of course the whole school started freaking out when the news broke, but no one freaked out quite as much as all the students who have taken or are currently taking microbiology here at TCU. Right now we are reading the Hot Zone, a book all about the original outbreaks of Ebola in Africa and the severity of the virus strand. We are just halfway through the book now and what we have learned about the disease scares us all to death. One day we're learning about a horribly deadly disease that is NOT in the U.S., and then the next day the Center for Disease Control is reporting that this disease is not only in the U.S., but its in the city just 45 minutes away from campus. A direct quote from one of my friends in my micro class: "That makes me want to cry". We have read hundreds of pages about what the virus can do, and how there is no foolproof cure or vaccine for it either. And now its here.

Ebola has been all over the news for a while now, but it wasn't until microbiology that I actually learned about what the disease does to the body and the long history of it. And now, everyone else wants to know what we have learned. At dinner I was answering questions about how Ebola is spread (fluid transmission), where the virus came from (Ebola river in Africa), and how it most likely first got to humans (through monkeys). I also had to explain that a person is only infectious once they have started exhibiting the symptoms (which the Dallas man was not while on his flight home, meaning it won't spread through the airplane).

I love when what you learn in class can be directly related to something going on around the world right now. The learning connection makes it all seem so much more real and allows you to see a purpose to what you are learning. In this case, Ebola is not a disease that has come and gone, it is still clearly a problem, and as a future healthcare professional, I am going to need to understand what the virus can do.  

We've been asked to blog about our other learning experiences outside of Literature & Civilizations II, and the whole story of Ebola has definitely been a learning experience, from helping me with my studies in microbiology to simply educating me on what is happening in the global healthcare community. I've learned what the Center for Disease Control does to combat these viruses so they don't become and epidemic in the U.S. and how easily some diseases can be spread if not diagnosed and quarantined.

If you are at all interested in Ebola and curious what its history is, I highly recommend you pick up the Hot Zone by Richard Preston. It is a very interesting read that really helped me to understand what is happening in Africa and now the U.S. regarding disease outbreaks. Now don't worry y'all, yes Ebola is in Dallas, but the likelihood of it being spread is actually very low because the patient was quarantined very soon after exhibiting symptoms. That may or may not give you peace of mind, but hey at least we don't go to SMU.

Home is where the drought is

Reading the Big Thirst and talking about both the current drought situation and water conservation has really hit home for me particularly. I am one of the many TCU students from California, where we're currently experiencing one of the worst megadroughts in history.  Yes, it is a statewide drought, but what many people don't know is how hard it has hit northern California especially (my home). All of the pictures on the news are from lakes that I've been going to my whole life, and it is scary to know that they might not be there much longer. Northern California's many lakes supply most of central and southern california's water, but we don't have enough water for everyone anymore. They are draining our lakes just to keep the state's crops alive. Folsom Lake, a lake 10 minutes from my house that I grew up going to, is so dried up that you are not allowed to boat on it anymore. Two beaches we would go to in high school are now connected into one beach because the water level has gotten so low. Pictures of Folsom lake are constantly in news stories because it is in such drastic conditions. San Joaquin river that Dr. Williams showed us in class also right by my house.

Folsom Lake, California before and after

Our governor declared a statewide drought emergency and we constantly are told to limit our water use to help conserve. The problem though is that no one (that I know of) is cracking down on the whole state like places like Las Vegas have done. But how could that even be done with such a big and opinionated state like California. Its not just a city with a water problem, its one of the biggest states in the country. If we don't get enough rain this year, it is scary to think of where we could be. The projections are frightening. This is my home that is more dry every time I visit. Actually experiencing the drought is so much different than just reading about it. It was hard for me to even grasp the severity of the whole situation until I saw one of lakes in person. My home is right smack in the middle of the "exceptional drought" area.

Current California drought monitor; Most of the state is now in exceptional drought

I was skeptical when I learned that this class would be about water, but it has actually been a very interesting topic considering our huge need for water and our dwindling resources. The first few chapters of the Big Thirst were fascinating because I previously didn't really consider ALL of the things that require clean water in our everyday life. The amount of water that we use on things like flushing toilets and watering lawns is astonishing. The talking of a "second modern water revolution" is a crazy thing to think about.
What I found very interesting while preparing for our presentation on the Big Thirst is the idea that all water problems are local. Conserving water in Texas is not going to help children in Africa get water, or even really help California. So even though the drought is slowly becoming nationwide, the solutions are local changes in individual communities and cities. If anything, reading the Big Thirst has made me, and hopefully others, acknowledge the current water crisis in a more realistic way.

Traveling the Trinity

That Thursday marked the ending of one of the most stressful and emotional weeks of the semester so far. Right before the trip began I received hurtful news that did not put me in a good state of mind for a trip that I had previously been very excited for. I was running on too little sleep and too many emotions to appreciate the beginning of the 4.5 mile canoe trek. However, being stuck in a canoe with your best friend for a few hours can be surprisingly therapeutic to the soul. It was something that I never expected, but the canoe trip surprisingly helped to calm my mind and gave me time to relax for the first time in too long. At first I had been upset that the trip started off so rough for me, but then I became very thankful that it had coincided with certain life events. Floating along the Trinity River gave me time to appreciate the "little things" in life, as cliche as that sounds. The whole week I had been a ball of stress, worrying about both big and little things, and the canoeing allowed me to forget about it all for just a few hours. Together Casey and I figured out how to steer that canoe (it took awhile!) and that helped to distract me from the list of emotional things running through my mind. We laughed (at ourselves), complained (about too much to list), and ultimately made it down the river like a modern day Huck and Jim. 

 

Halfway down the river I was already feeling better, yet none of my problems had been solved. They were still waiting for me back on land, but for those few hours all life issues were out of reach as we canoed in our own little world. I am a very logical and pragmatic person, someone who never would have thought that canoeing down a brown river would help me feel better after a long week, but it did. The journey calmed my previous anxiety and I believe helped me handle a stressful situation that was waiting for me back ashore. The serenity of the calm waters and the recurring motions of paddling was more therapeutic than I ever could have imagined. The entire setting was so tranquil and peaceful that even my racing mind could be calmed down for a few hours.

Paddling up to that Fort Worth skyline at the end of the trip was a beautiful ending to a surprisingly valuable trip that ended up being exactly what I needed. The bright lights represented the real world where my problems sat waiting for me to deal with, but the canoe and river aided me in approaching them more wisely and calmly. Sure, when I got back to campus I still had to deal with my stressful problems, but the river trip had helped me to accept what had happened and had calmed my mind so that the problems seemed just a little bit more manageable.

How do you define literature and civilization?

Kyle Howarth - biology pre-med student at UC Davis
"Literature is a form or body of writing that serves a purpose (to entertain, inform, etc.). Literature is words with meaning."
"Civilization is a group that comes together and agrees on laws and regulations and has a government that holds them to a standard."
  
Caroline Brown - child development student at TCU
"Literature is the use of writing to tell a story or convey a certain ideal, and is often passed down through history."
"Civilization is the history of how cultures are made up and how peoples groups interact within those people groups."

Barbara Howarth - retired accountant
"Literature records social structure, current thoughts, and a certain point of time for history in a written form that everyone can understand."
"Civilization is a moral and social structure that creates a forward progressing peaceful existence."