Author: Antonio

Final Portfolio

Unit III-Affinity

Genre

I started re-reading the Anne Frank diary; I was previously assigned to read a few pages back in high school. I don’t remember what exactly I read in high school, but I know learning about her was a good experience. So given the chance to reread, it felt like it would be interesting to remember a little about Anne’s life and what she went through.

Reading through her diary I remembered how well she would describe everyone, as she was very specific in her writings. She basically gave a glimpse of how she would spend her time, either with whom or where. I found that very catching because makes you can imagine yourself as part of this diary too, even if was years ago. Something Anne wrote that I found very inspiring was “the finest thing of all is that I can at least write down what I think and feel, otherwise I would suffocate completely.” It was nice to see how Anne wrote her letters to her friend Kitty.

I like how Anne wrote her letters in a very organized way and in a lot of details, she didn’t leave any detail out or at least tried not to. She would write her diary entries, each having a beginning, middle and end, she would pick off from where she left off in her last entry.. Compared to how she writes her diary, it seems a bit similar to my own way in that I try to be specific on what I’m doing during specific hours of the day. This keeps my writing more organized and it gives the reader a sense of how my day is going. I know her writing style also reminded me more of writing a letter to someone then splitting on different hours of the day.

Elmhurst, New York

March 24, 2020

8:10am

I woke up a bit later than my usual time, I get up to brush my teeth. I put two slices of toast on the toaster and serve myself a cup of orange juice. Meanwhile I turn the television on and watch the news for a while. Everything that they talk about is on COVID-19. I listen for a bit for any new information I might need to know.

9:15am

I start my workout routine with the weights and equipment I have at home. I usually do about an hour workout since I have no gymnasium to go too.

11:30

My biology lecture online class starts; let’s see how this hour goes by hopefully this internet isn’t lagging and is working good.

1pm

Doing some reading on the biology slides that the professor went through in class, rewriting all my notes since I wrote them all fast and they were a bit sloppy. I try to have everything organized, so that when it’s time to re-study my notes for test it’s easier to do so.

3pm

I am taking some time off studying and going over notes to get prepared to cook some tofu with some vegetables and rice. I will be back shortly after cooking.

4:30pm

I have finally had some dinner with a glass or two of wine. Also while having dinner I continued to watch a show on Netflix that I got hook on called “Money Heist.” It’s a really good show; I’ve already finished watching two out of the three seasons that they have so far.

Elmhurst, New York

March 25, 2020

7 am

I woke up early because I kept hearing a few ambulances passing by, maybe about 2-3 ambulances I could hear their noises (wee-oow, wee-oow, wahh- wee-ooww) from a far distant but they manage to wake me up. I get up to go to the bathroom and brush my teeth, change into my workout clothes and start an early morning workout.

8:30 am

I am out of the shower after a good workout, I’m ready to cook some protein breakfast to get my day started and see how my online classes go today. I make a spinach and mushroom egg omelet with some parmesan cheese on top. Along side my omelet I have my cup of black coffee in one of my favorite mugs, a Game of Thrones mug. (For any Game of Throne fans out there)

10 am

I am going over my French notes and old assignments since I have my quiz #2 even though he didn’t tell us what to study on. The professor said he would tell us today in about an hour when it’s time to take the test. It doesn’t sound like so much fun not knowing what specifically to study on, but I am going over the past two weeks of notes, hoping the quiz will be on that.

11:30 am

French quiz # 2 here we go, wish me luck.

1pm

The French quiz wasn’t bad at all knowing that I studied my notes and it was an easy quiz for this time. He didn’t want to put too much pressure on us he said knowing that we’ve been having a crazy week. So for now I’m just waiting for math class and writing some questions that I was confused on in the last lecture, hoping he can explain it to us all in better details.

2:30 pm

Time for this math online class, let’s see how it goes.

4 pm

Well my questions to the math class got answered and explained in better details. It was nice knowing that I wasn’t the only one confused; some of my peers also had the same questions. We finished a new lecture and now I’m going over my notes to see the one or two more questions pop out. I am hoping to YouTube this and maybe find the answer I seek or I’ll try Google too, since Google knows everything right?

6pm

It’s time for dinner. For today’s dinner I will be having some penne alla vodka with broccoli and string beans (I know it sounds a bit too healthy and boring right? Haha) but it tasted way better than it sounds. It’s time to continue watching Money Heist on Netflix and to I’ll try to finish season three.

8:15 pm

I stop watching Netflix to continue doing some math homework before I call it a night and go to bed. Some of these math problems are driving me insane; they look so easy yet there are like 10-15 steps to do before actually getting the answer. Whoever says math is fun, it really isn’t, it takes time and patience to learn.

Having online classes I thought would be an interesting experience, but so far not happy about it. On the contrary feels like I’m not learning as well as I was sitting in the classroom and listening to my professor teach me something new. I know this is something new to most professors and myself included, and we all might need extra patience to deal with. In other news dealing with COVID-19 in such little time has gotten worse and spread throughout our communities, feels like it has shut down more than 70% of New York. Being the city that “Never Sleeps” looks like we are definitely sleeping alright. Until this moment I’m still taking all of this day by day and not letting myself get stress out. Just yesterday I went out for a run in the morning I would recall seeing way less people outside and some people that I saw were covered with gloves and masks on as precaution. Took a few miles into my run until I saw other runners as well also running, waving hello and smiling. At that moment I was glad I wasn’t the only runner around my neighborhood (Elmhurst) to keep training and not let this virus mess completely with our lives. At the moment still having to go into work, taking the subway feels weird because there’s only like 4-5 people in the train car including myself. It is safe to say that is better to stay home especially if being sick, then being in the train and getting other commuters sick as well. I hope that this virus comes to an end soon and at the end we will remember this as a horrible sci-fi movie. Hope everyone remains safe.

During this tough time we as New Yorkers are going through a new virus, and it seems that some people are overreacting about this situation.  Personally I feel that precautions should be taken but not so drastically. Compared to the flu it has killed more people, but we know we are safe because there’s a vaccine for it and we panic because this new virus doesn’t have one yet. I’ve seen people on the train with masks (“even if they’re not the correct ones to have”) and even with gloves on. Just today on my way home from class I noticed that even when a man cover himself after sneezing, the two ladies that were sitting next to him, got up and left to another cart. He notice because he just smile and nodded his head. Advice that my biology teacher gave us, was just to wash our hands carefully and not to touch our face. This virus will continue to cause panic, but the more people panic the more everyone else gets stressed. Instead just look out for each other, remain calm and if you’re sick, or feeling any of the symptoms go to hospital.