School decided to be an ass and told me to get ready for transfer, so I started to look around for new places to live and schools which I could attend and effort. I think I’m going to end up in Denver, CO. I’m thinking about going to Community College of Denver to get all my gen ed done. And then going to Metro State for my bachelors? Right now there are lots of questions and it’s kind of exciting to move out of this town. I really like Denver and I am SO riding my bike to school in the summer!! haha!

After this semester I’m supposed to get 3 certificates for welding. It’ll be awesome to finally have something on paper. I should be getting my Structural, Pipe, and Basic Level Skill certificates!

Lately I have been thinking a lot about home. I would love to go see my family and have some real dutch food again. I can’t believe I have been back in the United States for over a year now! Tomorrow it would be a year and two months. Gladly enough I have good friends who keep me entertained and keep me on my feet. School, actually, does that too. This math 107 class is kicking my ass!

Well, later more! Comments people.

After waiting for a while, I still had no response of anyone who was willing to go, so I went to the twitter website and searched for people around Colorado Springs area, and that’s when I found @HURRAYYme‘s post.

We tweeted and scheduled to do the incline at 9:00 AM. I left the house early enough to find a spot to park. However, when I got down to Manitou Springs, almost everything was covered with cars. I drove around for about 10 minutes untill I found this spot.

Nick was obviously better in shape then I was, so I told him to go ahead and I would meet him at the top. Nick got to the top in 40 minutes, which is very impressive, believe me. It’s 5000 steps, it’s an old cog-train trail which is 43%-63% incline the entire time. Here is Nick’s post if you would like to check it out.

This was now my second tweetup, and if you ask me, it’s one of the most fun things to do if you want to meet new people!

We did the 4,5 mile hike, we went up the incline and took the Barr Trail down. It was pretty neat, we found lots of rocks to climb on and beautiful views to take pictures of. If you want to check out Debbie’s story about the incline please do because it’s pretty funny!

On the map you can see what trail we walked. The green solid line is the incline, thats the way we went up, and we took the red trail back down.

Here are some pictures of our hike up the Manitou Springs Incline!

Here is a video of Debbie struggling with hiking up the incline! haha.

After I went back home to Colorado from my trip to Ohio, Richie and Melinda from California invited me to come over and visit them. I took their offer and got on a plane to Sacramento, CA. I’m actually there right now until July 19th! I have seen pretty much everything around the Clearlake area which is really nice! However, I really hope I’m going to be able to see the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. If so, that would be awesome! If not, so be it. Although, I don’t think we are, because the car broke down.

Monday the 19th, I will be going home like I mentioned. I am looking forward to it because of two reasons. 1. It’s too freaking hott out here in California. At least that’s what my iPhone says. (See temperature screenshot) and reason number 2. is that Debbie, Chris, and JoeJoe from Arizona will be there! They are doing a trip all over the United States, so they are in Colorado right now. You can follow their stories right here. The day after I get home, the 20th of July we will be doing the incline at Manitou Springs. It’s going to be pretty hard to do! However, fun! Also, we might go camping and that will be totally awesome, because that will give me a reason to go fishing! I have been wanting to fish for years now, but never found someone who wanted to fish. Or did I not try hard enough? Oh well, Colorado has these beautiful places where we can fish on trout, so it’s time to get on it while it’s still summer! I need to go to Walmart and get a fishing license soon!

About school, I will be going back to school August 23rd. How nice, the day before my birthday! But that doesn’t matter! I will be taking three welding classes. I think I want to focus on welding and get certified! I will be taking: Blueprint Read-Welders/Fitters, Intro-Gas Tungsten Arc Welding, and Advanced Gas Metal Arc Welding! So that will keep me busy this semester!

The weather has been really weird in Colorado. However, I guess that’s normal here. Hehe. I did made some pictures with my iPhone, which I’ll show you in a little bit. The end of this semester is already in sight! I’m excited. I can’t wait for summer, hopefully I’ll be able to do some traveling around the United States. I’m going to see my sister in Ohio for sure already, right after school is over. It’ll be great to see her graduate from BGSU. I have no other traveling plans yet, although, I would love to visit Debbie and Chris in Arizona, and Richie in California. I guess I just have to wait and see what happens.

Biking, is what I have been trying to do lots of. Every time it was nice out, or even when it was raining.. well, let’s say when I had time, I was on my bike.. doing rounds from 12 to 30 miles. I try to do every time longer trips. And hopefully I’ll be able to go up to the Rocky Mountains to bike. I think that would be a blast!

Bob Droog, a spontaneous, honest person who loves exploring and experiencing new thing; was born nineteen years ago in Schagen, Netherlands to Bob Sr. and M. Droog. Having an interest in America culture, Bob moved to the United States as an exchange student in 2007. A year later, he moved back to Holland for a year and a half. He returned as an exchange student in January 2010. The only family member that Bob has in the United States is his sister Arisca. She attends Bowling Green University in Ohio. Moving to the United States was a different experience for Bob. He had to adjust and assimilate some of his traditions and learn how to live in the United States. Following Gordon’s seven stages of assimilation, the changes that had been taking place in Bob’s life and in other people from Netherlands can be recognized.

Gordon’s seven stages can be divided in to two groups: The immigrant group; assimilation made by immigrants coming to the new culture, and Host group; assimilation made by people than live in the culture.  Culture assimilation, the first stage; was the most important and hardest adjustment for Bob. Almost everything is different between Netherlands and the United States, including language, food, sports, education, housing, religious, and more. For example soccer (voetbal) is the most important sport in Holland, but it is not in the United States; therefore; Bob doesn’t have the opportunity to enjoy his favorite sport like he used to. The second stage is the structural assimilation; this category has not affected Bob at all. He is not a member of any kind of institution or societal structure. For example, Bob said that he doesn’t follow politics at all but he wants to change that, learn more, and maybe become part of a group or institution. Next, marital assimilation, for people in Netherlands marriage is very important, serious, and they see it as a connection between two people who are in love. Bob is single but he said that he won’t have any problem marrying someone from a different country or cultural beliefs. One of the examples Bob gave me that sounds very interesting is that in his country education comes first, people go to school and after between the age of twenty four and thirty they get married. It is very strange for Bob seeing how high school graduates get married when they are eighteen or nineteen years old here in the United States. Lastly; Identificational assimilation; Bob won’t consider himself an American in identity, he will always think of himself as a Dutch man, but he will consider himself an American citizen, because like he said; America is a bunch of people from different countries together that live here and consider themselves American citizens. If Bob decides to stay in the United States for the rest of his life he will adjust to it regulations and add traditions as part of his life but he will still conserve his culture as much as he can.

The second group has three stages. To start, civic assimilation, it refers to the power given to immigrants in the host culture. Bob’s mom told him that President Obama’s ancestors had some Dutch in them. The remaining stages are very similar; attitude and behavior receptional assimilation; they refer to the prejudice and discrimination that immigrants suffer when they move to a different culture. In Bob’s case he has never experience any kind of discrimination; on the other hand; people love to know about his culture and he has a lot of friends.

In Holland, it is not common to move to the United States; but for the ones that move here it is not hard to assimilate and be part of this new culture. In my opinion Gordon’s seven stages of assimilations is not a good model because it generalizes without considering that every person is different as well as every culture. Adapting to a new culture and its traditions can be a traumatic experience for some people and a great experience for others; like Bob. People just have to take their chances and start their way to a new life full of changes.

First of all, cultural assimilation applied when Monica and her family arrived to the United States. They had given up quite a lot of their culture, such as tropical fruits, soccer, their language and more. Secondly, structural assimilation occurs because they gave up church even though they were Catholic. Monica’s brother joined the U.S. Navy, which shows a dedication to the United States. Then they had to assimilate by marriage; they had to give up marrying Colombians to marry others. Monica’s mother had no problem with this because she was about to marry a German. Monica herself had no problems with marrying someone from another culture or country either. The next stage, identificational assimilation, is one of the most difficult ones for most immigrants. This is something Monica could never give up. She says, she could never call herself an American even if she is a US citizen. She is proud of her roots and ancestors, and she will always be Colombian.

In civic assimilation, Monica and her family were allowed to become citizens and were considered naturalized. Monica and her mother are participating in America’s society, and Monica’s brother was allowed to join the U.S. Navy. There are not Colombians with political powers where we know of, but there are people who come from Hispanic nature with political powers; for example, the mayor of Colorado Springs. Attitude receptional assimilation and behavior receptional assimilation apply to Monica’s family because they felt discriminated against by some Americans when they moved to the United States. She said, when she met someone new, all they knew or remember about Colombia was about the cartel and drugs in Colombia, which was two decades ago.

What I’ve learned from using Gordon’s model is that it’s a great way to show if people are assimilating or not, and in my opinion it’s a perfect example to show what people are going through. These seven stages of assimilation are the big major steps that immigrants could go through. It’s not always the immigrant who has to assimilate; also, the host society or country has to change things around to accept the immigrant.

Sources:

First of all, you need to be sure that you have a Windows CD. Without this, we can’t really do anything. If you do not have a Windows CD, you can get one at any computer shop near you. This is not cheap, so double check your cabinets before buying. After that, look at both sides of your computer case; there should be a Windows sticker with a serial number. This number is your personal ID to register your Windows version with Microsoft. They do this to confirm you paid for your Windows operation system. Now double check if you have a CD/DVD reader or writer. If you don’t know how to check this, look at the front of your CD/DVD reader or writer, and it will show you what it is. As soon as you have all the information and hardware together, we may start.

These are the steps to rebuild and reinstall your computer. First, make sure you have made the proper backups you need of your personal documents, such as word documents, pictures, and your music. Secondly, put your Windows CD in the CD/DVD reader and restart your computer. The computer will ask if you want to boot the CD. Press the space bar to boot the Windows CD. Don’t be scared now; it may look difficult to go through this menu, but it is not that hard. What we are going to do next is formatting the C: drive. This will sweep everything off your hard drive and prepare your computer for a fresh install of Windows. When that is done, you have to select the C: drive and press enter to start the Windows wizard, which will do a fresh install of your Windows system. Next, follow the steps of the Windows wizard. The wizard will help you through the process of installing Windows the way you like it. This process will take about an hour to finish. As soon as the installation is complete, you will see the speed difference already. Immediately, the computer will restart itself after the installation. When Windows is fully started, all you have to do next is install all the hardware drivers. These can be found at the website of the computer company you bought it from. For example, if you have a Sony computer, you may visit Sony.com for the drivers needed. They provide these drivers for free.

Finally, you can enjoy your fast and fresh installed personal computer. You now have no more frustrations, but for how long all depends on how you treat your computer.

When you think about higher education, you may think about better rated schools, such as colleges where you can earn a degree and transfer from.  Most likely, these are the bigger schools with more programs available, such as schools we have in Amsterdam or Leiden, for example. Also, online school may be a good option if you are working and want to improve your knowledge of your job. This can make you a professional when earning a higher educational degree involving job related skills and improvements. If you are not planning on going to a college, which has full classes, you may have to consider going to a private school.

By improving your knowledge of your job, you will be able to get a better job or get a higher job status. Becoming a professional can be really important, but it is not easy to become one. Before you become a professional, you have to be sure that you have the right degree or diplomas. Also, it would be a good thing that you like what you are doing for a living, so choosing the right education is necessary. Don’t forget, experience is also really important in becoming a professional.

Improvements and specialization in your job can bring you a better and higher salary. If you are not satisfied with your regular salary and want to earn more, but you also want to learn more about your job, you could always do more schooling to become a professional and become specialized in your job. Your salary is based on what you do and what you know. Improving your knowledge is mainly the way to earn more money with any job. When you do not have the proper diplomas, certifications, or degrees, it’s hard to make more money than you are doing right now.

In conclusion, to get a high salary and a good job you like, you are always going to have to think about education. In the Netherlands, all the company’s that hire want your knowledge and skills on paper before they can hire you. Therefore, the best way to do well in life is by going to school and getting all the certifications, diploma’s, and degrees you can get.