A Prom Dress for Desdemona!

Prom is right around the corner, and if Desdemona were to ever attend my prom, she would definitely be seen wearing this particular dress. I found this BCBG dress online, and I knew that it would be perfect for her since it reflects her personality so well! It is a soft, pale yellow and it is made of silk. The subtle color portrays her pure, yet vague persona. She does speak throughout the play, but many of her thoughts are not professed to the audience. It is difficult to know what she is thinking, and as I read the play, I thought she had a very celestial role since characters would be talking about her, as if she was a glimmering star isolated in the universe. Her beauty seemed to enchant whomever she meant, especially Othello.

Another important aspect of the dress is the fact that it is made of silk. This represents the wealth that she comes from, since silk is a very expensive fabric. Her father, Brabantio is a Venetian senator who shelters Desdemona from the outside world, and wants her to marry into money. He is appalled when he finds out that his daughter and Othello secretly elope. Othello is not the type of person Brabantio wants to see his daughter with, because of the fact that he is black.

Also, since the style of the dress, which is an off-the-shoulder style, really portrays the pure femininity that Desdemona possesses. She would never be the type of girl to wear a risqué and revealing dress, simply because of her quiet demeanor. She lives to love Othello, and cannot stand the fact that her father is the biggest critic her her relationship with her husband. It is a little odd that she would choose to be with Othello, since he is so different from the men her father introduces into her personal milieu. But, in my opinion, she has gravitated towards someone like Othello in order to rebel against her dad's control, since he is the polar opposite of what Brabantio wants for her. All in all, I believe Desdemona is tired of the homogenous population of men she is surrounded by everyday, and is ready to love an exotic man.

Ohhh that Othello!

For me, Othello has seemed to be most stable character throughout this entire play. He manages to handle any drama that comes his way with a calm, cool, and collected state of mind. Since he is a Moor, his appearance is very exotic, since he has dark skin and is the complete opposite of the fair Desdemona. He is passionately in love with Desdemona, but things get complicated all because of a certain dissident, Iago, at the end of the play.

Iago's scheme to mess up the relationship between Desdemona and Othello was unfortunately destroyed due to level of Iago's madness (which was fueled by more than a scintilla of frustration). Their intimate relationship was destroyed when Iago ordered his wife to make an exact replica of the handkerchief that Desdemona gave to Othello. Then, he dropped the handkerchief where Cassio was able to find it, which made it seem like Desdemona gave the handkerchief to Cassio. When Othello finds out that Desdemona "gave her handkerchief to Cassio" the reader is able to see that he has an explosive temper.

He begins screaming at Iago, creating an éclat of passionate betrayal and anger. This scheme that Iago conjured up was expedient since it was convenient for him, but really transformed the calm-tempered Othello. He was unable to recoup his sanity from this shocking news, and decided to plot a murder against both Cassio and Desdemona. Othello is a man of solid morals, but once he discovered the supposed disloyalty of his fair Desdemona, he became a malicious new person.

Iago is "that guy"

While reading the play, Othello, I was intrigued by the character of Iago, and his powers of deception and his selfish demeanor. In every dilemma that he seemed to get himself caught up with, it would always be because of his own selfish ways. In the first scene of the play, Iago makes his frustration ubiquitous to Roderigo as well as the reader, since Othello appointed Cassio as the new lieutenant and not Iago. So, throughout the play, Iago reveal his splenetic persona towards anyone that gets in the way of what he wants.

What frustrates Iago the most, is the fact that he knows that he is more qualified to be Othello's lieutenant than Cassio is. But, in the end Othello is too complacent with Iago being his "ancient" that he offers Cassio the position instead. The relationship between Othello and Iago gets further destroyed when Iago suspects that Othello slept with his wife, Emilia. The reader is left with a question in their mind...is Iago upset because Othello betrayed him, or because he is the one that is in love with Othello (which is such an incongruous assumption) ?! So, in order to make things more pernicious, Iago decides to conspire a dreadful rumor that Desdemona has been sleeping with Cassio. This is a stroke of brilliance because now he will be able to obliterate Cassio's reputation, and ruin the sacred relationship between the newlyweds.

Overall, Iago is a master of scheming and lying through the entire play. In the beginning of the play, he states, "I am not what I am" (Shakespeare). This helps the reader to realize that he cannot be trusted and is a reticent person that rarely reveals his true thoughts. His only goal during the play is to enervate anyone that will come between him and his plans to bring down anyone that is a threat to him.

college searching.

When I went to visited Lafayette College, I was astonished by the beautiful landscape of the campus. Upon arrival, I saw the exquisitely constructed buildings, that all were within walking distance of one another. As I was greeted by the students of the college, they were all glowing and seemed very happy; not one of them seemed dissatisfied. I like seeing the students at the campus because then I am able to get a better feel for the kinds of students that it attracts, which says a lot about the school. At Lafayette, there were many students that were studying in the library in each of their own study rooms. As I was looking in the aisles of books in the library, I was exculpated by one of the librarians, since she thought I was "snooping around".

After I saw the library, I went to one of the building that had freshman girls' dorms. The dorms seemed pretty jejune to me, just like the ones that were in movies. My student guide showed me her room which was covered in posters and pictures of her friends, and it had two bunkbeds for her and her roommate. A dorm room is definitely not the location of my personal "Mecca", but I know that I am going to have to deal with living far away from home. It does not bother me that I am not in my own house, but it does bother me that I will be living with a complete stranger. What if I have a malevolent roommate that steals all of my personal belongings?! Even if that does happen to me, I am going to have to be resilient and learn to adapt to my new environment. If I have a crazy roommate, so what? I'll just never be able to sleep because I will be so paranoid, but it is completely fine.

I am a very ingenuous person, so I am hoping to not have a roommate that is really wild and crazy. I just want to be able to dorm with someone that is somewhat normal...is that so hard to ask for? I just hope that this person, whoever it turns out to be, will not harass my and put bugs in my pillowcase. But, besides that, I am so excited to embark on a journey of self-discovery once I go away to college!

relay for life!

This year Pascack Valley is hosting Relay for Life on our track, which is very special and exciting. I volunteered to be the captain for the team of juniors that are going to be participating and I am so proud to support such an august cause with my friends. Many people do not realize how much work goes into making sure an event this large runs smoothly and successfully. When I arrived at the first meeting where all of the captains met who was responsible for creating the event, I was stunned at the many events that were going to be taking place on that day of Relay for Life, as well as the amount of people that were going to be participating. The women in charge were very adamant about making sure that no one was ostracized, and there was no limit on the amount of teams that could be created.

As they began to talk about the different aspects of the event, and what we should be telling our teammates, I remained obsequious, and wrote down every thing that was being said. I was overcome with emotion because the determination and strength of these women were expressed to everyone at the meeting, and helped us believe that one day, cancer could be defeated forever. They then began to explain to explain the concept behind "Luminaria bags". I was a neophyte to this topic, and was eager to learn about their significance. What I learned about them was that hold candles, and can be decorated with pictures in order to pay tribute to someone that is currently battling cancer, has survived cancer, or has passed away due to cancer. I thought it was a beautiful way to pay respects to people that have unfortunately encountered this life-threatening disease.

Lastly, the meeting concluded with a tutorial on how to construct team flags. The materials that were given out to make the flags with was a pillow case, which would be attached to a dowel. The women stated that the flags could be as panache as the team desired, and should be creative. Many members of my team are very artistic and have a predilection for decorating and embellishing different kinds of things. Once the meeting had come to a close, I was ready to get my team members pumped about this fantastic event, and I had really become an erudite team captain!

things that help me to relax (:

Now that we are approaching the end of the year, all of the final projects are due and my stress level keeps on increasing. I feel as though I am bereft of time to myself, and I am always moving and doing something. Sometimes I wish I had a remote to pause my life since school gets so hectic. It honestly takes a Herculean student to survive four years of high school at Pascack Valley. So, I have a few methods that help me to stay relaxed, and have a clear mind.

1. Always drink herbal teas.

I am in love with tea, and it is probably the most soothing drink that you can choose to consume. My mom is the reason as to why I am addicted to drinking tea, even though my younger sister is quite blasé with the powers of herbal tea. I have developed my own concoction and whip it up whenever I feel overwhelmed. First, I brew some traditional Lipton tea, and make sure that it reaches a deep hazelnut brown. Then, I take about four spoonfuls of sugar and make sure it dissolves in my mug of tea. One half of a juicy, ripe lemon is then squeezed into my delicious mixture, making it ready for the final ingredient: honey. I always go to my cabinet to grab that golden teddy bear bottle in order to squeeze out about three tablespoons of honey. Finally, my beverage is complete. My cats seem to find the sweet aroma of my tea to be quite noisome, and often run out of the kitchen whenever I make it. But, for me, it serves as pure therapy.

2. Go on facebook.

Yes, I know it sounds weird, but if you take thirty minutes out of your day to browse facebook, you will rid yourself of all school-related stress. Looking up links to post on your friends' walls, posting pictures, and utilizing facebook chat has the ability to distract a person for hours. Even though this works as stress-relief, I always need to make sure that I set an ending time for how long I surf Facebook. This is because a side effect that I have found from spending too much is that I have lost a lot of energy since Facebook can sometimes be a soporific pastime.

3. Watch favorite shows on hulu.com

Whenever I have had a long day at school, I find it very rewarding to lay in my bed and watch some episodes of my favorite sitcoms on the website hulu.com. I usually fall asleep while tuning in, but it is relaxing and makes me laugh right before I say goodbye to my day. Even though some of the shows I choose to watch are full of bunkum, they always put me in such a good mood. The sitcoms on my laptop screen transfix my eyes, and soon the lights and sounds lull me into a deep sleep.

Cruising to Cozumel, Mexico!

I have finally returned home from my incredible cruise, and I am extremely sad to be back in the cold weather. But, I will always have the memories of this vacation in my heart to help me make it through the upcoming snow and sleet. One of my favorite days on the cruise was Wednesday, when we arrived in Cozumel, Mexico. I had never been to Mexico before and was very excited to see this beautiful tropical island. We had signed up for a Jeep excursion, and the minute we got there, we had to take a boat to get to Playa del Carmen, where our tour was planned to begin. The night before my family became a little seasick, and surprisingly I was the only one that did not get sick. So, it was up to me to go to the infirmary, where the nurse prescribed pills for my mom, dad, and sister to take. As we boarded the boat in Mexico, my family had the pills from the night before to safely survive the voyage across the ocean.

Once we got to Playa del Carmen, we met our tour guides and the other families that were also going on the Jeep Tour. After the tour guides explained the itinerary for the day, we got to choose the Jeep that we would be driving in. My family and I choose a silver Jeep and had the top down as we drove to our first destination. The wind was warm, and the sun was shining brightly on our faces as we meandered through many different roads. But, as we were driving one of the drivers in front of us faced a moratorium from driving because he was unable to drive a stick-shift. As we approached the first place of our tour, we parked our Jeep and were eager to eat and engage ourselves in the surroundings.

A private beach was where we wound up arriving after a carefree drive. We had an authentic Mexican lunch that consisted of guacamole, chicken marinated in a tomato sauce, watermelon, and rice. After we had finished eating, we were able to tan on the white sands of the beach and swim in the crystal waters of the ocean. The waves were very calm and I was completely relaxed in the pristine environment that we had encountered. After a little over an hour, we got back in our Jeep and headed for the jungle.

Once we arrived to the small jungle, we were instructed by our tour guides to wear hardhats since they were wary about the low entrance of the cave we were about to enter. The stalactites were very close to our heads as we all began to enter, so we had to be cautious. Once we were in the cave, there was a whole body of mineral water that surrounded the cave's walkway. The tour guides encouraged us to swim in these waters, but I was a little apprehensive about taking the plunge, so I decided to go on the walking tour instead. On the tour my family and I learned all about how the formations within the cave were created and the sea creatures that inhabited the waters. In a small pool of water, the tour guide threw a rock and soon we saw little albino shrimp come out from the depths of the pool. After the walking tour, we headed back to our Jeeps and returned to the dock where the boat would take us back to the cruise. I was sad when the tour guides said that the excursion was about to be terminated because I really fell in love with Mexico. It is such a fantastic place that is full of history and nature that everyone should have the chance to see someday!