Thoughts on Improving Talents

As I witness the final closing days of my summer vacation of 2011, I realized that I have improved significantly in my talents that God has given me, such as art, singing, cooking, and dancing.  I have used these gifts to make new friends, rekindle old friendships, and to help me gain greater happiness than ever before.   I will let the images and videos do the talking of my progress.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/52243271-78/autistic-sketchup-google-students.html.csp

Thoughts on Hometown Cultural Experiences

There has been one major lesson I've needed to learn as well. Having been to countries like Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras and in the Carribbean islands like Puerto Rico, Bahamas, U.S. Virgin Isles, and St. Martin, i realize that while experiences in other nations give us a gift of treasured memories, however, there are those like me that cannot afford to go abroad due to personal expenses. That thought brought about major observational skill in my life. I discovered that the most international cultural experiences I had in my life came from my own homeland in Northern Utah. For example, I had a foreign culture family home evening night this night with my family. We went to the Royal India Restaurant in Bountiful's Main Street area and we tried out Indian food there. Tyler, my older brother, recently got back from Ecuador and Peru in South America and I tried out Peruvian chocolate and Ecuadorian treats. Another cool experience in my family came when my adopted sister Rachel Hebert Snow came back from Austrailia and New Zealand and bought home a snack called Tim Tams, a cookie snack popular in both Austrailia and New Zealand and Lemon and Paeroa soda, a popular lemon flavored soda brand in New Zealand. Most of this blog seems to say that food is the best way to experience a country's culture and I couldn't agree more with that. I found a lot of comfort in listening to Arabic music recently and I felt like I was in the Middle East when I listened to this song as well. Youtube has lots of music from different countries as well, and can be used to experience a country's culture. For example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tkoGyIlSYo (Arabic music) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrTN0c3Nbuk (Pan Flute-Peruvian music). So take advantage of cultural opportunities in your hometowns such as being a host family to a foreign student, trying out restaurants of other nations.