Flea Market

My visit to the Opa-Locka Flea Market was rather interesting. I chose to do my assignment at this location because I thought that I would find myself in an uncomfortable situation simply because flea markets are so diverse and crowded and the location is not somewhere I frequent often. I felt brave enough to get up and go Sunday afternoon. I dorve over and to my suprise was not charged for parking which was rather nice of the guy sitting at the front. I walked through little shops set up in rows and occassionally smiled at strangers who looked my way. I felt a little out of place but found myself enetrtained by the merchandise around me. I eventually made my way to the food court and found a live band consisting of one hispanic man and two hispanic women set up on a small stage. The music was energizing and they sang some of my favorite songs. I sat down at what appeared to be a small little bar and asked the bartender for a beer. I could still feel people's eyes piercing at me but I tried to make myself as comfotable as I possible could. I chugged my beer pretty fast, hoping it would relax me a bit, and it it. I began to engage in a conversation with Carmen, the bartender. She expalined that the atmosphere was pretty consistent and asked me to come back next weekend. I must admit that I am not fully comfortable but I do feel that my next visit will go a little more smooth.

SUDS

It's pretty amazing that people can turn a place like a laundromat into a hangout spot. I guess when you live in a community and are constantly seeing the same people, it is only natural that you adapt to certain places, become comfortable and carry conversations about your life. That's life.

The Mosque

There is so much controversy surrounding the proposal to build a Muslim community center and mosque two blocks away from where the Twin Towers once stood. I personally feel that if the community center would be of  different religion, Catholic for example, maybe we would not be having these arguments. It has become more of a political argument than religious.

Test Scores

Preference?

Too many errors.
That was my score for the first part of the test. I was not able to get an accurate result that would determine if I have a preference for black or white people due to the fact that I made too many errors in the exam.
I do not quite understand how this test is supposed to work.
I do not believe I made any errors during the test. I simply chose what I wanted to choose and the computer would mark it as an error for me.
For my second test score, the results were different.
Little to no automatic preference between other people and Arab Muslims.
Again, the computer would mark many of my choices as incorrect, but this time I managed to get a result.
I feel that this may not be the most accurate test, but it was certainly pretty close to figuring out how we really feel about other ethnic groups.
I am curious to find out what some of my classmates scored and if they think the test was fair as well.
To me, it's pretty fair.

Jewish People-A Dying Nation?

On August 30th, we went a little in-depth about the Jewish people. We discussed that Jewish holidays are not only about food but of important historical events.
A curious comment was brought up while discussing  the decline of the Jewish people.
Many Jewish people believe that in order to keep the ethnic and religious group from extinction, it is important that Jews continue to marry other Jews and procreate for the sake of the people.
According to statistics, there are only about 13-15 million Jews left in the entire world and a great part of them are in Israel.
It definitely made me curious as to how most Jews would feel about interracial marriages at this point in time.
Are most Jewish children being brought up with the custom of marrying another Jewish person?
How serious and to what extent are the Jewish people concerned about the decline of their people?