Un Nouveau Départ

New Beginnings. This should be very interesting. As of right now I've changed the title of this blog to reflect my shift from a focus on immigration (from a recent political science course) to the adventures I will have in the next five months. I will be studying in Strasbourg (France) at l'Ecole de Management --> the school of business within the University of Strasbourg. This blog will capture my experiences in real-time so that friends, family, and others interested in studying abroad can get a first-hand look into what I am going through. I will be honest, sometimes blunt, as necessary. I may post in French as the use of two languages simultaneously over extended periods of time can cause a brain meltdown. I ask that you be patient with me and respond to any interesting posts. I will gladly take suggestions for post topics, and I look forward to you, the reader, living vicariously through my experience. Mmm let the fun begin!

And this is what you get when you type "let the fun begin" into Google Image :D

Napolitano Backs Immigration Bill

A recent NY Times article discusses the current situation involed in passing some kind of immigration bill. Since nothing progressive towards this issue has happened in a long time, Napolitano supports amnesty for illegal immigrant students, as she believes they have no fault for being here since many of them were brought by their parents. Napolitano also believes that this will help shift the focus to immigrant criminals who pose more of a threat to national security, and should therefore be the subjected more to deportation than students who do no harm.




To see the original article, follow here: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/02/napolitano-backs-immigration-bill/

You're Never Too Old To Get Deported

In world news, a 65 year old grandmother living in England for almost all of her life now faces deportation proceedings because there is no record of her emigrating to the country from Canada when she was just six months old. The BBC article which features Joan Wakely's story also explain's the UK unwillingness to provide amnesty, saying that she must complete a citizenship exam by February 2011. Joan has no intention of completing this exam and is exploring her other options.

This just goes to show what a funny world we live in. Even Canadians can be illegal immigrants.

Mexican Theme Park Turns Border Crossing Into Sport

The idea of a theme park in Mexico aimed at allowing guests to experience an illegal border crossing is pretty interesting to me. Of course this type of thing causes a lot of controversy: why would anyone pay 150 pesos (about $15) to climb fences, hide in ditches, and wait for a fake coyote to take them to to an American city? Some advertisements for this theme park entice people with sayings such as, "Make fun of the Border Patrol!" and "Cross the border as an extreme sport!"

Intended to make people more aware of what immigrants crossing the border go through, this theme park in Hidalgo, Mexico attracts tourists not only from the United States, but also Europe and Asia. For more information from the AZCentral.com article, follow here.