Female Leader: Angela Merkel

       The political leader I chose to write about was Angela Merkel, who is the chancellor (head of government) in Germany. She grew up in the rural area of Northern Berlin, and she was born to a pastor and teacher. She was born on July 17th in 1954, and was born in Hamburg. She went on the study physics at the University of Leipzig. She then later on went to work as a chemist in the Academy of Sciences in the Physical Chemistry unit.  For introduction to politics actually occurred when she a political party named the Christian Democratic Union and then went on to be a cabinet minister for women and youth. She then ran in 2002 for her current position, yet she failed. She was then victorious, in 2005, when she then beat Gerhard Schroder by three seats, so a very close defeat. She then gained her current position and has been the first female leader of Germany since it became a modern state. She is broke tradition by being divorced, but then remarrying a chemistry professor from Berlin named Joachim Sauer and she also has no children and has been on the Forbes list peaking at #1 most powerful women and #4 most power people. Her earliest award was in 2006 called the Vision for Europe Award for he contribution toward more integration is Europe. One of the latest awards she received for her achievements, is the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which was given to her by Barack Obama in 2011. This award is awarded specifically to those who people who have made an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, or cultural or other significant public or private endeavours. She has been compared frequently to Margaret Thatcher, a British Prime Minister who was also known as the "The Iron Lady". 

  

Catholic Saint Blogpost

 Maria Los

Humanities

March 15^th 2012

                                                 ST. MARTHA

          St. Martha, who is the patron of cooks, is known from an excerpt of John’s gospel, in the quote “Jesus loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus” we hear of this special relationship between Jesus and Martha. She lived in a small village, which was about 2 miles away from Jerusalem. Jesus often was a quest at her house. In a story about Martha it is taught that she is extremely hospitable, so when Jesus comes to pay a visit, Martha is angered by her sister Mary who only pays attention and listens to him, forgetting her duties. She asks Jesus if this is right, and he tells her that, what matters is that she listen to him. This story teaches to not be worried and distracted by the things we must do in our daily life, but to always make time for Jesus. In stories after this we learn that she has learned her lesson. We learn about the about her faith and courage, and how she never doubts Jesus. The rest of what happens to Martha is not known; she is now known as the patron of servants and cooks. The pray that is now said for St. Martha is as follows; “Saint Martha, pray for us that we might serve Jesus better. Help us overcome our distractions and worries to listen to his words and be present to him this day. Amen” The feastday of St. Martha is July 29^th.

Blogpost #3: Mosaic Reflection

Upon completion of your mosaic, explain the meaning of your symbol, reflect on the process of making a mosaic, and imagine what it would have been like to create a large scale mosaic in a church over 1500 years ago.

      The symbol I chose to represent was the Christian Dove. In Christianity the Dove represents the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost. This is because when the Holy Spirit came down while Jesus was being baptized in the Jordon River, in the form of a dove. I think masking this mosaic is the most painful thing I have ever done. This is because the curved edges of the bird made it so had to fit the squares perfectly in. So, where there were little spaces where the squares wouldn't fit, I had to cut out tiny triangles or rectangles to fill in these spaces. Then when the glue stuck to the paper squares and then to my fingers, it was terrible. Another thing that was quite time consuming was the facts that I had to cut the little squares out. Yet even though with a process that is quite dreary and slow, I found the final product to be quite satisfying and pretty. I feel it turned out quite well, and I was very proud of my work. The colors that I used were light green, dark green, light blue, white and black. The colors I believe symbolize certain aspects of the picture. The light green and dark green, which make up the border, represent the earth and nature. While the background behind the dove, which is light blue, symbolize the sky. Finally the light, which is the dove, is used because white is usually the traditional color of a dove, and also represents peace. The black though, which outlines the dove, actually has no meaning.
            For me just this little, simple paper on mosaic was quite difficult and frustrating to do. So, if I had to do a whole, large scale mosaic, I would probably be driven to insanity. Another factor that would have made it even more difficult is the mortar has a certain period in which it is pliable then it hardens. This means the mosaic had to be done in certain sections but also quite quickly, which when making mosaics is definitely not my strong point. So to conclude, I found this project hard but interesting and in the end quite satisfying.