In your Padlet post, please include:

• Your full name

• A photo of YOU

• OR Video Introduction

• Answer the questions listed below

Let's have some fun and get to know each other! Please write a post answering the following questions. 

• What is your name?

• Name three (3) works of art that mean a lot to you.  They could be any art (music, literature, architecture, paintings, plays, etc)

• What sort of things have made you envious recently?

• What was your first summer job?

• If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you like to go?

• What is your favorite TV show?

REMINDER: All of your classmates will see your answers! 

1. Michelangelo’s “Creazione di Adam”  (Sistine Chapel Ceiling): To me, this masterpiece symbolizes the emotional power of individuals and beautifully highlights the relationship between humans and their beliefs.

2. Mostar Bridge (Stari Most), Bosnia and Herzegovina: Designed by Mimar Sinan, this bridge symbolizes to me the endurance of cultural connections and reconciliation. Even after conflicts attempt to sever bonds, the human need for connection remains strong.

3. Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks: This painting captures the essence of human solitude, anxiety, and uncertainty. Its depiction of quiet, introspective moments resonates deeply with me.

• What sort of things have made you envious recently?

I find myself envious of people who can maintain a consistent workout routine without interruptions from life’s demands.

• What was your first summer job?

I worked as a waiter in a restaurant in Marmaris, Türkiye.

• If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you like to go?

I would love to snorkel at Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. I have been fascinated by it for many years. I love the sea and the ocean, although I am not generally a fan of nature overall.

• What is your favorite TV show?

There are too many to count, but the first that comes to mind is Mindhunter on Netflix. I highly recommend it to everyone.

Name three works of art: The Firm by John Grisham I don’t know why but I fell in love with the author when I read this book. Two songs that mean a lot to me are “Sitting at a bar” by rehab and “Wonderwall” by Oasis (showing my age). The songs bring up strong memories for me people I lost to addiction who died way too early.

What sorts of things have made you envious recently: I have recently gotten an itch to volunteer. I get to go through The River when my clients need food. I am envious that the volunteers there have the time to donate and give back.

What was your first summer job: I’m too old to remember my first summer job.

If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be: American Samoa it’s a 96 square mile island in the south pacific. As a child I lived there and I remember the water being so clear you could see for miles, The coral is pretty colours, and the speed limit was 25 miles an hour throughout the villages. Everything you can’t do in America like talk to strangers is off the table in Samoa. The jail is right next door to the airport but the only way off the island is in a twin engine 18 seat plane--not 100% the kind of plane just remember it being really small!

What is your favourite TV show: I don’t really have a favourite but I am doing the re-run thing.  Right now the re-run thing is ‘House’.

Unfortunately, people with money that can do what they want, go on the vacations they want, and not have to worry about cost, is the most recent thing I have been envious about.

My first summer job was as a waitress in a cafe.

If I could go anywhere in the world, it would be somewhere like Jamaica, or the Bahamas so I can sit on the beach with white sand and look at clear water.

My Favorite Tv show: I have two of them. "Mom" and "Blindspot".

Music: Mexican music has a very heavy influence on me and all I grew up listening to a song my family has always played for me is Hermoso Cariño by Vicente Fernandez. Every birthday they play me this song, the meaning behind is basically calling someone a divine gift and conveying love and with the Mariachi it gives this feeling of deep love and joy.

Painting: During a festival I assisted last year there was a small art gallery for local Latino artists. A painting I viewed, and I still have the picture of was by Brandom Terres-Sanchez of a slightly crumpled paper on a wooden table. On the paper it had a note written to someone from their mother saying, "I remember when there were not enough chairs to sit down and eat at the table, but through time the chairs remain empty, and only memories remain." It was written in spanish and I just imagined my grandma as a young mother with her 6 kids now sitting with my aunt and 2 cousins. And remembering how happy she is when we visit, and her table is full again.

Photography: The image of the Migrant Mother, 1936. It is so impactful because of her expression, the children in the image and the historical meaning of it. It was one of the images that impulsed me into photography and why I focus on the Latino community and depicting what my state in Mexico looks like not just what the news outlets depict. (My picture was actually taken in Mexico at my great grandpa's house)

• What sort of things have made you envious recently?

  I was recently envious of people who are able to travel often it is something I would like to do but due to either money or work I am not able to.

• What was your first summer job?

I worked in a food processing company in the warehouse; I was later on moved into HR.

• If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you like to go?

I would love to go to Japan, I enjoy learning about their culture, and I am also very interested in seeing the Cherry Blossoms.

• What is your favorite TV show?

The Rookie, it is my comfort show I enjoy true crime and picked up on some real-life cases in the recent seasons.

Nina Migliari

• Name three (3) works of art that mean a lot to you.  They could be any art (music, literature, architecture, paintings, plays, etc)

(1) Cecília Meireles' poems. Too hard to pick one, as her work in literature overall has shaped my life for too long now. She is a Brazilian Modernist poet, essayist, journalist, and educator, whom I have admired and studied carefully. She talks of the ephemerality of life.

(2) "Ismália," a poem by Alphonsus Guimaraens, a Brazilian Symbolist poet born in Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais state—my favorite city in Brazil. This poem can be interpreted as a symbol of impossible desire—the yearning for transcendence that leads to destruction.

(3) "Gold," photography by Sebastião Salgado. The photograph transcends mere documentation; it captures the very essence of toil, exploitation, and fragile hope in a shifting world—at once strikingly beautiful, deeply unsettling, and profoundly human.

https://magazine.scienceforthepeople.org/vol25-2-bleeding-earth/sebastiao-salgado-portraits-of-pain-and-dignity/

• What sort of things have made you envious recently?

People who are able to shift gears between various tasks without burning out, or who have a stable life.

• What was your first summer job?

A summer job is a concept that isn't part of my culture (I was born and raised in Brazil). However, my first job after finishing high school, which was more common for me, was as a salesperson at a sports clothing store called Track & Field, located in a shopping mall near my parents' home, where I lived at the time.

• If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you like to go?

I have way too many places on my bucket list. However, one that has followed me for nearly 20 years now, is doing the Trans-Siberian railway travel across Russia, Mongolia, and China.

• What is your favorite TV show?

A few come to mind: Fargo, Handmaid's Tale, Homeland, and Sharp Objects.

My name is Ada Hajdini, 3 works of art that I enjoy 1) The Bathers by Cèzane, 2) One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez 3) The Virgin Suicides by Sofia Coppola. I am envious of people that can travel the world with no obligations or worry of income. My first summer job was working at my family's restaurant when I was 10. If I could go anywhere in the world I would like to be in Italy right now. I don't have a lot of time for TV shows but one of my favorite comfort shows is The Golden Girls, my parents used to watch it a lot when I was growing up and I have fond memories of being allowed to stay up with them to watch it during the summertime :)

I'm looking forward to this glass and getting to know you all better!