Foxdale Village Meeting

When I first met my partner Anna I realized how much the live now is different from the past. Cities have changed in many aspects such as streets, transportation, and so on. Even the social system of life has changed. "People, once upon a time, were more social than they are now" she said.

My partner is originally from the United Kingdom. She immigrated to the United States in the 1950s after she got married with a man from Pennsylvania. She experienced the whole aspects of life in Pennsylvania and she knows everything about this area because she studied and worked here. As a part of our discussion we talked about many problems in the past. We talk about work and how much was difficult to find a job in the past. Also we talked about weather. As she said the weather in the past especially in Pennsylvania was much colder than now. However, I was curious to know the differences between the clothes when she was young and what has changed so far?

When I asked Anna about this she said "things in the past were cheaper or tended to be cheaper than now." She said" people could afford to buy things because there were more job opportunities. Therefore, I tried to investigate that and looked to some articles in newspaper especially the Daily Collegian during the 1950s period. According to this newspaper which was issued in May 20, 1947, page 3, the price of clothes for suits was between $31.50 and $40.50 as a maximum, but for sweaters was between $2.60 and $7.95 as a maximum and for pajamas was between $2.95 and $4.75 as a maximum price (the Daily Collegian, 1947). When I saw this price I thought it was much cheaper. In fact, the number is lower than now, but the price is similar if we compare the real price between now and the past. According to the U.S. Inflation Calculator the suit that cost me $31.50 in 1947 would cost me $333.78 now which is close to the actual price. Also for sweaters its price in 1947 was $2.60 as a minimum price equal to $27.55 which is also close to the current price. So, there is a slight different in the real price for those items even though there is a large difference in the number. Another thing I want to mention it is that the clothes in the past were longer, bigger and more formal. Unlike clothes in the past, cloths nowadays are made from less expensive materials that’s why the price is lower if we compare it with nowadays clothes. That’s what I observed when I took a look at La Vei 1956 you will see students on the campus walking while wearing suits and they dressed up. So there were not a big differences between both period regarding the price of clothes except the number and the kind of materials.

The Pennsylvania State University. (1956 ). La Vie 1956. Retrieved from

       http://alias.libraries.psu.edu/lavie/1956

The Pennsylvania State University. ( 1947,may 20). The daily collegian. Retrieved

      From

http://digitalnewspapers.libraries.psu.edu/Default/Skins/collegian/Client.asp?skin=collegian&AW=1396105791898&AppName=2 

The U.S inflation calculator.com.

Last reading summary

   What I read last class was about Courts of appeals and the U.S. Supreme court. The courts of appeals hear the appeals from both people and agencies, but they have no original jurisdiction. Unlike courts of appeals, the supreme court has some original and appellate jurisdiction. Original jurisdiction such as hearing cases between the United States and a states and cases between a state and citizen from another country. also Supreme court may hear appeals from all lower federal courts. 

Saman Ali
R4B 4-15-2014    

Foxdale trip

       Generally, the trip was within my expectations. Before we went to the trip I was thinking about how much they would be interested to talk with us. I was so happy when I saw them eager to talk with us; furthermore, they were so friendly and nice. When I met my partner, the only challenge for me was the questions. I was very careful in my questions, especially, when it came to the personal questions. Finally, I suggest students from IECP to go to the trip like this without hesitation. You will have fun and talk to friendly, nice, and unique people. 

Saman Ali

To summarize what I read today ...

   Three levels in the U.S.A federal courts system trial courts, appellate tribunals, and the U.S.A supreme court. The first level of courts, trial courts, is the first one to hear the federal criminal and civil cases.   

My Most Striking Quote

      As I was reading chapter two, I found these sentences as a most striking quote which starts " The first well-known legal scholar to speak out in favor of court unification was Roscoe Pound, Dean of the Harvard Law School. Pound and others called for the consolidation of trial courts into a single set of courts or two sets of courts, one to hear major cases and one to hear minor cases.", p48, and what was interesting about it is that Roscoe Pound made a hard decision in a critical time when no one could do so. He started, with his colleagues, to set a new form of the courts system by leading the court unification movement.     

The section that inspired me

   Through chapter one I have read many interesting things, but the most prominent one, which impressed me endlessly, was John Marshal. This person was the second person to be elected as a chief justice at US supreme court. He had done many wonderful actions that no one did before. He reject many interventions from many departments to preserve this court. Also, he strengthen the supreme court role and tried to give it a good front. 

I started reading Chapter One which talks about the Federal Judicial System. What impressed me in this few pages is the solutions that delegates, the people who convent the Constitution, could reach. The problem was that the Article of Confederation vested the whole legislation authority to the Congress. Therefor, the representatives or delegates gathered in 1787 at the Constitutional Convention to solve many problems that the Article of Confederation made. Consequently, they ended up with a compromise solution and they were agreed that the judicial authority should be establish .    

This my outline for today 2-17-2014.
  This is the final part of the introduction which takes long time. However, this part is useful and meaningful. The most interesting part is the fifth amendment of the constitution which says"no person shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself." This clause even though is small but it has a big impact on the entire legal system and it protect people's rights.

The Second Reading

          I'm still in the introduction of this book which is not short. At this  part of the book I studied new terms such as Bill, Status Law and Code. A Bill  is a proposal from the congress. A bill to become a law tow-thirds members of the congress should vote to adopt it.Also, the author in this part briefly talks about the role of the Judicial and Legislative system.   

Reaction concerning what I've read.

      

      The beginning of the book was great. At the very first two pages, the author starts talking about the purpose of this book. Then the author gives us general introduction about the US legal system. After that, precisely on page7, he explains the gap that the Declaration of the Union had left which was the reason of looking for some changes to strengthen the US. These few pages inspired me to read more from this book.       

Book Choice. Outline of the United States Legal System.

     

      The book'Outline of the United States Legal System' is one of the publications that Department of State has released. I've chosen this book for two reasons. First, it is one of my classes which I'll  take at the beginning of my academic study. Second, to improve my vocabulary, specially, legal terms. 

	Class #1	Class #2	Class #3
Class name and # (for ex.: Ag 113)	INTER 971	INTER 961	CCLAW 984
Days and time it meets  (MTWRF,  2:30-3:20)	W F 2:30 PM - 3:45 PM	W F 11:15 AM - 12:30 PM	T R 4:15 PM - 5:30 PM
Classroom	112 Katz Bldg - UP	241 Katz Bldg - UP	012 Katz Bldg - UP
Professor’s name	Farmer, Susan	Wadhia, Shoba Sivaprasad	Metzger, Julia Marie
Professor’s email	sbf2@psu.edu	ssw11@psu.edu	jmm85@psu.edu
Reason you’re interested in observing it	It's related to my major.	It's related to my major.	It's related to my major.

Hi everyone

My name is Saman. Nice to see you all in R4B. I am glad to see such a diverse environment in our class. Student from different countries make me enthusiastic in the class.

I was born in the one of the oldest cities in the world which is Nineveh - North Iraq. I had  studied and lived in different provinces and schools in my home country before I came to the USA last year. I'm going to study master in law-Dickenson School of Law- for fall semester that's why I came to the USA. Soccer is one of my favorite games in addition to Badminton and Volleyball. After I came to the United States I started learn some activities and games such as American football, skating, baseball. I like making friends no matter where are they from or what are they believe.

Watching new news everyday, Novels, law books, are my favorite books to read in my free time even though I don't like reading a lot. Finally, I like State College especially people who are so friendly and nice which  left a big influence on me.