Halloween

Once a year, Americans gather around to celebrate a special day to us on October 31, also known as Halloween. People dress up in all sorts of costumes and go from house to house in search of delicious candy. Halloween is not only known for a celebration but it is also known for its scary side. A day for myths, ghosts, story telling and many more fun activities. People get so distracted with the fun and all the activities that come along with Halloween, such as decorations and candy, no one takes the time to realize what they are spending on the stuff. With all the different types of stuff to buy, from skittles to popcorn or from blowup materials to lights, the National Retail Federation is predicting that Halloween spending will hit $6.9 billion this year! Although the spending may not compare to Christmas, it is still a drastic amount when spending that much on just candy and decorations. People may soon start to consider the time, effort, and cost, that Halloween can be.

Nation of Immigrants

There are many perspectives that can be looked at when the United States is known as the "nation of immigrants". One perspective is optimistically. Some people take advantage and interact with the many cultures that come into the United States. For example, most schools are teaching some sort of foreign language to the students so that they will have some sort of knowledge of the future immigrants into the United States, such as, Spanish, French, Latin, and many more. The other perspective is pessimistically. Some people could be furious and on the verge of outbreak with the immigration that is going on. People can be so prejudice with peoples race that leads to many problems. I do think that this has changed life in America dramatically because no too long ago blacks were not even allowed to interact with whites and now immigrants from all over are entering the United States.
I am not very aware of my ancestors like the people were in the video we watched in class: "Faces of America".  I have never had the opportunity to go back and look back of my family lineage. That is something that i would like to have more intrest in and maybe invest in something like it one day. 

Faces of America

Many people question the family heritage and wonder where they were originated from, but very little actually get the opportunity to explore it. In the video "Faces of America" many people such as Yo-Yo Ma, Kristi Yamaguchi, Eva Longoria, Mario Batali, and many others get this wonderful opportunity. The excitement of this video is the curiosity and surprises that fill the mind with such information about their families past. As Yo-Yo Ma said in his interview; he has no idea what to expect but is full of curiosity but has always wondered where the "Ma" came from. Also Mario Batali is a great example for a person that has royalty in his blood lines and not even knowing it.
From watching this, one might be so inspired to go out and search their own family heritage.  People can learn so much about their families past and where they came from; whether it is from poor or rich. It is great to see how the people react to something as small but so big in their life as a family tree. People will start to appreciate the small things in life after seeing this video or learning about heir heritage.