Into Thin Air #3

In the book Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer talks a lot about altitude sickness. Altitude sickness occurs when someone can't get enough oxygen at higher altitudes. Common symptoms are headache, loss of appetite and trouble sleeping. Here in Park City I live at an elevation of 6,900 feet and I've never actually experienced altitude sickness but I've witnessed many other people with this sickness. I know I'm sometimes the one to point and laugh at the tourists that have altitude sickness often caused because they didn't drink enough water; but I hadn't realized how painful altitude sickness is until reading Into Thin Air. 

Jon dealt with a bad case of altitude sickness at the elevation of 17, 600 feet, which was at base camp and a camp one 19, 500 feet, his altitude sickness only got worse. He described it as a horrible pain that came with consistent vomiting and dizziness which isn't the best state to be in while trying to climb. The summit of Everest is at the elevation of 29, 035 feet, the oxygen availability at the top is a third of what it is at sea level. And to give you an idea of how high up that is, commercial airplanes fly at an elevation of 39, 000 feet.

Jon Krakauer said, "The full force of the headache struck a few minutes later, as I was chatting with Helen and Chhongba in the mess tent. I'd never experienced anything like it: crushing pain between my temples-pain so severe that it was accompanied by shuddering waves of nausea and made it impossible for me to speak in coherent sentences....The headache had the blinding intensity of a migraine." It turns out this wasn't from the altitude but the effect of being so close to the sun and the intensity of the ultra violet rays.

Doesn't it appear that the mountains on fire?

The one thing that doesn't make sense to me is that Mt. Everest is freezing cold, at the top of Everest it's typically -76 degrees F, but the sun's intensity plays a major role of when climbers can climb. On their first day climbing to Camp One they had to turn around at 10 am no matter where they were because the sun would make climbing on ice unstable. Is the sun melting the ice? But how is that possible if its way below freezing?

I also didn't know until reading this book that it takes months to climb Mt. Everest. This is the case because half of the battle is adjusting to the high altitude. Climbers will climb the same thing multiple days and climb back down to help adjust their body to the high elevation. I just didn't realize how difficult it is to adjust to such a dramatic elevation change but now I understand the consequences of doing so.

Into Thin Air #2

Into Thin Air has been some what difficult to follow the story. The author jumps around a lot in his story telling, from telling the story of where he is right then (like at base camp) to when he's at the summit and can see the storm rolling in to more back round information than anyone could ever want to know about the sherpas and other people climbing. All the information gets very confusing and jumbled up in my head which usually results in having to read the same page (or even paragraph) multiple times.

Although, some of the back round information told is super duper interesting. There was one particular story about when Scott Fischer was climbing a frozen cascade called Bridal Veil Falls in Utah's Provo Canyon where he was racing two expert climbers. Fischer lost his grip at 100 feet up and plummeted to the ground. To the amazement of everyone who witnessed the scene, he got up and walked away with only minor injuries. This same sort of thing actually happened to Scott multiple times, falling from higher than 80 ft up and leaving with very few injuries. This may wound weird, but I feel some sort of "special connection" to Scott Fischer. 1. We share the last name (although it is spelt differently) 2. Bridal Veil Falls is in Utah (where I live), I've seen this water fall many times and if I remember correctly, my dad may have actually ice climbed there once. 

This is Bridal Veil Falls

Over the weekend I was babysitting and after I put the kids to bed I began to read my book (I was no where near half way) and when the parents came home it turned out the dad read Into Thin Air too. We then began to discuss the book and he said it's one of his favorite books and he read it in just two days! (I think I'm going on week 4 of reading this book and I'm just barely half way.) He also said it was one of the most intriguing adventure novels he's ever read, which led me to think, there must be an abundance of adventure to come; because so far there's been altitude sickness, stories of other climbers and basic plot, nothing to exciting... yet.  

There's Such A Thing As The Mt. Everest Disaster?

I'm reading the book, Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer; it's a personal account of the Mt. Everest Disaster in 1996. Before starting to read this book, I had no clue what so ever that there was such a thing as the Mt. Everest Disaster, let alone knowing the basic idea of what happened. So I'm assuming that right now, you're in the same boat I used to be in. Basically in 1996, there were eight people that died in one “trip” during a blizzard and fifteen over the course of the year, the most ever.

Mt. Everest

So far throughout the story, Jon Krakauer will give little bits of information of what happened during the blizzard but then he goes back to telling the story of how he arrived at Mt. Everest. It drives me crazy because I know eight people died and Jon Krakauer happens to be one of the few to survive but I NEED to know the whole story! How did those people die? What exactly happened? Did any of them risk their lives in order to save Jon or any of the other survivors?

Recently Jon Krakauer was talking about how he felt left out, he didn't fit in with the rest of the climbers in his group. They all had plenty of extra money to spare and he was barely making it by. He felt like these people were nothing like him and they had nothing in common besides the fact they were climbing Mt. Everest together. I think he’s going to end up really enjoying spending time with these other people and it’ll be really emotional when some of them die, (because I know they don’t all survive.) I feel like I can relate (in a way) to the situation he’s in, I've gone to a summer camp every year for seven years and the personalities of the people I’m living with for a week differ dramatically. I remember when I was younger I completely changed the way I typically acted in order to feel like I belonged with these other girls. I realize now that was silly, I should be whoever I want to be and not care if those other girls think I'm crazy for dressing in ridiculous outfits for Wacky Wednesday. But yet, sometimes I still find myself in that situation, changing little things about the way I act in order to fit in, so I won't feel so left out. Jon, in Into Thin Air, didn't do this, he stuck to who he was, at least so far. 

Jon Krakauer climbing Everest

When I was younger (like fifth grade), I always dreamed of climbing to the top of Mt. Everest. I thought it would be the coolest thing in the whole entire world, I mean you're basically on top of the world. To me, it was climbing Mt. Everest or going to the moon and we both know going to the moon isn't very likely. I remember reading an article about people that had climbed the Seven Summits (the tallest mountain on each continent), not many people can say they have done that and I wanted to be one of them. I eventually began to learn that it's a tremendous difficulty to climb Mt. Everest and I didn't really think about it that much. Once I started reading Into Thin Air, that childhood dream started coming back, but now there are so many more factors that play a role in the difficulty of climbing Everest. I now know about the political debates and the commercializing of Mt. Everest, how much it costs to climb Mt. Everest (Lots of $$$$$$) and even so that doesn’t guarantee you a spot at the summit. Maybe one day I’ll take the adventure of climbing to the top of the world. 

This guy for the win on coolest selfie EVER!

* You know what I realized it's Mt. Everest and it has the word EVER in it cause the mountain goes on forEVER! *Mind blown*

How I Came To Park City, JK I've Lived Here My Whole Life

Artifact Five: The Affect Immigration Has On Families

Immigration. It tears families apart. One of the main causes of immigration is in hope to reunite with family members. Sometimes it’s successful but when it’s not it’s even more devastating to families. Outside of the Capitol, the immigration reform isn’t political, it’s personal. No matter what the decision is, it will effect millions of immigrant families.

In an article about how the immigration reform will affect three families, it’s obvious that immigration takes a great toll on families. Everyone in Renata Teodoro family has given up on the United States, but she still has hope. Renata along with the rest of her family was brought to the United States when she was six years old. Twelve years later her mother and brother were deported back to Brazil and they are beginning to loose hope of coming back to the United States. Immigration was what forced her mother and brother to leave her and not be aloud to return for ten years.  Thirteen years would pass before the Teodoro family could share an American home again.  She’s currently at the University of Massachusetts with a major in law and hoping to be able to influence public policy about immigration. The decision about the immigration crisis may be the price of the American dream accruing to Renata.  Renata’s not loosing hope, she believes that one day her family will be together again in the United States.

The immigration reform can cause millions
of families to be separated

In The Distance Between Us, when Reyna’s parents left them in Mexico caused Reyna to long for a happy family even more. In Mexico on mother’s day she gave her aunt her mothers day present instead of her actual mother, because she wasn’t there to accept the gift. Another time in the United States she called her father’s girlfriend mom when once again her mother wasn’t there for her. Immigration was what cause Reyna’s mother to not be there for her. Immigration was what caused the Grande family to slowly be broken apart. It all started when their father left, when shortly after there mother left too and when their mother returned, she wasn’t the same one that left. She was distant, nothing like they remembered her. When suddenly she ran off again the the U.S. with a new boyfriend. When her father finally came back for them, The Man Behind The Glass wasn’t who Reyna thought he would be. He was simply apart of her imagination but only because he left her when she was only two years old. Even later when all of her family was in the United States, they were never the same family that they were in Mexico. The happy complete Grande family would only ever exist in Mexico. The broken sad distraught Grande family would forever exist in The United States. 

Imagine both your parents leaving you before you’re old enough to maintain a memory of them. You only know what they look like from pictures, you only know their personality from stories but you’d never know what they’d smell like or the sound of their voice in your ears. I would go crazy without knowing all that stuff on a personal level. I would become one of the 63,000 kids at the border searching for their parents, wanting answers to questions only they’d know. I know I’d blame immigration for the reason of not having my parents with me, if they never migrated in the first place, they would’ve still been with me. What would you blame? What would you do in this situation? 

Artifact Four: Siblings Raising Siblings

In The Distance Between Us, Reyna’s father left her for the United States when she was two years old and her mother left her when she was four years old. Once both her parents left her she lived with her Abuelita Evilita, her fathers mother, for a few years along with her aunt and cousin. Later on she lived with her Abuelita Chinta, her mothers mother. She was raised by her grandmothers, aunt and older siblings until she was ten years old.

Today in America there are about 2 million children currently living in kinship care, care for by relatives other than their mother and father. The number has been rising over the past twenty years and there are approximately 140,000 cases of siblings raising siblings. This is all according to a recent study by the Urban Institute titled “Children Cared for by Relatives: Who Are They and How Are They Faring?”

Reyna was also raised by her sister Mago. She looked up to Mago like she was her own mother. She looked to her for protection, comfort when she missed her parents, or anything else she may need. When their mother left them, she told Mago to be Reyna and Carlos’s little mother, which she became. When her mother returned Reyna was hesitant to hug her mother, she waited to see what Mago would do. The next time their mother came back, Betty was hesitant too, she acted as if Mago was her mother not her older sister. In an article by Time Magazine, there were many stories have siblings raising siblings. There were two sisters, Janice and Lisa, who were raised by each other not by a mother and father, the same situation with Reyna, Betty and Mago. Although Lisa and Janice are both now adults they have more of a mother/daughter relationship than a sister/sister relationship. Lisa said, “Because we’re so far apart in age, we don’t have the kind of sister relationship most people have. She’ll probably always be a caretaker figure.”

In the article, it also talked about how much the older siblings have to sacrifice to take care of their younger siblings. It could be from not going to college so they could have a job and receive an income; having to give up their dream job, internship, boyfriend/girlfriend; and so much more all in order to care for a sibling, which was never their job to begin with.

It’s already very difficult to raise your own sibling but it’d be a thousand times more difficult to do this in a whole new country. That’s the situation Mago was in with Carlos and Reyna. Although they had their father, he wasn’t much of a fatherly figure. Reyna and Carlos still looked to Mago has their mother and role model. It was hard enough for Reyna to try and learn the new customs of The United States and I can only imagine it was even harder for Mago because she had to learn these things her self and help Carlos and Reyna adapt too. 

The 63,000 minors crossing the border don't have parents with them but they aren't alone. They have their brothers, sisters and friends to rely on. Those kids look to each other to help and support them while they hope and dream about finding their parents in the United States. It's the sibling bond that allows them to keep believing in themselves so one day they'll become legal citizens of the United States. 

I’m not even able to imagine the difficulty of having to raise my younger brother. Whenever I have to watch him for just one night and it’s time from him to go to bed he’d constantly say, “You’re not the boss of me! Don’t tell me what to do! I’m gonna call mom and ask her!” But he doesn’t say it nicely, he screams it at the top of his lungs, which makes me frustrated and I almost immediately give up on trying to get him to go to bed. So anyone that has successfully raised their own sibling, I have so much respect for them.

Artifact Three: Trying To Fit In To A Different Culture

In The Distance Between Us, there were many occasions when Reyna, Carlos or Mago felt like they didn’t belong in the United States. From this, we know that when people move to the United States they’d feel out of place, just like the Grande’s did. But have you ever thought about someone moving to Mexico and feeling out of place? That’s when the story about Naomi, her husband Joshua and there three kids comes into play. They began their family in Spain and lived there for eight years. Joshua then got his job transferred to Mexico City and Naomi didn’t want to go, she admitted she was nervous because Mexico’s culture is so different than Spain’s. But what Mexico was actually like came as a real surprise to her. 

On Reyna’s first day of school in the United States, her teacher taught her that here in the United States, we only use one last name, not two. She felt as if she was betraying her mother that she already lost, but that wasn’t the case. Reyna was just adopting to a new culture and allowing it to effect her life. Like Reyna, Naomi and her family had to adopt to Mexico’s customs. She immediately noticed how different they greet each other. In Mexico the children will always give adults a peck on the cheek has a greeting or salutation even when her children were having playdates. From my personal experience here in the U.S., there’s about a 50% chance that kids will even say hi to the parents and there’s definitely not a kiss on the cheek involved.

Humans being humans just can’t ignore it when we see people that are different than us. My friends have told me when they’ve traveled to Asia, people will be in awe of their blonde hair and be asked for a picture wherever they went. When Naomi’s family first arrived to Mexico, she always noticed people passing by would be squealing. She thought it had something to do with all three of her children having red hair and a friend confirmed she was right! She said people would pinch each other because when Mexicans see a redhead, the first one to pinch a friend gets a wish. This wasn’t a negative reaction to someone being different like Reyna experienced. Kids would call her mean names like “wetback” and when she lived in Mexico her neighbors would snicker at her calling her an orphan. She was also constantly made fun of her name, Reyna Grande, meaning Big Queen; and they laughed saying that she’s no queen. We all know that saying that we were told about a million times in elementary school, “Treat people the way you would like to be treated,” and that’s nothing but the truth.  

One of Naomi's children at school

Naomi would meet parents at her kids’ school and they’d all come together for dinner. She said, “…they stepped right into our lives and invited us into theirs…” Naomi shared that this never happened in Spain which is like a private culture, that you’d have to know someone forever before you would ‘impose’ like that. She loved how in Mexico it’s all about getting together with friends for dinner in the rooftop and laughing and talking all night long. This is a big contrast to Reyna’s experience in the United States. The other kids at her table weren’t nice to her and she never made friends all through elementary school, and she was definitely never invited over to a friends house for dinner. Her father wouldn’t even let her go play after school with other kids in her neighborhood. 

This picture proves that even though they may be different, it
doesn't mean they can't be friends

When Reyna came to the United States, she spoke no English which meant she’d have to learn a whole new language in addition to fitting into a new culture. She had a difficult time with English at first but then her determination kicked in and she became fluent in English! Naomi and her kids didn’t have to learn a whole new language but Naomi noticed how differently people in Mexico would speak compared to those in Spain. In Spain people would say, “Give me a coffee” and in Mexico people would say, “Good morning. How are you doing? Can you please gift me a coffee, if you can?” I know from personal experience that English says some weird things. For example, it seems like now whenever someone tells a story now it’s, “He was like…then I was like…” Since when did we replace the world said with like? Things like this were especially confusing to Reyna. She remember her teacher telling her that in English adjectives come before the noun but when the sentence, “The girl had a pretty difficult time.” She was beyond confused on why it wasn’t the pretty girl. This shows how confusing English can be, especially when we start replacing the word said with like. 

Naomi's children learning and beginning to appreciate
a new culture

Naomi shared that even though everyone was so welcoming, no matter where she went she felt out of place. She said there were such wealth extremes in Mexico: the extremely rich and the extremely poor and she never seemed to fit in. She said it was one of her biggest struggles living in Mexico City. “This constant juxtaposition of excess and need keeps my heart and mind racing, pushing me to evaluate what I own and why I own it; pushing me to ask myself if I find my identity in my belongings or social status; forcing me to dig deeper into what genuine need is, and what we as a family can do to care for people in need.”

Naomi's family is an example of how people don't just migrate from Mexico to the United States, but people do move from other places in the world to Mexico. Eventually the Grande’s learned the customs of the United States the same way Naomi’s family learned Mexico’s customs. Although they both felt extremely out of place at first, they learned how to fit in and appreciate the new life they were given.