"New York City."

She remains friendly but apparently less impressed than most of our classmates, who usually promise their first born in return for taking them back to the Big Apple. "So you're a transferee?"

I nod, glad that I've found someone who'll treat me like a real person, instead of some celebrity.

"From what school?"

"Brooklyn College."

Her eyes grow wide with enthusiasm so that I think they'll bulge right out of their sockets and pop her glasses off her head. "They say that Brooklyn is the next Manhattan!" she squeals. "Is that true?"

"Sure it is," I say, suddenly uneasily. "I'm just surprised that you know it, all the way in the Philippines."

"Well, of course," she huffs as she adjusts her glasses in a dignified manner. "I watch Sex and the City."

Maria Elizabeth Rubio

There's no way of getting around it. At the teacher's discretion, classes will start with a prayer. (Most of the time, it's "The Lord's Prayer.") There is a statue of the Virgin Mary holding Jesus in the main corridor of the school. We are mandated to take several classes in values, where we explore the evils of abortion, amongst other things.

And yet, I can't help but feel like this closeness between academia and religion is somehow romantic, like the wild yet pure moors of Wuthering Heights or the emo underpinnings of gothic  rock. In this country, there's something out of place yet essential about the appearance of religion in the classroom.  Maybe, like ill-fated lovers, romance makes nonsensical things suddenly make sense. Or maybe, like the quakes of pleasure caused by sordid affairs, romance is just a convenient reason for doing something that's wrong.

They say that love is the answer, and even if that's true, romance can only ever be an excuse. I don't agree with mixing religion and academics, and I can't understand it, but I can't deny that it moves me. And in this place where I don't plan to stay permanently, I'll take that excuse, if only to experience something new, exciting, and temporary.

Maria Elizabeth Rubio

For the month of October, I was involved in a musical theatre writing lab in New York City (produced by Michael Roderick of Small Pond Entertainment), where book writers, composers, and lyricists were asked to randomly pick two names out of a hat to collaborate on the writing of two ten-minute musicals. Within three weeks, we were to present our work in an industry showcase reading at Chelsea Studios. In our meetings that led up to this, we were enlightened by panels of seasoned Off-Broadway composers and book writers that gave us tips and advice about the business and our collaborative process.

From the moment we started, I was frantically swept into a whirlwind writing frenzy of this "Project Runway-esk" musical theatre challenge, coming up with lines, story, and lyrics ideas, usually spinning in my mind at around 3 a.m. I was fortunate enough to be paired with two very talented composer-singer-songwriters, Allison Tartalia and Anne Mironchik. My first piece with Allison was the beginning of a rock and pop musical with dark and sexy overtones. The second piece with Anne was a swinging cocktail of authentic jazz and modern art.

When it came time to showcase all the musicals, Heidi Klum would have had a hard time proclaiming who was in and who was out. From the clever and catchy stories of Seth Bisen-Hersh and Michael DiGaetano, to Melanie Weinstein's hilarious one-woman show, to Michael Roderick and Mark Weiser's poignant educational theatre piece, no one would have had to pack up their knives or clean up their work stations. Tim Gunn and Tom Colicchio would have been proud. Stay tuned and look out for the names of these talented musical theatre artists—coming soon to an Off-Off, Off, or Broadway theatre near you.

Marisol Tirelli Rivera

Q. What do you get when you combine 10 sets of twins, random New Yorkers, and the 6 train?

A. One of those fun sociology experiments that shows how New Yorkers have a completely unique response system.

Check out this experiement by the group ImprovEverywhere.

Jacquelin Cangro

Afghan President Hamid Karzai was accused of fraud in elections, but now the U.S. and allies have accepted him as a legitimate elected leader of Afghanistan. The runoff, in an effort to correct massive fraud and voter intimidation, was canceled after Karzai's challenger backed out. So now Karzai wins the elections in spite of committing fraud.

It is clear that America and its allies are more concerned about winning a war than doing the right thing. Don't be surprised if this war drags on for another ten years because you cannot expect to win a war by accepting a fraud.

Bhumika Ghimire

He would carry the title of "great-uncle," and no matter how wonderful of a relative he truly is to my son, that "great" would never be a superlative. It would stand as a reminder of the distance between he and my son. It would be a permanent label, saying that he is not a part of my son's nuclear family. (No sir, not even close.) It would state the widely-held assumption that his relation to my son — what he knows about him, how well they interact, how much time they spend together — is negligible at best. 

Outside of the nuclear family, the standard titles of relatives in a common Filipino household are limited to five: cousin, uncle, aunt, grandfather, and grandmother. No one is removed from each other.We are all easily accessible, just as close an acquaintance in loyalty and reliability as your most trusted and valuable friend. It is not uncommon for cousins to be as close as siblings, for second cousins to be as close as siblings, for generations to be linked by the kind of psychic empathy and understanding that most Americans are used to getting only from their immediate circle of close-knit friends. 

Maybe that's why the children of my first and second cousins take an immediate interest and liking to me: because, as far as they're concerned, I'm their aunt, plain and simple. Maybe that's why I can walk into any establishment in town and mention that I'm so-and-so's (insert one of the familial titles here) and I'm treated like family. Maybe that's why I instantly feel comfortable with my family in the Philippines, regardless of the fact that we haven't communicated regularly and thousands of miles have separated us for over a decade.

Or maybe it's just some deceit of linguistics and mind tricks.

The fact remains: here, in the Philippines, even extended family is close, and that comes in handy. 

*subdivision = Filipino-speak for gated community

Maria Elizabeth Rubio

The smell is unmistakable, and yet I must be mistaken. Here in the Philippines, drug use is a serious offense, and punishments are severe. Until recently, carrying a sizable quantity of the green stuff guaranteed the death penalty.

I stand in the upstairs living room, look into the vacant lot next door, and watch as plumes of smoke carry the familiar smell of marijuana over the neighborhood. The smell drifts high and sinks low, contaminating everything it touches with the heady aroma I am so familiar with. 

I ask my brother what it is they're burning, and he laughs. "They tell me they're just burning leaves, shrubs, whatever is growing in the empty lot, but I don't buy it."

"Late at night, I see neighbors sneaking in and carrying something away."

 I wonder what will happen when someone finally buys the lot next door.

Maria Elizabeth Rubio

In the lawsuit, Jess Zimmerman is accused of posting "defamatory and libelous" statements against the school in his blog.

Stu Kriesman at Huffington Post describes the situation as "Guantanamo Bay: College Division" and says that, despite announcing that they will drop the lawsuit, the school  is still pursuing the case:

"Once word of this abuse of the legal system spread outside the tight-knit world of academics and into the main stream media, plus seeing the outrage of its own students, Butler backed off and announced that they would drop the questionable lawsuit against Jess Zimmerman.

Wrong! They were kidding! The lawsuit is still on and just in case, the Butler administrators are also going to hold their own "Kangaroo Court" to make sure Zimmerman gets what's coming to him. If they can't kick his keister legally, they'll take the law into their own hands and dish out their own punishment. All this because the administration can't take criticism on the Internet."

In Zimmerman's blog, you can read reaction from some local leaders and members of academia who are outraged at the way the university is trampling on the free speech rights of this student. I am posting one here:

"Too many colleges and universities are using their resources to bully and intimidate their faculties and students. This case appears to be an egregious example that is a disgrace to Butler University and the whole of the Academy."

-Bruce A Voyles, Ph.D., Grinnell College

Please spread the word and, if you can, contact Butler and let them know what you think of their actions against this student.

Bhumika Ghimire

In the past few years, breast cancer awareness has exploded into our social peripheries and now ranks in the pantheon of social causes with the likes of global warming and the War on Terror. Originally championed in the 1970s by First Lady Betty Ford, who underwent a mastectomy, breast cancer today extends even into the reaches of the NFL, where certain games are dedicated to the cause and players this season can be seen donning hot pink cleats and sweatbands.

It's easy to get swept up in the hype for searching for the cure, but when the word "pink" begins having just as much social impact as "going green," many people start to wonder where the line of finding a cure ends and plain social cause marketing begins.

It's an odd phenomena, the idea of "going pink," because breast cancer, like any other potentially fatal illness is, at the end of the day, quite a personal matter. And while there are many phenomenally strong and publicly proud breast cancer survivors out there, there are many who are still privately trying to come to terms with something that left them physically and emotionally scarred.

My aunt, who underwent a mastectomy to treat breast cancer in 2005 and then recently underwent a second one to treat a recurrence, said she didn't feel comfortable participating in breast cancer awareness events because "I don't feel yet like it's even really something I had."

It's easy for companies to develop pink products and donate profits for research, but the question then arises: Where does this money go exactly? With all this hype, are we actually closer to finding a cure? After all, breast cancer marketing offers companies an easy bandwagon to jump on, and buying "pink" is something that has indeed become very en vogue.

At the end of the day, I don't have the answers to these questions, and I don't doubt that much of the finances generated by "going pink" have helped pave the way for at least more social acceptance of the disease. If anything, the pink campaign has given survivors who want it an open platform to discuss a disease that was once considered taboo.

It's easy to get swept up in the hype of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but the fact that this exists also begs us to look beyond wearing pink ribbons and buying hot pink laptops. Much like the "green" campaign, such social tidal waves that become brands almost in and of themselves ask us to look beneath the material surface into other ways we can recognize problems and discuss them in a meaningful way.

As social causes become marketing brands, we risk not only diluting the solutions for the problems we are trying to fix (after all, buying organic food will help the environment, but even the regulations for these have become so convoluted and the organic industry so large, it's now guilty of many of the faults and carbon footprints it originally stood against).

I'm in no way criticizing what hard-won victories many of the champions of the pink movement have accomplished. But while such campaigns raise awareness, it's important to not forget how exactly your pink dollars are helping the cause and the root of the movement, which is not complicated make-up campaigns or large benefit walks or glossy Cosmo covers or guitars autographed by Melissa Ethridge. It's cancer. In all forms. It's the private moments between the individual people and their families. It's the late-night phone calls. Because in the end, breast cancer is like any other disease. And we're still a long way from finding a cure.

Lara Gabrielle Blanco Heintz

The Taliban and its militants are stepping up attacks against Pakistan, and how does the country respond? By acting like a scared chicken. Instead of insuring security for school children and universities, the government is bowing to the Taliban and closing education institutions. What kind of message does this send to the children of Pakistan? That what the Taliban wants the Taliban gets.

I am against putting children in danger, but closing schools to hide your ineffective security is not the way to deal with terrorists. Pakistan should launch an even stronger offensive against the Taliban and, if needed, close the border with Afghanistan (the main entry points because large parts of the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan are rugged mountainous areas impossible to police). Do what it take, but please do not stop children from learning.

For more on the attack on the Islamic university, here is the BBC's report.

Bhumika Ghimire