The restaurant has two locations in Dubuque:

2700 Dodge Street
2345 NW Arterial

I will focus on the 2345 NW Arterial location.

Distance from Campus

The 2700 Dodge Street (Highway 20) Los Aztecas is about 1.9 miles off of campus. Driving takes less than 10 minutes and walking is about 45 minutes. The other location is at 2345 NW Arterial which can be a 3.5-4.5 mile journey depending on the route taken. I wouldn’t recommend walking, but the drive will take about 10-12 minutes. Both locations are situated close to grocery stores, clothing stores, and movie theaters.

Parking

Free parking is available in front of the restaurant, and I’m sure if it was too crowded, you’d find parking in the Hyvee parking lot situated across the way. Free parking is always a good thing. I will always say that. ALWAYS.

Appearance

The outside of the restaurant is clean and well put-together, with its pristine clay tile roof shingles. The restaurant itself looks a little misplaced, as if it should be placed in a dessert region. There are neon signs advertising liquor as well as the restaurant’s name. Please check out the picture below in the slide show.

Service

I went to the restaurant with a large party; we were all able to sit at the same table. The servers were all extremely friendly and quick, and were kind enough to give everyone a separate bill.

Cleanliness

Cleanliness, I will continue to say, is the most important part of any restaurant experiences, so I’m happy to say that Los Aztecas gets an A+ for it.  Both the floors and the tables were nice and clean.

Atmosphere

Los Aztecas has a tastefully cheesy, but at the same time modern, atmosphere. The color scheme is earthy and incredibly warm. It sounds weird, but when you’re surrounded by the right shade of orange/yellow, it’s like receiving a hug from a wall. Moreover, the restaurant has brick-work throughout as well as clay roofs and archways which make it as if you’re eating in a courtyard. There’s also a giant Aztec calendar hanging near the entrance. How fitting! By the time our party began eating dinner, the place gradually began to fill up and there was barely an empty table. Surrounding the dining space are televisions, which can potentially distract away from human interaction. Los Aztecas also has a stocked bar.

Menu

Check out the large menu! http://www.losaztecasonline.com/menu

Los Aztecas offers a wide variety of Mexican food including enchiladas, frijoles y arroz, flautas, y chalupas. The prices ranges of entrées range from 8.99 to 12.99. With the amount of food they serve, I’d say it’s a good value. What I like about the menu is that it gives the opportunity to mix and match different items on the menu, just in case you can’t choose one thing. (Check it out on the menu under “combinations.”)

Cost

For $10.00 I ate chips and salsa, rice, beans, two tacos, and a Mexican soda (Jarritos.)

Check this link http://www.losaztecasonline.com/menu for specific costs.

Food

Like bread at an Italian restaurant, Los Aztecas serves delicious (and I’d say homemade) chips and salsa with every meal. The tacos I ordered had flavorful ground beef and cheese. The only complaint was that I could have used a bit more lettuce, but that’s me being picky. The rice and beans were tasty, but only slightly on the salty side. I can honestly I don’t have many, if any, valid complaints about the food. As I sat eating my meal, the other members of the party I was with also had positive responses to their own meals. My favorite part of the experience was being able to order a Jarritos, a Mexican soda, something that reminds me of home.

I give Los Azteca’s 4.5 “Satisfied Stomachs” out of a possible 5 for its distance from campus, but also for its good service, great selection of food, bang-for-your-buck menu, and festive atmosphere.

A moonlit garden.
Five minutes to midnight.
Three hundred seconds until it all falls apart.
“Dance with me,” he says.
“We may run out of time
But at least we won’t regret a second.”
Hand offers hand
Hearts press together.
Three minutes to midnight.
Dancing with fireflies
Dancing in the mist
The clock tower tolls.
And they both solidify
to
dancing
statues.

When a friend has
Sunk to the sooty bottom
Where water swirls as it
Embraces her
In the quiet
Of the darkness
Where the words of reality
Are muffled in the depths
With only a
Small window of hope
Of light
Feet and years above.
It has turned into
Safe solace.
You don’t have a clue.
You want to save her.
There’s no handbook to follow.
Self-destruction,
Self-denial,
More than consume her.
She pulls for attention,
Pushing everyone away.
There’s a defense around her.
You fear your words
Will be too full
Of truth she doesn’t
want .
to
hear.
You want her to know
She is
Beautiful.
You want to tell her,
She is
Loved.
Before time expires,
You can act.
But “what if’s”
Buzz between your ears.

Let it continue?
Pros and cons.
Confront it alone?
Pros and cons.
A Catch-22.

O poor, poor Miss Havisham!

A whisper of a once beautiful lady
Hushed with imaginary time.

Hands withered
Figure decrepit
Heart  b r o k e n.

Wearing away with the table
That once brought future
But now brings fate.

O how she waits
Waits
Waits
With the only proof of existence of time
Hidden in her aging white hair.

O poor, poor Miss Havisham!
Naturally cremated to ash
Eagerly awaiting her fate,
That Miss Havisham in her once white dress.

The car is packed and ready to go.  It’s time, once again, to leave one life, one home, and one identity, and exchange it for another. 

I leave the sounds of home behind: the mixture of different languages spoken, my best friend’s laugh as we catch up on life, and the constant rumble of airplanes as their small outlines twinkle in the sky of a rising sun.  I leave the sights of home behind: houses and green lawns covering every inch of space in the neighborhood, frustrating, but manageable, lines of traffic, and the sloping roof of the house I grew up in, along with the pink rose bushes that line the front window. Most importantly, I leave behind my family and friends.  I leave all of this and more for Dubuque, Iowa.

For three hours, the car travels, making its way past large malls, weaving in and out of traffic and down twisting country roads.  The car continues to travel through small towns, until it hits the famous runway, the final stretch.  Highway 20 takes me to my second home in Dubuque, Iowa. A nervous knot arises in my stomach.  It’s time to exchange mind-sets: here are new sights and sounds to get used to, another group of people to love, assignments to worry about…a different life to navigate.

A car jutting out of the edge of a man-made cliff advertising a car dealership passes by in a blur as our car races alongside a freight train.  We appear to be going faster, increasing speed as if the curving ramp up ahead was a launch pad.  Hitting the ramp we fly across the river, suspended by man-made magic.  The river below sparkles like a sequined purse, while the trees wade on the flooded shore, creating a shady refuge for the bobbing birds and swimming fish.  To the north, another bridge crosses over the river like a large stich waiting to be pulled taut. Looking ahead, I see the rolling hills and bluffs of the city, some lying in shadow while others bathe in the sun, sprinkled with Church steeples.

I’ve found my way to a second home, Dubuque, a place I love and value for its sights, sounds, and people, just as much as I admire those of my original home.  Both places are extremely different, one man-made, the other natural, but one factor in my story remains the same: me.  It’s as if I’m the first-person narrator of my own story, my own author, and I have the power to move from world to world.  This portal between these worlds is the strip of Highway 20.  No matter what direction the road takes me, I’ll be home.

Yourlifebox.com (YLB) leaves much to be desired in this writer’s opinion.  ‘User friendly’ is not a term that would often be heard describing this social networking site. However, the site is still just starting up and is, nonetheless, experiencing some growing pains. The tag line is “Broadcast Your Dreams” with the intention of allowing the twenty-something’s of the world to express themselves and their dreams publicly.

As wonderful as the thought of posting my dreams to the world seems, I can already do this on Facebook by writing a note, changing my status, or even starting my own page about what my dream is.

What creator Jonathan Bullard intended to do with YLB was to give the youth of today “a way to network to make their dreams happen.” He said in an interview, the website allows people ”to focus on sharing their dreams, passions and ambitions in their profile, with the added benefit to ask for something non-monetary – something practical, like a social connection, opportunity or introduction, to find support from other members to help make their dreams a reality.”

Bullard also went on to say, “There are so many talented individuals in the world who have ideas and dreams that never become a reality because they are in an environment that does not support their dreams and hopes. A simple thing like positive encouragement and support can potentially change the world for people who might be otherwise neglected or ignored.”

So what is the draw for someone to sign up for a YLB account? In support of student academic goals, YLB has now launched a program to reward scholarships to participating members, with the first scholarship award of $1,000 to be given out this summer and subsequent scholarships given on a quarterly basis throughout the year. The scholarship winners will be chosen based on their dream and how many votes they receive for their profile.  This scholarship is something that will not only foster the creativity of the members of the online community, but it will also encourage others to reach out and see if they can help fulfill a dream.

Does the idea of someone else helping you fulfill your dream seem unlikely? To many it might, but YLB user Dean Kabeli, a graduate of Valencia Film School, had a dream of working in New York City in the TV/Film industry. He was contacted by another member who provided him with job information and listings for his field in New York City, and he ended up landing an interview with a production company.

Celia Flores shared her dream with the hope that someone could help her fulfill it. Celia wanted to be a physician’s assistant, but realized that she needed a shadowing experience to get into medical school. Realizing she did not have a connection in that industry, she posted her dream. Through YLB, she received information from a doctor regarding a shadowing opportunity that he could facilitate for her.

Even though YLB has its glitches, its membership is growing, and with this growth will come changes just like any other networking site. I would suggest giving it a try. Besides, who dosn’t want their dreams to come true? Why not broadcast your dreams and find out just where it can take you?

To go to the website, click here.

In the midst of the hurly-burly of people during the lunch hour in the Cafe, everybody at a table by the window fell silent.

After a pause, all five decided to open their mouths. Juliana spoke up in Spanish, Khai in Burmese, Aleksander in Macedonian, Bhavna in Hindi and Henry in Portugese. Nobody understood one another and after a gush of laughter, they all conversed in English.

Loras boasts of having people from varied cultures and countries. With the flow of myriad cultures and nationalities follows a multitude of languages, dialects and mother tongues. Some have enough people to talk to in their mother tongues, some don’t get this opportunity. The only viable chance to actually use their mother tongues or their national languages is while calling family or friends back home.

Ayush Subedi

Junior Amanuel Hmariam spoke 99 percent Amharic and only 1 percent English at home in Adis Ababa, Ethiopia. Now it’s the opposite. He admits it gets little frustrating to try to explain things in English every time.

“My mother tongue is Amharic, the working language in Ethiopia. Although there is no student at Loras who speaks that language, I often talk to Argaw, the Ethiopian guy who works in the POD,” he adds.

With the advent of modern technology and communication devices, Skype and Facebook have surfaced up as cost rationale alternatives to making long distance calls. Sophomore Laxman Gautam from Nepal says, “I use Skype all the time to call home. Buying phone cards would have been expensive.”

With people speaking different languages at the college gives opportunities for students, faculty and staff to try on something new. Until about the 1960s, the conventional wisdom was that bilingualism had negative connotations. But now the opposite is true.

Senior Michael Pennington has had four years of Spanish and two semesters of ancient Greek.

“I love the fact that there are different people speaking different languages here on campus,” he says. “Because there are so many students from Nepal, I wish I had more time to learn their language. Just being able to say ‘Namaste’ doesn’t quite cut it.”

“English speakers don’t learn their own language the way they do a foreign language,” says Cindy Smith, professor of classical studies. She adds,  “We might not notice grammar and other things while talking, but only when it comes to try to learn a foreign language, you know how things work. These languages could have different patterns and you could also learn cultures of countries of origins.”

First-year Dolina Maharjan speaks four languages — Newari, Nepali, Hindi and English.

“I feel languages unite us,” Maharjan says. “If you just say ‘gracias’ to Latino people, it obviously brings a wider smiler in their faces in comparison to just saying thank you. Even knowing some common words of their language helps in bolstering friendship.”

In the U.S., most students who study a foreign language begin at age 14 or later. Linguistic studies show that children who begin learning a second language before adolescence exhibit more native-like pronunciation and are more likely to become fluent speakers. Although German, French and Irish are prominent foreign languages, there haven’t been enough students enrolled for those classes to support majors at Loras. As a result the classes were eventually removed. However, classes in Latin and ancient Greek are still offered every third year.

“People don’t realize that 60 percent of our words come from Latin and Greek,” Smith says. “Similarly, in the scientific field, 93 percent of the words come from Latin and Greek. People think these languages are dead, but they’re alive and doing quite well.”

Loras also requires honors students to take a foreign language. This requirement is waived for international students.

Professor of history and director of Honors Program John Eby says, “We require all honors students to take a foreign language. The ability to function outside of one’s own language can be intellectually beneficial and fun at the same time in learning about other cultures.”

Eby also introduced an Arabic class recently that has about 14 students enrolled. It’s taught by Ali Said, professor of Arabic-studies from the Tri State Islamic Center. Eby knows five different languages.

“I can read and write Latin, French and German. I have dabbled into Arabic, Kreyol and Anglo-Saxon,” he says.

With globalization and the world becoming a smaller place, it can be an advantage for job opportunities.

“Multilingual proficiency is an asset in one’s career, although not all the employers may need it at the time of hiring,” says Jeffrey Roberts, assistant coordinator of career services and academic internships at the Center for Experiential Learning. He states that from medical care to education, from crisis intervention in social service to marketing, the value of another language is becoming more and more apparent.

The U.S. national reports of languages reveal that the study of Mandarin, Japanese, German, Russian and Spanish have risen in the recent years. Meanwhile, there is only a slight increase in interest in the languages that the U.S. government classifies as critical to national security.

As the college is promised to be doused in interfaith discussions and activities, knowledge of foreign languages can be beneficial. Religious traditions of Islam, Judaism and Hinduism rely on languages like Arabic, Hebrew and Hindi. Languages offer insights into the ceremonies, doctrines and cultures.

“Knowledge and awareness of the language used in a religious tradition are important to religious literacy that can be very helpful while talking to a person of a different faith background than your own,” said senior Maggie Writt, also a part of Eboo Patel’s “Better Together Initiative.”

Whether it be learning as a requirement for a class, for knowledge or for fun, foreign language can prove challenging and beneficial for intellectual development. Sometimes, foreign language speakers just find it entertaining to find so many cultures and languages in one place. The world starts making sense and they become proud of what they have.

How many languages do you know?

Languages spoken at Loras (on phone, on Instant Messenger or face-to-face)

Setswana, Spanish, Nepali, Hindi, Kiswahili, Dutch, Korean, Sekalaka, Bengali, Chin (Zo), Chinese, Portuguese, Macedonian, Burmese, Vietnamese, Ukrainian, Romanian, German, Arabic, Amharic and Latin.

Though Twain died on April 21, 1910, he surely came to life in St. Joseph’s Auditorium this Halloween weekend for the Loras Players production of “Tales by Twain.” For those who don’t know, Mark Twain was a 19th century author made popular, or in some cases unpopular, for the satirical social commentary he wove into his works. Famous for writing “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” this Missouri native wrote short stories based off of his experiences as an adult, as well as his time growing up on the Mississippi River in Hannibal, Missouri.

Rajendra Thakurathi | My Duhawk

Doug Donald as Mark Twain

Mark Twain, as played by Doug Donald, sits in his study smoking a cigar as he casually narrates the play with a Missourian accent. It’s almost as if the audience has been welcomed into the Twain house to share stories with a few drinks and a cigar to accompany them. Throughout the play, Twain also interacts with the characters of his multiple stories of fiction and of his life.

The play does a wonderful job of portraying the person that Twain was. It allowed the audience a glimpse of his true character as a man who, in a good way, didn’t take life too seriously and as  a man with deep critical thoughts concerning the hypocrisy of society.

“Tales by Twain” covers many themes and critiques of life and society, leaving the audience shouting with laughter at one moment and somber and reflective at others. The theme that Twain portrays in the “The War Prayer” scene struck me the most. Here, Twain points out that when we selfishly pray for ourselves, we forget about the harm that may come upon our neighbors or even our enemies. Heck, if a play can be both entertaining as well as insightful, it’s in good business.

The players in “Tales by Twain” are talented actors and actresses who have strong singing voices, great comedic timing, and fancy foot-work. The musical accompaniment was never more than three instruments and the scenery, as well, was simple yet functional. In their 101st season, it’s no shock that the Loras Players, directed by Lenore E. Howard and Doug Donald, once again put on a great show.

The only complaint is that it was presented for only one weekend. Perhaps Twain had to return to the grave.

The name Jay DeMerit might not ring any bells, but if you take a minute to research him, you will find out the story of an athlete who stopped at nothing to fulfill his dream of playing professional soccer.

The path to fulfilling his dream has now been turned into a documentary, “Rise & Shine: The Jay DeMerit Story.” It is a moving and inspirational success story that has been picked up for distribution in the U.S. and abroad.

“Rise & Shine” will premiere at the Mindframe Theaters on November 3 at 4:50 p.m. and 6:35 p.m. as well as on November 6 at 3:30 p.m.

The 92-minute film traces the Green Bay, Wisconsin native’s journey from failed tryouts with Major League Soccer through early frustrations in English football’s lowest divisions.

In an inspiring sports tale, DeMerit ultimately triumphs in soccer glory becoming a captain for England’s Watford FC and joining Team USA as a hard-charging, center-midfielder at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Assistant men’s basketball coach Ryan Kane grew up with Jay DeMerit and described Jay as a typical Midwestern, values-to-the-core guy who was not that highly recruited out of high school.

He went to the University of Illinois-Chicago, never getting notoriety even though he was a good player. He went through the years with a bit of a chip on his shoulder because of that.

“We played youth sports together, soccer which he was of course good at, basketball, and baseball. I lived right on the boarder of the district, and we ended up going to rival high schools, so we grew up as competitors following our years playing together in youth,” said Kane. “He was a multi-sport athlete in soccer and basketball, where I played against him.”

By sharing Jay’s unique story and the behind-the-scenes making of the documentary, Kane was the sole reason the independent movie theater, Mindframe, is bringing the movie to Dubuque.

“I put Mindframe in touch with the makers of the movie, and the theater was impressed enough to have it screened. We have used our soccer team’s connections with the young soccer community to get the news out there and promote it,” said Kane. “With the soccer background in the movie, it will speak to soccer fans because they will understand the concept of the story. As Jay says, ‘it’s a story about hope, dreams, team building, and inspiration.’ And so my hope is to get as many people as we can to go and see it.”

The makers of the movie had to turn to fans in order to find funding for Jay’s incredible story to reach the public. Nick Lewis and Ranko Tutulugdizija built a huge groundswell and raised funds through the grassroots crowd-sourcing organization Kickstarter (www.kickstarter.com).

Kickstarter is an online fundraiser for musicians, artists, filmmakers and others to fund projects via donations and participation from the public. “Rise and Shine” exceeded a $215,000 goal by almost $10,000 claiming the spot as the top Kickstarter campaign ever for an indie film, even yielding donations from Seth Meyers of “Saturday Night Live” and Rivers Cuomo of the band Weezer.

“I think Jay wants the documentary to just promote soccer,” said Kane. “For someone who has dedicated his life to and loves the game, I think he just wants to make the sport more popular around America.”

The Loras College Visitation Complex was buzzing with lights, food, spectators, and a multitude of student artwork Friday, Oct. 21 for the Seventh Annual Integrated Visual Arts Exhibition. The exhibition was moved to the fall due to the large amount of senior capstone showcases taking place in the spring. This annual event is the prime time for students who are majoring in Integrated Visual Arts or minoring in Art at Loras to showcase their artwork to the larger Loras community in addition to the public audience. 

The Woodward Art Gallery inside the Visitation Complex is full of pieces ranging from photography, collage, painting, and graphic design to installation, sculpture, video, drawing and more. The juried exhibition allowed students’ work to be viewed, critiqued, and judged based upon their submissions. The President’s Award, given by President Jim Collins, and the Provost Award, given by Provost Cheryl Jacobsen, are only a few of the many awards several students received for their work.  The exhibition will continue until Nov. 18.

For more information about the exhibit, or if interested in buying the buying student artwork, please contact Wendy Romero at wendy.romero@loras.edu.