Prejudice

Maybe it's because I live in a really liberal place, but the fact that racial segregation still exists in our country still shocks me everytime I think about it. I was just reading through the AOL news and this story came up: Georigia School Holds First Integrated Prom. I know it's completly naive to think that desegregation was over and done with 50 years ago, but still...

This school usually had two different proms, but this guy (Senior class president James Hall) "led the charge" for having one intergrated prom.

Speaking of my liberal mind, Extravaganja isn't what everyone thinks/assumes it is. It's just kind of a large, peaceful protest with music and hippies and local vendors and, yeah, "pot heads," "stoners," and whatever else falls inbetween. I use these terms because I just read them in The Daily Collegian, and I don't know if the writer was trying to be funny or trying to "represent," but the whole article lacked that general objective feeling for me (I read it in the Arts & Living section). Matthew Cadwallader writes,

"As students poured out of the dorms to enjoy the gorgeous weather this weekend, they may have noticed something different in the air; a funny smell. The copious amounts of marijuana smoked over the weekend, here on campus and around the world, would certainly be to blame.

The weekend was one for the pot heads, starting with the stoner holiday of 4/20 on Friday and continuing with the Cannabis Reform Coalition's (CRC) 16th annual Extravaganja on Saturday. According to organizers, the latter event, hosted on the Amherst town common, drew over 2,000 people from around the Pioneer Valley for a celebration of all things marijuana."

I mean, the title of the article was "A day of baking in the Amherst sun," but I really thought it was going to be about the nice weather and Southwest Beach... haha. So the "funny smell" just surprised me-- I thought I was getting into something scientific... but nope, it's about "copious amounts of marijuana."

Now I'm not condoning or condemning someone's usage... but just because someone supports CRC or the decriminalization of marijuana doesn't make them a "pot head." I don't know; you can read the whole article here though and see if I am just reading it the wrong way. Something seems off about the article in general to me... maybe Cadwallader is just a freshman or something though... trying to come off as a cool dude instead of a journalist. There were a lot of interesting leads in this one small piece though.

Anyway, this how the CRC describes Extravaganja:

"A marijuana-freedom festival meant to raise awareness about the legalization of marijuana. Featuring live bands, guest speakers, and plenty of vendors on the Amherst Common from dawn till dusk."

I was there for a little bit. It was a beautiful day and there were lots of people and dogs and music and fun. But then I left on a mission for a grill. But that's another story. Sorry Blogosphere, it's too warm out to continue writing.

Fundraising.

A huge part of getting the job in Costa Rica is going to be my interview. Because I haven't done a lot of volunteer work in my college career (I mean, I did lots in high school), I want to show them how serious I am. Because I am going to have to pay for some things (airfare and such add up even when it's volunteer based), having ideas of fundraising might be a "applicant-booster" (I imagine they are going to ask how I am going to pay for these fees during my interview).

I don't really like the idea of asking people I know for donations-- and I know my family is generous enough to help me out however they can. But I honestly like the idea of doing this all on my own. In high school, some of my friends and I were really into the local "scene," so we knew all these bands and would put on benefit shows a lot. I could probably swing something like that. Or, I think I could probably set up something at one of the bars in Amherst or Worcester... or maybe my mom will let me throw ragers in her backyard... haha. Or like, when we were in middle school, there were "town hall dances" thrown as fundraisers-- I wonder if people still do those things...

Or I could potentially make things so that people get something for donating to me. Like, I can crochet (oh great, now the world knows). I could do something simple like scarves (have the summer to work on them)... and then just have a sliding scale or something. I bet I could have a table at the Harvest Festival or the Apple Festival in my hometown because I used to volunteer at all those things when I was younger (did I already mention that I did TONS of stuff when I was in high school?).

Or maybe I should just send a letter to every person I have ever met... explaining my goals and... nah-- I'd rather offer some sort of incentive or product-- basically something fun.

All right!

Let's talk about the Blogosphere!

I admit that I wasn't a very big blog reader before taking this class; I just assumed blogs were for gossip and pop culture. But my opinions have changed.

For my Spanish class, we had to give a brief presentation on any current news article from a Spanish-speaking country. Since I've been trying to learn as much about Costa Rica as I can (which can be difficult when I have to take into consideration all the other work I need to get done), I decided to look into Costa Rican newspapers. So I've been reading La Nacion (Spanish) and The Tico Times (English), but I realized that newspapers aren't going to offer me any information on what the country is REALLY like, right? This is when I decided to Google search for "Costa Rica blogs"... and then this came up: The Real Costa Rica.

I haven't navigated the whole site (yet), but there is a blog I left a comment on. And then someone (Alan Petersen) saw my comment and left me a message on my blog. And his comment led me to this site, which is a bunch of podcasts about the country.

Thank you Blogosphere! Thank you for giving me the kind of information I want, and thank you for offering me this sort of network...

So basically, I am going to apply to teach in Costa Rica by the end of this month. And I am going to continue to learn a lot about the country. And I am going to rock my interview and get the job. Done and done.

I have to.

Holy run-on sentences Batman

Dear Blog Class,

We can't bring up "the Wink guy" in the middle of class because then I have to call him afterwards and let him know that he was brought up because it's kind of ludicrous and then he gets all flattered and then I have to be extra mean to him to make up for making him feel good because I keep telling him that I am not a very nice girl.

Plus "the Poker guy" will get jealous and bring all the "blogga drama" out into the open and then we are going to have to have an intervention and A&E is going to have to come in and then we are all going to have to watch the new episode which sucks because they moved the time slot from Sunday to Friday and who really wants to watch A&E on a Friday night when they could be out doing something more social.

And "the Movie guy" is going to go to karaoke tomorrow night perhaps because he is filming some thing for UMass and wants to show UMass Nightlife not that karaoke at SevenO's is really a huge UMass event like Guitar Dudes or something but I can't stand Guitar Dudes now because everytime I go into McMurph's I can't even walk or get drinks in a timely fashion so we always end up going to Delano's.

Speaking of Delano's you should all check out my friend's band "On The Rocks" on Friday night at 10pm because it will be fun and they are seriously talented and they play awesome cover songs in fact they only play cover songs so they really know what they are doing and usually they play at The Harp and since Harpo owns Delano's now too they are moving on up to the uptown side in a deluxe bar in the sky but really they are awesome and I bet they are going to change their set list to a more Guitar-Dude-sey feel because that's what all the brodudes want to hear and Guitar Dudes is lame now anyway.

Love, Kristi

fyi

(not the actual Wink guy)

Just because I gave you the link to my blog doesn't mean anything.

Mi búsqueda para pura vida

So I am applying to teach English in Costa Rica. And it'd be really helpful if I could get any feedback at all on my application questions. So I am going to freewrite my initial responses here, then refine them for the next week or so (the questions aren't too difficult, but the 250 word limit is pretty harsh). Any help would be incredibly appreciated... especially if you could point out both the aspects that work and those that don't work (or need to be worked on).

1. At this point in your life, what is your motivation for wanting to be a WorldTeach volunteer in the country to which you are applying? What personal goals do you aim to achieve by participating in the program? What contributions do you hope to bring to the community in which you will teach and live?


My motivation for being a WorldTeach volunteer in Costa Rica stems from my interest in teaching, writing, and the country itself. As a newly intermediate Spanish speaker, I understand the difficulties of speaking a second language and the fact that acquiring new languages takes discipline. As a self-motivated young woman, I am constantly thinking of ways to strengthen my rhetoric both inside and outside of the classroom. Being submerged into a different culture and language will challenge my normal discourse and will undoubtedly benefit me as a thinker, writer, and scholar. In this way, my motivations and personal goals will truly be at work together.

Because I view writing as such an important factor in life, no matter what field one is in, the practice of this art would be employed in order to contribute to the area that I will be living and working in. Collaboration is a huge part of my personal pedagogy, so the idea of creating some sort of “writing community” would be beneficial to both me and the students. A specific idea I have is developing a newspaper for students to work on about topics that affect or interest them. We could focus on everyday things like movie reviews, extracurricular activities, or whatever interests the students. Something like this might have to start in Spanish, but it would be a great experience to practice writing articles in English because seeing physical results in the form of a newspaper will be rewarding.

If this idea is successful, I would invite friends and families of the students to contribute as well. This could branch out further into answering questions that non-Costa Ricans have. Since I have relationships with teachers in my hometown, I might be able to let both Costa Rican and American students collaborate from abroad. Hopefully, this will make students aware of their own country and community, as well as in the world around them.

By the Way. . . (no cats I swear)

I thought I should mention that I'm not being overly emotional anymore (that commercial just came on, and it didn't even bother me... and I am alone). I think I'm taking my stress out in a new way: cooking! Last night I made stuffed shells (thank you Paula), and they were pretty excellent. Paired with a simple salad (with multiple colors because you eat with your eyes first) and a nice bread, it made for a nice dinner. The merlot made it kind of a nice dinner for a couple. But I think famlies would be into it (I cut the recipe in half and still had enough for at least 4 people).

I had some left over stuff from the shells, so I just made a lasagna that also came out pretty good. The sad thing is that no one is around to eat it.

The thing about cooking is that it doubles as a technique of procrastination. Not only is there the time I spend physically cooking the food, there's recipes to search for, the Food Network to watch, and trips to the grocery store and such... But yeah, I really should do some work now. I thought about my blog because Perez Hilton is on tv right now (yeah I really didn't get who he was until this class).

And by "go do some work" I mean watch some tv while thinking about memoir-writing... but only for about 40 minutes because then I have to get up and check on the strawberry pie that's in the oven. : )