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| After reading a semi-recent xanga post and standing through a Muni ride in Chinatown, I am proud to say that I love San Francisco for its diversity.
I consider myself to have had a rather diverse childhood. I've been through periods when my parents only made enough to cover the rent for a small apartment in the suburban-like Sunset district while now I live in a house with a view of Twin Peaks from my bedroom and a panoramic view of downtown SF from the kitchen and backyard. It takes me 5 minutes to get to a place where I can get a satisfactory Dim Sum fix or quite possibly the best burrito in the country. I can go outside and hear Spanish being spoken by my neighbors, Japanese by neighbors a few homes down, and ebonics by a house across the street (haha). I've been exposed to countless different cultures in this little 7x7 square mile city and absolutely love it. I couldn't imagine living anywhere else (Ok, maybe Bangkok) but my point is is that SF is a great place to live. We have a semi-functional transit system compared to the suburbs and I've gotten the opportunity to shake hands with people of all income ranges from Mayor Newsom and Robin Williams down to smelly homeless people who are hungover but still friendly. I've had friends who have dropped out in high school to become FOBs while also having friends at the Ivy-leagues.
This is why I also love Berkeley with the variety of cultures and backgrounds it exposes me to. Berkeley was the first time I actually had to defend my usual liberal standpoints to a conservative (which are rare species in San Francisco and the Bay Area). I have my homeless people on Telegraph with used syringe needles in People's Park mixed with students who are simply very admirable academically and outside of academics, to say the least.
Living in San Francisco, I feel like I've had exposure to a lot of things life can be...from the dangerous and smelly to the comfortable and delightful-smelling. San Francisco>suburbs.
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| Wow, it's been a really long time, hasn't it xanga? Well, I'm bored and finished my last final for the semester last night, so I'm free for a while. Writing blogs is also kinda fun, in a strange way as I have no idea who ends up reading these words but yet with each post, I share a little something with others. Ok, blog time.
First some randomness. I had my first turducken on Saturday. It's basically a chicken stuffed inside a duck stuffed inside a turkey. Crazy, huh? It also had jambalaya stuffing in between the layers. It was interesting...to say the least. I'm not a big meat person...especially for that much meat.
This semester has probably been my favorite one at Cal yet. One reason is anatomy lab. For some odd reasons, I actually enjoy looking at the body parts on cadavers (that probably made me sound like a freak, but it's true!) and the knowledge of actually knowing how my own body works is gratifying and just plain cool. I think another reason is that it was a class where book knowledge could actually be demonstrated on something I can actually relate to. I also got to have lunch with the anatomy professor, who is one really fun lady to talk to, even at the age of 81. On the other hand, I don't think I would donate my body to science after seeing how the cadavers are ultimately handled by other students with blood vessels being torn out, muscles destroyed and the bodies just being abused. This thinking sprung from a renewal of a drivers license, which I haven't actually had the use for ever since I got the license in 2004.
This year I also started working at the UCSF gym in Mission Bay as a swim instructor and lifeguard. All UC students, past and present, are free to enter btw. Nice and new place, but awful management and awful members. First awful members. As a lifeguard, I see many stupid things happening such as a parent trying to teach diving to their kid in 2.5 ft of shallow water...but then when I try to say something, I get a "Who do you think you are" attitude. One even said that he was a MD and knew what was safe and what was not for his child after I told him that his child shouldn't be wearing inflatable waterwings in a pool. I don't like the "I pay your wages so I can do what I want" attitude and it seems much more rampant here than at the family-oriented YMCA. At least one thing I learned from doing a service job for over 2 and a half jobs is a mental reminder to never look down upon other people when I get into the real world after college. Someday soon, I'll have to find a real job I can talk about at those professional school interviews :-/ I don't like thinking about the future. The unknown always makes me worried and all.
I apologize for the randomness of this post. Next posts should be more topic-oriented...hopefully.
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| For all the Lowellites out there (from wikipedia Lowell entry)
Paleteros vs. Frozen Fruit Bar Machine
During January 2006,
the school administration introduced vending machines with frozen fruit
bars and placed them next to the Lowell bookroom. The frozen fruit bars
came in a variety of flavors, including strawberry, orange, mango, lime, and coconut
and they cost $1.25. Students who could afford to pay the inflated
prices welcomed the machine, but those familiar with Paleteros
(ice-cream pushcart vendors) knew the frozen fruit bars were worth no
more than $1.[3]
A few students who strongly opposed the frozen fruit bar machines wrote a letter to the editor of The Lowell. In the letter, students promptly called for a boycott, for fear that the machine would drive local Paleteros out of business.[4]
The boycott was unsuccessful, yet opponents to the machine refused
to succumb to overblown prices and the possibility of a mass Paletero
extinction. Opponents decided to employ Alfred Marshall’s theory of supply and demand as a form of economic warfare.
They believed flooding the market with an increased supply of cheap
frozen goods would drive frozen fruit bar prices down. What resulted
was an underground ice-cream black market where profiteers sold Albertson’s
brand frozen popsicles for prices ranging from 25 to 75 cents. Although
figures of the economic impact at Lowell by the underground sale of
ice-cream are non-existent, it should be noted that Albertson’s stocks (ABS) rose slightly during the first two weeks of February 2006[5], when the ice-cream black market at Lowell was booming. Whether or not these sales can be partly credited is debatable.
After a two and a half week struggle, poor climate conditions forced the underground vendors to shut down. Vendors lacked a proper refrigeration
system and consequently any unsold ice-cream during rainy weather
inescapably melted. Shortly after the ice-cream black market had
dissipated in its entirety, frozen fruit bar prices spiked to $2.
Therefore, the attempt by anti-machinists to drive prices down via
economic warfare may be considered a failure, much like the initial
boycott. Economists have yet to explain, or even research, the
contradictory effects that the underground sale of ice-cream had on the
market price of frozen fruit bars.
Paleteros are all but extinct, yet sighting one of these pushcart
vendors near the Lowell campus has become an uncommon occurrence.
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| Well, xanga, it's been awhile hasn't it? Since I have nothing better to
do, I guess I'll start writing in this more often (even though its been
almost 11 months since I last wrote a weblog). Where to start?
Freshman Year-Ehh, it was alright I guess. I don't really "love"
Cal; it's just another school to me. Maybe things will change for
the better in a couple of months? I think it is just a really
impersonal school and going home every weekend definitely didn't help
the situation. A lot of smart people, as expected, but it just
ratches up the competition a lot more. The classes were mostly
BORING...but then the warm rooms and semi-comfy lecture seats
definitely played a huge role. I definitely got a few Zzzs in
lecture. I continued with dragonboat...definitely not the tightknit
community Lowell Dragonboat was...I miss lowell db so much .
Not that the people at Cal are bad are anything...they're great
teammates. I might just need more time to adjust. I also
miss swimming lots...without Art yelling at me, teammates laughing at
my stupidity, and the experience of dodging him to avoid swimming a
hard set, swimming simply isn't the same. Maybe I'll join the
Berkeley Aquatic Masters and swim with some older folks next year,
although it definitely isn't another SFRP or Lowell team. Things
have changed...and not really so much for the better.
Winter Vacation-Thailand! Each time I visit, I fall in love with
the place and the people even more. Jal once again...and a free
upgrade to business class (cuz they asked us to change some travel
dates) with seats that lie flat completely and huge personal TV
screens. Although we didn't visit beaches or go anywhere outside
the suburbs of Bangkok this year, I enjoyed pretending that this was
the life I could have had if my parents never moved to the USA. I
could be living the good life, with good food available throughout the
metropolis and finding friendliness anywhere. I'd probably be
better off financially and socially as well, but thats more of a
personal issue. I would be like the teens in the huge
air-conditioned shopping malls dressed in the ubiquitous white top and
navy pants crowding onto outdated buses stuck in Bangkok's persistent
gridlock. Riding on the buses is definitely an enlightening
experience. Although without schedules, and without any care for
passenger safety (never actually stopping and CRAZY driving), the buses
are amazingly clear of the graffiti, annoying voices, and antisocial
thugs I find on Muni and AC Transit. I sense that people in Thailand
have a lot of respect for one another compared to the individualistic
mess that America has become. Highlights: A brand new subway
system that uses contactless payment chips/cards and a brand new
shopping mall-the largest shopping mall in Asia. The next time I
visit, Bangkok will also be home to the largest international airport
in Asia as well. I can't wait to go back!!! I'm thinking
about education abroad there one of these semesters, but I'll need some
further research before anything really happens.
These pictures I found online...better keep Thai bathrooms clean! Or else!
In the women's restroom:
  
In the men's restroom:
  
Summer: Same gig of lifeguarding with a side of summer school at
city to take care of english and psych. While I'm lifeguarding, a
lot of peers seem to have internships and research positions. I'm
getting the feeling that those more "professional" positions may look
better on a resume when applying for a job or graduate school.
I've actually had some people from Cal ask me why I'm not looking for
an internship or something "better" than lifeguarding. Am I not
thinking about my future? Of course I am, but I'd rather do
something I like doing than something I'm not interested in (yet) at
least. I've learned so much from lifeguarding-interacting with
people, resoving conflicts, customer service, and just being
responsible for little babies that could easily run, fall into a pool,
and drown, leaving their crying parents (maybe that was a bit too
drastic...but anyways...). Everything from picking up feces from
the baby pool to netting out vomit...theres nothing I don't like about
lifeguarding. Getting paid $12/hr along with a Y-membership worth
$70/month to not do to much isn't too bad in my opinion....I've already
earned enough this summer alone to pay for more than a sesmester of
tuition on my own. I get the notion that Cal students and other
students of prestigious universities often see themselves superior to
these kinds of service and unprofessional jobs which are often filled
by lower-income CCSF and SFSU students. The sad thing is that the CCSF
students are usually the students who need the money to support
themselves and their families, but yet employers have it in their minds
that their summer experiences aren't as worthy as an unpaid research
position at a dingy lab. I am worried about the future, if our
society's future leaders always turn a blind eye to the people and
workers resposible for maintaining their comfort and lifestyle.
In my mind, there is something more
gratifying about comforting/treating a middle-schooler with painful and
bleeding cuts on his stomach and arms than sitting in a lab as a lab
slave doing mindless jobs like cleaning lab plates.
I hope that covers my hiatus from xanga.
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| Sun Aug 21st- Started the day off dragon boating at Lake Merced. Afterwards, I headed to Cal to move-in. Upon arriving at Cal, we couldn’t find parking. We finally parked at a parking structure 5 blocks from my dorm area. Check-in went smoothly (the majority had waited in long lines in the morning) and I moved into my room. It’s an OK room I guess…my only complaint is that it gets so HOT!….it’s facing the sun pretty much all afternoon, AC is nonexistent, and the windows hardly make a difference because the wind usually blows the other way. No view from the 2nd floor (although excellent vies of the Campanile/SF from higher floors). To deal with the heat, my family went out to Walgreens and bought a giant fan (aka the Windmachine) to put into the room. It’s loud and powerful, but it does the job. What would I do without my fan? It’s hard to imagine.
Welcome Week Aug 22nd-Aug 26th
I got to know my floormates and they’re all pretty cool people. Prior to moving in, I was afraid of the type of people who had elected to live in my “substance-free” hall. None of them turned out to be the type who are ultraconservative or antisocial. They aren’t party-animals and yet still mange to have a fun most of the time. I’m really enjoying the Freeborn hall environment. Freeborn may be “Lowell central,” but everyone is just so friendly and nice. I also visited other dorms throughout Unit One (pretty much the same as mine) and Stern (aka the Cave). Welcome week was filled with lots of free food, free stuff giveaways, and several informative workshops.
-Thoughts of dorm food
It’s actually not that bad at Cal. For those familiar with Reno buffets, its better than Circus Circus but maybe a notch below Atlantis/El Dorado (I’m not sure if that made much sense to many people, but it makes sense to me, so deal with it). Crossroads has the selection/quality, although it’s not as healthy-seeming as CKC (perhaps because it houses a lot of athletes). Crossroads is reminiscent of a cafeteria while CKC is like something out of Hogwarts. DC3’s food is just plain trash…I went for the advertised sushi with my floormates and they had a sign inside saying, “Sorry, Out of Sushi.”
Sat Aug 27th/ Sun Aug 28th
Dragon Boat Racing! Cal did pretty well, 9th out of 89 teams….Go Bears! You gotta love the spirit on this team…everything from the Hakka dance to being in the most advanced competitive division (which we initially didn’t want, but who can complain?) Lowell may not have done as well as we wanted, but 2nd isn’t too bad…What goes up must come down sometime, I guess. Plus, there’s always the next race to show what the cardinals can do.
First week of classes
Books- very $$$. I joined Asian American Association for the 20% off discount at the bkstore….Lol..it cost me $18 to join and I saved like $35. Darn readers cost way too much for just plain photocopies, but what can I do and not break any copyright laws? For discounts, comegetused.com is a great resource….Use it and save hard-earned (or maybe not so hard-earned in my case) $$$.
Classes-quite boring but also some interesting topics, like Environmental science, policy, and management and Asian American History. I think the professors are really good researchers but I just wished they were better at teaching and conveying the stuff we need to know. My math GSI is pretty funny…he’s fresh from Beijing and is one witty character.
Swimming pool- One word: WOW! Cal has a swimming pool with marble decking inside the pool and out, along with Greek statues along one side. Pretty cool and clean! What a plus. I hope I can get a job as a lifeguard at the Cal pools one day….pay starting at $12.35/hr! | | |
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