I just got back from my first training session as a Senior Interviewer! I was really looking forward to this since this is my job for the entire summer and it's something that I always knew I wanted to do here. I mean, just being in the office today and seeing the receptionists, the admissions officers I know, L my boss, and a particularly fly fellow RC JY (he goes by first name-last name usually anyway) really solidified why working in the office is one of my favorite things--there's so much genuine Yale energy and camaraderie (TOTALLY had to look up the spelling of that word, English fail) and it's just a place that makes you feel grateful and smile about it, especially since the focus of the entire office, student workers and staff alike, is to make the Yale dream come true for others, just like it did for us =D
And let's be real, I really needed something to focus on that are NOT my thoughts. They are not my friends right now.
Also got to have lunch with Dean Brenzel (love. that. man.) and he remembered me! Seriously, it was very cool getting to hear insider info from The Man himself. There are only 6 of us, 4 guys, 2 girls; I think it's going to be interesting in a challenging way that me and the only other girl, C, are the only people of color. I mentioned this to G, and she was like, "how did that happen??" but I think it's a good way to, after 3 years of Yale, come to the realization that while my closest friends (and shit, most of my friends in general) are minority students, there ARE other people who are not like us. It's like the reverse of what most students have to deal with when coming to Yale, I'd assume, and something that I'll really really have to keep in mind as I interview potential members of the Yale Class of 2015. Just like I wouldn't want some WASP-y kid immediately judging and dismissing a kid from El Barrio, I shouldn't write off a kid who's 238507th generation Yale from Andover. This will be interesting.
But aside from being a professional woman in my cute business attire (except when giving tours, shudder), I'm also a Big! I mentioned my Summer Buds reading program briefly, but I actually had my first day on Tuesday (and will go in again tonight), and met my assigned Little, Asha. She's about 10 years old and attends a New Haven public school and I've been raving about her since I met her. She came really late, about halfway through the session (I occupied my time by playing Apples to Apples for the first time!), but as we filled out a form about our favorite books and goals for the summer, I realized she had big plans for herself for such a Little person. She's done some modeling gigs, loves fashion (she said she really liked my outfit that day, which means I'm gonna have to step my fashion game up for these 4th and 5th graders lol), and has even worked somehow with ALICIA KEYS. Right?!?! She's so soft-spoken but also animated when she talks about where she'd like to go (Japan!) and the things she wants to experience. She's 10 years old. MAN, if some of us had some of that drive. I hope to steer that drive toward her reading, though, since she does need help in that area. I'm really glad we connected well right off the bat, because that should make my job of building her reading confidence and fluidity a little easier.
I've also decided maybe it's just babies that I don't like, because they don't really have many redeeming qualities. They're not that cute (except for Asian babies!!! gahhhh hahah), can't be witty, and just kinda poop everywhere. But these Littles were a riot. I got to Slifka before anyone else so that the coordinator, Ali, could explain things to me, so when the first batch of Littles came, I started talking to them, and before long I had a small circle of them around me, my crew haha. When they realized me and the coordinator of the program shared the same name, they were like, "One of you has to be Allie #1 and the other Ali #2!" And, BY THEMSELVES, they decided that they would solve the problem of who would be which in a very diplomatic way--whomever was older would be Allie #1, obviously. Turns out that for once in my life, I was NOT the youngest person around (I mean, besides the Littles), so despite not being even remotely in charge, I was deemed Allie #1.
I don't think Ali #2 was very pleased with the outcome. But hey, kids will be kids...
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Friday, June 11, 2010
Atentados, or Shots on Goal
So I've had a topic for this blog post in mind since last night, when I got extremely worked up about something and ranted to my mom for like 20 minutes. I logged onto blogger, ready to furiously type away about my problems and opinions and complaints concerning this topic. But I decided to first check out the blog of a friend, K, for the first time, and I felt my anger and sense of injustice subside.
Let me explain.
N brought to my attention a few days ago the possibility of a new HBO mini-series about Latinos, centered on this "famous" (to be fair, it may very well be famous, I just haven't heard of it) book by a Mexican author. The email that her family received, from someone I don't know, was pleading with whoever read the email to send letters to HBO, saying that we as a Latino community NEED this mini-series, that we NEED to have this opportunity to educate Americans and other non-Latinos about our culture and our traditions and our people and our language, etc.
So I agree that not enough people know enough about Latinos/Hispanics/Latin-Americans (I have no problem with any of these terms, so I'm sorry if you do). I'm ALL about educating others, teaching them about the difference of our countries and the beautiful things that make them up. Y'all know me! And you know that just by virtue of knowing me, you probably know more about Colombia than you ever thought you would.
So I get upset when the very people who are "trying to educate others about Latinidad" fall terribly short. Let me point something out. Though "Latin America" does not have strict boundaries, between the Caribbean, North America, Central America, and South America, there are at LEAST 20 countries and possibly as many as 40-something (depends on what you count as Latin-American, but I'm steering clear of that argument, it's not what I'm concerned with right now). Basically, there are a lot of countries.
So tell me how there are Americans who are convinced that there are only Mexicans, and no other type of Latino. Tell me how I've been asked before if we speak Spanish in Colombia. Tell me how Ugly Betty,
which was completely based off of the Colombian telenovela Yo Soy Betty La Fea
, stars a Mexican protagonist. Whatever media network shows Ugly Betty decided that Americans would find it easier to deal if the protagonist was of an ethnicity they recognized, so Colombia was out of the picture.
The problem isn't Mexico; obviously it's not their fault. And the problem isn't the people who ask questions seeking for honest answers; they are trying to find a solution, and I sincerely hope they continue to do so. The problem is that not enough is being done, or at least done correctly. You cannot make a TV show about, say, only Puerto Ricans and claim you are fixing the problem of ignorance that exists about Latinos! They make up an important part of Latinos, but do not equal Latinos. Just like Africa is a CONTINENT (easily forgotten) and should not be used as a blanket term sometimes, so too are the countries of Latin America incredibly diverse and deserving of recognition. I'm not even saying there should be a TV show on HBO about Colombia (though that would be pretty baller). I would LOVE to see something mainstream about Uruguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Panama. Countries NOTHING like what non-Latinos picture because all they've ever been exposed to is three or four of our countries, if they're lucky.
I think it's great to showcase positive, wonderful things about "common" Latin-American countries that usually get a bad rap (God knows there's too much negativity in the media related to beautiful countries like Mexico and Puerto Rico). But in that case, it should be clear that that is what the goal is. Why should any one country be the voice and face for all the other 39 countries when there are many solid differences in culture, food, traditions, etc? Hell, even the language, even if it remains Spanish, varies drastically across the Western Hemisphere.
HBO, make the TV show. But know that you are not necessarily representing all of the Latino community. As impossible as it may be to do this, until you start telling us and showing us non-mainstream places, places we've never heard of and REALLY educating non-Latinos (and Latinos!), you won't show who we are. Half-assing an attempt is not good enough at this point. Go hard or go home.
***
And to think that K's blog made my writing less aggressive! What he really did was remind me how similar the plight of Latin-American is to that of Africa. How the relative obscurity of our respective homelands lends itself in the media to only coffee and cocaine, bombs and terrorism. We are the lucky ones that know how much MORE there is to discover, but like he said, it's up to us to show others what we've always known. We have a tough road ahead of us, but every little bit of enlightenment that we can facilitate is another heart won over for Colombia and Ghana.
Let me explain.
N brought to my attention a few days ago the possibility of a new HBO mini-series about Latinos, centered on this "famous" (to be fair, it may very well be famous, I just haven't heard of it) book by a Mexican author. The email that her family received, from someone I don't know, was pleading with whoever read the email to send letters to HBO, saying that we as a Latino community NEED this mini-series, that we NEED to have this opportunity to educate Americans and other non-Latinos about our culture and our traditions and our people and our language, etc.
So I agree that not enough people know enough about Latinos/Hispanics/Latin-Americans (I have no problem with any of these terms, so I'm sorry if you do). I'm ALL about educating others, teaching them about the difference of our countries and the beautiful things that make them up. Y'all know me! And you know that just by virtue of knowing me, you probably know more about Colombia than you ever thought you would.
So I get upset when the very people who are "trying to educate others about Latinidad" fall terribly short. Let me point something out. Though "Latin America" does not have strict boundaries, between the Caribbean, North America, Central America, and South America, there are at LEAST 20 countries and possibly as many as 40-something (depends on what you count as Latin-American, but I'm steering clear of that argument, it's not what I'm concerned with right now). Basically, there are a lot of countries.
So tell me how there are Americans who are convinced that there are only Mexicans, and no other type of Latino. Tell me how I've been asked before if we speak Spanish in Colombia. Tell me how Ugly Betty,
which was completely based off of the Colombian telenovela Yo Soy Betty La Fea
, stars a Mexican protagonist. Whatever media network shows Ugly Betty decided that Americans would find it easier to deal if the protagonist was of an ethnicity they recognized, so Colombia was out of the picture.
The problem isn't Mexico; obviously it's not their fault. And the problem isn't the people who ask questions seeking for honest answers; they are trying to find a solution, and I sincerely hope they continue to do so. The problem is that not enough is being done, or at least done correctly. You cannot make a TV show about, say, only Puerto Ricans and claim you are fixing the problem of ignorance that exists about Latinos! They make up an important part of Latinos, but do not equal Latinos. Just like Africa is a CONTINENT (easily forgotten) and should not be used as a blanket term sometimes, so too are the countries of Latin America incredibly diverse and deserving of recognition. I'm not even saying there should be a TV show on HBO about Colombia (though that would be pretty baller). I would LOVE to see something mainstream about Uruguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Panama. Countries NOTHING like what non-Latinos picture because all they've ever been exposed to is three or four of our countries, if they're lucky.
I think it's great to showcase positive, wonderful things about "common" Latin-American countries that usually get a bad rap (God knows there's too much negativity in the media related to beautiful countries like Mexico and Puerto Rico). But in that case, it should be clear that that is what the goal is. Why should any one country be the voice and face for all the other 39 countries when there are many solid differences in culture, food, traditions, etc? Hell, even the language, even if it remains Spanish, varies drastically across the Western Hemisphere.
HBO, make the TV show. But know that you are not necessarily representing all of the Latino community. As impossible as it may be to do this, until you start telling us and showing us non-mainstream places, places we've never heard of and REALLY educating non-Latinos (and Latinos!), you won't show who we are. Half-assing an attempt is not good enough at this point. Go hard or go home.
***
And to think that K's blog made my writing less aggressive! What he really did was remind me how similar the plight of Latin-American is to that of Africa. How the relative obscurity of our respective homelands lends itself in the media to only coffee and cocaine, bombs and terrorism. We are the lucky ones that know how much MORE there is to discover, but like he said, it's up to us to show others what we've always known. We have a tough road ahead of us, but every little bit of enlightenment that we can facilitate is another heart won over for Colombia and Ghana.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Will Never Get Tired of my RB Playlist
More reasons to plan, to have purpose for the rest of the week. And what could I possibly look forward to more than a dentist AND doctor's appointment in the next three days? At least Friday means I will have my new Droid (!) and will be watching the opening game of the FIFA WORLD CUP SOUTH AFRICA 2010!!! I will be rooting for pretty much every Latin American country (and Spain), the US, Japan, and South Korea. When they start playing each other, things will get interesting, haha. But aside from wanting the US to win (they won't), I'm 100% behind Honduras because their coach is Colombian! I'm such a sucker for motivational, inspiring sports stories and events, especially because I know what it's like. Seriously, the USA's Star-Spangled Banner can bring me to tears. There's just so much in something like this, the world's biggest event for the sport of soccer--ridiculous amounts of determination, social and financial and emotional struggles, thirst for glory, fear of disappointment, months and years of physical preparation, and a feeling of representing the very best your country can possibly offer, hopefully good enough to be the best. I love the World Cup =]
Only 6 days until I return to NH to really start the summer! I don't know if that's been very clear, but I'm currently home in NYC because I don't start training for my summer (and fall) job until June 17th. So while June 13th sounds like a long ways away, especially since before it has to come Mexico VS S. Africa and Uruguay VS France and a seminar thingy I'm doing with my dad on Saturday, "six days" makes it sounds a LOT sooner. My roommate J (this might be too difficult actually, because the boyfriend is also J...hmm) has been in NH for a few days and says it's like living in someone else's house. I think that will be great for me. Ever since starting college, my time home from school consists of my mom questioning my ability to get off the couch and me marveling at my semi-permanent vegetative state. What happened to my energy? To my random desire to race people while walking on the sidewalk? I love being outdoors and I don't like sitting at my computer watching sytycd (=P) for hours on end; so then why can't I stop this cycle? My only guess is that my apartment in Queens has become a refuge from the manic world of Yale to the point that I shut down entirely. Which means a change of scenery, something that doesn't seem quite as much like home, will be a very welcome change.
Nothing excites me more than the prospect of a summer's worth of cute business attire and dressing up in general (except maybe for the fact that NH is mad humid in the summer...). I think it's so funny that I think that pretty much everyone looks better when they're dressed-up and making a serious effort to look good (like for a formal, or screw, or something), especially guys. But when I've mentioned this to guy friends, they're like "ehhhhhhhhhhh, not all girls look better...". Why is that??
Damn it when errands are actually errands and not adventures! I've always said that I really need a secretary. Just think, I wouldn't have to spend hours taking care of emails or making spreadsheets or updating my gcal or cleaning my desk (I have very particular ideas of what my secretary should do lol). I'd be able to devote so much more time to actually being with pollitos, or dancing, or talking to prefrosh, or being in class. If anyone is interested in a part-time job, I pay in hugs.
Allie is not my real name.
Yale, out of all the things it's given me, has made me hyper-aware. I will most likely expand on this in a later post, but I took the R today and overheard some conversations that made me think too much. A group of three girls behind me, talking with that oh-so-familiar New York Latina attitude accent, about who was cheating on who and how "that bitch was crazy" to take "that ***** back." And then across the aisle were two Hispanic boys, talking about credits and not studying for finals and having to take yet another year to finish.
And I sat between these two groups in my bright pink Yale hoodie, thinking, I bet they hate me for everything I represent, for having opportunities they don't, for living in a castle, for leaving my problems in the form of my neighborhood back in NY while I head off to NH and the rest of the world.
They weren't even looking at me; those guys were too busy checking out the group of girls.
Only 6 days until I return to NH to really start the summer! I don't know if that's been very clear, but I'm currently home in NYC because I don't start training for my summer (and fall) job until June 17th. So while June 13th sounds like a long ways away, especially since before it has to come Mexico VS S. Africa and Uruguay VS France and a seminar thingy I'm doing with my dad on Saturday, "six days" makes it sounds a LOT sooner. My roommate J (this might be too difficult actually, because the boyfriend is also J...hmm) has been in NH for a few days and says it's like living in someone else's house. I think that will be great for me. Ever since starting college, my time home from school consists of my mom questioning my ability to get off the couch and me marveling at my semi-permanent vegetative state. What happened to my energy? To my random desire to race people while walking on the sidewalk? I love being outdoors and I don't like sitting at my computer watching sytycd (=P) for hours on end; so then why can't I stop this cycle? My only guess is that my apartment in Queens has become a refuge from the manic world of Yale to the point that I shut down entirely. Which means a change of scenery, something that doesn't seem quite as much like home, will be a very welcome change.
Nothing excites me more than the prospect of a summer's worth of cute business attire and dressing up in general (except maybe for the fact that NH is mad humid in the summer...). I think it's so funny that I think that pretty much everyone looks better when they're dressed-up and making a serious effort to look good (like for a formal, or screw, or something), especially guys. But when I've mentioned this to guy friends, they're like "ehhhhhhhhhhh, not all girls look better...". Why is that??
Damn it when errands are actually errands and not adventures! I've always said that I really need a secretary. Just think, I wouldn't have to spend hours taking care of emails or making spreadsheets or updating my gcal or cleaning my desk (I have very particular ideas of what my secretary should do lol). I'd be able to devote so much more time to actually being with pollitos, or dancing, or talking to prefrosh, or being in class. If anyone is interested in a part-time job, I pay in hugs.
Allie is not my real name.
Yale, out of all the things it's given me, has made me hyper-aware. I will most likely expand on this in a later post, but I took the R today and overheard some conversations that made me think too much. A group of three girls behind me, talking with that oh-so-familiar New York Latina attitude accent, about who was cheating on who and how "that bitch was crazy" to take "that ***** back." And then across the aisle were two Hispanic boys, talking about credits and not studying for finals and having to take yet another year to finish.
And I sat between these two groups in my bright pink Yale hoodie, thinking, I bet they hate me for everything I represent, for having opportunities they don't, for living in a castle, for leaving my problems in the form of my neighborhood back in NY while I head off to NH and the rest of the world.
They weren't even looking at me; those guys were too busy checking out the group of girls.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Preciosa
*transcribed from my "Life's a Trip" journal*
Oh, Starbucks, I have betrayed youuuuu.
So I gave up delicious taro boba/bubble tea in lieu of a coffee shop. The closest Starbucks in this part of Queens is a little out of the way from where I am now, so this was the next best thing:
Coffee shops make me feel like a real, live college student, not the 16-year-old I am according to popular belief. They make me feel purposeful, reminiscent of Japan Allie, who would spend hours at the local スターバー hoping to learn kanji via a combination of flashcards, osmosis, and sheer luck. They make me feel like an old young person, a chic-er version of myself who sits alone at a window-side round table, scribbling surely brilliant prose in a small notebook while occasionally sipping my over-priced Mocha Congelato (what even IS that??).
So here's my attempt at brilliant memory retrieval, aka international flair (kinda)!
I got back last night from four increíble days in Puerto Ricoooooo! What started as a casual conversation over dinner at Pepe's near the end of the school year with the 3 pairs of roommates (in all our infinite cuteness) led to flight-booking a mere 3 days later, when I should have been studying for my Stats final, hehe. It was the vacation that G.A.G.A. needed very very badly. And honestly, we could have gone somewhere completely random, like Wisconsin, and because I was with Big A, GBM, and GF, it would have been an incredible trip anyway.
It reminds me of how I always marvel at the fact that I have more female friends at Yale than from the rest of my life put together (despite an all-girls school). Seeing the positive, caring, brilliant, crazy, hilarious women I surround myself with, I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
Pero qué Isla del Encanto! =] Because of my favorite Puerto Rican N and her badass-ness with DB and her insistence on learning more about PR (inspiring--I'm currently working on my Colombian geography!), I've developed such an affection for this island, and am so glad I finally got to experience it. I am always very aware that The Universe is very happy with me 99% of the time and am grateful that I've been so lucky in so many things =] But I feel like God himself vacations in Puerto Rico and was therefore in a great mood during our trip because not only are all Puerto Ricans very attractive (almost as hot as my bf lol), but they're all so nice! More than nice, buena gente. We were treated SO nicely and really got to enjoy things as locals and not foreign Americans (and a Kenyan hehe) because of it.
I am not a tourist. I am a global citizen and traveler.
There are so many similarities between people and places across the world and yet sometimes it's hard to believe we have anything in common with others. Puerto Rico reminded me soo much of Brasil, to the point where I think I annoyed the crap out of the rest of G.A.G.A., but I couldn't help marveling out loud at how familiar things felt to me. At different times, PR was like Cancun, San Andrés, Pereira, Quito, Curaçao, Rio de Janeiro, Pipa Beach in Natal, and even Montevideo.
Willemstad, Curaçao:
Natal, Brasil:
San Andrés Isla, Colombia:
I see friends' photos on facebook and read their blog posts and lament a little that my summer is not taking me farther. It's easy to feel New Haven is dull when others are in Buenos Aires, Madrid, Mumbai, and China's Forbidden City. I long to see things I've only seen in pictures and on the Food Network (they do a fair amount of traveling for food, you know!). I'm such a sucker for new experiences, just for the sake of novelty. I sometimes fear I'm not living my life big enough. And yet I do it to myself, not wanting to get out of bed sometimes when I'm back home.
These exotic, far-off locations are a tease, a reminder of how much LIFE there is out there, waiting for me to come track it down. I might mumble a little when I reply "New Haven..." to inquiries about summer plans, but I hope NH holds a lot in store for me, too, I just need to live a little to find it.
♥
Oh, Starbucks, I have betrayed youuuuu.
So I gave up delicious taro boba/bubble tea in lieu of a coffee shop. The closest Starbucks in this part of Queens is a little out of the way from where I am now, so this was the next best thing:
Coffee shops make me feel like a real, live college student, not the 16-year-old I am according to popular belief. They make me feel purposeful, reminiscent of Japan Allie, who would spend hours at the local スターバー hoping to learn kanji via a combination of flashcards, osmosis, and sheer luck. They make me feel like an old young person, a chic-er version of myself who sits alone at a window-side round table, scribbling surely brilliant prose in a small notebook while occasionally sipping my over-priced Mocha Congelato (what even IS that??).
So here's my attempt at brilliant memory retrieval, aka international flair (kinda)!
I got back last night from four increíble days in Puerto Ricoooooo! What started as a casual conversation over dinner at Pepe's near the end of the school year with the 3 pairs of roommates (in all our infinite cuteness) led to flight-booking a mere 3 days later, when I should have been studying for my Stats final, hehe. It was the vacation that G.A.G.A. needed very very badly. And honestly, we could have gone somewhere completely random, like Wisconsin, and because I was with Big A, GBM, and GF, it would have been an incredible trip anyway.
It reminds me of how I always marvel at the fact that I have more female friends at Yale than from the rest of my life put together (despite an all-girls school). Seeing the positive, caring, brilliant, crazy, hilarious women I surround myself with, I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
Pero qué Isla del Encanto! =] Because of my favorite Puerto Rican N and her badass-ness with DB and her insistence on learning more about PR (inspiring--I'm currently working on my Colombian geography!), I've developed such an affection for this island, and am so glad I finally got to experience it. I am always very aware that The Universe is very happy with me 99% of the time and am grateful that I've been so lucky in so many things =] But I feel like God himself vacations in Puerto Rico and was therefore in a great mood during our trip because not only are all Puerto Ricans very attractive (almost as hot as my bf lol), but they're all so nice! More than nice, buena gente. We were treated SO nicely and really got to enjoy things as locals and not foreign Americans (and a Kenyan hehe) because of it.
I am not a tourist. I am a global citizen and traveler.
There are so many similarities between people and places across the world and yet sometimes it's hard to believe we have anything in common with others. Puerto Rico reminded me soo much of Brasil, to the point where I think I annoyed the crap out of the rest of G.A.G.A., but I couldn't help marveling out loud at how familiar things felt to me. At different times, PR was like Cancun, San Andrés, Pereira, Quito, Curaçao, Rio de Janeiro, Pipa Beach in Natal, and even Montevideo.
Willemstad, Curaçao:
Natal, Brasil:
San Andrés Isla, Colombia:
I see friends' photos on facebook and read their blog posts and lament a little that my summer is not taking me farther. It's easy to feel New Haven is dull when others are in Buenos Aires, Madrid, Mumbai, and China's Forbidden City. I long to see things I've only seen in pictures and on the Food Network (they do a fair amount of traveling for food, you know!). I'm such a sucker for new experiences, just for the sake of novelty. I sometimes fear I'm not living my life big enough. And yet I do it to myself, not wanting to get out of bed sometimes when I'm back home.
These exotic, far-off locations are a tease, a reminder of how much LIFE there is out there, waiting for me to come track it down. I might mumble a little when I reply "New Haven..." to inquiries about summer plans, but I hope NH holds a lot in store for me, too, I just need to live a little to find it.
♥
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