~*Alameda Reflection*~

On yesterdays fieldtrip 06~05~08 we went to Alameda to interview people it was easy to get interviews. People were nice and were willing to give us some of there time. One reason that I think that they let us interview them was because they weren't busy. It was a cool experience because we got to learn more about Alameda. When we interviewed people they told us that people were healthy around the area. Like around one o'clock it was time for the students in Alameda to have there lunchtime there was a lot of students in the streets buying lunch or walking down the streets. In Alameda the diversity that we seen the most were Caucasian and Asians. In lunch me and my buddies decided to go to this Tapioca place were they sell smoothies and food. The tapioca smoothie was really good. Later in the evening our teachers took us to the Alameda beach me and my friends took our shoes off and put our feet in the water. The water was really warm and it felt good. We walked around the beach and felt the air. When I closed my eyes and the air hit my face I felt relaxed and calm. I had a really good time in the beach. After we put our feet in the water we went to sit down in the sand.

~*MyThoughts*~

During the three weeks of post-session one thing that I overcame was now I started to be open minded and talk more to people that I never talked to. Something that I tryied to do that I never knew was I talked to people in the streets that I ddn't even know. When I would go up to people and ask them for their interviews I would be realy shy, But I came out f my shell. I drew the line when people would force to do something that I didn' t want to do. Because if I don't like somehting I'm not gonna do it. Something that I regret NOT doing is chllenging myself to be more out going for example with some people I wouldn't want to ask them for there interviewes so our group didn't get a lot. I had a great time in post-seesion because I got to know people that I never imagined that I would talk to them. Another thing is that I'm not shy like I used to be and I'm really glad that I got this post-session. Before thispost-session I was a type of person that if you talked to and If didn't know you I wouldn't talk to you because I would be really shy ,But since I got this post-session I overcame my shyness.

~*Walnut Creek*~

In walnut creek there was alot of restaurants in every street. People we nice and were willling to get interviewed. The streets were really clean there was no gum in the ground. The most race that I seen was caucasian people. It was sort of easy to get interviews because people weren't busy and were not shy to talk. I felt like if I didn't fit in because I was another race and people would look at us weird. There was free buses that you could ride in Oakland you have to pay to get on the bus I think that it's cool that it's free. There was no tagging in the walls. People were eating healthy in Walnut Creek. It was cool going to another community and learning more about it. In Walnut Creek the cloth was very expensive and there was a Tiffany's jewelry place were its really expensive.

~*The Castro District of San Francisco*~

On our way to The Castro District of San francisco we seen a lot of rainbow flags. When we were walking around the streets to ask people for interviews they were nice and were willing to do it. Our group went into a store and a man came out and said, "are you grown-ups" and we were like no and he said, you can't be here". It was easy to get interviews in San Francisco I think that it was easier in San Francisco beause people weren't busy. The streets in San Francisco were dirty there was gum in the floor lots of it. In the eveninng we went to San Francisco park it was clean and there was a lot of things to do for example swing,play in the sand and fo down the slides I had a lot of fun. In mission streets there was a lot of homeless people the streets were full of trash and there was a lot of tagging in the walls. They have a lot of fast food places. San Francisco was nominated one of the healthiest place. There is a lot of people that seem healthy. I seen a lot of people running and eating healthy food. I think that there doing a good job on watching there weight.

Lakeshore & The Oakland Rose garden

On our way to Lakeshore I never thought that it was going to be that hard to get interviewed. When we walked around the streets people looked at us kind off weird. We went into stores and asked people but they said that they were busy or they weren't the right person to ask the questions to. We got rejected a lot of times so I gave up I said to myself whats the point of trying if were going to get rejected. The streets in Lakeshore were much cleaner than in Oakland. They had a lot of places to go have lunch, dinner or breakfast. Something else that I noticed was that there was a lot of green spaces. When we were walking to go see the Rose garden there were rocks built into a cactus,flowers,and more other things.It was cool how they had designed it. We also went to a Rose garden that had a lot of different roses and the were different colors they smelled good. The weird thing from it is that you can get married its designed really nice. They also had a name thing were they put the name of a mom's name. There were still names that needed to be added.

Old Oakland

On Friday we went to farmers market we got to see what they sold we interviewed people about the diversity. They told as that that the most diversity that wen to the farmers market were Chinese people. One man told us that on Friday people would come from Richmond earl in the morning and do there groceries. It was fun people were giving out free food and everybody was willing to get interviewed. In the evening we went to lake Merritt we got on paddling boats we had a lot of fun. Even though I got sunburned. In farmers market they were selling organic food an dall kinds of vegetables. We stayed on the boats almost for an hour. At first I didn't want to do it because i was scared,But at the last minute I decided to go on the boat and have fun. In farmers market there was people playing jazz music it was cool because we got to listen to them play. They had a lot of things to do there.

Rockridge Fieldtrip

On our way to RockRidge it seemed different from Oakland because the streets seemed cleaner and and there was a lot of Caucasian people. They were nice and most of them were willing to get interviewed. In every street there were restaurants.There were different types of food there was Mexican food,Chinese food,pizza and sushi too. But the food seemed very expensive.There weren't any fast food places that you could go to. On our way to lunch we seen Wendy's. It was easier in Rockridge because everybody would say yes and wouldn't reject us.One reason that it was easier was because people weren't busy or in a hurry. When we asked people about what they thought about fast food they said,"that they didn't eat it because it was unhealthy for your body". Something that i liked about Rockridge was that people were nice and didn't look at you like if you didn't fit in. I had a good time there because we got to learn different things about Rockridge for example people's opinion about food. There was a man and a lady and they were at a restaurant eating and we asked them about fast food.They said that they didn't like fast food the lady said that she ate two salads because she loved them. I was impressed because if you come to Oakland not everybody is going to be eating healthy food.

What I like 'bout Oakland?

Something that I like about oakland is that its a cool place to live at. Especially if you lived there all your life. I guess that i like oakland because i was raised in oakland for 13 years.I used to live in the 90'z but i moved because my parents said that it was a dangerous place to live at and there was to much violence. There was a lot of gangs were we lived at and my parents were scared that my brother might join them and follow bad steps. I knew everybody from were i lived at and i understand that the gang members get into gang because they need love and someone to care for, they do this to because there parents don't support them and they know there friends from the gangs are going to be there for them whenever they need they, but in most casesgang members get killed. And if you make a mistake you learn from it and know not to make the same mistake again.

Chinatown Reflection

The perceptions that I had before going to Chinatown were that it was going to be easy to get interviews and people were going to be nicer and willing to get interviewed. Yes, It did change on our way to Chinatown people seemed really busy and some of the Asian people didn't know how to speak English they had a hard time talking. When we walked through people some of the people looked at us weird, we would want to ask them but they would walk faster and said that they were in a hurry. The major differences between Chinatown and Fruitvale were that in Fruitvale people were willing to do It. One reason that I think that they were willing to get interviewed was because we were the same race and got along. And in Chinatown we weren't the same race and people thought that we were going to do something to them. Probably because we weren't Asian. The suprises that I had in Chinatown were that I didn't know people were going to get along in Chinatown everybody did when they were grocery shopping they would talk to each even though they didn't know them. The similarties that I noticed were that some people were nice and kind. Another similarity was that everybody got along with each other.

Reflection about Fruitvale

My experiences between Fruitvale and Walnut Creek are that in Fruitvale it was harder because we got rejected a lot. But in Walnut Creek we didn't get rejected a lot because we didnt ask a lot of people for interviews. Why I think that it was harder was in Fruitvale people were bussy or they were shy. Another reason that it was harder in Fruitvale was that people didn't want there voices to be recorded. Because when we went up to them we asked them if we could interview them and they said ''yes'' but when they seen the voice recorder they changed there mind and said "never mind". The new things that I learned about our community are that some people say that graffiti is nothing wrong because its art, but tagging is bad because they just put whatever in the walls for example were they live at or gang signs. Some positive things from fruitvale are some people were nice and they cared about their community. Another positive thing was that people were being honest and respectful. Some negative aspects are the streets are dirty and some people don't care about there own community they just throw the thrash in the ground. Something that I learned about my topic(aesthetics)are that people want to help out there community but other people just go and destroy it.

Welcome!

Hey, Vanessa! Welcome to blogger!