Itchy Brown Girl.

It's been 2 or 3 months since Ella deCastro Baron(Itchy Brown Girl) presented in  front of my class. I've been reading her book since then. I had in front of me a person who has fallen from the top of a huge cascade and survived, and yet I didn't asked her questions related to the book when I had the opportunity; I want to snap at my face so hard. The good thing is that I have her signature in my book.

My favorite readings in her book are "Archipelago"(where she falls from the top of the cascade, and her inheritable skin disease, eczema, starts awakening in her recovery), "Jesus Action Figure"(kind of funny having an action figure of Jesus manufactured in China), and "The Belle Curve"( it made me kind of angry knowing there was such a grading system in California. Limited number of students who can have an A; there was always 1-2 geniuses in each class, meaning there  is no incentive in improving your grade if the same bunch of students get the A's).

This book has been a big deal to me, because my english teacher once said that the book' passages were like big blogs. I could take a tip or two from the passages. Ella has written poems, some food recipees, and her experiences dealing with her eczema. I could write about halo halo, egg soup, my worst experiences, and my best experiences. 

I treasure my Itchy Brown Girl book, the fact that she keeps strong and move forward after her painful attacks of eczema is admirable. Hope she comes back to Southwestern College soon. This time I'm prepared to ask her questions about the book.

Here is a video of what eczema is, and some possible home remedies:

Silent Sacrifices

I went to a rehearsal and watched a video called "Silent Sacrifices". I listened and watched many Filipinos and Filipino Americans' bad experiences:

• A teenage Filipina was bad at school, but she couldn't say that to her parents, they would surely reply,"Why are you not good at school, school should be easy".
• A teenage Filipino was expected to repair the damaged pipes and other domestic staff, even though he didn't liked to do it.
• From an article that was being passed through the class, I read about a teenage Filipina who wanted to commit suicide because her father forbade her to phone her boyfriend.

I have a classmate whose parents pushed him to do his best, though this expectation became a heavy stressor. Another fellow classmate had parents who worked in 4 different jobs and worked for 14 hours a day the whole week, including weekends. The lack of attention and communication left an empty space that can't be filled in one's heart. Even my PD-100 teacher had bad experiences with her mother.

The cases I listened to were caused by parents with high expectations for their children, parents who lacked communication with their sons and daughters, or authoritarian parents who exhibited excessive control over their children. 

 

Then the next question stroke my mind," What would you do if you were a parent right now? How many hours should I spend with my children? Is it really good to work as many hours as I can? How can I become I supportive father? What shall I do to prevent my children from committing suicide? 

I've never though of being a parent before.Thinking about myself, I am at the age of having kids, many people at my age are already parents, my identity as Raul the son and student could become as Raul the father in a couple of years. By analyzing the bad experiences I listened to, I gained advice on how to have a good relationship with my kids if I become a father, that is what I took for granted out from this experience.

My Best Presentation Ever.

I can't believe it, my team group presentation in the Personal Development-100 class(PD-100) was a huge success. I though for a second that I was going to mess up, and fortunately it ended being pretty entertaining.

3 weeks before the presentation, I was in a rush giving the final touches to my part because I believed that my team group was next to present, so I spent all night long practicing in front of a mirror and measured my time as well. Though it wasn't for my time to present that week, I kept analyzing the other group presentations.

I sweared to myself not to use flash cards at all. I wanted 100% eye contact with the audience. The parts I most enjoyed from each presentation were the group activities because these activities connected the presenters with their audience, the learning was more interactive that way, and everyone would feel as being part of the presentation instead of just listening and wait for the presentation to finish. I wanted at least 2 activities in my presentation.The pure thought of making my friends and the teacher dance aerobics was pretty hilarious indeed.

 2 days before my group presentation, I took the Fralick Ch.12 quiz on blackboard(the chapter my team was going to present), and it occurred to me to make a question activity about the concepts in the chapter. My team partners agreed with this exercise. Whoever answered the question correctly would receive a Gansito(little snack cakes). The Gansito worked as an incentive for the audience to put attention. That way, my fellow classmates would have no trouble when taking the chapter quiz on blackboard. 

In summary, my team made the students do aerobics for 2 minutes, we putted the audience to close their eyes and to make some relaxing breath exercises, and finally provided the question activity. Everybody liked it. Sometimes when I close my eyes, I go back to that moment of satisfaction, my first successful and the best presentation I ever made in college.

The First Day Of Class.

"Why would a Latino like me would get interested in a class which focuses primary on Filipino American history?", those were my thoughts before crashing into the course.

My original intentions were to get classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays only, and the only English class(ENG-114) available was Mr. Haronson's class. I tried to submit into the class in webadvisor, but the computer would send me a message that I needed a permit from the instructor. That was weird. I went to the Cesar Chavez building for some clarification and they informed me that I was required to get into Ms. Abuan's PD-100 course and join something called the Bayan community if I ever wanted to join Mr. Haronson's ENG-114 course. I would end up taking classes from Mondays through Fridays, and I became a little disappointed based on my first intentions.

Besides, both classes would focus on Filipino American history, I'm a Latino, why would I get interested in Filipino American history?( At that time I was more interested in the Mexican political history due to the Mexican elections this past summer, 2012). I just wanted an ENG-114 course, pass it , and be done with it.

2 weeks passed and I became curious about the class, I got out of bed and went to school that first Monday. There were people inside, everyone kind of quiet at first. I took a seat, and the class started. The 2 instructors executed some "break-the-ice" exercises like rock-paper-scissors and talk-to-the-person-next-to-you, and the mood in the room became kind of friendly. It was just the first day of class and I got to meet 5 classmates! This was fun. The course was not just about Filipino American culture, it also promoted communication between students and instructors.

The class wasn't what I expected, I needed units, and I would get into 2 of the best courses I have ever taken. It was a win-win choice.

Later on, I learned that Filipinos and Mexicans were both colonized by Spain(something I have in common with them), and I also learned the painful stories of Filipinos being victims of racism in America, how some Filipinos gained colonial mentality, and how their history is kind of ignored. Filipino American history was more interesting than I thought, I reflected about my ignorance, and wondered why Filipino American history wasn't taught in my world cultures class in high school.

"I Must", "I Want".

Since I learned  how the power of words work, I had made attempts to switch my writing duties from a "must" to a "want". The power of words functions like a ladder, having the"must" word as the lowest level, having the word "want" in the middle, and having the words"I promise" at the top of the ladder; the closest to the top, the more likely you will do what you say. Must of the writings I do are made to turn them in for a better grade, so my writing duties are a "must"(I must do this).

I can't change drastically from a must to a promise, so my current target is to move my statements into "I want to do this" statements. My attempts are to make me feel the same sensation in the writing like when I do one of my hobbies like playing card games or soccer. That way I can instinctively think, "I want to do this", and  writing would be a much easier task to do. Here are some examples I made by pouring my hobbies in the paragraphs:

Finally the enemy, accompanied with a variety of creatures and species, appeared in the front line. The battle was ready to initiate, my rats were eager for skulls, and my Di Jinns were ready to blow up the foe's eardrums by playing their cursed music.(yu-gi-oh).

Raul barely touches the ball. The Loco has fooled him. The Loco keeps moving. Indio rushes chases after Loco. Indio takes the ball. Loco is chasing after Indio. INDIO CHARGES IN, and, anD, AND, GOOOOALL! GOoolazo, aza, azo.(soccer).

By appliyng the "I want technique" I hope to improve not just in english, but with all my classes as well. Doing what you have to do is better done if you want to do it.

Awckward Dream.

There was a period of time when I felt stressed by just stepping into my college english class because I didn't posted my homework blogs, and I experienced one ackward dream in one of those nights.

We had to do 2 blogposts as homework.I planned both blogs and went to the Academic Success Center(ASC) after my last class. I wrote and wrote. I noticed that I lost my binder on my way to the ASC. I ran outside, keeping an eagle eye as I moved. As I was running I felt the texture of the grass under my toes, my feet were naked and covered with mud, and then I realized that my shoes have banished. 

Fortunately, I found my binder on a seat near the bookstore and rushed to the ASC, hoping to find a bathroom to clean my feet. It never crossed my mind that there were no bathrooms in the ASC, but when I got there the place was completely different; huge space in the entrance room, the walls were painted of bright orange and not grey as it usually was, and apparently there were bathrooms inside the building.

The place looked more like a hotel rather than a place to receive tutoring. For a strange reason I went into the bathroom near the golden fish fountain, the girls bathroom. As I was cleaning my feet, I noticed some girls were in a yakoozi, the rest wore a white towel. It felt normal, no girls looked weird at me by being in the girls bathroom, I watched a mirror and discovered that I was converted into a girl. After a moment, I went out of the bathroom and my figure was the same as usual, I was a man back again.What the hell is happening?

I spent the rest of the day writing, revising, and posting 4 blogs in my computer. Even I had prepared 2 new writings to put as blogs for the next week's assingments. I got out of the hotel-like ASC buliding and went home when complete darkness of night covered the sky.

I was in my bed when I woke up, discovered I had an awkward dream, and remembered that I hadn't started to write the 2 blogs at all.

F In Disguise

May 2011.

I deserved an F and not a D. Should I be happy or sad?

My high school graduation was approaching and I was 100% sure I had a fat F grade for precalculus. I would like to have a D(the D grade was a bad passable grade in high school, but still it was a passable grade). In a week of May, the math teacher gave us a study guide for the finals,"If you guys turn that study guide back to me, I'll rise your grades by one letter". Shoot, this was my opportunity to rise my grade, but to finish the study guide was a great task. It was like reading in a strange language based mostly in numbers.

In the end, I didn't turn the study guide back. Finals came in and I scored close to 50%. In the day for receiving grades, for some reason, I got the D letter on my post card. I was perplexed about how my grade raised up, and I asked the teacher for an explanation.

"Are you complainning with me because  you want to receive a lower grade?, he asked. I kept silent. Well, at least I passed the class, right? I should be proud of myself.

 I was not happy at all.I didn't deserved that D.

Later on, based on a conversation I had with another teacher, it resulted that the current school director was pushing the teachers to put better grades on the students' post cards. The director wanted to look good in front of the parents' students. After knowing this fact, I was sure that my D was not real. I still have regrets of accepting that undeserved D. That D was an ugly F in disguise.