Life in Vancouver so far has been interesting, in fact, it has been inspiring.
I go to classes, I go to places, I'm learning, experiencing new things, having fun...etc.
Life here is relaxing, I'm allowed to come to my senses. Recently when i play the piano, new melody flowed through my fingertips, when I'm humming, new melody came out, just like that. I'm visiting breath taking places, taking beautiful pictures, allowing myself to shink into the beauty of life. Honestly, I'm still overwhelmed of being here and i cant have enough of it.
I'm happy that i have a chance to be in between arts and commerce. Being a commerce student, we are trained or taught in thinking in a certain way, I cant say what the way is...if you observe closely, you can almost see or sense a pattern of our thinking.
I like arts. Arts courses that I'm taking like anthropology allows me to think in a different way.
Life living in a house with friends are comfortable. I never thought of living outside campus back in USM because the thought of cramping in a small apartment with at least 6 other ppl is scary, but here we have our own rooms, our own space and most of all, our own kitchen!! So although its a bit pricey but its a price I'm willing to pay.
Autumn here is beautiful! The weather is not too cold yet, the leaves are still changing color, there's still sunny days...get the picture?? ^^
Time flies when you're having a good time, only two more months before we have to go back to reality, not that i'm complaining but those who are doing exchange, you know what I mean..;)
I'll see you guys soon.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Race & Gender Indentity
I started to have interest in culture since I became a Buddy Student 2 years ago,
I'm fascinated by how different cultures can be so when I saw the culture anthropology course offered by UBC, I took it.
and now, I'm loving it although I'm positive I wont get an A out of it but I'm having fun.
Cultural anthropology has opened up my mind to a whole different perspective that I never knew existed.
Last week was about race and this week, we're discussing gender identity.
I'm sure most of us think that gender, like race, is biological determined. Yes, men and women are biological different in the body structure way, but basically, that's the about it.
Those so called " masculinity and femininity" are not biological related, those are the labels society put on us, stereotyping and determining how men and women should behave that men should be masculine and women should be feminine.
That men are generally aggressive, overpowering women and women are generally passive and caring and should stay home and do household work but gender identities are vastly different in various societies, we just couldn't care less.
Nowadays, with feminist movement getting stronger and more women's voice are heard doesn't mean that we women should be grateful that we are born into this generation because all humans have both masculine and feminine qualities, just that we are brought up to behave in a certain way that fits the norm of the society, behaviour that is acceptable. The difference is the difference in rights, back in the male dominance society, women are shaped into behaving how men wanted us to behave, women were considered the weaker gender. Women who are strong and independent were not acceptable because they are threats to the male species.
Who determines how we should behave as a woman, we can be both feminine and strong at the same time, look at Hilary Clinton!!
The point is, how we behave are strongly shaped by culture,masculinity and femininity has nothing to do with biology. The same thing goes with race, race is just a border created by society to categorise people into different groups but biologically speaking, race doesnt exist.
Those characteristics that we think only certain races have are strongly shaped by their culture.
That some race is just born lazy and uncivilized or some race is just born more superior than others, these are all stereotypes. One of my classmates boyfriend is a Korean, he was born as a korean by adopted by a canadian family since he was 8 months old, he was raised like a white man, he doesnt speak korean, he's nothing like a Korean except the way he looks. Its undeniable that we look different, we have different skin color, facial structure etc but those are caused by geographic difference.
Human origin traces back to Africa, people migrated and started to mutate accordingly to environment in order to survive but that's about it. Race is rather an idea that we prescribe to biology but genetically we are among the most similar species, even flies are more genetically differently among themselves than we do!!!
We are obviously different, but saying that we are born different and race is in our gene, or men and women are just born to behave differently or men and women just have different qualities, these assumptions are as absurd as saying the planet is flat.
Think about it.
Aint my course fascinating??? ^^
I'm fascinated by how different cultures can be so when I saw the culture anthropology course offered by UBC, I took it.
and now, I'm loving it although I'm positive I wont get an A out of it but I'm having fun.
Cultural anthropology has opened up my mind to a whole different perspective that I never knew existed.
Last week was about race and this week, we're discussing gender identity.
I'm sure most of us think that gender, like race, is biological determined. Yes, men and women are biological different in the body structure way, but basically, that's the about it.
Those so called " masculinity and femininity" are not biological related, those are the labels society put on us, stereotyping and determining how men and women should behave that men should be masculine and women should be feminine.
That men are generally aggressive, overpowering women and women are generally passive and caring and should stay home and do household work but gender identities are vastly different in various societies, we just couldn't care less.
Nowadays, with feminist movement getting stronger and more women's voice are heard doesn't mean that we women should be grateful that we are born into this generation because all humans have both masculine and feminine qualities, just that we are brought up to behave in a certain way that fits the norm of the society, behaviour that is acceptable. The difference is the difference in rights, back in the male dominance society, women are shaped into behaving how men wanted us to behave, women were considered the weaker gender. Women who are strong and independent were not acceptable because they are threats to the male species.
Who determines how we should behave as a woman, we can be both feminine and strong at the same time, look at Hilary Clinton!!
The point is, how we behave are strongly shaped by culture,masculinity and femininity has nothing to do with biology. The same thing goes with race, race is just a border created by society to categorise people into different groups but biologically speaking, race doesnt exist.
Those characteristics that we think only certain races have are strongly shaped by their culture.
That some race is just born lazy and uncivilized or some race is just born more superior than others, these are all stereotypes. One of my classmates boyfriend is a Korean, he was born as a korean by adopted by a canadian family since he was 8 months old, he was raised like a white man, he doesnt speak korean, he's nothing like a Korean except the way he looks. Its undeniable that we look different, we have different skin color, facial structure etc but those are caused by geographic difference.
Human origin traces back to Africa, people migrated and started to mutate accordingly to environment in order to survive but that's about it. Race is rather an idea that we prescribe to biology but genetically we are among the most similar species, even flies are more genetically differently among themselves than we do!!!
We are obviously different, but saying that we are born different and race is in our gene, or men and women are just born to behave differently or men and women just have different qualities, these assumptions are as absurd as saying the planet is flat.
Think about it.
Aint my course fascinating??? ^^
Saturday, October 18, 2008
1st term paper
Just came back from my anthro tutorial,
Just got back my 1st term paper,
luckily Brent (my TA) doesnt used red pen to mark our papers, or else mine will be full with red ink.
Damn.
A solid B i got, mainly because i misinterpret one of the articles.
and also because my writing is not clean (tht's wat Brent said in the comment he gave me)
Damn.
YOu might say a B is pretty good,
well...i expected better.
Yesterday was my spanish midterm exam,
espanol es no dificil pero no facil tambien!
Ok. Done with the dissapointment,
Moving on!
Just got back my 1st term paper,
luckily Brent (my TA) doesnt used red pen to mark our papers, or else mine will be full with red ink.
Damn.
A solid B i got, mainly because i misinterpret one of the articles.
and also because my writing is not clean (tht's wat Brent said in the comment he gave me)
Damn.
YOu might say a B is pretty good,
well...i expected better.
Yesterday was my spanish midterm exam,
espanol es no dificil pero no facil tambien!
Ok. Done with the dissapointment,
Moving on!
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Result of Boredom
I was supposed to be reading the assigned article for friday's presentation,
but naturally, I got bored so I went playing with my camera, and got the image i always wanted! hhehehee...
Result as display :
but naturally, I got bored so I went playing with my camera, and got the image i always wanted! hhehehee...
Result as display :
I know the images look familiar, i was inspired by the Nokia ad year ago cause i like it so damn much.
p/s: I was just trying to make my blog look more "meriah" a bit with the hunky lecturer post,
looks like it works and no, im not fantasizing bout the lecturer,yiew~~~
A Day in Class with my Hunky Lecturer
"Sept 17nd, 3.40pm.
Prof Gardillo is lecturing in front of the class with his usual deep low key tone. Prof Gardillo, my anthropology lecturer that looks a lot like the taller, tanner, better looking Jack Black, even though he has a tummy that looks a lot like Jack Black's. A few student in front me with their MacBooks are all doing everything else but listening to him, chatting on msn, reading wikipedia...etc. I'm clearly no better since Im paying more attention to them rather than to that Jack Black look alike.
Obviously, im in another state of mind cause I have no idea what he's yapping about, something to do with culture and his field work somewhere...Look around, no many is paying attention either. Hell, Im writing to keep myself awake in the middle of the class.
Dont' get me wrong, not that he's not a good lecturer, in fact, he's a damn good one and I enjoy his class.
Ok.Now he got my attention, he just mentioned some tribe called Baruya where elder men and younger men in the tribe get together in a ritual to drink each other's semen. It is said to keep the power and the manliness of men to themselves, not to lose them to the woman. They don't have sex often with the women too for the same reason.
Aint my class interesting??!!
Now I'm paying attention. and so as everyone else. "
Last week he showed us some of his earlier pictures during his undergraduate time when he was doing his field work at some remote tribe between Paraguay and Argentina. He was a hottie alright, with more than a few pounds off, no Jack Black tummy yet and he's an Argentinian. ; )
Whoosh..HOT!
Prof Gardillo is lecturing in front of the class with his usual deep low key tone. Prof Gardillo, my anthropology lecturer that looks a lot like the taller, tanner, better looking Jack Black, even though he has a tummy that looks a lot like Jack Black's. A few student in front me with their MacBooks are all doing everything else but listening to him, chatting on msn, reading wikipedia...etc. I'm clearly no better since Im paying more attention to them rather than to that Jack Black look alike.
Obviously, im in another state of mind cause I have no idea what he's yapping about, something to do with culture and his field work somewhere...Look around, no many is paying attention either. Hell, Im writing to keep myself awake in the middle of the class.
Dont' get me wrong, not that he's not a good lecturer, in fact, he's a damn good one and I enjoy his class.
Ok.Now he got my attention, he just mentioned some tribe called Baruya where elder men and younger men in the tribe get together in a ritual to drink each other's semen. It is said to keep the power and the manliness of men to themselves, not to lose them to the woman. They don't have sex often with the women too for the same reason.
Aint my class interesting??!!
Now I'm paying attention. and so as everyone else. "
Last week he showed us some of his earlier pictures during his undergraduate time when he was doing his field work at some remote tribe between Paraguay and Argentina. He was a hottie alright, with more than a few pounds off, no Jack Black tummy yet and he's an Argentinian. ; )
Whoosh..HOT!
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