Last year ASUCD tried to CUT over $20,000 of funding to Native American Culture Days, Black Family Week, Mixed Heritage Week, UCD Powwow, Danzantes Del Alma, La Raza Cultural Days, Asian Pacific Culture Week, REACH Retreat, API Leadership Retreat, Black Leadership Retreat, Chicano/Latino Leadership Retreat, Queer Leadership Retreat, Cross Cultural Center Programming, Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Resource Center Programming, Filipin@ Graduation Celebration, Black Graduation Celebration, Native Graduation Celebration, Lavender Graduation Celebration, Muslim Graduation Celebration, Chican@/Latin@ Graduation Celebration, and South East Asian Graduation Celebration.
During debates the Senate candidates were asked to raise their hands if they would pledge to NOT reinstate these unnecessary cuts. The photo speaks for itself. If you identify with any of these communities, or consider yourself an ally to any of them, then please ensure the future of these events by voting SMART #1-5 now at www.elections.ucdavis.edu! The future of our campus is in your hands! Vote Olivia Wiley Brown, Armando Figueroa, Alyson Noele Sagala, Kirby Araullo, and Lee Lo today! Polls close Friday at 8 a.m. so take 30 seconds to vote for the candidates in the red t-shirts! And you can help get out the vote and inform students about who they’re voting for by reblogging this, talking to your friends, and voting SMART!
I seriously love my classes this quarter. Besides Intro to Computers (a prereq which thankfully only sucks the soul out of my life for six to seven hours a week), everything is absolutely amazing. RHAT and PEACE trainer trainings are going well and are surprisingly fun, especially considering they stretch my Wednesdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. without a break. Hindi/Urdu class is super chill and it’s really nice to be able to catch up with friends and have some sort of a brown life on a daily basis. Cultural and Political Economy of Contemporary China is just wonderful – Professor Zhang is great, the TA is great, class discussion is great, the readings are great, and it just makes me really look forward to more upper divisions. And ohmygosh don’t get me started on World History – Professor El Shakry is THEBESTEVER. I am in love with her and that class ohmygosh I cannot even begin to explain how happy that class makes me. I’ve never really loved history class (eighth grade was kinda cool I guess), although occasionally I’d spend a few hours on Wikipedia reading articles of questionable accuracy about random historical events but ahhhh this class makes me so excited! I get there early to grab a seat in the front! Who does that??!!? Class ended ten minutes early today and I wanted El Shakry to keep talking! I’m seriously considering squeezing one or two of her upper div classes into my schedule some time even though they won’t fulfill major requirements (unless I petition). I DON’T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO ME EITHER! Basically, if you go to Davis, take HIS 10C with El Shakry at some point in your years here. Now back to readings~
Police pepper spraying and arresting students at UC Davis, November 18, 2011.
Brie, blueberries, Goldfish, pita chips, Orangina, and two hours of quality conversation.
My floor watched “(500) Days of Summer” at around 9:30 (the guys included, and they love it!) and it was so, so chill because we rearranged all the lounge furniture in a semi-circle around a flat screen and video game/DVD player system that one of the awesome gamer girls on my floor brought to game with and had blankets and pillows and popcorn going around and it was a good evening!
Then at 11 (quiet hours) H, M, L, J, K and I (ahaha that spells HIJKLM which isn’t even a word but is the letters in order!) went and just chilled and talked about so much. These girls are unbelievably intelligent and all their different backgrounds and experiences just make for absolutely amazing discussions. We talked about people we met and the frat parties and the whole rush scene, Frisbee, broken bones, wisdom teeth extraction, and figuring out shower routines, but also about the Walmart v. Dukes case (Gov Team!!), the origins of HIV and how the perception of the disease and the gay community could have been totally different, political and economic systems around the world, monkeys and chimpanzees (apparently Davis has one of the largest monkey-lab research facilities (IDR the name) but it’s hardly talked about) and the ethics of animal testing, gay rights and separation of church and state, aftermath of the Japan earthquake/tsunami, and waaay more that I can’t remember.
I don’t like to generalize an “MV mentality” but I keep drawing comparisons to how college is similar to or different from high school, and one of the things that jumped out at me tonight was how at ease all of us were when it came to talking about “intellectual” things together. I was at the middle of the pack at the very best tonight when it came to world and scientific knowledge and overall we had varying knowledge of our various topics of discussion but there wasn’t any of this intellectual “one-upping” that I feel like took place a ton at MV. We all just got so wrapped up in it and only realized at almost 2 a.m. that we should probably head back to our rooms.
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Something not absolutely awesome that happened just now is that since I’m too lazy to go wash my mug out at this time I had some more rice milk in the same mug from earlier today and I definitely felt something semi-solid (did I shake the carton?) but it tasted okay plus I only opened it yesterday so eh, all is well!
I’m leaving tomorrow. I’m going to college. It’s been a long summer, and it feels good to know that I’m going somewhere, even if it is only two hours away. Packing was a pain in the arse and it wasn’t so much the constant sneezing from allergies as much as realizing that I was packing my entire life up into boxes and suitcases and garbage bags and that there was more permanence to this than all the field trips and family vacations of the past combined that made me mopey. Now six hours later, I realize how dramatic I was being. Multiple family friends visited, I lazed around and discussed life and future plans and worries and how I’m going to go crazy in college (LOL) with C & C, and it was all just all kinds of lovely, and I know I’ll have home here always. My home, my other home-away-from-home — it’s right here and it’ll always be here for me.
On a tangent… I wrote four letters this summer and then I just couldn’t write any more without getting overly sentimental (hah). I was hoping to get them done before tonight but yay for snail mail! I have the cutest stationery box ever ^__^ and Forever stamps!
Cupertino, à bientôt… see you soon.
Love always,
Kriti
Skyped with my roomie (she’s bringing her pet hermit crab! and we might get a beta fish!) and hung out with “old” ASB (henceforth DJ Kayke) on Google Plus (more like, I tried to listen and watch while having to reconnect about a dozen times, hello FWP).
I’m quite looking forward to college!
As usual, I was procrastinating like craycray so even though I leave for school in less than two weeks (whaaatttt) I still hadn’t practiced riding a bike. I hadn’t biked since about fifth grade if memory serves right and I was TOTALLY
about riding a bike — with roundabouts — and a backpack — with a laptop in it — without falling — or otherwise making a fool of myself — gawdstupidfreshman!
Anyway, apparently upperclassmen sit in those comfy beach/lawn chairs near the roundabouts (is that even the right word for those circle things like the one in the middle of Paris except for bikes and not cars?) and laugh at all the poor little freshmen who can’t bike for shit. AKA, yours truly.
But, I really do have the best friends ever! Enter Craig and Christina who so graciously offered to save me from aforementioned awksauce moments and taught me how to ride a bike! Turns, gears, brake stuff, chain stuff, and even SLOPES! And I even went on a legitimate ROAD AKA I CROSSED STEVENS CREEK AND DIDN’T DIE! We went all the way to MV and I felt like a cool kid.
(And note to self: You better frickin’ teach your kids how to ride a bike as soon as they can CRAWL.)
And then I went out for a family dinner and had the most amazing pad thai and vegetable coconut soup and absolutely divine green tea sticky rice with mango ice cream dessert and now I’m so, so stuffed.
And don’t forget snail mail :)
