After completing my Ted Talk presentation and hearing feedback from my peers, I feel confident in my work. I was told that I was articulate, had good slides, and overall a well-organized presentation and flow. I felt that I started off with a decent analogy (comparing the original distaste for sound movies with the years of discrimmination towards multiracial people. While the Ted Talk was very good in my opinion, there still are a few things that I could have done better. I feel like I was a little rushed and spoke very quickly; I also think that I could have prepared for the presentation a little better. Besides those two elements, I believe that I created a decent Ted Talk about the paradigm shift of multiracial people in the United States.
For the History of a Public Controversy video, I have a few ideas. I think it would be interesting to create a video about the drug/opiod epidemic in America. The United States has spent billions of dollars on the war on drugs. Although the United States has been involved with fighting Mexican and Colombian drug cartels, the flow of drugs into our country has continued to grow; we are also the number one market for drugs in the world. I think analyzing how the world’s biggest junkie spends so much to fight against a business with such a high demand would make a great presentation. It would also be interesting to look at the opiod crisis and how pharmaceutical companies can profit off of the pill addictions of millions of Americans while still maintaining the front of a regular business. Like the Super Size documentary, this would cover an issue that affects millions of Americans and is brokered by legal businesses.
During my time in Barcelona, my friends and I went to Italy for a weekend. Although we were only there for a few days, I still thoroughly enjoyed the trip and got to see many wonderful things that the country had to offer.
First, we flew into Florence. After checking into our hostel, we walked to a local market for dinner. I got to eat authentic Florentine pizza and got have a nice glass of wine with my dinner. Following that lovely meal, my friends and I went to the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge). On the bridge, we had a beautiful view of the arno river and the surrounding buildings. The next day, we wandered around the city exploring the local shops and culture. I got to see the Florence Cathedral and was in awe of its structural and artistic beauty. We eventually found ourselves in a bodega (wine shop). My friends and I got to sip authentic Italian wine while having a breath-taking view of the hills. After that, we walked to the top of a large hill that overlooked the city. We met some other Americans there and ended up hanging out with them that night.
Our flight back to Spain was through Pisa, so the next day we took a train to Pisa. The train ride through the countryside was very enjoyable as I got to stare out the window and see the beautiful Italian countryside. After the arrival to Pisa, I got to climb the Leaning Tower of Pisa; I won’t lie, it was kind of a hike but the view at the top was worth it. I felt like a bird; I could see the whole city and the surrounding hills and trees. Following this, my friends and I went to the airport for our flight back to Barcelona. We got to see three cities in one day (Florence, Pisa, and Barcelona). Although the visit was short, I can say that I loved every minute of it and that I would love to go back.
What I loved about Florence and Pisa is how authentically Italian the cities are. There are no skyscrapers or large buildings and the roads are barely wide enough for cars to drive. The people are friendly and of course the food is amazing. The city seems like it has barely changed over the last few hundred years. Italy has a traditional and very rustic vibe that I enjoyed and believe that many others would enjoy too.
This link will take you to the slides that I have made for this presentation. I tried to keep the slides simple and attention grabbing, but may continue to make slight edits before uploading my Ted Talk.
After staying in Spain for a month, I ventured another 14 hours across the globe to Thailand. This is the second country that I have visited in Asia, after China (not considering layovers in Qatar and Tokyo). I was very excited to return to Asia and see the many beautiful things Thailand had to offer.
After landing in Bangkok, I reunited with some of my previous group members at the airport. After dropping our bags off at the hotel, we went on a boat tour through the city on the Chao Phraya river. After the boat ride, we continued to walk through the city and tried some authentic Thai food. Something that surprised me is that Thai people typically don’t use chopsticks for food other than noodles; I also hit my head several times when walking into restaraunts, as the average heigh is 5′ 5.9″ for males. We visited several temples within Bangkok; as a predominantly Buddhist country, Thailand has over 40k temples. At one of these temples, a I received a yellow bracelet from a monk; it was supposed to bring good luck and I have not removed it since. On our last day in Bangkok, we visited the mall. It was at least 7 stories and even had a movie theatre.
After Bangkok, we took a train to Chiang Mai, a city in northern Thailand. We then drove a few hours to an elephant rehabilitation center called Elephant Valley. For 5 days, I worked at the valley cleaning up elephant droppings (did not actually smell that bad), bathing elephants, and helping to plant grass for them to eat. Being this close to such large yet majestic creatures was a fascinating experience. Every morning, I would wake up and see an elephant. We got to see them eat, sleep, and play around in the water. I will never forget this amazing experience around these incredible animals.
Finally, we drove a few more hours north to the city of Chiang Rai. We participated in a general tour of the city and visited a few temples. Unfortunately, the trip had to end early because of the coronavirus and I was forced to return home. It was unfortunate because that week, we were supposed to teach Thai kids English and after that, we were supposed to visit the beach at Krabi before reuniting with our other group members at a castle outside of London.
Although I did not get to do everything on my intinerary, I still enjoyed Thailand very much. The weather is hot and humid, but the people are some of the nicest I’ve ever met. Unlike a lot of Asian countries, cars will actually stop when you cross the road. The food is EXTREMELY spicy (our version of spicy is their mild) and the temples are beautiful. Thailand is one of my favorite places that I’ve visited and I hope to return someday to complete the activities that I did not get to do because of coronavirus.
For my paradigm shift project, I have decided to write about the shift in attitudes towards mixed race people in America. As a mixed race person myself, this is a very personal topic and something that I’ve always thought about. Below, I will list some sources that I have found and how they will be constructive towards my paper and presentation. I will continue to find more, and I am very excited to work on this project.
nytimes.com/2011/03/20/us/20race.html
This New York Times article explores the increase of multiracial people in southern Mississippi. It provides percentage numbers of mixed raced people and testimonies from the experiences of mixed race couples. They said that for the most part there weren’t any big issues with their relationship or their children. The article mentioned a shift in attitudes towards mixed race couples and children. What I found most interesting is that the article looks at Mississippi, a deep south state with a history of staunch racism. This article provides solid examples of a paradigm shift with the numbers to back it up.
This article provides a timeline of discrimmination against interacial marriage in America. The dates that it provides span from 1644 to 2000. I think this information could be useful in terms of finding context of the time before the paradigm shift occured.
This Vice article is about the popularity of a social media page called “Mixed Race Babies”. People post pictures of their mixed race children and everyone seems to love it. The article mentions that many advertising companies are looking for mixed race children and how it was such a change from when those kinds of children were labeled as “ethnically ambiguous”. It also talks about how there are still some negative attitudes towars mixed race people as a whole. One woman commented on a picture saying that the mixed race child should have children with a white child so that their babies would be even more beautiful. Overall, this article provides an example of a positive attitude towards mixed race people while also mentioning negative ones.
This article provides advantages to being mixed race and other elements about it that people find fascinating. One in particular is that mixed raced people are perceived as more attractive due to greater facial symmetry. It has personal accounts from mixed race people about their lives and the positive and negative aspects about having parents of two different races.
This was a funny youtube video I found just a few weeks ago and I knew that it could be useful for this project. Mixed race people in the UK explain certain phrases that you shouldn’t ask mixed race people like “Where are you really from?” or “Is that your real mom?”. I laughed because I’d heard a lot of those phrases myself. While they usually stem from harmless curiosity or interest, it does become a little annoying. I heard about the fascination of mixed race babies from this video and the accounts of actual mixed race people provides solid ground for analysis. It also shows that while the attitudes towards mixed race people might be changing, the terminology and racist undertones still exist.
Born a Crime: Trevor Noah
I read this book during my senior year of highschool for personal enjoyment. This book provides a firsthand account into the life of a half-black and half-white child growing up in Apartheid South Africa. The fascinating thing is that Trevor Noah is a relatively young person, meaning that these events didn’t happen that long ago. He mentions how he was classified as a kid, how he struggled to find a racial identity, and how he couldn’t walk too close to his mother or she would be arrested. Although this takes place in South Africa, it is a relatively contemporary account of the challenges that mixed race people used to face. I would definitely suggest reading it, as I couldn’t put it down until I was finished.
Barcelona might be my favorite city that I have ever visited; it is also the first non-American city that I have ever lived in. I spent roughly 5 weeks in this magnificent city immersing myself in the culture. I will never forget the experiences and people I met there.
When I first got to Barcelona, I was still traveling with a large group. We participated in several tours of the city and ate a serrano ham dish. After finishing the group travel, I moved in to an appartment with a host family (as it was the next part of my program); one of my friends from the group also happened to move in with the same host family. Together, we attended a Spanish language school in downtown Barcelona. Every day, we would skateboard to the metro stop and take the metro to school where we had Spanish language and grammar classes. At the school, I met other kids my age from countries around the world including the Netherlands, Poland, Germany, Sweden, Norway, China, Saudi Arabia and many more.
While I was in Barcelona, I visted many of the city’s hallmarks. I saw the Sagrada Familia, a arquitecturally beautiful church that took hundreds of years to build. I also visited the beach several times although it was too cold to swim in. Finally, I climbed to the top of Montserrat, a mountain overlooking the city. At the top, I could see Spain, France, Andorra, the Meditarranean Sea, and the Atlantic Ocean. That view definitely made the two hour uphill hike worth it.
Barcelona is one of the most intricately designed cities in the world. There are no street corners; every block is built more like a hexagon. If you look at an aerial view of the city, you would understand its architectural ingenuity. The city also has two official languages: Spanish and Catalan (although many people speak English too). Catalan is somewhat like a mix of Spanish and French and the region of Catalonia (where Barcelona is located) continues to advocate for its independence from Spain.
I will never forget my time in this wonderful place. It was the longest amount of time that I had ever spent in a foreign country and I enjoyed every second of it. I loved all the cultural differences but also felt at home. If there is one place in this world that I would suggest visiting, its Barcelona.
For this blog post, I watched a Ted Talk about the rise and fall of the Mongol Empire. There were many different elements that led me to choose this specific video and why I enjoyed watching it. First off, I liked how organized the website was; it was very easy to find this video. I also like how there was a brief summary of the video and it gave credit to those involved. Regarding the video itself, I thought the animations were a great way to keep the audience engaged while brining the lecture to a visual medium; they definitely made the history subject of the video cooler but also shows how Ted Talks are willing to connect with the audience. The narration is also very calm yet grabs attention; narration and pace is important when giving any kind of speech and this Ted Talk does it well. Finally, the Ted Talk did a good job of mentioning the good and bad aspects of such a controversial empire like the Mongols; they mentioned how the empire was short-lived and was prone to infighting but also mentioned how trade and culture flourished. Overall, I would say this Ted Talk provided an excellent presentation and provides a good model to follow for this next project. I think this specific one about the Mongols is good because people remember them in good and bad ways; I think that can relate to our project because a paradigm shift can include a change in feelings about a certain civilization and the complex legacy of Genghis Khan and his descendants is prone to such shifts.
I have a few ideas regarding the subject of my paradigm shift project. I’ve always been fascinated as to how gangsters, drug barons, and other organized criminals are portrayed in modern culture yet how ruthless and terrifying they are in real life. I think its interesting how they used to be some of the most feared people alive and how today they seem romanticized. My one issue with this is that that lifestyle has always been romanticized in one way or another. Movies such as the Godfather came out at a time when the Mafia was at the height of its power in the United States and before the time of the legendary cruelty of Colombian and Mexican cartels. Either way, I think it’d be really interesting and fun to talk about the shift of how we portray these criminals versus how they are in real life.
Another topic I would be interested in covering is how people’s views of mixed race couples and children have changed over time. As a mixed raced person myself, I’ve always been fascinated by this and wondered what my life would have been like if I had been born in 1950s America or during Apartheid rule in South Africa. Many countries, including America, have long histories of racism and discrimmination. Mixed race people were seen in a negative light but now there are more and more mixed people. In countries like Brazil, nearly the entire population is mixed race due to generations of interacial marriages. I even watched a documentary in my Anthropolgy class about mixed race people. I think this would be an interesting topic because it falls under the general umbrella of racial issues in our world; I also feel a more personal element to this topic. I’ll definitely think of more topics but these two were at the top of my mind for this next project.
After visiting Amsterdam, I then traveled to Paris for a few days. Paris is a wonderful city full of magnificent monuments, architecture, and people. During my stay here, I had the privelege of visiting many of the hallmarks of French culture and experienced Parisian life firsthand.
After getting off the train and checking into the hostel, I then went on a walking tour of the city seeing things such as the Eiffel Tour, the Arc de Triomphe, and the Notre Dame Cathedral (albeit still under repairs). I also took part of a boat tour on the Seine River, which flows through the city. Here I was able to really see the whole city and the way it glows at night.
Obviously it wouldn’t have been a trip to Paris if I did not go to the Louvre. I had been to art museums before but I had never seen so many vast and diverse collections of art in one place. Personally, I enjoyed the Egyptian Art they had the most but also found myself intrigued by the African Art section and of course your typical Renaissance Art. There was a really long line to see the Mona Lisa but I could still see the painting from a good distance away. I felt a strong feeling of awe and wonder seeing the most famous painting in the world in person. One tip for going to Louvre is have a map or plan because I did manage to get lost inside.
Besides visiting the typical tourist destinations, I got to meet some interesting people while navigating through the streets of Paris. A friend and I met and had dinner with two fashion designers from New York; I also had a long conversion with a bartender who thought I was English (not sure how the accent didn’t scream American). It was during these fun new experiences when I heard the news of Kobe Bryan’t passing. I will never forget where I was that night, eating cheese and crackers in a downtown restaraunt. Finally, to end on a brighter note, I attended a Cabaret show. The dancers were brilliant and the atmosphere was very vibrant.
Overall, I would say Paris is a fantastic place. It is a city full of historical and cultural significance; I understand why some consider it to be the most beautiful city in the world. Although my stay was limited to a few days, I would love to visit again someday.
For this blog post, I will be sharing my experiences from when I visited the city of Amsterdam last January. Of course, visiting during January, it was always freezing outside; unfortunately for me, I did not pack a sufficient winter coat so the city felt very chilly to me. Although I froze like an icicle, the weather had no bearing over my enjoyment of the city.
Amsterdam retains its Dutch authenticity. Unlike a lot of American cities, there were no skyscrapers or large buldings; most were not even more than a few stories tall. The buidlings all have similiar architecture with bricks and bright colors. The roads are very narrow in Amsterdam so you don’t see a lot of cars; people prefer to ride bikes and there are definitely more bikes than cars. Cars are not even necessary, as most activities within the city are within ten minutes of the central metro station. The close proximity of almost everything in the city made me appreciate the complex design of the city.
Amsterdam is adapted to water, as the Amstel river runs through the city. There are lots of bridges and canals running among the narrower streets. A tour guide told me that the city had to put up fences around the water to prevent drunken English tourists from falling in the water (seriously). My favorite activities from the city were trying the street food and a boat tour of the city. Amsterdam has lots of street vendors selling all types of fooc, but my favorite was definitely the stroopwafel. Stroopwafels consist of two thin waffles stuck together with a thick layer of caramel in the middle. On a cold January morning, it was one of the most delicious things I’ve ever eaten. During the boat tour, I got to see the beauty of the city and just how well-connected it was. Finally, the Dutch people themselves are some of the nicest people I have ever met. The Netherlands has the highest proficiency of non-native English speakers with nearly 70% of the population speaking it; they are also very friendly and kind when giving directions or suggesting what to do in the city.
Overall, Amsterdam is one of the most friendly and easy cities to navigate for tourists. You can enjoy authentic Dutch culture while also being able to communicate and find your way (if you speak English). I would definitely suggest visiting Amsterdam but would also suggest brining warm clothes, as that was a grave mistake that I made.
After listening to my civic artifact speech on Tuesday, I recieved lots of positive feedback from my peers. My groupmates told me that my presentation was very organized; the several different slides corresponded well with my speech while also providing attention-grabbing visuals. I was also told that I provided great analysis of my civic artifact along with summarizing it for people who had not seen the short film. My civic artifact, a Disney short film titled Der Fuehrer’s Face, required some context to understand the purpose of it; my speech provided a sufficient summary for one to understand but not to the point where I was just summarizing the piece instead of analyzing it. Finally, my groupmates thought that my delivery was very good; they noticed that I was attentive and that the speech flowed very naturally rather than sounding too scripted.
I personally think that my speech could have been a little better; I did have to read a little bit off of my computer screen and watching it again during class did look a little awkward. I also believe that I should have been a little more lively while delivering the speech; I recorded it at 5:30 AM so I might have been a little tired. Overall, I would say that I gave a good speech. I spoke well, had a very organized presentation, and provided sufficient analysis of my civic artifact without boring the audience too much or rambling on about the same point.
My peers also had solid presentations of their civic artifacts. One of my group mates used actual quotes from her video while also using a quote from research about the target audience. I thought this was a really good comparison that really showed the purpose of their civic artifact. My groupmates providing lots of context for their civic artifacts whether it was instagram posts or comparing new doll models to original ones I felt very informed regarding what the civic artifact actually was. Finally, I felt that the topics that my peers spoke about were interesting and that they should be discussed more. In particular, I found that Kaylee De La O’s presentation about the Ashley Graham Barbie doll put forth great information about body image and the impact it can have on young girls. I thought that my peers and I all did great presentations and that we could all learn from each other’s successes and mistakes.
