Monthly Archives: April 2015

The nostalgia is real

At the beginning of this semester, around February when it was bitter cold, and in March when I had midterms and projects for 3 weeks straight, I was hype for this semester to be over, but now that this is my last passion post, the nostalgia has started. It’s crazy to think that a whole year of my undergraduate career has finished.  (And to be honest, what have I accomplished…I feel like a potato). As much as blogging was a hassle this year, I am SO glad I have this website to look back upon chronicling my freshman year. I always dread any assignments because I really hate the idea of a number value being assigned to my work, but I appreciated blogging because it took me away from reality for a little so I can research something, or talk about my own perspective. In light of perspective, I am going to deviate on this post a little bit and reflect, because you don’t get a lot of time for that in college and I think “last blog post of the year” in college – when everything is semester based – merits that much.

Anyway, I tried to make sure that each one of my posts was inspired by something going on in my own life, and while these are subtle hints to me, this blog is somewhat of a timeline of my experiences with the immigrant life in my freshman year of college. In fact, I just scrolled back through this semesters posts and I can remember exactly why I posted each one. Furthermore, I am happy to have switched to this RCL section, because I made friends with more Schreyer freshman so much so that my roommate for next year is in my blogging group! S/o to blogs. S/o to the random group generator. I have also been able to work with yet another fabulous professor and I can see the changes in my rhetorical developments just through my blog. I looked at last semester’s posts and cringed a little bit.

Coming to college with all of the GPA pressure, and pressure from my family members was a little difficult at first. I’m not gonna lie, I still find it really hard. Each semester is like a marathon! You’re always finding a balance between your health (sleeping, partying, fitness), grades and your social life. Today I’ve slacked realll hard on the fitness part, but my car broke down so I’m just going to give myself a break. Either way, it’s been a pleasure blogging with you all this semester.  I can’t believe how much I’ve grown since move-in day till now.

TBT to August 20th! I remember saying bye to all my friends just the night before. Little did I know what being a student at Penn State Schreyer Honors College even meant...

TBT to August 20th! I remember saying bye to all my friends just the night before. Little did I know what being a student at Penn State Schreyer Honors College even meant…

S/o to my parents though for helping me get here. I guess my dad's a lil too happy for me to get out of the house tho.

S/o to my parents though for helping me get here. I guess my dad’s a lil too happy for me to get out of the house tho.

 

Creoles

Creoles are a fascinating kind of people for me.  Famous literature was based on them, and many celebrities are of creole descent. Creole is a word derived from the French and Portuguese words créole and crioulu. Both are connoted by “descendent” and “to raise” these descendants overseas. Creoles are not only a racial melange, but they also represent a mixing of cultures through colonists and their native colony people. Contrary to popular belief, Creoles are far more than what New Orleans is known for. Mixing actually happened relatively quickly in Spanish and Portuguese colonies. The “mixing” is attributed to the fact that there was a lack of Spanish and Portuguese women in these colonies, and there was a Crown policy promoted mixed relations to create loyal colony populations.


 

Spanish colonization of Americas

Spanish colonization of Americas


 

There are a crazy amount of ethnic groups associated with being “creole”:

  • Afro-Brazilian Ciroulos (Central South America)
  • Sierra Leone Creole (North West Africa)
  • Aku Krio people (Muslim of Sierra Leone)
  • Belizean Kriol people (Central America)
  • Criollo people (Those of confirmed latin descent in Mexico)
  • Haitian creole (Caribbean Island)
  • Afro-Honduran Creoles (Central America)
  • Liberian Creole (North West Africa)
  • Louisiana Creole people(Southern US)
  • Mauritian Creole (Island off Madagascar – East Africa)
  • Nigerian Creole (North West Africa)
  • Seychellois creole (Island North of Madagascar).

And here is a collage showcasing most of these differentiations:

BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE

BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE


 

They are of mixed descent with African, native American and European. Those originating from Spanish colonized places are of Latino descent, but those in other colonies are of French descent. The French colonized parts of Africa as well as Louisiana in the US. NOLA is like its own little enigma, and I feel like only NOLA natives understand its culture. And what bothers me a little bit is that this “multi culturalism” that the Crown was hoping to instill resulted in this beautiful ethnic group. I mean when you think about it, European settlers and explorers invaded locals’ land but I suppose they found a way to get along. I really liked making the collage above, though, because you can see the Latino and African genes coming together in making these beautiful freaking people. Snoop Dogg on some reality show was told that he’s 23% Native American, which is a pretty big percent! Creole people fascinate me because it’s more than just being a European mut of genes. There are races mixing here, but when looking back on the history of colonisation, I have a feeling that this was a result of somewhat crass imperialism of European colonies.

“The Awakening” by Kate Chopin is a classic American novel written from the French creole perspective. She writes about the difficult life that creole women had to face being “caged in” like a bird. The book is just a long-ass metaphor about being a caged in bird. Her perspective, however, is from the white creole perspective, as in a nationality or ethnicity, and not a racial definition. There is also that interpretation of Creole.

I thought for my last civic issues post I would explore multiculturalism in history, and I feel like the vast mixing of races in creole people is something people over-look all the time. I only knew of it in context of NOLA, but I had no idea that this existed all around the world! In fact, the criollo people I had mentioned above actually used their specific Spanish descent as a class system, meaning that if you’re a native of Mexico and you can trace your Latin descent, it makes you less of a mut than others I suppose, and puts you higher up in class.

When you think about it, at this point, “Creole” can be anyone. Even Nicki Minaj is part indian, african american, trinidadian, etc. National Geographic actually has a beautiful look book on “the changing face of America” which has all these mixed people with naturally amazing photography.  I bet in the future creole will become extinct, because mixed marriages are more and more acceptable in society now.

 

 

 

Kama Sutra explained

There’s a lot of ancient hindu texts that have been studied for their philosophy. The kama sutra is so sensationalized but apparently it’s way more than a sex guide. “Kama” means desire, one of the four goals of a Hindu life (dharma – ethics, artha – wealth/livelihood, kama – pleasure, moksha – liberation). Sutra means “thread”. In reality this is a text written as sanskrit prose and poetry about their understanding of the nature of love and relationships.

There is an uncomfortable chapter on sex positions…but the other parts are just plain weird! The sections that stand out are those on “acquiring a wife”, “privileges of the wife”, “other men’s wives” as if there is some sort property or ownership. Sometimes it speaks of a chief wife, etc.

When I searched hard about this on the internet, I couldn’t find very many scholarly articles, but wikipedia seemed to cite a few. Because it was written so long ago, it is hard to say what dynamic in society inspired such a text. It is estimated to have been written in 200-400 B.C.

It first became famous in Western culture when explorer/geographer Richard Burton published it in English. He liked to dabble in international affairs. Either way, that original translation is what made it out to be some sort of sex book. Upon further research, it’s kind of just a weird interpretation of what a marriage should look like? For example, it tells you that you can’t marry a women who smells bad, a leper or a fortune teller. The fortune teller one seems kind of random…

The Western translation made for very bad comparisons when in reality I think this book may have been trying to explain confusion. I suppose in such a society where kings rule, classes don’t speak to one another, and interaction between people only happens for business, men were just confused? More research on the Kama Sutra actually confused me even more, because really it’s just a book on how to attain pleasure of the senses. It’s not a tale of passion that I thought it was, but is really just a “how to” book.

But, I do see why India is such a patriarchal society. The whole book is written in perspective of what the MAN has to do for “love” (in quotes because the book is weird af and idt it describes love). I really hope Dr. Babich isn’t offended, but for example, a sex position where the woman is in control is called “woman plays man”, as if she’s playing a man’s role! There are some subtle and not so subtle connotations when you get down to the nitty gritty of the Kama Sutra, which explains why it isn’t just some sex book but a book on how the idea of desire fits into Hindu society. So much of it has to do with how a man attains a woman, what kind of woman makes the perfect wife, etc, which gives me the idea that patriarchy was instilled in these people from the WAY beginning.