Hear, Hear!

I didn't get enough sleep today which wasn't so bad at first, I went to the Ratty with the cohort - minus Erin, and I ate some french toast, eggs, and potatoes. We had a lot of time to eat which was nice since we didn't have to rush of worry about being late.

We still had some time to kill before class, so we headed to the building and hung out in the lounge with another girl from our class, Sarah. We talked about ideas we had for our action plans and what we would want to incorporate into them.

I knew I wanted to specifically do something involving women on the global scale, I was thinking of relating it to health education or promoting gender equality through education along the Durand Line border of Afghanistan. 

We headed upstairs for class, Mary Grace had us play an icebreaker called Pterodactyl where we stood in a circle and going counterclockwise and saying "pterodactyl" without showing your teeth. You could also make a pterodactyl sound and the cycle would restart the opposite way.

After that fun game we did a prewrite and discussed the video’s we watched for homework. In a video a woman is walking down the street of NYC and is constantly getting catcalled. In the other video, Amanda Seales is talking about how women are constantly harassed like this, and the male reporter will not let her talk.

That is called “mansplaining” when men do not have a clue what they are talking about yet still feel the need to shove their ignorant ideas down womens’ throats. We also got to review some of the topics we covered yesterday. Then we all went down to the main green for a presentation.

Kisa was giving a lecture about Listening which was part of our class, it was really interesting. I learned a lot about being an active listener, nonverbal listening, and open ended questions. We got to work in pairs, practicing our skills and the new tips we had learned.

Since I wasn't really very hungry I decided to visit the park next to the building out class is held in. I already notice myself getting more and more used to the campus, it doesn't feel like a never ending maze anymore. I can recognize specific buildings and other landmarks along the way to find out where I am.

Not long after it was time to return to class. We learned about the different forms of oppression and worked on creating an idea for our action plans. Towards the end of class we wrote a letter to ourselves a month in the future that Mary Grace would send us.

I technically had the rest of the day free after class, but there were a few activities I really wanted to try. I stayed a little after class to talk to Mary Grace about my action plan. Then I walked back to the dorm to take a nap and get some work done and bought a delicious “everything” bagel with cream cheese on the way.

Gabi and I decided to attend this hunger banquet the social justice class was putting on, once we had arrived at the event which was, to our surprise, in a cottage with a beautiful garden. We stood in line to receive slips of paper with colored dots on them. We are escorted inside by colors, my group was second out of three to go in.

Inside was a table with eight chairs, a large bowl of salad, and pasta, bread, and cookies. There were chairs to the side and space in front, since I got green I was in the “middle class” group, we had white rice and beans with chips to eat. Those on the floor only had white rice and water with no utensils.

We also watched a short film on global hunger and poverty and discussed ways to end it as well as organizations that help the cause. It was really eye-opening to witness it and I am very happy I attended this awesome event. These are the lessons I will be taking with me when I leave.

Later, Kamri, who is taking social justice and is also from California (Sacramento) and I went to play so quidditch, which if you did not know is a game from the Harry Potter series. There was a good number of people who had shown up, some familiar with the concept, others not.

I had a lot of fun! My team won once and lost once, I played beater. Afterwards we went to open mic night which was awesome. Some incredibly talented people performed. Once it started raining we walked back to the dorms and separated ways. We have a lot of things in common which is great. Today was such a fantastic day and I’m incredibly excited to see what’s next!