Conversation #4 - Vietnam Humor

I am supplementing this conversation with my conversation partner with a conversation with a friend about Vietnam humor. With Dr. Williams okay here it is:

I asked Minh Anh Dinh (Mia) to talk with me about Vietnamese humor. I have known Mia for quite sometime from a few different organizations. She also moved into my hall freshman year second semester so this conversation was an easy flow. We sat down in Union Grounds and started to talk about life. Just the normal "I haven't seen you in three weeks" catch up. Eventually we go onto the subject of humor! I asked her what she thought humor in Vietnam was all about.  The first word out of her mouth was diverse. She said in different regions different jokes were funny. The north and the south have quite different senses of humor. Mia is from the north therefore she knew a bit more about northern Vietnamese humor. She said how it required a bit off thought or more intelligence than normal humor. When northerners tell a joke their is rarely a large punch line. It is a joke that requires thought and understanding to get it. Now on the other hand Mia said the South's jokes were more about plays on words. They used grammatical errors or punctuation differences to create laughter. Rhyming jokes are often common in the South too.  Mia seemed to favor the Northern style more probably because that is what she grew up around.

This reminded me a lot of our presentations on humor around the world. Many of the presentations talked about difference within the country on humor. I remember Canada having many different topics for their jokes. I believe the US has many different types to. Often my friend Lauren will say that her jokes fall flat or that not many people get because she is from California.  I hear this from multiple people. Talking to Mia helped remind me that it is hard to summarize one whole country's humor preferences in a power point or conversations because even inside the country is different.

Mia and I talked about American humor as well. She said that coming here it can be tough to find American humor funny. A lot of American humor uses slang and the language barrier makes it hard to understand the slang. Even if Mia understand the slang often she said that it still didn't seem funny. She does find the show "Friends" quite funny. Mia mentioned that it plays at home too she she would watch it their as well as in America.

I went to the Amazing Vietnam production Mia had helped put on a few weeks ago. It was incredibly funny and well done. It was all about sharing and representing the Vietnamese culture. It truly was amazing. I laughed almost the whole way through it along with learning more about Vietnam. I know after seeing the show that a lot of Vietnamese are incredibly funny people. I did see what Mia was talking about. Often the jokes made us think a bit more than the average American joke or Southern joke according to Mia. If you didn't get the chance to go to Amazing Vietnam I would go next year! It was a wonderful submersion into their culture. We got to see their traditions, beliefs and more! Plus a lot of my friends were up their performing. It was a wonderful surprise to see my friend Ethan beat boxing on stage!

Thank you to Mia and the wonderful actors in Amazing Vietnam for helping me learn more about their culture!

In replacement of Conversation #6: Something I Value

My Most Valuable Possession:

My most valuable possession isn’t a normal possession. My most valuable possession isn’t an item that I loved as a child or my phone that I love as a young adult. My most valuable possession is my time spent at summer camp over the past 13 years.  I have been going to a small summer camp in Brevard, North Carolina since 2cnd grade.  It is a traditional all girls summer camp with three main sessions over the summer: a one month, a three-week and a two-week. After my first two years at camp I switched from a two weeker (camp lingo for someone who goes to the two week session) to a four weeker (aka the four week session). My summers have been filled with laughter, girls and hiking, climbing or caving in the Bluu Ridge Mountains in the Pisgah National Forrest.

Why is this time my most valuable memory?. Camp takes a groups of girls and throws them together, maybe for the first time and maybe for their 7^th summer together. These girls have to bond without technology, without their parents and without a school setting. What would a 15 year old do without being able to text someone if she is angry or mad at them? How does a 14 year old react when they are missing home and can’t call their parents? How will everyone sleep in a cabin with less room per person than a typical dorm room? Seems a bit tough? It is but it is worth it.

I can’t narrow down my favorite memory at camp nor would I want but for the sake of time I will let you all in on one of my older years as a camper. The summer of 2010. I was at the age considered the oldest campers at camp, the ones who “run” camp per say. I was headed into the last summer of being a camper and not a counselor with 11 other best friends.  To narrow it down even more I will talk about one of our nights we spent bonding over cold cereal and painting wall hanings. Being the oldest we were allowed food in the cabin. For the painting, as a group we create a themed banquet for the last dinner of the camp session. It is a huge extravaganza of lights, paintings, streamers and more!

All 12 of us were sitting around the cabin either on top of beds, trunks or on the floor. We sat and talked.  What did we talk about? I can’t say exactly what was said. Not because it is necessarily private but because it wasn’t the words that mattered as much as the time we spent and what it meant to us. As we sat on the floor that night we fell even more into a group full of life and love for one another. We sat and talked. I repeat this because how often do we sit and talk now? We had no distractions besides a paint brush or a handful of cereal. We had no mother or little sibling running through the room. We had no cellphone beeping or TV on in the background. Looking from face to face in that room I could tell we realized how special are time was. It seemed as if time was frozen. In that moment we had everything. We had friends that cared exactly what we were saying. It didn’t matter if we weren’t popular in high school, couldn’t throw a ball 20 feet, couldn’t cut in a straight line (me) or didn’t have your typical family. What mattered was that we could share things with each other. We could share and not be judged but be comforted. 

This time to sit and talk is my most valuable possession. Without it and without camp I would not have grown in the person I am today. Camp pushes me to be a better person every day. Camp pushes me to live for others, to work hard even when I am down, to be intentional, to love unconditionally and so much more. That summer of 2010 I realized for the first time and defiantly not the last time how much camp had given to me. I am now working to give back to it all that I can. I want someone else to be able to say they had the time of their life like I did. I want to make someone see the value they gain from attending a summer camp filled with love and acceptance.

With my last blog post of the year I will leave you all a tip of advice. If you haven’t been to a summer camp it’s not to late. Go work as a counselor. You will have the time of your life.

In place of Conversation #5

A transitional event, moving, a new school:

College, this place that was 18 hours away from home and here I was walking into my dorm room parents in tow. I was walking into Colby the all-girls dorm thinking it looked like an old, creepy building that might be my new paradise.  The dorm room had two twin beds right beside each other (almost exactly beside each other). When I walked into my room the first time my thought was “well that has to change” those beds were way to close. My roommate (later found out her name was Brea) hadn’t come in yet. I grabbed the bed by the window. I almost didn’t knowing that my roommate might want that bed and I didn’t want to her to have any reason to dislike me on the first day of college. Feeling slightly guilty I dropped my stuff onto my bed that we had moved away from the center of the room and headed out with my parents to buy things to decorate! I was pretty excited to get cute new college like things! The one time I got to decorate my own room (of course matching colors with my roommate). We went from store to store buying things. In target we saw hundreds of other students buying things too. From shaggy rugs to wall hangings I imagined that everyone in college was out that day trying to decorate. People almost seemed to be running through the store trying to beat each other to items. I imagined the scene in mean girls when the students are hanging out at the mall and they all turn into wild animals. I imagined the moms running wild through the store, mouth wide open and foaming, on all fours and hollering to claim their territory or store items. Throughout the day in every store we went into this image kept appearing. I kept seeing moms and students turn into wild animals. It made for a funny day to say the least.

After a long day of shopping, getting credit cards denied thinking it was fraud and fighting of the wild beast we made it back to the dorm. I walked into the room to see my roommate! My first thought was wondering if this was the same girl I met on Facebook. Did she look like a cheerleader who had won nationals twice? I figured I would find out! We had a whole year ahead of us to figure out who each other was. I wondered what I looked like to her. Did I look like a typical college girl in my prepared outfit of Nike shorts, my ONE big t-shirt and colorful shoes? I sure was trying to be a college girl. I believed that my outfit would help people see me as a college girl and not some short girl who should still be in high school. My thoughts that morning getting ready where about how I would fit in or transition per say into a college lifestyle.  

Going through rush for most people doesn’t seem like a good transition to college. Girls are immediately judging you from your looks to how well you can hold a conversation with a stranger. For me I loved it. I felt a rush(see what I did their) getting to talk to girls about college. I got to ask questions about what it was really like: were classes really that hard or was the freshman 15 a real thing. I loved the talking. Getting into a group with other freshman going through rush was a thrill too. I found myself talking to girls about everything from hometowns to high school boyfriends. I can remember sitting on the floor waiting to go into the sorority houses during recruitment bonding with girls. I can remember feeling like I had made the right choice to come to TCU.

Rush went well. My roommate worked out. My room was cute. I transitioned the way I wanted to with high hopes and happy thoughts that worked out. I felt and feel so lucky to have had an easy transition. I hope this blog entry gave you a glimpse of my first week in college and the transition I was making.

Learning #4

Learning Experince #4 - Looking back

Looking back on the semester I can think of one very important lesson I have learned. It had a lot do with my major and what I plan to do when I graduate. I have learned that when I teach I want to combine styles of teaching. I do not want to have a powerpoint everyday with notes nor do I want it to be discussion based all the time. I want a classroom filled with conversation and learning.

I am in a history class about European since 1800 something. I thrive on history. I believe it is like reading a pretty good book. I think their is so much to learn from it. Unfortunately in my history class we sit and look at a powerpoint almost the whole class. On occasion he ask us questions and considers it our participation grade. We sit and listen to our professor talk about the powerpoint.  I can tell he does know the material and does enjoy it but the way the class is taught I don't know if he enjoys teaching.  I would like to teach History after graduation therefore this class has been a good eye opener for some ideas on my particular style of teaching. I hate to admit it but this class has been a let down with teaching styles.

I am also in a wonderful education class on the profressional roles and responsibilities for teachers. This class could not be more polar opposite from my history class. In this class we sit and discuss everyday the readings we have read. We ask questions and we get asked questions that challenege our way of thinking and that help us grow. Much of the class is on our own as well. For example we did a personal learning project throughout the semester to improve one or more of these categories: cognitive, spitural or emotionally. We could pick anything from running a marthaon to learning out to play the guitar. We were given the freedom and responsilbity to do what we want as long as it improved us or we grew. We had many other things similar to this such as letters we wrote to our professor and did many 1 to 1s with him as well. This class helped improve not just my knowledge about teaching but also my self as well. This style of teaching really hit me. He really cared about us and wanted us to improve ourselfs and to get something that mattered out of his class.

Now for  my Lit and Civ class I have enjoyed the style of teaching. I have enjoyed getting to know my classmates so well. I have enjoyed getting to know Dr. Williams so well. I think in this class the flow of communication has been wonderful. We have learned and had fun doing it. We have laughed (surprising in a comedy class I know) and we have talked seriously about problems. We have read books and then discussed them. We have presented many small projects in groups or alone. To sum it up it seems like we have done a little of everything. I quite enjoy that.

Just looking back at these three classes this semester I can see my thoughts on styles of teaching expanding. Getting to have multiple different teachers and different styles has helped me learn what might work for me while teaching. I don't want to put down any one style of teaching some just aren't for me but might work for you or whoever is teaching it. I want to have a teaching style that isn't a method or a model but combines what I believe will be the most useful and intentional to teach my students, to be able to connect to my students and to be able to keep them involved.  These classes have helped me re-look at teaching styles and re-look at the stereotypical style of college teaching ( I believe there is one... just look at the movies).

Thank you to my teachers for letting me have a look at so many different ways to teach. Thank you for letting me glimpse and observe. I believed I have learned a lot or in the very least thought about a lot.

Learning, Learning and Learning

Learning, Learning and Learning

I have been thinking about what I wanted to write about what I have learned recently. I think I want to write on a bit of everything so bare with me please.

For starters let us talk about what I have learned in this class recently. I have learned that there are poems I do like. I have gone through English class always not looking forward to the poem section of the curriculum. I did enjoy our poem in class the other day. It opened me up a bit more to the idea that poems aren't just things I don't understand. Maybe I will read more poems. Maybe not. Either way I think I will go into reading poems with a better opinion of them. I have found more a style of poetry that I prefer. I enjoy poetry that isn't overfly wordy or fluffy. I rather like William Carlos Williams. I took the time to look up a few more poems and found that I enjoyed this one a lot!

Berket and the Stars

A day on the boulevards chosen out of ten years of
student poverty! One best day out of ten good ones.
Berket in high spirits--"Ha, oranges! Let's have one!"
And he made to snatch an orange from the vender's cart.

Now so clever was the deception, so nicely timed
to the full sweep of certain wave summits,
that the rumor of the thing has come down through
three generations--which is relatively forever.

 

I think I like that so much because it is simple but it tells a great story! The lines "One best day out of ten good ones" really hit a note per say. When looking through William Carlos Williams poems I didn't not like all of them but I did like some. It seems I can now enjoy poetry a little more than before. I have learned to realize that not every poem is for me but their are some out their that are for me!

 

From another class of mine I have been learning sign language. I have learned the alphabet and I am learning things like bat, ball, jump, throw and more. I have learned how hard it is in memorize this. How hard it would be to have a conversation in sign language. Learning a new language that doesn't have words is tough. I admit its one of the more challenging things I have done this semester. My heart now feels more for parents who have a child that needs sign language communication. Could you imagine having a brand new baby to take care of and learning a whole new language so that you can teach your child or at least speak with them once they learn. I can't imagine the challenges that parents could face. I can't begin to imagine the challenges a child who learns this as their only language. Wouldn't it be tough to know a language only a few people can speak in. It would be challenging to go about every day not knowing if anyone will be able to communicate with you. I know I strive on communication. I love when someone says hello to me or mentions something me to me like " I saw you walking the other day!". I thrive on communication. I think knowing that you can not communicate with everyone will be so challenging. I understand they learn to read and write and that what texting is for! But just stop and think for a moment: what if you couldn't hear? Kind of hard to imagine right? Maybe you never get to hear Of Mice and Men or John Denver. How would life be different. While learning this new language I have learned more to thank the Lord for the gifts he has blessed me with. For a mouth to sing with, a ear to hear with, eyes to see with and hands to work with are all blessings. I take these for granted. With this class I am learning to see these not as a given but as a gift. I thank my Physical Activity and Disability teacher Dr. Esposito for helping me rethink this. I am not sure he knows the depth it hit me. But none the less thank you for encouraging our class to think.

 

Thank you teachers at TCU for helping me think and rethink thoughts. Some that I haven't thought about before and others that I have set in stone too much.

Funny Conversations

Funny Conversations in Photos:

 

Oranges - hard to eat, squishy, juice everywhere

awkward situations

 

Sid. Rich. - getting lost, no signs, getting lost,

getting lost and getting lost

Bunk Beds - things falling, people falling, no sheets,

Converstation #3

Meeting up with Ali for a third time! I must say this guy is hard to get a hold of or rather pinned down. I would ask to meet almost every day and he would say today doesn’t work well, let’s do Wednesday. Then on Wednesday I would email and ask "see you today?" or something along those lines. Normally I get the response: oh sorry I can’t today with some excuse. We tried to meet up on Monday but he had some sort of reason not too, it was rather unclear as to why. I hope Ali enjoys our conversations because he seems to never be able to make them. Maybe I am a bit annoyed at him for no reason. Americans have a particular importance on time and setting meetings. We are annoyed when people are a late or cancel or reschedule. In other countries this isn’t always so. In my Chancellor's Leadership Program meeting we were talking about mission trips. One of my fellows talked mentioned one of the hardest things was getting used to a different cultures sense of time. For them it was more important to finish a conversation or to be with family than to make sure to be somewhere perfectly on time, they lived more in the moment. I think this might be how Ali is!

I was happy to hear from him! We got to talking about our weekends of course! He had another big weekend. His grandparents came into town from Saudi Arabia! They were flying here to stay in Fort Worth for a few days then headed to Austin for quite some time, two months perhaps. Ali was very excited about seeing his grandparents. Like I said in my earlier blog posts, he came to America without a "safety net" of friends and family so I am sure having family come visit meant a lot to him. We got to talking about what they did while they were here. I was shocked to hear they did normal things like I do when my parents come. I shouldn’t have been shocked, by now I see how similar we are versus how different we are! They went walking, shopping and watch TV. They also baked! When I asked what they baked he said cookies and cake. I think my stomach rumbled when he mentioned it, I was a bit hungry! All of these things are just what any TCU student would have done. Ali just seemed so happy that is family was in town! When they left he said he was sad to see them go but they aren’t to far away. They will be staying in Austin for two months or so with his cousin's sister. I think he miss said it by accident because isn’t your cousin's sister still your cousin too? Perhaps not but these are moments when I reminded myself wait English isn’t even Ali's first language!

It's crazy to think he can speak almost fluently in English now. I am impressed at how much he has learned. I don’t think I would be quite as advanced in my language as he is with the amount of time he has had. I struggle learning intro Spanish classes and he is keeping conversations about more than just your typical intro class I presume. It always seemed funny to me that in beginning Spanish classes we learned a lot of vocab that we wouldn't use in ever day talking. When learning a language shouldn't you learn how to converse in it? Personally I want to be able to hold a conversation in a different language over knowing how to say stapler. I haven’t asked Ali yet but the next time we meet I think I will ask him how they learned English!

Ali and I wrapped up on conversation by talking about the rest of the week. He is headed to play billiards with friends and watch the Barcelona game and then has BBQ tomorrow! Ali is a pretty busy guy! While told him I was headed off to write this and to start writing a term paper. I wish I was having as much fun as Ali was in the next few days!

"Welcome to TCU"

Learning Experience- " Welcome to TCU"

I was thinking back on my weekend wondering what I have learned and what I could write about. It has been a pretty big weekend for me with working the TCU Spring Football Game and getting the opportunity to go to the Final Four Games on Saturday. It feels like its been a non- stop weekend.  I believe the Spring Football Game was where I did my most learning.

Let me explain what I did/do for TCU Football. This semester I applied and got accepted to be a TCU Athletic Ambassador. This means I get to work with TCU's football recruits. I have the opportunity to give them tours of the stadium, answer their questions about TCU or TCU Football, address letters to them and more. In this job I am required to be confidential, accountable and professional. I am to show the recruits and their families what TCU is about. Not necessarily try to sell TCU to them but to show them exactly what TCU is. To show them our school pride, our football team's passion, the community's support, the family behind the team and the positive atmosphere that surrounds our team. Woohoo seems like a big job (it is!).

Saturday for the big Spring Football Game I had my first shot at being put into action with a recruit. The Spring Game brings in a lot recruits from all over to watch the open scrimmage. I had the opportunity to show around my first recruit and family this Saturday with my co- athletic Ambassador. You could say I was a bit nervous. I am still getting used to finding my way around the buildings. I was fortunate to have a great co who knew pretty much everything. She easily lead the group around the faculties. We luckily did not get lost.

We were with our prospects and their families for while. A lot of talking went on about TCU. I was afraid at first they were going to ask me lots of questions on football. Instead I got a lot of questions about TCU. For example things like: "Where do athletes live?", "Do people have meal plans?" or "How big are your classes?". I could easily answer these questions! And I enjoyed answering these questions! I love TCU and I get to give back to it by telling people how awesome. I had the opportunity to show how much I love TCU.

After the Spring Game was done and I was walking back to my dorm I realized just how much that made me happy. I enjoy talking to people. I enjoy sharing my knowledge. I enjoy making people laugh. To get the opportunity to work around the football coaches, to help them achieve their goals for the football team, to help high school students choose the right college for the fulfills me. It does mean I am giving up things. I am giving up time with my friends. I am giving up tailgating for games and going out with friends afterwards to celebrate a victory or mourn a lose. I am giving up my sleep on days like Saturday where we had to be there at 8am. Is all that worth it, yes. YES YES.  If I am doing something that is bring me joy and a smile to my face (even as I think about it while I am typing) then yes it does.

Often in college I feel we do things because they build a resume or our friends say we should or our parents say we need to be more involved or an organization we are in tells us we should. I think finding at least one thing that fulfills you because you want it to Is key to success. Find something to get involved in for you because you love it. Getting involved in something for you means there is a reason to be here or a reason to stay. I think this can make or break a college career. If you don't find something to be involved in for you wither that's Athletics, a Greek organization, a club or the crew it can be easy to over work yourself, to get down on yourself, to feel like you don't  have a reason for school besides work. Its hard to strive without something fun in your life. For example schools who have more time for physical education and fine arts have students who perform better in the content areas of the school. They enjoy school more and are willing to focus more time into their studies. I think the same applies for college kids. Their is a reason for doing well so that they can continue doing what they love. 

I feel like I have found that organization. This is not to say I haven't found things I love doing out side of school yet but this really does fulfill me more. It's hard to describe. I just have a friend (while I am sitting here writing on her desk) ask me how it went. Before I even said anything she said, " Wow Darby your just light up and have a huge smile on your face, it must have gone really well". That smile and my excitement to share how much I enjoyed my first experience as TCU Athletic Ambassador says it all. I feel like this weekend I found something I love. I believe everyone needs to find this at TCU. Hopefully you all have already and if not keep looking. There is so much to do here everyone can find something. I know that sounds like a cheesy college slogan but I believe it is so true with the diversity of programs on TCU's campus. All you have to do is look around. Ask friends, look at posters on the walls, look at the TCU Announce, ask a teacher or see what's going on the Website.

It has been a wonderful weekend and wonderful learning experience.

Laughing and April Fools Day (Laugh #2)

Full of Laughter

I have to say when I think of a day full of laughter April Fools comes to mind. I think of pranks. Pranks on friends, family and complete strangers. This post is about my laughing but also about others. I wanted to share what moments I laughed at and what moments I know my friends did as well.

I will start with the Chi Omega House groupme. For those without groupme, it is a group messaging app that lets huge groups (i.e. 34 of us) chat in one message. Often the groupme is people asking to be let in or asking to borrow a dress for their upcoming date. Along with these more trivial things the groupme can be one of the funniest things I have the pleasure of reading. The other day we went on a "selfie spree". Therefore we posted in it every awful and hysterically funny photo we had of each other from photos of people with triple chins to eating 6 cookies in one bite they were not to be seen by anyone else. Hopefully we chi omegas can keep those photos under lock and key.

On April Fool's Day the groupme was blowing up. The first prank pulled, was on our former president Coralee. She is in our groupme because she lived in the house from August to December. A few of the girls in the house (not to be named) started a pranking war with her while she lived in the house. They called themselves the "bedsnatchers". Their first prank last semester was moving Coralee's bed from her room to the chapter room. So this year for April Fools, even though Coralee now lives on a house of campus they pranked her bed again. Her bed had been wrapped in wrapping paper. A "present" to Coralee it was called. Coralee sent a photo to our groupme and the laughter from us who had no clue it was happening was immediate. People’s response just kept the laughter and comicalness going. For example someone replied," It must be like Christmas morning in there". Also these:

"Christmas morning? No Christmas mourning”"Go to sleep in it then when you wake up you can unwrap yourself like a literal gift to the world." "Don't get too wrapped up in the little things"
"No time like the present."(referring to the photo) "I see nothing wrong. You should think of it as a gift."

This prank spurred on a few other pranks in the house that day. A few girls came home to their beds outside on the green. A few others were on their floor. A few toilets where surnwrapped. The most recent composite had all of our pledge class covered (aka our faces where covered with sticky notes).

It safe to say the chi omega house seems to be a pretty funny group of girls. The funny atmosphere of our groupme brings us all closer together. When we can laugh together and enjoy ourselves it makes us all closer. I would say having this app to bring a bit of laughter into my day helps me feel connected to my sisters all the time. I know this sounds cliché but this app really helps. I know when someone is studying or someone is headed out of town for the weekend. I know when a prank is pulled.  We all feel like we have inside jokes, all 34 of us. Overall April Fool's Day was one of the most enjoyable days to read the groupme. The only day I can think of that rivaled it was one dead day this winter when everyone changed their names to famous people, for example Kanye West and Blue Ivy made appearances. Thank you April Fool's Day for bring uncontrollable laughter to me and 33 other girls.

Converstation with My Partner #2

Conversations

It has been a while.

It has been a while sense I have posted and it has been a while sense Ali and I had a chance to meet last. From busy schedules, spring break to being out of town we have had hard time getting to together. Every week we talk about it, maybe Monday or Wednesday. It seemed like nothing was working well. We would snapchat on occasion. Yes we have each others snapchat! A really easy way to see what someone is doing right at that moment is a five second photo. Yet snapchat doesn't give you any information on how they are feeling. I knew the rough facts about Ali's life from snapchat but not details about them.

When we meet up the other day I got to hear more than a text or a snapchat photo would let me know! Ali has been having a pretty exciting semester or at least last few weeks so far!  He has his own apartment and he just go this own furniture! It has arrived! You could say he was excited about this. A smile never left Ali's face.  I got excited just for him. I was reminded that living in a dorm is so easy; I have a bed, desk, and such. While living off campus or even in some on-campus housing there is no ready-to-go furniture. How difficult would it be to get here and move into an apartment? You need furniture, toiletries, kitchen supplies, food and more! I am very privileged to have lived on campus for two years without having to worry about this much. Next year I have to worry about it but again I have a family who will be here to help me buy the right bed or the right desk and move me in. I think it is hard on Ali to do this without his father and mother. He does have a cousin here who is very helpful. I know Ali appreciates him a lot.

That brought me to another thought. A lot of college students come to TCU knowing a handful of people. I have a friend who has fourteen high school classmates come with her. I had another who had four. Having a few people you already know at TCU can make the campus a lot more friendly and a lot less lonely. I am not saying everyone hangs out with their high school classmates but it does give a friendly face around campus, a familiar one. Ali came to campus knowing his cousin. That is a good start but he still didn't have the multitude of faces that a lot of students come to TCU with. He did not have as much as a "safety net" to say as the average TCU student.

He had a big day on Monday. He passed his driver’s test! I didn't even know he was going for it. This is huge! He doesn't have a car but his cousin does. (Another way having connections on campus is helpful) Having  a car means he can go more places. He can see more parts of Fort Worth. I take it for granted that my friends have cars. While a lot of Ali's friends are internationals as well so cars are few and far between.

Well that's all folks. I hope you could see that I learned a lot more about privilege during our conversations. I have to say I am more thankful for everything I have been given and how easy the transfer from high school to college was for me.

 

Connecting Learning and Laughter

Thinking about what I am learning and how it connects to laughing my mind is drawn to my discussions in my kinesiology class lately. This class is all about physical disabilities. Before you get upset that I am connecting laughing and disabilities hear me out.

In this class we are learning about multiple diseases and disorders. We learn how they affect mental capabilities. We learn how they effect physical aspects. Certain disorders effect the physical body of a human rather than the mental. For example, Parkinson's Diseases is this way. Parkinson's effects people's speech, it becomes slower. They have a hard time not drooling. Parkinson's creates rigidness in people's body. Simply Parkinson's is a disease where not enough dopamine is connecting with neurons therefore muscle contractions don't work as smoothly. This creates tremors in the arms, legs, hands and jaws. Parkinson creates slowness in movement. You can see how Parkinson's creates physical changes.  

Let me tell you where all of that kinesiology talk is leading. So this is a completely normal, functioning human being with a few physical problems. People like to laugh at those who they feel are superior to them. Can you see how this plays in? It sad to think about but people with disabilities like Parkinson's get made fun of everyday. Students on a college campus, someone at the grocery store, a co-worker or someone just walking down the street will be laughed at for their appearance. They understand why people are laughing, they are fully capable of feeling hurt or feeling defined by their diseases. This laughter is the cruelest of all to me. I believe that laughing at a person's disease or disorder is worst part of laughter. Even writing about people laughing at this makes me cringe. I can't imagine what it would feel like to be at the end of this laughter but I imagine it makes the world a very lonely and hurtful place.

I have a good friend whose brother is legally defined as a midget. This is not meant as a derogatory term or a hurtful term. Her brother is now in middle school. Can you imagine how hard it would be to have a physical disability in middle school. Middle school students are know to be mean or harsh. They are known to take little things such as hair color, height or middle name and make fun of them. I can imagine the laughter that gets thrown at him. This makes me cringe.

In my class we talk about "person first terminology". This means referring to someone first as person then to their disorder or disease. I think when we all think about laughing at someone with a disability we must think of "person first terminology". They are a person not their disease.  I know this is not a light subject and not something we like to think about but I believe it must be thought about. Laughter is a tool that can create friendship and positive atmosphere but we must remember it is a tool that can be used to tear down someone.

Conversations with Ali #1

My first conversation with my conversation partner Ali Alnasser was at first slightly awkward then turned smoother. I had to say I expected this. Meeting someone for the first time can always be awkward, especially if it is an arranged meeting. I imagine it’s like an arranged marriage. You are thrown together and told to get along! Not that I have a problem with is, I am enjoying the challenge of relating with someone very different from me.

 I asked Ali to meet me at Union Grounds, I figured it was a common place we both knew. I showed up a few minutes early, I like to think because I am on time person but this isn’t true. My nerves got to me a little bit so I figured get there early and scope the place out. Turns out he had the same idea. He was even their before me! We shook hands and said hello. Then conversation started. There was stops, starts, awkward laughs and funny moments.  We started out saying where we were from, your “typical” college conversation. He is from Saudi Arabia and has a cousin here at TCU. He is planning on becoming an engineer but has not gotten into regular classes yet. This really interested me. The students take English classes only to improve their English when they get here. For example they take reading, writing, speech etc.  Once they have mastered English they can enroll in classes to start regular school. I really know nothing about their program; I figured they would head straight into classes and try to learn English at the same time. I think about how hard that would be. Ali said it’s a lot of English.. like a whole lot. But he has noticed his vocabulary is getting better. He came to American at the beginning of January not knowing any English.  He has been here then over a month and a half. Ali seemed to me very good at English! Maybe he didn't understand what I was saying half the time but understood social cues to laugh and nod his head.

I did realize at some points my words were unfamiliar to him. I made a reference to someone being my role model. I could tell this word was unfamiliar therefore I gave him a few examples and a few other words for role model. He got the hang of it pretty quickly and told me his father was his role model. We were similar in that arena. My father is also my role model. Ali said his father worked hard, loved his family and was a good man. I have to say my father was the same. We both found similarities between us, we both like Beyoncé, Tom Cruise, most popular movies. I figured they had similar movies and celebrities and they do.  It will be interesting to see how he learns words from me and I learn more about his culture. I know barley anything about Saudi Arabia; I hope to learn more just as he hopes to learn English words from me. I know Ali gets typical English words from class but I hope he picks up our slang words that will be used by his classmates and teachers later on.

Today we are meeting again. I hope we have a good conversation like last time! I want to ask him what he’s reading! Any English books, if so what ones? Either way I am looking forward to it! He calls me “short girl” as a humors term. Therefore if anyone stops around outside the BLUU at 2 we will be there.. “short girl” and “tall boy”. Crossing my fingers that conversation number two goes just as well.

Uncontrollable Laughter – A day in the life of the Chi Omega House

Uncontrollable Laughter – A day in the life of the Chi Omega House

            A time recently I remember well uncontrollably laughing several times happen to be while watching the Grammies with my sorority sisters. We live in the Chi Omega house in the Greek. Living all together makes for a pretty good time. Everyone enjoys a laugh or a joke.  If you could read our GroupMe (an app for group messaging) this is evident.   From changing their names on the GroupMe to famous singers to posting photos eating toppers while working out it has an endless supply of funny messages.  I couldn’t ask for a funnier group of girls to live with.

            A group of 10 of us gathered together to watch the Grammies. From the red carpet to the final number laughter rang through the room. I can pin point a few moments of laughter but really the whole time we laughed.  When Lorde came on to the stage we were shocked. She didn’t look anything like what we had expected. We expected a young 17 year old girl with typical stylish and playful makeup and dress. What appeared on stage was neither. Lorde looked older to us more like 40 and was wearing all black.  Certainly not the picture we expected.  At that moment the room was silent. Then a moment or two later my friend Claire said she reminded her exactly like the evil witch in Snow White. This brought a onset of laughter. I had tears streaming down my eyes. We pulled up a picture and held it side by side, she did look very similar. We combined the theories of Superiority and Incongruity Theories.   We all believed without knowing it that we feel Superior to Lorde. Even though she is winning Grammy Award after Grammy Award we decided to judger her on how she looks. She doesn’t look typical to the stereotype of her ages as a singer. We decided we were better than her for that. The stereotype that all singers must be like Justin Bieber or Younger Miley Cyrus or Selena Gomez helped us laugh at Lorde. We saw the ways she looked different she was incongruent with the ways the world portrays young artist.

            A stopped writing this about two weeks ago. I am back looking at it now. Realizing that he humor we were using was Negative Humor. In your uploaded notes you said, “Humor invariably relies on stereotypes that diminish individual identity”.  That is what we did. I can’t say I am proud of myself the girls in the room. I can’t say we are alone in doing this either. On a college campus most of the humor going around is negative. It breaks people down. Those few great moments where humor builds people up are few and far between. I think by looking at all the positive humor in class lately it is reminding of us all the funny little things that can be positive.

            Yes we laughed continuously throughout the night. Most of the time by making fun of someone else.  Looking back at it it strikes a sour note in my throat thinking of what we did. But how do we stop this? How do we stop a culture so defined by putting others down to build ones self up? Remind them of that funny YouTube video of bad lip reading. Remind them of a child like humor. That’s not a question I can really answer but maybe with this class I will be able too.

Laughing Material?

Things I found funny, maybe you will too?


These youtube videos always kept me up late at night in high school laughing away. I thought I would share one of the better clips with you. If you have time to watch the whole thing please do!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hafvH8vdOdk

Now for a cartoon I find funny, I picked one closer to home.

For a funny one liner:

The last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it's still on the list.

 

I found this amussing on twitter as well:

 

Funny One Liners‏@funnyonelinersJan 4

"Isn't it great to live in the 21st century? Where deleting history has become more important than making it."

 

 

Enjoy!

A Start to Comic Relief?

Today in class my group of 4 looked into Sir Philip Sidney's idea on comedy. I have to say we were  lucky to have gotten a pro-comedy man than one of the bible. I find the idea that laughter caused death in the biblical times very disturbing. Maybe this is where the phrase "I almost died laughing" or "I died from laughter" comes from? Personally I enjoy laughter like many others and would not want to see death be the result from it.

 

Anyways to the point, I like a part of Sir Philip Sidney's idea. He says that comedy is a social corrective or a imitation of common errors in life so that normal people will not want to make the error again. I agree that some of humor is to point out common errors and to make people correct them. For example, today in my education class my professor did just that. I started answering a question with, "this is stupid but".. not a good way to start a sentence. He immediately stopped me, took my words and threw them back at me. Of course he did this to make an example use of words to the class. He was showing the error of southern girls putting themselves down for something they have said. My professor was trying to get us stop this. He was using this idea of Sir Philip Sidney to show the class the error of my sentence and error of this southern "tradition".

 

I don't agree with Sir Philip Sidney in part because I know that comedy is not just a social corrective. From the other theories we will study and have started to talk about I have gathered he doesn't quite understand the depth of comedy.

 

Making that connection to our book Comic Relief brings the book alive a little bit more. I heard in class and read a few blogs making points about the books slow pace. I have to agree with them about the pace but also with you about the important information. I can see with these small connections the book has to my life that already, well, as hard as it is to admit about a assigned reading book, this book will come in handy outside of class too. I am sure if you asked former students if they look at comedy a little different now they would say yes. I see how they would be able to say that.

Laughing

I asked three of my sorority sisters to answer the questions: What is laughter and why do people laugh? With a bit of convincing they all answered. I found the answers to be simple and not complicated. Maybe with more convincing in the future my interviewers will open up and think through their answers. I know each of them are smart therefore I know they can improve their answers. Overall the experience of asking and the response really made us all laugh. Helping the idea that laugh comes from awkward situations and unusual situations.