Hey,
Miss you all!
Will write more about NY soon, but saw this article and couldn't resist posing. This makes me cringe. So much. So so so much. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/opinion/sunday/is-algebra-necessary.html?pagewanted=2&hp
@Alex ... aw :( Wish we had overlapping times.
-Joy
Monday, July 30, 2012
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Hi blockies!! I Miss you all!! Here is another update on my Colombian adventure.
But first, let me explain to you what exactly my work is. I have been working at ANSPE (La Agencia Nacional para la Superacion de la Pobreza Extrema, aka the National agency for the overcoming of extreme poverty). ANSPE’s job is to reduce extreme poverty, (duh) and they do so by sending 10,000 social workers around the country to report of the needs of the poor, and then finding/creating programs that meet those needs. I have been doing research, helping the agency with a couple of their projects (including a housing project and the Colombia branch of One Laptop Per Child) and working on some of their presentations. It’s interesting work, and it has been rewarding to work with one of the newest and most innovative government agencies in Colombia.
Now to my Cartagena trip!! (like 3 weeks ago, yikes). We went for 4 days (by plane), and it was amazing. Cartagena is by far one of the most beautiful places I have ever been too. It has beaches, yes, but the highlight is the Old town, which is one of the best preserved colonial towns in the Americas. Surrounded by a large fortress constructed in the 1600’s, the Old city makes you want to spend your life lazily strolling the colorful narrow streets, occasionally stopping at a café or shopping at a local store while people watching. It is absolutely gorgeous, and worth every minute.
We did various things while there, including walking around the Old city a lot, going to the beach, going snorkeling, visiting the numerous historical sites, and (of course) going to the Club Havana, which is where Hilary Clinton partied while she was here!!! It was absolutely amazing. Getting stopped by the police and being stripped searched for drugs, and following around prostitutes (NOT because we were interested, obviously, but because Sascha had a weird desire to document them on camera lol) made the trip even more fascinating.
The next weekend, we went rock climbing an hour away from Bogota, which was beautiful and another very challenging physical activity. We scaled over 80 feet of near-vertical rock wall, using only our hands and feet!
Last weekend we went to the Coffee Zone (eje Cafetero, about 9 hours away) which is a beautiful area. We visited a reserve that has some of the best bird watching in the world, saw an Andean bear, and went to the Valle del Cocoro, which has insanely beautiful cloud forest and an endangered palm tree which is the tallest palm tree in the world. Fortunately, there were no transportation problems on these trips haha.
This weekend we are heading to San Agustin, a 10 hour bus ride away. I cannot wait to tell you about it, as it has some of the best scenery in Colombia, and hundreds of carved heads (think Easter island) which were made 5,000 years ago by the Native Americans!
Both of these pics are from rock climbing.
I miss you all! Unfortunately, I have not been taking pictures with my own camera (because Sascha and Tony, the other Harvard students, take way better photos than me). That means that I don’t have many photos, and as soon as I get them from Sascha and Tony I’ll post them.
Love!
But first, let me explain to you what exactly my work is. I have been working at ANSPE (La Agencia Nacional para la Superacion de la Pobreza Extrema, aka the National agency for the overcoming of extreme poverty). ANSPE’s job is to reduce extreme poverty, (duh) and they do so by sending 10,000 social workers around the country to report of the needs of the poor, and then finding/creating programs that meet those needs. I have been doing research, helping the agency with a couple of their projects (including a housing project and the Colombia branch of One Laptop Per Child) and working on some of their presentations. It’s interesting work, and it has been rewarding to work with one of the newest and most innovative government agencies in Colombia.
Now to my Cartagena trip!! (like 3 weeks ago, yikes). We went for 4 days (by plane), and it was amazing. Cartagena is by far one of the most beautiful places I have ever been too. It has beaches, yes, but the highlight is the Old town, which is one of the best preserved colonial towns in the Americas. Surrounded by a large fortress constructed in the 1600’s, the Old city makes you want to spend your life lazily strolling the colorful narrow streets, occasionally stopping at a café or shopping at a local store while people watching. It is absolutely gorgeous, and worth every minute.
We did various things while there, including walking around the Old city a lot, going to the beach, going snorkeling, visiting the numerous historical sites, and (of course) going to the Club Havana, which is where Hilary Clinton partied while she was here!!! It was absolutely amazing. Getting stopped by the police and being stripped searched for drugs, and following around prostitutes (NOT because we were interested, obviously, but because Sascha had a weird desire to document them on camera lol) made the trip even more fascinating.
The next weekend, we went rock climbing an hour away from Bogota, which was beautiful and another very challenging physical activity. We scaled over 80 feet of near-vertical rock wall, using only our hands and feet!
Last weekend we went to the Coffee Zone (eje Cafetero, about 9 hours away) which is a beautiful area. We visited a reserve that has some of the best bird watching in the world, saw an Andean bear, and went to the Valle del Cocoro, which has insanely beautiful cloud forest and an endangered palm tree which is the tallest palm tree in the world. Fortunately, there were no transportation problems on these trips haha.
This weekend we are heading to San Agustin, a 10 hour bus ride away. I cannot wait to tell you about it, as it has some of the best scenery in Colombia, and hundreds of carved heads (think Easter island) which were made 5,000 years ago by the Native Americans!
Both of these pics are from rock climbing.
I miss you all! Unfortunately, I have not been taking pictures with my own camera (because Sascha and Tony, the other Harvard students, take way better photos than me). That means that I don’t have many photos, and as soon as I get them from Sascha and Tony I’ll post them.
Love!
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Hey Gang!
Just got back from our week off/social study project. I went to Huizhou in Anhui Province. Absolutely gorgeous. It's famous for its landscape and tea, both of which I got to fully enjoy. (I did pick up some tea for the room, so we will have fabulous tea parties next year--maybe even ones that can compete with our house masters'!)
in Huizhou I got to talk to farmers and some businessmen. As some of you know, I have an interest in migrant worker situation in China, and i read ahead of time that Anhui is one of the biggest exporters of migrant labor in China. So going there, I was expecting to interview people and have them sob about how they missed family members working out of province. And while I did see the remnants of their migration to cities--villages only having old people and young kids bc the 18-30 yr. olds are out working--I found that people's reactions were mostly positive.
They know that work in the countryside/farm doesn't really guarantee the best pay. So parents sometimes encourage their kids to go out and work. And the so called "left behind children" seem to be in good hands with their older relatives. The villages are so small that they become like a big family.
Families don't really worry about sending their kids out to work, because the kids always come back--to help keep up the farm, but mostly to take care of family.
It was a really rewarding trip, the people, scenery, food. but now i have to write a 2000 character essay! so, back to work! =D
i posted some picture, but i don't think my camera truly captured the beauty of this place. I guess, being a texan, i've always been a country gal at heart =p
Just got back from our week off/social study project. I went to Huizhou in Anhui Province. Absolutely gorgeous. It's famous for its landscape and tea, both of which I got to fully enjoy. (I did pick up some tea for the room, so we will have fabulous tea parties next year--maybe even ones that can compete with our house masters'!)
in Huizhou I got to talk to farmers and some businessmen. As some of you know, I have an interest in migrant worker situation in China, and i read ahead of time that Anhui is one of the biggest exporters of migrant labor in China. So going there, I was expecting to interview people and have them sob about how they missed family members working out of province. And while I did see the remnants of their migration to cities--villages only having old people and young kids bc the 18-30 yr. olds are out working--I found that people's reactions were mostly positive.
They know that work in the countryside/farm doesn't really guarantee the best pay. So parents sometimes encourage their kids to go out and work. And the so called "left behind children" seem to be in good hands with their older relatives. The villages are so small that they become like a big family.
Families don't really worry about sending their kids out to work, because the kids always come back--to help keep up the farm, but mostly to take care of family.
It was a really rewarding trip, the people, scenery, food. but now i have to write a 2000 character essay! so, back to work! =D
i posted some picture, but i don't think my camera truly captured the beauty of this place. I guess, being a texan, i've always been a country gal at heart =p
Thursday, July 5, 2012
The Errors Hardest to Condone in Other Countries are One's Own
Hey blockies!
So first off, the common quote upon which I based my title is apparently attributed to Piet Hein, a 20th century Danish poet (and mathematician, inventor, scientist, author, and designer) - thank you, internet.
Anyway, I'm having a really good time, and at some point I'll update you about normal things like my internship, places we've been (a lot lately! Uruguay last weekend and Iguazú Falls up north in the rainforest this weekend!), etc.
But for now...
There are certainly many aspects of Buenos Aires that are novel for me. But for a place that is thousands of miles away from home, I am perhaps most struck by the similarities between Argentina and the US - although maybe after going to India last summer, of course this seems similar by comparison.
The Argentine and American systems of government are nearly identical; a few of us visited a constitutional law class at the University of Buenos Aires (at 8:30 am...before work! I was proud of myself), and they even talked about the commerce clause. There is a heavy immigrant influence, particularly from a bunch of different European countries, and about 2% of the country is Jewish, just like in the US.
However, many of the similarities remind me strongly of some of the worst aspects of the US: genocide against the Native Americans in the past and the commodification of indigenous culture in the present; denial of the racism that permeates society; high income inequality (the Gini Coefficient here is really similar to that of the United States); objectification of women in practically all forms of media; I could go on. I think for me, the experience of being in a foreign country, where nothing is "the default," makes all of the societal flaws that I typically view as a part of life stick out like sore thumbs.
It is somewhat ironic that I'm writing these criticisms of America on July 4th, perhaps...but to quote Howard Zinn, "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism." And there's plenty of dissent here; people are super politically active, and there are protests all the time, sometimes even stopping large portions of the city.
I miss you all! Maya, you should post something before you leave! At this point...I will have to buy a plant in Buenos Aires and name it after you.
Sending love from the southern hemisphere <3
So first off, the common quote upon which I based my title is apparently attributed to Piet Hein, a 20th century Danish poet (and mathematician, inventor, scientist, author, and designer) - thank you, internet.
Anyway, I'm having a really good time, and at some point I'll update you about normal things like my internship, places we've been (a lot lately! Uruguay last weekend and Iguazú Falls up north in the rainforest this weekend!), etc.
But for now...
There are certainly many aspects of Buenos Aires that are novel for me. But for a place that is thousands of miles away from home, I am perhaps most struck by the similarities between Argentina and the US - although maybe after going to India last summer, of course this seems similar by comparison.
The Argentine and American systems of government are nearly identical; a few of us visited a constitutional law class at the University of Buenos Aires (at 8:30 am...before work! I was proud of myself), and they even talked about the commerce clause. There is a heavy immigrant influence, particularly from a bunch of different European countries, and about 2% of the country is Jewish, just like in the US.
However, many of the similarities remind me strongly of some of the worst aspects of the US: genocide against the Native Americans in the past and the commodification of indigenous culture in the present; denial of the racism that permeates society; high income inequality (the Gini Coefficient here is really similar to that of the United States); objectification of women in practically all forms of media; I could go on. I think for me, the experience of being in a foreign country, where nothing is "the default," makes all of the societal flaws that I typically view as a part of life stick out like sore thumbs.
It is somewhat ironic that I'm writing these criticisms of America on July 4th, perhaps...but to quote Howard Zinn, "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism." And there's plenty of dissent here; people are super politically active, and there are protests all the time, sometimes even stopping large portions of the city.
I miss you all! Maya, you should post something before you leave! At this point...I will have to buy a plant in Buenos Aires and name it after you.
Sending love from the southern hemisphere <3
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Hey beloved best blocking group in the world!
I started work two weeks ago--working in Dr. Chaochun Wei's lab, if you want to look him up (although not super crazy interesting website). Just learned some data compression algorithms and C programming language last week, and this week will start downloading human genomes using the unbearably slow Chinese internet. Final goal is to create a program that can quickly find the overlapping regions of one thousand human genomes.
Food is crazy good and crazy cheap here: at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University cafeterias, I eat for about 20 RMB (= less than $4 USD) per day and it's delicious and filling food--dumplings and noodles in soup, mushroom and beef fried noodle, hot pot with enoki mushrooms and lamb.
In free time, I've been running around with the other Harvard kids to see Shanghai and buy cheap stuff. We went to Tianshan Tea City this weekend--bought about one pound of an amazing, sweet, resonant fruit tea, and also bought a clear glass teapot and six glass cups for 30 RMB (= less than $5 USD)--get excited for tea parties (and not the political kind), y'all!!! Also went to the South Bund Fabric Market and got a thick winter coat--think trenchcoat style except in hard wool with a thick inner layering for warmth--tailored for me for 460 RMB (= about $73 USD).
Am loving the sights and getting to know the undergraduates here and seeing how Chinese science is done--lab work is a little tough to swallow for now, but I'm positive that something good will come out of this. No chance to play ukulele, as I didn't bring it all the way to China (sadly!) but am doing a lot of singing at karaoke with the other Harvard classmates. Soon we will explore other parts of China, like Hangzhou next week--excited!
Take care everyone! If you see me on @college e-mail, please Google chat me--I already "talked" with Rachel and Val! Will post more later!
I started work two weeks ago--working in Dr. Chaochun Wei's lab, if you want to look him up (although not super crazy interesting website). Just learned some data compression algorithms and C programming language last week, and this week will start downloading human genomes using the unbearably slow Chinese internet. Final goal is to create a program that can quickly find the overlapping regions of one thousand human genomes.
Food is crazy good and crazy cheap here: at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University cafeterias, I eat for about 20 RMB (= less than $4 USD) per day and it's delicious and filling food--dumplings and noodles in soup, mushroom and beef fried noodle, hot pot with enoki mushrooms and lamb.
In free time, I've been running around with the other Harvard kids to see Shanghai and buy cheap stuff. We went to Tianshan Tea City this weekend--bought about one pound of an amazing, sweet, resonant fruit tea, and also bought a clear glass teapot and six glass cups for 30 RMB (= less than $5 USD)--get excited for tea parties (and not the political kind), y'all!!! Also went to the South Bund Fabric Market and got a thick winter coat--think trenchcoat style except in hard wool with a thick inner layering for warmth--tailored for me for 460 RMB (= about $73 USD).
Am loving the sights and getting to know the undergraduates here and seeing how Chinese science is done--lab work is a little tough to swallow for now, but I'm positive that something good will come out of this. No chance to play ukulele, as I didn't bring it all the way to China (sadly!) but am doing a lot of singing at karaoke with the other Harvard classmates. Soon we will explore other parts of China, like Hangzhou next week--excited!
Take care everyone! If you see me on @college e-mail, please Google chat me--I already "talked" with Rachel and Val! Will post more later!
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