Friday, May 30, 2008

Rockridge reflection

Yesterday we went to Rockridge in oakland. At first i was thinking "where the hell is Rockridge", but then once we got there i remember me and my parents and sisters went over there one time. My first perception of Rockridge was that it was gonna look and be something like Walnut creek, but once i sort of got a feel of it, it is just another place in oakland to me. I mean don't get me wrong its way more different than east oakland but to me i knew i was in oakland and no place else.
         A major difference between Rockridge and Fruitvale to me was that the people in Rockridge are much more nicer. everyone that me and my group interviewed were pretty friendly and when they didn't want to get interviewed they weren't rude about it like some of the people in the Fruitvale district.
         Something that surprised me about Rockridge was that a lot of my class mates didn't know where Rockridge was or had never been over there before. i mean i sort of felt the a loner when it came to knowing were i was, i mean cause nobody knew where we were. And i was getting all juiced because i knew where i was and most of them were like "ooookay???" i mean after a while i didn't trip off of it, but it did surprise me a bit.
                Some similarities i saw between Rockridge and Fruitvale was that both are very busy places. They both have a lot of shopping places and food places. Rockridge is sort of more quite that Fruitvale though. They both are by schools. i mean i guess they're similar in some ways but i mean honestly i'd rather chill in Rockridge than Fruitvale. i say this because I've lived by the Fruitvale district from like time i was 8 to the time i was like 12 and to me i've seen everything there, Rockridge is somewhere i haven't been to often. But both when it's all said and done are coo places

Thursday, May 29, 2008

the fruitvale district


So today we went to the fruitvale district to interview people about aesthetics. On tuesday we went to Walnut Creek and did the same interview there. to me it seems easier to interview people in Walnut Creek. it was easier because people were more willing to be interviewed and they didn't reject you as much. i know that when your doing interviews there will be rejections but it seems like the people in the fruitvale district didn't want to do the interviews... Overall i thought that it was way more harder to interview the people in the fruitvale district. At first i was thinking that" okay this is our community they're gonna show us some love and let us interview us, they're gonna be coo" but walnut creek was way more willing, which i didn't think they would be when i first went out there on tuesday.

One positive thing that i liked about going to fruitvale was that i grew up around there and t was good to come back and see what was the same and what was different. Another thing was that not all the people were rude and dismissive, there was this librarian who mr and my group interviewed and he was hella nice!!! i mean he was really willing to help us with our project. i think he was he only interview that i liked. We talked about graffiti and the difference between tagging and graffiti. it was really coo.
The negative things about fruitvale was that there were a lot of rude people. maybe they were too busy or something but they could have been a little but more nicer than they were. there was this bus driver lady who me and m group were trying to interview, and she was soooooooo RUDE!!! i mean we asked very nicely if we could have a interview with her and she was like" some kids already asked me." and i was like okay thats understandable so i said well these are way different questions, she asked what were the questions about, we told her and she was like " well those other kids asked me the same things." i thought wow i know that our questions were way different from the other group members. I thought if she didn't want to do the interview she could have just said so, she didn't have to all rude.
What i learned about the fruitvale district and the whole project in general is that, in life there will be people who reject you. Rather it's a job, dating, or just asking for something you want. All that we can do as people are respect it and try not to get all butt hurt(take it personal) about it. There will be other opportunities , and maybe the next time it will be better than the first.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

my life and oakland


      i've been living here all my life. it's crazy how i
here people talk about how bad oakland is, but i don't
see it. I don't see what people are talking about.
i've been living out here all my life and there's is
not a time where i have thought about leaving, this is
my home. Everything that i have gone through and
everything that i have seen in oakland has influenced
my mind in some way. I learned how to take care of
myself, out here. Ever since little i had to survive
of here on my own. my mother wasn't there all the time
and i had to teach and grow up too fast out here. my
heart is here in oakland. and without oakland and the
things i had to go through out here, i wouldn't b the
person i am. i fell in love out here at 16 not hardly
knowing what love was at the time. lost something so
dear to me because i thought i could trust out here.
but i grew as a person because of it. most people
would think oakland is a bad place and if you are on
the outside looking in, you would really think so, but
i've been living here all my life and i wouldn't wanna
be anywhere else.


chinatown


     Yesterday we went to chinatown to do interviews.
i've been to chinatown a couple of times, i have drove
pass there. My first thought about chinatown was that
it's very busy. After actually going and hanging out
there, my perception of chinatown is the same, its
very busy and there are a lot of people there shopping
and walking around.
some of the things that are the same about
chinatown and fruitvale is that there basically one
race of people. in fruitvale there are latinos and
hispanics and in chinatown there's all types of
asians. one thing that i notice that is different
about the two is that in chinatown is that they have a
lot of resturants and shopping places, in fruitvale
its just busy.
What sort of surprised me but chinatown was that i
did see other people beside the asian community, there
were blacks and whites there, i don't think i seen
anyway hispanics, but i did see other races besides
asians. At first before we went to chinatown, i
thought that only asians go there and hang there but i
was really wrong
some similarities i noticed is that everybody
pretty much gets long with everybody.I think that
pretty much goes with every race, i believe that it's
just the "norm" that when you in a community with the
same race, you get along better. Not saying that it
should be that way but, i noticed that everybody in
chinatown were saying hi to each other and genuinely
comfortable in there surroundings

walnut creek

At first my perceptions of Walnut Creek before going
there was what I had heard from ever one else. I heard
that it was a rich white town with a lot of white
people there. I was sort of afraid to go at first
because I thought that is was going to be intimidating
to go out there. Now that I have gone out to Walnut
Creek, my view of Walnut Creek has sort of changed.

It has changed now because; I know that Walnut Creek
isn’t really that bad. My view of Walnut Creek is that
it’s just like any other town. Yes the majority of
Walnut Creek seems to be white but there is some
diversity there. While we were out there, I seen a lot
of shopping plazas and there were a lot expensive
stores, it was kind of new for me but then I thought
there are expensive store out here also.

To me, there wasn’t really a big difference between
Oakland and Walnut Creek. I’ve been to different parts
of Oakland and it doesn’t really seem that much
different. I guess it depends on what parts of Oakland
you go to. I believe that the same things that are in
Walnut Creek, you can see in piedmont. But then if you
live where I live there are differences.

I think that one thing that is similar is that
wherever you go there are people who think that there
community is better than any one else’s. I believe
that when we were in Walnut Creek there were people
who were sort of snobby, but I also see that in my
community. I think that the people who were from
Walnut Creek knew that we (life academy students) were
not from around there, I see that in my community too.
Overall, Walnut Creek is a really nice place. I
wouldn’t mind going shopping out there one day. They
had a lot of stores and restaurants. It’s a really
nice clean quite place.