Disruption of observation #1

I decided to disrupt the norms of my bus ride this time, and I must say this was quite uncormfortable. As I approached the stop there was people already there waiting so I decided to skip in front of all of them and wait right in front of the bus stop. This didnt cause that much commotion, but I dont believe they were really happy about this. Instead of listening to an ipod or talking on the phone I stood there and just waited and watched people. And of course as I watched them I got no eye contact, except for one person who looked at me for a brief second, and then turned away quickly trying to pretend that I didnt see them looking at me.As the bus approached I was already ready and prepared to get on, and I jumped right on not waiting for any passengers to get off first. As a result of this the bus driver told me to wait next time. As I got on I picked a seat right beside someone else with a bus full of empty seats. This person seemed quite aggrevated, and I knew that they didnt want anyone to sit beside them because they had their bookbag in the seat next to them, but I made them move it. So I tried to strike up a conversation with this person that I had already made upset. This did not go so well. Every question I asked they responded with a short and quick answer and didnt bother to ask me any questions. The ride ended and I got off the bus without telling the driver thanks. I know for sure know one will ever want me riding on their bus.

Observation #1- The bus

I decided to observe the bus and how people act when they are taking the bus somewhere. I walked towards the bus stop, and as usually I stop and stand as I wait. While I was waiting I looked at the others who were waiting as well, and I observed how none of them made any eye contact with me. Some of the waiters were sitting on the bench and some were standing beside the bench. As each new person walked up towards the stop they assumed into some sort of line. I believe this is a norm for common courtesy. When someone gets to the bus stop before you you have to wait in a farther away position from the stop. I watched as people were listening to their ipods, talking on the phone, reading news papers, and studying notes for the test they were about to take. As the bus approached everyone became alarmed. They all got up and put their stuff together, and prepared to board the bus in an orderly fashion. As they were about to get on the bus the driver told them to wait, because people were getting off the bus. It is a norm for people that are getting off the bus to get off first before anyone else can get on. So they waited patiently for people to get off the bus and then they themselves got on. I observed how people anxiously looked for seats that were away from other people. Its like they dont want to be touched by anyone while they are on the bus. I also observed two girls that I knew were good friends but on the bus they did not act like it. They only said Hi and Goodbye to one another. I guess they had nothing to talk about, or maybe it was the bus. This is another behavioral norm on the bus , no talking unless you have too. I watched how people would push the requested stop buttons when they wanted the driver to let them off at a certain place, but I also noticed that at the stops where the most people got off like the union no one would push the button. As people got off of the bus mostly everyone thanked the driver for the transportation.

Pace Mentoring

Well I have discussed Pace earlier in my blog, and to catch you up if you didnt read that one. Pace is basically a program that I have been in this year, in which I mentor and tutor students who can not be in a public school setting. This whole year we have been having quite a bit of problems with communication and getting the kids enthusiastic about learning. We as an organization have been working hard on trying to fix these problems, but without cooporation from everyone we cant get anywhere. Well to make a long story short, because of all of these problems the program has now been suspended. I was soo upset about this because I know hjow far this program could of went with the right help. The leaders say the main reason it was suspended was because the students were dropping it, and plainly did not want to stay after school to do homework. So the leaders are working on ideas to fix this. I think that we should do some programs that are fun, and not just always talk about school and work when we are with the students all the time. In order to spark an interest in these kids we have to first understand what interest them, and apparently school work is not their interest or else they wouldnt be in the program in the first place. I know that in the end we have to help them do better with their acedemics, but we cant help them if that dont want to be helped. so what are we to do? because I really want to help these kids. I have grown to care about some of them, and its sad because all of them have the ability to succeed in life. The only problem is they dont know this and a lot of them dont have anyone in their lives to tell them this.

Event 1: Aids Benefit Concert

This past sunday I went to a Aids benefit dance concert. I really enjoyed this, because dancing is my passion. There was many different dance teams, and they came from all types of cultural backgrounds. We had Latin, Hiphop, Contemporary, Ballet, and even Bollywood! For those of you who do not know what Bollywood is it is a type of dance done in India. My favorite dance group would definately have to be the Bollywood dancers because I love the cultural aspect of their dance. Their costumes were soo beautiful, and made of these ellaborate colors that added soo much too the expressions of their dance. The host of the show was a character all on his own. He was an older man dressed in an Africen disheki gown that draped the floors. He was very loud and I guess he knew a lot about African history, because he used a lot of African terms. One of the things he did to help get interaction with the audience was he had this african phrase that basically meant a call for attention. The people would respond back with a saying that meant that they were listening and giving their full attention. I thought this was a great technique of insider/ outsider relationship because the host used his insed knowlegde of the African language to help engage the outsiders, which was the audience, in the show. Like I said I truely enjoyed the show and I cant wait to get on stage and perform myself.

Chris Brown, Im in shock

Well, if you havnt heard Chris Brown has been arrested for beating up his girlfriend Rihanna. I was soo shocked when I heard this, because he was such a sweet guy, and a lot of kids looked up to him. He always had this innocence about him when he was on camera, and I would have never thought that he would have hurt a fly, but I guess I was wrong. It was the night of the grammy awards and of course both Chris and Rihanna were supposed to be there, but I guess they had other plans. The tabloids reported that they had been fighting for a while, and Rihanna has been seen with bruises on her before, but I guess no one took it seriously until now. But this night was different, she didnt just come out of this with a couple of bruises she came out with blood all over her body, and even bite marks. I just could not fathom this in my mind, I mean beating a women is bad enough but biting her, thats just crazy!!! When I thought about it though I could see where Chris may have gotten this behavior from. He discussed on a talk show that as a child he had to see his mother get beat up by her husband,and as a result of that he was kind of scarred, but he also said that he would never treat a girl like his mother was treated. I really do wish that he would have thought about his mother before he layed his hands on Rihanna because now his career and maybe even his life, if he doesnt change, is ruined. As for Rihanna I hope that she is ok, and I hope that she doesnt blame herself for what she went through because it was not her fault, because no one deserves to be treated like that. They both will be in my prayers.

Rushing to frankllin

Okay honestly I wasnt reaally a basketball fan until I came to this school. I mean I like sports and everything But I never put soo much heart into one game until last night, the night of the DUKE and CAROLINA game. I had just got out of dance practice and I was planning on watching the game but I wasnt really thinking about it that much. On my way back to my room I called my friends and I heard all this noise in the background. People were cheering and yelling as if they had lost their mothers or something. So I decided to go watch the game with them. As the game progresses I find myself yelling, jumping , and screaming as well. I had never felt that way about a game before, and when then the clock hit zero, and we were ten points ahead I yelled and cheered for joy as me and my friends rushed out of the building for Franklin. Now me and my friends were not to keen on the idea of running all the way to franklin street from south campus soo we were planning on taking the p2p, but that plan soon changed. As we saw thousands of students running out of buildings and acting like animals, we of course, wanted to join in. We ran, and we walked, and then we jogged, and then we walked, and then we finished it off with a sprint, and finally we arrived. I was amazed by the craziness. My eyes had never seen such nonsense before in my life. I mean really, jumping over a fire on top of the fact that your drunk, this is not what I call safe. But all in all I had a blast even though I did not jump over a bomb fire, because I had on baggy pants and I kinda care about my safety.

MiscONcEption

I just recently tried out for the dance team called misconception. To give you a little background information on this dance team I will say that it is one of the most hardcore hiphop dance teams on campus, and they focus on promoting diversity among all ethnicities. But like I said I just tried out for this team at the beginning of the week and of course I did make the team in which I was very excited to find out , but I did not know what lied ahead. I thought that all my troubles and worries with this would be over with when I find out if I made the team or not. The first day of practice was great. The new people( me and others) learned one of the old dances to start the process of catching up with the current dancers on the team. The dance that we learned was quite difficult .... wait.... it was the hardest dance I have ever learned in my life !!! buuut I think im doing pretty good in the learning process and I have been practicing like crazy! because another thing that I found out on the first day of practice was just because you make the team does not mean you get to perform, I thought to myself " The whole purpose of making a team is so you can perform with that team ... right" But I guess in this case I was wrong. We learn all these dances and when there is a performance coming up you pick a dance or two that you think your pretty good at and you have to audition for that performance. Basically Im going to have to be on my toes at all times, because it would be really embarrassing when we have a performance and all of my friends are expecting to see me dance because I said I was on the team, and they dont see me on the stage... what will I do then. Sooo basically Im not going to let that happen im just about to work my butt off. If you hear that I passed out somewhere on campus you will know why.

Pace Academy

I am a mentor for this organization called Pace Academy. This organization sends mentors to a school which is also called Pace Academy. Pace Academy is a small school for kids who can not be in the public school system for various reasons like: discipline problems, pregnancy, learning disabilities, or if their parents just decide that they do not want their child in public school systems and feels that Pace would be the best option. I started mentoring at Pace at the beginning of last semester. Last semester was okaay but since this is a new organization there was a lot of communication problems between the members of the organization and the officials at the school. I was assigned a mentee and at the beginning everything was great. I was really getting to know her and I was helping her with her homework and her mother was even calling me to talk about her progress, but because of lack of communication I got stuck with no mentee towards the end of the semester. I kept seeing my mentee walking to the mall every time I was on my way to go tutor her, and I kept thinking to myself that she was skipping our sessions, and it wasnt like the sessions were that long so I became upset, and I felt like I had done something wrong to make her want to skipp our sessions. But the officials did not tell me that my work had payed off and the raeson why my mentee wasnt in the program anymore was because she was passing all of her classes. I was happy to her that but still upset at the lack of communication. Well now we have started a new semester with Pace and I have a new mentee, but I still have yet to meet this one because he did not come to school for our first session together so we will see how this one works out lol.