Class Reading 0 the wit and wisdom of Mark Twain

I thought that this reading was actually really interesting. One of my favorite sections on Pinterest is the Quote category, so this was great.... a whole book of them! There were a two sections that I liked in particular:

Courage (page49)
My favorite quote in this section was, "Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear." I like this quote because I am afraid of literally everything. This made me think  of my fear of flying. I am from California, so I have to fly a good amount during the year. I have been able to sort of conquer this fear by rationalizing it away, but the fear is still there none the less.

Humor (page108)
I really liked the quote, "Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand." This made me think of the first day of this class. We spoke about laughter can be healing and how our professor would read a book of jokes when he got sick. I believe that laughter can heal all things and I think that this quote represents that belief.

6th Meeting with Conversation Partner

I met with Francesca on Monday November 26th. Because of the freezing weather, we decided to switch it up from our usual spot outside of Smith and go to potbelly for lunch. I got my usual pizza sandwich and she got a turkey and Swiss cheese sandwich.

We started off by talking about out Thanksgiving vacation. I told her about how I went home and stayed with my two older sisters. She also had a traditional thanksgiving dinner with one of her friends. She said she loved all the wonderfully yummy food that they had. We also laughed about how we had to lay on the couch for 3 days just to recoup from the massive meal. She also told me about how she went shopping on black Friday. Unfortunately, she didn't find any of the good deals she was hoping for. But, she was excited to take part of this "weird" American tradition. I got to explain  to her why they called it "black Friday." She said she now understood the name because of the thousands of people she saw out shopping at 3 in the morning.

Other than that she said she has been really busy with school and is getting a little stressed out. I could definitely relate. I told her that I was also very stressed with school and that I was nervous for finals.

Class Reading - Tales of Juha Part 2

I really enjoyed this section of the book. I commented last time that there were 1 or 2 stories in the first section that touched on social issues, but this section really brought the focus in on topics people would usually try to avoid. Although I really loved the witt in the first half of the book, I think that this piece was definitely my favorite. As a whole, I this is one of the top books we have read in the class in my opinion. I loved that the stories were short because I can't stay focused on long stories, especially if they are boring. I also enjoyed the humor in Tales of Juha compared to the humor used in the other books we have read.

There was one specific story that I really liked. This is the story on pages 48 and 49 where Juha and is son are walking down a road with the donkey. They continue to make comments and remarks about people passing whether the person rode a donkey or didn't ride a donkey. This really brought to light how judgmental people are and how there will always be people there to criticize you no matter what you do. This was highlighted when Juha says, “Let me tell you something, son. You can never please everyone.”

5th Meeting with conversation partner

I met with Francesca on Friday November 16th outside of Smith. Unfortunately, this was before Thanksgiving break so it has taken me a little while to blog about this meeting. It was a really pretty day outside which was great. During this meeting we talked a lot about school. She had a lot of questions about TCU and she shared some concerns she had about going back to school again. In Chile, she had gone to college for two years, but they stopped going and just did a little traveling. Since then, she has been taking some basic courses and working on her English so that she can go to an American college. As you may remember, I brought Francesca to my organizational management class. Although this did mitigate some of her concern and worry, she is still very nervous. She was able to get the gist of what the teacher was saying and could generally understand the subject, but she is nervous that when she has to get into an actual class where she has to earn a grade, that she wont understand enough. I was able to help her by telling her how much her English has improved already during this semester. I reminded her of our first meeting where she was excusing her self the whole time and saying that she didn't know how to say something. Now she is sounds much more confident when speaking. I did give her some advice regarding her accent. Sometimes it is a little hard to understand her through her accent when she speaks fast, so I told her to just slow down a little bit.

Other than talking about school and classes we just updated each other on the new things that have gone on in our lives since our last meeting. It was a very fun meeting and a great conversation!

Class Reading- Tales of Juha

I really liked this read. I found it a lot more interesting that the other pieces we have read because of the witty humor and the cleverness in each story. I was really surprised by the amount that I could actually relate to and I found myself wishing that I could come up with "come back" like Juha had. I also found it humorous how he was able to use his witt to get out of basically every situation.

There were a few stories that I particularly enjoyed. The first was the story of Juha and his two wives that he gave a necklace too. This story really displays his cleverness and ability to get out of predicaments. Second, I really liked the story about Juha steeling a donkey, which then got stolen. When asked how much he sold it for he replied, "at cost." Again, the way he handled the situation was really funny. I think I liked this one because I am not really a funny or witty person, so I wish I could come up with something like this right on the spot as he did. Lastly, I thought the story about Juha naming the baby racewinner was really funny. This one stood out to be because he was able to bring out a social issue that would normally never be brought up and that a topic that people would try to avoid. He also does it in a stealth and witty way and makes the others kind of pause to take it all in. I could imagine myself in that group of friends with my mouth open like, "did he just say that."

Although I found many of the stories very funny, I also didn't understand a lot of them. In particular, I didn't know what he meant when he told the story of the two women fighting. But, all in all, I enjoyed this reading.

Class Reading- Hokum, Dirty Deceivers

For today's class reading we were assigned Chester Himes's Dirty Deceivers. I found this story extremely interesting. First, I found it intriguing that a person was considered a "Negro" if they had even a "drop of blood" of Negro in them. I found myself contrasting this to modern times. I can't imagine what it would be like to completely judge a persons character and worth on the color of their skin. I have always been exposed to many different cultures. My father is Jewish and my mother is Korean. As I read this story, I realized that if my mom and dad had met in the 40's or 50's they would have probably never been married. Although it is still not extremely common to have interracial marriages, I do think that it is at least accepted. Additionally, I found that it sad and humorous at the same time that they each when up to Harlem to enjoy their heritage and culture. In the case of my family, my parents and their families have been able to teach each other so much about their individual cultures. I think that it adds a bit excitement to their relationship because they get to partake in the good and bad traditions and customs from each persons families.

The humor in this story can be found in the extreme irony. As I mentioned earlier, I found it humorous that they had to work so hard to avoid each other while they were both just doing the same exact thing. Also, it was ironic that they both developed extreme prejudice against Negros and separated themselves from them as possible. The irony increases in this situation because it makes the other partner feel even more nervous and stressed about covering up their heritage. Lupe even goes so far as to say that Ferdinand would kill her if he ever found out the truth. But, the greatest irony is found at the end of the story. After they discover the truth about the others race they become blissfully happy. However, this doesn't last long. They become bored and feel betrayed by the other, even though they were also the betrayer. They completely stopped talking, and eventually filed for divorce under false pretenses.

4th Meeting with Conversation Partner

I met with Francesca today, November 5th in our usual spot outside of Smith. Today was a really short meeting because I have a test tomorrow and she had errands to run. During our conversation, we laughed about beautiful and sunny it is at the beginning of November. Along with that, we complained about our busy schedules and how we wish we could just lay out at a pool and not be stressed with school and the many other things that clutter our lives. Francesca then told me that she was ready for some cold weather because she has had summer/ summer weather since she left Chile. This is because the seasons are the opposite in Chile. So, when she left her home it was the end of summer there but the beginning of summer here. Personally, I would love this because I hate cold weather.

Then for the rest of the time, Francesca told me about all the things I should see and do while I am in Chile this next summer. She gave me a lot of hints about safety and the best areas to visit while we are there. Francesca also warned me about some of the big differences that I should be aware of, mainly food. I mentioned that I am a very picky eater and she said that I may have a difficult time on the trip. I also voiced my concerns about the language barrier while I am there. I took Spanish through elementary school, middle school, and high school, yet I can still barely ask someones name or how there are doing. She told me that I should have no reason to worry because most people can speak at least a little English, especially in the touristy areas.

Although we had to quickly end the conversation, it was enjoyable as always. We set up another time to meet for this Thursday.