Don't Yuck My Yum

I went to sleep at 1 AM and woke up at 5 AM today. Four hours of sleep really drained me out but at least I was productive from 5 to 7 AM. I spent my morning finally unpacking my suitcases and using the bathroom before all of the girls woke up. Exactly at 7 AM, I woke up Thao and Maria, 2 of the 9 cohorts for Women and Leadership at Brown University. It wasn't until 8 o' clock that all of the cohort was ready to eat breakfast. As predicted, we barely had any time to eat breakfast. On the bright side, the food at the Ratty tasted 10 times better than dinner last night. Who knew bacon, scrambled eggs, and hashed browns could taste so good? 

With the handy dandy map of the school, we safely made it to Watson CIT, the building where our class was at, without getting lost. We grabbed a Women and Leadership Course Syllabus as soon as we went into the classroom just like college classes do. Professor Mary Grace, our instructor seemed very observant and looked outside the box. Her answers for everything made me see a different perspective in things. First, we watched a sexist Summer Eve commercial as a preflection that portrayed men as muscular and questioned women's reason to Summer Eve. The man in the commercial was disgusted about Summer Eve only after finding out what it's actually used for. 

After the preflection, she went over the syllabus which includes, an introduction to the course, learning community guidelines to be used in the class, and our action plan. One of the guidelines was "don't yuck my yum" which basically means that you shouldn't put anyone down for what they like. I thought that it was a very interesting way to describe a guideline for the class. Usually, rules for the classroom sound the same, but "don't yuck my yum" makes things sound different. During class, we had to write a five minute poem about the place we come from, the food we eat, our family quotes, and anything about our friends. While writing the poem, I realized how much these four things characterize us.

Did you know that Race, Nationality, and Ethnicity all have different meanings? We spent our lunch time asking strangers if they could tell the difference between sex and gender. A lot of the answers we received was "sex is between the legs, gender is between the ears." However, I was surprised to find that many people thought that they were the same things. One activity that we did today was writing three things that define us today and randomly crossing one out. We had to think of what would be different if we didn't have one of those three. It made me realize how much race, ethnicity, and income defines who I am today. 

The skit for the West Side 

After class, Thao and I went to replace her temporary ID with a permanent one. On our way to the office, I noticed that the sidewalk looked different from the one in California. I actually liked the one in CA because it was more descriptive. 

Afterwards, we went to Stephen Robert '62 Campus Center (The Underground) for a workshop called "North, South, East West." Every direction was a symbol for a different type of leader. I realized the I am mostly a South leader, one who believes in fairness and a team effort. I think that it takes more than one person to make a decision because your opinion isn't the only one out there. By the end of the day, I was able to feel like all four types of leaders were needed based on the type of situation. For an example, although I feel like having the attitude of "just do it" is not good, it may be good when there is only one day to finish a group presentation. Afterwards, we made a skit based on the type of leader we are. In my group, The South, we complimented everyone for all the suggestions that they had, including the ones that didn't make sense. We were going with the theme that working together makes a happy team. 

After the workshop, we went to a restaurant called V Dub at Brown for the first time. I have to say, it was better than the one we were used to going to, The Ratty. Isabella, one of the RA's for Perkin Hall, introduced us to Yukie who just came today. She is an international 17 year old from China and is taking the W&L course also. We took her over to Perkins Hall after we ate dinner and we made sure to give her a friendly welcoming. I really like the fact that W&L has been so welcoming to everyone here. Every hour at Brown, I know more about myself. I can't wait for the rest of my trip.