5a: Group #2(Waldie, Haslam, Do & Powazek)

PROJECT 5 COMPONENT A
a. During this week, we are sharing the readings of the textbook:
* Group 2 If your last name starts with letters G-O, READ the following author stories in MY CALIFORNIA: Waldie, Haslam, Do, Powazek

1. Write the story title and author name. .25 point
An Ordinary Place by D.J. Waldie
2. Summarize the reading in one brief paragraph; be specific in your summary. Remember that your classmates will rely on you for this information. 2 percent
We all have memories of the neighborhood we grew up in and how the area and the people shaped those memories. This story is a tale of growing up in "suburbia", what it meant to live a suburban life then and the difference now. Many of us have differentiating opinions when it comes to defining "suburbia" but usually it includes very expensive cars, a large, expensive house, and the residents are an elite class of people. In Lakewood, this suburban lifestyle is still "pretty much the same for everybody, no matter how much you think you're worth." (pg.149-150)

3. Which was your favorite sentence or paragraph (include entire quote; use quote marks and page number)? 1 percent
"Where I live is where most Californians live-in a tract house on a block of more tract houses in a neighborhood hardly distinguishable from the next and all of them extending as far as the street grid allows..."(pg.147) Before the economic slump it seemed as if houses were sprouting up everywhere in order to accomodate the people moving to California. I think most places that were just abandoned flatland for most of my childhood have been replaced with new houses in the last five years. Some of these houses were built so quickly that they end up having numerous problems that usually occur on a older home. I live in a fairly new middle-class neighborhood, built within the last four years and by trying to build as many houses as they could on the lot, they sacrificed our streets and made them very narrow.
4. What did the reading make you think of? (be specific eg "There is a bridge in SF that spans 4 miles from SF to Oakland and in the middle of the bridge it crosses an island called Treasure Island. This story makes me think of that specific little island where I can see the entire city and bay area. That city was also in the news recently where .... ) .75 percent
"...there are plenty of toxic places to live in gated enclaves and the McMansion wastelands of Los Angeles. Places like that have too much-isolation in one and mere square footage in the other-but, paradoxically, not enough." (pg.149) I think that too many people have this state of mind, bigger is always better. People live beyond their means to feel a sense of high status. "Growing up in Lakewood, the only sign of a man's success I can remember was the frequency with which a new car appeared in a neighbor's driveway." (pg.149) It's an interesting perspective on suburbia, I think that if we applied the concept to life today, many urban residents would be considered very successful and some surburban residents would be considered not quite as successful.
5. What is one thing you did not know before you started the reading that you now know (again, be specific using concrete examples)? 1 percent
I had never heard of Lakewood before reading this story.
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1. Write the story title and author name. .25 point
Almost Home by Gerald Haslam
2. Summarize the reading in one brief paragraph; be specific in your summary. Remember that your classmates will rely on you for this information. 2 percent
The story is about a couple who return to their hometown time after time to reminisce in the memories of growing up there. The husband remembers growing up in a town full of oil refineries and the smell of sulfur so distinctive that he thought every place else smelled funny.

3. Which was your favorite sentence or paragraph (include entire quote; use quote marks and page number)? 1 percent
"Although all our family there is now gone, my wife and I return to Oildale frequently because we must, and each time we walk its streets and alleys and fields, we savor them...memory and sense merging: 'That park, it was an oil sump, remember?...' " I think that change happens so much and so fast a lot of times that we do have to savor our memories. We all have different memories, some we hold on to very dearly because remembering them makes us smile and gives us a peace of mind so to speak.
4. What did the reading make you think of? (be specific eg "There is a bridge in SF that spans 4 miles from SF to Oakland and in the middle of the bridge it crosses an island called Treasure Island. This story makes me think of that specific little island where I can see the entire city and bay area. That city was also in the news recently where .... ) .75 percent
"During those years, I often rode my bike a mile from our neighborhood to an unreal realm I called 'Tarzan's House'-great shading trees dangling vines, dense brush through which animals scurried..."(pg.155) As I read this paragraph I was picturing the Tarzan House as being like a huge treehouse in the middle of an enormous jungle with a boy resembling movie character Tarzan swinging from tree to tree. It seems like a great place to get away from reality although I don't know how harsh reality can really be at such a young age. I wonder if this Tarzan House still exists these days, and what it looks like now that time has changed.
"...hills streaming constantly as though Hell has sprung a leak, hot vapors are pumped underground..."(pg. 154) This was a new and interesting metaphor the author depicted. I instantly pictured a valley of volcanoes spewing clouds of smoke, one of them dripping hot lava through a crack on the side. I picture oil rigs more like a geyser than a volcano.
5. What is one thing you did not know before you started the reading that you now know (again, be specific using concrete examples)? 1 percent
I did not know that Bakersfield was named after a guy named Thomas Baker who migrated there in 1863 and that it was originally called Kern Island. I imagine Bakersfield as an inland area so I can't picture the "...islands, really-were formed by the entrapped distributary channels of the Kern River..."(pg.155) When I think of Bakersfield, I think of this massive desolate area with lots of flatland, great potential for agriculture, but not much as a place to live.
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1. Write the story title and author name. .25 point
My Little Saigon by Anh Do
2. Summarize the reading in one brief paragraph; be specific in your summary. Remember that your classmates will rely on you for this information. 2 percent
Usually everyone knows of a Chinatown, Japantown, or even Little Italy(all located in San Francisco). These places earned their nickname from the culture and people within these areas. The residents, various businesses and the organizations share a piece of their heritage, their homeland's culture w/the rest of society. In "My Little Saigon", Anh talks growing up in an immigrant family and community in Orange County. She shares the stories about the journey of Vietnamese refugees that escaped the turmoil in Vietnam, hoping to build a better life in the U.S. Many chose to reside in California, particularly Southern California, "seduced by the sun and block after block of buildable land", (pg.160) Anh's father started the nation's first Vietnamese-language newspaper and distributed them door-to-door. He wrote about the journey and the struggle of the refugees coming to a new land, trying to understand this foreign language and the culture yet not forgetting their own. They found comfort in sticking together as they made their cultural mark on society. As more refugees came, the population grew larger and more Vietnamese-owned businesses sprouted up competing for customers, these included floral shops, markets, travel agencies, etc. They wanted to provide a "cultural and commercial hub" for the Vietnamese people which today serves about "four hundred thousand Vietnamese" in Southern California. As the story ends, Anh notes that part of the culture changed with the time, younger generations are more absorbed into the American culture than the culture of their ancestors, so much that many don't speak Vietnamese, but no matter what the elder residents will always reminisce in the memories of their homeland.

3. Which was your favorite sentence or paragraph (include entire quote; use quote marks and page number)? 1 percent
Choosing a "favorite" sentence proved quite difficult since I found many parts to be equally tantalizing. In the end I chose "Tradition survives. But it's a delicate balance".(pg.162) Everyone has a tradition, whether it's a family tradition, personal tradition, cultural tradition, school tradition etc.; these traditions consists of customs, beliefs, rituals, etc. that were passed down from generation to generation, whether they continue to be a tradition depends on their significance to the ones they are passed onto. That is the struggle with today's youth, ensuring that they understand both the culture of their ancestors as well as the culture they live in now. As we have seen possibly in our own lives, traditions can be altered or abandoned completely based on their impact on our lives and our own beliefs. Anh notes that she sees more and more Vietnamese kids that don't speak Vietnamese, maybe cultural tradition is being abandoned but language is only one aspect of the culture. I have friends and family that don't speak their parents' native languages but practice other traditional customs to acknowledge their heritage. I think that as long as the elders don't give up on teaching us their cultural traditions and the importance to keep them, those traditions will survive.
4. What did the reading make you think of? (be specific eg "There is a bridge in SF that spans 4 miles from SF to Oakland and in the middle of the bridge it crosses an island called Treasure Island. This story makes me think of that specific little island where I can see the entire city and bay area. That city was also in the news recently where .... ) .75 percent
Within the reading, I related to various experiences depicted by the author. "For dinner, we sat down with huge crowds eating huge meals of catfish, jasmine rice and sweet and sour tomato soup..."(pg.160-161) I felt as if I could be at the dinner table with them b/c that is the scene of my family's dinner table! Although we don't have "huge crowds", we eat the same dishes, which are very good! " 'You have everything you need from the bank to the fortune teller to Little Saigon Traffic School,' I tell my cousin."(pg.162) Little Saigon reminds me exactly of Chinatown in San Francisco, one can find exactly the same things, instead of Vietnamese, it's Chinese, banks w/tellers that are primarily Asian and speak Chinese, schools that teach the Chinese language and tradition, etc. "One difference: Those who don't have drivers' licenses have to memorize the bus routes, rather than flag down a bicycle taxi."(pg.162) Many Chinese residents eagerly wait for the buses to take them around to their various destinations. If anyone has ever tried to take a bus in Chinatown or around San Francisco, it is usually very crowded on the bus, so much that riders are squished against each other and as you walk by, some riders have their faces squished to the window.
I related to the author's own cultural experiences and the changes in tradition from generation to generation because I have had many of those same experiences.
5. What is one thing you did not know before you started the reading that you now know (again, be specific using concrete examples)? 1 percent
I did not know the nation's first Vietnamese-language newspaper started in California, that is such a great historic moment for the Vietnamese as well as the U.S. It is an amazing accomplishment for Anh's father to start the printing company and to deliver "the initial two thousand copies door-to-door" which he inked the "accent marks by hand"(pg. 160) showed true dedication and passion. I'm glad that his success continued to grow; today Nguoi Viet Daily News is "the oldest and largest Vietnamese-language newspaper in the United States"(pg. 163) and is also printed in English. California has so much history that even Californians don't know about!
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1. Write the story title and author name. .25 point
The Nicest Person in San Francisco by Derek M. Powazek
2. Summarize the reading in one brief paragraph; be specific in your summary. Remember that your classmates will rely on you for this information. 2 percent
This story is about a young adult who grew up in Southern California but had his heart set on attending college in Santa Cruz and upon a road trip with his father, found something better and has never looked back. "It was better than I imagined it..."(pg.166) this place was San Francisco. The author illustrates the experiences he had in his quest for adventure. His first visit was a quick one b/c they were on their way to Berkeley and decided to make a quick stop. But the short trip that included his first veggie burrito was enough to draw him in. Sometimes when we are young, we are naive so when someone tells us not to do something, we do it. I guess the rebellion gives us a sense of power. So when his father leaves him at the hotel w/his car keys and a warning of 'Be good, Derek. And whatever you do, don't go to San Francisco,'(pg.167) the only thing on his mind was "...I was ready for adventure. And I was gonna get it." (pg.167) What happens on this adventure is like a story out of an action movie, he gets lost on his way to SF trying to find the burrito shop but is drawn to a psychedelic shop and forgets time so he ends up getting a ticket. Not wanting his father to find out where he'd been, he quickly takes care of it but this task in itself proves to be life changing. "I walked out of there a new man-a San Franciscan" (pg.172)
3. Which was your favorite sentence or paragraph (include entire quote; use quote marks and page number)? 1 percent
"I was in awe. All these people. All these colors. It was better than I imagined it. I decided then and there that someday I would live here..."(pg.166) That's pretty much the same thought I had when I was younger and I too, moved to SF to explore the city and see if it lived up to my imagination. I have never met anyone yet that doesn't believe SF is full of neverending adventure and excitement; boring and SF do not go in the same sentence. San Francisco offers endless possibilities for people of all interests, whether it's trying different cuisines(American, Asian Indian, Chinese, Italian, Mexican, etc.), shopping or attending special events, it's a place to meet old friends and make new ones. SF is a place where you never really feel out of place because somewhere there are people just like you. As many times as I've gone to SF in my lifetime, I still haven't explored it all and revisiting the same areas never gets old. In fact, I was just there yesterday!
4. What did the reading make you think of? (be specific eg "There is a bridge in SF that spans 4 miles from SF to Oakland and in the middle of the bridge it crosses an island called Treasure Island. This story makes me think of that specific little island where I can see the entire city and bay area. That city was also in the news recently where .... ) .75 percent
"My heart sank as I passed sign after sign that screamed 'No Right Turn.' " I could perfectly see this scene in my mind except the signs in SF read "No Left Turn" as I wind through the various streets and weirdly angled traffic lights. I swear some intersections have confusing traffic lights so non-SF drivers don't know whether to stop at the red light diagonally to the right or the red light diagonally to the left when they're going straight. "So I got lost. Real lost. Real fast."(pg.168) I can't recount how many times I've gotten lost in San Francisco and it's easy to get "real lost, real fast" b/c there's a lot of windy streets, dead end streets or streets with nowhere to turn in sight. That is one of my pet peeves of SF, their roads are still confusing after all these years and finding parking is an equally agonizing task, whether it's finding street parking where it's not "street cleaning day" or paying $3 or more an hour for parking in a garage. I always say that I'll take the ferry and ride the bus next time around to avoid these headaches but I haven't yet and it hasn't deterred me from going back b/c my quest for adventure surpasses the minor obstacles thrown inbetween.
5. What is one thing you did not know before you started the reading that you now know (again, be specific using concrete examples)? 1 percent
I had a bit of trouble finding something I didn't know before I read the story because I've been to San Francisco so many times, I can understand and relate to what the author is depicting. Granted that(and thankfully) I have never been approached by a hooker or someone trying to sell me drugs, nor have I ever had the urge to go to "THE PYSCHEDELIC SHOP" b/c frankly there wouldn't be anything I'd be interested in but I know that these things do exist in the city. I've either driven by them or heard stories from other people, besides, what city doesn't have these people or businesses? I have also never experienced the panic of potentially getting caught for an illegal substance but I guess it gives me another reason not to ever experience it.
Although I did not know that Market Street "looked like the biggest street on the map." (pg.167) and I'd like to know if the burrito shop serving veggie burritos is still in business. The very few times I have looked at a map of San Francisco, it seems fairly easy to get to different destinations but it's very different when I'm on the road actually trying to get there. Next time I look at a map of SF, I plan to see if what the author said was true or not.