Culture Shock: Alyssa in Davis @alyssaindavis - Tumblr Blog

So a couple weeks ago, I found these little dudes in the middle of a plaza in North Davis. One evening after eating at the DC, my friend wanted to go and get a hair cut. Coincidentally, we still had our free haircut coupon from a the Aggie Pack welcome rally, or something like that. Anyways,...

alyssaindavis

Haha I live by there so I see those pigs all the time! It is really random that it was there though. You usually would expect a cow to be there. Speaking of cows, there actually is a little fountain in that plaza by Safeway. The water comes out of the cow's nose or mouth or something.

All Good Things Come to an End

Well peeps, this is probably the last adventure I will discuss with you guys. :( My adventure last week was a scavenger hunt with some of my classmates. We were separated into 3 groups and each group had 5 pictures of places that we have seen in the seminar or are important, culturally, to the city of Davis. We had to find those places and take a picture of ourselves there. I would say this was a fun experience and a good way to end the class. We all got to test our memory, navigation skills, and people skills as we traveled around Davis looking for these sites. Luckily, the places that our group got were close to each other and well known. We had the Davis Commons, the tunnel by the Commons, the Billie Holiday mural, Varsity Theater, and the Hunter-Bowley Mansion. All were places that I was familiar with, so I didn't discover anything new. Although the other half of my group did see a sculpture made out of shovels. I don't recall seeing it, so one day I will definitely check it out. This was a fun experience and it's always nice getting out of the classroom, or at least being forced to get out of the classroom.

Now to reflect on the class as a whole, I would say this was the most exciting class I had this quarter. Well basically anything is more exciting than organic chemistry, stats, and biology (Oh the life of a biochem major). Anyways, not taking a freshman seminar last year, I didn't really know what to expect of the class. Looking back now, I think that these type of classes are good, not only for freshmen but for everyone. Taking a seminar, especially one that teaches you about something you are interested in, is a nice break from hardcore major classes. It's interesting, exciting, and refreshing. It kind of reminds me of high school since we weren't stuffed in large lecture halls and you got to interact with classmates more, which is difficult in college since you basically have only 10 weeks to get to know a person. But I had a good time in this seminar. I got to visit a lot of places and saw pieces of art that I probably would never have seen or really thought about. I also got to hear many stories from business people and artists that have made an impact in Davis culturally. I never really realized how much this city has to offer culturally. I just wish we got to meet more than once a week so we could visit other places around Davis and maybe even go places that weren't downtown. That would be my only negative comment about the class.

Overall, I had a great time in my first freshman and probably last freshman seminar (mainly because I have to get my GEs and major classes done). This was a new experience for me and I really enjoyed it. I know that I will check out more cultural things that are happening around Davis, like concerts, plays, and definitely more cafes. I would like to say thanks to Dr. Andy for all the information he gave us and for a great quarter.

I'm not sure if I'll post here anymore but just in case, farewell my followers! Time to step out into the world and have more adventures. Thank you for following me on my journey this quarter! :D

monicagutfinger

Last week we had our last class ever, which was a scavenger hunt downtown! I thought this was a really great idea Professor Jones! My group had 2 murals to find, Mathanasium, the amtrack and a statue. One of the people in our group didn’t have a bike and we had to walk, which at first I thought...

alyssaindavis

I agree with you in that the scavenger hunt was a good idea for a last class. Wow I don't think I have ever seen that mural before but it does look really cool. Where was it at again? It looked like your group had a lot of fun because your pictures look so cute.

djess17-deactivated20140406

After a stressful week of classes, going to Central Park on my own and just walking around and taking in the beauty of nature put my mind at ease. We are so accustomed to always being around noise that we forget what it is like to just sit amongst our own thoughts.

My first stop in my walk around...

alyssaindavis

I agree with you in that the park is so relaxing! It's weird how here it's so quiet almost everywhere you go. I think it's cool how Davis has this chill vibe and they are so welcoming of people of different ethnicities. I think it's that diversity and how the city is so welcoming that makes a lot of people want to come here and even choose to make an art piece here.

fitindavis-blog

Last Friday, another day in October, I was feeling quite exhausted from the week’s load of studies and entertainment. It was my first time on that very day that I entered a stranger’s house for a trip into downtown. Our class visited Joe Wenderoth’s home. Technically, it was optional if i wanted...

alyssaindavis

Wow hearing about Joe Wenderoth's house makes me regret going. The giant Barbie dolls sound kind of creepy though. It sounds like his house is more like an art gallery than a house. If you're looking for a place on campus with a chill vibe, one of the places I recommend going to is the Arboretum. I like to go there when I have breaks between classes to just chill because it's really quiet and beautiful. Especially this time of year, most of the leaves are orange, yellow, and red and it's just amazing.

toshiki-adachi-blog

It was bad but I could not understand what two guest speakers said clearly because of my shortage of skill, in particular, abstract idea was hard to understand. Besides, their talk speed was a little bit faster for me, so I refereed to another person’s blog a little. In my feeling, both two...

alyssaindavis

I think it is super cool that you come from Japan because in your blog entries you compare your culture with American culture. It is interesting to hear about how differently we think between different countries. I saw that you mentioned how you saw Kabuki and it sounds familiar to me. I believe I watched a youtube video of Kabuki for an introduction to theater class that I took here. I found that Japanese theater is very interesting and beautiful. The costumes and sets are so beautiful and you always learn something from it. But you should definitely check out European theater and compare the two different types of theater.

ucdavisguy-deactivated20140722

I had never been to Mishka’s cafe before. I heard my friends talk about it, referring to is as “the place all the hipsters go to”. My friends are not hipsters though and they go there often. I had seen my friends post photos on their instagram of the drinks from Mishka’s. So I was excited when I...

alyssaindavis

I also think that Sinisa is a very inspiring man! He was super funny and had a lot of great stories. I think it is good that you want to find that one thing that you love to do and stick with it. I think this time in college will be good for that, since we are exposed to so many different subjects and people. Also, since we have to take classes from different subject areas there is bound to be something that you find that you'll love that isn't related to your major. I didn't remember that Sinisa said that when you do something you love, money will come to you. That is a great piece of advice that we all can use. And like you, going to Mishka's was also my favorite thing from this quarter.

Some of the pics I took at Mishka's. I think I ordered a mocha.

A Day at the Cafe

My adventures in Davis led me to a little cafe called "Mishka's Cafe" in downtown Davis. I swear I've passed by the place about a hundred times but I never really have gone in until 2 weeks ago. However, once I stepped in, I immediately regretted not going there before, when I lived on campus. The inside of Mishka's is beautiful. It has that high class, European coffee shop feel to it. If I had the time to stay there, I would have not ordered my coffee to go because it came in these cute little white cups that make you feel all fancy. I was pretty much dying inside because I love cafe culture and I've always wanted to make my way into it. I've imagined myself becoming one of those people who go to cafes and read books, but until now I don't know why I haven't done it yet. My adventure at Mishka's and meeting the manager of the cafe was a fun experience for me. Plus they do make a mean cup of coffee.

I started my adventure at Mishka's by going inside to get something to drink since I was there about 15 minutes early. When I first entered the cafe I was so surprised because it was so beautiful. It was just what I imagined myself in when I thought of me diving into cafe culture. Like I said before, it had this high class feel to it. This reminds me of the story that the owner, Sinisa Novakovic, told us about how he was arguing over someone over what chairs to put inside the cafe and how he didn't want "cheap looking" chairs because it would bring in a certain group of people. I liked the fact that Sinisa designed Mishka's. In a way, it was like his baby. Actually it is his baby with all that time, money, and effort he placed into making it what it is today. I admire Sinisa for staying with his idea to make this cafe in Davis. After all his business partners left him, he still wanted to do this to make his mark on the Davis community. He designed Mishka's to make it different than big coffee chains like Starbucks or Peets, to make it more personal. People get to mingle with each other, tell stories, form relationships, be at peace. I think that was what Sinisa wanted to get in his design of Mishka's. The decor is comfortable, warm, inviting. I feel like I could stay there for hours. I'm actually planning to use Mishka's as a study space, especially since finals are coming up and the weather is cold enough.

The decor, coffee, the stories we heard from Sinisa all made me think about cafe culture as a whole and why I've always had an interest in it. Before coming to Davis, I remember always wanting to get into cafe culture but I was never really sure why. I think I mostly got interested in it from seeing all these people in tv and movies. They all looked so mature, cool, and hipster-like and I guess I kind of wanted to be like that. But now that I have actually seen cafe culture and learned more about it, I see that cafe culture is much more than looking cool or mature. It was about interacting with other people. sharing a space together, and just enjoying some coffee. If you go to Mishka's, you see people studying, but you also see groups of people talking, laughing, and enjoying each other's company. I can completely understand why cafes are a social place. Many cafes have this certain vibe. They are relaxing and the people there are also equally chill. It's also interesting to hear stories about how people developed relationships and married after meeting at Mishka's. I just thought that was really cool. After hearing all that, I realized why I want to get into cafe culture. I want to do it for the people. and the coffee, of course. :)

ispossiblekim-blog

Growing up I never liked coffee. During breakfast and 6:00pm coffee hour (which is a tradition in Peru, similar to tea time) I would see my grandparents, uncle and aunt, and my parents drinking black coffee. They seemed to like it. My cousin would put milk in it, but when I sipped to know how it...

alyssaindavis

First off, I think it's super cool how you are from Peru! I also agree with you in that these cafes around Davis are super cool. It is almost like being in Europe for a bit. I know for sure I'm going to hang out at Mishka's more but I have never been to Delta of Venus. I think one week I might just have to go cafe hopping because I love how these places are more personal compared to a place like Starbucks. I would definitely want to hear more stories about people meeting at cafes and end up falling in love and getting married. It seems like something you would only see in movies but apparently, according to Sinisa, this stuff really happens. Coffee is life. you can never avoid it haha xD

theandrewblr

Why, hello there, and welcome to another Andrew web log. This is the eighth week of our “The Cultural Offerings of the City of Davis” journey. In today’s class, we broke into assigned teams, blindly choosing photographs of attractions we have seen (mostly), and ventured out to take photos of...

alyssaindavis

I agree with you in that the scavenger hunt turned out to be more fun than expected. I wish went with you guys to see the piece made out of shovels because I don't remember ever seeing it. Hopefully another one of our group members posted the picture. It was a fun way to end the class because we got to go back to some of my favorite places that we have seen and we got a chance to mingle with some people not from our usual groups. It's funny how all the places we got were so close to each other. For reals though we should have gotten some candy for finishing so fast. It was nice being in the same group together!

My day in the classroom

This adventure is different than my usual ones because I spent my time in a classroom. It was interesting however, because we had 2 guest lecturers come speak to us. Both speakers were artists, one had co-founded the Davis Shakespeare Ensemble and the other was a former student of Dr. Andy, and a painter/philosophy major. Although lectures bore me, I thought the speakers were really cool and they had a lot of inspirational words and advice for us.

Our first speaker was Rob from the Davis Shakespeare Ensemble. It's funny because when I first saw him standing outside and waiting with us in front of the classroom I thought he was a student who just enrolled in the class. Anyways, Rob spoke to us about how he helped create the Davis Shakespeare Ensemble. Before this class, I had never heard of this group. What I thought was interesting about this group was that they had no formal performance space, the only thing that was truly theirs was a little office space downtown. I thought it was cool though how their main performance space was the gazebo in the Arboretum. I haven't seen any of their performances yet but it sounds like it would be really beautiful since the Arboretum is one of my favorite places on campus. I could only imagine how they could incorporate the beauty of nature into their plays. From the pictures that I saw on their website, it looks like they make some good plays. I thought it was inspiring how they literally started from nothing and have become to what they are now. The Davis Shakespeare Ensemble even won first place at the Fringe Festival in San Francisco. From seeing these pictures and hearing about how the group got started, I think I am going to check out some of the shows that the Davis Shakespeare Ensemble is putting out.

Here is a link to one of my favorite pictures that I saw on the Davis Shakespeare Ensemble website. I thought it was a great example of how they incorporated the gazebo and its beauty into one of the sets for the play.

http://www.shakespearedavis.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/IMG_9281-e1381448792719.jpeg

The other guest speaker that we had was Dr. Andy's former student, a philosophy major and artist named Corey. It was interesting to hear Corey speak because you can tell that he uses some of the things he has learned in philosophy from the way he thinks about art and the world. One of the things that was similar between Corey and Rob was that they both had their struggles in life; they started with nothing much but ended up continuing to do it just because they loved it and both seem like they were genuinely happy doing it. One of the pieces of advice that Corey told us that I think stuck with me was the fact that he said not to be afraid to put yourself out there. I remember this clearly because he asked one of my classmates why she didn't wear the jewelry that she made and he said "You gotta advertise yourself". I thought this was important to remember because thinking about it, this is true. For example, you aren't going to expect job offers or opportunities to just randomly fall in front of you. You have to find them yourself, present yourself to them. That was the main thing that I took away from Corey's lecture.

Although this adventure wasn't as exciting as my usual ones, I did learn a lot about life and the city of Davis. I got to hear stories and advice from real local artists that are making their mark on this small city. It was a good learning experience and hey it's nice to learn new things. :)

Here are some of the things I saw at the Hattie Weber Museum that I thought were pretty cool. :) They all look in pretty good condition even if they are supposed to be old. I really wish I could go back to the time period where these were used & use them myself. I had to resist the urge to touch some of these things.

Well that was unexpected... The Hattie Weber Museum

When I first heard that my class was going to a museum in Davis, I got a little excited because I like looking at old artifacts from another time and imagining how life was then. While I was biking to the Hattie Weber Museum, I got lost for a second. I ended up biking to a building a street before the museum, which I saw was a church as I got closer to it. So then I looked on google maps and walked for like 10 seconds until I saw some of my classmates standing in front of a building at the end of Central Park. I was a bit confused because what I really saw were the park bathrooms, but as I walked closer, I actually saw the museum, which was not what I had envisioned in my mind. I always thought it would be more like the museum that we have in Stockton.

At first glance, the Hattie Weber Museum looks like a small, old building. Well that's what it basically is. It confuses you for a second because the sign in front of the building says "Library". It turns out that the museum was a library at one point. Anyways, once I walked into the museum, I was surprised at how small it really was. I could compare the size of the library to the whole downstairs of my apartment, which sounds big but it really isn't, for a museum. It was strange to me when I first saw it and I had to ask the woman who works there if there were more exhibits. This confusion comes from the fact that I come from a much larger city than Davis and the one museum I went to back in Stockton was huge.

This is the Haggin Museum in Stockton. As you can see, it's pretty freaking big compared to the Hattie Weber Museum here in Davis (which I surprisingly don't have a picture of now, sorry xD). I only really went to the Haggin Museum once and that was for a school field trip in like 3rd grade. I don't really know why I never went back since. I think part of the reason why was because it's kind of close to downtown Stockton and that area is pretty sketchy. Plus the bathrooms in the park had no doors and I remember I really had to go so I was probably scarred for life. But what I do remember about the actual museum, and what I searched on google, was that in the museum there were lots of exhibits, like a Native American one, and art work. Now that I think about it, the Haggin Museum in Stockton would be like the Natsoulas Gallery and the Hattie Weber Museum combined, but with a lot more stuff. Going to the Hattie Weber Museum made me think about going to my museum back home in Stockton to see if they, hopefully, added new exhibits in the past decade that I haven't been there since I saw so many interesting artifacts at the Hattie Weber Museum.

Oh snap! Friendship Games!

One of the things I enjoy most about Davis is that it is such a diverse campus & that people accept all these different cultures. I am in the club Mga Kapatid, which is a Filipino club on campus. Although most people in the club are Filipino, what others don’t know is that we actually have a lot of non-Filipinos in the club. I feel like people are intimidated by the fact that the people in the club are really close and that they won't fit in if they are not Filipino, but what I've learned this year, and especially last weekend, is that the people in this club are welcoming to everyone.

Last weekend, I went to my first Friendship Games at CSU Fullerton. Friendship Games is an event where Filipino clubs from many different colleges come to play games and SPUF (aka cheer for their school). SPUF stands for spirit, pride, unity, and friendship. These values are promoted throughout the day. It was a lot of fun for me and I got to meet a lot of people from Davis and other colleges. One of the things that I enjoyed most about the day was that it was a day where we can celebrate diversity and hang out and have fun with other people. Friendship Games originally started as an event just for the Filipino club at CSU Fullerton, but later expanded to include colleges across California and even some in Nevada and Arizona. There were so many different schools there and it was nice to see people throw away school rivalries for a day and just be friendly to each other. Honestly, it was one of my favorite experiences in college so far.

alisonlouie-frs-deactivated2014

Joe Wenderoth mentioned that Davis is not a part of America. He said that when you enter Davis, you stop being in America, and when you exit the city limits, you return into America.

Wenderoth is originally from Baltimore, Maryland. I don’t know much about Baltimore, but from the pictures that...

alyssaindavis

I agree with you! I also come from a city that is dangerous & has a lot of homeless people so when I came to Davis I was surpised that I could actually walk downtown at night. I also think that Davis is interesting in that it doesn't seem like we're in the US still. I think this is because of all the art here, the campus, & the community. I swear you will find some of the most kind & friendly people here, which is a big change compared to my hometown, Stockton.

jannyexploresdavis

Upon attending UC Davis, I thought to myself, “holy crap, this school is so big, I’m gonna get lost for sure”. It’s now a year later and even though it does not seem as big to me anymore, there is still a few things around campus that I have yet to discover. And personally, I feel like that’s the...

alyssaindavis

Wow I didn't even know there was a gallery in Hart Hall! I agree with you in that there are so many things on campus that are hidden treasures. It sounds & looks like a pretty cool gallery & I think one day I'll go check out some of the Native American clothing there :)

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Culture Shock: Alyssa in Davis