Brandi's Cultural Adventures in Davis

[fitindavis-blog]

October 5, 2013 - My first trip into the heart of Davis was quite an experience, especially the interesting art at the John Natsoulas Art Gallery. Before, I thought art was pretty boring and was objects that you could only find in museums, but boy I was...

[brandicoley]

I've been going through a lot of peoples blogs this week to catch up on comments and its funny how everyone keeps saying "but boy was I wrong" haha. Anyways, I like how you took a variety of pictures at the Natsoulas gallery. Some of these I didn't even see while we were there... hopefully you'll get  to go back and see new pieces that come in periodically! 

[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...

[brandicoley]

I really like the photos you posted from the side garden in Central park!! I like to go over there too before the farmers market to see the flowers and pieces of art. Its also a nice place to go during the week when there aren't a bunch of people smoking. Theres also another small garden like this one at the end of Davis commons if you keep walking past whole foods... I hope you find many more places to enjoy in Davis throughout your first year :)

[jannyexploresdavis]

As I reflect on how our overall class went, I failed to mention during week three when we met up at the Notsoulas gallery, Professor Jones posed a question in which he asked everyone the main difference between exploring or looking at something by ourselves in comparison to looking at a particular...

[brandicoley]

I like that you reflected on this topic at the end of the seminar! I kind of forgot how one of the goals of our seminar was to develop our independent opinion forming skills and being able to stick to them in large groups, despite the influence our friends might have over us. I am also curious to know what video you had your friends watch! I hope next time your friends will be more open to new things instead of shutting you down!

[ucdavisguy-deactivated20140722]

Rob Salas visited my freshman seminar class to talk to us about himself and his program. As I was waiting in the hallway for class to start, Rob and I started talking. He is a very friendly and nice guy. I asked him if he was going to be presenting for my class and he was not sure. When class...

[brandicoley]

So I am not really sure which person you are because your name on Tumblr is just ucdavisguy, but I really loved the way you stated "as long as I am doing what I love I will not be a failure." I love it because it shows your passion & bravery to face the unknown, and a lot of people lack passion, so you just got some brownie points in my book. Anyways, I wish you would've talked more about what your passion is! Maybe you don't have your academic passion figured out yet, but even your extracurricular passions could be enough to get you where you want to be. I mean, look at what Sinisa accomplished..he wouldn't have gotten where he is today without passion and bravery... One thing I did like about this post in particular is that your related your experiences to Corey's. You may not have gone into depth which is fine, but I myself connect with Corey's story (not that I've been in trouble with the law) but coming from South east San Diego I know what its like and I'm guessing maybe you are from a similar situation and I could be taking a leap here but now we've got something in common! I hope you keep the positive outlook throughout your years here. I am going to keep reading you blog posts and hopefully find out what makes you tick ucdavisguy!

[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...

[brandicoley]

I'm glad you enjoyed the scavenger hunt! One thing that I really enjoyed about walking around with you and Kim was that we all come from different backgrounds (and I think different majors? I'm environmental science idk about you guys) but I got to see a lot of your different interests through our random conversations. Also it was kind of cool talking to a first year because it made me think back my first year and all of the things i did and didn't do, the places I did and didn't explore. I hope that the frs encouraged you not to stay couped up in Segundo with your male 'quail' group haha. If I had any advice for you on your first year, it would be to get outside and not convince yourself that you can't because you have too much work. I see people do it all the time. The quarter system is weird and there is overlapping exams and tons of stress but I hope it treats you well. See you around new friend:)

[davisblackbook-blog]

Opinion: I’m Black, So UC Berkeley Is Fosho Not For Me

By Yeni Belachew

I was surfing through articles online and came across an interesting article discussing the reasons high achieving black students chose not to attend the University of California, Berkeley. There were the more common reasons: “They won’t accept me so there is no point in trying” or the “it’s too close to home”. Additionally, it is the discomfort and disrespect that the African American student body on campus feels that steers perspective black Cal students away.  

Being from Berkeley myself, I reflected on what I truly felt when applying to UC Berkeley. I attended Berkeley High School and frequently visited the Cal campus, always joking with my friends about how we’d see one black person per week and that they usually turned out to be a high school student like us. This definitely had a huge impact on my feelings towards applying to UCB. When I received my rejection letter and many of my white and Asian classmates were overjoyed with their admittance letters, I suddenly felt cheated and disheartened. I had heard many statistics of how Cal was now accepting more African-Americans in order to be able to be a “diverse” community. Unfortunately, the percentage of African-Americans as advertised by CAL in magazines, articles, and throughout the schools banners is not reflected in classrooms (especially in science and technology).

In 1997, the year after California voters approved Proposition 209, which prohibited the consideration of race or ethnicity in the operation of state institutions, black students made up 8% of UC Berkeley’s freshmen enrollment — roughly the same percentage of African Americans living in the state. The following year, the percentage of black freshmen at Cal plummeted by more than half and has hovered at or below 4% ever since. It averaged 3.6% in the five-year period between 2006 and 2010.

However, there is a lesser-known trend contributing to the low number of African Americans at Cal. Between 2006 and 2010, 885 out of 1,539 or 58% of admitted black students chose to go elsewhere. Why would they turn down this “progressive”, “diverse”, top university?

It is plain and simple: we are getting no love on campus. Due to underrepresentation, students are choosing to attend historically black colleges instead. There is no inherent problem in attending an HBCU, but the choice shouldn’t be the outcome of feeling unwelcome elsewhere.

Read More

[brandicoley]

Here are photos that we took on the last day of our FRS. Our photo destinations included the tunnel by Davis Commons, the outside dining area at Davis Commons, Varsity Theatre, the Hunter-Bowley Mansion, and the Billie Holiday painting over by Ketmoree. You may notice that there is an extra photo in this set, that is an arch made out of shovels donated by various members  of the community. The piece is titled "Shovel Gateway" and is representative of the partnership between the City of Davis and the UC Davis Arboretum & Public Garden. The Shovel Gateway is also part of the public art movement of Davis. 

Personally, I enjoyed the group outing very much. It was really nice to get to actually talk to my peers without our conversations bring directed towards a certain topic or just having to stand around them listening to someone passionately rant to us, not that those who volunteered as guest speakers were not interesting. My group members were Alyssa, Amelia, Kim, and Andrew. Before the last day, I had only really talked to Kim and Amelia, and even at that point it was mostly just to catch up on things that I missed since I registered late. It was interesting to get to talk to them because I was under the assumption that everyone but Kim and I were 2nd year students, but it turned out that Alyssa was also a 2nd year student, as well as a really nice and happy girl which I wouldn't have figured out until talking to her because she seemed to be on the quiet side. I too, ca be on the quiet side so I think seeing her open up encouraged me to open up so I can meet more cool people like my group members! While we were out scouring the town to find these photos our conversations mostly focused on our different experiences in Davis, which for some was limited due to the fact it is there first quarter here. Nonetheless we still found things to talk about, new places to explore, and more about each others interests outside of academia. I think Andrew is really into movies, he seemed to know all the actors and what movies they belonged to while we were visiting Varsity theatre. On the other hand, Kim and I had no Idea who they were. In this free time Kim Andrew and Amelia also found a common in literature, to be specific they were talking about The Perks of Being A Wall Flower. I personally have not read the book so the conversation was not meaningful to me and spoiled the entire plot, but it was interesting to see their eyes light up over the similar things that they liked or their faces frown about things they thought sucked. 

After the class, and all that we have done, I have found myself being a lot more aware of the art around campus and the downtown Davis area (which are the two places where most of my time is spent, yes it outweighs how much time I spend at home). And then just a couple days ago I saw this video, that I think captured perfectly how I feel about life and somewhat captures what our FRS encouraged us to do  on our own, to exist outside of ourselves. I don't know if that really makes sense, but what I am trying to say is be aware of every thing we come into contact with; that goes for nature, people, food,music, whatever it may be. Here is a link to the video http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/14/jason-silva-shots-of-awe-existential-bummer_n_4269849.html and I really do encourage you all to watch it. I'm not sure how many people will read this post, but if you have taken the time to read this far I'm sure you can take 2.5 minutes to watch the video. Especially you first years, don't get sucked up into your residence hall life. Join clubs, meet people, explore the town...Davis is a fairly friendly place and sitting at home makes you miss out on so many opportunities that are just waiting for your arrival.

[cmcaulfield-blog]

The town of Davis to me has quickly become what id like to think of as a hidden gem. Going into the school year I was excited to head to college but definitely a little bit skeptical because every time I would tell people, “I’m going to Davis” when asked the question where I’m heading for...

[brandicoley]

"This store to me really proves that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover because you never know what surprise might be hiding for you on the first few pages." I love this line. I can totally relate to how you felt about people telling you Davis might not be a great place because its in the middle of no where... I came from San Diego & was the only person of my graduating class to attend/apply to Davis. Every time I told someone they congratulated me but also gave me that warning of "hope you like cows and farmlands." which kinda scared me my first year. Anyways, I'm glad you are growing to like Davis!

[brandicoley]

These two pictures are of what captured my attention the most. What I liked about the timeline of Davis' historical figures such as Calvin Covell, is that I can connect them with things that I see every day in Davis like Covell Boulevard and such. It's interesting because we see these things every day and probably don't think twice about why some street is called whatever it is called, but there are interesting stories behind them. I also really like the black and white aerial photo of what campus used to look like. Aerial photos of places then and now have always been of interest to me... It would be cool if the museum could have an aerial shot of the campus from present day!

[brandicoley]

[brandicoley]

[brandicoley]

[brandicoley]

I chose to include The Oddity for those of you who didn't get a chance to look at it yourselves. I chose three pieces in particular that struck me; August Revised, Cinco De Mayo, and Many husbands (the first two poems, and the latter a short story). My everyday trip to class is about 20 minutes long on the A-Line so I used that free time to read over the journal and even though these pieces may not have been the typical feel good type of themes, they all made me smile one way or another.

I liked August Revised specifically because of its two first lines, "In July the heat comes, but it stays in August--". I feel like that is just something we all know all too well how it feels, unless maybe you live in San Fransisco. But anyways, the poem brought back memories of care free summers as a kid, picking berries, running through tall grass with my cousins, touching cactus and doing other silly things because I didn't know any better.

Then I got to Many Husbands, where a woman is trapped in her dreams trying to follow a string that might lead to the end of a tunnel (that has maybe light or music in it), but her various husbands (she is polygamist in her dream) always block her way for some time when she is getting close. If I remember correctly, her final husband was herself (or maybe just a woman) and I thought that was particularly interesting as if she was facing herself or her womanhood that was blocking her own path of what she was trying to get to. Too bad, before she finds whats at the end of the tunnel, she wakes up to her husband -who I can't tell if she is genuinely happy or just settling for- and goes through her next day as normal but in the end asks herself "why can't I find the end of the string?" This story was kind of quirky and strange, but that last line really hit home. I feel like she grew up and realized she settled for something, and those things she settled for are blocking her path to what she really wants-whatever that may be.

As for Cinco De Mayo, what I loved was the part about ants. Well first of all, I thought it was funny that they were intoxicated watching the ants so intensely on Cinco De Mayo. I thought it was cute how one of the people suggested that they try to help the ant in its efforts to carry that stick wherever it was trying to take it, and I thought it was an incredibly common response for the other person to suggest standing by instead of helping simply based on the fact that they don't know what the ants goal is. I guess you do have to take into account the fact that they are ants that they are talkign about and it'd be super hard to help an ant carry a stick, but if you think about it on a larger scale that person was falling victim to the bystander affect which I talked about before.

Anyways, all three of these pieces represent some kind of feeling that all of humanity goes through, and I think that is what made them special to me. They were almost like a story of growing up and wanting to do these things, but not know how to get them done.

[brandicoley]

when History and Culture collide

Coming from San Diego, Davis is a super small town and the fact that most of its history can fit into the size of a small house is kind of mind boggling. Back home we have Balboa Park which has tons of different museums to display art, history of mankind & other mammals, entomology, theatre, science-you name it, we got it. In addition to Balboa Park we have Old Town (I believe it is common for big cities to have an ‘old town’) which focuses more on San Diego’s history than Balboa Park does. 

Back in 4th and 5th grade there were week-long field trips held to old town and balboa park to try to enrich us with San Diego’s cultural and Historical offerings. While I think that age might have been a bit young to actually understand the sense of community educators were trying to give us, looking back I think it made a difference whether I realized it or not.

San Diego’s history is hard for me to define. There are many different aspects that go about in how the community has been structured; mainly I think military and immigration contribute to the cultural and historical stories of San Diego’s past. I wrote what I think was an really interesting take on part of San Diego’s history, the Naval Training Center (NTC) and its role in the environment (or something like that, last 3 paragraphs were the most interesting to my environmental science professor) https://sites.google.com/a/hightechhigh.org/brandi-s-site/junior-year/senior-year/environmental-science/life-in-a-cubic-foot/lcf-introduction. 

Anyways, I brought this up because San Diego’s diversity really impacts its culture and history, making it hard for you to wrap your head around; whereas Davis’ history seems so much simpler. I suppose that is what you’d expect comparing a very large city to a small town though. What I love about both San Diego and Davis is that there is always somewhere that you feel at home. And for me specifically, I can feel either widely accepted or widely outcasted and I think it’s due to my bicultural background. All the time when people figure out I’m from Vietnamese/Chinese and Black decent they think it is so cool, but I often see that those two groups do not become as accepting of me as I would have wished they would have been until after they figure that out. Maybe you can imagine, that in a place like Davis where you hardly see any black people (and when you do it is the same ones over and over again) and on the other hand there is a plethora of Asian’s around, it can be somewhat difficult to figure out where to belong. Often times when I do go to the events catered towards the asian-pacific islander community I will have someone ask me “so why are you even here?”. And that gets old really fast. I hope that you all don’t turn into one of these people since after all we are in the Cultural Offerings of Davis FRS and understanding other cultures opens us up to the community and unifies us.

 Anyways back to the point, I think both cities have historical/cultural roots in reviving community through agriculture and the environment by hosting large farmers markets or starting community gardens. History and culture are not one in the same, but I believe history definitely has strong influences on the cultures we see in our communities.

[brandicoley]

Here is UC Davis' Nigerian Dance Group's performance from International Festival I promised to post! Enjoy :) And try out, they are a lively bunch!

[brandicoley]

Looking at everyone else's blogs, it seems like most people went to Joe Wenderoth's house in East Davis either during class session or on the weekend. I missed the class meeting, but decided to go to the farmer's market the next morning. It was my first time going to the farmers market at Central Park. I have visited the one held on Wednesdays at the silo, but have yet to actually buy something. Anyways, the farmers market was pretty cool and had lots of vegetables that I had never seen (which is exciting as a  vegetarian!). The last picture was this pretty cool bench I saw that looks uncomfortable but I thought it was cute because it had to have been a collaborative project and the symbolism + that collaboration can make me imagine the friendships built doing something like that. There was also some guys clothes sprawled across the top of the bench... maybe he had a wild friday night. Anyways, the picture up top that looks kind of like a bunch of radishes are actually called cranberry beans. I thought they were a pretty plant, and really interesting too because its not something I've ever seen before. Besides that, they had all types of mushrooms(another one of my favorites), tons of baked goods, a variety of squash, green onions--you name it I'm sure someone had it. What surprised me even more was that there was fresh fish. They had salmon and I can't recall what the one in the picture was called. It does seem a bit weird that they had fresh fish for sale at the farmers market though. But enough talk about food...there were multiple organizations there as well. Specifically, I met a man who claimed he was having a fundraiser for the homeless population in Davis. Not exactly sure how legit he was about his organization, but it was nice to see him being so enthusiastic about helping members of the community who don't have a roof over their head. Coming from a big city, homelessness is something that I see all the time. However, what I do not see is people like the man I met advocating on their behalf, which was actually inspiring. Another reason I am really worked up about this is that I am pursuing a career in the environmental science & management field, and it seems that environmental issues have fallen off of societies radar when it comes to what is important in the world today. I suppose it is hard to wrap your head around environmental issues that were caused by generations before us and will affect the generations after ours, in addition to the costs to cover policies addressing these issues would affect the current generation. But, I think that people are forgetting the issue at hand and putting their own motives and interests before everything else. We do live in a consumer world, but I think a shift in focal points from material items to worldly morals need to take place for human lifestyle not to go bleak. I could probably go on and on about population sizes approaching carrying capacities, which I'm learning about in all of my classes it seems, but I will just leave this post with these last words: Don't leave behind the psychological benefits you get from being in nature for the worlds material things.

[alyssaindavis]

Without culture, and the relative freedom it implies, society, even when perfect, is but a jungle. This is why any authentic creation is a gift to the future.

Albert Camus (via alyssaindavis)