Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Ups and Downs

As usual, class started at 10AM again, but we had a new student today. Our new class now has nine students(similarly to the amount of supreme court justices) and we discussed our readings from the past two nights. The first piece was about The Wizard of Oz and the second piece was about George Washington's leadership. Professor Porwancher asked all of us different questions and it lead to a more coherent discussion. Our reading assignments are also becoming larger at about 30 pages a night. Everyone actively participated in the discussion, even the new student. Some questions are straight forward, while others require more critical thinking. The question that stumped us all was "What should a president do if his conscience is different from the wants of the people?" The article particularly focused on the Jay Treaty. President Washington seemed to be leaning towards signing it from the beginning, while the majority of the population felt that it was a bad deal. We continued to discuss Marbury v. Madison, lame duck periods, and other topics that Mr. Wilson covered!

For lunch, Lisa, Justin, and I volunteered at a soup kitchen. The kitchen was just a few blocks away from campus. The event was a little unorganized at the beginning, so we mostly sat down for the first thirty minutes. We helped clear the tables, wash dishes, and clean messes. I enjoyed volunteering besides the fact that I ran into someone who was blatantly rude. One of the people that I served asked me, "what language do you speak?" and "where are you from?" I'm fine with these questions especially because people at Columbia constantly ask each other since we know we're from all over the world, but this was different. When I answered that I spoke English and identified as American, the man responded by saying "no." He asked, "what you really speaky, I don't know what you say." I'm not beating myself over it, but it was pretty offensive and unnecessary. I'm disgusted that people still aren't culturally accepting. Being in one of the most liberal and culturally diverse cities in the world, it's really disappointing that someone would say that.
Lisa and I at the soup kitchen
When the volunteering ended, I went to the second part of my class. I was able to check-out two books, write my introduction, and do some of the reading. I had to rush to the gazebo after class to turn in money for the activities I signed-up for. Lisa ate dinner with me and then we went to The Strand, a huge bookstore in Union Square. I bought a cute canvas bag and some postcards. We went to Forever 21 too, but the check-out line was way too long. It started to rain a bit, so we headed
home.
A part of the library
The Strand
My very last activity of the day was to do laundry. The machines only took quarters(coins that I apparently don't have) and the machine that I tried using broke. It didn't return my money, so I had to ask other people in the laundry room to exchange with me. Silly me forgot that drying clothes cost money too, so here I am, stranded in the laundry room with a bag full of damp clothes. I even tried to outsmart the vending machines so that they would convert my dollar bills into coins, but that didn't happen...They just regurgitated my dollar bills or gave me Sacagawea coins. Sorry my blog ended up becoming a big rant! It definitely wasn't the best day of the trip, but I'm sure it can only get better.

1 comment:

  1. Michelle, I loved it when you mentioned the kinds of questions your professor is having you think about in class. I would love to read more about things like that. For instance, you mention you read something about The Wizard of Oz and totally got my curiosity going, but then I never found out more about it. I also don't know anything about the Jay Treaty. I want to know!

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