Majority of the time Nalia stays quiet because she knows that once she tells her parents, they would think it’s sereve and take her to the doctors. The doctor is her least favorite to be so she tries to avoid it as much as possible.

Nalia specifically drinks ginger ale to help her reduce the sickness, then she would try to sleep her days away with the use of NyQuil day and night time version.

Nalia’s go to pain relief is sleep. She will literally sleep her day away if she can, but when it winds down to medications, she usually goes for over the counter medication to avoid the doctors. She says the doctor gives her anxiety. She feels that NyQuil or even Dayquil can solve a lot of problems, such as, headache, cold, or even running nose. It is an all in one product that she feels is so convenient. She prefers a warmer room because she feels like it brings her more comfort when she’s trying to sleep to relieve her pain.

Her healing strategies come from her family and even local content. These strategies are well known and basically is everyone’s go to remedy. Now as far as notifying her parents that she is sick, some other kids might prefer to tell their parents instead of just pushing it through. For example, like me, I run to my parents the first thing especially during these times to avoid any spreading of sickness if things do come out worst.

Her healing strategies aren’t guided by any restraints because she’ll just use or do whatever it is recommended or necessary.

Nalia sickness starts to kick in once she doesn’t dress like the weather. Nalia is a homebody person but once she steps outside, it’s usually for events or even a quick run. Now for events, you know how girls get. They dress for the occasion. It's basically F the weather! She’ll wear some shorts and knee high boots and a hoodie? and it can be 39 degrees outside. These girls will step for the weather. In order for Nalia to reduce the chances of getting sick, she started to wear a trench coat for her dressy occasions so she can have a thick fur layer over top of what she has on. During this covid season, everyone’s afraid of the germs. She often washes your hands & uses hand sanitizer. She also reduces the hugs she gives out & keeps her mask on even if it’s around her loved ones.

When Nalia is sick, she will stay home and not step foot outside. She will always reduce the chances of seeing her friends, for example, she didn’t want to come see me when she came home from college because she was very ill when I didn’t even mind! She also keep her mask on because germs spread very quickly according to her

Nalia says that she hates getting sick, especially the fact that the majority of the time she stays inside the house. Getting sick as a person feels like it’s normal to her because everyone has their days. She personally knows that her cold starts to kick in the majority of the time due to the weather and her fashion style during the weather. For diarrhea, she believes that she was eating things she wasn’t supposed to. For STD, that’s sexually active activities that she doesn’t take part in so she doesn’t ever think about that, but if she was to ever experience that she said that it will make her feel very dirty with herself because she wasn’t careful with who she did things with.

Social causes of Nalia’s illnesses is like a 50% chance. She feels like it may take part in her sickness but the main cause comes from her responsibility. If she dresses properly she wouldn’t experience colds. Now for stomachaches, she believes that it can be lack of food inspection & preparation. This girl is a brat she doesn’t blame things on herself, she’ll blame it on everyone else. Stigma about the illness doesn’t keep her from seeking the treatment, neither does the cost of the treatment. She just doesn’t like being around people so she doesn’t want to leave the house unless it’s very very urgent or severe.

“Vietnam... is my home.”

My mother, who had to leave her entire family behind to become a better her.. For her family at home. 

To begin, Trang was born in a small city named Can Tho, which is located in Vietnam. She migrated to the United States through marriage with her spouse. She often misses home a lot. It was very hard for her to pack her bags and move across the world, into another country, she said. She cried for days and days within her first week as she was transitioning into another timezone. When she first arrived in America, her husband was living under his father’s roof. In this tiny town house in Morrell Park, Baltimore. The house was so tiny, you walked in and basically was done. It was very challenging for Trang and her spouse, she came to America empty, with her daughter only being 4 and her second born being 3 years old. While she was transitioning into a new life, she was filled with mixed emotions. She was happy, but sad, then angry? All these emotions were bottled up inside up until her first day of work at my aunt’s nail salon. 

“I can’t do this, I want to go home” stated word for word, she said she remembered crying, eyes just red when she first took step into the nail salon. At this moment, it hit her harder than ever. She realized this was life for her from this day on forward. As she tries to get used to the nail salon life, she describes the first few days and even weeks as an absolute nightmare for her. She said people were disgustingly rude because they claimed she used them as her “test dummy” as she was learning how to do nails. As days passed, I asked her if things got easier for her, and she said indeed, “No my eyes were so red and puffy, I called my mother everyday just to make sure she was okay”. She also mentioned that during this time, things at home were a bit rougher. They didn’t have much money, they were living off “recycling money”. Recycling money in Vietnam is known as money that you make once you find things to recycle, for instance, if you recycle cans, plastics, people will buy them and there you go will be a couple bucks in your pockets. 

I asked mother, how was it for her as far as language barrier, as she transitioned from Vietnamese to English. She stated, “I started with just pointing to things to resemble the things I want or need at certain stores, I also did that at the nail salon. I would basically talk with my expressions to communicate with the American people.” Although it took her some time to get used to the language, she mentioned that this wasn’t a big problem for her. 

As days pass, life gets a bit easier for her. She got used to the daily routine, she mentions that the thing that kept her going was the daily facetime calls with her mother and father. I asked her, does she regret moving across the world? Her exact words made me a little bit emotional. She said, “ I don’t regret it, I just would rather have her here with me. I know it will be worth it in the end though.”

Once she got settled down with her life in America, she took her first visit back to Vietnam after three years of moving away. She said that during her flight, she got very emotional, she was happy yet again sad? She describes the feeling as an unbearable feeling. She said, “I'm happy now on the way there but once I think about the returning date, it makes me feel like I am leaving her for the first time again”. She stayed for a good one month, during this time, she was the happiest ever. She made sure to do everything with her parents as much as she could. She also told me that her parents reminded her daily that they wouldn’t want life any other way and they were proud she took that big step and moved across the world with her husband for a better life that they couldn’t provide during the time being. 

Once the returning date approached, she got emotional. She said that it was the feeling that she felt when she first left that started to kick in, she started to cry secretly because she didn’t want her parents knowing. As she was on the way to the airport, she was getting ready to walk inside the entrance, she no longer could hold the tears in. She let it out, she said that not only did her mother cry, but her father cried and held her tight as well. 

After this whole entire talk, I asked her, how does she feel now? Is she happier? I wanted her to express to me about everything she has ever felt ever since she left home. she describes her life now as “more than stable”. “I don’t regret it, I just would rather have her here with me. I know it will be worth it in the end though.” She kept those exact words, she stood on it, she followed it through. 13 years later, working in her third nail salon as a BUSINESS OWNER. She sends back home $1,000 every first of the month for her mother for daily bills, daily goods, and just for herself. As little as $1,000 can sound to us, this amount can stretch for a good month, in Vietnamese money. She said she’s glad she made this decision because she can provide everything she ever wanted to her kids. Without moving to the United States, she doesn't believe we would be in proper school right now, such as Highschool and her first generation college kid! 

Chocolate me please.

1. Milk Chocolate (Sugar; Milk; Chocolate; Cocoa Butter; Lactose; Milk Fat; Soy Lecithin; PGPR; Emulsifier; Vanillin, Artificial Flavor); Almonds (Roasted in Cocoa Butter And/Or Sunflower oil)

2. Sugar - Brazil, India, Mexico, and Australia.

    Milk - largest suppliers, Inalpi (Italy) and Mittelelbe (Germany)

    Cocoa Butter - West Africa 

    Almond - California 

     Vanillin - Synthetically produced

     Soy Lecithin - USA, Germany, Japan and Norway 

3. There is two ways Sugar can be produced, either from beet or cane. In beet creation sugar is separated or drained from cut sugar beets, after juice is refined.The separated juice is dissipated (thickened) and sugar is solidified from it.

Cocoa is produced through a few steps, They start by picking the pods by hand then having to open the pods manually with machetes. They follow up with fermenting the cocoa seeds, drying the cocoa seeds, then, at that point, they pack it away for transportation to producers where they will continue to work on the cocoa as directed for the flavoring that is needed.  

4. The working conditions on people who produce cocoa stays hazardous. Not only is it hazardous but it is very tiring for them to only pay pitiful wages. They also keep the population in poor conditions. 

5. After finishing producing it in labor, they pack it away for transportation to producers where they will continue to work on the cocoa as directed for the flavoring that is needed. After flavoring between Milk Chocolate, White Chocolate or even dark chocolate, they will bag it up into Cocoa Sacks and sell it to intermediaries 

6. Prices is determined through labor, they have to sell whatever the company think is best, or even determined. The farmers remain poor because corporations try to do their best on keeping the materials as little as possible to receive a higher profit. 

7. Some of the international corporations that dominate players in the chocolate trade are Mars Inc, Ferraro Group, Hershey Company, Mondelez International & lastly, Nestle SA, according to a market report in 2020.

8. The FDA regulates the trade to make ensure all expectations are met. 

9. Chocolate is marketed through a list of strategies. Candy is targeted at all ages, but kids these days have the most interest in candy everywhere they go. Traditionally, advertisements on TV and on YouTube, social media have developed several ways to target children. 

10. I make my siblings buy me this specific kind every store they go into, my go to location is Food Lion in Hyde Park Shopping Center because they actually have the nuggets type that lasts me forever. 

11. Estimated 16.23% profit as of September 30th, 2021

12. The hidden costs highly impact the farmers living conditions, not only that but their raw materials as well. They get paid with a very pitiful wage, not only that they are in labor with hazardous conditions. 

Hershey Chocolate Almond Bar By the Hershey Company became one of the world’s largest chocolate-manufacturing plants. This sweet chocolate bar is often described as a silky and smooth crunchy bar that smells sweet and even tastes sweeter. 

Hershey Chocolate Bar ingredients are produced across the world, in each part. Hershey Almond bar is made of sugar, oils, milk, almond, cocoa butter, and vanillin. These pieces are sourced from small farms through hazardous labor that is then handled in industrial facilities.

Hershey almonds are sold for the most part in bars or ‘nuggets’ which is known as a sharing pack. They are mostly sold at American grocery stores or it could be found directly through the Hershey website, as well as Amazon for a bigger pack. Regardless of the company being big or little, the overall revenues are assessed to be 16.23% on profit. Which allows the chocolate producers to benefit more than anything.

What is your Social Status?

The Bourgeoise and The Proletariat 

People who are categorized in the lower standards of living have been taken advantage of in these past decades. Majority of the time, these people are forced to move at a steady pace with a minimum source of income. Most of the “Bourgeoisie” bring down the expense of creation significantly, adequately expanding the contrast between creation costs and the deal cost and placing additional dollars in their pockets, meanwhile the “Proletariat” cannot do much about it. The only thing that Proletariats can do is become unemployed which then causes the U.S. unemployment to rise.

Power and Life Chances

In the article, it summarizes how a child’s education level evolves around their family. According to the article, in the United States and the United Kingdom, specialists looked not just at factors like race and guardians' schooling, yet in addition issues like youth conduct issues, time went through with guardians, and guardians' smoking and drinking propensities. With this extended universe of information, scientists had the option to presume that conditions are liable for 31% of disparity in the United Kingdom and a striking 45 percent in the United States. In case numerous expected scientists, artists, and engineers can't get to nice schooling or essential medical services from the beginning due to the conditions at birth, that eventually makes an expense for everybody as far as squandered human and financial potential. 

Education and Social Reproduction 

In this article, it summarizes how the COVID-19 pandemic has increased health, social and economic inequalities while drastically impacting the students' education due to school closures. The pandemic also accelerated the digitalization of education and amplified the role of parental involvement in supporting the schoolwork of their children. Thus, beyond the specific circumstances of the COVID-19 lockdown, researchers believed that studying the effects of the pandemic on academic inequalities provides a way to more broadly examine the consequences of school closure and digitalization of education on social class inequalities. Indeed, the use of digital tools in education and the influence of parental involvement has dramatically increased during this crisis, and is set to continue, there is a pressing need for an integrative and comprehensive model that examines the consequences of distance learning.

Le’s Family Tree

The majority of my family currently resides in Baltimore, Maryland after migrating into the USA in 2009. I am very close with my mother’s side of the family, while limited communication with my father’s side. Although there is limited communication between my father’s side and I, I am very close to my two parallel-cousins named Mimi and Hieu. I only talk to these two frequently because we are inseparable no matter who says what. My cousin’s parents do not like the fact that I attended City and went to an HBCU. They feel as if I am a bad influence because I surround myself with smokers, drinkers, etc. They make it seem like my friends don’t attend college or on the right path. My friends attend school, have jobs, we just party when it’s necessary. I wouldn’t say they have things against African American people, but that is how they treat me. 

My parents got married in 2002 and had me in 2003, and have two other children, while me being the oldest child. I grew up with both parents in the household, which I am truly blessed with. Having both of my parents being able to raise me properly and being able to learn things from the both of them have shaped me into the person I am today. Usually in our culture, the people come together through an arranged marriage. With my parents, they had a companionate marriage. 

My father’s side of the family all migrated into the U.S. back in 1994. All of my aunts and uncles currently still reside in the U.S. while my grandparents moved back to Vietnam in 2014 after experiencing illnesses. They considered leaving the United States just in case the illness got worse, it was easier for them to be buried over there, they said. Within a short amount of time, my grandfather had passed away due to elderly sickness. After the death of my grandfather, my two oldest aunts have gotten very distant with the rest of my other aunts and uncles over the money and property that was left behind to split among seven people. They felt as if they should’ve gotten the most because they did not end up residing in the United States. My father has a total of six other siblings, three females and three other brothers. I have a total of fifteen cousins on my father’s side. Eight of them being my parallel cousins and the other seven being my cross cousins. 

Meanwhile, my mother’s side of the family currently resides in Can Tho, Vietnam. On my mother’s side of the family, I have three uncles and two aunts, with only three cross cousins. My aunt Tam passed away right before my mother’s wedding after being hit by a drunk driver behind a truck. My grandfather passed away back in 2016 after having heart problems for a few years. He was on treatment for it but never was consistent with the treatments. His death shocked me the most because when I tell you it was so unexpected, it was so unexpected. It was just a regular sunny day outside, he came home and had lunch with my grandmother still healthy and fine, then left back out to go to a chicken fight and just passed out there and died within seconds. After the death of my grandfather, my mother’s side turned into the most disgustingly rude people ever, I felt as if the death caused them to be like this. I have one uncle who is currently in the process of getting a divorce, after eight years of marriage. My uncle and aunt came together through an arranged marriage. My grandmother had set the meeting up after learning that one of her old friend’s, friend's daughter is currently single. Now on the other hand, my other uncle never got married, he just randomly came home and told the family he has a child on the way. As you know, in Vietnamese culture, you have to be married before having kids but he claims the night was still young. 

“Who Run Girl the World? Girls.

In today’s society, the Hatchable eggs have become one of the hardest items to locate. As Christmas creeps around the corner, parents have been paying for more than retail just to locate the item for their child. The hatchable egg is a “mystery” hatchimal, inside is a mystery animal that becomes a collectible toy. The music behind this ad was more of a rock n’ roll, the beat was very catchy. In this ad, there was one individual girl who was in possession of two hatchimals, so excited to open them up. She also uses a barbie as a prop to show excitement and carefulness of what is inside the egg.

Then In the following ad, Zoomer Enchanted Unicorn. This scene consists of a girlier theme. It is pastel, the music is a very smooth up-beating flow from a female artist. The toy is a pink and purple impelled unicorn with a little girl playing with it encompassed by her beloved pastel plan, rainbow divider wall paintings, and a sorcery wand. Through all the shades of pink and purple, you can tell who the toy is most interesting for. In this scene, it didn’t contain any boys, the little girl contained a bright face as she showed her interest and excitement in this unicorn. 

Then, it follows up with “My little pony duet”. This scene consists of two young girls who go against each other with their ponies on stage. The music consists of a female artist as well, including another girl who is singing on stage as the unicorn music, but not only does it include the artist singing, it also includes the giggles that the girls have while on stage with the ponies. This item is more of a two piece part, two ponies come together face to face in order for it to host a duet, as this ad goes on, it also shows us a ten collectible ponies for the girls.

Next, the “BeyBlade burst”. In this scene, it contains both colors purple and blue, with a fastening up beating music, through a covert operative/activity film trailer. Although this commercial contains both genders, it does seem more appealing to one gender more than the other, which is the boys. In the commercial, the boys designs of the blades are in blue, red and green. They are in competition with their blades to see who can combat who’s.

Last but not least, the commercial for LaserX was my final ad. In this commercial, it consists of one girl and the rest being boys in competition with each other in a dark area full of colorful lights. It also contains a hype beast music in the background to demonstrate how competitive the game is. Although it consisted of both genders, at the end of the ad, it was a lineup with just boys. Through this scene, it showed me that this toy does seem to appeal to one gender more than another because the lineup emphasizes that the toy’s focus is for the boy’s interest.

As displayed in this generation, the majority of the ads are displayed through your interest. As I lay in my bed throughout the day and watch my girl Kirah Ominique and Remlife, most of the ads that come up will be based on gender, or something known as my most recent searches. Days where I am just watching beauty gurus things, it will then be based on gender, the ads will mostly focus on things that relate to feminine things, including clothing, accessories or even cosmetics. Another example would be, if there are days where I am focused on catching up with my Asian Shows, the ads that come up are mostly in Vietnamese. The main ad at this time for my Vietnamese show is this ad known as “Remitly '', which is a wireless money transfer across the nation during the pandemic. This ad is in Vietnamese and it is based off of my Vietnamese shows.

Le’s Homeland

My father’s side is fully Vietnamese 

My mother's side is mixed with Vietnamese and Cambodian.

My father’s side of the family is from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. My father moved to the United States with his side of the family in 1984. This included my grandfather, my grandmother, my father and his four other siblings. Now, as far as my mother, my siblings and I, we moved to the United States in 2008 after my parents got married and had my second youngest brother and I.

My father’s side of the family has lived in America the majority of their lives, my grandfather from my father’s side was a part of the Vietnam War back in 1970. Due to the fact that he was a part of the Vietnam war, they allowed him to migrate all of his children to the United States along with his wife in 1984. My father’s side of the family have definitely embraced to the American nationalism, they believe that all the politics is right, whenever they see the American flag, they are so proud to be a citizen of the United States of America. Although during the election of which Donald Trump has won for, they weren’t fully US Citizens yet, but they claimed they would have voted for him because they fully believe that he was capable of “making America great again”. On the other hand, My mother’s side of the family all live in Vietnam, due to her being my father’s wife, they allowed him to migrate her over into the United States as well. 

After migration, my aunts and uncles integrate their American identity with their ethnic identity through their daily lives. For example, this past weekend, we went to my cousin’s wedding. Traditionally, before every wedding we hold a “Tea Ceremony” the morning of the wedding. This event symbolizes the new “member” to both sides of the bride and groom and also serves “tea” to thank both sides' parents. My father’s side of the family participated in the Tea ceremony because the bride is from my father’s side of the family. Now for their American identity, we had a wedding back in June in which my cousin from my father side as well, my cousin Tina, married a caucasian man. Due to the fact she married a caucasian man, she didn’t host a ceremony because she followed the American trend therefore, my parents only went to the wedding. Although they are one identity, they merge their American and Ethnic identity through their daily lives and the American trends that is currently trending. 

This is my grandmother from my mother's side, she has raised my mother to become the best version of a mother even through the darkest days of her life when she was first pregnant. Due to the fact that my grandmother got pregnant before marriage, she for sure had to teach my mother the girl’s culture from our homeland. Both of my parents raised me in Baltimore, Maryland in their traditional Vietnamese household. I was born in Can Tho, Vietnam and lived there for 4 years of age. In our traditional Vietnamese household, we carry a list full of policies. Starting with myself, as a Asian girl, Vietnamese to be exact, there are certain standards you have to follow. One of our biggest policies is that you may not have a child until you are married. Now, with this being said, I do stand by this rule even after four of my cousins giving birth before marriage. Reason being, outsiders will talk down on you and your mother for not being taught right. The proper term for this is “An Com Truoc Keng”. This is by far one of the most important factors because it elevates a girl’s dignity in our culture.

Lunar New Year is technically the only Lunar New Year we really celebrate.. In our household, January 1st is just another day in our lives. I mean we celebrate at parties, family reunions but that is really just memories and laughter. The picture above is our TET traditional clothing, TET is also known as Lunar New Year, it does not have a specific day. It falls on a different month every year, traditionally, every year we have an “animal” which represents the year. Our most important animal is the water buffalo which was actually the animal for 2021. It is very important to the culture and history because it symbolizes bravery, happiness and propensity. TET is celebrated with money, new clothing, the lion dance and as well as freshly cooked desserts that allow us to feed our ancestors that do not get a chance to celebrate the holidays with us. The freshly cooked desserts are one of the most important factors in this holiday because it symbolizes the “request” that we have as we walk into another year. The request is us asking our ancestors to allow us to walk into the new year with many new blessings and open doors to welcome in new money. 

Follow up with the picture below, it is a picture of our red envelopes that we receive every Lunar New Year with money inside. This envelope symbolizes good luck. The color red is the only color that is allowed to be used during the holiday because it represents happiness, good luck and energy. 

The results from this exercise have definitely affected my personal view on ethnicity and nationalism because every ethnicity has their own policies and lives based on their ethnic. In our daily lives today in America, it doesn’t matter how you carry your kids, kids starting at the age of even 14 years old will go on and get pregnant with their “boyfriend”, it also doesn’t matter how you do things, or how you live your daily life. Learning more in depth about my culture today showed me that the policies in my culture is very strict. 

I n j u s t i c e.

I remember back in my middle school days, I was known as the “ching chong” girl. This is an example of microaggressions, this negative insult was made to me by one of the well known popular girls at my school at that time. After the insult was made, I was referred to by that name all around the school building for a while. I was new to the school, as well as the United States at that time. I was so young, younger than her as well, which prevented me from saying anything that I would’ve wanted to say because I did not know english at that time. 

Discrimination in regards to gender, social class, and race is a form of intersectionality. Cyntoia Brown, who was wrongly accused of killing Johnny Allen for robbery, in which that caused her to get sentenced to life in jail at the age of sixteen. Cyntoia Brown at that time was brought by Johnny Allen for sex, when he tried to rape her again she killed him. African American ladies in our society suffer from gender, sexism, and even race inequality. Her case was based on race inequality.

Miscegenation also known as Interracial marriage, was a law that was passed in 1967 after being banned for decades. Interracial marriage are common now in today’s society, according to Pew Research Center, since the day the laws were overturned, it immediately had a rise. Kylie Jenner and Travis Scott, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, and Kobe Bryant and Vanessa Bryant are a few examples of interracial marriage couples in today’s world. An example of an interracial couple would be one of my childhood friends, she started to date this African American boy and her father immediately rejected that. He rejected this relationship because prior to him with her mother, her mother met an African American guy as well and they did not end well. She was mentally and physically abused, so now he has that image in his head that all African Americans are bad which is why he isn’t allowing that.

Both Breonna Taylor and George Floyd cases are forms of Institutional racism. The system failed those two individuals when it came to their court cases. George Floyd did not receive proper justice. If the city did not react how they did on how George Floyd was killed, the police officer would not be behind bars nor jobless today. As far as Breonna Taylor, she did not up until this day receive her justice either. She was wrongfully killed by a white police officer because of a raid. 

Individual racism is another term for “racism”. Racism still goes on internationally all around the world. During the COVID-19 pandemic today, the Chinese people are facing racism constantly. As we all know the first case of this virus was found in China. Due to the fact that this virus was established in China, the Chinese kids in school these days are bullied and the Chinese stores around the city are impacted as well. 

Segregation is a demonstration of racial ideology. According to our Race and Racism chapter, the school system, and the government caused the people to believe that segregation was natural. The Brown vs Board of education allowed segregation to end in 1954 after they ruled that U.S. state laws establishing segregation are unlawful. This allowed both whites and blacks to be in the same school building.

Chem Lecture 101, Professor A

According to my data recorded from Friday’s lecture class, you would think that the girls were more engaging but if you look at the total number of girl students in that class, we have 22 girls. I personally think in this lecture class, the boys are more active. Reason being, if you only have 6 boys and they participated 13 times and you have 22 girls but they only participated 19 times. That’s a huge difference. In this case, the girls may have spoken more often, but the boys are more engaging. 

The average of words the participants use to communicate is about 10-15 words. The participants don't often make lengthy statements because the questions being asked during the presentation revolve around quick check ups, or quick questions on the work she is going over.

The body language, eye contact, and style of speaking is very different between the girls and boys in class. The boys will always have a nonchalant attitude while the girls express their ideas through a well conveyed tone. Most of the time the boys will just try to get their point across. The girls will have a friendly smile as they express their ideas and make constant direct eye contact to the professor.

In my Chemistry class, there are only two individuals who are girls that keep their cameras on because they actively participate, such as helping the Professor because she doesn’t know much of technology. Though, I feel like in general, the girls would keep their cameras on more anyways because the boys seem to be more nonchalant about their cameras being on. That is just from my perspective only. In other people’s perspective they would think as if the boys would have their cameras on more most of the time because the girls care about their appearance. In classes nowadays, people would be asleep, in a whole other world, etc.

My professor for this Chemistry Lecture class is a woman. Professor A encourages communication through her checkups on the students every slideshow to make sure the information is being understood. After every slide show when she has the lecture, she would repeatedly ask “Do everybody understand, do everybody understand?”, she will repeatedly ask this question until someone responds even if it’s just with one word. During our lecture meetings, professor A stays seated teaching through her computer screen and hardly shows body language. When she was teaching in person, she was always engaging through constant eye contact which made the class very nonchalant, her body language was performed through a confusing non-friendly smile on her face. Meaning, she never had that excitement while teaching the class. She was just there to be there, an engaging class consists of an engaging teacher! She was only looking at the board and looking back at the students, she wasn’t up and moving to make the class enjoyable. 

Professor A’s gender does not seem to influence the way she interacts with the class when it comes to teaching, if a professor is engaging, teaching properly and uplifting the class, the class will always engage back. Now, if a professor continuously just goes through slides every class meeting, no students will engage because there’s no excitement in the room. When I was doing an assignment for this class two weeks ago, she made us watch a two hour long laboratory video. In the video, the class consists of a constant engaging vibe. The teacher was up and moving, using his body language to perform his experiment. He was getting laughs out of his classmates. These two different gender teachings reveal that it is not about gender. Gender doesn’t have an impact on anything, it is how you are towards your students. If you are willing to be active there shouldn’t be any reason your students don't engage with you back.

“The Blvd”

Washington Blvd, Morrell Park Neighborhood in Southwest Baltimore

When I first moved to America back in 2009, I lived in this neighborhood up until 2018. This place holds a special place in my heart, it holds a lot of memories and this was where I was basically raised. Everyday I look back into the neighborhood I was once living in, it really still scares me. How did I even live here? Why does it get worse and worse as days pass? This neighborhood consists of robbery, shooting, overdoses, drug addicts, bullying, fighting, basically anything you can think of.. You name it. My focus was in this area because I, till this day, use facebook like somebody's old aunt or grandmother. I am on the neighborhood’s facebook page and everyday there's something going on in there. Just a couple days ago, a well-known drug addict killed her own mother.

Back when I was living there, drugs weren't really a big problem, I mean there were drug addicts but most of the time it was more of fighting. I actually just made a quick visit on Thursday, I saw many many new things. Not new, but new. I saw a handful of addicts, about five times the amount of people from when I was living there. I saw a lot of trash on sidewalks, young kids ranging from 10-15 just hanging on the block. Drug dealers just on the corner of the block trying to make sales even while police were around. This is how you know the neighborhood is just at its lowest, if the police are on scene and can’t even do much about it, it basically says it all.

Surprisingly I didn’t locate my childhood friends on the Blvd when I drove past, I saw some new faces. I mean there were a few of my childhood friends but the ones I would expect to still be on there were no longer standing on the Blvd. I also expected to find needles on the ground all down the BLVD, but you couldn’t even guess where they are now.. In the hidden side alley located on the left corner of the hand drawn picture. This is truly sickening because it’s only been three years since I moved, but it has changed so much.

This place has been negatively impacted by COVID-19. Now that COVID is around, there have been more people than ever just hanging around, drug dealers, drug addicts, and young kids rushing to be grown. School wasn’t in session at one point and you would see a whole bunch of kids just outside doing their own thing. Without school being in person, the kids took advantage. For example, my old childhood friend who I used to be extremely close with, I mean extremely close with... from waking up and going to school together, eating together, and just being with each other 24/7. Her brother who is only 15 years old, has been sitting behind bars from the past year for attempted murder. This situation is a very heartbreaking situation because you have to think about it, 15 years of age? I believe he was in 8th grade or even 7th when this happened. If things don't get better for him, who knows when he will be home? I mean this comes with the life of a follower.

Life of A Bear Student

After writing my list down, I came to a realization that I spend money on unnecessary things just because I want it. The majority of my things are needs and are mostly wanted through the use of social media. On top of that, the prices are excessively costly. Looking through the list, the small things do add up, from the five to ten dollars. It all goes into the bill. Now that I am a college student, i know it’s best if I start to save more and spend less. College is the start of my adult life, from having to learn time management and organization, it’s all a process. Being able to control my expenses will benefit me in the long run because it’s only my freshman year. Although my tuition is paid for, I take it into consideration when it comes to my upcoming years at Morgan. My Sophomore, Junior and Senior, books may cost then, fees may start to apply then. 

Apple watches are so pointless, from time to time yes you may need it but majority of the time it’s just sitting there with no purpose of use. I hardly ever use this item anymore, it has been sitting on my dresser for almost a year now. Apple Watch may be beneficial for active people, the watch helps motivate people who like to be out and moving so they can track their speed. I also feel like it may be beneficial for people who work at strict jobs, it may come in handy when it’s connected to your phone. You can have your notifications go straight through your watch and check through there. I don’t regret making this purchase, but I wish I was more wise with how I was spending my money.  

Groceries is the most important thing on my list. You won’t be able to survive without food, food allows your body to function. According to The Scientific World, foods are directly related to our body and mental and social health because food and fluid contains specific nourishment like starches, protein, nutrients, minerals, and fats, which are essentials for our physical and mental development. 

Fieldwork CH. 1

Vietnamese Culture Calendar

This calendar originally originated from the Agricultural Calendar, the Agricultural Calendar is East Asia’s traditional calendar. After Vietnam regained its independence in 1945, they recreated the agricultural calendar. They decided to utilize lunisolar occasions and remembrances, like Tết and Tet Trung Thu which is known as our Mid-Autumn Celebration. The calendar was recreated by a man named Thuận Thiên. In 1945, he used the Chinese Calendar model and rearranged things around so it could include the big highlights of my culture. The main difference between the Chinese calendar and Vietnam calendar is the days of the months, the Chinese goes by our standard calendar days. The  look of the first original calendar wasn’t released until 10 years later after Thuan Thien discovered it.

The traditional Asian calendar is manufactured in China.

The impact that this calendar has on my life, as well as my family’s life is that it is known as our “rebirth month”. The meaning behind this calendar is that it represents our age. Every lunar’s new year's you age. Meaning, if I am currently 19, Lunar new year comes around, I am now 20. The Vietnamese Calendar goes by a month later than the solar calendar. Another impact this calendar has on my family is we are able to keep track of our “Co Hon” days. This event is a very big event across our Vietnamese culture. This month is known as the devil month, they stay extra cautious during July, they burn things rapidly to remove bad energy and surroundings.

The people that are involved in creating this item are known as the Chinese people. They are our manufacturer. In China, there are many factories that are known as vendors that create and resell them. The factory vendors resell them to the mini stores on side streets of Vietnam buy bundles of these most importantly around our Lunar New Years because they are very popular and in demand for the holiday. Prior to our New Years celebration, the Chinese people would start making them because there are twelve zodiac signs in the calendar. Therefore prior to our festival, they create the calendar based on our animal for the year. For instance, a rat. This is one of our zodiac animals. The phrase, “Year of the rat” has a meaning, it means “Welcomed as a bringer of good luck”. The problem is, the Chinese people have to make these calendars two or even three months prior to the USA New Year even come around because once it comes around, our Lunar New Year follows up and all the factories start to take a month break off and it would cause a shortage on calendars for the season.

Adapting to and changing the natural world.  Our environment has completed changed since COVID 19 came around, masks are now being enforced as well as being 6ft apart from eachother.

Increasing Migration People who move to other countries to benefit their living.

Uneven Development When the poor loses lottery it hits different, compared to the rich, they can just move on from the situation.

Time Space Compression

Time Space Compression - The rapid notification that comes through a person’s phone now is something the old generation didn’t get to experience. For example, back in old days, when we have our snow days, you didn’t get that rapid notification through your phone that school was closed. You had to watch the TV and look at the bottom of the screen to see if your school was closed or not.