It just hit me that we’re a few weeks away from finishing our first year of University. It has been a year of many new experiences and many changes. I graduated from High School in India and moved across the world to start University in a new city in a new country. I moved out of my parent’s place and started living on my own for the first time in my life and most importantly, met many great people along the way.

It’s safe to say, that it was a year of transition, but CAP classes made it easy to ease into University life and allowed me to get a first taste of University classes. Over the last few weeks, we’ve been talking about the movie “American sniper” in ASTU and I thought, I would dedicate my last blog post to explain how the individual CAP classes connect to each other through the eyes of “American sniper” and how it helped me get into University life.

For my first-year studies in UBC, I was enrolled in the “Global Citizens” CAP stream. The stream includes Geography, Political science, Sociology and Arts studies as first-year courses. I think, that the idea behind CAP streams is good, because it helps you ease into University life as everyone in your stream is a first-year student as well and since you see everyone in your stream on a daily basis, you get to know a majority of the people quickly and easily.

I quickly learned that all the courses in Global Citizens are somehow connected. In ASTU, we examine the scholarly importance of a movie like “American sniper”. In Geography, we talk about the global effect that it has and specifically learn about the geographic region (more developed and less developed countries) and how it has changed and developed over the years. In the first semester, we learned the political aspect of things in Poli science and discussed how global governments should act in order to prevent wars, keep their citizens safe and give their people a voice and lastly, in Sociology, we learn how modern society functions. Even if it isn’t always obvious in the first place, many things that we think about and talk about are connected to each other and function in different fields. In Global Citizens, these fields are separated into their specific courses and through examples like “American sniper”, we learn about globalisation, obligations as citizens and how the modern world functions.

Personally, I thought that it was a good decision that I took a CAP stream in my first University year. Although I wasn’t always interested in all of the topics, it helped me get to know new people and learn in a first-year environment. As a “third culture kid” or rather as a “third culture student”, I enjoyed learning about the world that we live in. So, if that’s something that interests you then Global Citizens is for you. Now, I hope to finish the first-year on a high note and hopefully we’ll all stay in touch!

The Museum of Anthropology at UBC is known for its culturally relevant exhibitions. These exhibits often focus on cultures, world arts and indigenous peoples. Currently the museum displays an exhibit named after “one of the world’s most culturally, socially, and linguistically diverse regions”.

I think, that most of us have heard something about the amazon rainforest early on, maybe even in Kindergarten, but often all we know about the amazon is that it is one of the largest tropical rainforests in the world. Personally, I’ve been lucky enough to travel the world as a ‘third-culture kid’ over the last few years, but I haven’t managed to get anywhere close to the amazon rainforest in South America. Therefore, the MOA exhibit offered me an insight into the lives of the people that live in the region and taught me about the diverse Indigenous South American cultures. The exhibit displays many artefacts and handicraft items such as textiles, carvings and feather works. I was especially impressed by the feather works and learned that these items are often used by amazonian tribes for traditional ceremonies. I find it amazing that the people on the banks of the amazon river still live without electricity, flowing water and any form of technology. The people and the tribes still use ancient healing rituals, go hunting for meat in the forest and collect fruits from the tropical plants. At the same time, I found it shocking that these tribes are losing huge areas of their homes, that they have lived in for so many centuries due to deforestation and the oil industry. Especially the Brazilian and the Peruvian Governments have to put more effort into the protection of the amazon rainforest. So, that the next generation can still witness and live off the amazon forest.

As a student, I obviously also enjoyed the hammocks in the exhibit that invited people to just take a quick break of their busy schedules and reflect on the exhibition. I’ve always been interested in learning about new and different cultures and the Amazonia exhibit was bio exception. It was super interesting to learn about the South American culture and admire some of the artefacts. I realized that I have to take time off and look at some of the MOA exhibitions on a more regular basis.

http://moa.ubc.ca/portfolio_page/amazonia/

Last week, my ASTU class visited the rare books and special collections Library in the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre. The library possess a large collection of original and special literature material. We received literature material from the Japanese-Canadian author Joy Kogawa. Benny and I were given the original handwritten plot outline, chapter outline, character descriptions, first drafts of chapter 3 and an early typewriter draft of chapter 10 from Joy Kogawa’s best selling novel “Obasan”.

To be honest, I was a little astonished that we were given the materials. The rare books and special collections Library in UBC is the only place in the world, where you can find Joy Kogawa’s original handwritten plots and outlines of the story. Often we just get to see the final product, in this case, the published version of “Obasan”, but at the Library we were given the opportunity to explore and go through the early stages and planning of the novel. It allowed me to understand the ideas that went through Kogawa’s mind while she was planning and writing the novel. Benny and I received a lot of help from the Librarian to read her handwriting and understand the material.

It was interesting to analyse the family tree that Joy Kogawa drew to show the relationship of the characters. I was also surprised to see all the changes that she made to her handwritten notes, especially when it came to the dates and locations. This shows that throughout the planning of the novel, she did some research on the topic and made changes accordingly to her results. Joy Kogawa put a lot of effort into the chapter and character plot which means that she had a clear idea of what she wanted to outline and write about in the novel. Her handwritten notes are very similar to the published novel and the character names appeared to be the same as in the book.

Benny and I also had a draft of chapter 10. The draft was not handwritten, but instead produced and written on a typewriter. The Librarian explained to us that it was a later draft of the novel and hence the planning stage was already completed at that point of time. The draft had handwritten notes all over it and spelling mistakes were corrected by hand as well.

Overall, the ASTU field trip to the Library was an eye-opening experience. It allowed us to visit a new place on campus, gave us the chance to explore original literature material and it was nice to have class in a different environment. It allowed me to learn about the author behind a novel that we’re reading in class and made me realise how much effort she put into her work.

In the past week, we started reading Marjane Satrapi’s autobiographical narrative Persepolis, which talks about the author’s childhood in Iran, the Islamic Revolution and the fall of the Shah. The graphic narrative is filled with hundreds of drawings and all of them are black and white.

Satrapi once said: “I was never planning to make a comic, but then I was in an art studio in Paris and discovered what comics were, and actually the fact was that this was really the medium that fit me the best because I love to write and I love to draw and so it really was the best for me. From the second, I made the first page I knew this is what I should be doing.”
I was really interested in why she chose to publish her graphic narrative in black and white and here are some of the reasons I came up with:

Firstly, black and white portrays the stark contrast between the east and the west and between Iran and the western world. Marji was always caught between the two worlds and in the graphic narrative, this is often portrayed in the way that Marji chose to dress – either in the burqa with the veil or in western clothes. Secondly, black could represent power and authority. In the graphic narrative, black tends to portray darkness, sadness, depression, dominance and difficult times that Marji and her family went through. White, on the other hand, represents peace, happiness, freedom and religion.
Lastly, Persepolis is written in the eyes of a young girl that knows either good or bad. The two colours are used efficiently to represent this judgement, where white represents the good and black represents the bad.

In Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi effectively conveys her visual ideas through the use of two colours. The simplistic approach shows, that to her there are two extreme sides.

http://asiasociety.org/marjane-satrapi-i-will-always-be-iranian

Over the last few weeks, we have thoroughly discussed genres in my ASTU class. I have been familiar with genres probably since the end of elementary school and was quite surprised when we started talking about it in my university English class. I asked myself: “Do university students really have to talk about different kinds of genres?” The topic of genres seemed so obvious that you never really talked about it, let alone think about it. In my IB English class, genres were a norm that you never really questioned.

After reading the scholarly essay ‘Youth, trauma and memorialisation: The selfie as witnessing’ by Kate Douglas, I came to the realization that there is so much more to genres. I never thought that we encounter so many different genres in so many different settings on daily basis. In fact, reading Douglas’s essay on taking selfies at trauma sites and sharing them on social media provoked one personal experience that I’d like to share.

In August 2016, I visited the United Nations Headquarters in New York and participated in a model united nations conference. On the last day, we visited the 9/11 memorial. It was a surreal experience that I struggle to put into words. Walking around the two square pools, I felt so small and unimportant and I was baffled how a city like New York was all of sudden so silent. For a few moments, the sirens, snarled up traffic, heavy construction sites and large crowds disappeared and my focus laid on the memorial. There were hundreds of people around the two pools and almost everyone had their phone out and pointed towards the memorial. Everyone was snapping pictures and I wonder if taking selfies was a way of dealing with the sensitive situation. It seems that people don’t mind posing in front of a memorial where more than 2500 innocent people lost their lives. As Douglas outlined in her essay, selfies are becoming a social norm of witnessing situations. Nevertheless, I feel that certain monuments have to be respected and that people should refrain from taking pictures and instead pay respect to the people that lost their lives.

I learned that there is a lot more to genres than I originally thought and I now know why the topic was discussed in my university English class. Genres are not just categories of books, but prevail a deeper meaning if understood in the correct way.

Over the last few weeks, we have thoroughly discussed genres in my ASTU class. I have been familiar with genres probably since the end of elementary school and was quite surprised when we started talking about it in my university English class. I asked myself: “Do university students really have to talk about different kinds of genres?” The topic of genres seemed so obvious that you never really talked about it, let alone think about it. In my IB English class, genres were a norm that you never really questioned.

After reading the scholarly essay ‘Youth, trauma and memorialisation: The selfie as witnessing’ by Kate Douglas, I came to the realization that there is so much more to genres. I never thought that we encounter so many different genres on daily basis. In fact, reading Douglas’s essay on taking selfies at trauma sites and sharing them on social media provoked one personal experience that I’d like to share.

In August 2016, I visited the United Nations Headquarters in New York and participated in a model united nations conference. On the last day, we visited the 9/11 memorial. It was a surreal experience that I struggle to put into words. Walking around the two square pools, I felt so small and unimportant and I was baffled how a city like New York was all of sudden so silent. For a few moments, the sirens, snarled up traffic, heavy construction sites and large crowds disappeared and my focus laid on the memorial. There were hundreds of people around the two pools and almost everyone had their phone out and pointed towards the memorial. Everyone was snapping pictures and I wonder if taking selfies was a way of dealing with the sensitive situation. It seems that people don’t mind posing in front of a memorial where more than 2500 innocent people lost their lives. As Douglas outlined in her essay, selfies are becoming a social norm of witnessing situations. Nevertheless, I feel that certain monuments have to be respected and that people should refrain from taking pictures and instead pay respect to the people that lost their lives.

I learned that there is a lot more to genres than I originally thought and I now know why the topic was discussed in my university English class. Genres are not just categories of books, but prevail a deeper meaning if understood in the correct way.

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