Diversity...

...An old old wooden warship use during the civil war era? There's more truth to that here in Boston than the idea that there is a large variety and large numbers of ethnic groups all around. But don't get me wrong though, you'll find a good number of african-americans, latinos, chinese, african-carribeans. but they're pretty much segregated into their own neighbhorhoods (usually poor) and usually don't mix in with the white folk. this is probably true for cities in general. it's true that in the bay you'll have ethnic neighborhoods, but you'll come a cross a lot of areas, including the richer ones, where you'll find people mixed in together.

in boston you aren't going to find much filipinos. in public health there's me, kat, another in kat's class, and a half-indian/half-filipino. So at least 3.5 of us in the school of public health. a couple times i've seen and heard a couple talking in tagalog on campus. they could be nurses, who knows. but that's pretty much it for boston. i've heard there's a community of filipinos in one suburb outside of boston.

in my department, i am the only asian/pacific islander-american and one of three non-whites. there was four of us, but one of em (who i really liked and talked to the most here) left and was replaced by a white person. in my classes, it's mostly white females and i'm the only api male. it it depressing? sorta cuz i've never experience somethign this extreme before. but it doesn't bother me too much that i can't stand it. it's something that i got used to right away.

it's official

i'm in...

[iphone cameras aren't very good for close up shots]

basically, i am now and official student of Boston University School of Public Health! i was also awarded a $10,000 merit scholarship--but too bad i'm not eligible for it since i am a full-time employee of BUSPH. no matter. 95% tuition covered + salary > $10,000. as long as i don't lose my job within the next 22 months, then i'm all good.

now i have another reason to celebrate this week.

thank goodness for filipino moms

when my family came to visit over president's day weekend, my mom, with her motherly instincts activated, delivered some delicious home cooked food to keep me nourished for the next few weeks. she brought me:

sauteed short ribs (killed it)
chicken adobo (or was it pork?) (killed it)
salmon sauteed in ginger, onions, peppers (killed it)
2 rolls of embutido from valerios (down to 1.5 rolls)

can't wait to come back home!

you speak english?

i was walkin out of my building after work and this well-dressed man with a tie, trench, glasses comes up to me and gets my attention. i take off my earphones and asks me, "do you speak english?"

at that point i was like what the hell?! for the next few seconds i give him a strange look and start walking away. he says, "what? do i look like a gangster?" yes, cuz people dressed up in a tie, shirt, trenchcoat and glasses look like gangsters, idiot. so i said "no, cuz it's the question you asked. is it cuz i look...." then he finishes my sentence and says "asian." i put back on my earphones and walked towards the bus stop. i think he said something, but i didn't hear him nor did i care to.

c'mon now, why would you ask such a ignorant question? we were standing on the grounds of a US public educational institution and i even had a backpack on. wouldn't you assume i was a student and automatically assume i spoke english? that would be an ok question to ask if we were in a foreign country, but not in the US. would he have asked that same question if i was white or black?

i didn't have to say anything else to school that ignorant motherfucker.

i want...

to be a DJ....again.

no heat!

for the past two months my room has been without heat while the temp has been dropping to the teens. sometime in november or october it had worked for one day but hadn't worked since. i pretty much left it up to my roommates to contact my landlord and didn't bother to take any action myself. so i let the cold days go by and was too stubborn to get a space heater cuz i didn't want to pay more electricity (even though my roommates use one, which screws me over since we evenly split the electric bill). i simply wore a bunch of layers and slept beneath 6 blankets to keep me warm in my own room.

(btw, under massachusetts law, landlords are required to provide heat to 68F during the day and 64F at night between Sept 15 and June 15. i had a whole class session on housing code. go public health!)

finally, i started getting fed up with shivering when i wake up in the morning and while i'm at home at night. i started calling up my manager to try and get the problem fixed. and then after a few days our heater started working again! and it still continues to work! just in time for single-digit weather.

hiatus

i need to blog more.