Thursday, July 16, 2015

Quacks Everywhere!

The weather in Philadelphia sure changes quickly. I remember yesterday it was raining almost the whole day but today, it was sunny and breezy. This reminded me of the Bay Area and how much I missed the weather. I still carried an umbrella with me because I was afraid that it would rain. 

The group I was in for the past couple of days had to go to the theatre workshop from yesterday. With the other group, they got to talk about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and that was something that I'm really interested in. I chose to stay with Theatre of the Oppressed because I figured that this is only a once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity and if I turn away from this, there most likely won't be another chance in the future. Today was the last session for Theatre of the Oppressed and it's been an amazing journey. I had a new partner today and her name is Lisa. We did a call and response activity today with our partner and it was pretty fun but it was hard to stay on the same page as we both had different ideas in our heads. What I like most about this workshop is that we get to interact with everyone and get to know them a bit better. The whole one-on-one conversations and activities we do help me connect with my classmates. 
Love Park

Benjamin Franklin Bridge
Art Museum
After lunch ended, Jun and I returned to the Theatre of the Oppressed to finish the workshop. From our own personal experiences, we, as a group, had to come up with something to act out that we feel strongly about. One of students talked about how she goes to a Quaker School and the rules about the dress code is very strict. The student picked some other students out and had them act out the scenes she had in mind. The group acted once without talking and stayed still and once with dialogue. I didn't realize how important dialogue was until today. It is very hard to interpret one's actions and thinking methods if they don't talk. Talking lets them justify their actions and behaviors. When the students acted the skit out, we, the audience, had to analyze the purpose of the skit and also change it if we need to. Some of the skits were really funny and I think that helped us get more comfortable with one another. After this ended, we all gathered in a large circle and thanked Dr. Lisa Jo Epstein. 


Jun, Chiamaka, Elexis, Justeen, and I had all signed up for the duck tour that was happening today. The tour would take us on a drive around some of the most famous buildings around Philadelphia such as the Art Museum, Rocky Statue, Independence Hall, etc. I really liked how the narrator was so energetic (despite how she's the "Nana Duck") after working with three bad tour groups. I feel like she lit up my day after a long and tiring day. I thought it was really cool how the car was able to go in the water and it took us down the Delaware River near the Penn's Landing arch. Before the tour was over, we got a duck whistle and Nana Duck played duck songs on her speakers. Everyone used their duck whistle to play a long with the song and we got weird looks from people who were passing by. 


When we got back from the tour, Jun, Chiamaka, Elexis, Justeen, and I were hungry and decided to go to Cosi to buy a night snack. I bought an Adobo Chicken Avocado bowl and split half of it with Justeen. We then went to Wawa to buy snacks for the movies tomorrow night so that we wouldn't have to do it during the day. 

Tomorrow we will visit the Eastern State Penitentiary and I'm excited! People have told me that the prison site visit is the best in the program so I have been looking forward to this for three months. 

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