Author Archives: jo349

Urban Planning

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This past Rose Cafe focused on how where we live can really impact our lives and choices. For example, people living in urban areas are probably more likely to use public transportation and have more options in terms of food. People in very rural areas, conversely, need to use a car and are probably more limited in what they can choose from food-wise. This made me rethink the idea that just anyone can live a sustainable lifestyle. We can all take steps to decrease our carbon footprint, but it’s much more difficult for some people than others.

When we talked about the difference between urban and rural areas’ choice of food, it reminded me of a topic I was interested in a few years ago. Where I live in California, there is a huge disparity in life expectancy just between counties. This is largely due to the fact that one of our counties, San Bernardino, has a “food desert”. If I’m remembering correctly, a food desert is when there are no fresh food options within a certain radius of your home. People turn to fast food chains because they are basically their only choice. Planning out cities in a way that everyone can access healthy, fresh food is definitely integral to improving peoples’ life quality and expectancy.

The Case of Loving v Virgina

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Last Friday we gathered to watch a movie covering the case of an interracial couple who had to take their case all the way to the Supreme Court. What I found interesting about the movie was that it was not framed like a traditional movie at all, but instead offered snapshots of the couple’s life together and their struggles. In fact, the movie focused so much on their difficulties that I sometimes forgot that the couple was in love. At one point, the husband even seems to consider his friend’s advice that he simply divorce his wife. However, the couple makes it through in the end and triumphs with a court ruling in their favor.

This movie relates pretty well to two ongoing issues that we struggle with today: marriage equality and racial inequality. Some of the same arguments used against interracial marriage back then are still used today. It’s disheartening to see that some things haven’t changed at all. Similarly, the court case that legalized marriage equality nationwide is still faced with opposition. Although this movie was set in the 60s, a lot of the themes are still relevant.

The fact that themes from this movie are still relevant today makes me wonder where we will be 50 years down the line from now. Will people still be faced with prejudice based on their race and sexuality? Sadly, it wouldn’t surprise me if that will be the case. We love to watch futuristic sci-fi movies where social inequality is antiquated and unthinkable, but more and more the ideal utopia of social equality seems to be out of reach.

Our Vine Home

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This last weekend we participated in Into The Streets with GRF Magdala. The event started out with a fun series of performances. The dance group Breakfree and a drumming group whose name I can’t remember performed very well. After a speech from Ryan Lombardi, we all went our separate ways to our assignments. Ours was at the YMCA, which I assumed would be cleaning a basketball court or another indoor task. It turned out that we were volunteering in the outdoor center, which meant that it was very hands on.

Our first task involved waterproofing a vine hut. When we were first assigned the task, I thought it would be impossible. We had to thread vines through a framework to fill in the many holes, which required a lot of teamwork. Eventually we ran out of vines, so we learned all about how to find vines in the forest and pull them down. At one point, two other girls and I tried using all of our body weight to pull a vine down from a tree, but we all ended up in the mud instead. At the end of it all though, the vine hut looked so much better. The cost was that I looked so, so much worse. We were all covered in various plant matter and scratches from the work, but hopefully we’ve created something lots of kids can enjoy for years to come.

I think that is something that really motivated me to keep working on the vine hut even when it seemed to be pointless and not going anywhere. I knew that this was something that I would have loved as a kid, and now it was my turn to give back and make something for the next generation of kids to enjoy. The cost of our time and cleanliness is definitely worth it to make something kids can create memories in.

Styling Yourself

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The talk with the stylist from Julia Stone’s salon was really enlightening. Nicholas Carbonaro brought up a good point, which is that we are all college students, and so we have to strike up a balance between professional and practical. Most of us don’t have the time or money for a high maintenance look, but we still need to look nice for internships or other professional events. It made me think about my own hair and what I can/should do to look more presentable in the future. Something he said that stuck with me was that you can’t expect a $100 haircut for $15. Most of us look for the cheapest hair cut and then complain about how bad it is, but we need to realize that the amount of time a stylist spends on your hair is time they could be spending with other clients, and so they need to be compensated accordingly.

As far as Nicholas Carbonaro’s life goes, he has a ton of experience under his belt. He’s worked on just about every hair type, but also has hair experience from working on wax statue hairpieces where he would have to punch in each strand of hair. Nicholas knows a lot about how to make your hair work for you personally, with different products according to your needs. I think it was a great cafe and taught me a lot about how to take care of your appearance without expending a ridiculous amount of time.

When I reflect on how his advice applies to me, it makes me realize that I don’t think about my appearance in a professional context at all. So far in my life, it hasn’t been necessary. Now that I’m entering a period of my life where job interviews and internships are going to be common, I’ll need to make sure I actually look professional, which is going to require investing in my appearance. Maybe appearance shouldn’t matter, but right now in our society it does. If you want to make a good impression and be taken seriously, you can’t look too unkempt.

Rose Dining

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When I went to the Rose Cafe with Chef Hans, I didn’t exactly know what to expect. My first thought was that he couldn’t possibly talk about cooking for an hour. Surprisingly though, the whole hour was very enlightening and I realized there’s a lot more to the dining hall than just cooking pre specified recipes. For example, logistics plays a huge role in what we are served. The quesadilla station that used to exist in Rose was removed since it (surprisingly) took a lot of prep and time. Instead, the cookie platter has replaced it and has been a huge success.

Something I was struck by in the cafe was that Chef Hans really cares about how the workers at Rose feel. Their stress levels and morale are a key factor in his decisions of what to cook. He likes to get them invested in work and encourages them to do research on what dishes they’d like to introduce. I thought this was a great change to what we traditionally perceive food service jobs to be like. My own mother constantly stressed to me that I should never seek out a job in food service, since I would probably be treated terribly and my work wouldn’t be appreciated. I don’t think Chef Hans’ workers feel that way at all.

My own experience with dining halls is often pretty impersonal. Since you aren’t being waited on by anyone, it’s not like you can send your thanks to the chef through them. When I like the food, I tend to tell my friends who I’m eating with, but never the actual staff who cooked it. I don’t even tend to think of the people who cook it at all, which I now realize has been a mistake on my part. I think from now on I’ll make an effort to seek out the chef at a dining hall if I really enjoyed what they made, since I know the effort and planning that goes into it now. Overall, I was really impressed by Chef Hans efforts and ability to manage the dining hall.

Improving Child Welfare with Kristof

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I was very excited to go see the NYT journalist Nicholas Kristof speak in Kennedy Hall. The book that he co-authored with his wife, Half the Sky, has been one of my favorites. He started off with talking about how the equality of opportunity is robbed of most children, since they have many factors against them from the start. If their mother used alcohol or drugs while pregnant, the child will suffer the consequences and setback from the start. Comparably, children in underdeveloped countries have to make do on deficient diets. The lack of nutrition not only stunts their physical growth, but their mental development as well.

Kristof stressed the necessity of investing in the futures of disadvantaged people. Oftentimes, a small act of help can culminate in a huge change in a community. Investing in girls’ education or putting in the effort to help an otherwise disadvantaged person can have huge payoffs in their life. Not only will their life be better off, but they can build up and improve their hometown.

Kristof’s basic message was that anyone can help make a change. It made me examine my own goals and actions in community service. How much am I really helping by just volunteering at a couple of resource centers? Couldn’t my efforts be more useful hands on helping the homeless or otherwise disadvantaged? Why don’t I skip my weekly starbucks and instead donate to a cause that is making meaningful, lasting change? I really began to examine my own privilege and distance from real issues. Overall, it was a very motivating and inspiring message. I’m super glad I went to the event, and will keep an eye out for his pieces in the Times.

Applefest

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Our group visit to Applefest was a nice break from the frantic midterm cramming I had been doing. Of course, I knew we would learn a little about the apple trade as well, but I was surprised at just how much there was to know. We learned a little about the Snapdragon and the Ruby Frost apple, and apparently quite a lot of thought goes into their naming. I suppose it makes sense to have an undercurrent of a suggestion in the name of an apple to attract consumers, but the thought that goes into naming them is far more than I would have guessed.

We spoke a little about the genetic modifications of apples and the reasons behind doing so. In order to entice children to eat their packed sliced apples, the Ruby Frost is meant to not brown when sliced. I thought this was a great idea, since I also don’t love browned apples. But then that got me thinking- exactly how good are apples for us anyways? I know they say an apple a day keeps the doctor away, but aren’t they pretty high in sugar? I’m not a dietician and I don’t know, but I can say that all of my apple foods kept me very happy at the festival.

There were a ton of apple vendors, jewelry vendors, and artist vendors at the fair. I was thrilled to see so many people selling their handcrafted art. To me, even baked goods are an art. But mainly I was impressed by the various candles, paintings, jewelry, and clothing that people made. I realized that the applefest is a great way for independent artists to get their stuff out into the world and be appreciated. I’m glad Ithaca provides a means for independent artists to get recognition, and I hope they maybe institute more ways for them to get out there in the future.

Malawi and Maize

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This Wednesday I was fortunate enough to get to hear about Ruth Magreta’s journey to becoming a doctoral student and her inspiration for her studies. She began with telling us about her childhood, which was very different from my own. She was expected to cook for her brothers at a young age, she had to walk for hours to get to the market, and had to watch out for flash floods that could wash her away. What struck me the most was that after telling us about each of these things that I would consider a hardship, she would add a demure “But, it was fine. That was the way things were”. It’s a real eye opener when you see that for people raised in very different circumstances, their priorities are elsewhere in what is a real problem.

For example, one of Ruth’s motivations to work hard in school and go to college was her concern for the natural environment of her village. The forests and other wildlife have suffered a lot from overuse of resources, and Ruth is seeking ways to ameliorate these problems. She hopes that by implementing better storage strategies the farmers can store surplus maize to hold them over in drought seasons, and that permitting farmers to take out loans will smooth their income and enable them to send their children to school even in bad years. I really admire her dedication to trying to fix this problem in her home country, as it seems like she has dedicated her whole life to it. Hopefully, through talk series like this and other awareness programs in Malawi, more aid can be dedicated to their cause.

Cornell’s Botanic Gardens

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This Saturday we visited Cornell’s Botanic Gardens, which I vaguely knew existed, but had never visited. Though the walk there worked up a sweat, it was worth it once we arrived. Our guide was very knowledgeable about the history of the gardens, and told us about how one of the buildings was sustainably designed so as to reach the “gold” level. I think the classification system was “Kerr’s”. As we continued through the gardens, we were shown Cornell’s “winter garden”, which is a nice green all throughout our long winters. About this time, I became aware of just how many bugs the garden attracted. Although I’m not exactly a huge bug fan, I was happy to see that lots of bees were getting use out of the herbs and flowers in the area.

Our guide showed us some of the herbs that used to be used in “cottage medicine”, and I was amazed to find out that a lot of the herbs are still used today. It makes me wonder how they discovered which herbs worked for what kinds of ailments in the past. As we passed through the herb garden, a really nice girl who was Plant Bio major showed us some of the more fragrant herbs. I was really impressed that she knew so much practical knowledge about the herbs, and even pointed out a couple of flowers that were actually comprised of many many tiny flowers. Overall, I’m really glad I visited and will be sure to go and enjoy a good book there once the weather cools down.