My Life--and the World

Let's root for the creepy guy

2010-02-20T11:07:00.000-05:00

I just watched Win a Date with Tad Hamilton (2004), and am bothered by the ending. Main character Rosalee dates celebrity Tad Hamilton while her best friend Pete pines away. At the end of the movie, she finally finds out that Pete is in love with her, and that she loves him back. Sure, the

Talking Heads

2010-02-19T16:51:00.001-05:00

I use to idolize documentaries. They investigate pressing social questions whose answers affect all of us. You see places you might not otherwise see, you meet people you wouldn't otherwise meet. PBS documentaries were the pinnacle of film as a medium, in my eyes.My high school students think documentaries are boring. They see old “experts” talking and using big words, and it doesn't bring topics

Teaching with Technology

2010-01-30T11:34:00.003-05:00

Attended a workshop today about using technology in the classroom. One of the coolest discoveries was the Student News Action Network, an online journal run by high school students from six international schools. Very impressive work!Also discovered TeacherTube, a video resource for teachers. They have things like this video about two people on an escalator:If only my school had more technology

No pedagogy here

2010-01-15T12:07:00.001-05:00

Getting my teaching license this year has made me think a lot about pedagogy, and I've come to the realization that the classes I've taken have been designed poorly. Pedagogy means setting learning goals and planning a course to meet those goals. Lectures offer content transfer. That makes us more knowledgeable about a certain topic, if we absorb it successfully, but it doesn't necessarily make

Twilight New Moon: Hilarious

2010-01-11T18:54:00.001-05:00

I legitimately wanted to watch New Moon, expecting an odd plot but good cinematography. This perception was based solely on Death Cab for Cutie's music video for the movie, "Meet Me on the Equinox." (Watch the video here.) The scenery looks beautiful, and the music video creates a dramatic depiction of (what seems) the two main characters' attempted suicides, with a cliffhanger ending. I love

Avatar: Colors of the wind

2010-01-11T18:29:00.000-05:00

I saw Avatar last week in Imax 3D, and had to weigh in. It offers a visually intense experience that is drawing so many people to the theaters, James Cameron might beat his own record in box office sales. (Titanic is still #1.) The technology is amazing; there's no arguing with that. I was distracted from the visuals, however, because the entire first half of the movie felt like Pocahontas.

Pickup trucks and Benzes

2009-11-11T21:35:00.005-05:00

Over the last few years, there have been a few topics I would have liked to write my thesis about, instead of the French educational system. One of these fantasy theses would compare country music to hip hop. Though one is rural while the other is urban, and one has mostly White artists while the other has mostly Black artists, both represent minority cultures that value what is looked down upon

Adventures in Korea

2009-06-14T03:59:00.001-04:00

Highlight: Krispy Kreme, Mister Donut, and Dunkin Donuts are within a block of where I work. Oh snap.Disappointment: Costco is not very cheap here. Nor are electronics.Thank you to all the Korean people who have been nice to me. Specifically:*Gas station attendant emphatically gesturing "Chuk!" to point me towards the supermarket.*Himart salesperson who drew me a map of where to go.*Supermarket

Musing: The thing about teaching

2009-06-14T03:58:00.000-04:00

The assumption behind programs like Teach for America is that smart people, even if they have no teaching experience, can make good teachers. I have always been skeptical of this assumption, because going to Harvard has nothing to do with your ability to teach. However, my first week in Korea has taught me that you can be a decent teacher if you are "smart" in that:You think quickly on your

The Joy of LSATs

2009-03-01T19:39:00.000-05:00

I just took a practice LSAT exam, and it was one of the more disgusting things I’ve done recently.Studying education has made me acutely aware of the flaws of standardized tests. One of the biggest is goal displacement: instead of focusing on the knowledge tested in the exam, you become focused on preparing for the test as an end in itself. It’s more about the test writers than my future legal

Reflections on my admission (to Harvard)

2009-01-19T17:19:00.001-05:00

As I prepare to enter the job market, I think back to my college applications. Like many of my classmates, I applied to Harvard on a whim, without particularly wanting or expecting to come here.Apparently, they liked something about me. Between my high school documentary and my sarcastic admissions essay (mocking the stereotypical admissions essay), maybe they saw me as a rebel. Did they expect

Musing: Fed up with identity politics

2009-01-07T19:47:00.001-05:00

I have a love-hate relationship with French colorblindness. On one hand, not taking racial statistics creates challenges in being able to fight discrimination and identify social problems. (Who are we discriminating against? It's racism...but you can't talk about their race. We don't have those.) In France, refusing to talk about race often means ignoring the problems.On the other hand, Americans

That's her!

2008-12-28T17:23:00.000-05:00

During my last week of classroom observations, as I walked into the classroom, one of my students yelled, “That’s her! She’s the one from Harvard!” She had brought a friend to meet me. Apparently she has been telling all her friends about the Harvard student in her class, and they are all jealous.It’s hard to know what kind of effect you have on an environment when you study it, even after an

Sick of croissants

2008-12-11T04:45:00.001-05:00

This blog was written over the course of a very long day. Three months, and I’m ready to leave Paris. I passed by a bakery today, and was somewhat nauseated by the thought of yet another chocolate croissant for breakfast, hungry as I was. I’m sick of dressing decently for interviews, dog poop on the street, expensive Parmesan cheese, the Parisian cold, sandwiches on a baguette, long paper

Get off my terrain

2008-12-03T04:02:00.000-05:00

I showed up to one of my high schools today, and was introduced to another researcher, there to observe the same class. My first reaction: they’ve come here too. They, as in the army of researchers and journalists who are interested in the same affirmative action policy that my thesis is on. The ones I try to avoid as I choose my high schools, and I conduct my interviews. One of my

Running around the banlieue

2008-11-20T16:46:00.000-05:00

Oops, three weeks have gone by without a blog! Thesis research has really picked up, and I have now visited several schools around Paris who are working with elite university Sciences Po to get more of their students in. This has included interviewing and observing teachers, students, and Sciences Po admissions officers. I love getting to run around all day, talking to different people. Not so

Some cities are built in a day

2008-10-29T17:48:00.001-04:00

Disney, Disney, Disney. Why are you so ridiculous/impressive/frightening? In order to open its theme park near Paris, France, the Walt Disney Company signed a contract with the French government that basically boiled down to: You can build a park, but you have to build an entire city around it. And so, in 1992, Disneyland Paris finally opened on 5,000 acres of former beet farms, after much

Rest in peace, Peter

2008-10-25T20:33:00.000-04:00

A Harvard junior collapsed from a cardiac arrest today after the River Run, a beloved annual Harvard tradition. It’s been quite a shock for everyone that a healthy, cheerful 20-year-old could die so suddenly. I wish it did not take moments like these to remind us how precious our time is with our loved ones.Thoughts and prayers to his family and friends.

Un petit intellectual existential crisis

2008-10-20T09:43:00.000-04:00

One thing that frustrates me about the senior thesis is that it doesn’t necessarily “do” anything. I am asking people for their time, to enter into their lives, but at the end of day, the findings don’t go anywhere. They sit on my laptop, and, if I do really well on my thesis, in Harvard’s archives. It feels like almost-real-but-actually-practice research that helps only me, personally, with

What's your thesis on again?

2008-10-13T12:49:00.000-04:00

The short version: I am interested in affirmative action in elite universities in France, and how it’s working out over here. After some interviews, I will write a 100-page paper about it. The long version: It is very difficult to break into the French elite. If you look at French politicians, professors, CEOs, etc., the vast majority of them come from the same few universities. Go back even

Anecdote: The French pace of (administrative) life

2008-10-09T08:56:00.001-04:00

In searching for a place to live in Paris this year, I considered living in a foyer, which is more or less a dorm that is not university-affiliated. I find my interactions with them very typical of the infamous administrative delays in France. June: Apply to the foyer. early July: Letter from the foyer—“Sorry, we don’t accept students working with Sciences Po.” (Too elite of a university.)

Un petit pity party

2008-10-05T09:54:00.001-04:00

Sometimes I wonder if I’m not just making things more difficult for myself by coming to France. Doing research in a foreign country and in a foreign language is daunting for several reasons. As a sociologist, I need to be aware of what my interviewees are telling me and not telling me; what backgrounds they are coming from; and I need to connect with them. While there are pros to being an

60 Million Votes for Obama

2008-10-05T09:12:00.000-04:00

With no major elections happening in France this year, the French have turned their attention to our presidential elections. And if the French could vote in the American election, there is no question that Obama would win. 80% of the French people prefer Obama, according to an international BBC poll and a TNS-Sofres Institute survey. Based on my interactions, it seems more like 100%. One

Day One, Paris

2008-09-16T17:57:00.000-04:00

11:00 Wake up and realize I just slept 12 hours. My roommate is surprised to find out I was in my room the whole time (I told her I’d probably wake up at 8am). 12:00 Look for the nearby supermarket, starting in the opposite direction I was supposed to go. Yeahhh… 1:00 Supermarket shopping 1:30 Cook lunch at the apartment. Eat lunch while reading our recently delivered yellow pages.

In Love with Palin

2008-09-06T15:39:00.000-04:00

Ok, not really. But I am quite fascinated with the Republican VP candidate. I left Shanghai on August 30 and came back to 100 new emails, all about the unknown Governor from Alaska. Since Sarah Palin was introduced a few days ago, everyone has been talking about her. Is she ready to lead, only “a heartbeat away” from the Presidency? Is her son really her son? Is Alaska’s proximity to Russia

Call me conservative

2008-09-02T18:14:00.000-04:00

Growing up in Massachusetts has made me somewhat of a liberal by default, but I’ve recently started putting pressure on a number of my views. I have realized I am actually rather conservative on two issues: abstinence and abortion. That is, I support abstinence as a personal choice, and I believe that abortion is not the right solution in most cases, though I believe it should be legal. Rather

Vignette: An Olympic gaffe

2008-08-25T04:13:00.000-04:00

Matt Emmons received a lot of attention last week for giving up a gold medal. All he needed was a 6.5 (out of 10+) to win [shooting], and his shot didn’t even make the bullseye board. A national sigh, especially given a similar incident in 2004, when he got so excited about a seemingly guaranteed gold medal that he hit someone else's target. My dad's reaction: If he were a Chinese athlete,

Musing: The myth about value voters

2008-08-16T19:12:00.001-04:00

"Value voters" is a term that has grown popular among both liberals and conservatives, but it doesn't make sense to me. How can we imply that some people vote according to their values and others do not? Aren't we all value voters?Behind any public policy is (hopefully) a set of principles--dare I say values--that make it a relevant and important policy. Whether health care or train track width

Vignette: Online Friends

2008-08-15T21:06:00.002-04:00

With one month left before I leave for Paris, I need to buckle down and review some French. Toward this end, I tried to find French expats here in Shanghai--there are surprisingly many, 6000 according to the French consulate. So through websites and Facebook, I emailed several people about a possible language exchange or conversation in French.I have to say, it felt pretty sketchy to introduce

2008 Olympics, from inside China

2008-08-14T08:51:00.000-04:00

Everyone is watching the Olympics here in Shanghai, with coverage on numerous channels, it’s hard not to get caught up in it. The games have been overwhelmingly positive for China, as a country and as a people. The opening ceremonies were beautiful, leaders of participating countries have attended, logistics seem to be going smoothly, and the facilities look spotless. Despite negative coverage of

Summer Wrap-Up, 2008

2008-08-11T20:53:00.001-04:00

Take-home point of the summer: The problem with politics is…the politics. On one hand, politics refers to what goes on in our political system: elected officials, public policies, the various parties that affect change in this country. On the other hand, it also refers to the power struggles between people with conflicting (or even similar) interests. A doesn’t like B, so they can’t work

Musing: A Southern fetish?

2008-08-11T20:48:00.001-04:00

I think I have a Southern fetish. The evidence: 1. Southern food (fried chicken, biscuits with honey, etc.)2. Line dancing3. “y’all”4. Considering living in the South (Atlanta?)5. Social conservatism Much of this resulted from getting in touch with my Midwestern roots again. Though I’ve been in the Boston area for 8 years, my formative years in the Midwest shaped me more than I

Testing

2008-07-30T10:34:00.005-04:00

This video for testing purposes only. It will be removed within a day.

My troubled relationship with Paris

2008-07-18T23:26:00.002-04:00

I’ve finally figured out why I want to go back to Paris: I’m a masochist. Nowhere else I’ve been to in my life has offered the constant ego-beating, frustration, incompetence, awkwardness, and failure that Paris has. I guess Boston is too comfortable, where I am surrounded by friends and where I’ve learned how to carve out a little piece of happiness. Oh, yeah—it’s also where I can work and

Am I socially awkward?

2008-07-05T22:39:00.000-04:00

Am I socially awkward? Somebody, please clear this up for me, once and for all. I’ve been obsessed with evaluating my social skills lately, because I have a sneaking suspicion that I am not an exception to the “All Harvard students are socially awkward” rule after all. It was a sad, sad realization. I thought I was pretty well-adjusted, a generally friendly person. Sure, I read social

Tolerance of Intolerance

2008-05-22T23:22:00.001-04:00

I have recently realized how intolerant I can be of people who do not believe that viewpoints other than their own could be valid. Maybe I shouldn’t be shocked at assertions like, “No self-respecting Muslim woman would ever wear a head scarf,” or “Feminists say they’re strong, but, at the end of the day, they still wouldn’t mind being dominated,” but they still leave me in a state of disbelief.

Communautarisme, or "Self-Segregation"

2008-04-06T17:21:00.002-04:00

Many French have fear of communautarisme, a philosophy based on a view of society as separate communities, be they racial, ethnic, by gender, or another category. (The word “communitarian” exists in English, but it's not connected to identity politics in the same way.) Recognizing any differences between citizens undermines national unity, so there is always resistance to the explicit

The mysticism surrounding l'etranger

2008-03-04T00:28:00.001-05:00

I've been engaged in numerous discussions recently about French people, what France is like, how Paris was, what Europe is like, etc. ad nauseum. A friend of mine told me that France holds this kind of mystical quality now after having talked to several people about it, because it seems like such an interesting place to go live. But it becomes dangerous to make too many generalizations, because,

The Reflection Blog, part 2

2008-02-09T09:37:00.000-05:00

So, I have been back for (more than) a week now, and thoughts are starting to form in my head about what I learned in Paris. This time, I have a real list. 1. Don’t feel (as) guilty for not doing anything. Last year, I would always get an itch when an event went too long, or hanging out for a couple hours turned into an entire afternoon. “I need to be doing something! Must…leave…” I could

The Reflection Blog

2008-01-29T05:43:00.000-05:00

(Written on a plane. Just to be a little cliche.) It’s usually expected that people do a little reflection at the end of a life stage. ‘Look at what I did, everything I learned, this is really Susan 2.0, whoo hoo Paris.’ So here is an organized list of lessons I learned during my semester abroad in Paris: 1. no clue 2. nope, still don’t know yet. 3. I tried, really. … Ask me in a

France and China...who'd'a thunk?

2007-12-10T19:08:00.000-05:00

Yup, here comes another pseudo-theory about French people. This one was inspired by discussions around Harvard admissions: very few French students are accepted to Harvard, closely related to the education system where a student’s direction in life is decided very early and the lack of an extracurricular culture. For the same reasons, it is difficult for Chinese students to be accepted to Harvard

I am an immigrant worker

2007-10-21T14:45:00.000-04:00

I feel like more of an immigrant here in Paris than I ever was in America. Going to class, looking for a job, in daily interactions, I’m acutely aware of how competent I am in English. (Have you ever used a cappuccino machine before? No, only simple coffee machines, but I’m sure I could learn. I’m a hard worker. Non, jamais.) Despite feeling in over my head applying to a job where I would

Bartending in Paris (aka the first blog about Paris)

2007-10-04T14:02:00.000-04:00

…is not so easy. Not that I can say that I’ve tried too hard. After hearing from a friend that bartending at an expat hangout was a relatively ideal job for an Anglophone student in Paris, I started out asking at two bars near me if they were hiring, one of which had actually advertised in the expat magazine Fusac. Two weeks more of continuing to sit around feeling sorry for my broke self, I

Women of the civil rights movement

2007-09-22T17:41:00.000-04:00

A very thoughtful oped on the role of women during the Civil Rights Movement was published in the New York Times today, written by Gail Collins. Take a look. “We’ve learned, with some pain, to celebrate all our national heroes through clear eyes, as people whose great hearts and minds still did not take the dream of freedom and equality past their own immediate cause.”

Lost religion

2007-09-01T23:34:00.000-04:00

I’ve visited several temples in China in the last couple of years, and it has always been an uncomfortable experience. It doesn’t seem right that they charge entrance fees, tourists outnumber practitioners 10 to 1, and local people only seem to visit when they are praying for a good test score. Temples seem to be historical artifacts more than they are religious centers. Much of what is going

A slow socialization

2007-07-08T20:27:00.000-04:00

Heels. Check.Pierced ear(s). Check.Makeup. Check. I think I’m becoming a woman. At least, what our society has defined to be a woman. Ew. Society has finally gotten to me. After 19 years of bombardment from advertisements, movies, books, toys, authority figures, aka everything I’ve had contact with, I have given in to society’s demands of anyone with an XX chromosome. Am I to enjoy

A Colorblind Constitution?

2007-06-30T01:06:00.000-04:00

“What appalls me is the premature, wishful thinking that posits the notion of colorblind. Because it’s not only a lie, it’s a willed ignorance.” --Eric Wideman That basically sums up how I feel about the Supreme Court’s recent decision against race-conscious programs in Seattle and Louisville. Justice Roberts said, “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating

It's only getting worse

2007-06-16T14:14:00.001-04:00

Recent news:US Citizen Illegally Deported from Jail Is Missing in MexicoDatabase Is Tool in Deporting FugitivesRaids in New HavenHajbeh celebrates freedom after 4 years of immigration detentionParis Hilton Moved Back to Original Jail I don’t want to say that undocumented immigrants should not be deported (under current law). Enforcement of our laws a basic necessity that allows our

What we have to sacrifice

2007-06-08T12:45:00.000-04:00

It is a sad day when a tradeoff has to be made between human rights and family unity.Few people really expected Senate bill S. 1348 on comprehensive immigration reform to look the way it did. It has left people on both ends of the political spectrum unhappy: Conservatives have made sure that there are strict border security policies and penalties for a host of different things. And though it

The First Blog

2007-06-08T11:00:00.000-04:00

After some encouragement from a good friend, I went ahead and created my own blog. Hopefully I'll actually post to it regularly...we'll see!My life in the next year:DC lobbying for immigrant rightsShanghaiSeoulhome (all of one week)Parisback to HahvahdShould make for some good times.