I've pretty much confirmed the dates for my China trip this summer. Getting into IIPP (Institute of International Public Policy) complicated the planning, since I now have to participate in a 7 week program in Washington DC as part of the fellowship. This rather unexpected turn of events shortens my China trip, and I will probably be going from July 26 to August 29th, basically right after my summer program ends. I'll be returning to California directly from China.
I've been looking at a recorder for the project, and realized that online shopping is like a potentially hazardous black hole for productivity. Several days after sifting through reviews/product descriptions/etc, I still haven't ordered one and keep getting distracted by other aspects of Amazon. Ultimately I don't think equipment will matter THAT much, since it doesn't seem like I can go wrong with the recorders I'm looking at. I am considering the Olympus Digital Voice Recorder DM-520 plus microphones. Or maybe the Zoom H2.
Updating after so long is overwhelming, because so many happened only within the last week that I want to reflect on. On Wednesday, Angela Oh, civil rights attorney and basically the voice behind the Korean American community during the 1992 LA riots spoke at HMC as a part of the Asian American Heritage Month programming. I wish I had more time to reflect on this, but this entry would be entirely too long. She was extremely humble and multifaceted - she started playing the piano in the Green Room before the talk started. And then, she had everyone put the chairs in a circle and we had a seminar style discussion. She spoken a lot about the role of spirituality and Zen Buddhism in activist work. My favourite quote from the night - "Everything is nothing, and nothing is everything."
The Scripps Asian American Student Union had our large community event of the year this past weekend. Spoken word artist Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai facilitated a workshop around the topic "Defining Asian American Feminism" and performed at the Motley later in the evening. Overall, it was a fantastic experience and those who were free on Saturday got to hang out with Kelly for dinner, the workshop, and before the performance. Kelly was incredibly cool and down to earth, and just fun to hang out with.
The performance brought up so many questions that I would love to reflect on, but don't have time. Therefore I will leave with a video!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvpCW2N7V
Yes she is amazing. :)
