1. Reverse Culture Shock (U.S.A)
   • Living abroad for a while and returning to the U.S.A is a harder experience than people think. It can have some serious impact on people psychologically, socially and physically. How does one cope with returning the Trump’s America after living away for an extended period? How has the foreign experience shaped the way the person knows experiences American life? What does it feel like to be the outsider in your actual home? (P.S: choosing between a military personnel’s return or a civilian’s return)
2. Minorities in Corporate America
   • Things like the glass ceiling and social mobility are all results of the hierarchy in Corporate America, and it is no secret that being a minority has its impacts on how well you do or how far you get in this industry. With this fact, many minorities may feel displaced in their work place or even in the process of getting into the workplace. How do minorities approach issues such as discrimination and feelings of misrepresentation in corporate America outside of the legal measures? What makes them continue to pursue these careers despite the challenges they may face (outside of monetary gains)?
3. Scholarship Students in “snobby schools”
   • Lots of good things happen for students who are smart. In some special cases, some of these students are even able to get into prestigious schools because of the hard work they put into their studies. There are some students, though, who get into prestigious schools because they can afford it, or their families have a legacy that must be continued. How do these “scholarship students” deal with the class culture change when attending these rich kid schools? How does it affect their character?

This a clip from the movie Hairspray. In this clip Seaweed (the black guy with the waves) is singing about what life is like for black person in Baltimore during the civil rights movement. It doesn’t seem like he wants to assimilate into white culture, but more of being comfortable and not having to deal with the constant stereotypes and stigmas that are associated with black people of the time. He is basically using this song to tell Tracy, Penny and Link to inform the other “white folk” that black people are not that bad, but even if the whites don’t get it, they will still be doing their own thing amongst themselves.

1. How does the author’s skin color (and its associated stereotypes) affect her experience at her college orientation? Both negatively and positively.
2. What does Dina’s first conversation with Heidi say about Dina’s view in terms of labels? How does she react to them throughout the story?
3. How does her relationship with her parents affect her relationship with others around her?

Yesterday I went to the “How to Read a Sonnet” workshop. We read one of Shakespeare’s sonnets and broke down the meaning while learning the components of an actual sonnet and differences in thee works of Shakespeare. The instructor was very excited about this topic it seemed. It was pretty refreshing o see. We read the sonnet out loud a s a group about 3 times and heard a recording. Then we went on to learn the basic structure of a typical sonnet.it’s typically 14 lines with 10 syllables per line. Shakespeare though, his rebellious self, actually wrote some of him sonnets with 11 syllables per line, like the sonnet we were reading during the workshop , for example. We then went on to talk about the rhythm of sonnets, stresses and unstressed words and how they play into the reading of a sonnet which are meant to be read out loud or with an inner voice. After that we went deeper into what Shakespeare was actually talking about and who he was writing about. Interestingly enough it turned out to be about nature making a human, starting off female, then nature falls in love with it’s creation and places a penis on the original woman to satisfy nature. It was an interesting conversation as we all participated in dissecting the meaning of the sonnet and once again reading one of Shakespeare’s twisted works. All in all I enjoyed it.

About 2 weeks back there was massive protest at Borough Hall when I was getting off of the train. A the near by waffle stand there was a sign that read “America may not be great, but our waffles were always great.” and I was amused to see it. A stand using it’s second amendment right to protest and making a profit out of it. People were lined up at this stand and next to it, two tables were piled high with American flags going selling out. You could hear people shouting through bullhorns against president Trump’s new ruling against immigrants. This is relevant because no one was discriminating against anyone who had joined the protest, everyone was there for the same cause. No color, ethnicity or religion was taken into account from what I could see passing the crowd of protester. The cops stood on the sidelines chatting amongst each other, but letting their presence be known. it’s good to know that regardless of who is currently running the country, that there are people who are willing to openly protest in the name of the their country and their fellow countrymen. Although I may be a little bit a wimp and you would probably never see me participating directly in these protests. I made sure that social media got a whiff of this demonstration. Snapchat and Instagram both got pictures of the sign and the crowd of people, and in part I’d like to say I had a little impact on how loud and how far the cries of these people were being heard.