Author: j.li41

love at first sight

What land is that, which doth
enrich the hand
Of yond scholars?
O, it doth teach the torches to burn bright!
It seems it hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an bearcat’s ear;
Beauty too good for use, for thou too dear!
So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows,
As yonder college o’er it fellows shows.
The measure done, I’ll watch the place of stand,
And, thou touch, make blessed thou rude hand.
Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight!
For I ne’er saw true sympathy till this night

During my time in the Ticker, I was given an assignment. The assignment was to go to the New Museum in Bowery Street to take photos of the exhibit, “Trigger: Gender and Tool as a Weapon.” I thought it was a good way to get a blog in for FRO. Melina went with me to observe. When we entered the museum, there is an entrance fee for students. Luckily both of us are 18 and we got in for free! The new exhibit took over 4 floors of the museum. I just had leg day so I had a hard time getting up the stairs.

The exhibit itself was a collection of newspaper articles, stories, designs, art, and recreational ideas. Melina continuously told me she doesn’t know what anything is about and she doesn’t understand art. I tried my best to explain. There was an exhibit of glass just showing a bunch of toys on leverages. I explained it as, when these girls are taken away and becoming rape victims, sex slaves, or used in human trafficking, their childhood and lives and memories are all lost. They lost a piece of themselves, these toys represent what was killed inside of them when it all happened. All of the exhibits in these floors were showing videos and footages of people using their own gender as power. We went to the basement where there was a footage of a cam girl stripping naked and using her gender as a lassie for money. Next to it, was a gay male who stripped and used his gender as a power. As expectedly, the female got more attention and more money than the male. One exhibit stood out to me, it was on the 4th floor. There was a hole just casually sitting in the middle of the floor. A tiny, yet powerful hole that no one realized. I took an opportunity to look inside to see what it is. I wasn’t surprised what I saw, a collection of videos of women getting raped and used and abused by men. Just a heads up, all these exhibits are uncensored. I would post pictures, but most of them are all NSFW.

I suggest students like us reach out and explore more museums, most of these museums are all free. In addition to that, they can possibly change the perspective in which we view the world for better.

Last Thursday, I attended UCLA’s first general interest meeting. During convocation day, I thought UCLA was a club about kids trying to apply to UCLA. On the first day of school, my friend Nicole Pung introduced me to the whole USG Marketing Team in which I joined. Inside the marketing team, a few of the members introduced me to UCLA. They told me it stood for “United Chinese Language Association.” I am a person who loves to make friend, eat food, and respect my culture; so I thought to myself ‘this club seems right for me’. My friends from UCLA told me I can hang out at their club room ever since before the first GIM happened. Everyday after class or in-between classes, I would go to the third floor of the Newman Vertical Campus and chill with the rest of the club members. It has been a really enjoyable experience. On the first GIM, there was a surprising around 50-60 kids that showed up. The room was so packed and I had to sit on the floor closer to the front. The club leaders and board members all introduced themselves and their role in the club. While looking at this, I compared this experience to my past experiences in high school. From the clubs I go to in high school, it wasn’t really organized. Everything seemed really out of place; basically a huge mess. The club leaders were able to keep all 50-60 of us interested in the club. They have an agenda and a series of ice breakers and games that some of the club participated in. As you can see in the picture above, I played a game called ‘Questions’ which is basically two teams battling against each other about a topic. In order to win, you have to keep asking relevant questions. If you hesitate or don’t know what to ask, you are out. After the series of games, there were huge boxes and plates of food that they bought from a nearby Chinese restaurant. All 50-60 of us lined up and got food. There was beef, chicken, lo mein, chow fun, and white rice. Like the brown FRO guy that filled in for Aitsana said the week before, all the ‘free food’ are technically not ‘free’. It comes from our $250 student activities fee. In my mind I have to take advantage of all the ‘free’ things that come available to me. UCLA isn’t just a club, it feels like a family. There is a Chinese Learning Program coming up this Tuesday at 12:30-2:30. Unfortunately I won’t be able to attend because of FRO, but there are things I still look forward to in this club.

Other Clubs I joined: USG, ESA, Lexicon