Culture in Thailand

In class we learned about the three different norms: more, folkways, and taboos. After learning about other cultures in class, I realized how I had experienced all these norms on my trip to Thailand. One of the mores that was in another South Asian culuture I also esperienced in Thailand. A more there is to have the bottom of your feet facing someone. Sitting indian style was highly offensive if someone sat next to you. You could not kneel if there was anyone behind you. However, when we would meditate in the temples, the position is very similiar to indian style. It was odd how it was accepted in the temple, but not around the school or house. Another more they have with feet is shoes. Before we entered any building or room, we HAD to remove our shoes. The kitchen was detached from the orphanage so we would put on shoes, walk 10 steps to the kitchen, and then have to take our shoes off before we walked in to get food. Shoes were removed before going into the class rooms and before walking into any structure at the temples. A folkway that is part of their culture is wearing tank tops and shorter shorts. In Chaing Mai, the biggest northern city, the people would walk around in mini skirts and tanks. They were not looked down upon or as a disgrace, because that has become normal in the big cities. However, in the village I lived in, 6 hours from Chaing Mai, we had to dress extremely conservative. We would often put on shorts to teach at the school because it was so hot out, and our counselors would make us change into longer shorts because we did not want to offend the students or teachers. A taboo was talking about sex and alcohol with the monks. They are not allowed to have either, and it is extremely disrespectful to even ask them about it.

Street Smart and Book Smart

What are all the groups that Collogero belongs to? (Think in terms of the circles exercise we did in class.) Would you put him in Sonny’s crew, or would you put him and Sonny in their own group? What is Collogero’s Master Status? Why do you think so? Do you think his master status changes throughout the movie?

Sonny encourages Collegero to stay in school so he is twice as smart as everyone else. He would have the book smarts with the street smarts, the ultimate combination to succeed in life. I believe that these two groups are the foundation for C's groups. C's numerous groups can be classified under those involved with his "street life" and those he sees at schools. Although Slic,Mario, and all the others that died in the car fire were his friends that he would hang out with after school, they were not street smart, and therefor fall under the school category. The only reason the 17 year old C is friends with them is because they had been his friends since he was growing up. Most likely they met at a young age at school. C's other group would be the street group, the guys that he hangs around at the bar with. This group, led by Sonny, would define who C is and what he grows up to be. Collogero's master status would be a son. To sonny, he is a son. To Robert Deniro, he is a son. Although not blood related, Sonny treats C as his own and mentors him as a father is supposed to ( not that C's real father didn't do the same). C's master status does not change through the movie. Ever since he was 4, he looked up to Sonny. Although he might have not realized it, Sonny strongly shaped who he grew up to be.

Identity Molecule

I really like the identity molecule actvity. It was very interesting discovering things about myself I never really thought about. It is obvious that I belong to groups such as my family, friends, and Stevenson High School. However, there are many other groups that I am part of that make me who I am. I have a group labeled camp that influences me because I spent 8 summers at an overnight camp with the same girls at the same place, doing the same activities. In the camp circle for my role I put both friend and leader. Because I went to camp for so long, the younger campers would always come to me with questions and look up to me for advice. As a senior camper, I would often be the most skilled at activities and would always take younger girls out to sail or help them get up foir their first time on water skis. Also, I was a Color Day Captain of the white team so I had to lead half the camp for the last 3 days of camp in sports, song fest, and burn the rope. So it makes sense that even though I do not still go to camp, my friends I made still influence me because they are still some of my best friends. My other groups that I had not really thought about before were track and work. I work throughout the year so the interactions I have with my co-workers and boss occur quite often. Even though track is only in the spring, I still see my track friends throughout the year. One thing that was also surprising about this activity were how a ton of my circles overlap. My family overlaps with my friends, because my sister is one of my best friends and I think of a lot of my friends as sisters. Furthermore, some of my camp friends I consider more than just "camp friends" because I either see them everyday at school, or make an effort to see them over the weekends.
Overall, I really liked this activity because it made me think about groups and friends that I never really classify.

Teenage Nature as shown by the Abadnoned Ship

During the ship activity we did in class, I was able to discover a lot about the nature of our class, and mainly teenagers as a whole. When you told us the boat was going to sink if seven people did not go "overboard," people immediately turned to the people with obvious downfalls, such as the Draft Evader for being a drug dealer. However, no one on board took the time to re-read or discuss the positives of keeping certain people aboard. This activity highlighted the nature of human behavior, we take the easy way out by judging everything at face value(the drug dealer and the eldery couple). Also, no one took the time to re-read the packet and learn about useful charactersitic some of the people on the life boat had. This highlights the laziness of teenagers and the hesitance to work hard in school. Although the situation was only a simulation of the real thing, if our class was really about to sink on a lifeboat, we would all use the same tactics, not necessarily the smartest ones, but the most convenient ones to send 7 people overboard. I was the Peace Corp Volunteer and was immediately thrown overboard after discovering I had no use on the boat. I thought that throwing me oveerboard, along with many other people such as the Noble Peace Prize Winners, was done because of stereotyping. The stereotype of a Peace Corps Volunteer is someone who just paints rainbows all day and wants everyone to smile, so how could they possibly be helpful on the lifeboat?
Overall, this simulation made me realize that as teenagers, we often do not make the smartest decisions, but rather take the easy route out.