Friday: Was a lazy day. I did laundry all day and cleaned the apartment. I then did homework in between. Studying for my art history quiz the next day.
Saturday: Had class, we took a quiz first thing and then had our lecture on the Baroque era. For the second part of class (the latter three hours of it) we met over at LACMA the Los Angeles County Museum of Arts. It was sooo good. I don't know how I feel about some of Jeff Koons stuff ...a lot of the contemporary I wasn't really a fan of but it was so cool to see Chagall and Picasso and a lot of the ancient asian and egyptian art.
The latter part of the day I napped and then drove to Aroma for my favorite chai of course and then just went for a drive. Drove Sunset through beverly hills, brentwood and bel-air until it spit me out to PCH HWY1 and I drove around Malibu and Santa Monica.
Sunday: I had chosen to do a liberating day trip up to Manzanar the Japanese Internment Camp. It happens to be the internment camp that my grandfather was relocated to. It's in Independence, California which just so happens to also be the middle of no where haha. It was about a 3 and a half hour drive north of where I live in Los Angeles.
I wasn't prepared for how emotional the experience would be for me. Just thinking about my grandfather was put in there. I have yet to hear one complaint from his mouth about that place. The Japanese Americans were so ... calm through out the entire experience. Treated inhumanely, yet they had accepted it. Shikataganai was the phrase they had accepted. Which means along the lines of there's nothing we can do about it...forced into harsh circumstances they stood strong. I watched a 22 min film while in the museum and i teared up pretty badly. Especially when this one Japanese American guy born and raised in the Los Angeles area and then taken into the internment camp and then after his release his family moved to other states east of California and people would tell him "Go Home Jap" and he said he would think "oh boy how I wish I could." It's heart breaking.
I can't even explain the intense emotions that came over me. I honestly didn't think I'd be affected by it as badly as I was. A huge sense of pride for my heritage definitely came out. I can't even imagine suddenly being torn away from everything that I know and everything that I have just because of my race. Some they even sent back to Japan which is bull because some if not most of them were born in America and have absolutely no idea what to expect in Japan and I'm sure some may not even speak Japanese! This experience from the past obviously cannot be erased, but all that we can hope for is that we can learn from this experience. Just because we, as Japanese Americans, looked like the enemy doesn't mean we were. They said there was not a single case of espionage during the entire internment. Way to go United States, turn against your own citizens and your own Constitution. I'm sure those thousands and thousands of Japanese Americans were given their speedy trial by jury (Amendment 6)... ya right, and also their right to bear arms (Amendment 2)...ya right, the right to be secure in their house against unreasonable searches and seizures (Amendment 4)...ya right, the right that their shall be no law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws (amendment 14)...ya right.
The Japanese Americans were told that they were being contained for their own protection, but then upon their arrival into the camps they began to notice that the guards had their guns pointed at them and not towards the outskirts of the fences.
Through experiences like this I would hope that America could finally stop being so racist and judgmental. Just accept that people are who they are and your ignorance is what's bringing the nation down. The stereotypes of races are outlandish. There is no race that is born "innately lazy" or "prone to stealing" its all due to the pressures of society and its classism within it. My biggest hope for this nation is that it'll grow up and have a more open mind.
Anyway, off of my pedestal haha. The rest of the day I drove back home and arrived into town around 7pm. Did some minor cleaning and then got ready for bed and watched American Pastime. I love that movie! And basically the entire Japanese Community of Salt Lake City is in it haha.
Monday: Woke up and got ready for the day and then headed to the grocery store. After grocery shopping I then came back home and prepared to go into school to work on homework. This day was not my day to be productive with homework haha. I got to the school and then a fire alarm was going off. So had to stand outside for a while. When we were allowed to go back in I walked over to the studio and it was closed because they were shooting for this new reality series. Just my luck that studio would be closed when I'm ambitious to get homework done. So they told us to go upstairs and work in the upstairs lab but there was a Maya class going on in there and the lab technician that's usually there I guess had gone on break so had to wait for him to get back to get some equipment for me to work with. It was about a half hour and then he grabbed some the keyboard this other girl and I were gonna be working with. We started to pull up the programs that we needed to work with and of course Reason isn't on the upstairs computers only the downstairs studio. So I guess another day we shall try. It wasn't a completely wasted day though because I got to talk and get to know this kid Cody and this girl Zada a bit better just talking about our classes and everything so it's good getting to know people in the major better :)
The rest of the day just came home, did dishes, and hooked up my new speakers that my dad got for me and then watched Children of Men and part of Pursuit of Happyness (i've seen it before) but Children of Men was deep! The editing work was crazy!!
Tuesday: anyway as for today... I'm thinking homework most of the day YAY! haha fill you in later about it. I'm super excited though because Kelsey comes into town today!! WOOHOO
P.S. The picture is a picture I saw at the Manzanar museum. For more pictures check out my facebook account
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