We Like Grass

By Tamika Whitenack for the ease of sharing this quickly, i will be writing in english. i have had a lot of lovely experiences in the past day and a bit and they have reminded me that doing things that arent part of the college routine are very important. i went on a walk after dinner with my friend yesterday. we walked through the neighborhood and it reminded me a little bit of after dinner walks at home, and also about how miya and i used to walk around ECHS before school. the trees are blooming and everything is very spring, there was even a gentle rain when we started off...which meant we later saw a gorgeous, giant rainbow. it filled our hearts with joy. and we had a really good discussion, which was nice. that is something i value most about my time here, is the meaningful and nourishing conversations that i share with others here. today was a BEAUTIFUL day. the weather was perfect, clear skies, lots of sunshine, but not too hot or gross and humid. a perfect day to be o...

By Tamika Whitenack Aiyah, esta semana fue muy ocupada. Entonces, estoy un poco cansada. He pasado tres horas escribiendo ensayos por mis clases. Para español, la fecha de entregar es martes y por estudios internacionales (la clase de Brexit), la fecha es miercoles. También hay lecturas (siempre, lol) pero estoy muy interesada en los libros: "Food Justice Now" y "Lentil Underground." Mi otra tarea es para mirar una pelicula "This Changes Everything," como el libro del mismo nombre por Naomi Klein. Ayer fue nuestra panel sobre Critical Ethnic Studies (organizado por mi grupo Vassar Asian American Studies Working Group). El evento fue bien, y estoy emocianada sobre el futuro y quiero conectar más con profesores parar aprender más. Un tema principal fue Critical Ethnic Studies como algo "antidisciplinary" y maneras para manipular los sistemas de una institución para servir nuestras ideas pero también la idea que un programa concreta no es la des...

por Tamika Whitenack No sé si ustedes saben que voy a viajar a Barcelona para las primeras semanas del verano, pero pienso que necesito practicar mi español. Entonces, quiero tratar y escribir sobre mi día cada noche en español y compartir aquí. Hoy fue un día maravilloso! Cuando me levanté, hacia sol en mi ventana y estaba contenta. Leí un libro por Suki Kim (leer para placer! qué bien!) y después corrí con mi amiga. Me gusta que ahora podemos correr en pantalones cortas. Después de correr, me duché y preparé vegetales para el horno. Puse los vegetales en el horno y fui a tocar mi flauta. Cuando regresé a mi dormitorio, la alarma del fuego estaba haciendo mucho ruido, y yo fue un poco estresada que fue mi culpa...pero solamente fue un ejercicio, no real, y mis vegetales han cocinado bien. Tuve una reunión sobre un proyecto para el proximo semestre. Es un proyecto que enfoque en "practices of well-being." Estoy trabajando con Wendy, mi jefe del ALANA desde el año pasa...

Hi friends! I've been meaning to post a blog for a while now, but I really haven't had anything concrete to blog about. Life has been good, but pretty ordinary, so I figured I'd do something a little different (and probably taking a page out of Tama's book) and share the events of just a day. This Friday was very busy, very exhausting, but very good, so here goes! 6:30 am Wake up! It's a little early for my liking, especially because I really couldn't sleep the night before, but I promised a teammate I would meet her to workout so I roll out of bed, attempt to not wake-up my roommate, and get ready. I had many plans for eating later in the day so it was a grab a banana and go kinda morning. 7:00 am I get to the track. Frisbee sectionals were the next day so our "practice" for the day was to do our full warm-up, stretch, and throw. In order to accommodate a teammate's work schedule, I had agreed to meet the earliest. The extra sleep would ha...

By Tamika Whitenack It has been a long time since I have written a blog on here! Life has been busy, and I will attempt to capture all the things happening in this post. Spring Break was spent in the United Kingdom and Ireland for two weeks, and I have now been back at Vassar for 2 weeks. It is April! Spring is finally arriving, today I went on a run in SHORTS and I am wearing a dress and a mere cardigan...the winter jackets are almost ready for permanent seasonal retirement! April is a very busy month! I think to best capture this I will just let you know what I have on my schedule. Lots of things for ASA (Asian Student's Alliance!) Tonight we have a performer, DANakaDAN! He is a Korean-American rapper and he is coming to give a talk and then a performance! Later in the semester, we will be bringing the author Suki Kim. She is a Korean American best known for The Intepreter  and Without You, There is No Us . We are also beginning the process of elections for next year! T...

Hi friends! Long time no blog, as usual. Oops. However I think I have finally settled into a fairly regular schedule this semester so I can finally give y’all a little peek into what my life is like this semester! So here goes! Classes As usual this is the most boring section. I’m only taking three and a half classes this semester (don’t worry, they still add up to many a credit), and they are all STEM: Orgo 2, Orgo 2 Lab (the half course, although tbh a full course of work), Organisms and Populations (semester 2 of the intro bio sequence), and Biochemistry 1. I don’t have too much to say about any of these classes, as they are all exactly what they sound like, but they are all interesting enough in their own way. My orgo professor is socially awkward but endearing and only uses the chalkboard when teaching (unheard of in college!), I’m involved in a study for my bio class about how students learn so my labs are filmed and I get paid to be interviewed by a fun grad student helping...

By Tamika Whitenack Ohhhh boyyy has life been busy here! I won't be writing too much in this blog post, but I wanted to share an article that I recently wrote for our school newspaper. It is about baking, and family, and you can find it here: http://miscellanynews.org/2019/02/20/features/celebratory-baking-yields-tangible-tasty-reminder-of-home/ In other newspaper news, the girl I help babysit and I ended up in the local paper! Hehe. Try to find me here: https://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/life/2019/01/31/brush-up-skills-take-class-hudson-valley-libraries/2688050002/ In other, totally unexpected news, art modeling for figure drawing classes off campus has recently become a small part of my life, and has actually been a really profound experience for me! I want to write more in depth about this at some point, but the biggest impressions are that it has been a very empowering experience that is very healthy for my relationship with my body, and it also helped get m...