fuji.

somali women . greasy asian food.

complete boredom . depression home.

tired . seneca . jack purcell .

simple observations: ride home.

this is Armitage
half empty seats
lights flickering, air seeping

we sit patiently, emotionless
gazing at the nebulous cityscape
disconnected, somewhat

south we head, where to?
this is Washington & Wells
my ritual wednesday night ride

YAWP!

YAWP--young asians with power had a spoken word performance on the 17th. Met some great people, and hope to get involved this summer.

Afterwards, I met with Chikara, my language exchange partner-a 32 year old guy from Tokyo. He wrote an essay on the 2016 Olympics-Chicago and Tokyo are the two possible sites where the games will be held. According to Chikara's writing, Japan has a much better public transport system, and safety isn't much of an issue as in Chicago. Who will be hosting the games?



Met with Mike from CIEE and Ryan, who lived in A2 with us while we were in Viet Nam. It was really great seeing some folks from Viet Nam. Quite humorous while Mike and I were picking up Ryan. He looked like a lost, confused tourist on Halsted. In VN he looks at home. Ha.

Check Box: White, Black, Other.

Just last week, many cities around the U.S. held immigration rallies in light of the worldwide celebration of International Laborer's Day on May 1st. Being a big city as it is, Chicago had its own immigration rally. I arrived in the downtown area at around 2 PM, where I was greeted with thousands of individuals--men, women, children--of all colours, but mostly Latino/a descent. They were rallying for equal rights and citizenship rights of illegal immigrants. Illegal immigration is quite a heated topic in today's political discourse and many people who do not deal with the hardships that illegal immigrants do often times find themselves torn between what is right and what is wrong.

As I stand on the elevated concrete platform, looking down at the thousands of faces marching for the same cause--equality, I realized how unified people are, when it comes in time of distress, or empowerment. The many faces I saw in the sea of people belonged to individuals who were not white or black, but more so those labeled "other" by American society. Latinos, Asians, Asian-Indians dominated the rally. We were unified together to send the message across to the people of the U.S. that the "other" has a voice; not the invisible group getting by in society.


I walked towards the pavement and ran into a group of people I knew. CMAA, an organization which I volunteer for had a few people show up as they marched with an organization called YAWP (Young Asians with Power), CAI (Cambodian Association of Illinois), and another Asian-American group. I joined in with these people marching for, truly what I believed in. Watching these people march for justice is one thing. You get tingles down your spine and goosebumps on your arm, but the feeling of marching goes beyond that. It is very empowering as I join others of different backgrounds speak up of issues we agree on.

I often wonder though, those big cats in those giant buildings, in their white collared shirts, looking down at this site, what do they think of all this? Poor illegal immigrants calling for citizenship. People of colour speaking up against an intangible empire. What are going through the minds of these big cats that do not have to worry about such inequities? Are they inspired by all this? Do they agree with what is going on? Such a thought reflects the divide we have in this country. The individuals I joined in with marched for hours, let their voices be heard, and really advocated equality for those less fortunate in society. But at the same time, are the people they are speaking to listening? Are we going to resolve anything? We'll just wait and see.

Hac.