Journal 1 - Life in Philadelphia

Week 2 - 09/08/2015

The city welcomed me with its historic buildings and busy bees in town. I have been in Philly for only 9 days. The last week was hectic and chaotic with house hunting, move-in and orientation. I have learned a lot from first week - meeting new people, learning how to talk to them, getting to know who they are and what they like or don’t like, is interesting indeed. I am also happy with my apartment, and I am glad that everything goes smoothly so far.

The orientation definitely broke the ice between students. The orientation also highlighted the differences within group. I came from a very small Quaker liberal arts college and I felt different from others. I remember this feeling of feeling different when I first came to the United States to pursue a degree. People are different - different race, language, religion, value, political views, personality traits, etc. The orientation week reminded me that I have been living in my comfort Zone, which is Earlham, for three years. I personally think that my school does not really prepare for me to face the real world. Things work differently in real world setting. We are taught to think as an Earlhamite and trained under principles and practice. Respect for persons, integrity, a commitment to peace and justice, simplicity, and consensus (community decision-making), I hig

Philadelphia City Hall - Center City

hly doubt that I will find all of these values here. As I mentioned, things work differently in real world setting. But, I am ready to throw myself into the real world, exploring myself and others. I am ready to adjust myself to the city, listen to different opinions and get out of my comfort zone.

Getting out of my comfort zone includes taking social science classes and talking about the topics that I am not familiar with. The program requires students to take one city seminar and one elective class, which are absolutely not Natural Science classes. I had to take freshman seminar in college and we talked about how human right is portrayed in art and literature. It was an interesting class but I did not feel my adrenaline rush as I was dissecting on human cadaver in Anatomy and Physiology classes. Talking about how the epigenetic mechanisms or therapeutic approach of neurodegenerative diseases gives me pure happiness. I am not a nerd but I love life science. This semester is going to be different from other semesters. I am excited to experience Experiential Learning. I am excited to learn how to make meaning out of experience. In first class, we talked about race, which is the topic we do not really talk about at home, Myanmar.

What is Race?  I read about race in one of the readings that race cannot be defined in a single way. Race is usually defined by phenotypes, social construction, as an ethnic group, as a status, as racial formation and by self-definition. It makes sense to define race by six aspects. In biology, there is no such race. As we know, DNA (deoxyribose nucleic acid) are building blocks of our lives, making become who we are and what we look like. There are thousands for genes responsible for our phenotype (physical features). We cannot go to DNA sequences and identify them as black or Asian or white. White person may have some black phenotypes due to mutations in specific genes. So, do we consider white with black phenotype as white? In addition, there are questions to ask, why African American tend to have chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, stroke, etc? Why African American are pain intolerant compared to Caucasian and others? Why are birth defects commonly found in Hispanic community? Even though race does not exist in molecular level, it does exist in macro level. Thus, It is important to understand the trend of racial groups in terms of their socioeconomic status and lifestyle. After all, environment and nutrition shape our genes. That being said, being black or latino or hispanic does not mean that they are genetically vulnerable. Where they grow up, what they experience and their lifestyle determines their state of physical, mental and social well being. For example, one black person face racism in daily basis which provokes anxiety and stress for him. Anxiety and stress are known to be major contributing factor of obesity and chronic diseases. It is important to understand that there is no human subspecies and such racial genetic vulnerability. Our genes are altered by our ancestors, lifestyle and environment.

It’s challenging for me to have social and political conversation about race, which I consider the sensitive topic. I am looking forward to expanding my horizon and learning new things from experiencing experiential education.  I am grateful and thankful for this opportunity in college life of living independently in city, working full time and meeting new people.

To sum up,  I am learning everyday to stay positive and be better me. One of my fear is that not getting most out of the program. I can’t wait to start my internship and to have my regular routine.