Within Domestic Lands

This past school year I realized that I had not made the most of my time here at my alma mater. I have hardly given a second thought to calling Amherst my home but I have also barely given back to my second home anything it gave to me.

With that in mind I began researching on campus internships and elected to apply for the Pioneer Valley Citizen Summer (PVCS) run out of the Center for Community Engagement (CCE). Through this program I was able to apply to particular internships related to community development and engagement.

The internship site that I now call home is based in Holyoke, MA. CONNECTIONS After-school and Out-of-school programs offer a sort of after school activity program for the youth of Holyoke.

PVCS offered us a chance to explore Holyoke as a part of our orientation week. We visited the Flats and made our way up hill.


This was near one of our first stops. A mural painted by the kids of that building. This was across the street from the newly dedicated Carlos Vega park. The park needs work but it was still inviting.

The mural has a bit of an interesting story behind itself. While it may be difficult to see in the photo the Puerto Rican flag seems discolored and rather long. As it turns out there is flag etiquette requiring the US flag to be above any other flag. The kids weren't aware of this but a city official (or horrid woman who was running) threatened to vandalize the mural if the Puerto Rican flag was not fixed/removed. In order to avoid conflict the kids ended up extending the Puerto Rican flag.

We then visited a community garden run by Nuestras Raices. The lot is beautiful with tons of vegetables sprouting or in full growth. It was sad to know however that the organization did not actually own the lot they were growing on as indicated by a lot for sale sign that hung on the side. Nonetheless their efforts are admirable and I wish them the best of luck.

What'd you say about my mama?

On another note we went to City Hall and awaited our public Zumba lesson in the middle of the farmer's market. We stopped in a little shop that had a ton of breakfast and sandwich type food. The spice was the highlight for me.


We then hit up Fernandez's Family Restaurant and got a hearty helping of what would appear to be deliciousness in a couple of crazy forms.

 They had fried platanos, stuffed chicken wrapped in bacon, platanos lasagna, and all sorts of awesome Puerto Rican cuisine. I can't say any of it was very healthy.

After our meal we tried to meet up with the mayor at City Hall but ended up missing him just barely. We ended up walking to Heritage Historic Park and passed the carousel. We didn't get a chance to explore it beyond the outside.

We then hit up the renovated canal/riverside walk. The view was amazing despite the dilapidated mills, factories, and other such buildings. 

After this it was time to bid adieu to Holyoke and head back to Amherst where we shared our adventures with our Amherst halves.

Amherst presented a stark contrast to Holyoke. The community efforts seem more effective and the differences in the youth populations are astounding. The racial makeup of Amherst is not as diverse as Holyoke in any sense.

In other words, Holyoke was a breath of reality fresh air while Amherst kept us swaddled tightly in our safe bubble.

Catching Up in Xiaoshan- June 9th-10th

Day 12 – June 9^th

So, woke up at 6 am again. Why do I keep doing this? Sat around and finally decided to say good morning to A Yi. I assumed she had gotten the call from Jim about me moving out so I just got ready and started reading Path of Daggers. Unfortunately I’m seriously losing my wits end over not having more to read. I’m going to have to make a run for the city and check the foreign language bookstore. Hopefully they’ll have something for me. Who knows?

So I sat around then A Yi brought me an unwrapped Zhong Zi…? The triangle of glutinous rice and pork. I swear that stuff that makes it slimey must be the fat. I read somewhere that these are boiled for a long time so I can only assume that causes it. I’m no cook but I’m pretty sure there’s no liquid out there as comparable to that.

A Yi left about half an hour later. I guess Jim didn’t give her a call. I sat around for a while since I only had once class and it being at 6:30 felt no rush to head over to the High Long Plaza. Turns out I was wrong, it started thunderstorming or threatening to do so as I worked on a thank you post it note collection for A Yi. I wrote a message in English, Pinyin, then in Simplified Chinese characters. God that is difficult. Augh. Anyway got that going and hurried my way out of A Yi’s. I’m going to miss her. I saw her at the office once so maybe I’ll see her every now and then. :D Here’s to hoping!

After I arrived I saw Jim and he handed me the keys and gave me instructions for the apartment. Looks like I’ll need to figure out the internet after I figure out just what the hell I’ll need for this place. I wish the rain would let up though, it’s annoying carrying around an umbrella when it’s so windy and thus useless.

Two workers took me to the apartment and helped me set it up like seting out the sheets and such. I honestly can’t remember their names for crap but they’re sweet. We went to Lotte Mart right afterwards and we bought a ton of noodles. One even came with Tupperware. I then bought myself the same old delicious and sweet fruit cup I had discovered just recently and then we made our way out of the store. Just as we got to the ground level, one of the workers’ bag had broken. We piled their stuff into mine and then each took a handle as we walked back to the plaza.

I ended up getting duck and rice, figured I would maybe get enough meat off of the damn bird this time. The workers had bought a vegetarian dish and offered to share with me. It had all kinds of veggies, some I was familiar with and others I don’t know but equally delicious. It was really good.

It turns out that my class was cancelled.. sort of? Maybe the student forgot… Oh well. 

Day 13 – June 10^th

Woke up several times this morning. MY body is not happy with me right now for whatever reason when it comes to sleeping. Remembered I had classes at 1 so I decided I would get a shower and grab stuff for the apartment. I checked through the kitchen and noted that there were bowls and some potentially useable cookware. Grabbed a bowl to discover it was covered in some kind of brown sticky grime. Oh god. Tried to wash my hands and maybe the bowl and found sticky stuff on the sink faucet too. WHAT IS GOING ON?! I splashed and rubbed the faucet down with some water then checked the stove. It’s gas, easy enough right? Wrong, I don’t apparently know how to start a gas stove.

The microwave played a bit of a game of peekaboo with me before I got it working. The fridge has a really funny smell, not like just food that is different from even Korean fridges, just… funny. I’m a little worried about using the thing. I’ve kept it off/unplugged for now.

I’ve made two trips to Lotte mart today. I’ve spent about 300 RMB altogether. I still need more stuff. Augh. At least the rice cooker seems to work.

Taught 2 out of 4 classes. Students just don’t seem to care to sign up for SPA classes… Taught Della and Gemma as well as Steven’s class. Steven can do the English pretty well as well as John. I’m a little confused as to why they act out wait.. damnit.

J.C. and Zack took me out to the street food street. Got to meet their favorite vendor and we got some rice dumpling type thing covered in spicy spices and a fried pumpkin thing. They’re so good. 

This humid weather is not pleasant please go away or at least just give us rain.