affluenza and poland.

This summer (as i talked about in a previous blog) I spent 5 weeks in Israel, but for the first part of that trip I was in Poland.
During my twelve hour flight, I was anticipating how sad Poland would look. In my mind it would be all gray like a dramatically lit movie, and everywhere I turned I would see slums and concentration camps.
When we finally arrived, it was a muggy and cold day, similar to our weather now (50's and rainy). Our counselors gave us time to recuperate from our flight by sleeping and showering before a walking tour of Poland. I was so far from thrilled about that tour it was insane.
Before our walking tour began, we went to a mall for dinner we were given zloty (polish money) and sent off. I was expecting there to be only random polish restaurants and maybe McDonald's, I was so wrong. I opened up the doors and saw woodfield mall. Ornate decorations hung from the ceiling, escalators snaked throughout the multiple floors, department stores with window displays and "SALE" signs lined the long corridors. I finally arrived at the food court and saw Subway, Burger King, and Pizza Hut. I was shocked.
Many countires are trying to follow American's style of living. They see that in America, malls are a big deal and consumerism is on the rise, and Poland has jumped on this bandwagon.
They are becoming more of a americanized culture rather than a unique, individual one.

By the way, I chose Pasta to be different- which it wasn't.

Poland overall wasn't the nightmare I thought it was going to be, some parts were what I expected (slums and concentration camps) but a lot werent:

Old Town Square in Krakow

A Bronx Tale.

The movie, A Bronx Tale, profiles an urban Italian neighborhood in the 1960's.

The main character C, is just 9 years old when he witnesses a shooting right outside his front door. After this event, there are clear parallels between the older (Sonny, johnny whispers, frankie coffee cake) and younger generation (C, Slick, Mario).

When the movie jumps forward 8 years, the influence the older generation has had on the younger one is very evident. C and his friends are sitting outside the social club smoking cigarettes and hollering at ladies across the street, just like they had seen it done when they were younger. C and his friends grew up in this neighborhood surrounded by people who intentionally hurt and sometimes killed others with little or no mercy. As they grew older, the younger generation in the neighborhood tried to buy guns to protect themselves.

These weren't the only bad things they picked up from their elders, they also picked up their racist attitudes. In one of the most intense scenes during the movie, C's friends start beating up blacks who were bicycling through their neighborhood. Their racist attitudes rooted with the influence of their neighborhood as well as the time period (the 1960's were the height of the civil rights movement). Their histroy and biography influenced the way that they lived their lives.

gang leader for a day.

In the book, Gang Leader For a Day, Sudhir Venkatesh explores what life is really like in the housing projects of downtown Chicago.

Early on in the chapter, Venkatesh talks about the two different kinds of sociologists, the quantative ones who rely on facts and statistics and the enthographers who use first hand approaches.

Venkatesh, dismayed with all of the mathematics that he sees going on in sociology, decided to take a different approach. Surveys in hand, he crosses the border between the nicer side of Hyde Park and the projects. When he asks J.T. a gang leader the question, "what's it like to be black and poor?" all of the gang bursts into laughter. After kicking back a few beers with him, J.T tells Venkatesh about drug dealing, shootings, different gangs and weapons. At the end of the chapter, J.T and Sudhir become somewhat friends.

Overall the chapter was long, but fulfilling to read. One part that really stuck out to me was when J.T was talking about the difference between African Americans and N****rs and about how certain black people are trying to get into white suburbia but are getting beat down by the police. The reason that stuck out in my mind was because ever since Lincoln freed the slaves (yay presidents day!) Our country has been in a back and forth civil rights battle, and even when people think that we are getting ahead, we're not. The CHA (chicago housing authority) was going to tear down the housing projects that so many people call home to make more room for apartments and condos. Things like that make me question if equal opportunity actually exsists when authorities are blocking you. Yes, we do have a black president, something that I am so happy for, but the fact that do much racism and hatred still exsists really sucks.

Venkatesh went into the projects as a quantitative person, seein groups of people as statistics and nothing more, and came out an experienced person. If more poeple opened their minds like Venkatesh did (not necessairly saying that people should hang around in the projects) that would at least make room for a lot less stereotypes.

Reality.

This summer I sat, dressed in full army attire at a simulation army camp, overlooking the beautiful mountains of Israel's Golan Heights.

<--- This was my view!

Those five days had been absolute hell for me: drinking out of a sandy canteen, sleeping in barracks with no pillows, getting bruises from crawling on the stony hard ground, going to bed at 9:00 with barely any food in our stomachs, and then waking up at 5:00 am to start all over again. My Mefakedet (commander) called me over, since she was Israeli, she could barely pronounce my name and ended up calling me Lorraine. In that circle I sat with 4 or 5 other Americans and and 4 Israeli girls from my group who talked about how excited they were to join the army next year. Although I knew it was a law in Israel to enroll in the army once you were done with high school, I still felt shocked. Next year I will be starting college having the time of my life, while some of my best friends will be risking their lives fighting for their country.

My society made a plan for me: graduate high school --> go to college --> get a job

I realized that my Israeli friends have a different social reality than me, they have been surrounded by the army all their lives, their mothers and fathers fought for the country, and they will just follow in their footsteps. Similar to how I am following what my mother and father did when they were my age.

Up until that day, I was close-minded, thinking that everyone was going to follow the exact same plan as me, but I realize that everyone grows up in different environments and that makes them the person that they are.