Monica Guerra: June 2008 Archives

Wow, our last morning blogging!!!

First I shall rant then I shall write what i love/miss about BAMMA:

Rant:

We got out papers the other day, and I was REALLY PISSED OFF. When we were writing our headlines together, I was forgotten, so someone else wrote my headline....which was COMPLETELY WRONG. The title they put was "Immersing students in their native language" something like that, which is NOT TRUE! they are IMMERSING students in ANOTHER LANGUAGE!!!!

Then someone added words like in one sentence it used to be something like "she learns blah blah blah – completely in spanish" theres the PUNCH! but NOOOO, they put " – but completely in spanish" that COMPLETELY RUINED THE PUNCH! Then there's this person in my article called Gentle Blythe, I am not sure if that person is a woman or a man, I didn't want to be rude and ask. But the person who changed my paper put the person as a "spokeswoman" when I put "spokesperson" cause you NEVER KNOW, that person coulda had Hippie parents, and that COULD be a guy or a woman, but I don't like to jump to conclusions!!! What if Gentle calls me and blames me/jumps me?!?!!??!?! GRRRR!!!!

Another thing, my article is all the way on page 6, a small little column, next to Joel's amazing LONG story and his BEAUTIFUL BIG PICTURE...my story is a measly minute squished fly on a wall, then continued a freaking mile away in page 11! Who will actually notice it, and then bother turning SOOO many pages?! There's nothing visually appealing in my article! there's no picture!

And to top it all off, we went to the Chronicle, and the lady was critiquing our articles, and my article was SO MEASLY PATHETIC AND SMALL IN THAT LITTLE COLUMN that she SKIPPED IT AND FORGOT ME!!!! AHHHHH!!! I was SOOOO pissed off!!! Then Joel asked her what she thought about it. But she didn't really say anything, I couldn't hear cause of all the anger in my head....

I hope I did not piss off anyone in this blog, I just really needed to spill my thoughts... sigh...

Good things about Bamma:

I will REALLY REALLY MISS my BAMMA family! I dunno if I'll cry tomorrow, cause I really will miss everyone. Everyone has helped me grow and we all made it through this intense boot camp together.

I'll remember all the funny moments we all shared. Justin's weird mushroom thing, to Joel and Me singing Beatles songs, my Sister Goldie Chang.

The time we ran in the elevator and I yelled "Hey girls, wait for CONNIE AVOCADO CHANG!" in front of these people who looked at me weird and laughed then the elevator door closed and I we all bursted in laughter.

The time after we left pizza orgasmica, and YaYa yelled out, "I like SEX...." we all turned around, surprised, then she said "...in the CITY!" and we all laughed. We kept on overusing that phrase. "I like to see SEX...in the city!" Or the times we take the M and we pass by the west portal theater, and the title of a movie was "Sex and the City" and I would yell, "HEY LOOK GUYS ITS SEX!!!! in the City!"

I also like my journalism experience, its COMPLETELY different than what I had confronted in high school. When you interview someone, you KNOW how to find them and they're gonna most likely want to be interviewed cause they're gonna be on the PAPER. I really liked my editors they are really awesome people, I liked the photography people who taught us many things like "hail mary's" and stuff like that.

But this experience, you have to call up people, in some instances even pester them for only a quote, or information, or anything! I really feel journalism is my calling, I love it a lot! =) We went to the Chronicle yesterday and this one dude told me the best advice for getting my foot in the door, "write an article today, write another one tomorrow, and the next day as well, get as much as you can in print, then put them all together in a scrapbook" so I have articles to show how good I am when I get an interview. They also told us to call and bug reporters as MUCH as we can, like call everyday, mail everyday, because it shows how persistent one is, and shows that I am passionate about journalism, which will convince them to help me.

Oh my goodness, Connie and I were so drained the other day!

In the morning we ate breakfast, and the food was actually good! When there's nothing good to eat, I resort to cereal and like 2 doughnuts =/ and sometimes a cup of OJ.

After, we went to the computer lab and blogged. It was kinda sad cause it was our last "class" with Mary Ann Hogan. She gave us her email and said we could email her for any future advice we would ever need. Which is good, cause I'll probably need a LOT of it.

Then after we all pitched in in creating our headlines. It was very interesting how much time is put into creating a really good headline. After, we went out to lunch and I ate PIZZA!

We all came back, and then we were off again to another SF state campus place. We took the M down to Powell. We went into the mall! then we took this weird route, an elevator, and then we magically appeared at an SF State campus! It was VERY surprising! But we worked on our multimedia.

I truly feel that everyone is being overwhelmed by work. It's REALLY REALLY draining to do this, I think its not enough for 2 people to do, I wish they would've put us with more people, but oh well.

Yesterday we finally finished our stories and they're on the paper!

In the morning, pretty much everyone except for one or two people had finished and had their final edit done.
I didn't have really much to do, so I was on CNN reading the latest Obama gossip and other random videos CNN had.

After lunch, we had to copy edit all our stories =( it was super duper boring! I could barely concentrate. I was also pretty upset that my article didn't make front page. And the fact that there aren't too many pictures I can use...We took pictures at CCSF and the French Lycee, but neither of them are in my article. So all I have is pictures of the main girl I'm talking about in my article. But I probably won't have a picture with my article, cause everyone else's article is better than mine....

That night, after dinner, I really got stressed out! Ramon and I were signed up to do a multimedia for the same sex marriage where there were like 4 groups who took HELLA audio,video, and 5 billion pictures. I really really really got stressed because Ramon and I were in the same group, so we only know one groups worth of stuff to edit together. We have to ask people from different groups to tell us what matches with what. Which I feel is kinda unfair, because everyone else isn't being bombarded with video/audio/pictures they have never seen...

I'm also worried we're going to be doing our multimedia, but since theres like ALL this stuff we have and have to match, we're gonna end like 2 hours after everyone. And then everyones gonna be mad at us for holding up the group...

I'm trying to think of a quick method to match things up. But the worry is overcoming all my thinking.... =(

Yesterday was a great day for science. The sun was out, the sky was blue, it was beautiful.

We ate breakfast, then I think we went to the computer lab and got right to our stories. I was putting in some of the quotes I got from the Spokesperson about Immersion in SFUSD. I weaved it all together, unfortunately now it was about 737 words. Though about 3 edits we got to cut down many sentences, to an astounding 515 words! Woot Woot!

Earlier that morning I went with Ramon to photograph his interviewer. We went all the way to Oakland. Our editor Ryan, drove us and we had really interesting conversations about Oil Prices and politics, and OBAMA!

Obama is SO freakin' awesome, but if I had a choice I would want Dennis Kucinich. That dude is like SEX.......in the city! I feel he really captures ALL of my beliefs. Pro Choice, Anti Patriotic Act, Anti No Child left behind... (source: www.glassbooth.org) but yeah. I mean I didn't really think he would last, his thoughts match with the typical San Francisco liberal. San Francisco Liberal is like SUPER DUPER liberal compared to like any other place in the U.S, well thats the way I feel.

Ryan said theres this convention or something, and OBAMA is going to be there, after I heard "Obama will be there" I set my mind, I MUST see him! He said to talk to Cristina and see if she could get me in. I ran back trying to find her, but Dolissa told me to work on my article =( So later Cristina came into the room and I asked her how I could get in, and she said that all the spots were probably filled by now, but that she would look into it =( My heart dropped, now I will NEVER see OBAMA!

Then I kept on working on my article, and then ate dinner, and then went to the dorms, read, showered, and then went to bed.

Yesterday was a really funny day.

I realized how "special" our group is. Sometimes we just stand somewhere, and then after five minutes, people are like, "why are we standing here?" and then we're all like "oh!" and then we start walking again.

In the morning we got up LATE which was nice, and then we all ate breakfast. Breakfast was funny cause we were sharing "stories" and we all huddled together. After, we got went to the computer lab picked up our sandwiches and then took the M downtown to the Juneteenth celebration!

We were told it was celebrating African American culture. Which was NOT true. We get there, and there's only like half a block worth of stands. EVERYTHING was just a huge rip off! This one dude wanted to sell me some Obama pin....for $5! I had about $6, but using my bargaining skills I lied and said I only had $2, but the dude would not change the price. So I just walked away. Joel ended up buying the pin and giving it to me, I felt really bad, cause I didn't want them to scam him $5 =(

But we ended up leaving after maybe 45 minutes. We went to the beach. The library or a park would've been nicer, but oh well. I really hate sand. We took the N to the beach. We got there and there was a LOT of sand, which really sucked. Everyone got in and played, but I just sat in the really hot sand with Dolissa.

Finally we left and then we were in the dorms. Joel left his key in his room while Oscar was in the bathroom, so he asked Oscar for his key, but then he ended up locking it inside too. Oscar was FURIOUS he said he was going to kill Joel.

But that night we STRAIGHTENED Oscar and Joel's hair! Oscar looked SOOO different! =P He really liked it. He took a picture and sent it to his girlfriend and his family. Joel's hair wasn't too different, since his is already straight. We gelled it back, making him look like a bad boy. HAHAHAHA!

After we watched the movie Born Into Brothels which really began to make me cry! They were trying to get these kids who were born in brothels an education and get them out of those bad neighborhoods. Even though all of them went to school, like 8 out of 10 if them went back, it was sad.

The movie was so coincidental to what we were doing here at BAMMA. They were taking pictures, we were, they went to the beach, we just came from the beach, some dude was walking like Jamari, some girl was dancing like me....

It was a great day =)

Yesterday was a really horrible day which turned out better by the end. Topped by really good news this morning.

I have a lot of information for my article, a student and her parents, teachers opinions, stuff I know from volunteering in an Immersed class. The only thing I didn't have was an official from SFUSD backing up the stuff I was talking about. I researched and researched, emailed, and called. Nothing =(

A found a lady from SFUSD who was supposed to answer my questions, but she called back saying my questions were too specific, and said there might not be that many people to talk to because everyone is out because of the summer. She referred me to some other person. I called them up, but the lady who spoke with me seemed to kinda give me the cold shoulder, I left my number, hung up, and began to cry.

I was really worried I had stuck dead end began to freak out. Mary Ann Hogan came over and helped me. She helped me structure my story, made me realize I had a lot of stuff to write about, and to be persistent and call that lady who gave me the cold shoulder. I wrote most of my article which was about a WHOLE page! =)

After regaining my confidence by piecing everything together, I called up the lady again and she gave me her email to send the questions to. She still sounded like she was giving me the cold shoulder, but I emailed the questions. Half an hour later she calls back saying that most of the questions are on an online document. Which was NOT true, because there was only like 2 questions that document could answer, and I straight up told her that and she was like, okay, we'll send you back your questions later.

This morning they DID send back the questions, I read through some of them, and I got some really good info =)

After working on our articles till around 5:45, we got on the bus to go to Orgasmica pizza. I didn't think their pizza was that good, it still tasted like dorm food pizza. Oh well, I got to see Maahum, a Bamma Alum who went to my middle school. I also met this dude who came from Brown University, my favorite east coast university! Joel fell asleep and then threw up when we got to the dorms =/

Yuck.

So like 2 or 3 days ago I was too busy to blog so here's what happened...

In the morning we all came into the computer lab and worked on our articles. It was a crazy day because I had scheduled two interviews, that were almost back to back!

I went to the French private school, and recorded their version of "Beauty and the Beast" on stage on audio and CC took pictures for me. After we went backstage and interviewed people. we interviewed two girls, but we didn't really get anywhere. Then we interviewed like 3 guys and they were a better source of information.

We ran back, and then 30 minutes later left with La Toya and Jamari to interview Sophia, the main character in my story. We go there, but only her mother was there, after a little while her other mother came, and we sat them down to interview them. After a while there was NO space on the recorder, so I used paper and pencil, and my personal recorder. We got to interview Sophia later as well, she talked to us in Spanish.

We ate Popeye's for dinner. Then we went back to the computer lab to work on our stories till like 9.

Yesterday was our interview/work on story day.

We woke up hella early like always, and then we ate a long breakfast like always, then we read the paper like always, then Mary Ann Hogan talked to us, then I got to work and sent like five billion emails trying to get an interview from any of these people.

I'm still having problems researching for my topic, there's an article on Wikipedia, but thats not really reliable...I found an article on the SFUSD site that talked about the first Chinese Immersion program in San Francisco, but not a lot of background on how the Spanish, and other language immersion classes began.

After a while of researching, calling and emailing, our editor Ryan took Ramon and myself to go out and interview people. I got to interview a lady from CCSF, and Ramon found a lady who was a full time student and mother on the CCSF campus and we ran to catch her and interview her.

After we went to this place on Mission St. for Ramon's interview, but that person wasn't there and we had to call for an appointment. We were a block away from this restaurant my family has gone to since I was like 2, and I asked Ryan if we could grab a quick snack. We ended up staying for about 15 minutes.

Ryan bought a small variety of raw fish, and I bought some cucumber, avocado and california roll. It was really fun because we were teaching Ramon how to use chopsticks and try the food Ryan and I bought. He seemed to like the rolls, and some of the fish.

We ran back and I called the Elementary school I volunteered at for contact info of a student. The parents called me back and said they would like to be interviewed. Which was the highlight of my day.

During dinner Goldie, Justin, Joel and I bonded and talked

I was somewhat excited when I woke up this morning. I knew there was going to be a lot of walking involved, which isn’t too much fun. Everyone grabbed their press badges and fast passes and marched to our Journalism 101 class.

We got there, and learned more about leads (or ledes) and other important things our articles are supposed to have, did some final touches on the biographies we made for each other.

Then finally our editors gave us our assignment and everyone quickly got to work trying to get their sources. I’m still trying to think what the “focus” of my story is going to be. I’m deciding on centering on the Immersion program and what it is about, because many people have heard a little bit about it or not at all.

After tediously writing and pulling together a source list, I got a hold of about two people to interview tomorrow.

After lunch we jumped on the M and rode it till Civic Center. Ramon, Edgar, Goldie, and I were put into a group and rotated the multimedia around. We had the audio microphones and our cameras, and I think Edgar just took some quotes on his notebook. What I really liked about our group was that our chaperones were very attentive. They would tell us, “Hey look its Mayor Gavin Newsom!” and then my group would assemble and quickly remind ourselves of our roles, where to stand and so forth.

I got to interview the Mayor for like 2 minutes. There was another reporter there, and I kept on trying to ask questions, but she kept on asking hers and being a total.....ugh.... but anyway, she finally let me ask my questions. Dolissa saved me when I blanked out and gave me a question but what he said reminded me of an old saying "Hablar sin decir nada" (talking without saying anything) I asked a follow up question an once again he talked without saying anything.

We also got to interview a district supervisor and he wed his friends when we found him. The couple were two men, and they were very adorable. When they were saying their vows, I could see the sparkle of happiness in their eyes. It almost made me cry.

I was surprised the day I arrived at the rooms. The description the supervisors wrote made it seem like it was a five by five cubicle. It was a bearably cold, the room wasn't too dark, and the blankets were only a little bit itchy. The shower-heads were very weird looking and very rusty when I tried to take a shower.

The biggest chunk of our day was text, audio, video, photography "training" the teachers tried to squeeze everything we needed to know in about 45 minutes. =/ I didn't really like that, but I understood because tomorrow we're going to city hall and record the stuff going on about gay marriage, and they want us to be prepared.

The four training sessions really felt like a LONG LONG DRAG, we had to be listening and taking notes from 1- 5, thats FOUR hours. I really wish we coulda gotten a 10 minute break or something.

At least we all had fun during dinner.