chugging along..choo choo!!

So I'm a little late on an update but better late then never. Last Thursday's tour of Little Tokyo and the Gentrification panel were great (so was the food!) It was really awesome to walk around Little Tokyo and get a little more perspective. The panel after was cool too. I really like the big circle discussion that we had after the panel. i wish that everyone was able to stay. It was encouraging and enlightening finding that our collective interviews reflected a lot of what the panel had to say. Especially how Christable and I's conclusions about thoughts about gentrification in K-town is classed. The KIWA rep, I don't remember his name :/ was really insightful. It was appalling, though sadly not surprising, hearing about how people who are entitled to over $17,000 for their homes are settling for $1,000 because they don't know their rights or are afraid it could jeopardize their well being. Furthermore, how it is not necessarily non-Koreans that are doing these things and how so many of tenants in K-town are living in inhabitable homes with leaky faucets that would disintegrate if not for the bricks that are holding them up! IT MAKES ME SO UPSET!!! GRRRRRRR!!!! Oy! Well anyways, THANK YOU TO THE PANEL AND THE PEOPLES WHO SET IT ALL UP FOR US!!!! :D
After leaving JANM we got work time, which was good because got to regroup and re-evaluate some deadlines. Unfortunately, my VERY long Thursday did not end there. After LEAp time I had to go to FilAm Arts for a FPAC Builders meeting, a meeting of all the coordinators, interns, and volunteers. It was a good meeting because we broke up into groups, Programming, Marketing, Business, and Logistics. The Programming meeting went well. Lots of people want to help out, which is AWESOME and a relief. We got people who want to be in charge of the DJ Tribute, the Street Dance Showcase and help out with the Tinikling Battle. After the meeting was over and done with, everyone mingled around while Ben and I were discretely trying to clean up to passively coax people to leave so we could leave because we both had other places to be. It didn't really work but we were relieved of our duties at 8:50ish.Now onto a new topic: YAY for LEAP people and LEAP intern meetings!! They are the light at the end of my day/week! Well this time is was the light at the beginning of my week! And boy am I glad that I had that to run off of this week. 
After getting off work on Monday, after a packed weekend and busy Monday, it didn't even feel like I was  going off to work some more! LEAP intern energy=<3
Ok, back to talk about work. It's been a lot of emailing back and forth since Mark, the Programming coordinator, went home to Florida and we are in the process of finalizing the performer's for FPAC (we're SOOOO close!). Then yesterday at the end of the day, meaning at 7:10, 10 minutes after I was supposed to off work, a short interrogation and more work got sprung on me!! AHHHHH!!!! Always happens when I have somewhere else to be! It perturbed me a bit since I had been done with my work since 6:30ish and more work was not requested of me until after I was supposed to be off work. A bit inconsiderate I think. OY. Also, like most organizations/groups, things can get a but disorganized. Delegating work and responsibility and being clear about what is expected of someone are some of the most important things in an organization and I think that at this juncture, it's a work in progress.
(continuing from Wednesday...gosh this blogging is long sometimes!)
Tuesday is a blur since Ben, the 4th and only boy intern, has been home in the Bay since last thursday. I think it consisted of some more organizing performing artist information...but honestly I don't remember, it seems o so long ago! I think a taco and scoops was involved though...
Wednesday went by HELLA fast! I spent the beginning of my day organizing all the performing artist information and color-coding (i <3color-coding)
Well anyways, I enjoyed helping Clarissa map out the exhibit and only wish i could have been there to help her and Matthew (last year's PAN intern) yesterday. I think that I may have lost out on a HUGE learning opportunity by not stepping up. Lesson learned....hopefully. 
Yesterday (Thursday) was wonderful as always because I got to see all the LEAp people. Well except Nessa cuz she's in DC. I missed her!! The group felt so small!! I felt as if I should be hearing her laugh and seeing her scrunch up her face when she misheard something someone said for something completely ridiculous. :D Yesterday was really busy. We all went straight to SAG and got to see where Hann Li works. It is SOOOOO nice!!! and so are the people!! They had all this stuff set up for us. Muffins, fruit, juice, a video conference with the NY guy Adam. Yulisa, Shoshana, and Rebecca are all AMAZING women!!! I was so excited to see three women of color heading up the Affirmative Action division of SAG!!!!! Yulisa gave us a tour of SAG. I am usually not a cubicle fan but the SAG are the best cubicles you could possibly have. They are short so that you can see the people in the other cubicles and most were filled with personal momentos like action figures, plants, and photographs. The walls of SAG  were all murals of movies, most of them old classics like Showboat or the Wizard of OZ. They had some newer ones like Glory and the Last Emperor as well. We all got goodie bags at the end too!! :D I realized that there were a  lot of job opportunities at SAG that I could consider myself or tell my friends about. For instance, being a lawyer for a union, part of their affirmative action division etc. 
Then we were off to NAKASEK to see where Christable works. I LOVE the building!!! It is SOOOOOOOOOOO colorful, you hafta take of your shoes to enter, and there is a little make-shift bridge from one building to the next!!! Everyone was so nice there too!! One of the women we met who is working on Health Care issues right now was wonderful. She is also a performing artist who breaks mirrors with her body to symbolize breaking through stereotypes, not letting other tell you who you are, and overcoming barriers and obstacles. Our tour guide Hyunjoon Lee was AWESOME!! She has a strong passion that flows through her and is clearly expressed in her actions and speech. She reminded us to keep one foot outside our orgs, to be critical of orgs and what they do and don't do. YAY FOR A CRITICAL MIND!! Also she asked us what we thought organizing meant. Collectively we came up with: act/action, people, empowerment. Organizing is action for the purpose of people's empowerment. Without action, their is not organization. We gots to get past the talk and ACT.
After, Sookyung hopped in the car with Scott, Amy, Megan, and I and we were off to APALC (the Asian Pacific American Legal Center) for an immigration panel. Katy talked to us about her work with trafficking victims in Koreatown, mostly sex trafficking. She explained that a lot of the hotels, massage parlors, taxis, and salons are complacent or implicit in the sexual slavery of Korean women and their trafficking.  She touched on T Visa and how the women must cooperate with law enforcement in their investigations in order to obtain a T Visa. In our small discussions she told Amy and I how often time the law enforcement officers the women have to speak with are men and the interpreters are older men. This creates a hostile environment for the women to relive some of the most traumatizing times in their lives. Some of the older male interpreters interpret the women's words in chauvinistic ways. There are a lack of resources that lead to much of this happening. Sookyung was really interesting to talk to as well. She shared how NAKASEC is an advocacy organization for Korean and Korean Americans. Something that I really like about NAKASEC is as an advocacy group it takes tough stances on controversial issues and ACTS in a productive way, two things that not all organizations can/are willing to do. The last panel member was Nomach, a Cambodian Refugee who works for PACE. He spoke about how we should all bring our friends into the non-profit arena. O yea, we ate yummy food from Christable's restaurant!!! :P 
The LEAP day ended with some project time. We figured out the layout for our project, what the intro and conclusion should touch upon, and a title. It was a long day and everyone was tired and a bit loopy but it was a fun day nonetheless. Well, the day ACTUALLY ended with a lovely trip to Office Depot and Candice's glorious find of purple post-its and Hann Li's entertaining indecisiveness.
ok, done for now.