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A few interesting things have been happening in the past week or so as life continues as normal at Penn State for the last half of the Spring semester. 

 Last Tuesday night I went to a drag show! Whilst attending a drag show is not the kind of thing I’d really had any desire to do before, this drag show was actually for an assignment in my communications class!  Every fortnight we have to write a report on a “ multicultural learning experience” we’ve had by attending events around campus that challenge our perspectives or introduce us to a new culture.  A guy in my class is actually a drag queen and he invited the whole class to his upcoming performance, so me and a few friends in my class went along. 

Honestly my expectations of a drag show were completely blown away – it was so much fun! The drag queens were all massive divas - dressed to the nines in six inch heels they performed to Rihanna and Beyoncé and the crowd lapped up every second of it. There were a few interesting moments, such as when one queen rubbed whipped cream all over herself or when another starting making out with a member of the crowd whilst performing but I feel this was all part of experiencing the drag community! I would definitely go to another drag show in the future that’s for sure. 

 On another note last night I went to hear Marty Baron, the executive director of the Washington Post speak about the ethics of journalism.  Described as one of the best newspaper editors in the world and featured as one of the lead characters in Academy Award winning film ‘Spotlight’, having the opportunity to hear him speak was awe inspiring. 

Marty Baron who came to speak at PSU

Baron talked about the concept of Fake News and ‘alternative facts’, an idea being tossed around by Donald Trump ( and his followers) at the moment that credible news sources like CNN are purposely not reporting the truth.  Baron talked about how the “alternative to facts is not ‘alternative facts’, it is fiction”. Facts are facts and anything that is not a fact is simply not true!

Similarly he talked about ‘fake news’ and the rise of alternative media outlets being given major opportunities to report on national politics.  The Christian Broadcasting for example is now being granted the first questions in press conferences, ahead of media conglomerates such as the Associated Press. Recently the White House even banned major news outlets such as BBC and the New York Times from even attending an informal press conference.   

In light of the shock presidential election he also talked about the need to diversify the news room with reporters from all walks of life and the need to report on issues from areas all over the country – not just the relatively liberal and well off north-east.  I think this is an issue the media in New Zealand should also be aware of.  Much of the mainstream media in New Zealand focuses on issues in Wellington and Auckland, whilst the regions including my home Hawkes Bay are largely ignored.  People in Hawkes Bay and other small areas don’t read the news because media outlets like Stuff don’t write about issues that relate to them.  The media in New Zealand could certainly improve on reporting on regional issues –such as poverty and health instead of yoga classes in Wellington or million dollar homes in Auckland. 

Okay sorry, so I realize I’ve gone on about this and it doesn’t really have much to about studying abroad but I’m just so interested in these kind of issues !

Anyway aside from these events life has been rolling on as usual – studying, working and hanging out with my friends makes up the day-to-day on goings at Penn State. The upcoming weeks are going to be jam packed with exams and assignments and hopefully the on-set some warmer weather (but seriously, when is the Pennsylvania winter going to end ? ) .

Spring Breakers

What would a traditional American college experience be if it didn’t include Spring Break? Despite all the incredibly ‘American’ things I’ve experienced – homecoming, football games, tailgates and protests, Spring Break was always something I’ve wanted to check off the American Dream bucket list.  So, with limited funds ( a year abroad is much more experience than you can anticipate) and a desperate desire to see the sea again my friend Jess, Ellen and I booked plane tickets to Miami and didn’t look back. 

On Sunday afternoon we left cold, snowy New York behind and hopped on a plane to the sunshine state.  It turned out  the Florida bi-line ‘sunshine state’ was a bit of an exaggeration because when we touched in Miami three hours later it was raining. 

It was still a bit drizzly on Monday morning when we woke up, yet we didn’t want the weather to get in the way of our holiday. Instead of going to the beach we explored the Wynwood Art District and the Perez Art Museum a few minutes walk from downtown Miami.  

Taking a photo of someone taking a photo

 

By Tuesday the weather still wasn’t great – it was warm but still cloudy.  In spite of this we took the bus from downtown Miami to South Beach and visited the Holocaust Memorial which was very eye opening and moving.  

All of a sudden the clouds parted and we headed towards the beach.  We only lay on the beach for about an hour and a half but it was enough time for all of us to go bright red without sunscreen or hats. 

The rest of the week, from Wednesday to Friday was spent at the beach – reading, eating and swimming in the clear Atlantic waters.  Although we didn’t really get involved in the Spring Break activities happening on the beach – what you see in the movies happens in real life ! A whole section of South Beach had become the unofficial spring break section and it was throbbing with people drinking, dancing and partying.  People headed to the beach at midday – got drunk, got sunburnt and then headed home at about 5 o’clock to start drinking again and head to the clubs. 

The police were everywhere – constantly blaring up and down the beach. 

South beach at sunset

Because all of us are tight on money at the moment after traveling and living in America for six months we tried to be very frugal with our money – cooking our own meals, making sandwiches to bring to the beach and using public transport.  However, on our final night in Miami we decided to splurge and went out for dinner at South Beach at a Cuban restaurant called Yuca.  This restaurant, was really just named after it’s principle dish and the most important ingredient in Cuban cuisine – Yuca, a kind of starchy potato.  I had a delicious yucca croquette with spinach and mushrooms and even better, they even served us alcohol without all of us having ID’s !

The sun set on our (not so wild spring break) as we sipped mojito’s in the late afternoon sun and enjoyed our last meal in the sunshine for a while. 

Weekend in Jersey

Penn State exists in a world of it’s own all the way out in the middle of rural Pennsylvania.

You could go for weeks without seeing a child, an old person or even a family. You slowly get used to everybody wearing Penn State gear, track pants and pajamas around campus and that normal clothes ( i.e. clothes that don’t say Penn State ) are few and far between. 

What I’m getting at here is that living on campus in State College is not representative of normal American life. It’s pretty fair to say you could stay here for a year and still have no idea about the way your classmates grew up in their hometowns. Luckily for me my friend Elle invited Jess and I to stay with her for the first weekend of Spring Break at her house on the New Jersey/ Pennsylvania state line just outside of Philadelphia. 

We almost didn’t make it to Philly because the bus we caught from State College to Philly was labelled for Hillsborough, not Philadelphia. It was only a last minute decision to double check where the bus was going otherwise we would have completely missed it !

Elle’s Dad picked us up in the centre of Philly and we drove across the state line into New Jersey stopping for a takeaway dinner on the way from Wawas – a kind of service station that does made to order sandwiches and burritos. 

Her house, about 30 minutes from the centre of Philly was straight out of every American movie and TV show I’ve ever watched - huge, white and complete with American flag flying in the front yard. We met her younger brother and parents and played with her very cute dogs before finally going to sleep well after midnight. 

The next day we drove around Elle’s town and went to the Cherryhill Mall close to Philly for shopping and lunch. On the way we stopped off at a drive-thru Starbucks – yes, that’s right you can order Starbucks just like you might order McDonalds or Burger Kind. I’m so annoyed I didn’t take a photo of this because if nothing else sums up American culture this did !

Driving around Elle’s town was so much different than my hometown Napier in NZ. The biggest difference is that there was no main shopping street you can wander down, instead it was made up of a series of huge big box chain shops and restaurants. These are all right on the road so instead of walking between shops everyone drives – minimizing any physical activity whatsoever.  In Napier and other towns in New Zealand we have a lot of independent cafes, bookstores and shops but all the shops we saw and went into were big chain brands like Nordstorm, Dunkin Donuts and Olive Garden.

After a huge lunch of baked potato at a bistro at the mall we went off-roading for the first time in Elle’s Jeep on some sand paths close to her house. Apparently off-roading is really popular for high-school kids, especially in kind of rural areas and most towns around New Jersey and Pennsylvania have places you can go to do this.  I sat in the back of the jeep – not a wise move as I flew everywhere as the car jolted up and down over the dunes and the seats in Elle’s Jeep moved. A couple of times we thought we were stuck, but luckily we didn’t have to call Elle’s Dad to tow us out …

After this we decided to stay in for the night – ordered some sushi and watched the Real Housewives of New Jersey ( which by the way was not at all representative of the people I saw in New Jersey !)

Eating lunch the mall

Before we almost got bounced out of the Jeep.  

On Sunday morning we woke up at 6am and Elle’s Mum drove Jess and I to the bus stop in Philly so we could catch the bus to New York City to catch our flight to Spring Break in Miami later that day !