Clay in my room! (with a little discrimination on the side)

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My sunsaengnim let me borrow a little portable wheel to have in my room. Now I'm not so mean to my roommate where I would use it in my room, but I will bring it out on the balcony. It took time to set up, and it was awkward trying to throw sitting on the ground. It was hard to control the speed and I realized I didn't have all the right tools. I'm really excited to have this in my room!

To get the wheel into my room my professor helped me by giving me a ride to my dorm with the wheel. Since it was so heavy she also let me borrow her little... how would you call it? It's shaped like an "L" with wheels at the corner where the lines meet and when you place something on it you can tilt it a little and wheel it away with a lot less effort. Anyways, that is what I borrowed. 😊 I ran out of clay but I will get some more tomorrow or Thursday. I also don't know what I am doing this weekend. Everyone counts so I don't like to do nothing. But at the same time i don't want to do too much.

I actually have another topic to talk about: discrimination. I know it happens but it has never happened to me because of my race... or even gender up to this point. But lately I feel like it is happening more and more, or maybe I'm just noticing it. This mostly has to do with my korean painting class because that is where i have felt it. But it happens a lot in many other places. I'm not sure if it is just EWHA University or if it is everywhere. More and more I am starting to understand minorities and the situations they are in. Having to speak for your entire race or country, being taken advantage of because you don't speak the language, being segregated (painting class, if not Ewha classes in general), being treated differently and/or unfairly, the list goes on.

Okay, well painting class has been the worst of it so far. First the class in offered, we show up and the professor is upset because we are there. She then tries to kick us out because we are foreigners, but when we don't leave we get stuck in a tiny, dirty "classroom" and told to paint. She comes in once or maybe twice a class time to "instruct" (or "advise") and then leaves. We can't really ask questions and we don't know what we are doing with the painting. I learned from practicing and going to museums to see how the masters might have done it. Also, in the ceramics class my professor had books on korean painting which I have read. Someone in class who speaks korean overheard another class at a different time complain that we are wasting the professor's time. We are then told we aren't going to be in the exhibition which is important and the reason for the class, even though we were told in the beginning that we could. So no instruction, no direction, no teacher, no space, lack of acceptance, and no exhibition. I've gotten so frustrated, most of us in the class are art majors in our Junior or Senior year so art in general isn't new to us. We are suppose to be Ewha students but we are treated like we are in the way, inferior to the "real" students trying to study and work hard. We are the slackers who are stupid and can't do anything and spend all of our time here wasting time and partying. This is mostly just in the painting class and it isn't that bad anywhere else, I just don't understand why it is that bad there. What did we do but show up to a class that was said to be open to us?

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Photos

Maple Leaves Korean Painting
Don't worry about what it says, I just wanted to make a piece mean something more than just foliage.

Comments

[Amanda]

Suxxorz
That sounds very frustrating. And unfair. It must be really interesting to be in that position because here at home, you're a white middle-class female. You're going to come away a much bigger person for all this...I promise! That maple leaf picture is amazing! I would love it if you could do one for me an Jordan to hang up in our room...it's really really impressive. I'm so proud of you. You're doing a hell of a job being a good traveler!