#fieldnotebook

They've declared it snow day tomorrow, and we've been induced to hoarding food in preparation of the impending blizzard and potential power outage. I went to Spindly-Legs's room because she offered to let me take from her instant ramen stockpile – her mother had just sent her 2 boxes of snacks and other goodies from Malaysia.

I was talking to Banana about this over Whatsapp before he complained about his food in New Zealand. He's been there for a few weeks now, sent by the army for a training or mission of some sort.

Our conversation –

B: Soooooo Maggie mee hmm I've been eating ORIENTAL flavor for the past like 10 days already

Me: Hahahha Oriental wtf Jesus now that I think of it What does that even mean Oriental flavored Maggie mee

B: Idk maybe it's supposed to give you the chow mein taste Like you go ask your American friends lor they might be able to describe to you

Me: Ya perhaps I should But what I mean is why would they even name it ofiental Oriental It's actually kinda racist if you think about it

B: Chucked at ofiental Err maybe they can't seem to better describe The taste

Me: Maybe...

B: I mean ORIENTAL flavor sounds better than CHOW MEIN flavor

Naturally I proceeded to check the packets of ramen I'd gotten from Spindly-Legs and found they were labelled as follows: "Miso Tonkotsu Artificial Pork Flavor", "Artificial Chicken & Mushroom Flavor" and "Gourmet Spicy". No mention of orientalism – these noodles did come from Malaysia after all.

I went to the gym to work out at 4PM in the afternoon only to find out that all the treadmills were taken. It's the third time this week I've gone to the gym at this time of the day and every single time all the treadmills are running (see what I did there?). So I got on the elliptical and about a minute into it when I remembered I could head to the second floor, this small area overlooking the tennis court, where there are more treadmills and ellipticals. Pleased with myself for recollecting this piece of memory, I jammed stop on the machine and left the indoor gym area.

To my delight, no one was there when I arrived at the row of huge treadmills. The place was dimly lit, the only noise coming from the tennis court downstairs where a couple was playing. I stepped on and brisk walked, listening to a new album – Strange Desire by the Bleachers –recommended by my friend Potato. Not long after beginning the workout, a few people found my secret spot and around me some of the treadmills began to get taken. That was fine by me because I was happy to just have a treadmill, and it wasn't as crowded as the gym downstairs so the atmosphere was still peaceful.

40 minutes of brisk walking later I stopped and hopped off the treadmill. As I was doing so I happened to turn my head to the left to catch the eye of two white girls – friends, by the look of it, because they were both talking – who were both on the treadmill and talking, but turned just to look at me.

Reflexively a mean voice went off in my head: what are you looking at? I looked back at them, taking in the blonde hair and pooh-poohing their choice of attire (Sports bras are disallowed! Put on a shirt, jesus!).

But then I started to wonder about why we even look at people when it's none of our business. Yes, sometimes we people watch and it's a fascinating thing to do, but what I mean here is when somebody makes a change in action and you look at them even though you already logically know what they're going to do.

An example: on the train, occasionally I take note of other passengers sitting around me. Just last month on the train downtown I took note of a girl sitting in the row across from me because she looked very demure and sweet, and then I dived into my mind with the Harry Potter I had on hand in my Kindle. Four stops later she gets off the train, and even though I know she's supposed to get off the train at some point anyway, I break away from my book and flash my eyes at the sight of her getting up her seat and leaving. Just to look.

There was really no need to do this; seeing her leave does not make a difference to me. Or sometimes when I'm studying and I see a flash of movement – just a bird, taking flight – it doesn't affect me, but somehow I automatically take a look before going back to what I'm doing.

The other part of this is, I'm troubled about my immediate reaction. I think in the US I tend to be more self-conscious about sticking out, about not being the "weird Asian girl," because even as I have gotten more comfortable around Americans I realize a tiny part of me is still worried I'll validate the judgments and stereotypes people might have towards Asians and/or international students. 

Math is all about numbers, quantities, patters, and all of the other things and ideas that connect to the aforementioned words. Mathematics is easily considered as one of the broadest subjects where it is most prevalent around us. Math is based on different facts and theorems that rely heavily on proving and logic. Therefore, math can be considered as objective, and of the most reliable sources of knowledge. Perhaps, because of these reasons, math can be considered a universal language. 

Math relies on fact on logics that are based on concepts called theorems. These things all make up the basic parts of math. All of these methods are used to prove something. Math is one subject that I think is true beyond reasonable doubt. Everyone just assumes that everything in math is just the way it is and it should be that way.

Another reason why people think this is because math gives one answer. For instance, when you add one to one, it will always be two. It will never be three. No matter how much some one will try to contest, two will always be the final and undisputed answer. 

The cool thing about math is that it is known to man worldwide. Wherever you are in the world, country, city, neighbourhood, or town, math has been used. There aren't any contradictions made about the theorems that have been thought of, because it has been universally accepted that it is correct, and also because it has been proven. 

Language is a very important took of communication and speech in our world. I mean, without language, what would we know? How would we be able to communicate? 

Language allows people to express their thoughts, opinions, and feelings to other people. Language makes it possible for people to communicate efficiently to each other. In my opinion, I feel that more than any tool, language is the most important. It's used by humans daily in their lives and interactions. 

Langauge is used between two people, and even in the media. The media is a major source of knowledge for many people. However, one question that arises from this is, "How does the media use language to influence its readers and viewers?" 

Language is often limited in the news due to the vagueness of some words and the double definitions of some words. At the same time, those in the media have to be careful in which words they use to influence their viewers and audience members, ensuring that they react a certain way. The use of language is to persuade or convince an audience into believing or doing something. 

In class, we discussed the different ways language is used in the world, and we concluded that one of the main ways language is used is to persuade people into doing or believing something. One way that people in the media do this is by using vagueness when describing a situation. They'll use words that are used to intentionally mislead people into thinking certain things, which may not exactly be true. Words that have both negative and positive connotations are used. 

In my IBH Language and Literature class, we are in a unit about poetry, specifically analyzing the works of the great Carol Ann Duffy. One of the poems that I came across is entitled, "We Remember Your Childhood Well." At first, I wasn't very interested in this poem because it seemed so boring and on the surface. However, after receiving the prompts for our Written Task essay, I realized how deep and meaningful this poem actually is.

The question was, "What social group is being oppressed or silenced?" After connecting this prompt to the poem, I realized that this essay was only written from one perspective. We had just talked about the reliability of perspectives in TOK the day before, and it was very mind-boggling. 

This poem is a recount of a child's childhood, but not from his or her perspective, but rather their parents. A parent or an authority figure is being the narrator and seems to be contradicting everything the main character thinks. The parents seem to be lecturing the child about everything that he or she thinks to be wrong. But after reading this essay, only one thought comes to my mind... Who's account do we trust?

The parents seem to think that they have done no wrong in the world and have only done things to help their child have the best life he or she can have, by giving them everything and anything that they wanted. However, on the other hand, the child seems to think that his or her childhood was miserable, and that it felt like hell.