Friday, September 08, 2006

Thursday Afternoon Fieldtrip...

Every Tuesday and Thursday I have a clinical rotation at an Outpatient Mental Health Clinic located in Northbeach/Chinatown. It's a great place to be cuz there is food up the a**. Italian, Chinese, American, Thai, Vietnamese, you name it...Anyway, when my shift was over I get to my busstop and wait for the bus. The first bus shows up and it is packed like sardines (not exaggerating) with KIDS (asian kids). So I was like, Imma wait for the next bus...Next bus comes, and shit...the freaking bus is packed like sardines too, same amount of kids...I was like...WTF...is there a freaking fieldtrip going on? haha...Anyway I decide to hop on the second bus cause I wanted to go home. While on this midafternoon fieldtrip, I didn't realize how annoying kids can get...Don't get me wrong but damn, kids up here in the bay area are HELLA GHETTO...GHETTO!!! Everybody talking like "brothers"...I guess it's just a totally different culture up here.

It really surprises me to see kids act the way they do up here though. I really think it's the environment they are in and the culture that is so ingrained into the city. Imagine every single day you have to wake up and take the MUNI (bus line) to school, commute into the city and get on a bus back home. I personally don't think that going to school in the city is a good thing. Kids are exposed to too much of the city's dangers, crimes, drug deals, homelessness, and so on. I'm not saying that it's a bad thing, because kids should be aware of what is going on in their own city, but I do think it has a detrimental effect on kids.

Another thing I realized about the city are the cultural and ethnic communities and how distinctly segregated they are...When I got on the bus from Northbeach/Chinatown to downtown, 90% of the passengers were of asian decent. We get to downtown, which is about 2 miles away and ALL the asian kids get off. One block away I get on another bus to go home and ALL the passengers, with the exception of my classmate and I, are WHITE and BLACK. The ride back to my house is about 7 miles. Half-way all the BLACK folk get off and the people left in the bus are the White people and two ASIAN people...me and my classmate. For some reason that really caught my eye yesterday...

San Francisco is definitely the place of culture, history and tradition! CULTURE SHOCK yo!!!

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