Game Over

OMG! That is all I have to say about little India and Arab street! Complete chaos! There were people everywhere, and I mean everywhere! We all started to feel incredibly claustrophobic and irritable. It wasn’t necessarily that it was a bad experience; I just think that at this point everyone is mentally checking out and is sick of constantly being around other people. As much as I love the friends I’ve made on this trip, my introvert is screaming to have some much needed alone time. At least we have all talked about this and we are comfortable enough to just say to each other, I love you, but I really just wish I could be alone right now! After we trampled through little India and it’s massive amounts of people, we headed to a restaurant called Raj. It is an all vegetarian Indian restaurant! It was awesome! We had garlic naan, basmati rice, and a bunch of different vegetables in different curries and spicy gravies! Afterwards Emma’s brownie and chocolate ice cream convinced us that we also needed some chocolate! So we all split a huge brown with ice cream! Wonderful! After dinner we caught the MRT and headed over to Chinatown! We did a little more shopping and then Danielle and I caught the bus while the other girls stayed to do a little more shopping! Yesterday was mostly a free day for us! The sun came out bright and early and we were able to lay out by the pool for a good chunk of the morning/afternoon! After the pool we got ready and went to class. We had our diversity class again and we did an exercise which consisted of us putting headbands on in a Rambo like fashion and then Len gave each one of us a card with our age, race, gender, occupation on it. We did not know what was on our card and we were instructed to interact and use stereotypes when speaking to someone else to help them identify their card. This was uncomfortable and eye opening. You really had to remove all of your filters and just say some of the very taboo stereotypes that we hold about others that are different from ourselves. This is something we are not used to and do not condone.  Despite the discomfort, I felt that it helped me realize the impact that stereotypes have on us personally and professionally as counselors. It is always something that has to be present in the back of our minds so that way we can work through our biases and be more effective and empathetic towards our client. After class my roomies and our adopted roomie, Amanda, went out to Modesto’s for pizza! It was relaxing and low, considering all of us have reached the point of check out! Today is another relatively free day. It’s looking a little gloomy out so hopefully the sun will come out and we can get some more pool time before class tonight!