Fruitvale

Fruitvale is a really great place. It's good to walk during the day. Its koo to kick it at during the day but after 7 or 7:30 it could get kind of dangerous. A lot of teens go kick it there during the day and night. They have a lot of stores and places to go eat at, bart is right there too, they also have a public library. I think is one of the prettiest places in Oakland. Theres a lot of Hispanics around the fruitvale area, and a few Asians and African Americans. Over there in Fruitvale they make festivels to celebrate El Cinco de Mayo Or El Dia de Los Muertos ( The Day of the Dead ). It;s a pretty good place to go with the family or friends during the festivals or even jus to kick it and go eat or look around.

Alameda

On our trip to Alameda it was koo. Maybe it wasnt that fun because I been there a lot of times. Alameda is a pretty clean and it is very diverse. I saw a mixture of a lot of rases. They had a lot of chinese resturants and fast food places, some mexican resturants, and coffee shops. They also had clothes stores and shoe stores, salons, etc. The people were friendly but didn't like getting interviewed for some reason. Only one person let us interview him. We asked a lot of people but everyone seemed to be bussy during the time that we wanted to interview them. There was a school out for their lunch break so that made even bussier and harder to interview people. After the interviews we went to the baech. That was pretty fun. We got to just kick it and relax for a while. The beach was really nice, and it was fun just to hang out with the class and not interview anymore lol. I think the funnest part of the trip was going to the beach.

My Thoughts....

I overcame some things I thought I couldn't. I got less shy because I asked a few people questions during the interviews. I felt more comforatable talking to people i didn't know, and I'm a really shy person when it comes to talking to people I don't know. I wouuldn't normally go up to a stranger so it felt good when I got to talk to new people and get to know a little bit about them and their opinions of how they feel about things, like how do they feel about Oakland or about their community. They would give us their ideas of how they think of things. I went to places I've never been to and it was exciting to try new things, visit new places, and get to know the people and how they live, what kind of foods they would recomend, how they feel about diversity in their community, and things like that. The people gave us an idea of their life style. This class has helped me grow in a way I wouldn't have done on my own. Some of the things I regret is not talking to some of the people in my class, maybe cause I was too shy and didn't know what to tell them. I got along with everyone in the group they all really nice people. It was fun overall.

San Francisco

On our trip to San Francisco it was pretty fun. We went to Castro street, I nevre gone to Castro street so it was koo to see a new places and how it is. The people at Castro st. seem very opened minded and they take pride of they're street. They hang their rainbow flags in the Castro district to represent. The people there were nice and when we asked them to interview them they had a good attitude even though most of them didn't want to get interviewed. They're really comforatable with themselves. They have a lot of stores and places to go eat in that area. It was a unique place.

Lake Shore & Rose Garden

My trip to Lake Merrit was alright, we did a lot of walking. When we started interviewing people they were all really nice. All the people we asked said yes to us. We tried interviewing people that worked in food stores because our topic was food and it seemed like they would know a lot about that. But we also interviewed people that didn't work in food stores. After everyone was done with their interviews we walked to the Rose Garden. While walking up there we saw two houses that had stones, but not just any stones they were made into something, like chikens and mushroom. The Rose Garden was really nice it was like a place you can go and just relax. I think going to the Rose Garden was the funnest part of the trip.

Farmers Market in Old Oalkand and Lake Merritt

My trip to the farmers market in Old Oakland was a fun experience. I never been there, so it was fun to see all the things they do like sale food, play music and other things. There was a lot of people walking around the farmers market, even students from elementries were there. Everyone who was working at the farmers market were very bussy. Some of the people we interviewd wern't from Oakland. Some people came from Nevada to sell there things because they feel like they get more money then they would if they sold it to a regular market. On our trip to Lake Merritt i had a lot of fun going on the paddle boats. I never gone on paddles boats before so I was kind of scared when i got on it, it seemed like it was going to tip over. It was fun to try something new.

Rockridge

My experience in Rockridge was fun, the people were friendly. We have a lot of fast food resturants in Fruitvale but in Rockridge there isn't as many. most people were very nice and they wanted to be interviewed. The people we interviewed had a really nice attitude. I never went to Rockridge before and it was a nice experience. Some of the differences between Rockridge and Fruitvale are that in Rockridge there is a lot of white people and African Americans and very few Latinos, some of the Latinos wern't from there. Rockridge had a lot of shopping centers that we dont have in Fruitvale, the stores had very expensive things and resturants. In Fruitvale there is alot of Latinos almost no white people and we have resturants that aren't all that lot of them, they have healthier places to eat. I was surprised that Rockridge was still Oakland because of the nice shopping center and because I saw a lot of white people around it was kind of more cleaner than wher were at. Even though it had nice shopping centers and resturants it wasn't all that clean and there was some tagging so is kind of similar to Fruitvale.

Life in east Oakland

Growin up in East Oakland (Murderz):

Born and raised in East Oakland you hear about someone eather getting jumped, hurt, or killed. You always hope that those people aren't the people you love. Your always worried when you hear the ambulence or the police sirense. You see people kikin it everyday with their friends at the block. Trying to keep there head up hoping that there not the next ones to go. Gangs almost every where you go, always have each others back. You got to make sure you dont step in the wrong block. Trying to get out of the struggle but some never make it and some do. You see immigrants triyng to get a job standing in the corners struggling just to make money to bring home to there families. Even though we got our problems we still got good things in our neighborhood. Theres many places to go to here in East Oakland. Many places to go eat or to just hang out with your patnaz. It's unique people have their own style of dressing, they got scraperz and scraper bikes. Many things that other places dont have.

Chinatown

Before going to Chinatown I thought there wasn't going to be different rases, but when i got there I saw that there was a few African Americans and a few white people. The diffrences between Chinatown and Fruitvale is that in Fruitvale there was a lot of Latinos and it was more diverse and there are more different kinds of resturants. In Chinatown there was a lot of Asians and they mostly had Asian resturants. The people in Fruitvale were more opened to us. It was easier to interview them and understnad them because I could understand what they were saying. The people in Chinatown were a little shy to get interviewed. Most of the people we tried to interview told us that they couldn't speak english. Some similarities is that there was alot of people walking around. What surprised me about Chinatown is how most of the people we asked to interview fefused. When we went to a jewlry shop the Lady looked at us like she was scared. Overall it was fun going to Chinatown.

Walnut Creek

My experience at Walnut Creek was easier than my experience at Walnut Creek. It seemed like people on Fruitvale were a little scared or it just didn’t feel right to them to let us interview them, although they were pretty nice about it. At Walnut Creek it seemed like they had a lot to say about there community. Here on Fruitvale when we interviewed the people they had a lot to say about their community they talked about the negative things and the positive. I learned that people in our community have respect us and for their community. They like their community even though it’s not the safest. They showed us that just because it isn’t safe doesn’t mean is bad either. One positive thing I liked about Fruitvale is that it’s a very open community and they have all these different types of restaurants even though the majority in that community is Latinos. They have a lot of shops that sale a lot of different and unique things. Some negative aspects about Fruitvale is that it isn’t all that clean a lady that we interviewed talked about how around 7 they get scared of being there because it gets dangerous. I learned that Fruitvale is diverse. Even though there’s a lot of Latinos you still see all the different people and cultures and it shows when you go to Fruitvale because of all the restaurants and the people you see there.

Welcome!

Hello, Laura! It's nice to see you online! : )