Elena and Phoebe Take on the City of Angels

I’m not going to lie, beginning the day was much more difficult than we would’ve liked. I was not pleased at all to leave the warm comfort of my bottom bunk bed (if you didn’t figure this out, Elena and I have a bunk bed). After dragging my sleepy head out of bed and into the shower, I was a little more prepared to take on the day ahead of us.

Waiting for public transportation is not something I’m used to, especially since it’s virtually nonexistent in good ol’ Colorado. And so we waited for the bus, we waited, and then we waited some more. Finally the bus 33 arrived, and Elena and I took a sigh of relief. Upon arrival at the El Pueblo Historical Monument, we realized that the front of the Pio Pico Hotel was being prepped for a movie! Later in the day, when we were leaving work, movie people even shooed us away from the set. I have a strong suspicion that I saw Alfonso Cuaron today, though with my horrendously lacking skills in movie trivia I may be horrendously wrong.

As soon as I downed a full bottle of water and a handful of cough drops, Elena and I set to work…watching home videos of Chinese Americans from the 1950-60s. From my interpretation, the protagonist of these home-made films was a little mischievous Chinese American boy, whom we dubbed bad di-di (little brother in Chinese). Although there was not sound with these videos, the material was fascinating. Here, encapsulated in a 3 part, 6 hour long movie was the experience of a Chinese American childhood. In many regards, this Chinese family experienced many quintessential elements of American life (i.e. opening Christmas presents, having fun in Disneyland, visiting the Grand Canyon, and etc.). Yet there was a repeated return to images of life in Chinatown, of lion dances and family gatherings. The videotaped images provided by this Chinese American family exemplify the fusion of Eastern and Western cultures.

After watching several shots of the Phoenix Bakery in the movie, Elena and I would relive history during our lunchtime hour, one bite at a time. Our eating adventures in LA continued after work as well, when our fellow volunteer/interns offered to take us to frozen yogurt in Little Tokyo. In one afternoon, Elena and I were lucky enough to sample two competing frozen yogurt stores (Pinkberry and CeFiore), which are located across the street from one another. Much to my delight, I found the stuff (at both locations) absolutely marvelous!

Well, I’m fast fading and should likely get a good night sleep before we go to Disneyland tomorrow!

Jake Lee ~ House of Winds

We would like to dedicate this picture of Elena working on her senior essay to Professor John Williams.

Ahhhh…Elena and I are fed, (somewhat) rested, and currently typing blog posts in our hostel room. I’m so thankful that we have a place to rest our heads after this almost never-ending day.

As someone who calls Colorado Springs home, I should like to say that my adventure began yesterday afternoon when Elena and I waved goodbye to campus. Despite the deceptively beautiful weather we enjoyed the day before, as soon as we merged onto the highway Mother Nature insisted on being unpleasant. But we successfully negotiated the treacherous and blizzard conditions on I-25 and made it to the mile-high city in once piece. [Please note that both Elena and I were wearing flip-flops when we left Colorado Springs]

On the day of departure I, in my overzealousness, woke up at 3:00a to drowsily prepare myself for two and a half weeks in sunny California. From 3:00a until 10:00p west coast time, life has been go, go, go... After waking up Elena at 4:00a, we departed for the airport in the dark and dreary pre-dawn hours. Flying to California was easy and pleasant; I spent most of the flight sleeping awkwardly schlumped over the empty middle seat. Post-arrival, we lugged our luggage (which involved some dragging, kicking, and yelling at times for me) from Union station to the Chinese American Museum in the El Pueblo Historical Monument. The museum itself was not difficult to find, as red Chinese lanterns provided wonderful place markers.

Almost immediately upon arriving at the CAM we were welcomed by …
[*At this point in my blogging I was virtually drooling on my laptop I was so tired. As a result, I am offering not one, but two blog posts tonight.]
…Sheryl Nakano, a wonderfully nice woman who has done marvelous things for the CAM. As the baby of El Pueblo Historical Monument’s museums, the CAM is still trying to come into its own. And though there are hurdles to be overcome, I optimistically believe the CAM will make everyone proud in the future. After dumping our luggage behind a desk, Sheryl gave us the low-down on our projects. Our first of two projects comprises of watching the home movies of two prominent Chinese-American families, and the second mission will be to go through fairly fragile scrapbooks from the 1930s.

Following the explanation of our projects, Sheryl graciously gave us a personal tour of the CAM. The exhibit I found most intriguing was the Jake Lee watercolor exhibit. Despite being a Chinese-American painter, who painted scenes of Chinatown, Lee aimed to distinguish himself as an American-Californian watercolorist. To disguise his Chinese-ness, Lee painted quintessential American scenes of barns and fields, but elements of Chinese painting seemed to creep into his works (i.e. plum branches snuck in through the corner of at least one of his displayed pieces).

With a better understanding of the museum and its mission for the future, Elena and I were then whisked off to be introduced to the curator and one of the founding members of the CAM before lunch. First we met Pauline Wong, a newly graduated PhD student who studied informal education. While speaking with Pauline, Suellen Chang dashed in to announce she misplaced her sweater and would be back to meet us more formally. Though we only exchanged two-second greetings, Mrs. Chang left quite an impression. Much to my surprise, Mrs. Chang (one of the founders of the CAM, and a prominent person at the El Pueblo Historical Monument) was nice enough to take us out to lunch. Not only did I enjoy a wonderful cup of horchata, but had a stimulating conversation with Mrs. Chang about transnationalism, and the role of overseas Chinese as middlemen for the movement of goods and ideas between east and west…I think I have to write a thesis now…

Thankfully, Pauline was nice enough to drive us to Gramercy Place, and I was thoroughly pleased to have a place to rest my head. Almost immediately after checking in I checked out, taking a splendiferous four hour nap. Napping completed, Elena and I ventured to the nearby grocery store for provisions. In our excursion I believe I stuck out like a pine tree in a forest of cacti, it’s a little awkward but I’m okay, I like awkward.

Well, I must go prepare dinner while Elena finishes the last bit of her senior essay. Toodle-ooo!

A replica of a working Chinese herbalist shop was once housed in the Garnier Building.

Today was fast and furious. It started at 4am with Phoebe knocking on my door, and there hasn't been a dull moment since. We got to LA without incident. In fact, I might actually characterize the journey as pleasant. Pheebs was excited to be back in Cali.

We arrived at the museum a bit earlier than expected this morning. The wonderful Sheryl Nakano was there to greet us. She has been instrumental in setting up this internship opportunity, and was so excited to finally have us. We spent most of the morning looking at the collections and talking to Sheryl about her truly incredible work in getting the museum off the ground.

She has been working for about five or six years with twenty years worth of donations that had never been properly catalogued, sorted or preserved. The response from the Chinese community in LA to the museum has been overwhelming, and the sheer volume of donations is daunting. After all these years, she is still plowing through artifacts and documents. We got a chance to look around and see all the work that is cut out for museum interns and employees for years to come. We will be looking at some really awesome scrapbooks from the turn of the century and transcribing some oral history recordings. It will be fantastic.

We got to meet all the museum staff including Suellen Cheng, curator of the El Pueblo Historical Monument (which most people know as Olvera Street and the surrounding plaza area). CAMLA was originally the vision of Suellen and her husband, Munson Kwok. It is still their baby, and this year the museum will turn five years old. We were lucky enough to have luch with Suellen in Olvera Street, and it was fun to pick her brain. Overall, every single museum employee we met seems ecstatic to have us here.

Our digs here in the city are also pretty sweet. We are in an old mansion that has been converted into a hostel, right on the edge of Koreatown. It's ecclectic to say the least. We went to a local gorcery store tonight and stuck out like a couple of sore thumbs. I can't decide what gave us away. Could it have been Phoebe's JCrew fashion tendencies or perhaps the fact we were speaking English to each other? No matter, everybody we've encountered has been friendly and hilarious.

Well, I am tired so I'll just stop here for now. Please pray for Phoebe; she has the black lung.