I was a part of the group that planned the dance at Casa de Mañana so I arrived earlier to help set up. Wayne, Nina, and I got to decorate the photo booth. The decorations for the rock n’ roll theme definitely livened up the room. I also liked how we took the pictures with a polaroid camera because the seniors could take them home as a souvenir. I even got to take a picture with one elderly woman as she walked into the dance. She was so excited to wear the funny photo props. I think the photo booth turned out to be a hit during the night! Another hit of the night was the dancing. Although the band did not play the best music, we made the best of it. Most of the seniors just watched us dance, but everyone kept saying how they loved our energy and watching us dance. I felt a bit awkward when they were watching us, especially since I did not know how to dance to the music, but I still had so much fun! I loved how we would all get so excited if the seniors came up to the dance floor. I was surprised at their energy myself. For instance, there was one lady who said she was in her 90’s, but she was up dancing with us practically every song. It was so cute every time she happily switched between us to dance. One thing that I wondered during the dance is if the seniors thought we were weird for dancing solo instead of with a partner. I thought about this since I noticed how many of the seniors who would come up to dance would go in pairs and dance together. I tried dancing in a pair like them with Alisa, but the footwork was more difficult than I thought. At the end of the night, this lady had come in and ask me if the dance was over. It broke my heart to tell her that she missed it, but she stayed around anyways and seemed to enjoy talking to the remaining seniors as they were leaving.
We continued our presentations for class this week. First, we started off with the oral history project presentations. Wayne presented first and turned out to be my favorite EP project so far. His EP was his mom, who has Native American roots, so he had made three dream catchers to represent her memories. They were made so beautifully that I am sure he could sell them on Etsy. It was so sweet to see how close Wayne was already with his mom and how this project brought them even closer. After the EP presentations, we presented on the current events articles. My group presented on an article talking about the possibility of robots being able to care for seniors. The robots are meant to give caretakers more time to do other tasks, not completely replace them. This could additionally reduce loneliness for the elderly. One aspect of the article that I appreciated was the effort to make sure that the robots were culturally competent. I feel that this is one feature that is often left out of technological developments. The robots are currently being tested in Japan and the UK, which are two culturally different countries that would serve as a great model. I doubt that any robot could be completely culturally competent, but this is one step towards the right direction. One aspect of the article that I questioned was the affordability of these robots. This kind of technology is most likely expensive, which means that only high-income seniors would be able to afford a robot. Thus, this would further the gap between low and high-income seniors. I feel that there are other better ways to relieve a care taker and reduce loneliness rather than this option.
This week’s class had a lot of presentations involved. The first set of presentations was on the current events articles, which were similar to the ones last week. The second set of presentations was on Selling the Fountain of Youth. I was a part of this group, but I was not one of the presenters. I thought the book was a little too descriptive on the people within the beauty industry, which made it a bit more difficult to read. The author’s style was written like a play by play. However, I liked that it highlighted on growth hormones instead of beauty products because I have never thought of that side of the anti-aging industry before. It seemed to be something that one could have only if they were rich. The book also made me wonder how we should define ‘anti-aging’. I feel that there is no such thing as ‘anti-aging’, thus a product should not be marketed as such. The last set of presentations that we did was the EP presentations. I really enjoyed watching these presentations because I could see the new bond that was formed between the memoir partner and their EP. I really liked Shivani’s project because she put her grandma’s three memories in a jewelry box. It was a good representation of her grandma’s memoir. Everyone’s project was so uniquely different and interesting that I am excited to present mine next week. I hope that I will be able to present my EP in a way that makes him proud.
It felt weird being in a classroom this week since we have been going to site visits all quarter. I was a bit overwhelmed at the amount of projects that we covered, but I’m glad that the professors were able to break everything down. It was nice to be all together and talk about our experiences so far. Our first activity was the current events article presentation. I enjoyed the discussion that we had, especially about if older people should drive. It reminded me of my grandma and how she wanted to drive even after her license was taken away. Her car got taken away, but my family had to lie to her and say it was in the shop. I think after a while, she finally realized that she was never going to get her car back. I feel that this is a sad realization for many elders because a part of their independence is taken away. After the current events presentations, we went over our other projects, such as the book presentation, oral history project, HAP’s, and NAP’s. By the end of class, my head was spinning with mixed up acronyms. However, the project that I am excited to do is the NAP. My group chose to assess Encinitas, which I have never been to before. We decided to do a visit to Encinitas on Saturday and check out the local community center and library. Both of these places had pretty ocean views and were in good condition. My group even got to join in a jazzercise class at the community center. The class was open to everyone, but the majority were all women. They were all very sweet and welcoming to us. I am looking forward to our second visit to Encinitas next week.
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Deanna fongWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
June 2019
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