Unique and Special

Photo 1: The first steps in designing a book.

Photo 2:  It requires concentration

 Photo 3: The book!... My dairy sweet memories

 Photo 4: My dairy is unique and special because it will keep my stories and my photos about these stories. That's why in the picture you can see a pencil and a pen as an important  elements to write the stories and the camera to show my sweet memories (people, places and experiences).  

 Photo 5: My diary is unique and special because it will keep my life :)

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Photo 6: All the decoration is about feelings. My diary has two different sheets (yellow and green) to make the difference between my stories and the pic about these stories

Photos 7,8,9: You can see the decoration and the visual messages about family and the VIP people. 

CULTURAL DIFFERENCES IN MY REALITY

When I was on high school, I used to play piano with the Symphony Orchestra in my city (Barranquilla) it was a wonderful time in my life, I went to many cities in Colombia and we played in different scenarios. In that moment, I thought to study music, until I began the last year on high school. When I confirmed to my parents that I wanted to study music they did not refuse, nevertheless, when I told them that I wanted to do it in other city (Bogota) because in Barranquilla the School of Music is to become a teacher and I wanted to become a soloist, they told me in a polite way: “Vanessa, Don’t you think you are not prepared to move to another city? You only are 17 years and you don’t even know how to boil water !!”.  So, I must think in other career because I did not want to study in my city.

It was a real confused time for me, I began to think: “Oh my God, What I am going to do!!!”. Then, I continued taking English class while I had 2 months to decide what to study, and one day I was in my English class when my teacher said we must do a speech or role play as we were politicians.  I worked on this and I got 95% of succeed. My partners laughed because they said I looked as a real politician and my teacher told me: “ Vanessa, You should think about it, to tell you the truth, I did It and you convinced us the way you did your speech very well, you should study Diplomacy or something like that,  just think about it”. In that moment my partners stopped to laugh because they realized that my teacher was not taking it as a joke.  

I that moment, I realized I must study a career where I show my aptitudes and my way to lead. So, I began to search and I went to a conference about International Relation Program at North University in Barranquilla, and I really enjoyed it, it had different fields to work: Politics, economy, communication, diplomacy, languages, international cooperation, etc.

I began to study on 2003 and today I am an Internationalist, I graduated on 2007. I am doing my master in Bogota about International Affairs and Conflict Resolution since 2009, I am almost finishing it. Do you remember the city I mentioned I wanted to study music?, well I am living there!!, today my parents don’t say:  “you don’t even how to boil water!! “, although I have a maid who helps me once per week, I know, at least, how to boil it!!!

Well, what happened between 2007 and 2011 with my jobs?? This is the best part of my story,  I love my professional career because I had the opportunity of work and to know with different cultures. I worked in the Colombian Embassy in Panama, I lived in Panama two years and I became the Cultural Coordinator at the Embassy, so I had to prepare many events about how is Colombian culture. I always must invite to the Ambassadors of others countries and I really enjoyed the different ways to say hello, to dance, and I had to take care about some customes. For example: Once I met the Ambassador of Panama in my country in one of the events I was responsible to organize.  In Panama, there is a word: “chichi” that means “baby”, but in Colombia, that word is used when you are going to the restroom and you are going to do pis. You can say: “Voy a hacer chichi” (I am going to do chichi). So, I told to one partner of the Embassy, but unfortunately I said it a little laud: “Vicky, I am gonna  do chichi” and the Ambassador and others Panamanians heard me and they saw me astonished and he told me: “Are you leaving to see your boyfriend?” … and I got to be blushed,  I couldn’t  have say anything, I just leaved. When I came back of the restrooms, one Panamanian guy who worked with the Ambassador told me: “Sorry about the Ambassador’s comment, he didn’t know that “chichi” in Colombia means to go to restroom”, then the Ambassador asked me for an apologize: “I would like to ask you for an apologize, sorry about it”… so, I think I got to be more blushed than before because it is so crazy to receive an apologize from a Diplomatic and authority person of other country.

It is one of my many experiences working about I love to do, during my experiences working in Panama, I met many famous politicians, business people, diplomatic people,  military people and many more of Colombia, Panama and others countries. So, as I said, I loved to know about other culture, languages and the way to negotiate.  I confirmed that cross cultural differences is not only to speak different languages or to be located in the opposite part of the world; even at the same region or Continent, you could see that we have different customs and culture. The best part of this is that you can learn simple things, since a word until a traditional custom from other city, country or region.

Today, I am working in an Academic Institution, I am the International Cooperation Coordinator in the International Affairs Office at La Salle University in Bogota and one of my responsibilities is to negotiate understandings and agreements to other Institutions located abroad and also, to receive many international students; so I am proud to say that in all my professional life I had had a dynamic jobs.  Each day is a different day and you never know what is going to happen until your day is running.

So, Today I appreciate that my parents told me that It could be better to stay in Barranquilla until to became a graduate student and a good chef (well, today I am a graduate student but  not a good chef,  maybe normal). Today, my life is not the same without to learn other languages (Today, I can speak English and French), without to know about other cultures, the governments, the people and each adventure I have with foreigners, for me, is an interesting knowledge for my life. But, You know what?,  I never have forgot the music, I think that one day, when I become an important person, like Minister of International Affairs or Ambassador of Colombia in any Country, I hope to buy a big piano and to continue my classes as a hobby. In that case, I can do the two more important activities in my life: To work as an Internationalist and to play the piano…why not!? ..  In the future, I can add another: To become a good chef J. !!!

Colors: An important element in the movies. But, what about our culture?

When I think in colors, I think of life.  Life is not wonderful if we do not have colors. Why? Because colors  make the life easier with a meaning and sense. To explain it, we have many examples, nevertheless, I am going to emphasize in the genre of movie. What could we infer about silent movies and white and black movies were changed by colored movies?  In my opinion, I think due to colors are one of the most important elements to set the atmosphere that the Director and the producers the movie would like to show.  Unconsciously, colors in movies, give us a better understanding about the message producers show us. The way we understood the movies, may be influenced by the meaning of the colors in our country or culture and we never realize it. Therefore, this brief essay is going to explain why colors are important for the movies and in our lives.

First, I am going to explain one scene from one movie: Down with Love. We can see as the director uses the colors and he shows the appropriate colors according the message of the movie. Second, I going to describe with a photo where I tried to show this scene doing a little picture, and finally, I am going to show, as an example, how colors are important in our lives; hence, I will explain if the colors showed,  have an important meaning in my country, in my culture.

In the case of Down with Love, we could see a clip where two beautiful and elegant ladies are in a white mansion with colored furniture and they were wearing pastel colors like light blue, light pink. One of these women- Barbara- is famous because she wrote a book named Down with Love. She wanted to present the free women and teach them to enjoy sex without commitment. The clip showed us how she tries to promote her book, having a meeting with an important man who writes in a ladies magazine – Mr. Block. Nevertheless, Mr. Block always postpones the meeting giving her an excuse until she realized he is making fun of her because he did not want approve or accept her book. In this movie, we could see pastel  and light colors, with 60´s fashion clothes, so  we could infer the director or producers want to show a movie where some behaviors were taboo at this time and those kind of colors were worn by people,  because in those years women were more “shy”. Therefore, as I said before, in the case of movie, colors are one of the most important elements to the directors and producers because of it express details about the films. Although, Barbara wanted to write an open mind book, I noticed her personality was more conservative; she can not became as the other women, and I think the director wanted to explain that in that period was difficult to know how was the best way to behavior, on one hand; we can notice the liberal form and in the other hand, we can notice the conservative one.  The 60´s was a very controversial period in the world, where hippies, colors, drugs, music, peace symbols, grease, were the most popular behaviors of the people. But, some people did not accept it. 

Second, I tried to show in this picture, the colors of the movie, the pastel colors. You can see in the picture, the scene where Barbara was taking a dinner with her friend and partner of work and the man who worked with Mr. Block, it is showed by two triangles (women) and by a chart. In the other side, you can see a magazine and one interrogation mark, so I tried to explain that Barbara was waiting for her interview but at the same time, she did not know what had happened. Beside, you can see an old phone, a bed with two rectangles: one grey bigger than the blue one; it means the women who were with Mr. Block, they had extroverted personality and open mind and the phone because Mr. Block always called to Barbara when he was with the women.

Therefore, the pink means usually the woman color and blue means usually men color, that’s why I glued little circles with both colors. Nevertheless, the women who were with Mr Block were wearing blue clothes, so I think I was because some women were as liberal as the man was. It was a controversial period in the world, but also an important and unforgettable time in the history.

Now, taking account the colors we saw on the scene, they have not a meaning in my country, Colombia, I think we are a liberal country in this way.  The dilemma that I had thinking about it is that Colombia has five regions with different costumes, gastronomy, accents, music, weather (hot, warm and cold), and religions. So, it makes easier (I think) that each people wear different colors. It depends of your city, region or the most import: it depends on the weather. For  a woman, if you are going to a party, you can wear bright colors at night and pastel color at morning, but I think, as I said, it is about which city you live and which are your costumes.

However, in conclusion,  I could say that we have four important colors which appeared in both movies: Yellow, blue, red and white. Three of them are the colors of our flag, the yellow means the sunshine, the gold we have in our mountains and the t-shirt of our soccer team. The blue color means our seas; Colombia is the one country in South America that has exit to Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Also it means our sky and Colombia is one of the most important countries with water resource in the world. The red color means the blood of our soldiers in all our history, since the independence until nowadays with our conflict against the non-legal groups. Also we have on September one special day for love and friendship and all is colored with red. Finally, the white color means peace, we usually wear white clothes when we walk around the streets looking for a special objective, most of them against the problems of violence, we take into account the white dove as a symbol of peace.

For me, Colors means life,   mean happiness, I think without them our life is boring.

Colors: An important elements in the movies....but... What about our culture?

When I think in colors, I think in life; life is not wonderful if we do not have colors. Why? Because of colors  make the life easier, with a meaning and sense. To explain it, we have many examples, nevertheless, I am going to emphasize in the gender of movie. What could we infer about silent movies and white and black movies were changed by colored movies?  In my opinion, I think due to colors are one of the most important elements to set and give to the place the atmosphere that the Director and the producers the movie would like to show.  Unconsciously, colors… in movies, give us a better understanding about the message producers show us. But the way we understood the movies, could be influenced by which is the meaning of the colors in our country or culture and we never realize it. Therefore, this brief document is going to explain why colors are important for the movies and in our lifes.

First, I am going to explain two different scenes from the two movies clips: Blades of Glory and Down with love, we can compare each movie due to they use the opposite colors and they show the appropriate colors according the message of each movie. Second, I am going to show, as an example, how colors are important in our lives; hence, I will explain if the colors showed,  have an important meaning in my country, in my culture.

About Blades of Glory movie, we could see a clip where two young man are participating in the National Figure Skating; perhaps they are so nervous, they are waiting for their turn, before of this, there was two people, one man and one woman skating with pop music, they are wearing bright black and neon dark colors, with shine and silver colored sparks, they are pretty sure they are going to win the competition and also because they realized the public is clapping.  When the first couple finished, they said an expression: “did you hear it?”-  (they were showing  how the public was excited with their presentation).

Then, both man start to skate, it was very different in comparison with the first one presentation for these reasons: first, because they were figure skating with classic music and then they changed it to a rock gender (Bon Jovi’s song); second, because they were wearing different kind of dresses with different colors, the pale swarthy man was wearing with bright red, bright yellow and bright brown colors, those colors had a lot of shine and sparks. While the white and blond man was wearing bright blue, white, silver and also, its clothes had shine and sparks too.

When they began to skate, everybody in the public was laughing and they fell down once; but one of them convinced the other one to continue the competition and then they skated excellent, now the public was clapping and they achieved it.  Those colors highlighted the scenes in the movie, maybe the Director or producers wanted to show the roles of main characters, if they are participants, they must wear different colors of the public, the coach or organizers.

In the case of Down with love, we could see a clip where two beautiful and elegant ladies are in a white mansion with colored furniture and they were wearing pastel colors like light blue, light pink. One of this woman- Barbara- is famous because she wrote a book named Down with love work Down with Love, she wanted to present the free women from love and teach them to enjoy sex without commitment; the clip showed us how she tries to promote her book, having a meeting with an important man who writes in a ladies magazine – Mr. Block. Nevertheless, Mr. Block always postpones the meeting giving her an excuse until she realized he is making fun of her because he did not want approve or accept her book.

In this movie, we could see pastel  and light colors, with 60´s fashion clothes; so, we could infer the Director or producers could show a movie where some behaviors were like a taboo at this time and those kind of colors used to wear by people, I think because in those years women were more “shy”… that’s why Barbara’s book was like a broken paradigm?. Well, I don’t know!.

Therefore, as I said before, in the case of movie, colors are one of the most important elements to the Directors and Producers because of it express details about the films. Now, taking account the colors we saw on the clips, in my Country, Colombia, I think we are a liberal country in this way, the dilemma that I had thinking about it is that Colombia has five regions with different costumes, gastronomy, accents, music, weather (hot, warm and cold), religions; so, it makes easier (I think) that each people wear different colors, it depends of your city, region or the most import: it depends on the weather. For woman, if you are going to a party, you can wear bright colors at night and pastel color at morning, but I think, as I said, it is about which city you live and which are your costumes.

However, in conclusion,  I could say that we have four important colors which appeared in both movies: Yellow, blue, red and white. Three of them are the colors of our flag, the yellow means the sunshine, the gold we have in our mountains and the t-shirt of our soccer team. The blue color means our seas, Colombia is the one country in South America that has exit to Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, also it means our sky and Colombia is one of the most important countries with water resource in the world. The red color means the blood of our soldiers in all our History, since the independence until nowadays with our conflict against the non-legal groups, also we have on September one special  love and friendship day and all is colored with red. Finally, the white color means peace, we usually wear white clothes when we walk around the streets looking for a special objective, most of them against the problems of violence, we take into account the white dove as a symbol of peace.

For me, Colors means live,   means happiness, I think without them our life is bored.

COLORS IN CHINA

In Chinese culture, colors have an important meaning. On this occasion I am going to talk about red, yellow and white. 

The red is a woman´s color.  Women usually wear a red handkerchief on their head and red dresses and men wear red suit for weddings.  Also, red symbolizes good fortune, good luck, and happiness. That’s why I took a picture where Max helped me to simulate a wedding with another Chinese girl. There is another picture I took.  It has bills, coins and gold.  In this part, there is no red but I wanted to show good fortune for Chinese people.

Yellow represents the yellow river.  The river is called “the cradle of its civilization”; also, it represents the skin of Chinese people because they have a connection with the sand, oil, the earth.  Chinese people have a close relationship with the earth and the river is an example.  The picture I took is the Max´s hand with sand.  I took the picture because I wanted to show the connection between the skin, nature, and the earth.

Finally, the white color is associated with death, it is the most important color at funerals. People usually wear white to attend a funeral. I took one picture where three of our classmates were wearing white dresses and they were in a funeral.