Blogs

Black Orpheus Response

The first 11 minutes of Black Orpheus takes you on a journey between the different classes of the city with each community having the shared commonality of music. It begins on a mountain top with residents of the community appearing to be predominately Afro-latino, where people paraded around with drums creating music, children were playing, […]

LAST 201 Introduction

 Hello LAST 201,

    I hope that everyone is feeling healthy and taking time for themselves as this school year ramps up. My name is Beck Laake and I go by they/them pronouns. I am finishing up my fourth year at UBC in Conservation of Natural Resources with a specialization in Global Perspectives in the faculty of Forestry. My degree requires international study, but since I will not be able to go abroad for the foreseeable future, I am looking forward to absorbing the wealth of knowledge that this class has to offer. I planned to take a global seminar last summer surrounding conservation and biological research in Ecuador and although it was cancelled I want to plan a trip to visit all over Latin America. I grew up in Houston, Texas so I have taken Spanish courses since I was in kindergarten and have always had an interest to learn more about the diverse culture surrounding it, even if my conversational Spanish is pretty rusty. One of the reasons I was so drawn to UBC was how international the student body was, especially since my ideal job would include global travel. Over my four years I have been involved in theatre productions, learned how to play the ukulele, and made a lot of friends who I miss very much. I have to admit that this school year hasn’t been everything that I thought it would be, but it makes me happy to see my fellow classmates persevering. A quarantine hack of mine is that my friends from Forestry and I have video calls in our Facebook group where we sit silently, study, and every so often take breaks to talk about our days. I found that making friends in classes is one of the most rewarding aspects of taking classes at university, but it’s a little hard to do that over the internet. If you ever vibe with something I say and want to chat about class or you, this is me reaching out! Feel free to hit my line and start up a conversation. It gets a tad bit lonely sometimes in these online classes. 

Hope everyone gets to find some peace in their day today,

Beck Laake

About Me

Greetings to you and all.   My name is Yuka and I grew up in California, USA but am currently living in Marseille, France. I am majoring in Global Resource Systems in the faculty of Land and Food Systems with a focus in Agriculture, Economics and South America. I think to pinpoint the initiation of […]

Black Orpheus

During the beginning of the movie Black Orpheus there’s a constant group of people and upbeat music. I liked how these big groups had people of all ages in terms of children up to seniors dancing and celebrating altogether. As in a celebration and there’s lots of dancing and something that stood out to me was […]

LAST 201 Introduction

 Hello LAST 201,

    I hope that everyone is feeling healthy and taking time for themselves as this school year ramps up. My name is Beck Laake and I go by they/them pronouns. I am finishing up my fourth year at UBC in Conservation of Natural Resources with a specialization in Global Perspectives in the faculty of Forestry. My degree requires international study, but since I will not be able to go abroad for the foreseeable future, I am looking forward to absorbing the wealth of knowledge that this class has to offer. I planned to take a global seminar last summer surrounding conservation and biological research in Ecuador and although it was cancelled I want to plan a trip to visit all over Latin America. I grew up in Houston, Texas so I have taken Spanish courses since I was in kindergarten and have always had an interest to learn more about the diverse culture surrounding it, even if my conversational Spanish is pretty rusty. One of the reasons I was so drawn to UBC was how international the student body was, especially since my ideal job would include global travel. Over my four years I have been involved in theatre productions, learned how to play the ukulele, and made a lot of friends who I miss very much. I have to admit that this school year hasn’t been everything that I thought it would be, but it makes me happy to see my fellow classmates persevering. A quarantine hack of mine is that my friends from Forestry and I have video calls in our Facebook group where we sit silently, study, and every so often take breaks to talk about our days. I found that making friends in classes is one of the most rewarding aspects of taking classes at university, but it’s a little hard to do that over the internet. If you ever vibe with something I say and want to chat about class or you, this is me reaching out! Feel free to hit my line and start up a conversation. It gets a tad bit lonely sometimes in these online classes. 

Hope everyone gets to find some peace in their day today,

Beck Laake

LAST 201 Introduction

 Hello LAST 201,

    I hope that everyone is feeling healthy and taking time for themselves as this school year ramps up. My name is Beck Laake and I go by they/them pronouns. I am finishing up my fourth year at UBC in Conservation of Natural Resources with a specialization in Global Perspectives in the faculty of Forestry. My degree requires international study, but since I will not be able to go abroad for the foreseeable future, I am looking forward to absorbing the wealth of knowledge that this class has to offer. I planned to take a global seminar last summer surrounding conservation and biological research in Ecuador and although it was cancelled I want to plan a trip to visit all over Latin America. I grew up in Houston, Texas so I have taken Spanish courses since I was in kindergarten and have always had an interest to learn more about the diverse culture surrounding it, even if my conversational Spanish is pretty rusty. One of the reasons I was so drawn to UBC was how international the student body was, especially since my ideal job would include global travel. Over my four years I have been involved in theatre productions, learned how to play the ukulele, and made a lot of friends who I miss very much. I have to admit that this school year hasn’t been everything that I thought it would be, but it makes me happy to see my fellow classmates persevering. A quarantine hack of mine is that my friends from Forestry and I have video calls in our Facebook group where we sit silently, study, and every so often take breaks to talk about our days. I found that making friends in classes is one of the most rewarding aspects of taking classes at university, but it’s a little hard to do that over the internet. If you ever vibe with something I say and want to chat about class or you, this is me reaching out! Feel free to hit my line and start up a conversation. It gets a tad bit lonely sometimes in these online classes. 

Hope everyone gets to find some peace in their day today,

Beck Laake

Black Orpheus and Culture is Ordinary

Black Orpheus: The intoxicating music of the first few scenes in Black Orpheus is captivating in the way that it makes your body want to move to a rhythm that feels familiar even if it is the first time you have ever heard it. Combining this beat with the dancing, the almost overwhelming chaos of […]

Introducing myself!

Hey Everyone! My name is Emilia Heilakka and I’m a 2nd year Sociology student. I am from Finland and I have been spending this academic year here because of covid 🙁 I have a crazy 10hs time difference, however I am lucky enough that this course is only at 7pm for me! yey! Latin American […]

Black Orpheus

The movie Black Orpheus starts off with upbeat (samba?) music and a dancing group of people in all ages in the countryside/mountain. It seems like they are having fun dancing and playing with the kite and drums. I enjoyed the opening of this movie, the upbeat and exciting music displayed the setting of this show, which […]