STREET: 02/16 (Fantastic Food, Friends, and Where to Find Them Issue)

The Daily Princetonian

Thursday february 23, 2017

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PAGES DESIGNED BY ANDIE AYALA AND CATHERINE WANG :: STREET EDITORS

FANTASTIC FOOD, FRIENDS, AND WHERE TO FIND THEM

A Community of Independents: Undergraduate Co-ops on Campus ANDIE AYALA Street Editor ‘19

“By virtue of the fact that 2D is the only undergraduate co-op on campus, it has been labeled as insular, even strange. But the house’s reputation is the least of its problems.” An article published on February 20, 1983, in the Daily Princetonian reads.

Almost 44 years after this article, the undergraduate co-op on Princeton’s campus has expanded to four different operations - 2 Dickinson St. (2-D), the Brown Food Cooperative, the Real Food Co-op and the International Food Co-op (IFC) - and is still continuing to grow, with the new Pink House vegetarian co-op announced for next year and ongoing efforts to start another co-op. While the current eating option only includes 5% of the upperclassmen population on campus, with a total membership of about 140 students. According to press releases from the Interclub Council of the Eating Clubs of Princeton University (ICC), about 70% of upperclassmen students join eating clubs.

Adrian Tasistro-Hart ‘17, a current member of 2-D, the oldest co-op on campus, noted that the eating option was established in 1977, during which the kitchen and dining room where added to the building. According to Tasistro-Hart, the students who made the co-op initially did so because they were tired of low quality independent cooking without community.

A Daily Prince article about the history of the co-op, published on April 1996, noted that the members of the house initially wrote a ‘declaration of independence’ when establishing the co-op.

The declaration stated, “Motivated by a desire to be independent without being isolated from people, these students plan to eat and live together in a community atmosphere, a situation lacking not only in independent dining but in Princeton dormitory life in general. The success or failure of the Dickinson project may exert a great influence on the future of independence.”

Moreover, Alexander Gottlie ‘18, who is part of the Real Food Co-op noted that the Real Food Co-op was started in the basement of Edwards Hall in Mathey College in 2012. Tottlieb explained that he joined the club in his sophomore spring, because he had had a couple of meals there before, and one of his good friend had told him that there were

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(Left) Pink House: The home of Princeton Social Sustainability is located at 99 Alexander; (right) 2-D: Located on 2 Dickinson St., 2-D is a vegetarian co-op. spots open in the club.

“My sophomore year was a tough year for me personally and I was very much looking to find my community on campus,” he said.

Alex Aparicio ‘18, who currently lives in the Pink House, Forbes’ intentional sustainable community, said that while the group is not yet an official co-op, they have been able to use the kitchen for sophomore dinners and special events. She noted that being able to cook has allowed house members to better enjoy the space, and form deeper relationships with one another.

“Food and the choices we make around eating is one of the most impactful things that you can do in your life to become more sustainable,” added Gavin Hall ’18, a current resident of the Pink House. He explained that since the Pink House technically qualified as ‘special interest housing’ for students committed to living a sustainable lifestyle, the co-op would enable them to truly live out their purpose. “A lot of the stuff we do could in theory by done by a student group without a devoted home, but I think we would miss out the amazing thought process that happens when we’re all together at the

same time,” Hall commented.

“Its been really great for me in terms of having a community as an upperclassmen, somewhere that I can come home to at the end of the day, where I feel supported and among people who share my core values of sustainability,” Aparicio commented.

Tasistro-Hart explained that in 2-D, decisions about what food to prepare, what to do in the co-op, what rules apply are all determined during group meetings. “We end up having super heated debates about really trivial things like ‘should we buy almond milk one week?’ The process of talking things out together, and making sure everyone’s voices are heard is a form of expressing autonomy and independence. Even though the decisions we make aren’t that significant, it feels kind-of significant.”

Tottlieb commented that being a part of a co-op is not “so much [about] having an eating option as much as knowing that on any given night, if you show up somewhere at 6:30, you are going to have a dozen friends sitting around a table who will want to hear about your day, and you will want to hear about their days. It just so hap-

pens that food is one of the reasons that we’re there.”

While a 3-hour cooking shift may seem intimidating to some, Tottlieb said that if we were to consider the grand course of their week—the cooking shift would add to about 30 minutes of time, which is not unreasonable to ask of a university student. “I haven’t come across anyone for whom cooking seems like a burden, just because I think like me, people just genuinely enjoy cooking, and it is a very welcome break from the rest of the week” he stated.

Tottlie added, “joining a co-op was one of the best decisions I made since coming to Princeton.”

Tasistro-Hart, who is in charge of membership for 2-D said that since last fall, he has been having conversations with students from the other co-ops and the administration about providing more co-op options for undergraduates. He noted that the waiting list for 2-D is currently at 250 people.

“We recognized at that point that there was a lot of discontent with the availability of independent options,” Tasistro-Hart commented. He added, “The point is that we recognize there is a demand for alternative eating options, and co-ops are an ignored option that really strike a good balance between community and independents.”

The administration has been very receptive to discussions, and everyone is optimistic that there will be a new coop next fall, Tasistro-Hart explained.

However the questions of how the construction will be funded, whether finding a house would be feasible, and how to replicate the process still have to be resolved.

“We’re trying to expand those options in an organized way that is sustainable and reproducible,” TasistroHart noted. “Part of the vision is that co-ops could be part of eating culture.”

Spaces on Campus: Working in Rockefeller College Common Room ZACH BAMPTON Staff Writer ‘20

Unlike some study spaces on campus, the Rocky Common Room is hardly ever empty. At least during the regular school year, you can almost always find someone working late into the night, or coming in early to catch the morning light through the glass windows.

If you spend enough time here you’ll find the regulars, the usual suspects of late night hijinks, as well as the itinerant musical crowd that send notes of Bach and Chopin and the La La Land soundtrack into the rafters. It’s easy to get lost in time just working along on assignments, as there’s no clock to keep you time-oriented.

In all honesty, it’s probably not the best place to knuckle down and crank out pages of writing or p-set answers; there are no desks or lamps for studying, but sometimes that’s not what you need.

You wouldn’t exactly run into Rocky if you weren’t looking for it: the Com-

mon Room, along with most of the dorms, is sequestered away in the northwest corner of campus. But it’s worth seeking out.

One of the most common descriptions of Rockefeller College is that it’s the one that looks like Hogwarts.

They’re not quite wrong, either. Its arching ceiling, wood furnished interior, and hanging lights create a fantastical atmosphere, where work can be done with a magical creativity in mind. However, instead of a Chamber of Secrets and a Basilisk, you get College Head, Jeff Nunokawa, who occasionally ambushes undergraduates with his frenetic and friendly personality.

The high windows adorned with wrought iron designs cast the perfect amount of natural light to work during the day. It’s a remarkable sight that has featured in the movie A Beautiful Mind (2001), directed by Ron Howard, about former Princeton mathematics professor, John Nash.

You can let the atmosphere sink in as you sink into comfortable chairs as

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Rockefeller College common room was featured in the film A Beautiful Mind you attempt to channel your inner John Nash for this week’s p-set.

During the day, the Rocky College office and the Rocky College Council organizes a variety of activities to punctuate student’s study patterns. Afternoon teas provide free snacks and drinks to tide you over until dinner, while also enabling students to converse with a

wide variety of professors and speakers.

Lines of students will swarm the common room once a week for for Rocky college study breaks (Tuesdays, 9:30pm!

Featuring Qdoba burritos this week).

Trivia Nights (Wednesday, 9:30pm!), run by Resident Graduate Students nights encourage sporting competition among friends.

The Classical Music hour (Friday from 6:30 to 7:30pm!) offers live performances of music that help you unwind from a long week. After 8pm on weekdays, you can also grab free coffee and cereal from the adjoining dining hall and work in the periods of quiet while getting to meet other Rocky-Mathey undergraduates who live up campus.

So whether you choose to study, siesta or take advantage of all the free food- the Rocky common room can give you space to do all of the above. The Rocky community is close, and having a “room where it happens” is great for a sense of connection to your residential college.

There’s a certain spontaneity which staves off the boredom of returning to the same place day in and day out: you never know who is going to come up and begin to play piano or begin a protracted French theater practice. There are a lot of serious places to study on campus, but sometimes it’s better to relax and enjoy a semi-productive study session.

The Daily Princetonian

Thursday february 23, 2017

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Finding Kosher Dining: The Center for Jewish Life MOFOPE OLARINMOYE Contributor ‘20

For the members of the Jewish community, the Center for Jewish Life is much more than a place to eat. Rather, it represents a solid community of people who share similar beliefs and religious experiences.

The CJL website explains that the building was opened in 1993 and was established to provide for the “social, educational, religious, and spiritual needs of the Jewish community on campus.”

In addition to the residential college eating options on campus, the CJL acts as the only kosher dining hall, meaning that it prepares food according to Jewish law. Kosher requirements not only refer to the food that is eaten, but also how it is prepared.

Moshe Beiser ’19 explained that eating kosher has always been part of his lifestyle; it was how he was raised, and a conscious decision he made as he grew up. Beiser added, “It became a large part of my college application process. When I was visiting for schools one thing I always looked for was the availability of kosher food.”

According to Joshua Weissmann ’19, “Food is an integral part of my lifestyle and interaction with the outside world, so I can definitely identify with the fact that many Jewish religious experiences center around food.”

While eating kosher is partially a religious activity for Weissmann that is practiced according to pre-existing law, he noted that eating kosher also allows him to maintain relationships with a consistent group of community members.

Weissmann explained that walk-

ing into the CJL and dining with many of his closest friends gives him “a strong feeling of religious upliftment.” In this sense, to him, food not only nourishes one’s body, but also one’s soul because of the community that comes along with the food.

The CJL does a good job at “doing what Jewish mothers do,” Weissmann noted, by creating a congregation that reminds many Jewish students of home.

He described how being at the CJL gives him an overall sense of warmth because “when you walk into the dining hall, someone is looking at you and smiling and [you know that] they want to talk to you.”

Beiser noted that it’s easiest to center his life around being in the CJL because it is where he eats three meals a day and prays multiple times. He said that, even as someone who is abiding by the strictest level of kosher law, he could technically eat cereal or some sort of salad at the other dining halls, but since he is already in the CJL most of the time for religious and social purposes, it makes practical sense for him to eat there.

As Weissmann described, if kosher food were served at all of the other

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Princeton University’s Center for Jewish Life provides twenty meals a week to students, and is supervised by the Orthodox Union.

dining halls, “there would be a rupturing of the CJL community.”

There is something intangible and valuable in the CJL community, he explained, and also noted that it’s the sense of being in harmony with the other CJL members that truly makes eating together meaningful.

Moreover, in contrast to other universities in the country, Beiser commented that the CJL was unique because it is open to the broader Princeton campus.

As a result, Beiser said he’s grateful that he can still share meals with

friends from his hall and other parts of campus who don’t need to eat kosher food, but who are still able to eat with him.

Outside of Princeton bubble, Weissmann noted how keeping kosher while eating with other people is a much greater inconvenience, unless you live in New York City. He further detailed how it could be “tremendously difficult taking clients out to lunch because kosher restaurants are not exactly prolific.”

For this reason, the CJL exists and, as Weissmann commented, is cur-

rently doing a “phenomenal job [at] bringing people together,” allowing them to show their true selves, and “building a community over mealtime.”

The CJL serves all meals: breakfast from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m., lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., and dinner from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. The building is conveniently located on Washington Street across from Frist Campus Center.

Any Princeton student on a University meal plan can swipe into the dining hall.

Student Interest Housing: Edwards Collective for Arts and Humanities ESIN YUNUSOGLU Staff Writer ‘20

The University has a long history of creating structures for communities that bring together people based on specific interests, such as dance, acapella, or visual arts. There are student artists from all different fields who push the limits of creative imagination and create work worthy of being displayed on worldrenowned platforms.

But what would happen if these different groups crossed paths?

What kind of community, conversations, and creations could emerge from such an environment?

The Edwards Collective is a residential community that aims to answer this question by bringing together 35 students with a demonstrated interest in arts and humanities. Student choreographers, visual artists, musicians, writers, and actors live together in Edwards Hall,

sharing a common lounge, as well as ideas and inspiration.

Through the collective, students have been able to propose trips to the Metropolitan Opera, off-Broadway plays, art gallery openings, concerts, dance shows, exhibitions, and other events with all costs covered by the University.

This way, students are encouraged to explore other media of art and humanities outside of their usual preference. Members of the collective also meet over breakfast on Fridays, weekly dinners, and knitting nights, and are able to participate in retreats during fall and spring breaks.

Current member Anna Kimmel ’18 pointed out that although other groups on campus spend time together over meals, while studying, or at campus events, no other group — apart from those in the Pink House — actually lives together.

As most Princeton students experience in their freshman year, “’zee groups” often become good friends

close just by living together. Yet more than simply living in the same area, the Edwards Collective is designed for students who share mutual interests, which allows for productive and inspiring conversations.

According to another Edwards Collective resident, Matt Wie ’17, his favorite thing about the collective is being in the same dorm as people who appreciate the arts and are always ready to talk about them. He also mentioned the Edwards music studio as a great benefit.

“This emphasis on community means that people also feel comfortable being their weirdest, geekiest, most earnest selves, which I love and think we could use more of at Princeton,” current member Claire Ashmead ’17 explained. She noted how members have organized events like drawing night and helped each other make costumes for Halloween.

As Kimmel and Ashmead described, gatherings such as the Friday morning breakfasts at Edwards,

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Students watch movies and read books during leisure time in the Edwards Collective.

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The Edwards building is part of Mathey College and provides housing for members of the collective, in addition to other students

and trips to outside performances allow for “rigorous, diverse, probing, respectful, and ultimately unpredictable conversations.” While Kimmel’s art form is dance, she said that the wealth of information she has gleaned from visual artists, actors, vocalists, costume designers, and poets has allowed her to better understand her own medium.

As far as arts and humanities excursions go, Ashmead commented, “The fact that my neighbor is crazy about Jane Austen means that I got to attend a staged version of Pride and Prejudice in October, that I’m obsessed with Shakespeare meant we got to go to The Cycle of Kings at the BAM last spring, and so on.”

However, as highlighted by Wie, having a fulfilled experience in the collective is contingent upon how active you are. As almost all rooms are singles in Edwards, you could lock

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yourself in your room and not get to meet people, especially in the first year in the collective, Wie noted.

As a result, he added that members benefit from the opportunities that the collective provides based on how willing they are to actively engage in the activities.

Although much of the campus population may not know that it even exists, for the small group of people who live with fellow artists, Edwards is a huge part of their Princeton experience.

Any rising sophomore from Mathey College and upperclassmen from any college can apply to Edwards.

Although it requires its members to have at least a Block-95 meal plan, it is possible for upperclassmen to be both in an eating club and Edwards Collective as long as they have a shared meal plan.

The Daily Princetonian

Thursday february 23, 2017

LOVE & LUST: FANTASY VS. REALITY ANONYMOUS I used to believe that love worked in a singular, particular way; that I would meet one person and they would be the first person to ever hold my hand, to be my first kiss, my first date, my first time, and that I would marry that one person. My impractical standards dictated that this person would be perfect and that we would live happily ever after. I went to a single-gender school for most of my life, and had very little interest in romance of any kind. All my knowledge of relationships and romance came from TV shows, books, and movies for the first 18 years of my life.

When I came to Princeton, the little glass world that I had created in my head of what love and happiness were supposed to be was shattered.

Here was this world of smart, interesting, and beautiful people, and none of them I encountered were living love lives that even remotely resembled the fairy tales I had envisioned. If none of these people could make a perfect love story come true, then what chance did I have?

Even when presented with the opportunity to date someone at the beginning of my freshman year, I shied away from it because the person didn’t seem to meet my impossible standards.

I spent the first semester and a half appalled by hookups and the overall reality of love in college.

Around the middle of the second semester, I started drinking and partying to impress the boy I liked, or to at least get him to notice me. However, I soon realized that a drunken make-out session didn’t equate to a real relationship, and so my disillusionment with love deepened. I spent the rest of the semester making out with random guys on the Street every time I went out.

By the end of the year, I had still never been on a date, had never kissed someone while sober, and had forgotten whatever silly fantasies I used to have about my future love life. Yet I still held on to one thing. One thing that hinted that somewhere, deep down, I still believed that I would meet that perfect person, fall in love, and live with him happily ever after. My rule for myself was that I would wait until I fell in love to lose my virginity.

This past weekend I decided to break my rule. I had only spoken to the guy twice before, and I entered the situation deciding it was better if it meant nothing to me. I always thought that it would be a big deal, some momentous event that would dictate who I would be for the rest of my life. And it wasn’t.

The only thing I feel that I lost is my last shred of hope for a fairytale love story. It was naive of me to ever think that the world was so simple and that love in reality mirrored love in fantasy. Yet I learned that the mirror was warped. Maybe that marks the end of my childhood, and maybe everyone finds out eventually that the world isn’t like what they once thought it was.

I still don’t know how I feel about the whole situation. As I work through my thoughts on this topic, I’ve come to see that love is full of ups and downs, and no relationship is perfect. I think college probably functions as an introduction to what love is like in the real world. It is a cold introduction akin to jumping into the deep end of a freezing lake, but it is also real. And isn’t it better to live in a real world rather than an illusionary or self-deceiving one?

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ASK THE SEXPERT This week, we discuss safe sex.

Dear Sexpert, Growing up, I learned that each month I should do a breast self-exam to check for lumps or signs of breast cancer. I was recently talking to a friend who said self-exams are controversial, but they didn’t remember why. Can you help me out? If I don’t do self-exams, how else can I protect myself from breast cancer?

-- Feelin’ Myself Dear Feelin’ Myself, It’s great to hear that you’re proactive and open to talking about your preventative healthcare. Preventative care is important both for reducing risk as well as facilitating early detection. With respect to breast selfexamination (BSE), your friend does have a point. BSEs have been the rising subject of debate since the 1990’s when studies began to showing conflicting data.

To start, a BSE is a physical exam, performed on oneself, that looks for changes or abnormalities in the breast tissue. BSEs are favorable because they are simple, noninvasive procedures that can be performed by non-medically trained individuals, and they can help improve sense of control of one’s health and increased comfort with their body. The recommended time to do a BSE is monthly about three to five days after menstruation begins. Also, it is best if done at the same time every month.

While medical training is not required, knowledge about how to accurately and effectively perform a BSE is necessary. Since breast tissue is naturally lumpy and bumpy, and gets less dense with age, and natural hormonal changes or changes related to a menstrual cycle may cause swollen breasts or tenderness, BSEs can incite unnecessary fear and anxiety. In fact, BSEs are known to result in increased number of healthcare visits, unnecessary biopsies, and false-positive test results. BSEs and related false positives often lead to needless and sometimes invasive follow-up testing with potential for increased anxiety and

emotional distress. As of 2009, United States Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends against teaching breast self- examination as there is moderate to high certainty that they have no net benefit.

Beyond breast self-examination, the USPSTF recommends other preventative behaviors to detect breast abnormalities, including biennial mammography for individuals aged 50 to 74 with the decision to start screening mammography in women prior to age 50 determined based on an individual’s benefits and risk factors.

Other screening methods include clinical breast examination (CBE), ultrasonography, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). CBE for screening is not recommended by USPSTF. Meanwhile, the American Cancer Society and Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation have the most intensive recommendations, encouraging CBE every three years starting between ages 20 and 40, and annually thereafter. Additionally, ultrasonography and MRI are both not first-line screening techniques and are often used in conjunction with others when they can add useful information.

In summary, the medical community is not in agreement about the benefits compared to the costs of breast self-exams, because good clinical decision-making involves consideration of clinical evidence, patients’ medical history and other circumstance-specific conditions. To discuss risks and benefits of BSEs, learn how to perform a BSE accurately, and empower yourself to make educated decisions, talk with your primary healthcare provider or make an appointment with Sexual Health and Wellness (SHAW) at McCosh Health Center.

-- The Sexpert Interested in Sexual Health? The Sexper t is always looking for members of the community to join the team of sexual health educators who, along with fact-checking from Universit y health professionals, help wr ite these columns.

Email sexper t @ dailypr incetonian.com for more infor mation and questions about sexual health.

A LESSONS LEARNED FROM RESIDENTIAL COLLEGE ADVISORS & Q DANIELLE HOFFMAN Contributor ‘20

Becoming a Residential College Advisor at the University is highly competitive. The application has multiple stages, which, depending on the residential college, can include written responses to questions, one-on-one interviews with the Director of Student Life, and group interviews with senior RCAs. Between the financial and rooming perks and the position’s overall importance to the University’s residential college system, the RCA role attracts a great number of applicants each year.

This week, the Street interviewed some current RCAs to find out more about what this highly sought-after position entails.

The Daily Princetonian: What has been your favorite part about being an RCA? Folasade Runcie ’18 (Forbes): My favorite thing this year has been seeing how my ’zee group of 13 girls has become so close. They even do stuff without me having to organize study breaks. I get to see friendships that have formed naturally without me having to be an unnatural force in that formation.

Joshua Burd ’17 (Forbes): I have done other leadership type stuff with my acapella group and with more academic extracurriculars that are administrative in nature, but I really like this particular leadership job because I feel connected. I feel like I really get a chance to bond with and learn from my ’zees, and to share with them things that I’ve learned at Princeton.

Samuel Davies ’18 (Butler): Everyone’s going to give you the basic stuff and be like, “I love my zees.” But I honestly think I have the coolest zees. They do a lot of fascinating things, so it’s super fun to just hang out with them.

DP: What has been the hardest part about being an RCA for you?

JB: I think one of the roles as an RCA is to be present for your ’zees whenever they’re having problems. And, of course, you have various things come up in your

own life, and when you multiply that times 20, you realize just how many things are going on for everyone.

FR: A hard part is when unexpected things happen, so that I have to facilitate very difficult conversations and try to navigate the options between not pressuring anyone to talk about it and letting people who do want to talk know how to go about it in a helpful way.

Tyler Hoffman ’17 (Wilson): The hardest part about being an RCA is finding a balance between being in a position of authority within a group of people and being friends with that same group of people.

Liam Fitzgerald ’18 (Forbes): I’d say that the hardest part of being an RCA is feeling like you are getting the upperclassman experience that most students want from Princeton while still attempting to feel like you are a part of your residential college. Especially if someone is an RCA and at the same time in an eating club, it can be very hard to find the happy balance in splitting one’s time between their dorm and the street, not just for meals, but also for studying and hanging out.

DP: Have you had any particularly funny, uncomfortable or memorable moments as an RCA? LF: It is always semi-uncomfortable seeing my ’zees out at the street. I don’t know how to handle it because you want to be friendly but also don’t want to break any professional boundaries.

JB: Sometimes my ’zees are way, way smarter than I will ever be and come into Princeton’s math program at a higher level than I am even though I’m 2 or 3 years ahead.

And so we’ll have conversations where I’m asking if their classes are going okay when they’re taking classes that are way harder than I can comprehend… I find those conversations funny.

FR: There was a snake in Forbes.

That was a little funny but also crazy.

DP: What has been one of your favorite study breaks that you have hosted?

TH: I got ice cream with various toppings and baked cookies for my ’zees, and set up a station where

they could create personalized ice cream sandwiches.

LF: My ’zees and I actually had one where we got bubble tea and watched an episode of “Black Mirror” as one of them suggested. I thought that I could handle scary movies well, but it turned out that isn’t exactly the case. We were all rattled for a couple days afterwards. Right when it ended, we actually all just sat in silence for a couple minutes watching the credits roll, which was funny in retrospect.

DP: How has being an RCA shaped your experience at Princeton?

TH: There are many difficulties associated with being an RCA. However, when I look back on the experience, I will always look back on it as an extremely positive one.

Because the position requires that you’re always thinking about other people, I have become a much better friend, teammate, family member, and a better person overall as a result of being an RCA. SD: I remember as a freshman I looked up to my RCA a lot. Being able to be in that capacity and having other kids look up to me now is rewarding. You see it come full circle — that’s one of the most rewarding aspects of it — being able to carry it forward by enhancing the lives of future generations of Princeton students.

FR: You become an RCA as a junior and that’s when you start doing independent work and stuff like that, and everyone starts to become so jaded. As an RCA, you constantly get reminded of how great Princeton is by these freshmen that are like, “Princeton’s so awesome.” And you’re like, “Aw yeah, Princeton is awesome.” It makes Princeton new again.

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Samuel Davis is a Junior Residential College Advisor in Butler College at Princeton.

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Tyler Hoffman (left) and Joshua Burd (right) are senior RCAs in Wilson and Forbes.

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Folacade Runcie is a Junior Residential College Advisor at Forbes College.

The Daily Princetonian

Thursday february 23, 2017

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Unfamiliar Street: Western Distributor, Sydney ERIC ZHAO Contributor ‘20

I have to say, as I traveled down the east coast of Sydney, Australia, this summer, I was disappointed to learn that “P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way” did not exist. However, I was glad to learn that at least the East Australian Current was real, although I voyaged by plane and car to get to Australia, rather than f loating along the EAC with 200-year-old sea turtles.

Though my image of the highway to Sydney (which may have been somewhat limited to clips from “Finding Nemo”) was shattered, a new one formed and took its place in my mind. The fictitious Wallaby Way was succeeded by the Western Distributor.

Cutting a vague “J” from western to northern Sydney, I learned that this multi-lane freeway passes some of the most popular parts of the largest city in Australia, for food and for friends.

The Western Distributor starts at the sleek, modern cable-stayed Anzac Bridge and passes by the Sydney Fish Market, self-proclaimed “Australia’s Home of Seafood,” the

largest fish market in the southern hemisphere. The air is thick with pelicans and seagulls, mixed with the smell of fried food, saltwater, and fish. Shops along the street display the catch of the day on ice and in tanks, selling a colorful variety of seafood in bulk, from fish, shrimp, and abalone to spanner crabs, slipper lobsters, and Moreton Bay bugs.

The trays in each of the different stalls are layered high with seafood prepared in every way imaginable.

You can find an impressive range of marine species deep fried and served with tartar sauce, lemon wedges, or wasabi mayonnaise: grilled octopus skewers, seafood nachos, elaborate sushi rolls, generous portions of sashimi, fresh calamari, intricate seafood platters, fillets steamed with soy sauce, and thoroughly fried seafood, often with cheese, garlic, and butter.

The seating areas in the market provide a comfortable space to enjoy your meal, should you choose to have it fresh while chatting with friends (but if you choose to sit outside on the water, watch out for the hungry seagulls swooping down on your food!).

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Sydney Fish Market is the largest fish market in the southern hemisphere, and the third largest fish market worldwide.

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The Western Distributor is a multi-lane freeway that passes some of the most popular parts of Sydney, Australia.

Also watch out for demolition crews; the current markets will soon be cleared, as a new quartermillion-dollar state-of-the-art facility is set to be complete by late 2020.

Past the smell of fried food and fish thins, the road runs just south of Darling Harbour, another fantastic place not only for cuisine, but also for fun outings with friends. On this road you can find the Sydney Wildlife Zoo and the Sydney Aquarium, both recently revamped, which display hundreds of species, many of which are found solely in Australia.

One thing I did learn from my Disney childhood that remained true: It is hard not to like the ocean while in Sydney.

Not surprisingly, the Western Distributor will take you directly up on Observatory Hill, which has evolved since the early 19th century from an astronomical observatory to a museum. It offers breathtaking views of the harbor during the day and stellar views of the stars and planets at night, holding both a modern telescope and the oldest working telescope in Australia.

The Western Distributor rises above the city as it ends at the Sydney Harbour Bridge. This impressive granite and steel colossus looms across the surprisingly clear, blue harbor waters.

While there is a company that can take you to climb the bridge arch, walking across the nearly mile-long pedestrian walkway hundreds of feet above the water proved to be a more immersive experience for me. From the bridge, one has a magnificent view of the grand white sails of another staple symbol of Australia: the Sydney Opera House.

While the Western Distributor is a great road for friends and for food, it doesn’t simply take you to each of Sydney’s tourist attractions. From the most modern elements of the city, to old structures under construction and the roots of the city’s historical heritage, the freeway dives into the spectrum of how the past coexists with the present within a complex, growing city and country.

Across its 2.4 miles, the Western Distributor distributes not only traffic, but also history.

Do You See Me Now? : A Review of Charles Francis Chan Jr.’s Oriental Murder Mystery JIANING ZHAO Street Editor ‘20

A play within a play. A murder mystery within a romance within a family drama within a coming-of-age story, all within a socio-political satire about Asian-Americans, created

by Asian-Americans. “Charles Francis Chan Jr.’s Oriental Murder Mystery” — a mouthful of a title, yet fittingly convoluted just like its subject matter — is the very first play in Princeton’s theater department to feature a cast of entirely Asian-American actors.

So what is the Asian-American experience? For our protagonist Frank Chan, dropping out of college and losing his girlfriend constitute great personal predicaments, not to mention his desperate hopes to avoid the imminent draft and the almost ridiculous, yet painfully realistic portent of him having to fight in Vietnam against “Orientals” whom whites perceive as similar to him.

As a resort, Frank decides to change such perception: He invents the term

“Asian-Americans” to substitute for “Orientals,” for a people whose existence has been marginalized and devalued for a long time in a country where they are born and raised, but where they fail to entirely belong.

Frank’s heartfelt speech about his grand vision culminates with a passionate cry: “I’m going to write a play!” His audience freezes, both on and off stage. Yet this seeming anticlimax serves for more than a comical relief after heavy talks of politics, as it affirms the audience’s expectations about what Asian-Americans can and should do, thereby purposefully and subtly making us uncomfortable, if not slightly ashamed, for holding these expectations given the fact that we are watching a play-within-a-play written and acted by Asian-Americans.

Ironic, right? The play is full of moments like this when we frown at the blatantly racist stereotypes uttered shamelessly on stage, only to realize that part of us agree with, or at least understand, the mentality behind these stereotypes to some extent.

When Frank is criticized for living a “non-participatory life” where everyone else “listens to [him] bitch about white people all day,” there comes laughter from the audience, followed by seconds of pensive, almost guilty silence.

Perhaps the play aims to inspire in us simultaneous sentiments of recognition and defiance, like when you and your friends smile knowingly at the common knowledge of a dirty secret, only to bury it or burn it, which corresponds more accurately with the dramatic ending of the play, fraught with Kung Fu and sword fights. And it succeeds.

But is the final patricide necessary?

Granted, what Frank intended to kill was not his father but the deeply rooted “Orientals” traditions (i.e. of putting up with white supremacy with a smile and living “non-participatory lives”) associated with his father, but by suggesting the necessity to uproot this heritage, the play underlines the significance of this heritage itself, and undermines the role of individual choice to some extent.

A question frequently discussed in this play is “what do you want your child to be like?”, instead of “what do you want to be like?” or “what does your child want to be like?” The characters’ concern regarding their collective racial identity has become so overwhelming that it overshadows their identities as individuals. The Asian-American future, which they actively claim ownership of, might blind them from understanding the perspectives of those like that of Frank’s father.

When Frank’s ex-girlfriend announces that she will leave him for an acting job in a “Hollywood major motion picture,” her ecstasy about her role as a prostitute with one line is hilarious yet heartbreaking at the same time. As absurd as this situation seems on stage, I personally know girls who would have made the same choice in similar circumstances.

However, I caught myself thinking exclusively of Asian-American girls, since such is the context grounded by this play, while overlooking girls from other racial, cultural, or ethnic

backgrounds who might have done the same.

While the “assortment of race jokes and diatribes” (as the female protagonist Kathy jokes, another sign of the extraordinary self-awareness of this play) achieves powerful satirical effects, it simultaneously imposes a pair of race-tinted glasses upon its audience that might have limited their potential reflections on the play outside of the Asian-American context.

What helped to loosen such restraints was that almost all actors play more than one role, exemplifying the fluidity of racial and interpersonal lines. This creative and thought-provoking approach established a crucial middle ground between the construction and the collapse of identity depicted in the play, and offers an open-ended conclusion to the motif of “seeing” throughout the show: The focus of the recurring question “do you see me now?” is really on the “now,” and it is to be created by every one of us, both individually and collectively.

COURTESY OF LARRY LEVANTI

A sartirical play about racial stereotypes, Charles Francis Chan Jr.’s Oriental Murder Mystery is the first play in Princeton’s Theater Department to feature a cast of Asian American actors.