Diagrama personal grafico

I got a letter today and it made me very happy! I came home after going to my cell group (that's what they call small groups/bible studies here... "celulas") and found a letter waiting for me on my desk. Totally made my day :D.

Okay so after googling for quite a while, I FINALLY figured out how to make my images BIGGER!!! Yay! Here is an assignment we had about one.. two? weeks ago in my portfolio class. The assignment was to create an image board of ourselves. We brought them into class for critique and then we had to guess which board belonged to who (whom?). I tried really hard not to make mine too obvious. Since I'm the only Asian person in the class, I knew that if I put anything too Asian on mine, I'd be discovered too quickly. So here's my board. You can look at it and try to decipher it. Then scroll down to see my explanations!



Y ahora, te explico:

The stamps:

Since my family travels a lot, I decided to use stamps as an underlying theme. The stamps shown are all of countries that I have visited. I also thought the stamp-theme was appropriate since I believe in snail-mail and I like this kind of vintage-y feeling :). I was hoping that using the stamps would connote a sense of nostalgia. Kind of like the warm, cozy, atmospheric sensation you might find in a cafe. That's me... I'm a real homebody. And I like the cafe-type atmosphere.


The vinegar bottle:

Chinese black vinegar is one of my favorite condiments. You can seriously eat it with anything! This particular image is of the specific vinegar brand which I like. Haha... Turns out that choosing to put a Chinese vinegar bottle was not so smart because everyone assumed it was soy sauce and immediately knew that it was me. I didn't even think about that. I was more concerned that the Chinese characters would give me away. Hahaha... I don't think anyone here in Spain (or even the US) is familiar with Chinese vinegar.. what a shame.


The ballet shoes:

This is one of my ultimate dreams... to be a professional dancer. Dance is one of my great passions. I love so many different types of dance: ballet, modern, ballroom, latin, hip hop, jazz, tap, liturgical... But I believe that all of these forms of dance have their foundation in ballet, hence... the ballet shoes!


The fruits/vegetables:

I often tell people that I'm a wannabe vegetarian. It's not that I don't like meat - I just like fruits and vegetables more. I looooove fruit! Growing up in an Asian home, we always have a plate of fruit after dinner. I also don't dare to touch raw meat, which means I never cook with meat, which means I'm pretty much a vegetarian here (unless I eat out) since I cook for myself :P. I still like meat... just not when it's bleeding on my plate, like a medium-rare steak. I always get my steak well-done.


The spaghetti bolognese:

My all-time favorite food. I think this might even beat the vinegar. During my critique my classmates commented on why my most of my prominent images were of food. I'm not sure why it ended up that way. I think I just really like to eat. Anyway, so spaghetti is a food that I never get sick of. My family always makes fun of me because we might have traveled all the way to say, Nepal, and we'll go to a restaurant and I'll ask if I can order a spaghetti bolognese :D. I've learned not to do that anymore though because my family always answers no.


And last but definitely not least,

The fish:

This is the Ichthys - a symbol of Christianity used by early Christians who had to meet in secret. Most people in my class didn't know what it meant. One guy commented that maybe I really like fish. But another girl knew right away and she said that it was a symbol of religion. I don't really like the word religion but that's okay.

I was hesitant to put this on at first because it's not everyday that you meet people and proclaim your faith outright, especially when you have just met them. I wish I could be more open about my faith but I don't think I am.

This assignment really challenged me to think about what exactly defines who I am. I attended a Christian conference at Yale last year (or was the year before?) and I remember going to a vocational panel where the speaker said, "Your vocation is not what defines you. God defines you." Very simple, but it's stuck with me ever since. After I thought about that, I realized I couldn't create an image board about myself without including an image about God. I was quite nervous about how the class would respond to it but it turned out to be okay. Since we were in a design school and all, our teacher was commenting about my composition and asked everyone what stood out the most in terms of the composition. Everyone said that it was the fish. I don't know if this was intentional or not, but I'm happy that it stood out :).

While I'm on the topic of vocations, the same speaker from that Christian Conference mentioned this quote:

"Your vocation is where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet."
-- Fredric Buechner

It's interesting because after last Sunday's sermon, the pastor asked us to divide into groups and reflect on the message and how it related to our own lives. I was talking about my uncertainties of the future and trying to understand vocation versus career versus calling. And one girl in my group mentioned Fredric Buechner's quote above.

Alright, it's getting late. I hope that was an enjoyable post for you. It wasn't so much about Barcelona but I thought it would be nice to share. More posts to come! Leave me un commentito (please) so I know who's reading :)!