So, how do you feel about walking around, roaming around City Heights area?

It's interesting. The way the stores and the streets are set up reminds me of a particular part of Albuquerque, where I grew up. It's, so in a way it feels familiar. But, seeing people's faces, definitely, people, I mean, look different, they're from different places all over the world. So it's real cool, it's interesting, but it doesn't really feel, unsafe, as you might have people be like, oh it's a bad neighborhood, it's like, no, it's a neighborhood. Honestly, walking around during the day, you can walk around anywhere. It's cool, you meet people, sometimes you have interesting conversations, sometimes, it's just regular, normal.

What specific things have caught your eye or interest since you came to City Heights and walked around.

I think probably one of the most interesting things…I'm hungry all the time, I like different cuisines, and like the variety of restaurants, grocery stores, things like that, you can get food from all places, all over the world, um, you can meet people and bond and talk to each other that way, it's a cool way to bring people together, especially if you don't know that you might have something in common.

What are the things that you find interesting about working with students from Crawford High?

Ok, so this is the first time I've ever done anything working with students in schools, besides like college TA stuff, and, so really, I have no idea what I'm doing. I came in, I know that I'm interested in the project, I'm interested in the way that everybody understands place, but like, in the context of a school, it's like somebody's supposed to be teaching somebody something, and, so I wanted to bring what I could to the project in terms of learning how to make a map, learning how to conduct interviews, and try to help you all, you know, build your skills in those areas.

Specifically what are the things that you find interesting or that you learned from the students?

There's, that's a really good question. In a room with a lot of people, probably the most interesting thing is how everybody has a different personality. Some people may seem like they're not paying attention, and yknow, but at the same time do really, really good work, and some people are loud and rambunctious, some people are really dedicated to doing a good job, getting involved, and not only with the project but with the community as a whole. Those, it's just cool and inspiring to see people together like, that. And you know, you have to go to school, so I see a bunch of people making the most of it.

So why do you really choose to do this project?

It's, it's a combination of just luck, and realized that, as a geography student, we have a bunch of projects going on at once, and you don't always get to pick what you work on. Sometimes you're grading papers, sometimes they'll have you going through databases, or looking at aerial imagery, and I really like working with people. I like to work like face-to-face with other people, and be able to sit down and talk and it's generally a lot better than working at a computer screen. So this project offered an opportunity for me to come in and work with people who I'm really grateful to work with. Also, I mean, one thing Stuart was telling me was it's a rare thing to have a teacher who's so supportive of a project as Mr. Flaherty was, a lot of times teachers will be like, this is my classroom, we're going to do this my way, and he saw this as an opportunity for you all to see things from a, like an outside perspective.

Please can you describe what are the different ethnicities of kids that you work with?

There are kids from all over the world, there are kids from San Diego, from other places in California, South Asia, Africa, where else, at the beginning of….am I missing anything?

Southeast Asia.

Southeast Asia, Cambodia, yeah. Specifically people from Karen Country. And, yeah in a short period of time we managed to make a map of everybody's favorite places around the world. It was interesting, you know, with thirty people, they basically got everywhere from the middle of the Pacific Ocean to Minnesota.

Could you please say what are the languages, some of the languages spoken at Crawford High, City Heights?

There are, so we just found out today through research that there are at least 55, European languages, African languages like Swahili, Yoruba, Asian languages, Laotian, also Native American languages, things like Navajo, and, so it's really, I mean, from a linguistic perspective, you're probably going to hear languages you might not hear anywhere else in America, together in the same place.

So you are the chosen one, for the project? How do you feel when they assign you the project?
What was your reaction?

I was really excited, yeah, I didn't know a whole lot about what I would be doing, but you know, we talked a little bit about it beforehand, it was, it hadn't been planned for a long time. I came in and met you guys, and you know, I've just been excited about it the whole time. Probably the best part of my week has been coming in on Fridays.

Thank you Elliot.

Thank you.