Clarissa, Huay Ching Ngoh

110108911

Professional writing: Travel feature - assignment 3

Theme: The reasons of visit Santa Barbara

“Santa Barbara is a beautiful town where remains undiscovered for many universal travellers in California State of America,” Clarissa proclaims.

Fast fact

Santa Barbara is the capital city of California, it situated on southfacing section of coastline and it also has the longest west coastline in United States. Geographically, the city locates in between the steeply rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. However, bear in mind that Santa Barbara's climate is always described as Mediterranean. Demographically, the city has an average population of 220,000 and the population of the whole country was 423,895 in 2010. Santa Barbara is a heavenly seaside place epitomising the Californian dream - palm-lined beaches, a romantic lifestyle, gourmet delicacies, fabulous wineries, vivid arts scene and a hustle bustle of city life.

I spent my winter holidays on the southern edge of the United States. Conversely, State was having summer on the mid of June as opposed to Australia. My first intention to visit Santa Barbara is because I intended to understand how the local persons there manage to live their lives in such a boredom edge, but I never discover that place is such awesome until I visited.

Unpredictably indeed, there are many reasons to visit this best freaking place. When I call up all the attractions in California, the dreamy activity definitely first remind me of ‘wine tasting’ on the breathtaking Santa Rita hill with a large piece of inevitable greenery in my sight. You may join a day tour for $99 US dollar; take an ordinary limo with a group of four via highway 101, on the midway of this scenic route, you may witness big building block in the urban and full of brand designers stores on the straight steep road.

Journey of Santa Rita

As a group of four, we drive along the shortcut to the Santa Rita hill. The distance is an hour away from Isla Vista, Isla Vista is the place where I stay throughout my whole trip at Santa Barbara. 'This is where the route that never had bad trafficking,' Jane, the tour guild says. However, 'when people are caught attempting to overdrive they will get fine for $300 US dollar as there are public CCTV on the highway to capture the instant scenarios,' she adds.

When we gaze through the windows of limo, we get to witnessed  that the Santa Rita hill is wonderfully beautiful yet ramshackle, with the slums go hard with farming and strolling on the hay; picking the watery strawberries and assorted of grapes under the hot sun. We stop at a twist in the road and look out; 6 acres secluded mission style villa is on our right, a 'slice of heaven' villa which contains one bedroom and one bath home. The most amazingly, the villa just built out of the greenery strawberries yard. Nevertheless, the price of this villa is something unaffordable for civilians like us who just expect to have a fresh air at the place where we never been before rather than living in a place where completely cleared us out. The villa cost a fix price of $325 US dollar per night throughout the year and seasons and the most unexpectedly is it still cost another $125 for cleaning fee upon termination. 'Rich is good', Jane proclaims. We get out of the limo, Andrew, my tour member, took out his sunshade and had a glance at the wide world. As I snap a photo and they told me not to hurry as we have plenty of time. Due to the irresistible sun light, I ran and hide under the shanty where the place they gathered up strawberries.

For those who attempting to come to this place, Jane proclaims that here is a kingdom for the rich. I say money can't buy happiness though. They can actually have their fresh air like us without spending one penny. Andrew grew up in Australia and that is the reason why we talked the most during the trip, we talked about our education background and the place we came from, while another two just having their silent moment by sightseeing as their travel concepts are 'silence is golden'.

Wine tasting at Santa Rita hill

We arrive at the wine house of Santa Rita hill, they is one wooden signboard lead us into the antique tasting room. We are allowed to taste unlimited glasses of wine which range from bitterly sweet to sweetly bitter. 'How I wish my every Saturday could be like today' I say. More than merely tasting the wine like drunker, we are given some crunchy biscuit sticks to swallow while sipping the wine. The most embarrassingly, the chunky bartender laughed at my innocence and reconciles 'You are eating biscuits more than tasting a wine'. Unfortunately, Daniel was partially drunk after a quick sip of wine. We can see that his face turns ruddy rather than naturally sanguine. At the end of the drinking section, we are given a 'Santa Rita' printed wine glass and allowed to have some time to look around the wine painted gallery before we exit the house.

Things to do at Stearns Wharf

Sunset watching - In Santa Barbara Pier, Michelle and me, we held hands like besties on the wooden pier. We spend time for sunset watching at the beautiful harbour whilst enjoying its flesh Atlantic oyster at the Santa Barbara harbour restaurant. During the sun fall at 6 o’clock, we see all the big and tiny boats remain at its positions for travellers to snap the priceless sunset pictures. We strolled down via Stearns Wharf, enjoyed the breezy wind under the greyish sky. “Tomorrow we may try kayaking and sunset cruise here,” Michelle suggested.

Kayaking - To fulfil my dream, the next morning, we have our first attempt for kayaking; two of us share a kayak boat. As a first-hand, we are taught to how to row the boat by the kayak coach. When we make full use of our energies to row the boat, the boat getting faster and faster; we accidentally hit each other for a couple of times while we rowing the boat. “Ouch!” Michelle implied me to row properly. As kayaking technique, we learned that when we hit each other means we rowed in a wrong timing. Certainly, it is interesting but super tiring. More than that, I got an extreme sunburn scar on my skin which under the area of my watch. “Its damn painful and ugly” I expressed.

Light refreshment - As a universal traveller, coffee is not my cup of tea any more as it is everywhere around the globe. Instead, I try to have a milkshake over the hot summer. Milkshake can be a kick-start for the day; it is beneficially cooling and stimulating. Occasionally, I fall back into Asian habits and ask for a standard Milo drinks in America, nonetheless American baristas normally stare at me and ask “we don’t have a milo, but we do have a hot chocolate.”

High tea at State street

State street is a shopping paradise at Santa Barbara. International restaurants, cafes, branded stores and painting gallery are all over there, you may spend all of your precious afternoon along that street. For me, I love loitering in beautiful high tea restaurant for all kinds of reasons. One of the best reasons, Adelaide does not have so many high tea options as America does. We girls dressed up fantastically like a princess for the purpose of high tea setup. We get in the best Danish high tea restaurant in Santa Barbara - Andersen’s Danish Restaurant and Bakery, which has the highest review and most positive comments across the net. The interior design of the high tea restaurant is super beautiful, it suits all sorts of ages; whether they are young kids or old ladies, they will definitely get attracted in this place. The floor is in black and white tiles, the border of wall is decorated with blue antique plates and the red roses over the white clothes are the most attracting one.  The store baristas pride themselves for their good photography skills as many customers who came in requested them for photo-taking in the store. In a three tier high tea set, there are chocolates muffins and chocolates tarts on the basement tier, four pieces of Danish croissants with thin-sliced lemons at the middle tier and a glass of fruits salads at the top. Additionally, there are strawberries and orange jams; few pieces of butter and white cream for bread topping.

Celebrities spotting

 One more thing, the reason to visit Santa Barbara is to spot the celebrities. If you are attentive enough, you will get to see some movie-star shop around on the street with an ordinary look; with sunglasses or hat over their head. Sometimes,  you may caught a celebrity hanging out with their family like usual or shop alone by their own in a random boutique. Or else, you will get to see them chill out in the cafe lounge. 

Solvang

Last but not least, rather than looking at the American culture,  the Danish town – Solvang, it is one of the great attractions in Santa Barbara too. The houses and building over there are built in a unique Danish architecture. There are Danish bakeries, unique cafes, attractive restaurants, Danish souvenirs stores, cultural boutiques and the Solvang vintage motorcycle museum in the Danish city. Solvang is the best place where you can found a cuckoo clock. 'It is the best mini gateaway for people who decide to take their 7 days annual leave for a mini vacation' Michelle gives her piece of mind. Whereas, I concluded my travel wisdom with the quote of 'a picture paints a thousand words', people who never leave a footprint here will never know the bits and pieces at this place. As a traveller's opinion, Santa Barbara is a great place to gives you a barrel of laughs.

Reflection

Reasons and methods in meeting my subject

Discussing about the memories of America trip is the best reason to meet up my subject, we bring back all the memories about what we gone through at America, I need the particular details to fulfil the requirement of this assignment. Hence, we interacted via Facebook message to make everything in black and white, we used written form of communication instead of oral communication to specific the details such as the name of the places, the best recommendations and attractions at Santa Barbara, the reason why Santa Barbara is the best choice of my theme, agreement of our dialogue and so on. Although the time difference between Australia and America is about half a day different, but we have no any difficulties in communicate to each other since the interaction is in written form.

Sources of information

Michelle Toh, best friend of Clarissa

Isla Vista, California

contact: https://www.facebook.com/michelle.toh.73?fref=ts

Leanne Schlinger

Santa Ynez Vacation Rental, Santa Rita Hill

phone: 805 770 7100

fax: 805 486 1663

email:  info@santaynezvacationrental.com

website: http://www.santaynezvacationrentals.com/properties/villa-santa-rita-hills/

Jullie Miller, Fairfax Media

Website: http://www.traveller.com.au/twenty-reasons-to-visit-santa-barbara-39kba

Technique employed

The technique employed in this profile is by organizing the structure according to 'attractions in Santa Barbara' in an hierarchy order, from a fast fact of 'what and where the place is' to a conclusion of 'why it is awesome' and 'why it is worth to visit'. A few deep research is done in establishing this profile; research is used to define the reason of why the information should include in this profile. My real identity and real story is used in this profile to create a sense of truthfulness which worth to read up by readers.

A brief discussion

From the course outline, I reviewed an example of travel feature and then  further searched the keyword of 'Santa Barbara' to apply in my real life experience. The searched result provides me an idea of the 'Twenty reasons to visit Santa Barbara'. I rationale the concept and turn into my idea by organizing the profile in a hierarchal way. The contents of this feature is based on the focal points of 'Santa Barbara', using illustration to describe the scenario rather than straight to point. Standard English is used in the profile as the style and format of the feature. Demographic statistic is introduced in the first paragraph, journeys are my procedures in the middle of the paragraphs, ultimately 'cross-culture' concept is demonstrated in writing the finished product.

(2,055 words)

Bye Journalism!

Name: Huay Ching Ngoh

ID: 110108911

Weekly interactive 10

Question: If a friend ask you what Harding's position all about, what would you say?

If a friend ask me about what Harding's position all about, I will explain to him/her that first of all Sandra Harding is a feminist philosopher of science in America, she is an education professor at University California of Los Angeles, her position distinctly tell us that she examined strong objectivity, she is the one who discovered standpoint methodologies, and postcolonial and feminist science as well as technology studies. She claimed that for some critics of such projects there seems to be a fine line between attempts to enhance the social effects of scientific research and "bashing science".

Besides than that, Harding also account for inclusive science is vital as the civilians face problems of sustainability, world climate change and food shortages. She make it clear that standpoint methodology is a way to explain something that is so obvious but hard to explain if you are a group of people who unwilling to listen to. A lot of philosophy or sociology students often question about "how can we tell who is right?'. Well, this probably needs scientists or philosophy funders to involve in democratic public debate, rather than turn political issues over to technocrats for their solutions. In a nutshell, the pure definition of 'strong objectivity' refers to powerful groups may obtain the details and explanations that they need to secure their priorities" (p.569).

In week 9, we talk over the chapter of ‘conflict management in groups’ during tutorial. First of all, conflict can be explained in various meanings. A conventional meaning of conflict is meant by a “striking force with force”, represents disagreement, discord and friction among people; interaction where words and actions are ‘unparalleled’ to produce frictional effect. Indeed, conflict is inevitable in our lives but to a significant degree we can negotiate to minimize conflict. Conflicts classified into four types which are interpersonal conflict, intrapersonal conflict, intergroup conflict and intragroup conflict.

Most of the time, people having interpersonal conflict to arouse a conflict, this includes pseudo-conflict, simple conflict and ego conflict to brought up a matter. Every one of us have different kind of personalities and therefore simple conflict is something unescapable, simple conflict appears when two people disagree each other, usually simple conflict happen when two persons knows what each other expected, but unable to fulfil that particular achievement.

Besides than that, we learned about some knacks of confrontation, which are

The most importantly, the best way to get rid any conflicts with others is to figure out a matter clearly before confront someone as this will ‘spoil the ship for a harporth of tar’. The best method of conflict management styles is negotiation. Negotiation is a both wins solution, and it usually benefits both sides.

For an instance, we were given a class material in class, a case example illustrated that Melissa took a certain financial risk in established her own business after a decade of experience. Her business specializes in offering training and consultancy services to business to enhance all aspects of communication. As her business expanded, she hired extra staffs for assistance. One of the staffs is Alice, a friend of Melissa whom worked with her previously; a problem has arisen upon hired Alice. Alice often does not fully perform her duties but in charge irrelevant duties in her role, such as corresponding with particular clients, discussing projects directly with clients and so on. This had brought up into dispute with other staffs, however Alice believes she is being helpful and thus she has the necessary expertise to do those works. The situation is tough because Alice does not take advice from Melissa as well and blamed Melissa for raises her problem which she acting beyond her defined role. And from this common yet explicit case, our group members chose to select ‘negotiation’ style as the best way to solve the complicated situation, we believe that by negotiation, it would improve relationship between Alice and Melissa, we proposed that Melissa should adjust the workload and roles of Alice based on her interests and lead Alice what she should do instead of using the quotation of ‘you always’ or ‘you never’ to minimize conflict.