August 12th, 2010
Study snacks
Pineapple buns, almond cookies, sweet bean cakes, peanut cookies, coconut tarts, custard tarts
July 13th, 2010
When I’m bored at work
Starry Playland
Stars made of carbon paper and playland made of industrial paper towel.
May 3rd, 2010
3FC
The Asian American Student Association seemed at its prime 4 years ago when I first joined. The club had over 70 members and yet we were all close. I think it was because almost all of us started college at the same time that we also all drifted apart at the same time. Friends started to hang out with certain friends. Groups began to form and split. Four years later the club is hanging only because of history, but it’s obvious the club has died.
But when a forest burns down, new trees rise. With the incoming freshman receiving no leadership from the club, they began to gather themselves. If you walk up the 3rd floor of the Knowledge Center and walk to your right, you’ll find a group of young Asian American freshman and sophomores all studying together. I like it there because you’ll always find a friendly face to talk to. The older kids seem to have become bitter and have retreated from the whole college experience. But these young kids are still so eager about their education and their future.
The group has become such a living breathing entity of their own, they made a name for themselves: the 3FC or the 3rd Floor Crew. At any time you can usually find them there. They even made T-shirts. They post events on Facebook and take trips together. It does sound kind of cheesy but they have brought back the brotherhood and sisterhood I once remember.
April 20th, 2010
Vietnam
After the war, the new Vietnamese communist government had to rebuild the country and reorganize everything. From an outside view, the changes were all a façade. The government pretended to be okay and pretended to be doing well on its own. Realistically today, the people still experience the devastation left by the war.
My dad once said, “Vietnam was rising before the Vietnam war. It could have been successful as South Korea is today if it wasn’t for that war.”
When visiting Vietnam, it is easy to see how industrious the people are. They make the best out of very little. Fix and reuse is their motto.
The souvenirs are very fun because they are all made of simple materials, but they depend on the artist’s creativity to create something amazing. My family visited a zoo one rainy day. We all bought cheap plastic ponchos. The zoo resembled more like an abandoned palace or a cemetery. Dark concrete structures rose from the ground in the damp forest. The tall trees sagged and dripped from the rain. The broken rock path led the way around the compound. There were hardly any animals out, except for a hippo that stunk bad. I thought it might have been dead.
Down the path a little farther, there was a old woman selling snacks. We bought some and munched during our break. An old man was with the woman. He was selling something too: silhouetted portraits. All the kids got one. The old man did not have a projector of light to cast a shadow to trace our silhouettes. Rather, he told us to look sideways and held up a black piece of paper and began to cut. It was amazing. I watched him punch out the exact silhouette of my cousin. He did not trace anything beforehand and never once did he hesitate. As he cut, he smoothly rotated the paper until he finished.
I was excited when he did mine. I stood very still. When he finished, he glued the portrait onto a piece of cardboard decorated with red and white paper. He handed it to me and I examined it very carefully. It had the long cheeks and stubby chin I recognized. A photograph couldn’t have captured me better.
That silhouette will always remind how amazing people can be.