Three months later, I finally get to continue with the series I’ve somehow still managed to keep going.

One of the things I missed most during winter break was doing stuff around campus to be able to write these blogs. Sure, Seattle’s Asian population is way bigger compared to Iowa City’s, but there’s something special about writing stuff about your identity group when it’s so small. It makes me proud to be able to have a platform to talk about my background and people like me.

If you haven’t figured it out already (or if this is the first of my blogs you’re reading), I’m very passionate about representing minority groups, especially those that I am part of.

But enough blabbering here’s what I have done since the semester started!

(I’m combining January and February together, because I went to a total of 5 events in January, and that would not make a long enough blog by my standards, so I apologize in advance for the length of this blog.)

Korean Conversation Group

@kcg_uiowa on Instagram

January

The very first event I went to for this semester (I missed the first week of activities because the snowstorm got me stuck at home) was KCG’s First Meeting. Since I started taking Korean this semester, I’ve been going to KCG every week to hang out with others learning Korean and further learning about Korean (oh, and also for the extra credit going to my Korean class’s grade). This event was overall quite chill since we were all still getting settled into our school schedules. We wrote questions and answers about ourselves on some paper to help us introduce ourselves.

The week after, we came back to play some Charades. We were split into two teams and had to write words for the other team to act and guess. We weren’t given much limits on the words we could or could not write, so my team (go team 미친사람들!!) came up with some funny ones (I distinctly remember us writing “cow” and “uncle” down, because how are you supposed to act out an uncle??). The scores were pretty close for most of the game, but by the end, our team barely won by two points.

February

The first KCG meeting in February was to play Telephone. We were put into groups of 5 based on proficiency level and had to describe a word in Korean to the person in front of us. It was funny watching the other groups try to describe the words, and the times it was successful felt very satisfying, even as the audience. My group, however, didn’t exactly have the best description, but I also didn’t know the vocabulary they used, so I couldn’t really figure out how they were trying to describe the word “라면” (ramen).

On Valentine’s Day, you wouldn’t believe it, but our meeting was about making Valentine’s Day cards for each other. There was a table at the front of the room with colored paper on it, and we got to make our own cards to give each other/others we knew. I decided to make 3 cards—one for someone else in KCG, and two more for my friends in Mayflower. The meeting in general was pretty casual; we listened to music while writing cute sentences in Korean for our friends.

Next was the Movie Night meeting. There isn’t much to write about this meeting, except that we watched an episode of Street Food on Netflix. Despite it being a Wednesday, I was still really tired from the past weekend, so I ended up drifting in and out of sleep while the episode played. The food shown all looked really good though.

The last KCG meeting of the month was to play Mafia. I was pretty excited to play since it’s one of my favorite group games (except for when I’m the mafia lol), and it’s been a good while—almost 3 years—since I last played. This time, though, we had a few additions to the game. We had to come up with a storyline for how the mafia came to be (to summarise what we came up with, it’s the 1920s in Texas, and a mafia group called Big Oil is murdering people because they are out of canola oil. Do whatever you want with that), and also incorporate two Korean words into our cause of death if we were killed during the night (I made it to the end surprisingly). The game was very chaotic and did not involve as much accusing as there should have been, but it was still very fun regardless. In the end, the mafia won (surprise surprise) with all 3 members still alive.

 

Vietnamese Student Association

@uiowa_vsa on Instagram

January

If you’ve read my previous blogs in this series, you’d know that VSA is without a doubt the student org that I’m most active. I’ve gone to almost every VSA event (it’s giving diehard, I know), and it’s the section of these blogs that’s always the longest.

This is why I felt bad that I missed the first GBM of the semester (Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?) because I was stuck at home in Seattle during the snowstorm.

I did get to go to the next event, which was a Study Social. Honestly, the study social was more of a typical hangout rather than a dedicated time to study. I didn’t have much homework to do (13 credits is amazing), so when I was done, I spent the rest of the time there talking to others who were also not really doing much studying. Sometime during the social, I was also interviewed for a VSA video that would be played at Tết, and I got a little nervous when I was asked about a hot take on VSA (I ended up blanking on it ?).

February

February with VSA started off with their Valentine’s Day GBM. When we first got to the CIAE, we were greeted with a bunch of Crush soda cans on the big table for people who got sent a “crush” (you can thank the co-CPP duo for that). I was surprised when I was handed one, but I smiled when I realized that my VSA Anh Jaden (much love to my biggie) was the one to gift it to me. This GBM was… a bit silly (in a good way) if you asked me. We did some “speed dating” where we discussed some questions with different people, and we ended the GBM with a game of Kahoot that involved questions about love and also the co-CPP duo (the borderline self-incriminating questions were funny though).

On a Friday night, VSA drove to Colonial Lanes to do some bowling for our Bowling Social (an amazing idea by the VSA interns). There were a lot of people who came with VSA, so we split ourselves into three games and just had fun. I hadn’t gone bowling in almost two years, so it was really funny trying to see how good (or bad) I was at bowling. The one downside to this social was that my right thumb nail kept breaking, and by the end of the night, it was basically half the length than it was 2 hours ago. Otherwise, watching others get strikes and spares (some even multiple times because they’re built differently *looking at Ana, Will, and Kyra*) and also gutters got the mood very energetic, which left me exhausted but content when we were driving back.

I’m gonna keep this one short because the next bit will definitely make up for this one, but the next VSA event was the Tết Workshop GBM. Here, we learned a bit about the Lunar New Year in Vietnam, how the Vietnamese culture celebrates it, and also bits of the performances for the actual Tết show. I was pleasantly surprised with just how similar Vietnamese culture was to Chinese culture since most of the celebration was almost the exact same as what I remember in my childhood.

Alright, here’s the big one. The one that I, and also most of the rest of VSA, have been looking forward to for a while. The Tết Lunar New Year Celebration. For weeks leading up to this, I was asked if I wanted to be part of any performances for the show, but me being a first-time Tết experiencer (I didn’t know of Tết even in Seattle), I wanted to use this as an opportunity to fully experience just how extravagant the show could be.

I won’t talk much about the pre-show bit, but essentially it was just me getting ready and doing my makeup (and also getting worried the áo dài I rented would look a bit odd), going through how to check people into the show, and panicking because the check-in station always seemed to have something off. But once check-in was done, I quickly rushed inside to my table where my friend had been waiting for me since before the show started.

The show itself was a masterpiece, which still baffles me that it was organized by the very organization that I go to every week. The dances were all so mesmerizing (personally choreographed by the students as well), the games were fun and interactive, and the food was also not bad. Personally, my favorite parts were the Girls’ Pop Dance and also ISU’s Co-Ed Fan Dance (yes, even ISU’s VSA came to celebrate with us). Hearing the cheers and whistles from other VSA friends was also exhilarating, because the people on the stage are all people that I know, and they all looked like they were having so much fun.

By the last 30 minutes, I was already drained. My eyes were starting to struggle to stay open, but I still had to get through the Fashion Show that I actually volunteered to be part of. I had missed the rehearsal earlier, but my lovely partner and friend Kevy (who was also one of the Viet emcees during the show) quickly ran me through how to walk and what we were doing. I was getting really antsy by the time there were only two people ahead of me, but when I stepped onto the stage, I heard my friends cheering, relaxed my nerves, and just tried to enjoy the walk.

When the show was wrapping up, we spent a lot of time getting pictures with everyone and wishing Jaden a happy birthday (love love love <3). There were quite a few goofy moments that made for quality pictures, but we were beginning to funnel out of the IMU and call it a successful night.

The event after Tết was the Chè Thái Social. This was a great breather socially to recover from Tết and also hang out with friends while enjoying some chè thái (the best way I can simply describe it is a Vietnamese dessert cocktail). I was surprised at how similar chè thái was to a dessert I grew up eating called 涼粉, which is basically a grass jelly dessert that can be enjoyed by itself or with other toppings. We basically just spent this social eating chè thái, playing some games, and laughing with friends.

The very last event of February was VSA’s PJ Party GBM. This GBM was mainly to give ourselves a break and have some fun while midterms are around, and contrary to the name, I showed up in my regular clothes because I don’t wear my inside clothes outside ?. After learning about mental health in Vietnam and the stigma around it (oh and also smelling some dau xanh), we were divided into small groups to do some activities. There were four stations: Just Dance (yes, that game), board/card games, a puzzle, and words of affirmation. After the GBM, my friends and I went to grab food from Chipotle downstairs and talked a bit more while we ate. Then I went to stop by The Bếp to write this blog (and not get boba, actually:D), and also briefly hang out with some VSA friends before going back to my dorm.

 

Hallyu @ Iowa

@hallyuatiowa on Instagram

*i apologise for the lack of pictures for Hallyu’s events ?*

January

Last semester, I found out about Hallyu just a bit too late, so I didn’t get to perform with them in the showcase.

This semester, however, I’ve been keeping an eye on any events that Hallyu is hosting.

The first Hallyu event I went to this semester was their First Meeting. This meeting was mostly just introductions and getting to know the dance leaders and how Hallyu will work for the semester. After the main business was out of the way, we were told that we still had the room for another hour, so the people who stayed back decided to play some K-Pop games, like “Guess the song” and “Save one, drop one song”.

February

The next Hallyu event I went to was the Random Dance. I had dance practice with my group during the first hour of the random dance, so unfortunately we only got to join for the later half. I had always wanted to be part of a random dance session like how the YouTube videos showed, but as soon as I stepped into the room, I immediately got shy and stood further back in the room. Eventually, “Sugar Rush Ride” by TXT came on, and seeing as how no one really wanted to dance to it, I decided to move to the center of the room and do the best I could with what I remembered of the chorus. After that song, I started to feel more confident and joined in more often for the later songs. The vibes were really nice, and everyone was so supportive of each other that I almost couldn’t feel bad about myself.

 

Filipino Student Association

@uiowa.fsa on Instagram

Unfortunately, I haven’t gone to as many FSA events as I had hoped to, but the one that I did make it to was their Hot Pot GBM. After charades with KCG, I stopped by the library where I ran into some friends and also got some work done. When it was time, my friends who were also going to FSA all headed to the APACC, and we were greeted with the lovely smell of hot pot broth. Being their first GBM of the semester, most of the time was spent doing introductions and meeting new people, and also eating hot pot (which was amazing btw).

 

Nachte Raho

@nachteraho on Instagram

Nachte Raho was definitely one of the best parts of February, just behind the Tết Celebration. I honestly don’t even know if my summary can do it justice because that’s how good it was. 10 Indian dance teams from around the nation came to Hancher to participate in this competition, and as first-time Nachte Raho experiencers, my friend and I were absolutely blown away. The fusion dances were all so upbeat and hype, and it made me feel a bit emotional seeing so many students with smiles on their faces while they did what they loved. The classical dances told stories so well through their movements, and I felt literal chills down my spine every time we would get to a slower part in the choreographies. After it ended, my friend and I walked back to Mayflower, and we were both still shaking with excitement (and also maybe from the cold) that had run through our bodies for the past 3 hours.

 

Multicultural Nursing Association

@mna_uiowa on Instagram

February gave us the reboot of the MNA. On a Monday night, I made my way from my dorm to the College of Nursing to go to the first GBM, the Introductory and Hangout. This GBM, as the name suggests, was mostly for introductions and hanging out with other MNA members. I spent most of the time with my friends (2 of them are on e-board too!), and it was nice to get to know some others too! There were also a bunch of cookies we could eat, and I may have snagged 3 of them 🙂

 

Shameless plug here: check out my Instagram @miatwt where I post about my college life and what I do on campus through story updates!