Blog post #1: Introduction

Hi everyone!

My name is Luisdaniel Contridas. I am twenty years old and currently a sophomore here st SF State. I’m from a small town called Castroville which is in the Monterey Bay Area.

Some of my interests that I really enjoy is playing/singing songs, occasional gaming, and spending quality and wholesome time with my friends. Since joining college, I’ve grown to become more open to making friends and being less shy. I really enjoy being around people since it brings out the positive energy in me (I try and give positive energy too!). Some other hobbies I have are playing hackey sack, playing board games, and going out on spontaneous adventures.

The organizations that I am a part of at SF State are Asian Student Union, Pilipino American Collegiate Endeavor, and Korean Student Union. I’ve made a ton of friends in these orgs, and I feel like they have definitely helped me grow as a person. Another thing about me is that I really care about family. Being the youngest and only boy of four, I was the baby of the family and was really spoiled. But over the years I’ve learned that family is one , if not is the most important thing in my life.

Other then these facts that’s basically me. Some other fun facts is that I could do a backflip, I watch Game of Thrones, anime, play Xbox, and used to do sports and played saxophone :D

blog #1, about me

Hi everyone ! My name is Anna Katrina Petroczky, but call me Cat instead 💘 I moved to San Francisco from Long Beach in SoCal, my favorite types of food are Thai and Japanese, my favorite spots are Raising Canes, Gen Kbbq, Five Guys, and Krispy Kreme 😋, my go to cheap meal is Jack in the Box 99 cent tacos, I’ve been really into makeup for a long time and its my way to spend time with myself snd relax, my favorite makeup brands are Maybelline, Morphe, Wet n Wild, and NYX Cosmetics, I love being out often but I also enjoy spending time at home, I’ve been watching That 70′s Show a ton lately morning, day, and night I'm obsessed with the show! Jhene Aiko and Kali Uchis are my favorite artists right now. My major is business management snd my dream is to have my own brand whether it be makeup or clothing because both industries I could work passionately in. My mom is Filipino and I’ve visited the PH over 17 times throughout my childhood. My favorite Filipino dessert is mini rainbow puto. I hope to learn more history about Asian-Americans because I feel like my history classes in school didn't give them enough coverage, and also to meet new people! ☺️

Blog #5- Iron Chef

Ingredients:

*Ube paste (halaya jam)

*Cream Cheese

*Heavy whipping cream

*Graham Crackers

*Unsalted butter

Instructions:

1. Crush up Graham crackers and mix with melted butter to create a crust, put at the bottom of a pan then freeze

2. Mix the ube paste, cream cheese, and heavy whipping cream until a smooth/thick consistency

3. Pour batter on top of crust, then place back in freezer

4. Let it sit for about 1-2 hours, then Enjoy!

For this project, our group created an Ube Cheesecake to represent the Philippines. Ube, also known as the purple yam, is a very popular and staple ingredient used in many Filipino dishes. It is commonly used for desserts such as jams, puddings, cookies, cakes, and ice cream.

The Creation of the Dish:

Naturally, Filipinos have the natural qualities to fulfill domestic care jobs, if they chose to. In our story, a mother and her husband had decided to move their family of dependents, children, and grandmother, from the Philippines to the US. However, the mom has complications with her nursing degree being validated in the US. She would have to pay hundreds to take tests, working visas, and courses that would validate her degree again (Colduvell). Without the time or money,  she has to take a job that would pay well and be able to feed her children. But, she would have to leave her kids in order to be a full-time nanny.

One afternoon, the entitled kids she was taking care of asked her to make them a cheesecake like the ones they had at the restaurant they ate with mommy and daddy the other night. She pulled the recipe from their mother’s cookbook but realized in her groceries she did not have all the ingredients. She missed the berries that would give the cheesecake its taste, however she did have purple yam that she was going to use for other things. Well in a stroke of luck, she decided to use the purple yam and turn it into Ube to incorporate it into the dish. The soft texture and mellow taste of the Ube cheesecake were decadent, but the kids craved toppings. She was forced to gather some seasonal fresh berries to top it, so she chose strawberries to add onto it.

Push Factor: From 1970 to 1990, many Filipinos were driven out of their homes due to unemployment and natural disaster

Pull Factor: Majority of Filipino women were educated so they were able to find more stable opportunities in America

Making the dish was not as easy as you think it would be. However, by doing this project, it taught us more about the Filipino culture and their migration stories. We were stressed putting the presentation together; from running around the city to find the ingredients, putting a video together, writing the spoken word/story of how the dish came about, making the brochure/visual aids, to having the power go out multiple times the night we tried making the cheesecake, but it all paid off in the end.

AAS218 Iron Chef Blog

Our group got the country Samoa for our Iron Chef competition. The push factor from Samoa to the United States was during World War 2 when the US navy pulled back their troops from Samoa back to the United States which ended up Samoans losing there jobs and as a result they are unemployed. The pull factor is the military recruitment from Samoa to the United States where they brought their family with them to Hawaii. Hence it created and expanded the Samoan culture in the U.S. The Samoan culture consists of three main aspects, or practices such as family, respect and music. The culture also formally known as Fa’ a Samoa which means the ‘Samoan way,’ and as a reminder for the Samoan people to practice their cultural customs. Speaking of the culture, they have a cuisine or a famous dessert called ‘panikeke’ which is like a circulus donut hole with banana inside and then deep fried. We Americanized it by putting cream cheese, chocolate, and strawberry filling inside and called it ‘Twinkeke’. 

ingredients: 

- 2 cups of flour

- 2 tbs of baking powder

- 1/2 cup sugar

- 1/2 cup of milk

- water

- olive oil

- pinch of salt

- cream cheese, chocolate, & strawberry filling 

- Five guys

AAS218 Midterm

The FAREWELL.  In the movie scenes, I see the cultural differences /generational gap between the America and the Asia country. In the early decades, the Asian American people were immigrated to the America, their children born and raised in the foreign country, because they have been living in the United States for many years, so they already adapted to the American culture. When they have gone back to the Asia country, they couldn’t understand the Asian people behaviors, actions, and customs as well.  Personally speaking, I am feeling that this movie very touching my emotions, I was crying when I was watching the movie scene in relation of life is part of a whole family. In the movie Billie’s Grandma, who she has lung cancer about to dying within three months, and she doesn’t know about her severe illness because of her family didn’t tell her the truth. In China, most people lying, they didn’t tell their loved ones the truth of illness, because they think it was good lie to patient without knowing the truth. If Grandma knew that she has cancer, she would fear of the death, becomes anxiety and depression as a result she could die quickly as normal. In America, it’s illegal in which against the law not to tell the truth of one’s illness. In my life, I had the similar experience, my Grandma was passed away at the end of last year, and I was told that she was died due to her elder illness. My mom went back to China to arrange my Grandma’s funeral, all of a sudden my eyes with full of tears, I realized that she was gone forever. I felt so sorry because of I didn’t get a chance to see her even for the last time.

 THE DEBUT.   After I have watched this movie, I see the cultural conflicts between Filipino family traditions, and expectations to young generation.  The based on root causes of the problem is the assimilation, which is Ben’s father forced him go to UCLA medical school in order to becoming a doctor in the future, but Ben was unwilling to take scholarship to attend  UCLA. He wants to attend California art school to pursuit his personal dream to be a real artist. Thereafter, the conflict raised with his family, his father was insisting that he should attend to the medical school only, which is good for his bright future. One night at Ben’s sister 18th birthday party, his sister had Pilipino cultural dancing, and his father singing the song towards his family, Ben started to thinking that his relationship with his family and his friends have significantly changed. I felt that my heart touching by the end of the movie scenes, which is Ben slowly talked to his father about the art school while his father was looking at his artworks, and eventually his father compromised him to pursuit his dream.  In the movie, I can see personal characters, person values were reflected in the traditional Filipino culture, and interrelationship with Ben’s family, friends, and his intimate girlfriend. Finally, the movie was happy ending, Ben falling in love with his sister’s best friend.

Blog #5: Change of Dance-> Pangalay

Hey guy!

There has been a change in the dance just recently and just want to update on that. The dance that we are going to do for P.O.P is now the Panagalay folk dance from the Philippines. It is a “fingernail” dance that shows flexibility and dexterity and a distinct Asian dance for southern Filipino dancers. Another meaning for this dance is offering from its Sanskrit origin pang-alay. At first, the dance was considered a Chinese Martial Arts when the dance is displayed, but became more an elegant dance about two celestial angels from heaven from a Buddhist concept of man and woman. We are incorporating this dance to our subject of matter, Third Gender Representation. Why Third gender? Well, in the Pasifika, third genders were considered as respected, and accepted individuals in towns and societies based on different islands that you go too. They are displayed also as elegance and people who bridge together the gap of man and woman. In the Philippines and farther, majority has to do with religion, considering Catholicism and Christianity, for the non-acceptance of third genders in the country. I understand now it has lighten up in the Philippines, but it still happens to this day people are still being mistreated about that orientation. I hope y’all support us on this!!

-Darnel Salcedo

BLOG #3 CAAM FESTIVAL!!!

My Trip to The Alamo!

My group decided to watch the Asian American film called, AKA Seoul. At first, I did know what to really expect out of this documentary. As the movie went on, it got really interesting and I was able to find a deeper meaning out of it. Dan Matthews, Chelsea Katsaros, Siri Szemenkar, Peter Boskey, and Min Matson were all adopted at a young age by loving parents. Most of them did not have the chance to meet their biological mother until they were in their late 20s. From this, I realized how different and awkward that must have been not meeting your biological parents when you are a full grown adult raised by your other parents who adopted you. 

What I Took From The Film

As I was watching the film, figuring out the past life of these Korean adoptees was really interesting. For example, Siri Szemenkar came from a white family. As she was growing up, her ideal mindset was to be apart of the societal norm. In the area she grew up in, there were very few Asian Americans which caused her to feel “white”. Siri disliked being known as an “Asian American” because everyone she grew up with was white. When she visited Korea and met her biological mother, she instantly fell in love with her own culture and it made me realize how much the feeling of having to “fit in” plays a role into this. Feeling the need to fit in means that you decide to exclude everything that is affecting you from being noticed in society. There are many more factors that have a huge affect on growing up. For instance, the idea of coming out and figuring out your true identity was portrayed in this film. Some of the adoptees realized their true identity which made them appreciate more of their culture and what experiences they faced throughout their journey to Seoul. 

All in all, not everyone goes through adoption. But for the people that do, it must be an exciting experience meeting your biological parents after a long time like how these Asian American adoptees did. Although there may be times where you might not get along with your parents and all that but Dan Matthews explained that you should embrace every single moment and second with your friends/family because those moments might be the last and only time you will ever see them. After hearing that comment, it changed my perspective on how we should take the time to appreciate everything that is happening in the moment. 

- Darryl Panahon

Asain American Student Community and Activism

According to those article and music, president Trump has huge power to lead people do or think what his said on the president talking or twitter. On the other hand, president Trump looks like looking for a scapegoat that can evade the responsibility that president should do. While president Trump have been implying that the virus is come from china, a lot of Asian American get hate crime from other races. It makes the rate of Asian American get attack from other people. On the pandemic news conference, president Trump have been calling news reporter a “fake news” because they do not ask the right question. However, those question is what Americans care about. They only want to know what happen on the pandemic and what should they do during in the pandemic.

Blog #4 Midterm Project

          Hey y’all this is Peter. In this blog I am going to taking about the midterm project I did for this class. I was team up with Haruka, and Lucy from my home group. We have to present our project by fashion. I don’t know anything about fashion, actually none of us do. Therefore we decided to pick our topic first. We end up decided to do stereotype on Japanese American, since all three of us like Japanese culture and Haruka is Japanese.

          We did many researches and I interviewed my Japanese American friend. My friends told me about many stereotypes that she have been facing throughout the time. Something such like, if she likes to watch anime or comic book, if she eat sushi every day, or even ask her if she cosplay in daily basis. Even though Japanese Americans have been settled in America for generations but people still have many stereotypes on them.

         Because of the interview and I figure out how should we present our topic in class with fashion. Since my friend was been asking is she doing cosplay, so I think me and my teammates can use cosplay as a Japanese fashion trend. I borrowed a couples of cosplay outfits from my friends and decided to wear it during out presentation in the class. It turned out became a very interesting experience. Because I have never wear cosplay outfits before and it was very fresh for me. Good thing is that presentation was very entertained.  

Blog #10: Murakami Designs the the Earth with flowers

Japanese Artist Takashi Murakami has been the guru when it comes to streetwear and fashion but he is more famous with his colorful artwork. Murakami is one of my inspirations when it comes to drawings, he gives me crazy visions through art; motivates me to create ideas from outside the box.  

Therefore..

I express my creative side through drawing my visions and with original ideas from inspirations I get around me. Since I travel a lot with my family, I have seen a lot of unique structures in places like Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan and Philippines. I travel whenever possible because each place has it’s own way of inspiring me, whether it’s the people, the architecture, or natural surroundings. These beautiful places gives me the spark of ideas on what I should draw in my sketchbook, such as graffiti on walls, street lights, nature, and buildings. Being an artists I choose to depict my vision of the earth in a variety of ways. They can be drawn realistically, in an effort to replicate nature as closely as possible. Landscape drawing does not need to replicate a specific place, for it can be created in an abstract manner, in which the imagery is imbued with a deeper spiritual meaning; like the way my color pencils allow me to give more life and depth into my drawings. The way my creativity influences my decision inside the classroom(AAS218) is through my work and involvement when it comes to working in groups. I usually do more than what is expected for an assignment through the visuals I provide. I can never present any work if it is not perfect in my eyes because I want not only myself to flourish, but my peers in the group. Outside the classroom, my creativity is seen through the way I interact with the people in my everyday life and in my community, such as helping design my senior class hoodie. My creativity in the future would benefit me in being a Nurse, because it can help me make new discoveries, come up with new approaches and ideas, and be quick on my feet in solving any problems I may encounter. Creativity has been part of my nature since I was kid. My experiences through drawing has taught me that creativity has to connect to something innate in us—for me it was not just drawing pictures, but it was creating a story.

Blog #11: PACE-- Kuya/Ate Program and Friendship games

PACE is an on-campus organization here at SFSU which stands for Pilipinx American Collegiate Endeavor. I first learned about PACE through my big in another org named Asian Student Union. She was a part of PACE through their Kuya/Ate program. This program was one of the main reasons I joined PACE since it allowed me to join a PACE “family” and get to know new people in the org.  The family I joined is called Rising Sun, and the people in this fam were really welcoming and awesome. In joining this family, I felt more attached to my culture since I was surrounded by other Filipino Americans that had a common respect and appreciation for one another. The following semester I also picked up two of my own adings; both of which are amazing people.

Another event that I joined in PACE was friendship games (FG). Friendship games was a huge tournament that involved the Filipino organizations from all over the state. It one huge day full of competitive games and S.P.U.F. (Spirit, Pride, Unity, Friendship). SF state is known as being one of the top schools in the games portion of FG, as well as SPUF (best cheer/skit/energy). During the time before FG, PACE’s team had weekly practices twice a week for games, SPUF, and roll call (dance group that also competed). Although the practices were tough, it was a lot of fun and it reminded me of when I did sports in high school. FG was a great experience, and I fed off much of the energy that the leaders put in. Throughout the semester, the team felt less like a team and more like a family. There was constant support for one another and we all worked hard during every practice. 

The day of FG was very exciting and very exhausting. It basically lasted all day, but in the end it was an amazing experience. Putting in three months of hard work all into one day was intense yet rewarding. Quite literally, we shed blood, sweat and tears that day, an it was an unforgettable experience. Most of all however, the bonds our team had was the best part. It was kinda crazy how close I got to many of the people I met at FG within a 3 month period. But nonetheless, FG is something I will always remember as a huge way I was able to connect with the Filipino community. 

Filipino Food. Yum

Filipino food has been around for centuries. I am Filipino American and have enjoyed countless different Filipino foods that my mother, and father, has cooked for me. In all honesty, I lack the culture of my people because my parents never really continued on Filipino cultural traditions with me. The only thing that truly stayed was the food. When learning about the “3 P’s” in AAS-218; Past, Production and Power; it really reminded me of the several Filipino dishes that I would see served on the tables of millions of Filipino families around the globe no matter where they are located.

Filipino Food has never been all that popular in America. You never really hear people around school, or wherever you hang out at, say that they’re craving and are down for some Filipino food all that often. Nobody is really all that educated in what we eat, other than cats and dogs but that’s a whole different story, so they wouldn’t exactly care for the food. Knowing that not many people, who aren’t Filipino, eat our food, I was always interested in seeing what other people thought of it (especially the piggy blood). Which brings me to what I’ll be talking about today.

YouTube is rich with several different kinds of content. At one point in my life, I binge-watched videos on YouTube that involved people trying Filipino food. REACT, by the The Fine Bros, is a YouTube channel that has several people of all ages interact and react to different things. I believe they had at least two separate videos of their cast reacting to Filipino food. I like these videos in particular because they incorporate the history, as well as some fun facts, to the food that they are sampling. 

Cassava cake is bomb.

These videos, where people try Filipino food, expands and exposes other people from different cultures to new and different foods that aren’t really well known in their community. Unless their community is a Filipino community, of course. With this exposure, more and more people would become inclined to go out and find a local Filipino restaurant or bakery to try these hopefully tasty new foods. When someone from the cast say they don’t like something it kind of stings, but I understand. Everybody has different tastes.

Food is definitely a good way to learn culture. Many Filipino dishes were created during their time under Spanish rule. This is evident in the ingredients of several dishes, meaning that Filipinos became creative with the ingredients that they had in order to make the staple Filipino dishes we have today.  To know what one culture eats compared to other cultures shows diversity and the history. Food is universal. Food is love. Food is life.

Ernani Balingasa of aasfunkyfive :P

Blog #1 Bio

I am a very normal person with a habit of reading whenever I have free time. When I was in elementary, reading was not my thing, playing with my friends was. It was around middle school that I started to get into reading after volunteering at the library for a few years in a row. Volunteering at the library was so fun, looking at all the people reading and sampling the books, discovering my favorite genres paranormal romance and urban fantasy. My love for books resulted in reading a different book every day because I was reading nonstop for hours a day. So much time spent reading made me a stay at home person with not a lot of social time, but now with not much time to read, it became the opposite. Now I spend most of my time studying, doing homework, and chatting/hanging out with friends, and reading as I go to and from school, between classes, and etc

Blog#1-Introduction

Hello I am Alan Fung and I am a sophomore at San Francisco State University where I am majoring in Pre-Psychology. Things I want you to know about me are my hobbies.  My hobbies are playing video games , watching anime and hanging out with my friends.

 My favorite video games are Pokemon Go and Overwatch. For me I really have a hate and love relationship since those games give me frustration and what I really love about those games is the social aspect and the passion that the community strives for. For example in the Pokemon Go community I have a 3rd family on campus that is the Pokegatrs that I am apart of and I love every one of them. The game brought us together  through our love for Pokemon. Every member really try to help one another and socialize through making long time friends and even have each others back. 

My second hobby is my love for watching anime. I started watching anime because my friend recommended me anime like School Rumble and One week friends and those two anime I really enjoyed because it was funny and it resonated with me back when I was a sophomore in high school. Currently my favorite genres are slice of life , romance and comedy. The currently anime I am watching are  That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime and  The Rising of the Shield Hero. 

Lastly my second family is my friends from high school we still keep in contact from then but when we are off from school such as our breaks we try to make sure everyone of us are off to try to hangout by going to movies trying new food places in SF. These friends are mines I know I can trust and they have been with me through my darkest times. To this day I will cherish them forever!

Blog #13: POP and AAS 218!

Blog #13: POP and AAS 218 Reflection

           I still cannot believe that this is the last blog I will be writing and that tomorrow will be the last time our class will meet. I’m saddened when realizing this because I really enjoy this class. This class has taught me a lot more than histories of Asian Americans. Before taking the class, I thought that this class was going to be one of those classes where the teacher lectures and we take notes. However, it is the total opposite and I am sad that the class is coming to an end. I loved how Irene and the Teacher Assistants took their time to make this class feel like a community. In a way, it felt like we were all learning from each other instead of just listening to the teacher teach. I truly felt like I was taking a class with all my friends. 

Sometimes it surprises me that one of the activities we did were related to a time in history and in a way, it made me excited to learn. For instance, the search for a free blog pass was to demonstrate how our ancestors came to the United States because they heard the United States promised them a better future. The way we reacted was exactly the same way our ancestors had reacted during that time. As soon as we heard that there was a chance to get a free pass for blogs, we all ran out of the room in search for it. In the end, some of the students who found the ticket were disappointed because they did not get what they were promised. This was the same experience that our ancestors went through. They were promised a better future but many of them were disappointed when they arrived in the United States. The teacher assistants and Irene made it easy for us to understand what our ancestors went through. I definitely will miss Asian American Studies 218 because time always flew by whenever I’m in class. I can definitely say that this class is my highlight of the week. I always look forward to coming to class and I was always excited to learn.

I still feel nostalgic reflecting back to POP night. I must say POP was one of the best experiences I have ever had at San Francisco State University. This may sound cliché but throughout all the preparation for POP, I have learned to time manage and learned how to open-up to try something new. I do not know how to dance nor have I ever attempt to dance in my whole life and it took me by surprise when I was on stage dancing in front of such a large group of people! Even my family (my fiancé, three of my sisters and my brother in law) were surprised to see me dance! 

From working together with Dangerous Divas 2.0, these girls have taught me about dedication, hard-work, women empowerment, and to just listen and support one another. If any of us cannot make it to a practice, someone always takes time out later that week to teach them the dance. Being part of POP, I was really amazed at how much effort we have contributed and how much we have learned in such a short amount of time. Something that I learned from POP is that us, Asian Americans, have a lot in common. We see our parent’s struggles, we see how we value our family and culture, we see how our voices are silenced and we see how much we all want to speak up for what we believe in. Overall, I had a lot of fun preparing for POP and participating in POP.

-Chai Moua

IRON CHEF

Steps and Ingredients:

The ingredients we used to make the PB&K were, pandesal, oxtail, jelly/jam, and Kare Kare sauce.To make the PB&K you first need to make the Kare Kare. To make the Kare Kare we first need to boil the oxtail for a couple of hours (until tender). Then we would need to make the sauce, a sauce in which is a family recipe in which I can not discuss to anyone. After the Kare Kare is done we would then shred the ox tail and toast the pandesal until its golden brown. We would then put the shredded oxtail on the pandesal, and cascade the bread in the Kare Kare sauce. Lastly we would add a drop of jam on top, then serve.

Push and Pull factors:

Push: Political corruption- the political corruption in the Philippines is a big reason why people felt like they need to escape for their safety and protection.

Unemployment-Employment was not so good during world war 2 so they moved to America for jobs

Poverty- Since unemployment was going up, so did poverty

Pull: Political Safety

Labor work- they can be paid a lot more than their country, not much in the US, but to a point that they can still send money back to their country

Use in the military- Because of WW2 America needed as much support and men to help get it done. This was an opportunity to migrate and gain benefits throughout the process which including a big factor of it all: citizenship.

Creative Piece: For our creative piece, we had a skit. It started off in a restaurant scene where Nick (grandson) asks Anthony (Soldier) and Justice (Grandpa/soldier) about how PB and K were made. Then it the scene turns into 50 years before during the war and the liberation of the Japanese where Justice is taking a rest and eating bread. Ethan (soldier) comes in with jelly he receives from a nurse and decides to eat it with the bread. They all then talk about adding oxtail to the meal and scene ends with the creation of PB and K.

Reflections:

Overall, as a group, we felt like this group project has taught us a lot. Some of us learned new history, new culture, and overall also learned about our new groupmates. In the beginning of the project, it was somewhat difficult because we had to find a time that fit everyone’s schedules to be able to meet up and do the work together. Once we were able to start on the project, it seemed like everyone in the group was having a good time. There were laughs and jokes, everyone was skeptical to try the food at first but in a good way. The best part was when we did the skits because it was somewhat improv and everyone couldn’t be serious because there were too many laughs. All and all it seemed like the group had a great time while learning about new cultures, some learning more and more about their own.