Secret Santa!

We had this Secret Santa small gathering where all of us drew a name one week before, then find a gift for that person!

Simple yet sweet! We all got a gift from each other! 

I received a gift from Florian! It was an album with a lot of pictures from Germany with the descriptions and information!

Telling me where shall I visit when I go to Germany. What a thoughtful gift!!!

I had so much fun just hang out with them!! 

Recorded Dec 2, 2017

Part of College Life #51

Found a little kid in the art department, he told me he wants to paint a volcano, grabbed some paints and paintbrushes for him...

And in the end, we did a collaboration!!! Hahahah

What a day! 

Salsa Dance night

Always want to learn ballroom dance when I was young, love exposed to different type of dance, enjoy the culture.

Had this opportunity to go to a Salsa Dance celebration in Charlotte with some international students.

The dance celebration located at Mint Museum, it started at 8pm, saw some professional dance performance.

And they open the dance floor for everyone to go in and dance with a dance partner! 

Love it!!! So fun!!
I danced with Santiago, Michele, and Florian! Laughed so much because I look so dumb among all the professional dancers...
But who cares?! hahah .. Allow yourself to relax, follow the music and dance!

But it is really fun! And they provided a little dance workshop taught us Bachata and Salsa. 

Can't believe we danced for 3 hours!!! So much fun compared to normal party! hahahah

Hope we can come again, enjoy the atmosphere, and learn the dance!

Had some selfie before we leave, and also took a picture at the big Christmas tree!

What a lovely and enjoyable night!!!

Recorded on Dec 2, 2017

Part of College Life #50

When sickness hit you hard one week before finals......
Starts sick after Thanksgiving, from Saturday until today...

Winter Wonderland on Campus!

No idea what event is this, but pulled by my friends, so went and check it out. 

It's like station game, so you have to complete different things in different station, get a stamp, then after you collected 5, then you can get a long sleeve shirt!

They have ginger bread house making, christmas card making, Christmas socks decorating, photobooth, take picture with Santa, carriage riding and so on!

So fun!!! hahah!!! 

I got the shirt! So nice!!! hahahah

Recorded on Nov 28,2017

Friendsgiving- BBQ + Frisbee + Football + Dinner

Another great day hangs out with friends!!! Didn't expect too much on this day, but turn out to be an awesome day!

Had BBQ prepared by Santi...(forgot to take picture~~~)

Hamid, Florian, Santi, Abby, Rory, Bailiang, David and I really enjoy that!

Then we decided to play Frisbee and Football! It was crazy but fun!

Built our friendship like a click, so blessed. 

IWL(International Women's Leader) girls~ Dinah(Rwanda), Abby(Malaysia), me(Malaysia) and Diana(Kenya)...

Decided to pose like the football players...

Not only that, we went to Florian's apartment for dinner, 4 girls prepared all the food! *efficient!* 

Watched football and David led us to play board games, wink, coup, and the other one I forgot the name.

Thanks for friends drove here from SC and TN,  thanks for hanging out with my friends, 

thanks for helping me in different ways, thanks for spending time with us, thanks for bringing so much joy to us! 

Recorded on Nov 25, 2017

Hmong New Year!

Promised King King I will attend the Hmong New Year festival with her one year ago, and I made it!

My friend, King King is Hmong. For those who have no idea what is Hmong......

Hmong is an indigenous people in Asia. They are also one of the sub-groups of the Miao ethnicity (苗族) in China. They became a gradual 

Southwest migration in China in the 18th century due to political unrest and to escape Chinese threats. Now, they are an ethnic group of people 

who live in China, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. In Laos, much Hmong sided with the opposition to the communists; after the Revolution of 

1975, more than 100,000 fled from Laos into refugee camps in Thailand, and from where they were resettled in countries including the United 

States, Canada, France, New Zealand and Australia.

The Hmong New Year starts on the same day on Thanksgiving, and it is a huge festival for them!

Because North Carolina has a big population of the Hmong people, so it draws the Hmong from across the country here for this festival.

This huge festival last for few days features dancing, sports, tournaments, crafts, and traditional cuisine. 

Not only that, the Hmong people will also attend the festival with their traditional clothing!!! 

King King took Saskia, Dinah and I to this cultural festival!

She let us tried their traditional snacks and drinks, I had pork steam bun(叉烧包) and Nava (the pink drink which has coconut milk)!!

Not only that, we tried different headpieces, how I wish we can try the traditional clothing too!!

hahahahha

Since we didn't manage to put on the traditional clothing, we decided to take pictures with people who have their traditional clothing on!

Some of the traditional clothing is similar to the Miao ethnicity from China, which looks so familiar to me!

According to King King, nowadays is hard to find Hmong traditional clothing, most of them already modernist. Hmmm.....  

Ohya, guess what?! The three guys with blue traditional clothing are actors!!!!

*I didn't know until King King told me after we took a picture with them and left....WHAT?!*

We also played ball toasting, hahaha.... 

As if asking for someone for dance, instead, they use ball tossing to ask someone to play with. 

Especially some young people wants to look for a mate or partner, so they will invite someone to play ball tossing. 

There was one guy invited me to play ball tossing with him, I was laughing so hard,

because I can't focus when playing ball tossing and talk or ask questions at the same time. 

So, in the end, King King asked most of the questions, and I focus throw ball and catch.. hahahah

We left the celebration at 12pm, brough a fun memory back with us! 

Recorded on  Nov25, 2017