Day 8

 Day 8 - Dr. Chao Presentation and Wat Buddhavas Visit

1/16/25

Alexander McGill 

The 8th day of our J-Term started with a presentation by Dr. Anne Chao from Rice, who presented on the Asian American experience and Houston Asian American Archive. Dr. Chao is the program manager of the Houston Asian American Archive and, in doing so, has heard countless stories and interviews of Asians. She showed us a heat map of where many Asians in Houston live and divided it by where in Asia they're from. The most Asians in Houston are in Fort Bend and Montgomery Counties. In all of Houston, there are about 761,000 South Asians, 543,000 South East Asians, and 300,000 East Asians. 

After talking to Dr. Chao, we had lunch and made our way to Wat Buddhavas temple, another Buddhist temple in Houston. Wat Buddhavas practices Thai Buddhism, which is obviously what we will encounter in Thailand. We learned about common Thai greetings, hand gestures, and social norms, like not touching the monks and respecting the Thai royal family. We also practiced some meditation and different mindful exercises, which were extremely interesting. 

Afterward, we were able to walk around Wat Buddhavas outside and admire the beautiful architecture of the temple. 

Overall, day 8 was an extremely informative and exciting day. We learned about the Houston Asian American Archive with Dr. Chao and then got first-hand experience with Thai Buddhism at Wat Buddhavas. 

 

Day 7 (Buddhism Aspect)

 Day 7 - Buddhism in Thailand Documentary and Chung Mei Buddhist Temple Visit

01/15/2025

Eli Cunningham, Kamilla Spencer

Our seventh day of our J-term was an exciting and informative exploration of Buddhism and Asian influence to the Houston community.

We started off the day with an hour of Thai language exploration using the LingoDeer learning app. We formed groups to follow the course and practiced our previously learned vocabulary. Each group learned at their own pace to cover topics such as food and drink preferences and self-introduction, which will, no doubt, come in handy in our travels. Thai is a very beautiful language that we are excited to learn more about.

Around 9:30, we began to watch a documentary on the history of Buddhism in Thailand and the history of Thailand, in general. This is important to us because the major religion in Thailand is Buddhism, and as we learned, Buddhism is practiced by over 93% of the population and is integrated into many aspects of Thai culture, politics, and everyday happenings. I learned that Buddhism may have reached the people of Thailand during the 3rd century BC, but the first Buddhist kingdom recorded in Thailand was the "Mon Dvaravati Kingdom" between the 6th and 11th centuries. The people of Thailand, at that time, followed Theravada Buddhism, a branch of Buddhism which came to them from Sri Lanka, along with art styles and other Sri Lankan items. The Tai ethnic groups originally came from South China and were forced to leave due to the Han expansion. They became the "Thai" people when they gained independence from the Khmer Empire and the lands they settled in became known as Thailand under the newly created kingdom of Sukhothai. Overall it was a densely packed documentary with a lot of new information we hadn't previously known. As always, after finishing the documentary we briefly discussed parts we found interesting or wanted to know more about. Then we headed off to the next event.

 

Everyone in our J-Term, along with the students from the "Yoga and Mindfulness" group, loaded onto a mini-bus and minivan, and we drove around 20 minutes to the Chung Mei Buddhist Temple. It was my second time being there, along with a few other students, because we had gone as a group during our "Multicultural Houston" Term in middle school. That said, it was still just as magnificent as it was the first time. 

             

(Side Note: We were not allowed to take pictures in the Main Hall for religious reasons)

We walked through the entrance and noticed the grand architecture but also the many small, intricate details everywhere inside and outside the building. We took our seats in the main hall of the temple and we were given a presentation on what Buddhism is, its history, the practices, and the meaning or use of different items/aspects in the room. The presentation was given to us by a monk and a speaker who went quite in-depth and answered all the questions we had. In the presentation, there was also a video where we learned everything about the first Buddha. 

             

After the presentation, we were free to walk around the main hall and look at everything or ask more questions. Then we had a short meditation led by the monk where we closed our eyes and focused on our breathing. Finally, while now being very calm, we were brought into a room to the side of the main hall that had many shelves of books about the Buddha's teachings, all in Chinese. There were also many displays with very detailed art of Buddhas or monks carved from wood or made from other materials. Once we were done viewing everything, we thanked our hosts and hopped on the bus for lunch.

Our group arrived at Thai Bistro early in the afternoon to satisfy our rumbling stomachs with a delicious array of Thai food. Our personal favorite was the popular Chicken Pad Thai served with fresh bean sprouts, lime, and crushed peanuts on the side. We chatted about our visit to the temple and played word games as we indulged in the delectable food. While American Thai food is slightly different from what we will be eating in Bangkok, it is still helpful to get acquainted with the cuisine before our travels.

We rounded off our day with preparation for an interview with a widely renowned Asian-American Studies professor, Dr. Anne Chao. We explored her previous work with the development of the Houston Asian American Archive and the preservation of personal narratives surrounding the immigration of Asian Americans. 

Our seventh day was filled with immersive learning, exploring, and research, making it a very successful addition to our Asian Studies J-term. 

Day 6

Day 6 - Thai Culture, Cooking, and Tea

01/14/2025

Aya Naboutt

Today, we started our morning with more Thai language learning on LingoDeer for just 30 minutes. Our language learning was cut short because we were visited by Ms. Connie Lacobie, a Thai culture expert! She gave us a presentation on her trip to Thailand in 2019, and we learned about the best places to visit in Thailand, including the temples, and respectful behavior both in the temples and out in public. 

After that, we all headed to the kitchen to begin the best part of the day: making Thai food! We split up into pairs based on what ingredients we preferred and how spicy we wanted our food, and made green papaya salad together. Green papaya salad is made with green papaya, long beans, peanuts, tomatoes, garlic, dried shrimp, fish sauce, Thai chili, and more. After adding all of these ingredients into a bowl, you smash the ingredients together and you're done! Green papaya salad is perfectly sour and sweet, and those of us who were just trying it for the first time were happy with our results. 

After making and eating our green papaya salad, Ms. Connie Lacobie taught us about Oolong tea. She made some for us while we learned about the different ingredients in a tea blend and their benefits. After that, we all got to fill Ziploc bags with the ingredients we learned about to make our own tea blend that we could take home and make ourselves! The ingredients included dried orange peel, lemongrass, galangal (Thai ginger), Chinese celery flower, and finally, Iron Goddess Oolong. 

We then had lunch together. We ordered egg rolls, noodles & tofu, white rice, and curry from a Thai restaurant and made our own plates. After having lunch, we learned about another type of tea: black spice tea. Ms. Connie Lacobie again taught us about the benefits of more spices in this tea blend, and we made our own in a ziploc bag. The ingredients in black spice tea are assam, cardamom, star anise, and tamarind.

That was the end of our Thai culture workshop. Since we didn't get to finish the film we were watching yesterday, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, we watched the final 20 minutes and did some research on the film afterward to better understand the ending of the movie, which was somewhat confusing to most of us. We ended the day with another reading, "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers" by Yiyun Li. 

Day 5

Day 5 - Kingston Literature and Thai Film

01/13/2025

Max King

We started this second week of J-Term by warming up with some Thai language practice. I found this to be an engaging way to revisit Asian culture. Today, I learned how to speak, read, and write greetings, nationalities, and cuisine. I am ending today’s practice with a good understanding of the Thai language and hope to continue building my skills. The ultimate goal of my experience with LingoDear is to become proficient enough to communicate efficiently when the class travels to Thailand in March. 

The next activity we did was a class seminar on Maxine Hong Kingston's "No Name Woman." This story explores the role of women and their shame within Chinese society. We explored how Chinese American Kingston's representation of her experience may dramatize the cultural impact. Along with the story, we reviewed various sources that critiqued and supported the text to help us have a fair approach when developing our own ideas. 

Next, We took a break for lunch which lasted an hour. This was a good way to relax and enjoy some free time around school. 

When we returned to class, we began a Thai film called Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. This movie follows a dying Thai farmer, Uncle Boonmee, as he reflects on his life and past incarnations while preparing for death. Joined by the ghost of his wife and his son, now a monkey spirit, Boonmee embarks on a spiritual journey that blends memory, reincarnation, and Buddhist philosophy. The film’s meditative pace and mystical elements explore themes of mortality, the cycle of life, and humanity’s connection to nature, culminating in his peaceful death in a cave believed to be the origin of his first life. This concluded the day as we sat in the classroom sharing laughs at this unique piece of visual Thai culture.

Today had a less active itinerary than usual, but it was a needed way to warm up our minds before heading into the busy week ahead. 

Day 4

Day 3 - Thai Language Learning, Old Houston Chinatown, and Asian American Experiences

01/10/2025

Ambika Krishnamoorti and Olivia Chavez

The fourth day of J-Term started off strong with a little bit of time to learn Thai! Students got together in groups and worked with an app called LingoDeer. We practiced a few basic words since this was our first time, but even with one lesson, we definitely learned a lot.

We departed the building at 9 a.m. and drove to the University of Houston to meet with Dr. Melody Yunzi Li. Once we got there, we had a snack of coffee, tea, and bagels. After enjoying our snack, we listened to a presentation about Old Chinatown in Houston and its changes over time. After the presentation, we had a personal story session with a few interns, faculty, and Ambika. In each story, they spoke about what it was like for their families to immigrate to the United States and what it was like for them now living here. 

For lunch, we went to a Chinese restaurant called Pepper Twins. The professor an d students from UH joined us as well. The food was so great, and we wound up sharing basically everything we ordered. We also had great conversations, and we talked a lot about our excitement for our upcoming trip to Thailand. Once we got back we all discussed the day and had a discussion on Padlet where we posted some great questions about our visit to UH.

Day 3

Day 3 - Maxine Hong Kingston and a Visit to the Asia Society

01/09/2025

Elijah Saldaña Kowalchuk

Today, we started the day by learning about Maxine Hong Kingston, a Chinese American novelist famous for her books and short stories, and talking about her experience as an Asian American. We read her story called "No Name Woman." Sadly, we didn't have time to discuss the reading together. Next, Ambika's mom, Dr. Vasanthi Jayaraman, told us about her stories and experiences as an Indian American and her struggles as a woman in India. This talk gave me a whole new perspective on Indian culture, and I learned a lot about the struggles of immigrating to the U.S., which I didn't know about before. 

After lunch, we went to the Asia Society, where we got a guided tour of the exhibits. We learned a little about different Asian countries and their cultures, including Japan, Vietnam, South Korea, China, and India. We then went down to their theatre room and played the drums from the five different cultures we had learned about to play traditional and popular songs in that culture. We then explored their exhibit, Space City: Art in the Age of Artemis, which explores the mysteries and wonders of space and how we perceive it through the work of 31 different artists. This exhibit was my favorite part of the day as some of the artworks were interactive and impressive like this sculpture of the sun made out of gummy bears at the end of the exhibit. We boarded the Asias Society's virtual bullet train, which took us to the five countries we had previously learned about. We visited their famous attractions and beautiful cities and learned more about the country's population, culture, food, art, and history.

    

We then returned to school, where we spent the last hour of our day reading about the Thai language section of our Thailand guidebook. This reading helped us understand the characters used, useful phrases, and cultural norms about respect.

Day 2

Day 2 - Asian-American Experiences and Personal Stories

01/08/2025

Sienna Kissack

A photo of the class learning about Sui Sin Far

In the morning, Mr. Zhou gave us a presentation on an Asian-American writer named Sui Sin Far. We individually researched about her life and came back together to share one thing we found interesting. We brought up various points, including things about her and her parent's life, along with her accomplishments and her popular books. 

A photo of our seminar questions on
the board about the short stories

After discussing Sui Sin Far, we read two of her popular short stories, one being "Mrs. Spring Fragrance," which is about the lives and hardships Asian-Americans go through when living in America. We had to annotate, come up with questions, write them on the board, and have a seminar on what we read to really understand how Asian-Americans and their cultures have become Americanized. We discussed gender roles in Chinese culture, along with how identity is shaped when living in a different country from the one  someone is originally born into.

In the afternoon, we heard about our teacher, Mr. Zhou's personal life story by going through different photos and talking about the history behind them. They dated back to when Mr. Zhou was in college and then to the time he was starting out as a teacher in Arizona. His story helped us understand the difficulties that can exist being an Asian American. We asked him questions about his life, and he gave us insight about the struggles he faced, as well as his achievements and accomplishments over the years.

A photo of the short stories we read (left)
and a book on Thailand (right)

At the end of the day, we were told to read a specific part of a book we were given at the start of our J-Term called Thailand: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture. We learned about the Thai language, how the pronunciation works when speaking in Thai, what to say in Thailand, and what not to say. The book also taught us basic etiquette to know when visiting Thailand.

We read these pages then proceeded to learn more about the Thai language by watching videos on how to say basic words in Thai. These two experiences helped us expand our knowledge on Thailand culture, as well as understand how they live their lives differently from America.