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.