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Day 30: Friday, October 4th

For makeup today, I wore a lip tint, brow mascara, concealer, blush, eye shadow, and mascara. I wanted to dress up a little nicer today because I had an informational interview with designers at Joyce, a creative workshop located in downtown Minneapolis. I talked to them about their jobs, how their creative workshop ran in relation to an agency, chatted about portfolios, and gained a lot of amazing advice. It inspired me to push myself harder while in school to improve my craft.

After that meeting, I went CLAgency’s weekly staff meeting. We had a guest speaker that spoke about Ullu, an initiative that believes the answer to the climate challenge is steeped in Minnesota’s history: its approachable, get-it-done pragmatism. It was interesting to hear about their values and process. After work, I went with a few of my co-workers to Bonchon, a Korean fried chicken place in Dinkytown. They were having a ‘five wings for one dollar’ deal that we couldn’t miss.

I got my chicken and rushed to work at Carlson on West Bank. I worked on more MN Cup collateral and finished up print functions for Food, Ag, Ideas week. I went to a study abroad appointment and gained a lot of new insight on scholarships, the planning process, and application. It was definitely beneficial and valuable for me to talk to a study abroad staff about my questions. I went home, ate pineapple cookies, shin ramen with cheese, and worked on homework. I watched Seventeen’s appearance on ‘Idol Room’ for about and hour since the video was english subbed. I went on a video marathon and watched Amy Schumer’s ‘I Feel Pretty.’

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Week 4 Collection: Sanitary Pads

I got my period in the fourth week. Instead of collecting used pads (for obvious reasons), I decided to stack an extra pad into my collection to represent how much I used that day. In some cases, I feel like the discussion around menstrual cycles are still taboo. It is less talked about, but society is slowly coming to terms with the fact that our periods are natural and part of everyday life. I wanted to collect these to see how much plastic I was wasting within a week’s worth. I have looked into options of the diva cup or tampons, but my family has always used pads growing up. I definitely do want to start trying these options once I move out of my parent’s home. Economically, this collection gave me the realization of how much I spend just simply on women’s sanitary products. Especially with the ‘pink tax,’ a lot of money goes into this industry. Culturally, it shows the shame older generations of women within my culture still feel some sort of shame talking periods. Societally, it’s still something we hide and make sure is unseen to the public. Examples include secretly slipping it into the hands of other women, hiding it within pockets of your bag, and feeling embarrassed if you are “caught.”

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Day 29: Thursday, October 3rd

This morning, I put on a lip tint, brow mascara, concealer, and blush. After arriving into McNeal Hall, I read about ‘The Art of Seeing’ for my Visual Communications class for about an hour. I went to the student center and bought tater tots with sour cream for $2.67 as a light breakfast. It was super unhealthy but worth every single bite. I talked through the presentation with my group before class for Design and its Discontents. We went into a class and did a presentation on graphic design criticism as a spectator sport and packaging food with food to reduce waste.

We went through a lot of details regarding the rebranding of large brands and were able to help articulate the article in this presentation. At CLAgency, I worked on the employee photos again and made changes for College of Liberal Arts departments. There wasn’t much else going on at work today. In my Visual Communications class, we learned about the history of typography and the visual effects typography can make. I learned some things about Type that I wouldn’t necessarily touch on in my actual Typography class.

After arriving back near my home, I went to a friend’s house to study. We ate Chef Boyardee ravioli and bonded over some conversation. We only see each other face-to-face on Sundays, not anywhere else. We just studied for the rest of night together and put on a light coconut candle to help us calm our school anxieties. It was nice to study for a night with someone else. I eventually went home and got ready for bed. The entire day has been mentally exhausting. We’re stuck in a society that values the hustle and constant work culture.

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Day 28: Wednesday, October 2nd

I was late to Web Design again, but still made it to class on time to get an idea of what we learned. I worked on a small Typography quiz/project and followed the step-by-step instructions in coding buttons and sidebars into our website layouts. I ate leftover fried chicken and rice from last night before going into Typography. In Type, the professor introduced a new project. We were to make five word sentences and try to implement them into a design using the resources we had in the press lab. It was definitely and interesting challenge. I had a lot of fun sitting with my classmates trying to figure out sentences.

In my Diversity and Mass Communication class, we talked about calling in versus calling out. I talked about a situation where I used the method of calling in individuals for the purpose of calmly explaining their faults in a situation. It’s especially hard to talk about race when individuals are always calling you out for your mistakes. This is why ‘calling in’ people is definitely a more effective approach. After class, I immediately went home and tried to make the best of my night when doing homework.

I ate some pineapple crackers that my aunt brought from the Asian store and it reminded me of childhood. My mom made chicken pho for the night and it was delicious! Culturally, I appreciate every single home-cooked meal. Eating out every single day has made me appreciate the comforts of my mom’s cooking. I ate YanYan crackers with chocolate, another childhood snack, and worked on my Design and its Discontents homework. I also took time to put on a face mask before going to sleep.

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Day 27: Tuesday, October 1st

I put on makeup this morning (foundation, concealer, eye shadow, mascara, eyebrow pomade, lipstick) before heading to school. Right away, I got an iced guava white tea for $3.62 using my reusable Starbucks cup. It was a really productive morning considering the hour I had before class. I got to work on a lot of ‘online errands’ as I like to call them. This includes answering e-mails, making payments, and responding to overdue messages. In Design and its Discontents, we just had more work time.

Before work, I went to K-pop Korean Bistro and grabbed a pork bulgogi lunch special with rice for $9.18. I wish it was closer to the hub of East Bank. Instead, it’s located in the corner of Dinkytown that anyone rarely wants to walk to. It’s definitely one of my favorite restaurants on campus. They took off the lunch special last semester, so it was nice to see it come back. At CLAgency, I had to deal with a lot more technical computer issues while I worked on name tags for the College of Liberal Arts offices.

In Visual Communications, we watched the film ‘Helvetica,’ where they explore the history of the typeface through interviewing leading graphic and type designers. It was interesting to see the connection between my Type and Journalism classes. It was interesting to see the different type designers we talked about in class and see their passion spilling out through the ways they described it. After class, I met up with my mentee for #TwinningTuesday, a challenge we’re doing in the mentorship program to gain brownie points. I went home and did homework for the rest of the night non-stop.

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Day 26: Monday, September 30th

I woke up late for my Web Design class again and ended up not learning much. I followed a step-by-step in class while my professor showed examples of coding. It took a lot of time but I eventually got it in the end. After Web Design, I went to the printing lab and printed out my monogram poster for about $5. I grabbed a Subway sandwich (9 grain wheat sub, ham, lettuce, spinach, and pickles) with Ruffles for $5.57 altogether before Typography. In Type, we critiqued everyone’s posters and received a lot of constructive feedback despite it being the last day for the project.

In my Diversity and Mass Communications class, we discussed about the film we watched on Wednesday - “I Am Not Your Negro.” We talked about our civil rights leaders and the different ideologies they had yet still coming together as a collective to combat segregation. There were organizations of different protests that impacted the law as well. After class, I went to Dinkytown and treated one of my mentees out to Kung Fu Tea ($11.47). I got regular milk tea with pearls and she got a yogurt drink.

I went home and ate my mom’s chicken and lettuce stir fry with white rice. There’s nothing that beats a meal from home. I drank about two cups of water and ate Hot Ruffles as a late night snack, a habit I’ve been getting into lately. I watched Hotel Del Luna for about an hour before FaceTiming my friends and talking about life until 1am. Its moments like these that hold a lot more value than homework. While talking to them, I did a splurge on Chen’s new album ‘Dear my dear’ and bought it for $39.82. After listening to the entire album throughout the day, I had to get a physical copy. This is an example of a cultural choice. I’m so embedded into the K-pop culture that physical albums still hold a lot of value despite it being on all the streaming sites.

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Day 25: Sunday, September 29th

Today was graduation day for my church’s children’s ministry. I had prepared candy, a card from our students, a certificate, and a picture frame with the class in it for our two graduates moving onto third grade. At church, we had a quick ceremony and other teachers from other classrooms took the time to congratulate their students. Instead of doing a lesson, everyone ate lunch instead (something we rarely do on Sundays). We ate spaghetti and meatballs, cantaloupe, chips, and a traditional Hmong scraped melon ice drink.

After church, I headed straight to the University of Minnesota to do a photoshoot for MAASU. It was an all-head coordinator shoot that required a lot of planning. We were shooting separate individual, co-coordinator, committee, and group photos. The photographer wasn’t super skilled with directing just yet, so that job ended up on me. In the cold, from 1:00-4:30pm, I helped direct 25+ people so that we could get the shots as quickly as possible and go home. It was definitely mentally exhausting.

I went to Seven Corner Coffee on West Bank and studied with my friend for about an hour. After studying, we went to a friend’s apartment and ate leftover kimchi stew, eel, salmon sushi, white rice, and mackerel. I listened to BlackPink, a Korean girl group, and went on Facebook for about an hour after using my creative brain all day. We went to Wilson Library, found out that the wifi was bad, and then ended up at Coffman Memorial Union for the night. I worked on my blog at the Asian Student Union and and my friend delivered me a piña colada slush from Kung Fu Tea! I venmoed him $4.00. After studying for another two hours, I went home and watched Hotel Del Luna for the rest of the night.

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Day 24: Saturday, September 28th

After waking up, I got ready for the day and ate some cold cantaloupe straight from the refrigerator. I chilled, went on social media, and talked to my friends for about two hours before my dad came and picked me up. At home, I ate some kimchi ramen with cheese, white rice with water, and some beef jerky my dad made. I watched Hotel Del Luna, the Korean drama I’m currently going through, and eventually got a headache from doing too many things in the morning. Specifically, looking at screens all day.

I took a four hour nap, which is unlike me, and woke up just in time to get ready for the fashion show I went to tonight. I packed on a lot of makeup. I put on primer, foundation, concealer, eyebrow pomade, eyebrow gel, blue eyeshadow, mascara, eyeliner, blush, contour, and a lipstick. I spent an hour trying to figure out my outfit but eventually ended up with something neutral. Fresh Traditions is an annual Hmong fashion show in the Twin Cities that usually takes place at the beginning or end of MN fashion week. I was a coordinator for last year’s show, so I was interested to see how this one was going to pan out. It was definitely a mess last year due to a lack of professionalism while planning the event.

This year, at least from an audience’s perspective, it went smooth and every designer brought something different to the table. It was cool to see lines dedicated to Hmong veterans, modern streetwear, and formal wear all in one. It’s also really cool because the Hmong arts community isn’t particularly large, so this one event is a chance for Hmong-Americans alike to enjoy a mix of modernism and our traditional cultural clothing. Because my cousin was a model, I eventually went to the after party at Sushi Tango and ate a kimchi/bulgogi roll with another roll containing eel, rice, and seaweed. I also ate Hot Ruffles as a late night snack when getting home.

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Day 23: Friday, September 27th

In the morning, I dropped my things off at my friend’s place because I was staying the night. We went to CVS to check out the Korean cosmetics brand Peripera. It was exciting because I had only seen their lines online. They were rarely sold in stores. I bought two shades of their lip tints for $20 and definitely did not regret it. When was I going to get another chance like this again? That’s definitely a lie, but a good one to get me to buy things. I got a caramel macchiato at Starbucks for $4.92 and we studied at the Asian Pacific American Resource Center for about an hour.

I went to work on West Bank at Carlson for about four and half hours on MN Cup collateral. MN Cup is community-led, public-private partnership that supports Minnesota entrepreneurs. They host an annual competition that reaches emerging entrepreneurs from across the state and connects them with tools, resources and support to launch and accelerate the development of their new ventures. After work, I hopped on the bus and got blood sausage soup at K-bop with my friends. I didn’t even check the price because I was so hungry.

We all headed to ASPIRE, an AAPI mentorship program as a part of APARC. This was the event where we would be paired with our mentees and put into families. They had snacks like fruit snacks, clementines, etc. I got paired up with two mentees! We chatted and got to know each other for a bit before heading back to my friend’s apartment. I drank some juice and water, and ate some Nutella, bread, and cantaloupe.

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Week 3 Collection: Receipts

For the third week, I collected receipts. As a consumer, I have learned in recent years to usually ask for an e-mailed or digital receipt to save paper. But for the purposes of this collection, I said ‘yes’ whenever an employee asked me if I wanted a receipt. My parents instilled the idea into me as a little kid that you must always keep a receipt just in case you return something. Most of the time, the items in our household don’t get returned unless it really didn’t work. My receipts were generally from the food and drink places I bought from. This includes Korean food, bubble tea, and fast food. I eat out so much within a week that it’s hard to keep track of every exact purchase with these receipts. I decided to collect them because I wanted to see how much paper I would be gathering within a week’s worth of purchases. Economically and culturally, it indicates the items I purchased and how much they cost. After this assignment, I am definitely going to go back to paperless.

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Day 22: Thursday, September 26th

I spent my morning in the Asian Student Union room working on my Design and its Discontents paper. I was generally distracted because my friends were there, but I still ended up finishing up the majority of it. I went on a spending spree this morning. I bought a reusable Starbucks cup and a venti iced pumpkin spice latte for $7.38. After that, I went ahead and bought an asiago bagel with plain cream cheese for $3.09. Consumerism is definitely real. Because I was starting to feel stressed and burnt out, I immediately went to buying drinks/food. This says a lot about American culture - I regularly seeing my friends falling into the same habits as me.

In Design and its Discontents, we got time to work on our rough drafts and blogs. I was definitely behind, so I used my time wisely. At CLAgency, I worked on the employee headshots. it was definitely frustrating because of the slow Mac, but I made it through. In my Visual Communications class, we watched the film the ‘The Illusionist.’ It addressed a lot of issues including body image, skin whitening, gender roles, and many more that are inaccurately portrayed in advertising. There is definitely a lot of pressure to be ‘beautiful,’ even if those ideals change from country to country.

I bought spicy rice cakes for $9.71 before heading over to my friend’s apartment. I helped her cook a bean and turkey stir fry. She ended up inviting a few more of our friends over and we ate a mixed rice from Burrigato, the bean and turkey stir-fry, pork with ginger, spicy rice cakes, and pork with ginger. After eating, we cleaned up and I had a MAASU meeting with my co-coordinator and executive director. It was very productive and we discussed a lot about the work we would be giving our staff. After getting picked up from my friend’s place, I went to Target and bought a bag of chocolates and lollipops for my Sunday school kids (about $10).

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Day 21: Wednesday, September 25th

I was late to Web Design this morning but I still learned a lot of content. We worked on a lot of CSS classes, site maps, and wireframe sketches. I also learned more about border styles, coding fonts, and visual effects using color and paddings/margins. Miraculously, our Typography class got cancelled so I went to Bonchon, a Korean fried chicken place in Dinkytown, with Jonathan. We got spicy rice cakes with spicy and soy garlic wings. The price came to be around $15 each, but it was definitely worth every bite.

We went to Coffman Memorial Union to study and ended up hanging out in the Asian Student Union room for a few hours working on homework for other classes. While doing work, I got an e-mail from my boss regarding print collateral for Food, Ag, Ideas Week they needed finished as soon as possible. Around 2:00pm, I went to West Bank and sat down with them to finish up extra edits and get in a few hours of work before leaving for my Diversity and Mass Communications class. Today was the last day I had to work with Grow North’s branding for a while, and I am definitely happy about it. Working on a brand for months can be exhausting.

In my Diversity and Mass Communications class, we watched the film ‘I Am Not Your Negro,’ a 2016 documentary film based off of James Baldwin’s unfinished manuscript. It was interesting to learn about each civil rights leaders’ story and opinions. Specifically, Martin Luther King, Jr. working alongside with Malcom X after having opposing opinions for a while. I honestly dozed off for some of it because it had been a mentally exhausting day, but I gained a lot of new perspectives overall. After class, I went to Kung Fu Tea and got a medium classic milk tea for about $4.50. I spent the rest of the night doing homework with my friend at Memorial Union.

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Day 20: Tuesday, September 24th

This morning, I started working on my Design and its Discontents paper on the bus. It was a rough draft, but I was able to write down the majority of my thoughts down. It was interesting to rethink and review my splurchase experience as well as analyze the packaging of the Biotrue contact solution. In class, we learned about certain aspects of packaging. I went to work at CLAgency and ate the pad thai noodles my mom had made the night before. Again, it was just more branding work and applying the College of Liberal Arts branding onto certain edits for departments.

In my Visual Communications class, I learned about cultural studies and how individuals and advertisers have certain ideologies. I also learned the new term interpellation, which is a process in which we encounter our culture’s values and internalize them. We also discussed the relationship between producers and viewers and argued on who got to initially negotiate the meaning of certain content. At first I thought the producers got to create the meaning behind their work, but I learned that the audience itself can also create their own world and have individual interpretations. Aesthetics and taste also play a big factor into how people interpret the content.

After class, I walked to the Recreation and Wellness center while scrolling through Twitter and looking at Seventeen’s ‘Ode to You’ updates. I went to the dance room with my friends for about thirty minutes and practiced our the choreography to ITZY’s ‘Icy,’ which is another K-pop song. It was cut short because they had to leave. I went to Starbucks and got a grande pumpkin spice frappe for $5.67 and started my commute back home. The sky was very pretty today. At home, I ate pork belly, lettuce, and beef with my family. After dinner, I worked on my typography poster since it’s due tomorrow.

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Day 19: Monday, September 23rd

This morning, I got dressed in a t-shirt, leggings, t-shirt, and a jean jacket. In Web Design, I learned about specifying a font family, generic font families, and specifying font sizes. We did a few exercises in class and then left to print out items for Typography. The first draft of the monogram poster was due today in class. I went straight to the printing lab after Web Design and printed mine out on the plotter using bond paper for $1.68. After printing, I went to grab lunch at the student center. It cost $4.29 for a 6-inch ham sandwich from Subway and $2.49 for curly fries.

In Typography, we critiqued other posters based on six principles: emphasis, balance and alignment, contrast, repetition, proportion, movement, and white space. It was interesting to see how other students used the elements of text and image while integrating the monogram. I learned a lot from what my professor commented on other posters, and was able to think about how to implement other functions into my own. After Type, I went to Murphy Hall for my Diversity in Mass Communications class. We talked about homosexuality, whiteness, and white privilege in our world.

After class, I went to Roti to meet up with a mentor and she treated me to a salad bowl. She also handed me a “college care package” with assorted snacks and ramen. I got to try her favorite gummy bears and had a good time learning about her post-grad life. I went home and ate the nostalgic Hello Panda treats with green tea while working on homework. I went off-track for a bit and did some online shopping/browsing, which made me think about our daily consumption of advertising. I’m constantly bombarded by online clothing stores and cute styles on Instagram. There’s this certain quality of choice and being a consumer but never truly leaving the house.

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Day 18: Sunday, September 22nd

Right when I woke up, I watched Seventeen’s VLIVE. It was just a short ten minute live of them thanking fans for their recent win on a music show. Since it there was a mission’s conference at church today, I decided to dress up in cultural Hmong clothing. I’ve grown out of most of my Hmong clothes, and it takes about thirty minutes to put on, so I just decided to wear jewelry with a modern outfit. It was fun and interesting to see my mom and dad’s interpretation of the modern and traditional Hmong clothing. The students spent a majority of the time coloring and spending time talking to each other. As someone with little patience, I just let them have their own free time.

After catching up with some friends, I went home and ate chicken pho, boiled chicken, rice cake with ramen and cheese, meatballs, shrimp, and regular ramen. It was a lot of food, but definitely worth it. I only consumed small portions of each, so it wasn’t extremely filling. I helped wash the dishes and put away a lot of the leftovers before heading to my room. Instead of studying, I scrolled through Instagram and Twitter aimlessly for a while.

Since I’m still an anxious driver, my dad helped me drive through a route to the U. He helped me park, and then routed me back home through the small roads. After coming home, I was mentally exhausted, so I took about a thirty minute nap before going to the store with my siblings and grabbing ice cream (two boxes for about $10). After coming back home, I worked on homework all night. I worked on coding for my Web Design class, tweaked my poster for Typography, and wrote my blog for Design and its Discontents.

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Day 17: Saturday, September 21st

At 10am, I woke up and did my usual hygienic routine. I used up a Crest whitening toothpaste, cleanser, and used a cotton pad to wipe on some beauty water. Since today was a free day, I cleaned my room by vacuuming, doing the laundry, and washing my sheets/pillow cases. For a late breakfast and early lunch, I made pasta using the ingredients I bought yesterday (the tomato sauce, ground beef, and rotini noodles). It was definitely satisfying and filled my pasta cravings. Today, I started a new Korean drama called Hotel Del Luna. It’s a Korean television series about the owner of a hotel that caters only to ghosts. It goes through the main character’s journey from a time period 1,000 years ago, her own death, and how she became the owner if this afterlife establishment.

For the rest of the day, I consumed about five episodes (each about an hour and thirty minutes long). When I start a new show, I usually wait until all the episodes are done airing before watching it. Especially as an international fan, it takes more time to get English subtitles. I like to watch things in one go instead of waiting for the next one. In between episodes, I got some readings done for my Visual Communication class and wrote a discussion post about “how gay stays White” for my Diversity in Mass Communications class. I spent the rest of the day watching the drama.

At the end of the night, I ended up giving in to my late night hunger cravings and ate some instant spicy chicken noodles. It was definitely a bad idea because my stomach felt horrible afterwards, but it still tasted good. In between watching the drama near my bedtime, I also check Twitter to look through updates of Seventeen. 11:00pm in Minneapolis is around 1:00pm in Korea, so artists are usually active and posting about their schedules that day. Seventeen had a performance and went to some radio stations for interviews, so I caught up on them before going to sleep.

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Day 16: Friday, September 20th

I woke up, drove to the Park and Ride, and worked on finishing up Food, Ag, Ideas Week assets all morning (from the bus all way to school). I stayed in Nicholson Hall for a few hours before heading to CLAgency’s weekly staff meeting. They gave updates on the week, and I was able to regroup with my co-workers on the creative team. We went over tasks of the week and clarified a few of the assignments. After work, I met up with a friend for Joan Gabel’s inauguration celebration out on the mall. We got to eat corn, and I picked up a few apples (made at the University of Minnesota). After hanging out for a bit, I immediately went to the light rail and headed home.

I had a video shoot planned at 1:00pm at my house. After arriving at the Park and Ride, I went to Cub Foods and bought some tomato sauce, ground beef, rotini noodles, and California rolls (to eat for lunch). It came out to around $20. I got home and ate all the rolls right before they came over. Most of the beginning consisted of setting up camera equipment, getting the girls styled, and setting up some of the props. I helped creative direct most of the day. It was a video showcasing women empowerment, clothing, and each of their individual styles. First, we drove to a nearby parking garage and filmed some freestyle dancing. Second, we did a small photoshoot with their street clothing and changed into the second concept. The second concept was filmed outside in a picnic style with flowing white sheets. The last scenes were filmed with cozy outfits in a white room.

There was a lot of moving back and forth, catering the videographer, and directing the girls. I learned a lot about lighting, soft boxes, and different poses from everyone on the team. It was eye-opening and definitely a good experience not being behind the camera but focusing more on the vision. After a long day of filming, everyone helped clean up and I was able to sit down and take some time for myself. I ate chicken pho with friends. It’s really nice to have friend who same the share culture as you. They’re able to understand the traditions, cultural mannerisms, and instances easier than most. I ended up knocking out extra early around 8pm due to physical and mental exhaustion.