The following three posts were handwritten in my journal.
Friday October 17, 2008:
WOOOOOO!!!!! ATLANTA!!!!!
It's 11:25pm, and we have just arrived back at our hotel from Emory University. Why are we here? We are here to represent Northeastern University at NAAScon (National Asian American Student Conference). Big thanks to Delia and Van up north for giving me this tremendous opportunity and I think I can speak for Hannah, SK and Sarah that we appreciate everything that y'all have done for us for this weekend.
Our trip started at 11am in front of Dockser hall, and Van being the "mom" that she is had to come and send us off, just kidding Van! I felt like we were on a business trip with shuttles picking and dropping us from and to the airport. It was actually the first time that I board a plane since 2006 so I was a bit nervous.
I made a mistake of not eating breakfast before going to the airport so I had to buy breakfast there. It was the most expensive muffin and coffee that I've ever bought...$4.68! Our flight was delayed and we finally departed at 1:43pm from Boston heading to Atlanta! Thanks to the girls, I got the window seat and it made my day when I got to see home as we flew over New York City. I got a little teary-eyed because I miss home but I'll be back soon.
We arrived at Atlanta to a rainy Atlanta. Also, we were all hungry. We were debating whether to eat at the Popeyes at the airport or just wait. We chose the latter of the two and it was a great choice shown later. Again, the shuttle was waiting for us outside the airport and after some traffic, we arrived at our beautiful hotel and greeted us with their cookies which was clutch because we were starving at the time.
There was a diner right outside our hotel conveniently and we decided to feast there. We ordered wings, ribs, steaks, soups, whatever you name. I had country fried steak for the first time and it was delicious!
We headed over to Emory around 7:30 to make the film screening of "Vincent Who?" For those who do not know the story of Vincent Chin, please look it up because I think it is a story that everyone should know. The director Curtis Chin was also there, and he happens to be a family friend of Vincent Chin. For those who know the story, one of the comments after movie was that Vincent did not say he was not Japanese after being accused of it and as he was beaten to death and the fact that he did not say that he's not Japanese meant that he chose to died for Asian America. I disagreed with the comment because I don't think Mr. Chin's mindset as it was all happening was that he was going to die for Asian America. He did not wake up that day wanting to be a mortar. However, I feel like Asian Americans did make Vincent a mortar because we should be. The man lost his life and justice was not brought upon the murderers. It was our trigger to say "enough is enough, we will be heard."
Anyways, more will be posted on the issue. After the movie, we went back to the hotel and called it a night.
