Archive for the year 2016
Wichita Asian Festival
Posted on November 6, 2016 by Ching under Community, Events.
I was told I needed to get there early so I can accept a certificate on behalf of my company; and so we did. We walked past the long line of people waiting to get in and just walked right in. LOL.
That’s why you don’t see anyone else behind us in this photo.
This is me accepting the certificate. Mission accomplished.
Of course we had to walk around and sample all of the diverse Asian fare. Ran into several people we knew, including Tony.
There were so many people there!
I managed to talk Brian into staying to watch some of the performances but we didn’t plan on staying for the entire thing because the event lasts all evening (until 10 PM) and we’d been there since five o’clock since I was told to come early.
This Indian Kathak dance was one of the first performances we saw. There had already been a few performances prior to this one representing India, Japan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, and China, which we missed while we were waking around.
It was followed by a Taiji, Baguazhang, and Shaolin Kung Fu demonstration from the Grace Wu Kung Fu School.
ME: That woman in blue in the middle is really good.
BRIAN: She should be. That’s Grace Wu. Did you realize that she’s 104 years old?
ME: No way!
She’s not really 104. Brian just likes to pull my leg because I believe everything. He thinks it’s hilarious.
Overall it was a great demo from Grace Wu and the rest of the Grace Wu Kung Fu School team. It made me want to learn kung fu and martial arts.
Amira Dance Productions did a great job on their demo as well. I loved it when the busted into their Chammak Challo routine.
It’s such a fun song. Here’s the official video for it below…
Eleanor introduced me to this song a couple of years ago. It’s one of my most favorite Zumba routines that she does.
Here are a few pictures from the Taiko performance by Three Trails Taiko from Olathe, Kansas. It was my first time seeing a Taiko performance.
This is a picture of the East High School’s Lion Dance team’s performance.
Brian and I stayed and watched the Miss Wichita Asian Festival pageant.
I used to think the whole thing was rigged and hokey so I’d never watched it until now. I must say, I now have a greater appreciation for it. These ladies are talented.
Here’s a special performance by the 2015 Miss Wichita Asian Festival, Quan Huynh. She is so cute and adorable.
I really thought the Miss Vietnam representative was going to take it again this year. Their candidate showed such poise and grace and I thoroughly enjoyed her talent demonstration. She was clearly a fan favorite.
Here’s a still photo of Miss Vietnam.
Jenni attended the event with us.
Here’s another talent performance. I think this is the pageant contestant representing China.
I really loved seeing all of the elaborate cultural outfits. We used to call them “national costumes” (which I still catch myself saying on occasion) but we are very PC these days (or try to be, anyway). LOL.
The Miss Philippines candidate, Nikita Hammond, played “Bayan Ko” on her flute and then also sang it.
She actually did pretty well. I believe she won the People’s Choice Award. Rightfully so, because she had the entire Filipino community behind her and we have quite a contingent here in the Wichita area.
Here’s all of the candidates for this year’s pageant.
I know the participation has not been as great in the past but, this year, several Asian countries were represented including Nepal, Japan, China, Lebanon, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Philippines.
The Wichita Asian Festival Pageant, which began in 1984, has really grown in the last few years. Now the Indian, Vietnamese, Laotian, Chinese, and Filipino communities even host preliminary pageants to select their respective representatives for the Miss Wichita Asian Festival.
Our local television news anchor/reporter/celebrity Lily Wu has really done a lot to legitimize this pageant. True to her pageant platform of years past (Celebrate Cultural Diversity), she has done a lot for the Wichita Asian Association and celebrating cultural diversity as a whole.
I’m not sure about previous pageant judges but they got some very distinguished people to judge this year’s Miss Wichita Asian Festival Pageant including Susan Pompeo, wife of Congressman Mike Pompeo; Mayor Jeff Longwell; boxer and Olympic medalist Nico Hernandez; Mrs. Kansas United States Charissa Cederberg; Amy Williams, Global Community Relations Senior Manager at Spirit Aerosystems; Mercedes Gonzales Lopez from Farmers Insurance; and our Director of Distribution System Operations at work, Helen Wimsatt.
Brian and I got a photo with Nico during one of the breaks.
They did this thing where there’s a short break and then there’s some other things that happen (more cultural performances) and they wait to announce the pageant winner until the very end. It’s to keep you from leaving and it works.
We decided to walk around again while we were waiting for the results. We went back to the ICTea booth to get me a boba tea refill only to find that they were completely out. While I didn’t get any tea this time around, I did see Vanessa and Thuy this time. It was just Kathy there the first time around. Anyway, I had to get a picture with my favorite Nails & Beyond girls.
The lechon, which I didn’t see earlier probably because it was surrounded by too many people, was completely tapped out also. Almost all the booths were decimated by this time. Hardly anybody had anything left to sell. But it made sense considering how late it was. It’s good. As a vendor, you don’t want to take any food home. You want everything gone.
While we were waiting we saw an awesome performance of Kapa Malong Malong, a traditional Maranao (Philippine) folk dance performed by women wearing a malong, which looks like a giant infinity scarf.
Tita Rose, Tita Mae, and Marybeth were all part of the dance group.
These are some of my favorite photos from their performance.
I got the entire dance performance on video but had to split it into two parts because YouTube wouldn’t allow me to upload the large video file all at once.
Totally impressed with the versatility of the malong, Brian was like, “How come you don’t have one of these bedsheet thingies?” LMAO.
There were two other performances after Kapa Malong Malong and a total of six performances during the second half of the program. None were as good. Just kidding! I think mostly I was just ready to hear the winner of this year’s pageant.
As much as I liked our representative Nikita Hammond, my pick to win was actually the candidate from Vietnam Betty Giang. She’s got such natural beauty and showed complete poise doing the pageant.
I’m not sure how she did in the preliminary interviews and the parts of the pageant that we didn’t get to see that evening (because they happen before the Wichita Asian Festival) but she answered her question well that night and she performed her talent, a Vietnamese cultural dance, very gracefully and well.
Betty Giang was the runner-up and earned the title of Miss Asian Cultural Ambassador 2016. I think she had a lot of supporters in the audience because, among the cheers and applause, there was also some booing. Clearly, it wasn’t just me who picked her to win this year.
The representative from India, Greeshma Reddy, was crowned as this year’s Miss Asian Festival title. While also beautiful and talented in her own right, she just wasn’t as memorable to me as Betty.
Greeshma also had many supporters in the audience because there was lots of cheering and clapping.
Brian and I left immediately at the conclusion of the pageant, which also happened to be the conclusion of the event because they saved the crowning of Miss Wichita Asian Festival 2016 until the very end. We didn’t linger because we didn’t plan on staying that late. Jenni had left long ago. Brian was expecting to only stay a couple of hours and thought he would still have time to play video games after. LOL.
They did such a great job with the event that it didn’t seem like five hours had passed. As they say, time flies when you’re having fun and time definitely flew by. I was completely entertained the entire time and didn’t feel bored at all. I looked at the time on my watch (it’s actually a Nike FuelBand but because I haven’t been working out a lot lately, it’s mostly just a wristwatch these days) and was completely shocked that it had been over five hours. I had no idea that we were there that long.
I told Brian it felt like the scene in the Percy Jackson movie where they get trapped in the Lotus Flower Club. We got so totally immersed in the event and completely lost track of time. At least I did. I hope Brian had a great time too. If he didn’t, he was a good sport about it because he didn’t act bored and didn’t ask to leave ten million times. I have such an awesome husband.
Anyway, if you’ve never been to the Wichita Asian Festival you’re totally missing out. I know I say this about everything but I mean it. This is the one event we have each year that truly showcases Asian culture and is a feast for the senses. Lots of vendors come together and participate so you get to try delicacies from various countries that wouldn’t normally be available any other time. And, you get all of these in one place so you don’t have to drive all over town in search of them. You just have to bring your happy self to Century II. LOL.
The number of vendors is almost too much but not as overwhelming as the amount of people who descend upon Century II for the event. It’s hard enough to find what you’re looking because the vendor booths aren’t clearly marked or separated (that would be a suggestion for next year – better vendor signage and it needs to be high up) but even more difficult when there’s a mob of people surrounding the booth. You can’t read what they’re offering let alone know which booth it is.
That’s the reason why I missed out on the lechon. I didn’t see it and didn’t realize it was available until it was almost all gone.
I was super excited about getting to eat some dinuguan, though. Brian isn’t a fan and I don’t know how to make it so it takes special events like this one for me actually get some.
Of course I’m most excited about the abundance of Filipino food but there’s something for everyone. Every Asian country is represented, just about. There’s also vendors that strictly focus on gifts and knickknacks so it’s a great place to find one of kind present for that special Asian (or wannabe Asian) person in your life.
The Miss Wichita Asian Festival Pageant is obviously a huge draw but the cultural performances are fantastic. It’s not often that you get exposed to all of these in one place. Really just once a year. At the Wichita Asian Festival. The best part about it is the admission is free so the only money you need to bring is for the food, drinks, and gifts that you’ll purchase.
If you have never been, I recommend that you check it out at least once. And then you’ll be back year after year. I guarantee it.
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Fall Fest at City Arts
Posted on November 2, 2016 by Ching under Events, Things to Do.
Took Nickira to City Arts on Saturday morning. They were hosting an arts and crafts event that was free to the public. I saw information about it just a few days prior and figured that it would be right up Nickira’s alley.
Normally, I would have been teaching my Zumba class but Erica filled in for me.
Our craft options were little stick dolls, sugar skills, and Halloween buckets.
And we did them in that order. These pictures are of the examples.
This is the first stick doll I made.
After we made our stick dolls, we went on to paint sugar skull cookies.
I had to remind Kira that these skull cookies are just for painting and they aren’t to be eaten. The lady told me the cookies are just made with salt and flour so they’re probably not any good. Plus, you really wouldn’t want to eat a cookie that everyone else has touched. These were made specifically for painting.
Mine didn’t turn out too bad. Nickira and I agreed she should give it to her mom.
Afterwards, we went to the other room to make and decorate small Halloween candy pails. It was great that they had three different craft projects.
After that project, we both decided to make another pair of stick dolls before we had to leave to grab lunch. This is my second attempt.
I really liked how they had all of the craft supplies on hand so after short instructional briefing you pretty much had run of everything and could make whatever you wanted. I think I had just as much fun as Nickira, if not more. LOL.
People always complain there’s nothing to do in Wichita but there’s always fun community events like this one and there’s lots of fun free things to do. There’s usually a number of events and activities going on, you just have to know where to look. Facebook is great because it gives you quick and easy access to nearby events coming up. I also check Wichitaweso.me at least once a month.
If you don’t want to have to check multiple place, like our FLIP + CHING page on Facebook because I usually post about my favorite upcoming fun events that people should check out. Some cost, some are free, but all of them fun things to do.
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Sponsored Post: FREE Offers from Tiny Prints
Posted on November 2, 2016 by Ching under Sponsored Post.
FTC Disclaimer: I was compensated for this post. This post also contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.
The holiday season is almost upon us. I know some of you have probably already started (and maybe even finished) buying all of your presents, while some of you have not. If you haven’t, don’t worry. I have some special offers from Tiny Prints that will help make gift giving a snap.
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Use offer code HOLIDAYGIFT to avail of these special offers. You’re welcome and happy shopping!
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Pokémon Party Bus
Posted on November 1, 2016 by Ching under Events, Things to Do.
Pictures from our epic night of Pokémon hunting in Wichita.
We had an East and West side pickup to make it super easy for everyone. The East side pickup was our house and the West side pickup was at the Travel Junkie office on Maple and Maize.
We didn’t quite leave our driveway at eight o’clock as planned but we were right on schedule for arriving at the West side pickup location by 8:30 PM according to the map on my phone. It said we were 7 minutes away at about 8:23 PM.
Thanks to Spot’s Party Bus for being part of our Pokémon hunting adventure.
This is Brian doing a Facebook LIVE video on the bus.
We had a few last-minute cancellations so we figured we probably had 25 or so guests. It worked out pretty well actually because the bus was pretty full at 25 people. I can’t imagine how tight we would have been if we filled the bus to its max capacity of 35. We would’ve been packed like sardines.
I love how a couple of our friends rose to the occasion and dressed up as Pokémons. Biggie came as a Snorlax and Hideki dressed as a Growlithe.
The funniest part was when we were walking around College Hill Park and these kids on the other side of the tennis courts were like, “Look! It’s Tigger!” And Hideki was like, “I’m a Growlithe, dammit!” LMAO.
Here’s our good buddy Jay. He didn’t come dressed in costume because he is scary/funny enough as is. JK.
Brian’s cousin Zach and his wife Autumn joined us.
My coworker/friend Derek also joined us.
Christina couldn’t make it but Jake was able to join us. He came dressed as Ryu.
I just had to share this photo that Brian captioned because it’s hilarious.
Brian and I dressed as Pokémon trainers, as they look in the game.
The Pokémon party bus was such a blast. I loved being able to drink and hunt Pokémon at the same time, which we’ve never been able to do before. I also love that I didn’t have to man two phones because usually I’m having to manage both of our phones while Brian drives us around. I’m sure Brian enjoyed not having to drive so he could play as well.
The best part was that the Pokémon GO creators hosted a special in-game Halloween event whereby we caught lots of special Pokémons and got double candy for transferring mons to the professor. The timing of our Pokémon party bus event couldn’t have been better.
I had an amazing time and hope that everyone did too. Until next year!
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My Wicked Birthday Date
Posted on October 31, 2016 by Ching under Events.
Brian and I had a nice dinner at P.F. Chang’s a week ahead of my birthday because we wanted to have an intimate celebration. We’re not really romantic types but, every now and then, we like to have a nice dinner together just by ourselves.
Here are some pictures from dinner.
We started with crab wontons because I really like them there. Unlike at other Asian restaurants, their filling is more crab than filler. It’s delicious!
My strawberry ginger margarita was super delicious also.
As for dinner, Brian got his usual Chang’s spicy chicken.
I also got my usual: Mongolian beef with eggplant instead of green onions.
Neither of us are really that adventurous when it comes to food. We find something we like and we order it every time. LOL.
After dinner, it was time to head downtown to see Wicked but first — let me take a selfie!
I’m so lucky to have a husband who enjoys music theater just as much as I do.
We’ve learned from watching so many shows that, while it’s great to be up close, you don’t want to be too close to the front. We had the perfect seats!
We were right under the animatronic dragon.
I didn’t have a tall, big haired person in front of me this time either to obstruct my view so I was fully able to enjoy the show.
Just had to take one pre-show selfie with my wonderful husband because no more pictures allowed once the show starts.
Of course, we had to take an intermission selfie as well. LOL.
And a second one because we didn’t get the dragon in the previous photo.
The show was amazing. I loved the sets and the costumes and the props. The national tour cast was fabulous. Everyone was so talented and thoroughly enjoyed watching all of the amazing singing and dancing.
I love Glinda the best. She was hilarious.
We missed the show when it came to town seven years ago so I’m super grateful that we had the opportunity to watch it this go around. I hear that it just gets better and better every year.
I really wanted to get season tickets because all of the other shows look fabulous but I’m glad we didn’t because I’m not in town during the week. Perhaps my schedule will soon go back to normal and I can spend more time home. We’ll see.
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