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“I Love You” in a Language My Parents Could Speak
Written by Jodie Li “I love you.” Three words that, for many Asian Americans, aren’t a daily reassurance but almost a shock to hear. If I heard those words from my parents, I’d honestly be worried something bad had happened. But not hearing “I love you” doesn’t mean love isn’t there. Many Asian immigrants grew up in cultures where words of affirmation weren’t the norm. Love was shown, not said. It’s like speaking different languages; you wouldn’t expect someone to understand you if you only spoke yours and never tried to learn theirs. The same goes for love. I’ve learned to listen for “I love you” in the language my…
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Date Nights on a Budget
Written by Asmi Chinauriya Somehow, someway, we have started associating dates with a price tag. The bill on the first date is the main topic of many conversations, especially on social media. However, this does not mean that date nights always have to be in a high-end restaurant with a bill to pay. You should not have to wait for a bonus or your paycheck to spend a romantic night with someone that you love. Date nights can simply involve doing things together that you both enjoy. Learning new hobbies together, spending time on said hobbies together, and many more. Here are more examples: Cooking: it can be themed on…
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When Pixar Feels Like a Love Letter: Watching “Elemental”
Written by Mikhaella Lopez The theme of love is a recurring point that is seen in almost every Pixar movie. Whether that be familial love like Marlin and Nemo in Finding Nemo, or a platonic love between Mike Wazowski and James P. Sullivan in Monsters University, love exists in every single movie Pixar has created. As someone who grew up watching Disney and Pixar movies, I fell in love with the different characters throughout the years; from Lightning McQueen from Cars to Mama Imelda from Coco, there were many characters to love. I first heard of Elemental back when I still used to work as a boba barista at a…
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How the Holidays Have Changed
Written by Mark Arranguez Each year, as the Christmas season approaches, my family would set aside a weekend to bring decorations down from the attic, adorn our tree, and fill each room with red, green, and gold. Over time, however, the help behind that tradition has dwindled. Early on, my dad limited himself to only the heavy lifting due to a “lack of creative vision.” In 2018, my brother began college, and the decorating fell to my mom and me. Then, when I began college in 2022, decorating became a chore to have to squeeze into Thanksgiving Break. As my on-campus responsibilities grew, I began to wish that when I…
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The College Student’s Last-Minute Holiday Gift Guide
Written by Jodie Li Exams are over! It’s finally time to put your whole heart into the holiday season. The first half of December can be a blur after pushing your brain to the max, but the reward of finishing is amazing. Now, we’ve entered the next phase of the month: the joyful, yet hectic, world of holiday shopping. Finding presents can be tough, expensive, and so last-minute for us college students. Don’t stress, though, we aren’t here to do that! Here is my list of affordable, thoughtful gift ideas, broken down into categories to help you find the perfect thing for anyone on your list. For the Sleepy &…
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Chocolate Meat
Written by Micah Dulos Standing on my tippy toes, I’d stand near my mom as her arm stirred a wooden spoon back and forth. Seven-year-old me was always piqued in interest by her cooking, at the time believing it was pure magic—like how Santa Claus always found a way into our house to eat our cookies from time to time. She would smile and tip the pot just a bit to show me. It was an opaque, brown—almost black—sauce that covered small bits of what looked to be meat. Its aroma—a warming, musky scent with hints of vinegar and slow-cooked pork—filled the air. It wasn’t a sour and almost spicy…
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Best Christmas Songs
Written By Mikhaella Lopez Christmas. Pasko. There are many different names for Christmas across all cultures. Even for the families that don’t celebrate Christmas, everyone hears the same songs on the radio. No, I’m not talking about the same five pop songs that you hear on the morning AM radio on the way to work or school. I’m talking about Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas is You”, or Wham’s “Last Christmas” on repeat for the nth time in thirty minutes. As someone who started celebrating Christmas the moment September 1st hit, I’ve been listening to among the hundreds of thousands of holiday songs Spotify and the radio have…
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Holiday Joy, Cultural Tension
Written by Will Chen As a Chinese-American, I often feel left out during the holiday season. Christmas is many people’s favorite holiday and the one they look forward to the most. However, as a Buddhist, my family did not celebrate Christmas. When I would come back from winter breaks as a child, all my friends would be immersed in conversations about the gifts they received, while I listened from the sidelines, unable to chime in. My house during the holidays would look the same as usual. In a neighborhood full of bright lights, my house would be the only one that remained undecorated. Not celebrating Christmas as a child wasn’t…
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Asian Holiday Delicacies
Written by Asmi Chinauriya Asia is full of a mix of religions, and on top of that, there is the mix of holidays that have been practiced in Asian culture for centuries. So, how exactly do they celebrate their holidays? They will often agree on a celebration that can be agreed upon by anyone: food. Something that often comes as a surprise to many is that in Japan, the people celebrate Christmas with boatloads of KFC. Though I could not tell you how exactly this tradition started, I think it should be practiced more outside of Japan as well. It is also worth noting that during Christmas time, most of…
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How I’m Spending Winter Break
Written by Hannah Sazon One thing about UD is that we are blessed with an especially long winter break. With classes not starting back up until February, breaks are a rare opportunity to actually breathe, reset, and make the most of the time we don’t have during the semester. Instead of letting it slip by, I am planning to make the most of this break by keeping myself busy, balancing rest, personal interests, and preparation for the spring semester. During the semester, hobbies are the first thing to go when things get hectic, so one of my priorities this break is to get back into the things I enjoy. I…
