Photo Gallery: Mid-semester Mania Week at Purdue

Picture 1: Purdue Recreational Sports Center offers a wide range of fitness classes each semester. Because of the construction of the new recreational building, all the Group X classes of Spring 2011 are held in the north activity room of Harrison Hall.

Picture 2: Group X fitness classes are only opened to students who buy the Group X passes at the beginning of each semester. For students who didn’t buy the pass but still interested in joining, Group X has Mid-semester Mania from March 21 to March 27.

Picture 3: During this week of event, all the Group X classes are free for students with or without passes. “We definitely had more

students coming to our class last week during the mid-semester

mania,” says a student in the fitness class.

Picture 4: CSI is one of the new classes that are opened to students during the Mid-semester Mania Week. CSI stands for cardio, strength, and interval.

Picture 5: In each classes, the instructors will select the music that goes along with students’ motions and demonstrate the position for students to follow.

Picture 6: Before the exercise, the instructor will lead students to do some stretching. Regular stretch before class is essential to avoid sports injuries and reduce the possible muscle hurt.

Picture 7: In order to strengthen students’ muscle strength and endurance, CSI classes require a lot of push-ups as shown in the picture.

Picture 8: “CSI classes are very tiring and we are always heated up by the exercise so there will be a lot of sweats at the end,” says Ashley, a CSI upper-body class student.

Picture 9: The mirrors in the exercise room are helpful for students to make sure they are doing it right and to exercise the right muscles.

Picture 10: When the workout gets more difficult and students’ bodies get tired, it’s really important to focus to remain the right posture.

Picture 11: Being a CSI fitness class instructor is never easy. Michelle Whipple demonstrated throughout the whole class without showing she’s tired, and she kept students motivated when they got tired.

Picture 12: “Are you guys still with me?” says Michelle while she’s showing students the correct posture.

Picture 13: In order to increase muscle strength, kicking is always seen in CSI classes. Students might be tired at this point of time, but they still followed Michelle’s kick.

Picture 14: In the motivating and heated environment like the north activity room of Harrison Hall, students continued to maintain their runner’s launch and continued the workout for a healthier lifestyle.

Photo Gallery: Foods in San Francisco You Can't Miss

This photo gallery is about my experience of foods in San Francisco over spring break 2011.

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Belly Good Cafe & Crepes

One thing I learned in San Francisco was that if you are a Japanese food lover but don't have the money to travel all the way to Japan, San Francisco is definitely your best option. Originally invented by French, crepes reached its popularity in Asia after transformed by Japanese. Belly Good Cafe & Crepes is located in Japan town, just 10 minutes away from the Union Square of downtown SF. A Japanese couple owns and runs this little, warm, and famous crepes shop. They have every combination of crepes that one can think of, but if you feel like being creative and adventurous, you can always create your own crepes.

"Happy Face Crepes" is why Belly Good is so popular, aside from the fact that it tastes very good. People always say Japanese people are good at making cute stuff, but I was still very surprised when the chef gave me my No.48 Happy Face Crepe with pudding, whip cream, corn chips, red bean paste, and banana. Look at this crepe, how can you not want to come back for more?

Realizing their customers have different preferences, Belly Good serves their crepes in two ways: You can have it wrapped and ready to go, or you can go with the traditional French style, on the plate.

Belly Good address: 1737 Post St. #393, San Francisco, CA 94115

Note: Cash only. They don't accept credit cards.

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Verde Tea House

Verde Tea House is a chain tea house in SF, and apparently very popular among not only Asians but also every race in general. The layout of every store is slightly different, but the bubble tea is consistently in high standard.

The name says it all: You must get a bubble tea when you come here. Unlike many bubble tea places in the mid-west, Verde is actually owned by Taiwanese people, and their bubble tea comes with all sorts of things that can only be found in Taiwan (Not even in China or Hong Kong, trust me!). I always get the regular milk-tea with tapioca just to test the water, but later I found out the one my friend had, milk-tea with noodle, was amazingly good. Never thought that noodle and milk-tea could go together? Try it in Verde and you'll fall in love with it.

In addition to bubble tea, they also serve Taiwanese snacks. I ordered some Taiwanese style think toasts to see if Verde was good enough to have a place on my blog, and~ here it is! They come in all kinds of flavor, sweet or salty, and with a little extra money, you can have two flavors in one thick toast just to see which one you like better.

Verde address: 852 Villa St. Mountain View, CA 94041

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Mama Chen

Famous for its traditional Taiwanese food, Mama Chen is always in its full capacity, even on weekdays. Having their store name and menu written in Chinese, I was not surprised to find out this was the place full of Asians, or some Americans taken by their Asian friends. You can find almost every traditional Taiwanese dish in here, from stinky tofu to intestine noodle. However, just when you assumed that they also served bubble tea here, they would tell you they have everything except for bubble tea. If you feel like having a sweet ending after meal, go to Verde.

Taiwanese oyster pancake is one of my favorite dishes of all time. Many tourists who come to Taiwan have it in Taipei, but the best oyster pancake is actually in my hometown, Hsinchu. To my surprise, the oyster pancake in Mama Chen was actually comparable to those in Hsinchu. What does that mean? The oyster pancake in Mama Chen is 4.5 star if Hsinchu oyster pancakes are rated as 5-star.

Mama Chen address: 5075 Stevens Creek Blvd, Ste 10, Santa Clara, CA 95051

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Kappo Nami Nami

Another thing I learned in SF was that there's not really a Chinatown or Vietnamese town where you find legit Asian foods that can't be found anywhere else. Because of the large Asian population in SF, not only did I hear people talking in Mandarin on the streets but also found Asian restaurants outside of the so-called Chinatown amazingly good.

Due to the convenient location of being in the coast area, the seafood in Kappo Nami Nami is very fresh. The special dishes that Japanese restaurants have in the mid-west are their regular dishes in not only Kappo Nami Nami but also all Japanese restaurants in SF.

In addition to raw fish and seafood, Kappo Nami Nami has traditional Japanese hot plates and bowls as well. Their portion comes a little smaller than the usual portion in mid-west, but the quality of food is incomparable.

Kappo Nami Nami address: 240 Castro St., Mountain View, CA 94041

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Pier Market Seafood Restaurant

Located in Pier 39 of Fisherman's Wharf, Pier Market Seafood Restaurant serves the best seafood dishes I had in San Francisco.

Their clam chowder in bread bowl is one of my favorite dishes. Different from other clam chowders, the clam chowder they serve comes with real and fresh clams. A lot of Yelp reviewers said their bread bowls were very good too, but I was too full to finish the bread bowl as well.

Being in the coast, eating raw and fresh seafood is a must-do to me. I"m not a big fan of eating raw seafood because I was food-poisoned before, but these middle-sized raw oysters did not disappoint me.

Pier Market address: Pier 39, San Francisco, CA 94113

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Shabuway

Shabuway is a Japanese Shabu-Shabu place. For those of you who are not familiar with Japanese dining, Shabu-Shabu is similar to Chinese style hotpot, but in a healthier style because you don't drink the soup. Different from the regular hotpot, you don't leave the meat in the soup. You only dip the meat into the soup a few times so the Kobe beef would not get "old" and lose the purpose of ordering such high quality meat.

There's only two soup bases available in Shabuway: Seaweed soup and spicy soup. Interestingly enough, there's only one meat available: Kobe beef! However, you do have a choice between a regular portion or super large quantity of Kobe beef.

Once you choose your soup bases and how much meat you want to eat, it's time to enjoy. Veggies come with the Kobe beef combo, and it's highly recommended that you put the veggies in first because the longer you cook the Napa veggie, the better it'll become.

In such a great place for Shabu-Shabu and Kobe beef, I only have one suggestion for those of you who are thinking about going: Just close your eyes and eat as much as you want because you don't get this kind of meal everyday. God will forgive you for forgetting about the diet you're going though.

Shabuway address: 180 Castro St. Mountain View, CA 94041

Ethnography Preview: Humans vs. Zombies

Podcast 3: Community-First Responders

Reflections of News Arc Photo Gallery

News Arc: Purdue Students Raise Questions on School Budget was my seventh photo gallery. I wouldn't say this is my personal favorite because I love other photo galleries as much as loving this one, but the topic seems to fit my interest the most because it's "News Arc."

Taking camera and my recording device with me to the budget forum reminded me of last semester, when I went to a lot of events to cover their stories. However, I had to admit that I did not do as well this time. Considering how many news reporting I've done since last semester, I failed to check my camera batteries before I went. I was so confident that I had enough batteries because I just put the new batteries in a few days ago. However, I found myself completely wrong because I forgot to turn off the camera last time, and there was no batteries left at all.

I found myself stuck in the dilemma: Do I run back to get batteries or stay to document the whole forum from the beginning? I chose the later one, which explained why some of my photos did not have high quality.

I took a different approach to produce the photo gallery this time as well. Usually, I selected the photos I wanted to include in my photo gallery, and then I wrote the photo captions. However, I reversed the order this time. Since my purpose was to report what was happening on campus, I perceived myself as a newspaper writer. I wrote my article first, and when I was done with the writing, I chose the pictures that could enhance the content.

It's been a long time since last time I wrote a newspaper article, but the feelings all came back while I was brainstorming of how to tell my story. If you did not attend the forum last Wednesday but were able to grasp what was going on that night, then I think I fulfilled the duty of being a news reporter, at least in the most basic level.

My next photo gallery will be about the spring break that's coming up next week. It'll be very fun. I'm excited.

Photo Gallery7: News Arc: Purdue Students Raise Questions on University Budget

France Cordova, president of Purdue University, answered students' questions about school budgets on Wednesday evening, March 3, in Krannert Auditorium.

Hosted by Purdue Student Government, the student budget forum aimed to give students opportunities to ask school officials about where their money goes to and how their tuition is used.

Together with President Cordova, Al Diaz, the executive vise president for business and finance, gave a presentation on where Purdue gets its funding from and their goals for future funding.

According to Diaz, Purdue endowment is about 200 million dollars per year, but the number is expected to go up to 400 million dollars by the next decade.

"We don't need that many buildings, but we want to make more scholarships available to students, " Cordova said.

In the question session, Qi Luo, a graduate student and president of Chinese Student and Scholar's Association, raised concerns that international students don't have equal opportunities as domestic students in terms of receiving scholarships.

In response to Luo's concern, Cordova explained the restrictions came from local government, but she's seeking opportunities for international students from oversea sources.

"I go to China twice a year for fundraising purposes," said Cordova. "In addition to China, I go to other Asian countries as well."

On behalf of students who couldn't attend the forum, Brad Krites, PSG president, asked about the outcomes of not raising tuition even when state funding is decreasing. Cordova explained the first impact will be the shrinking number of faculty.

"We usually had 130 professors, but the number dropped to 49 due to insufficient funds," said Cordova. "If we can't get good professors to teach in Purdue, our ranking will do down eventually."

The forum was originally expected to be an hour long, but students asked questions for almost 50 minutes. All the school officials, including President Cordova, stayed till the end.