Sophilicity

So for my last festival post to catch up with, I will be talking about the Vietnamese Festival held at Potters Fields Park by London Bridge. The first thing that caught my eye about the festival would have to be the colourful aligned letters to form the word "VIETNAM". Obviously I had to take a picture, I really liked the design and it was just in front of London Bridge as well.

Honestly, the one reason I decided to attend the event was because I'd realised I had been to way too many events which weren't related to my own culture, and my family always go to me - "Sophia, why do always go to these Korean events? Why do you go to these Japanese events? Why not Chinese or Vietnamese events?" If you didn't know already, I'm half Chinese and Vietnamese, but don't attempt to speak any form of Chinese to me, I most probably won't understand...

Anyways, back to the topic, so I decided on attending this event. There was a giveaway for tickets a pair of tickets to Vietnam - yet I found out they only discounted the price of tickets which was sort of a let down for me. There were also freebies included such as the Asian conical hat, which some may know as "rice hats" - The amount of times people remember it as that because of the rice farmers, so many "racist" jokes could come out of this... But let's not go there for now. However, since we are talking about the Vietnamese festival, these hats in Vietnamese are known as "nón lá".

I saw a lot of familiar faces at the Vietnam Festival, it's unbelievable knowing how connected Asians are aha. From the train station all the way to the festival, I saw family friends, family and other Asians whom I recognised. It was really nice catching up with everyone at the festival, and I was fortunate enough to know people at the festival so I got free food - I realised some people waited for ages in the queues for the food as it was quite expensive and it didn't compare to home cooked food.

Personally, I found that there was very little to do at the festival. There were cut outs where you could place your head in and take a picture, there was also the giveaway as well as food stands. There was also performances held on the stage as well as a fashion show to display "ao dai" which is Vietnamese traditional dress.

As you can probably see, it was pretty much a struggle trying to capture pictures... Short people struggles. But hey?! I managed somewhat. I wish I had actually managed to watch the fashion show for longer, I only managed to watch the show near the end because I was preoccupied with my family and friends.

There was a large group of us all attending the festival, majority of us being Vietnamese. As the photographer, I didn't get into the group picture myself, but hey I prefer being behind the camera. But maybe I should of given a bit more notice when taking the picture, because it seems SOMEONE -cough- didn't seem to take notice that I was taking the picture - which explains the slip. No names shall be mentioned.

Overall, I felt like the festival lacked activities for us to do, and although it was good as it introduced a lot about the Vietnamese culture through traditional dress, performances, food and more, there wasn't much to do personally for us. But it was a good to hang out with everyone for a while as it's rare to see everyone these days as everyone has busy schedules.

For my next posts, I will be dedicating November to a lot of birthday posts. There seems to be a lot of birthday celebrations which I need to catch up with and quite a few 18th birthdays as well! Stay tuned!

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The Japan Matsuri comes once a year, a festival celebration commemorating Japanese culture. From music, to food, to traditional dress, the festival gives you an opportunity to enlighten your knowledge of Japan. With so many people attending the festival, I'm surprised people managed to make it through the crowds. I was just struggling to get some takoyaki for myself as soon as I arrived.

Personally, I've been to the Matsuri quite a few times, but this time I didn't stay too long for the event itself. Although there were many stalls available and stage performances, I felt the event was lacking. However, the one thing I did manage to stay for was the yukatas. By the National Art Gallery, by the manga wall, there was a chance to try on some yukatas. I was fortunate to be one of the first ones to try them on. I've tried on a kimono before, as well as other forms of traditional dress belonging to different cultures, but I've always wanted to try a yukata. Specifically, I've wanted to attend a firework festival in Japan in a yukata just like in the mangas I've read and animes/Japanese dramas I've watched.

Honestly, it was really interesting to watch how they put on the yukatas, there's actually a lot of different pieces involved to put it all together. We got to mix and match with the yukata pieces, and there was quite a variety of colours and designs to choose from.

I actually thought the smaller outfits were actually really cute, but the designs for the yukatas looked really cool. I hope that when I get the chance to visit Japan, I'll probably buy a yukata/kimono for myself, and learn how to put it on. It will be an interesting challenge!

When it was my turn to actually try on the yukatas, let's say it got a bit too close for comfort. But to be honest, it couldn't be helped as they needed to make sure it was fitted properly to our bodies otherwise the yukata wouldn't come together properly.

The final piece of the yukata involved putting on the obi belt around the yukata. It was quite tight, but that's understandable, but I found it really cool how they did the knot. It looks beautiful if you look from behind. Honestly I should of brought a hairband to tie my hair up because I think it would have made it a lot easier to put on the yukata since my hair kept getting in the way aha.

My cousin joined in as well in trying the yukata, originally she wasn't going to do it, but I'm quite glad she decided to participate with me. It made it a lot more enjoyable, and the amount of candid shots involved was pretty eventful.

I think it was a pretty interesting comparison as I chose a lighter subtle design along with the yellow patterned-belt whilst she went for the navy detailed design for her yukata combined with a plain red belt. I think the funniest thing about posting a picture of us together on Facebook was my mother's comment about us being "two cute Japanese girls" - that honestly made my day aha.

Overall, this event highlight would obviously have to be the yukatas. It's always interesting developing your knowledge of different cultures, and the experience was fun as well. I apologise for the lateness of this post, I've still got one more festival post to catch up on, so look forward to my next post on the Vietnam Festival! Thank you for reading!

PS: Thanks Michael for taking the pictures whilst we were trying out the yukatas, your photography got much better, even though majority of the photos were pretty candid aha!

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The Eat Asia Night Market is coming for the first time to the UK. Hosted by the Bubble Tea Magazine, which happens to be London's one and only bilingual food magazine, this event should be a worthwhile experience.

So what are the details for the event?

Date: 20th November 2015
Time: Session 1 (12:00-3:45PM), Session 2 (4:15-8:00PM)
Location: Backyard Market, Bricklane London, E1 6QL

Why might you want to attend this event you may ask?
Well for starters, this event gives you the opportunity to experience various cuisines from different parts of Asia. From the Japanese ramen burger to Korean popcorn chicken to the Malaysian pancake. There are over 20 different available street stalls for you to have a taster of such exquisite dishes. What's not to like?

But not only is this event filled with food, you also get the opportunity to enjoy music, short films whilst possibly participating in cultural exchanges with others. Just a reminder that the payment for the ticket only covers the admission cost, but the price for food should be under £10 from street vendors.

Fortunately, I have been given the chance to giveaway 2 tickets for you and a friend to attend the first session of the Eat Asia Night Market from 12:00PM to 3:45PM. To enter, complete the details down below for a chance to win the tickets.

Bubble Tea Magazine have created a public Facebook event page for the East Asia Market, please check it out!

https://www.facebook.com/events/1484214355208799/

Feel free to invite your friends and spread the word! There are already 12,000 people said to be attending the event, so don't miss out on this chance!

Also, don't forget to check out the Bubble Tea Magazine site, they have made a huge contribution in bringing this event together alongside the support of the Old Truman Brewery.

www.bubbleteamag.com

Meanwhile, do take the opportunity to check out some of the promotion videos which have been made by the Bubble Tea Magazine. Thank you for reading c:

At EAT ASIA NIGHT MARKET while you and your mates are munching on all those mouthwatering street food, don’t miss out the music, short films and cultural exchange experience at the event, you will be surprised at how EAT ASIA NIGHT MARKET will transform Brick Lane into making you think you’ve actually traveled to Asia!

Posted by Bubble Tea Magazine 英國美食誌 on Monday, 21 September 2015

EAT ASIA NIGHT MARKET LONDON 2015 - What do you think of Asia Street Food?

Tickle your taste buds this November at EAT ASIA NIGHT MARKET LONDON 2nd promo video! Early Bird tix until 12th Oct! Admission Tickets --> www.bubbleteamag.com BOOK YOUR TICKETS NOW at www.eatasia-2015.eventbrite.co.uk or www.bubbleteamag.com#Streetfood #Music #Market #Culture #Asia

Posted by Bubble Tea Magazine 英國美食誌 on Thursday, 8 October 2015

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From the ages of 15-17 years old, many teenagers are given the opportunity provided by the NCS to participate in a 3 week programme. The programme is otherwise acknowledged as NCS The Challenge. The maximum payment for the programme is £50 (excluding travel to the programme and back). This payment includes accommodation, activities, food and drinks etc.

In my opinion, I found this programme was an amazing experience. I developed friendships with new people, as well as new skills. For my programme, I participated in the Summer of 2014. This led me to return to NCS The Challenge as an Associate Mentor, which involved helping and advising the participants in the third week of The Challenge.

Unfortunately I didn't get a picture with my NCS Volunteer Hoodie, instead here's a selfie with some of members of Team Edwards whom I was working with.

Being an Associate Mentor led to many responsibilities, I had to know where to draw the line, although I was only a volunteer I had to consider working in the mindset of a Staff e.g. paying attention to certain situations and knowing how to deal with them correctly. But as a young person myself, I understood how the young people felt and in the end interacted with them in a way which would make them feel comfortable with me but also gave me authority in important circumstances.

Looking back at last year, I never got to explain my experience of NCS. The weeks are separated into different sections. The first week is the Personal Challenge. For my first week, I went to Wales to participate in camping, rock-climbing, canoeing but we also got to go to the beach which was a treat unlike other groups. Just looking back at pictures made me laugh so much, it was such an exciting experience, I want to go back again and if I could, I would do the whole experience again.

I think the one thing that probably scared me most was the fact that there was 7 guys (8 if we include the mentor) and there was only 4 girls. So of course us girls all stuck to each other. And I knew 2/3 of the girls as the other two attended my secondary school, but the last member of our girl group fit in straight away aha. The senior mentor wanted us to separate so there was a mixture of girls and boys in each canoe, differentiating in experience and skill. I didn't have any experience of canoeing but picked it up pretty quickly and it allowed me to get to know my group better.

As for camping, I was terrified, there was reasons why I dropped out of DofE... Let's say I wasn't the most prepared as well, and came out with ridiculous blisters. I warn anyone camping you should be pretty prepped with blister plasters and thick socks (that's where I made the stupid mistake... opps).

But as a group it was a worthy effort. We all relied on each other building on the four aspects which make up the "TRUE awards". TRUE stands for Trust, Responsibility, Understanding and Empathy. I probably wouldn't have made it if it wasn't for the support for my other teammates. My friend and I even made an emotional speech at the TRUE award nominations to convey this aha (I think our acting was pretty on pointe, featuring fake tears... Yes... We went there-) but that's what brought us all closer.

The guys got pretty close, as you can see from the pictures, but I think the physical activities brought us together. Such as rock climbing, we had to trust each other if we were going to get to the top and back safely. I'm not gonna lie, I didn't survive without a few scrapes here and there, but I think even the instructor acknowledged I was incredibly accident prone... Oh dear... Not gonna lie though, I can't forget the view from Wales was amazing aha.

And the beach, I think the best part was getting ice cream and having a giant water fight between our team. I think my friend and I made a deadly move to initiate a water fight with the guys, they were fortunate they could strip from their shirts whilst us girls lived the life struggle of trying to avoid getting soaked... RIP.

Let's just ignore the fact I made irrelevant screaming, but hey the impact of that dive was way too much for me aha. Our group was pretty much a bunch of laughs. From some of the guys to rolling down hills in Wales, one of which receiving a nose bleed... But... The fact the senior mentor participated in the hill rolling really says a lot in itself aha.

On to the second week, we moved into our university accommodations. For my wave we moved into Kingston university accommodations, Kingston Hill campus if I remember right? It was nice to finally have Wi-Fi access, phone signal and charging ports but also our own rooms!

For our second week, we focused on our skills in the basis of the Team Challenge. As Team Edwards we were the Media group. We had 4 other groups in our wave, Reiss, Sabesan, Perham and Jackman. Each of our team names were the basis of young successful people based on a different field. Edwards was named after Jamal Edwards (Media), Sabesan after Dirujan Sabesan (Photography) as well as Reiss (Drama), Perham (Sport) and Jackman (Music). For our activity, we had to produce videos and edit them on the basis of people from a dementia home in Surbiton. Activities varied based on the skills, and we were taught about each skill through our assigned practitioner.

Don't worry, it was pretty interesting experience, and it doesn't mean we had fun doing other things. In our wave, we were the pilot wave for Kingston so we did things differently to other waves in the country. Our evening performances were probably the most eventful, from Bohemian Rhapsody renditions to Rihanna mashups and various dance routines. I was in the first group to perform, and we performed a mash up of Rihanna including Stay, Umbrella, What's Your Name and Take A Bow. I gotta say, it was pretty nerve-wracking as one the main singers, but it wasn't the most terrifying, as I performed in front of the members of the Dementia home as well, and they were really supportive.

Here's a rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody from the boys of MRK Wave 8.

Although let's ignore my irrelevant commentary once again... Opps.

With the accommodations I felt we got even closer, from the basis of getting to know members of other groups as each floor would be assigned a shared kitchen. The four girls of Edwards were joined with two members of Reiss, and let's say it was overall a great laugh. 3 of us were assigned to cooking whilst 3 of us were assigned to cleaning (since us 3 couldn't cook and didn't want to risk any food poisoning occurring...) and then we had a fun time organising our evening performance as well as gossiping about our lives and NCS aha.

There was also a cooking contest involved, in the form of Come Dine With Me. The Programme Leader and the Assistant Programme Leader went around each of the floors to taste each other of the dishes, considering presentation as well as taste. The winning team came to Edwards, as it happened that all the boys of Team Edwards were assigned to the same floor. They made the effort to dress up in shirts and ties, as well as gelling their hair. They presented themselves to the PL and APL in such a formal manner like waiters as well as including music and much more.

One thing, I remember about this week, was the fact we were all a bit awkward even after the first week, but as soon majority of Edwards and a few other members of the wave brought out their Nintendo DS' we all had a great laugh. The girls and guys were competing in Mario Kart on DS, and I have to go to say, it's great to feel victory or surpass overly competitive people aha.

On the third week of our NCS, we completed the Real Challenge. This involved organising a social action activity as well as presenting and pitching our idea it in front of the Dragons at the end of the week. If I'm honest, this week was a bit tedious and usually is the one which everyone finds boring. For our charity, we got given The Challenge. You might ask why The Challenge? Well, the reason we were given the challenge was to raise awareness of social integration and to raise funds for those who are not as financially able to fund their NCS experience.

From starting from basics of making our pitch, to create social media sites with our idea. We also had a professional visit where we considered as a dress rehearsal before our final pitch, where we went to visit VSO. VSO is a business which takes on volunteers and places them in local partners which require assistance. VSO also allows you to participate in the ICS, which is similar to NCS but on a international level. They really liked our idea, and we hoped it would be successful so we could £100 for our social action day.

On the final day of the week, we actually got Jamal Edwards as one of our Dragons which increased the pressure for us as Team Edwards. We would be presenting in front of the person who our team was named after. We aimed to do him proud. Each group was incredibly successful from incorporating media into their pitches as well as social networking hashtags.

You can check out some our pitch in a video posted by NCS. They included clips from our each team's pitches to reveal the final decision. For our wave, the winner as well as winning £100 for their pitch would also win £50 worth of Nandos vouchers.

NCS: The Final Pitch Day ft Jamal Edwards:

The week came to an end after 3 weeks of summer we spent the past few weeks seeing each other non-stop from a bunch of close friendships formed to even a few relationships. We would be seeing each other during our September weekends including the 99 Challenges as well as our Social Action day.

Thank you for reading, and I hope this inspires you to participate in NCS, or inspires someone you know to participate.

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Welcome to an incredibly overdue post... Well what can I say, this past month has been incredibly busy that I've probably delayed my blog posts by at least a month, and I apologise for that.

Moving on... Within this past month, I've experienced a lot of opportunities, for one, I was able to work at the Kingston Welcomes Korea festival as a volunteer. I found out about this experience online whilst looking for volunteering activities. It was fortunate that I found it as it was very close to home but also referred back to Korean culture which is a field I am particularly interested in.

Well what did this volunteering experience involve? Well, for starters, it all began with promotions. From online promotions on social media to handing out leaflets and posters around my local area.

On the first two days of my volunteering experience, I was assisting at the All Saints Church, where all the musical performances were being held. I got to have a taster of all the different styles of music from traditional Korean music, to old school classical tunes as well as some abstract compositions.

At first I was a bit lost on what to do, I even had to push a piano a few minutes after I walked into the church. But the one thing which got me every time was the amount of Korean people who approached me assuming I spoke Korean, and all I could do was shake my head and say I didn't speak Korean... Although I could of replied with a simple yes or no in Korean I felt that might have just confused them even more... Oh dear.

Another interesting sight I saw was the one cute Korean guy who was surrounded by a bunch of older women, otherwise known as "ajummas" or "아줌마" in Korean. The guy would have one lady requesting for a picture whilst she clung onto his arm, and after she was done, another lady would cling to his arm and request a picture. It was like he was a Korean idol aha.

The next two days, involved me working at the Rose Theatre for the stage performances. Unfortunately, for the second day, I wasn't feeling so well, but the first day although it was around 5-7 hours of volunteering, it was indeed worthwhile in the end. The day begun with constantly handing around leaflets about the show around Kingston. This meant dealing with constant rejections, but also it was rewarding when someone would take a leaflet or even request for one.

For one lady, she even asked me about the shows and how she could get in contact with someone about the show, and I was glad I could be of help to her. Meanwhile another guy, was cycling around on his bike, and returned back to request me for a leaflet which made me smile.

Once all the leaflets were handed out, we were able to sit back and relax, and as a volunteer I was fortunate enough to get a front row seat for the show as well as photograph the show itself. This also included watching the actors warm up before the show.

The show I was watching was called "The Stem, The Bud, The Bloom, The Seed". I was fortunate to be one of the first viewers of the show, as it was the world premiere at the Rose Theatre. The piece is a Anglo-Korean dance and music collaboration,

To quote the Kingston Welcomes Korea brochure it says "This is a new collaborative work that bring together the talents of three well-known theatre artists. Won Il is a leading leading Korean composer, musical performer and director, who has gain a world-wide reputation as a film composer. Jason Piper has an international career as a dancer and choreographer. who has worked with Matthew Borune (notably in the all-male Swan Lake) and Richard Alston. Phillip Parr is a theatre and opera director, who worked in the Glyndebourne and many other opera houses in Europe."

This performance was based on the nature of creation, following the written poem created by John Elsom:

"From the stem, the bud;

From the bud, the bloom;

From the bloom, the seed;

From the seed, the stem."

After working with the Rose Theatre, I proceeded to work at Guildhall for the Green Debate. Unfortunately the participants were pretty disappointing as less people attended than we expected. So my volunteering ended pretty quickly, although I met a lot of lovely people on the way.

As a last gift for my volunteering, I was awarded complimentary tickets to watch a show of my choice. I chose to watch the "Alice in Wonderland" performance by the YMAP (Your Media Arts Project). I was accompanied with my friend, and I have no words. It was honestly it was such an amazing performance I couldn't forgot to take pictures because I was so into the performance. I was so lucky to be able to see this creative performance which incorporated various art styles such as media projection on the screen along with subtitles of course, as well as dance. If by any chance, you get to see YMAP around, I would recommend going to watch one of their stage performances whilst you can, it's not an opportunity to be missed.

Overall, the experience was worthwhile, I'm glad I was able to be given this chance to volunteer with at this festival, and from what I hear, there will be various of other countries in which Kingston will be welcoming in the next years so I look forward to see what they will do next. Thank you to everyone who worked with me and assisted me throughout the festival, I'm honored to have work alongside you all.

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