To complete the hours for the ICR credit, I chose to do it with the IACA or Indiana Association of Chinese Americans. I and other classmates helped them out at the International Festival that was being held at the State Fairgrounds. The first day at the International Festival was very fun and learning opportunity I was able to share with some of my fellow classmates. Upon arriving to the fairgrounds, I wasn’t too sure what I was going to see, I thought maybe it wouldn’t be busy on Thursday evening, because we went at 7pm and stayed til 9pm when it closed. My first guess of it not being busy was correct, because it was a school night for all of the kids, and it was only the first day of 3. If I had to guess I would say around 40-80 people were watching during this time. This time frame 2 performances went on, the first one being Master Ling’s (https://lingtaiji.com/) students doing Karate and Tai Chi. This performance was very cool because it showed us the basics and the top level of each art style. The second performance we witnessed was Mediterranean Belly Dancing. This as well was cool to watch because the style of music was not your average music, we hear on the radio every day while driving our cars so it was an experience that other than going to the festival, I would not have experienced in my lifetime. Overall the first day was very fun, because we were able to watch 2 great performances that really opened up my eyes to what I will be seeing here, and being able to walk around and see all the different booth’s that were here.
Until next time,
Patrick