It has been a long time since last time I went to IFN. I thought it would be a little awkward to see those friends that I haven't seen for a while, but I know I worried too much the moment I stepped in the house. Everyone was just so nice and I felt welcomed. Lots of people came that night and the room was packed. I saw many people that I didn't expect to see that night--some friends from comm school, some friends from my dorm. I also met a few new people. The food tonight was so good and I got to try the "international food" people brought there. I heard that the dishes were from more than 15 different countries. Some of the dishes reminded of my country, others were totally new to me. After dinner, we were honored and happy to see a performance by a Christian A Capella group invited by ISI. It was amazing. They drew everyone's attention by their beautiful voice and their devotion. Later, I chose to stay there and learned about how to build a healthy interpersonal relationship. Pastor Gressett said that it's usually not the event which cause the pain, it's how we feel about it. It's really true. We, too often, care about too much how other people view us. We try to guess what others are thinking, why they do what they are doing. And it just causes too much pain and it's unnecessary. That night was a really great night. I felt happy and peaceful on the way back.

ISI has earned a good reputation for connecting international students with local communities. Although I did not participate in all ISI events, EVERY SINGLE event I attended turned out to be much more than I had expected. Likewise, attending this South Asian Night is another decision I will never regret to have made. At first, being a glutton, I was only aiming at the indian cuisine alleged to be from the best indian restaurant in town. Then I met several Indian/Bangladesh students from my department who I rarely had casual talk with before. I was like many international students who tend to live in an isolated bubble with people of similar culture. So even those indian students and I had shared similar course schedules for over a year, we barely knew each other. However, in this occasion, we ended up having a good conversation over the indian culture. They explained to me why

On the 13th of September I participated in (and I do not believe it had an official name, unless I'm mistaken. But I'll call it...) "The University of Virginia's ISI sponsored trip to Washington D.C."
 
I, and 48 other international students, basically toured DC. We went down Pennsylvania Ave and took pictures and learned a lot about DC's world-renowned monuments around that area. It was great fun!
 
The most exciting aspect of the whole trip, I have to say, (notwithstanding the flight up Washington monument) was walking down the Korean War Veterans Memorial and meeting actual WWII Vets. I met one who actually shared an anecdote from The War.