…my head hurt, my body felt numb but I had to finish my second mid-term.

Hanh Hoang transferred to UCI from Orange Coast College and is currently a behavioral technician. She lives with her family in Westminster, which has a large Vietnamese community. Hanh is fluent in Vietnamese and English, as she was raised in Vietnam and moved to the United State about 7 years ago. Hanh enjoys sharing things about her culture and spreading awareness about mental health. She kept a field diary during the Spring quarter to record her observations of the pandemic, including receiving her 2nd COVID-19 vaccination and fears of Asian hate crime.

6th April 2021: I am trying to get out of the house more. Walking around the neighbourhood today, it was a bit more noisy than yesterday. There was a tragic accident in the neighborhood. A house was on fire the previous night, nobody knew what had happened. While I was walking past, I can see people were thinking about it a lot. Some young Asian female adults were saying things about “Asian hate crime” and some just think it was an accident. Nonetheless, the house looks horrible, burned from the inside out, with yellow tape surrounding it.

7th April 2021: I had a walk for about an hour in the neighborhood. There were chrysanthemum bouquets all over the house. In Vietnamese, chrysanthemum represents rebirth and sympathy. A kind lady gave me one, and I was able to pray for their losses. The wife died, the husband was severely injured, their kid had moved away due to work and was unable to return due to COVID. So the whole thing happened due to an electrical issue, that was what was reported by the newsletter.

8th April 2021: My brother and I went to get some dessert today. We sat at the store to enjoy the desserts. There was a group of friends, talking about the rise of “Asian Hate Crime,” they were saying that some people they knew had been yelled at randomly, and their car had been targeted at night. They were expressing the unfairness that they were being targeted for something they can not control. They were agreeing on purchasing pepper spray to protect themselves. From hearing their conversation, it made me purchase the pepper spray right away. Since lately the “Asian hate crime” has been making some of my friends and I feel anxious to walk without any protection.

Hoang, April 6-8th, 2021, “My mobile home neighborhood during Pandemic”

14th April 2021: Today, I have to get my second dose of COVID vaccination. I drove myself to Disney where the vaccination location was located. I am super nervous because I am going by myself for the vaccine shot that many people said has horrible side effects. I got to the location at around 11:30 and I got my shot around 12:30, then waited 15 minutes to see if there is any side effect. I rushed home around 12:45 because my house is under electric construction and my dad will be leaving for work soon. I am starting to feel the headache but I think it might just be a small headache from the vaccine.

15th April 2021: Since one house in my area was on fire, my mom immediately hired a person to look over all the electrical wires in the house to prevent burning or over electrical usage. I have two midterms today and the house does not have Wi-Fi, I am having a fever. I drove to my friend’s house at 10:30am and did my first mid-term over there… At 12:30pm, I had to rush back home to look over electric constructors, my head hurt, my body felt numb but I had to finish my second mid-term. I can not eat, the moment I eat, I puke and I can not sleep cause my head hurt and my body is in pain. Around 1:45pm, I decided to call off work for the following day and ask my night professor for a day off.

Hoang, April 14-15th, 2021, “My experience after second vaccine shot”

I went for a walk around my neighborhood, and two senior Vietnamese women were walking and talking about how they are going back to Vietnam for travelling. They mentioned the vaccine passport. One of them talked about how Vietnam required every traveler to quarantine for about three weeks in a rural area. They added that during that time, one needs to take three separate times to test for COVID, in order to go out to the public. They mentioned whether it is truly worth it to go back to Vietnam or not since the ticket price had gone up to about $5000/round trip.

Hoang, May 3rd, 2021, “Anonymous interview week”