friday, february 20, 2004
news
the university daily kansar
3A
Much-traveled student finds home in Lawrence
By Samia Khan
skhan@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Catherine Butel came to the University of Kansas looking for an identity, but for a different reason than most college students.
Growing up on a military base, she was always known as a lieutenant colonel's daughter.
"People would know I was so-and-so's daughter and start kissing my ass," Butel said "It was weird. I would wonder, 'What do you think I'm going to do for you?'
Butel, Washington, D.C. freshman, has moved nine times in her life and lived in 13 houses. She has lived all over the United States and in Germany and Japan.
After moving with her parents around the world and living on military bases all her life, Butel finds herself alone on a college campus with her parents on the other side of the globe.
Butel's parents are stationed in Japan, while she takes on her first year at the University of Kansas.
before college in Japan and was planning to stay and take online courses through a university in Maryland. By the end of the summer she decided it was time to leave life on the military base and be her own person.
Butel's brother graduated from the University and she has family in Kansas, so coming to Lawrence was an obvious choice.
situation well
"I get to go home and see my parents all the time, so I thought it would suck for her," Loredo said. "It's a trade-off because she gets to go visit them in really cool places."
Butel said she spent the summer
Catherine Butel, Washington, D.C., freshman, has lived all over the world because she comes from a military family. Butel spent her winter vacation in Japan with her parents, who live there.
Moving again — this time for college — was second nature for Butel. She said moving constantly as a child made her more adaptable to new environments.
Butel talks to her parents every other day on the phone and has not had much trouble adjusting to being so far from them.
Although she considered it difficult to constantly uproot and reestablish herself, she said the upside was seeing places around the world she would have never seen.
"Getting to know people is not that hard for me,"she said. "I love going to parties and talking to random people."
Megan True/Kansan family Rutel
Jessie Loredo, Shawnee freshman and Butel's roommate, said Butel had an easier time meeting new people and had handled her
There are a few things Butel won't miss from military base life; the dreariness and the cheesy pick up lines of the American G.I.s.
"Left, right and center you'd see them checking you out," she said.
The worst line she heard was in response to a T-shirt she was wearing that said "Lifeguard" on it. A G.I. asked if she was a lifeguard, and then told her "Because if you were, I need some saving."
Butel said by the time she looked of-age, she would get hiton all the time. At the gym, the men from the base would try to look bulkier and impress her.
"It was a supply and demand issue," she said. "The male-female ratio wasn't that good for them."
Butel is ready for life on her own, away from the base and the pick-up lines. But the constant moving has given her a habit she can't let go of. In her purse she has kept earplugs, airline sugar, matches and more
than one complimentary sewing kit from places she has traveled.
She said it was a comfort mechanism to keep the memories from seeing so many places and losing
touch with so many friends.
At college, Butel hopes to finally create her own identity and keep contact with her friends.
another move.
"I figure you always meet somebody new," she said.
But she's always prepared for
Edited by Henry C. Jackson
Asian Festival to celebrate culture through creativity
By Marc Ingber
mingber@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Next week, Midwestern students will be able to experience a piece of the far East by attending the annual Asian Festival.
The festival, which features events on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday of next week, will not necessarily resemble last year's extravaganza.
The Asian-American Student Union tried to schedule events that showcased Asian creativity more than the festival has in past years said Anna Kowalewski, Overland Park junior and Asian-American Student Union president.
"It is always difficult for people to go out and seek insight and knowledge of a different culture."
John Tran
External vice president for the Asian-
American Student Union
The Asian-American Student Union is trying to bring Asian culture to students.
"The stereotypes of Asians are that they are just purely all about academics and just study math and science," she said. "But Asians are multifaceted people who can also be creative."
"It is always difficult for people to go out and seek insight and knowledge of a different culture," John Tran, Overland Park senior and external vice president for the Asian-American Student Union, said. "But it makes it a whole lot easier when the experience comes to them."
For the art show, there will be a reception on Monday evening at the Kansas Union Student
The events include an Asian art show, an Asian student film festival, cultural games and a Filipino dance performance, as well as the Taste of Asia banquet as a finale.
Gallery. The show will feature art by Asian students, or with an Asian theme, which will be on display until Thursday.
The Asian Student Film Festival will take place Tuesday evening at Alderson Auditorium in the Kansas Union.
Sarah Scearcy, Brainerd, Minn., sophomore and AASU secretary, said she was looking forward to seeing all of the creative entries. The winning film will be shown Saturday at the Taste of Asia.
Cultural game day will be Thursday afternoon in the Kansas Union lobby, and the Filipino Dance Group, Sinagtala Dance, will perform that evening at the Kansas Room.
All of the week's events culminate at Saturday's Taste of Asia banquet. Tran said he expected 250 to 300 people to attend. The dinner will be a buffet-style schmorgasbord of traditional Asian dishes including bulgolgi, a Korean beef dish, pho, a Vietnamese noodle dish, and sushi. They will be prepared by Asian groups such as the Japanese Student Association, the Korean Student Association and the Vietnamese Student Association.
Following the dinner at the Ecumenical Christian Ministries, the groups will perform at the Kansas Union Ballroom.
—Edited by Nikki Nugent
Festival Events
Monday, Feb. 23
Monday, Feb. 23
Artian Art Show — 7 p.m. at the Kansas Union Student Gallery
Tuesday Feb. 24
Asian Student Film Festival —
7:30 p.m. at Alderson Auditorium
in the Kansas Union
Cultural Game Day — 10 a.m. to
2 p.m. at the Kansas Union Lobby
Filipino Dance Performance —
7 p.m. at the Kansas Room in the
Kansas Union
Saturday, Feb. 28
Taste of Asia — Dinner at 5:30
p.m. at the Ecumenical Christian
Ministries, performances at 7:30
p.m. at the Kansas Union
Ballroom
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