I haven’t processed the past few weeks yet. It has been a mixture of stress and exhaustion with a little elation and fun thrown in. I have past the half way point, which, at certain times, I felt was never going to come. And now, we’re finishing our last night in Dubai for our international…
I’m Only Here for the Free Food
An awesome part about the Alliance program in Shanghai is that they allocate money for weekly Language Tables. Language Table is a time where your Chinese class meets up to eat food and practice Chinese. Our budget is 30 RMB for person which is more than a fair amount for a meal. For language table,…
Spring Breakin’ for Fall Break Pt. 2
Quick recap: National Holiday is celebrated October 1-7 (Saturday – Friday). My friends and I decided to start our trip on Thursday and Headed to Hainan, China’s most southern and beautiful island. We spend Friday at Mission Hills Resort where we relaxed in 168 cold and hot springs and underwent a bunch of Chinese healing….
There’s A Club for That??
I’d like to start pf Here in Shanghai, we are enrolled as students at the Shanghai University to Finance and Economics (S.U.F.E. ). Therefore, we have the same rights as the Chinese students that attend this school full time. This week, S.U.F.E. had an event in which all the different clubs and sports would…
Spring Breakin’ for Fall Break Pt. 1
All over China, National Holiday is celebrated from October 1-7 (Saturday through Sunday). Now, I’m not sure why they have National Holiday, but I do know that it’s a week of no work (for the most part) and no school. So for me, it’s like fall break. For national holiday, three friends and I decided…
Twincation
I was lucky enough to spend the last week visiting Brussels and Amsterdam with my twin. When I read about Brussels, I now know they are not kidding about your diet being waffles, fries, and chocolate. In the past week, I probably consumed about 7 waffles. Brussels had an abundance of chocolate shops that were…
Fall Break
Fall break was amazing! My mom came down to visit and we travelled throughout France and Italy. Florence was absolutely stunning- the duomo was my second favorite monument/building in Italy (the first being the Trevi fountain). It had so much detail and colors and stood so tall you feel like an ant when you stand…
November is for Wanderlust
Now that October is over, November is among us and for the first time I will be experiencing fall. I love the different colors and the leaves falling! But wow the cold in Northern Germany is getting to me. Where is the sun, the flip flops and shorts? In addition to the cold, I am…
FutureMe to PastMe
Looking over the letter that I sent myself via FutureMe, I can see that I have grown a lot. I had expressed that I was shy and scared and anxious, and that I wasn’t sure that I could live on my own in another country like this. I was terrified to speak Japanese and I…
Hands-On Japanese Culture
There is no shortage of interesting things to do in Japan even after staying here for two months, and I’ve found myself completely immersed in all different kinds of cultural festivals and interactions. Along with this, the weather has started to change from scorching hot humidity to freezing wetness, and it’s brought with it a…