My friends and I really have a knack for planning trips less than 24 hours before we want to leave. But hey, they sometime seem to all workout. This weekend, we decided to visit Qingdao, a city on the coast of China, and located in the Shandong province.

Each province in China seems to have a cultural identity associated with it, and each province is also known for a specific type of food, which makes for different experiences when we try to travel around the country. We arrived via a 5 hour bullet train, lucky for me, I was sandwiched between my two friends instead of some random men.

I was honestly surprised at how nice and accommodating the people of the city were. From what I gathered, the city isn’t exactly a booming tourist attraction, especially during the winter time. This lady we met basically told us we had to come back when it was warm. Regardless, as soon as we walked out of the train station, we had police officers trying to hail us cabs and giving us pointers on how to get to our hostel. We got in at around 10:30, and I swear, the whole city was asleep. We ended up walking down a street, and a woman waved us into her restaurant, probably one of the whole 3 open that night.

I love the little mom and pop shops, and this one was no different. My favorite thing to do is to ask the shopowners what food they recommend because alas, all our Chinese combined still is not enough to read entire menus. Since Qingdao is on the sea, we were able to eat some delicious prawns, and oysters, and shrimp. We were also treated to some delicious “water dumplings” basically boiled dumplings that are a different twist to what we get in Beijing. There were also some nice young men sitting the restaurant that spoke English fairly well, so we befriended them. The shop owner kept asking asking them where we were from because she said she noticed that we really liked to eat vegetables.

TsingTao, the popular beer that is brewed right here in China, is based out of Qingdao (if you have any knowledge of chinese, they are actually pronounced the same). We spent the morning touring the beer factory, which is kind of interesting because the town was built by the Germans, so many of our snapchats looked like we were straight out of Germany. It’s interesting culture because they do this weird thing where they sell beer in a bag, so you can literally get a plastic grocery bag filled with beer for like 10 kuai (1/6th of a dollar).

We spent the rest of the day walking by the ocean, though it was very foggy and cold so obviously we could not swim. It’s a coastal town so there is a lot of cool little shops and stands that sell seafood.At night, we went to the same area of the Beer Factory, except it had transformed into a night market. We tried a variety of street food including Chinese cream puffs.

While it was a short vacation, I’m so glad we went. China is very diverse like the United States, so hitting up different areas of China is eyeopening and rewarding.

Ciao a tutti!

I’m going to pretend that you all didn’t moan at the title of this post, but instead, you are laughing at my puns because I am just so funny… (-:

You guessed it! This world traveler set her sights on Ireland, and now she is here! Along with London, Ireland was another dream of mine. And no, this is not because its the two home countries of the members of One Direction. (Okay, kind of) I just heard the Irish were so nice and beautiful that I had to test this theory out for myself. And I can honestly say…yes, yes they are.

In this post, I’m just going to talk about why I loved Ireland so much because I LOVED IRELAND SO MUCH. It’s tied as my favorite trip with Greece, and that’s saying something since we were in Greece for 10 days. Let us begin…

1. The People: What can I say that will do these people justice? Every single Irish person I encountered while in Dublin was genuinely the nicest person I have ever met, like every person was nicer than the last. Okay, besides the creepy married man that grabbed me in the bar on Saturday night. But everyone else was great. I can’t talk about the people without talking about our Prince. The Prince was a man that bought my friends and I drinks the entire night while we were at this pub, but not once did he come over to us or talk to us. We felt bad and tried to turn him down, but the bartender kept coming over and saying that he insisted on buying us cocktails and shots. Thus we dubbed him the name the Prince. He came over when he left and we thanked him, but other than that, he met a lady friend, and we watched them hit it off while sipping on the 5th drink he bought us. On a different night, we just had the best night of our lives dancing with everyone. I was sitting at a table, waiting for my friends who were getting drinks at the bar, and this guy came over and said “Don’t just sit there, dance with me,” and so we danced! It was so nice! They just make you feel welcome, and I was so happy the entire weekend.
2. The Food: This may sound dramatic, but it changed my life. It was so delicious, I’m salivating just thinking about it. It was very hearty with its meat and potatoes, something I didn’t exactly experience in the City of Carbs aka Rome, so it was nice to let my stomach take a break from me inhaling pasta every meal. The Shepherd’s Pie that I had… I… um… makes me speechless. We went to this little restaurant by St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and it was very quaint and a little quirky, so we were a little nervous that the food wouldn’t be as good or would be expensive, but it was the exact opposite. Everything was homemade and we got an entire meal of Shepherd’s Pie, salad, and bread for 8 euro. Every meal I had while in Ireland was better than the next. I recommend The Hairy Lemon on Stephan Street. We went there twice, and we became best friends with the owner.
3. The Views: Beautiful doesn’t even begin to describe it. It reminded me of London with it’s old-time vibes and quaint buildings, but it definitely had character that set itself apart. We visited Cliffs of Moher, and thankfully it was a nice, sunny day. We were literally at the edge of Ireland, staring into abyss that was the ocean. I felt every worry leave my body, and I felt at peace. It was so calming hearing the lapping of the water and feeling the breeze on your face. It was a tranquil experience, not to mention one of the most breathtaking sceneries I had seen thus far. Just don’t look down because it’s frightening. 

This past weekend I told several people I was going to Bari, Italy and the people seemed confused. “Where is that?” and “What is there?” These responses concerned me because the only people who knew anything about Bari were my Italian professor and my roommate who went there earlier in the year. Of course my friend and I looked up things to do, but we planned on spending 3 days there. We weren’t sure if we would have enough to see in this small city. The trip ended up being fantastic and filled with action! We saw the two churches of the patron saints of Bari: Saint Nicholas and Saint Sabino, ate AMAZING seafood, and walked through this hardly renovated old town. It was a nice getaway from the chaos of Rome.

On our last day, Sunday, my friend and I took a day trip to Poglinano a mare which was just 30 minutes away from the center of Bari. With white apartments on top of cliffs surrounded by the sea, it looked like pictures of Greece that I’ve seen. That town was even more untouched with small side streets and everyone’s laundry hanging above.

Our trip to Bari was pretty last minute; we planned it a week before and everything worked out alright. I would not go back anytime soon because we saw all of the town, but it would be nice to visit for a vacation. Below are some pictures from my time in Bari!

           

Ciao a tutti!

Paris is one of those cities that cannot be described in metaphors or imagery because words will not do it justice. So, instead of trying to create an image for you guys, here are some pictures (w/ descriptions) of the unfiltered beauty that is Parìs.

 

 

 

 

 

To quote my favorite movie Anastasia, “París holds the key to your heart,” and it indeed does.

Arrivederci i miei amici <3

Clare

The photo you see on the top was taken during the very beginning of our tenure at TBC. Everyone from our group came from different backgrounds, upbringings, and lifestyles. I am happy to say that I have established at least some sort of relationship with every single person. That brings me to the photo on the bottom. It was taken  at Lina’s birthday party, one of my closest friends, here in China and back in Chicago. It is crazy to think of all of the memories we created from the first to our present pictures here in China.

There has been so much shared between everyone in these photos; laughter, struggles, and so much delivery food. Study abroad friendship is so much more than just your average one. Yes, it is temporary and everyone goes home eventually, but what you take away from that limited time will be with you for the rest of your life.

I feel like TBC is unique in a way because China is not just any place to study abroad. It is CHINA. It is a completely different lifestyle, outlook, and perspective than what we know and are comfortable with. Taking on China, with our very diverse group makes the bonds between us all so much stronger. Learning, exploring, and adventuring with each other has brought everyone so close together.

Lina’s birthday particularly was a memorable night for me. Lina is an international student who is studying at LUC. Her and her sister are from a tiny island close to Madagascar called Mauritius. I met her my freshman year and have since been trying to do as many “firsts” for her as possible! This night was her first surprise party. Our party planning group consisted of fellow babies Members: Moni, Yessi, Tessie baby, baby Jo, and Isabel. This was Lina’s 21st so we wanted to do something super special for her. We planned rushingly within a week to get all of the decorations, the venue, and the cake ready for her party. The best part about the entire night was that so many people came out to help us celebrate this night for Lina.

The night of, the babies and I were running around in panic getting last minute things ready. The TBC students and Chinese roommates gathered at the restaurant early with us and waited for Lina’s arrival. We screamed her name, popped confetti, and surprised her so much that she had tears in her eyes by the time she understood what was happening. It is great that you can get such a huge group together to spend a fun night celebrating our happy times in China.

I could not have asked for a more fun group to study abroad with other than TBC 2016.

Again, TBC staff has given us an amazing opportunity to gain cultural awareness through weekend activities. For this opportunity I was able to attend my first ever cooking class at a place called The Hutong. The cutest little gem inside the huge maze of old Beijing. I went with Sebastian, a fellow TBC student to make a special soup dumpling that is popular to eat in southern China.

As soon as Sebastian and I arrived we were warmly greeted into their kitchen with tea and snacks. Classes are small, ours only had 5 people, but this helped so that our teacher, Yao could pay more attention to our wrapping technique.

On of the great attributes to the Hutong center is their location. A bit difficult to find coming from the subway stop, but not far at all. A two story hutong that overlooks the vast jungle of other stone houses and structures. Quaint and relaxing, just what you need on a Sunday morning.

We exchanged stories about our Chinese proficiency and knowledge of cooking all in just a few hours. The Xiao Long Baos were so easy to make! The only thing was that they were time consuming. There is a lot of prep work to make all of the ingredients for these little bundles of juicy dumplings. Most of the prep work was done by our Ayi, and they even gave us a cute little packet on how to make them at home! The most difficult part if wrapping the dumplings. I had an easier time to wrap them considering I had smaller hands, as compared to Sebastian. All in all it was a great experience and they tasted delicious!!

Here is some of the process:

Who knew that one of my favorite people here at TBC would be so similar to me in so many ways! Coming to TBC you have the option to live with a Chinese roommate, I chose not to have one because I had already previously lived with a roommate and figured that I would be fine if I was assigned to another international student. That was not the case. I ended up living by myself in one of the apartment dorms available on campus. My first week was so hectic and so scary because I had no idea what I was doing or who I could ask for help!

The Beijing Center Staff do their best to make the best environment for students to study abroad here at UIBE and they accommodate us for just about anything that we need. This included the TBC lounge: The place of gathering for many TBC goers. This is how I met Jimmy, and he has changed my entire experience here in Beijing.

If I recall correctly, I walked into the lounge one night and hear the very familiar sounds of Sam and Dean battling demons, ghosts, and other supernatural creatures on the television. I walk over to the couch to see Jimmy sitting there in his minion onsie, sprawled over the entire seat, and drinking the Chinese version of Arnold Palmer half and half. One look and I could tell that we would be friends. We stayed sitting and laughing on the couch arguing about who was the better brother between Sam or Dean, until morning.

10 seasons later into the series Jimmy had become, not just mine, but also everyone else’s go to man when it came to any help being needed. He is always always there for you no matter what, and all of the TBC students love him for that. I remember the one time it was “my time of the month” and I was stuck in bed, he came to my room and gave me candies and our favorite drink   and told me not be sad or sick so that we could go get spicy hot pot later in the week. He will do anything to help anyone and is such a sweet guy. If it is money, a recommendation, a plus one, ANYTHING- Jimmy will be there and even dress his best for the occasion.

Sometimes it is frustrating to live in a completely different country and coming from such a privileged one like the US, it could make our perspective on the world different. A lot of times when I have a hard day at work and I am upset over a cultural barrier I call Jimmy and he takes me out to eat to talk about it. He is such a good resource to speak to because he understands enough of where I may be coming from in a certain situation, but then explains to me why, over here the thought process is another way. Getting his perspective on ideas have opened up my eyes and relieved the frustration. I am forever grateful for him.

Routinely, Jimmy and I like to take walks to the 7/11 across the street from campus for our “green tea” talks. We have very different schedules so this is our time to talk about our days and go through highs and lows. It is our unspoken stress reliever. We also like to make it a point to try a new place to eat at on his secret list of the best of the best joints! I have never eaten so much than I have with this man!!

In conclusion, Jimmy is the pickachu of the Chinese roommates. Everyone loves him and he is what brings people together. If you ever see him on campus, you will know right away who he is. Constantly surrounded by people, holding a togo order of dumplings, and in his comfortable blue slippers. It is a shame that no other future TBC students will get to meet him as he is graduating this year.

 

Trump won last night. I am angry. I am sad. I truly did not believe he would win. I woke up to the news I feared and never thought would happen. Trump has done little except incite violence and foster hate towards so many groups of people.

I was looking forward to helping vote our first women president into office. I was looking forward to progress. Clinton was experienced, she has seen what the job of president entails, I think Trump will be in for a great shock when he realizes the hard work the president must do.

I understand that Trump won. I recognize that I am a white female and Trump’s presidency will likely not change my life that much.  However, he has continually put down others, fear monger and spread hate.  He will negatively affect so many lives and I am sad for our country today.  All I hope is that he will not follow through on everything he has said throughout his campaign. Lets hope that Trump can become a composed and level-headed leader. BUT one reality is that now many bigot and ignorant people feel empowered to spread their hate. We do need to unite as one people, I hope Trump can be the man do that but I am not convinced. Even his acceptance speech was rambling and I thought not well done at all.  As a leader of a country the least you could do is talk to your people with poise.

For now, I need time to be angry.  Soon, I will have to return home and face the reality of him becoming president.  But for now I reserve the right to be angry and confused. Patriotism is stupid. It is. Americans need to stop believing they are the best because of where they come from. We are all people living in the same world and trying to get along. Why are you “better” than anyone else? America needs a reality check and this might be it…

I hope as the younger generation we have realized the importance of politics in our lives. We all need to actively participate for democracy to work.

For now, anger and sadness.

“Fai una foto?”-  You take a photo?

It was a Friday afternoon, and I had been journaling along Passeggiata del Gianicolo. It was a beautiful day, and I had found the most perfect view of the Vatican to inspire the day’s journal entries. Interrupted mid-sentence, I looked up at the older, Italian man who had spoken to me. He was holding out his phone.

“Conosci parlare italiano?” – You know how to speak Italian?

I smiled, and responded, “Sì, un po’.” – Yes, a little.

“Ah, un po’.” He noticed I was journaling, and said, “Scusa!” – Excuse me!

I smiled again and got up to take his picture in front of the Vatican.

“Bene?” – Good? – I asked.

He took his phone.

“Conosci italiano?” he asked again.

“Sì, un po’.”

“Scusa, grazie.” – Thank you.

“Prego.” – You’re welcome.

I sat down and picked up my journal, but he kept talking.

“Dei dove sei?” – Where are you from?

“Stati Uniti…a Chicago.”

“Ah, America.”

“Sì.”

We both smiled and I continued to journal. When I finished about ten minutes later, he was still there.

“Scrivi in italiano o inglese?” – You write in Italian or English? 

I laughed, and told him I was writing in English.

“Studi italiano? – You study Italian?

“Sì, studio in Balduina, at Loyola.”

I started to pick up that he was impressed by my little knowledge of the Italian language when he asked, once again:

“Parli italiano?”

“Si, un po’. I miei amici e i mie insegnante parlano inglese.” – My friends and my professors speak English. 

“Leggi italiano?” – Do you read Italian?

I responded yes. He told me it was important that I knew how to speak and read in Italian.

He asked, “Che cosa tua nome?” – What is your name? 

“Mary Beth…Mary. Maria”

 

I’ve found it’s easier to just say Mary, or Maria, if they can’t understand me. Then I asked his name. His name was Franco. We shook hands. By this point I had stood up. I was anxious to practice my Italian outside the classroom.

“Uh, come si dice, ‘nice to meet you?’ I forgot, um, oh! Piacere!”

He laughed. Then he said something about how I don’t speak Italian at school, but I could in Rome. He asked me when I had classes.

I started, “Dalle lunedì–” and he cuts me off, laughing. He prompts me to continue listing the days of the week in Italian, so I do.

“…lunedì, martedì, mercoledì, giovedì.” – Monday thru Thursday.

“Finito? No venerdì, sabato, o domenica?” – Finished? No Friday, Saturday, or Sunday?

“Sì.”

He asked me when I was leaving Rome. I got excited because I was using phrases I learned in class.

“Sono arrivata in agosto e torno in dicembre.” – I arrived in August and I return in December.

My Italian professor would be so proud.

He jokingly said something about how in December “andiamo,” or we go, back to this spot and he can see if my Italian has improved.

“Ho lavorato ma…” – I worked, but…he said, then pointed to his head and said a word I did not recognize. He said he had an Italian/English dictionary in his car and went to get it. He then pointed at a word that translated to remember and I concluded he had a poor memory.

Then I figured I better continue on with my day.

“Ho bisogno andare.” – I need to go.

“Ah, sì.”

I thanked him for letting me practice my Italian. Then, like a true Italian, he pulled me in for a kiss on either cheek, and said:

“È importante, sì.” – Is important, yes.

And that was my first, real Italian conversation. Despite stumbling on my words and not always being grammatically correct, I was able to communicate with him.

These are the moments that make study abroad so extraordinary.

It’s been a little over a week since we returned from our last long excursion to the wonderful Kingdom of Cambodia. To put it lightly, I fell in love with Cambodia and was sad to leave. Since we returned to Saigon, we’ve been pushed back into the swing of school again. With only 4 weeks left in the program, it’s crunch time.

I’ve been a very avid student throughout most of my undergraduate degree: I do my homework, start research papers early and hate missing class. I didn’t know if senioritis was a real thing for college students until this semester. With the last four weeks of my BA upon me, it is bad to say, but I feel like I have sort of checked out prematurely. Real life, adulthood (although to we ever really feel like adults?) and all that doom and excitement await me on December 8th – the long-awaited last day of class ever. Wrapped up in these strange, adult things like graduate school applications and job searching, Emily and I were given the ability to be children again this morning and it was magnificent.

After a quick walk along the obstacle course that is Saigon’s streets and sidewalks, we arrived at the bus stop just in time to catch number 14. In true Vietnamese fashion, we hopped on the bus while it was still slowly moving forward, found two empty seats towards the front of the bus and paid the bus monitor 2,000 dong (9 cents) for the ride. In front of our row sat a young girl, probably around three years old, her mother and another woman. The girl was immediately very playful with us and started right in with a lot of smiling and giggling. After sharing some waffles and playing a few rounds of peek-a-boo over the seat  with us, she stood up on the seat, her arms resting on the top of it and began making strange hand motions.

It took us some time to realize what was happening but soon the motions looked very familiar – she was playing food cart. The back of the seat became her food cart and Emily and I her customers. She would gather imaginary ingredients (her cart must have quite the variety), put them all together and then hand them to us. In the spirit of childlike imagination, Emily and I played along, taking her food, holding it up to our mouths and making ‘nom nom nom’ sounds as we nibbled on it. She was thrilled and so we continued like this for a while longer. Before we arrived at our bus stop, Emily pointed out how cool it was to be part of a Vietnamese child’s imagination. In the U.S, children would have been playing house or drive-through. This little girl’s game of choice was food cart.

Study abroad is wonderful because of the grand adventure it is, but in reality, it is these little moments that make the experience complete. It is the little girl and her food cart and all the other little things that I will remember the most in years to come. Someday it will be watching my own children play imaginary games that will cause me to remember the four months I spent living in Vietnam and that one time on the number 14 bus that I ate the best imaginary food of my life, prepared with all the love and care in the world by Vietnam’s best imaginary food vendor.