There is no guide stating the greatest way to live my life, but somehow my spontaneity and constant sense of adventure continues to be on my side. I never know where an hour from now will take me or what will come next. I have no set planner or to do list, just the intention of making a difference. This unknown in my life has caused me to replace my fear with curiosity. Through this I’ve gained knowledge I never thought I could obtain and have experienced moments that will change the course of my history, whether it be making the decision to spend an afternoon in the center of town at a Piazza or to book flights to countries I’ve never been to three days prior to my departure. I could search for days as to what I should be doing abroad, but the story I’m creating for myself is so much better.

I have come to misunderstand how my university thinks fourth months in Rome are simply enough. Three weeks have flown by without me even noticing and it scares me to think the others will be the same. I have taken every moment in, but ironically continue to feel like there are never enough hours in the day, although time is of no concern in Italy. I’ve become accustom to hang drying my clothes, eating hours after sunset, and using my hands every time I speak. I may not be fluent in Italian yet or know the name of every street, but I’ve come to recognize changes in me and that in its self is exciting.

Being one with an abundant amount of wanderlust, I find myself trying to fill hours with festivities and enjoy the wonderful city I live in to the best of my ability. I spend a lot of my day studying, but attempt to explore or try something new each day I’m here. This past week I’ve been exposed to the wonderful Karaoke Bar’s downtown study abroad students are crazy about, Cathedrals stuck between apartment buildings for the Mass of the Holy Spirit, and what could be the best pasta in the world thanks to our program dinner outing where we were exposed to the life changing pear pasta. Expecting an experience with a sense of religious context, academics, and a whole lot of fun is only natural in Roma. Every moment I have here is life changing.

As if the city isn’t enough, the community I have become a part of here is one others could never compare to. I have met travel companions that are ready to plan and have their bags packed in any moments notice, karaoke partners interested in performing in front of hundreds of strangers dancing and singing to my personal favorite Sweet Caroline, and have been invited to almost every outing whether I’m close to the group going or not. This atmosphere makes it hard for me to leave them in order to explore much more of Europe, but gives me a sense of excitement that I have 250 people to come home to every Sunday or Monday night to share stories with of our great adventures.

Having it been my first weekend without Orientation, I was given the opportunity to plan a trip of my own, leading to something so frightening, yet thrilling. The world was in my hands and I had anywhere to choose from. When realizing this, I literally placed the words “Rome to anywhere” in my browser in hopes that it would lead me somewhere. To my surprise, Athens was my answer. I never expected it to be apart of my abroad experience, but was told once by a professor that every person needs to see the ruins at least once in their life, she couldn’t of been more right.

All you’ve ever heard, all you’ve ever read, and all you’ve ever researched never compares with the real thing. Athens, the Capital of Attica and the Capital of Greece, is one of history’s most influential cities and I was given the opportunity to breathe its air and step foot in history. I may have not been invited to participate in Greek’s most prominent Games of the Olympics or live in a time before monotheistic beliefs, but I did eat the world renowned food that’s simply too good, you can’t help but get two and stepped foot in the ruins that take you to a whole other place.

They say to never expect that you’ll be able to see and do everything you want in a weekend, but I hit every point on the travel guide and then some! Everything the city was known for, I was able to see. I started my days bright and early, even before the sunrise, with nine other study abroad students in my program. We strategized to start at the highest point of the Acropolis and worked our way down throughout the weekend, hitting sites, like the Parthenon, Erechtheion, Heod Atticus Odeon Theatre, Temple of Athena Nike, and Propylaia. All differing in stages of preservation and history, we were given the opportunity to see with our own eyes the world thousands of years ago and the impact it has on today. We spent hours roaming the Acropolis Museum and looking at artifacts in the National Archaeological Museum where art statues from 500 BC still remained. I was in awe over how well things were taken care of, especially because in our culture today, that seems to continuously be forgotten.

Between the culture and educational aspects of our trip, we paid respect at the forecourt of the Parliament to honor The Tomb of the Unknown Solider and witnessed the Pom-Pom Parade, also known as the changing of the guards. In between it all, we ate everything in site, as the food was so delicious, you’re mouth couldn’t help but water. Whether it be the Gyros from street vendors or baklava from an exquisite bakery, you simply couldn’t resist. As if the food and sites weren’t enough, the beauty I was surrounded by was overwhelming. Not only the historical landmarks like that of the National Gardens centered with The Zappeion, but also that of the Greek people who were simply enjoying their nights as typical youth do in Gazi, a neighborhood very similar to Soho. Beauty was all around me. Due to this, I didn’t mind that I walked so much, I could of done a marathon!

The sites are one all individuals should see in their life, and the streets of Plaka, a neighborhood in the center of the city constructed to be a lively and colorful mix of old and new Greece placed around an Orthodox Church, is something all should have the pleasure of walking down. Although this beautiful trip was interrupted with unsafe situations my group had to experience due our titles of being Americans, it taught me to always be alert of my surroundings and stand up for who I am regardless of the setting. The typical independent study abroad experience came full swing as safety was much of a constant concern, but it educated me in a way I never really had, teaching me that regardless of where I am, situations happen and you must always be careful.

Pericles said it best, “What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others”. Athens is so much more than a city of ruins. It’s filled with people of a deep-rooted culture, a complex language and endless amounts of history. It makes you look at the big picture and remind you that you are who you are because of your past. I strive to now live a life not worried about what monuments could someday be made of me, and focus on what monuments I should be sculpting through the lives of others, like that of the Greeks. This lesson is a souvenir I take with me and will bring back when I return to Santorini and Mykonos someday. I learned many lessons on this trip that may now be a part of my history. It was one for the books in good and educational ways, but is something I will always treasure because its part of me.

I look forward to another crazy adventure, where great lesson comes my way. I’m beginning to experience first hand the different dynamics in the world. It’s the greatest gift I’ve ever received. Athens ruined everything, it took me back to where I started and reminded me of life’s greatest treasures, regardless of the century.

Αντίο για τώρα.

Gabriella Lunich

Things Making Me Feel European: 

1. Grocery Shopping— No, it is not the fact that I have to be a self-sufficient human and shop for myself, it is the process that is grocery shopping. I have begun to develop a bit of a routine to buy my groceries but it still is much more of an ordeal than in the States. There are 3 (sometimes 4 if you are feeling fancy) main stops you must make in order to stock your pantry and fridge. First, there is Sean B. Murphy’s (the butcher) where I have pretty much just been buying chicken every week but I may be branching out soon. Next, is Con’s (the produce stop) where you can get your milk, eggs, and any and all fruits and vegetables. It is a cute little stop, just one room, that is super well priced. Finally, the real trek, Tesco. Both Sean B. Murphy’s and Con’s is about a 2 minute walk from my apartment. Tesco, however, is down in the city center and at least a 20 minute walk. Tesco is where you can by your cheese, spices, pasta, pasta sauce, frozen pizza, ect. Normally that’s all it takes, unless you want some real goodies. Then you need to stop by the English Market in the city center as well, where you can buy realllllly good bread, meats, cheese, pastries, ect. So after all of those stops, you finally have your kitchen stocked, and will go through all of that food in one week easily, and will be back shopping soon. While this is a bit of a process, and when it is raining I don’t exactly enjoy it, I do like the feeling that you are mostly shopping in little mom and pop shops and are really buying and eating high quality meat and produce.

2. Drinking Tea— I drink some tea at home and school, the occasional cup, which I am more likely to drink when my mom is the one making it. However, nothing can compare to the amount that I drink here. I easily drink 1-2 cups a day, which has been helping keep me warm, but has not helped me get over my sickness. The tea is delicious, and just one fun fact (although not so fun) is that they do not have strings for their tea bags, it’s just a little bag of tea. I am sure most people take the tea bag out with a spoon, but I am always too impatient (and I don’t want to have to wash a spoon) so I pick the tea bag out of the mug and hope I don’t burn my fingers too bad.

3. Walking up Hills— You know the saying “back in my day, I had to walk uphill both ways to school” well that is how I feel (although not entirely accurate). Going to school and to the city center is fairly quick and easy, the walk back, however, can be a bit brutal. I am talking some steep hills on the way back. Having class 4 days and week, and going into the city center at least 4 days a week, ensures that I am getting my fair share of hiking. Every time I come back from the city center I am amazed that I make the same walk back to the apartment on nights when I am wearing heels and not exactly 100% sober. I have yet to fall so far, and hopefully that will continue.

Things That Are Harder Than They Should Be: 

1. Laundry: The first time I did laundry was just embarrassing. In order to be able to do your laundry you have to go to the front desk and buy laundry tokens (in order to do one load it costs 5 Euro aka a rip off). This seems easy enough, but the guy who works the front desk only works until 2:30 everyday and I normally have classes during that time, and he doesn’t work on the weekends. So as soon as I purchased my tokens, I made my way to the laundry room where the laundry machines looked extra foreign and took me a solid 5 minutes to read the directions and put my clothes in. Finally, a little number pops up on the machine which I assume is the time of how long it will take to wash the clothes. However, when I returned 25 minutes later, the machine then read 35 leaving me very confused until a roommate explained to me that those numbers was the temperature the water is in the machine. So I am still clueless as to how long it actually takes to do laundry, a mystery I am not sure I will ever have the patience to solve.

2. Thinking Of Meals To Cook: I would say I am fairly confident in my cooking abilities. However, I only seem to make the same 4 meals (or variations of them) day after day. I will either eat pasta (with chicken or other meat), some form of a sandwich, eggs of some kind, and chicken and potatoes. That’s pretty much it. When I then get hungry later I just eat toast and Nutella or yogurt with granola. I can’t seem to come up with any other things to cook, and am feeling especially uncreative. I did buy a frozen pizza to mix it up a bit but I don’t think that is exactly the change in diet I need. So if anyone has some few-ingredient meals they want to throw my way, feel free!

3. Walking Up Stairs: Sometimes the stairwell is just a free for all, and there is no clear direction. Yesterday, Marypaz and I were walking to our Irish Politics class, and it became clear that we were in a foreign land when we were directly running into people on the stairs. It took me a few seconds to remember that their way of traffic is not the same way of traffic that we have which explained why we were clearly walking on the wrong side of the steps.

Questions Everyone Is Asking:

1. Do You Even Go To School?: Yes and no. Yes I do attend all of my classes, although total hours I am at school every week is only 8 hours  and I don’t have class on Fridays. Classes here are very different, I don’t have any little assignments or even assigned readings every week. Instead, I have an average of 2-3 essays due throughout the semester and that’s about it for my final grade. I have no complaints, although the few weeks when all of my essays are due may be a bit of a pain. This schedule allows for a very relaxed atmosphere and encourages extra time for me to do things that I normally don’t have time to do, such as make weekend trips, see the city, and even just read some novels that have long been on my “to read” list.

2. Have You Made Any Irish Friends?: It is harder than it seems. I have met some Irish people who are super friendly and nice (a bartender at a local pub, my friend Kristen has two Irish roommates, and one or two people I have met at a club/pub). However, to truly make an Irish pal is a bit more difficult for a number of reasons. One, most of my classes are all visiting students or if there are Irish students it is very segregated, Irish students in the back, visiting students in the front. This is because the way the courses work here, it when you go in seeking a degree in a subject you only take the classes for your degree, so many of these students have been in the same classes for a number of semesters and have their pals all situated. The second reason why it is harder to befriend the Irish is that when we go out, we have a group of about 8+ people, clearly American, which can be somewhat off putting when we are in pubs and clubs. This hasn’t stopped everyone, but as we tend to dance or talk in our own, not so little, circle it doesn’t leave much room for others to join in. Lastly, the students here go home almost every weekend and have a much heavier course load than us, which limits their free time during the week. Sometime it is just simply harder to make the time to see people. But I have become close with one of Kristen’s roommates who is French and a German student in my Irish politics class, so it’s not all Americans!

3. Have You Met A Cute Irish Boy?: See answer to number 2. That and (prepare yourself for a bit of a rant). I did not choose to study abroad in Ireland to meet and marry the man of my dreams. I decided to study abroad to become a more independent person, to experience new things, see new places, learn to think differently, appreciate new cultures, and more. All of this I can do by myself or with some friends. While meeting a cute Irish boy would be an amazing experience, it is in no way a priority, or something that will hold me back from having the time of my life. So no, I have not yet met the cute Irish boy that my mom will love, and that doesn’t mean that I won’t and it doesn’t mean that I want to. All I want is to soak up as many experiences as I can that I will remember for the rest of my life. Rant over.

Things I Am Looking Forward To In The Next Week:

1. Tomorrow, we will be heading to the Jameson Experience where at the end of the tour I will become an official whiskey taste tester (my dad will be so proud)

2. On Saturday we have a day trip to the Rock of Cashel but unfortunately we will not be able to see the Cahir Castle because it is under renovation. This is supposed to be one of the must see castles in Ireland so we will maybe return on a later date to check it out.

3. On Sunday we are having a big Super Bowl meal followed by going to a club where they are showing the game.

4. On Monday we might go on the night tour of the Cork city jail which will be cool and spoooooky.

That’s all for now!

Cheers!

Cultural Notes:

~The pharmacist is called the chemist. A super sweet woman has been my knight in shinning armor this week when I finally decided to take some medicine to get rid of my 2 week long cold. At the chemist you just walk up to the counter, tell the person your symptoms, and then they give you options for medicines you can take and advice on which one is the best. Not only are they SUPER helpful, but the cost of medicine is ridiculously cheap. One friend bought cough medicine for 2 euro and I bought a decongestant medicine for only 5 euro. Yay for cheap healthcare!

~Convient stores are a huge place for people to go grocery shopping or pick up something to eat. Back home, I know I would never go to UDF or 7-11 for some lunch let alone actually shop there.

It is a privilege to study here; I feel truly honored and humbled by my first several weeks in China. I have been so hospitably received that I feel that 对外经贸大学 (University of International Business and Economics) has already become my home. These past weeks in China I have experienced new things every minute of every day. I have tried new food each day; most notably there was something in a soup I was told to eat and not ask any questions about. When our host for lunch was asked if he liked what we tried, he laughed and said he definitely did not. Additionally, I have tried delicious traditional beef noodles from Gansu, hotpot, Chinese style Italian spaghetti with tomato sauce, and 永和大王 (Yong He King)—a Chinese fast food chain for breakfast. At Yong He King I tried Taiwanese soymilk, which is excellent—this is surprising for me because I do not like milk. I have been awed by the grandeur of the Forbidden City—the abode of the Son of Heaven and his court for many hundreds of years. I have seen the Olympic Park and reveled in feats of modern Chinese architecture. I have made many new friends here, and learned so much more about China in the weeks I have been here than the year before, in preparation for my arrival here.
The first night here was overwhelming. On that first night I wondered if I was ready for this experience. I wondered whether I could make it through four months. I was plagued with self-doubt that I had never before experienced. For over a year, I had been ecstatic at the thought of coming to study China and there was not a single moment when I questioned my convictions. Over time, I had a realization. There was no way for me to be ready. Nothing could have prepared me to fly across the world, visiting a different country for the first time, to become 外国人 (a foreign person), and to settle in to live here—and in rural Yunnan for two weeks in February—for four months. The only thing that matters is attitude and perspective. On the second day here I woke up remembering the vertiginous excitement I have had for over a year in relation to the prospect of experiencing the historical and cultural wonders of China. On that day I realized that everyone I have met here—Chinese roommates, tutors, and other students in the Beijing Center—have made the greatest effort to be friendly, welcoming, and kind to me. In that moment I was ashamed that I had ever doubted my convictions to come here even for a moment. I recognize now that I know I can already call my roommate 我的朋友 (My friend). I know that he will cheerfully help me through absolutely any challenges (as he has already done so).

If I thought I was busy the first week in London, my goodness, was I mistaken! The last week and a half, the London Drama students and myself have seen three more shows, made a day trip to Stonehenge and Bath, and visited Platform 9 ¾!

The city, while particularly gloomy this time of year, has been relatively splendid for all of my adventures thus far. Stonehenge was magnificent! For a bunch of really old rocks, they held a beautiful prestige that was fascinating to learn about. Definitely a place worth visiting when traveling to the United Kingdom, if just to learn a little about the incredible history of the land.

A place I also look forward to returning to is Bath! If I hadn’t known I was in England, I would have thought I was walking down the streets of an Italian city. The 18^th century Georgian architecture was beautiful in its simple elegance. We made sure to make stops at the Royal Crescent, Circus, and Abbey of Bath, but waited to see the Roman Baths later when I return with my parents. While in Bath, I treated myself to a traditional English steak pie at the Georgian Teahouse with Elli and Emily, two women who are rapidly becoming my very close friends.

Oh, and the tea! I now understand what all the fuss is about! I have gone from a two-cups-a-day coffee drinker to not being able to function without my habitual cup of English breakfast tea. Before I know it, I’ll be eating scones and clotted cream every day. Of course, coming from Wisconsin, I’ve always been a fan of fish fry, but it is true; the English know how to do bloody good fish and chips.

Apart from London, I am happy to have finally booked most of my travels around Europe. I will be traveling to Scotland over Easter to visit my friend, Meghan, at St. Andrews, Denmark over spring break to visit a longtime family friend Karoline and her beautiful family, and in about ten days four friends and I will be making a quick jaunt up to Amsterdam! We’ve already booked our tickets to the Anne Frank House and the Van Gogh museum, two places I have always longed to see. And, if the weather is nice, we will hopefully be either renting bikes or traveling along the canals to see all the different sites.

I can’t forget about classes… They have been amazingly insightful. By far, my favorite classes have been Shakespeare, Voice, and Stage Combat. My Shakespeare teacher, Zoey, casually dropped the bomb on us yesterday that her mentor was Woody Allen… WOODY ALLEN! And she’s a mentor at RADA, the Royal Academy for Dramatic Arts, just the premiere school that any actor worth his salt would kill to attend: no big deal. Since I’m on the topic of teachers, my audition tutor also has an impressive resume, having performed at the Globe and mentored Eddie Redmayne, the star of the new film, the Theory of Everything. LDA has really brought in the best of the best and I am so ecstatic to have the opportunity to learn everything I can from them during the next 12 weeks!

Until next time,

Taylor

For those who are interested, here is the running list of shows I’ve seen in London so far:

•  Hamlet at the Baron’s Court Theatre
• Behind the Beautiful Forevers at the National Theatre of London
• Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime at the Gielgud Theatre
• Islands at the Bush Theatre
• The Ruling Class at Trafalgar Studios

…and we will be seeing The Bull tomorrow night!

In just two weeks since arriving here I’ve seen the Roman Forum, The Temple of Poseidon, The Colosseum, The Vatican, and spent a weekend on the Amalfi Coast. Just let that sink in for a second. Photos and blog posts alike are incapable of describing what it feels like to watch the sunrise on the Amalfi Coast with your best friends. These are places I’ve seen in textbooks and movies for the last 15 years of my life, and in just two weeks I have experienced all of them in person.

I’ve noticed the culture shock of being in a totally foreign environment slowly diminishing as I become more comfortable with my surroundings through each new experience. I can confidently say I’m not the most traveled person in the world, and I used to stray away from breaking out of my comfort zone. This past weekend on our final orientation trip, all the JFRC students congregated in a small conference room to hear a speech from the program directors before dinner. They promised us that in one way or another, our experience in Rome at the JFRC would transform us. It wouldn’t change who we are completely, but rather make us more rich in culture and open a new world of perspective. In just two weeks, I’m beginning to see this transformation take shape. I’m more hungry than I have ever been to experience new things, and make an effort to embrace every new individual around me.

In the next four weeks I will be traveling to London, Paris, and Barcelona with my friends. I’ve only scratched the surface what is possible in terms of fostering community and gaining knowledge while out of the states, and I can’t wait for the next adventure. I truly mean it when I say all students should study abroad if possible, as I’ve seen the same changes in myself occur for countless others in only 14 days.

To stay up to date on all the photos I’m taking while here, follow my instagram @scottjzimmerman. If you have questions or doubts about the JFRC, feel free to reach out to me via email: szimmerman1@luc.edu

Hello there!

I have officially been a temporary resident of the UK for a week and a half (although, it feels more like a month and a half) and so far nothing but good things to report!

I spent my first full week being a tourist and seeing everything. Okay, not even close, but I DID see many of the classic tourist spots via two walking tours , a boat tour, and (perhaps the most effective method) walking everywhere and getting a little lost!

This is just a little snapshot of some of the things I have seen and done since my arrival.

 [From top left to bottom: evening view of The London Eye and the Elizabeth Tower (aka Big Ben), a look up at Westminster Abbey (although pictures can’t give due justice to the detail), Taylor in Chinatown, street art near Brick Lane, a panorama of the Grand Court in the British Museum, a snap of a beautiful afternoon in Regent Park, and finally the three other fantastic people from Loyola Chicago and I in front of Tower Bridge]

Now we need to have a frank discussion about food in London. Countless people, as I told them of my planned trip over here to the UK, expressed some distress at the lack of “good food” in London. Let me be the first, but not last, person to disprove these delusions. EVERYWHERE I LOOK I WANT TO SAMPLE. Whether it is the artfully designed fudge at the Spitalfield markets, the streetview tables of authenticity in Chinatown, the pub food in the very trendy Soho area, beer flavored candy on Oxford Street (incidentally, not good, but I had to know), fish and chips at Poppies on Brick Lane, or the countless window displays of meringue the size of my face all over the city, you must try it all. And please. Don’t get me started on the bread.
             

Until next time!

Meg

My friend Maya (who is also an LUC student) lives with Jake the Cat, otherwise known as Grumpy Cat’s twin. When I first met this cat, I thought he was the cutest and most behaved cat I’d ever met. Not only did he just lounge around the pool all day, but he let everyone pet him! When Maya and I told her host mom about the famous Grumpy Cat in the states, she proceeded to explain to us how Jake the Cat is never allowed to leave the house because he’s too expensive to lose. Also, that if Jake the Cat were ever lost they would not buy another cat to replace him because of how expensive he was, so pretty much all I know about this cat is that he’s expensive and his name is Jake. Anyways, last week Maya’s chilean family went to the beach all day, so after class a group of us went to Maya’s house to plan our trip to Argentina and the family told Maya to keep Jake in the mother’s room until everyone left so she did.

As soon as everyone left at around like 6-ish, we let Jake out because we felt bad because he’d been trapped in there all day and then we started working on our presentation that was due the next day.While we were working outside on their patio, which is next to their mini backyard with tiny pool,some tall trees, and a fence separating their yard from their neighbors. 20 minutes into working on our presentation, Jake the Cat sees a bird and begins to scale the tree. Remembering the previous conversation about this expensive cat, Maya and I freak out and coax him to come down from the tree. After a couple failed attempts, Jake the Cat finally climbed down and nonchalantly walked away from us as if nothing had happened. This is where Maya and I should’ve learned our lesson, because 15 minutes later, Jake the Cat sees another bird and scales the other tree and decides to jump over the fence into the neighbor’s backyard. Immediately, we begin to hyperventilate and start screaming ideas out on how to retrieve the cat. The first and foremost one being to go to the neighbor’s house and ask politely if we can retrieve the cat. However, while working on our presentation I plugged in my laptop charger into an outlet on the patio and blew a fuse. (Chilean outlets are different from US ones, and you need a converter in order to use anything electric.) This comes into play because the front gate to Maya’s house is usually buzzed open electrically. We came to figure this out however, when I tried to buzz myself out and the door wouldn’t open, preventing me from reaching the cat. We finally find the keys and i’m trying to explain to Maya’s neighbor that there’s a cat in his backyard and that I need to retrieve him but he’s completely ignoring me and not even listening to me because I obviously am not speaking spanish very well and that is when the cat finally makes its way to the front of the neighbors house. But the story does not end there, nope, Jake the Cat will not let anyone grab him and after 20 minutes of chasing him around the front of the house, I finally grab Jake, put him upstairs and close all the doors to the outside world, so we can finally fix the electricity. Their neighbor came over and fixed the electricity and the world was good again. Until…

5 minutes into working on our presentation, we hear a ton of crap falling like someone had knocked it over huge dominoes. Our immediate first though: WHERE IS JAKE?!

Frantically, I’m looking under the couches and dinner table etc and then I hear Maya screaming, “NOW I KNOW WHY MY HOST MOM CLOSES THE BATHROOM DOOR!?

Chileans don’t believe in screens, like no screen doors, no screen windows.

Everything is just open. all. the.time.

Maya, “OMG CHRISTINE JAKE IS ON THE ROOF WTF DO I DO?!”

I make my way upstairs and there are shampoo bottles and conditioner bottles all over the bathroom floor and I look out the window and Jake is on the roof.

His eyes are glowing red and I wanted to murder him.

I run downstairs, climb up on a chair, and reach out on the roof to retrieve this cat.

I finally coax him with food to come to me and we stick him in the mother’s bedroom.

We did not do s*** that day.

Maya and I got our a**es kicked by a cat.

Like round-house kicked by Jake the Cat.

China. It didn’t seem real. As the plane landed, the grogginess of my jet lag, slowly faded away. Am I really here? Is this really where I will be for the next semester? Waves of anticipation and nausea hit me, making my stomach churn. The weeks of preparation and studying, slowly vanished as I took in my surroundings. Swarms of people filled the airport, some visitors, some coming back home. As I sat in the bus, going to what will be my new campus, I felt overwhelmed with sensations. There was so much to look at, so much to do, and so many people to meet. That night, I couldn’t sleep. I felt the excitement of not knowing what was waiting around the corner, where tomorrow would take me. After being in Beijing for a week, I have realized that nothing could’ve prepared me for this wonderful and always surprising country. Its been only a week, and I have slowly realized how little I know of this country. Everyday is a new adventure.  Last weekend, I went tea tasting, and tried almost 40 cups of different teas. The next day I went to a karaoke bar with Chinese students, and sang Taylor Swift. The following day, I had to pantomime to a desk receptionist in order to get my mail. It is so surprising how different, and yet how familiar China can be.  There isn’t one moment of my day, that I’m not experiencing or having another adventure. Just surviving in this country i.e speaking and talking with people, ordering food, taking the bus, buying school supplies, provides new and exciting challenges. Even something so small as doing laundry, is an experience in China. I can’t say that China is anything that I expected it to be, in fact most things are not what I expected. I can say, however, that studying abroad in China, so far, has been the one of the best and most exciting decisions in my life. I look forward to sharing the rest of my journey with you.

Until then, 再见！