Author: Jessica Xi

Bubble Tea? Yes Please!

Bubble Tea? Yes Please!

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If you’re looking for a food fad sweeping the world, look no further than Argyle – or maybe Chinatown. It’s bubble tea! Also known as boba or milk tea, this sweet treat is a blended drink of a million different types, kinds, and sizes. It was invented in Taiwan in the 1980s and has spread globally ever since. Or at least, from the East to the West.

You can get fruit-based teas, milk teas, with tapioca pearls or without, with jelly blocks or fruit in the cup. Anything you can dream of, you can get. In Chicago, I must admit, I get it like, every week. It’s about five dollars a cup, which is about the same as my average Starbucks order, so that’s pretty nice.

But here in China? The most expensive cup at the most expensive boba stand is about three dollars. They deliver to your dorm if you want, they have punch cards upon punch cards, and in a five minute walk there are five different stands to get your boba. My favorite drink is called the ‘Panda’ – tapioca pearls, a milk cream, and oreos on top. You can customize the type of tea, the sugar amount, and the ice amount, so I usually get 100% of the normal sugar, lots of ice, and green tea.

I’m a big fan of the oreo flavor and the strawberry flavors, because traditional milk tea ‘plain’ flavor doesn’t quite cut it for me. But my roommate here is always trying to get me to try new things, so I’ve been slowly expanding my palate. Still, I’m an oreo girl through and through. For many people who perhaps didn’t drink bubble tea every week for two years, it’s often an acquired taste, earned through drinking smoothie variations on bubble tea before moving on to the milk tea-style.

When people think of Chinese food in the USA, they might think of fried rice, or General Tso’s chicken, or maybe beef and broccoli. Since I’m in an Asian-formed sorority in the States, we go out for different Asian foods all the time, including the absolutely necessary boba stop. It’s interesting because when I was last here in Beijing in 2013, bubble tea was known, but certainly not this popular. And here we are now! Since I’ve been gone for a year, I can’t speak for the situation back in Chicago, but I do know that a bubble tea location has opened up near my hometown – which is totally different, because it’s a very white town and when I was growing up, most if not all Asian restaurants were at least a twenty minute drive away.

I know I’ll be coming back from my time abroad with even more passion for this treat. Perhaps it’s not the healthiest, but Starbucks drinks here are at American prices, whereas I can get some boba for maybe $1.5. That’s a huge difference in the eyes of a college student! Maybe by the time I come back, boba will really have broken into the mainstream and be everywhere. That’s what I’m hoping for! Since the title of my blog has to do with food, I thought I’d share with you all this particular aspect of Chinese culture. And maybe now you’ll be on the lookout for boba places and give it a try, if you haven’t already!

Do I Need to Know Chinese?

Do I Need to Know Chinese?

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There’s a lot of questions when it comes to choosing a college, not to mention whether or not – and where – to study abroad. One of the things that I always hear is debating the language barrier. In Rome, you can get by just in English, although it isn’t very polite to your host country.

Here in China, way less people speak English, especially not the older generations. But it’s okay! Over half of the Spring 18 TBCers came to this country with absolutely no Chinese language experience, and they’re doing fine. TBC requires you to be in a Chinese language class, no matter your level, plus they provide you with a Chinese language tutor and immediate ‘Survival Chinese’ so you’re at least armed with the rudimentary basics by the time you’re out in the world.

You learn Chinese, and fast, which is great! Even in your normal university classes, you won’t learn as much, as varied, and as fast as you do when you’re in China. Class here is almost every day, as opposed to every other day, and you always have your roommate to turn to as well. Plus, you’re in the same boat as so many other students, you can always study with them!

But besides tell you things I’ve said already, I’m also going to give you some Chinese language learning recommendations, so you can get started and know stuff before you come!

First, two apps/programs that can really get you started: Pimsleur (which is paid) and Mango (which, I don’t know about you, but my library card gets it for free. Check with your local library to see if they’ve partnered with them too!) Both of them are listening apps, so you don’t have to put in too much effort. I love Mango, personally, because you can download it offline (and it was free for me.)

Second, for character learning, try Drops and Chineasy. Drops works on recognition and different matching meaning strategies, all without using written words. So for example, learning the word ‘wo’, me, comes with a picture of a finger pointing at a person. Or ‘shi’, yes (although it is written in the character), is a checked box. Chineasy pairs the character with what it looks like or derived from. So ‘ren’, person or people, which looks like 人, appears but feet come out of the bottom strokes and a head is on the top, so you can remember that it looks like a person, and means person as well. So handy!

And of course, Duolingo. Although Duolingo has a little bit of a teaching issue, you can use apps like EdChinese and HelloChinese for learning, and then review with Duolingo (plus with more grammar).

 

There’s so many ways to learn! Even if you’re not coming to China, knowing another language can never hurt. What’s stopping you from starting? Don’t let language keep you from a great adventure!

Roommates? What?

Roommates? What?

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So, here in Beijing, we have a special program unlike the Rome Center – you have the option of having a Chinese student of the University of International Business and Economics as your roommate!

Of course, you don’t have to, you can elect to have a fellow American student as your roommate, as long as you both have specified you want to, or you can live alone – or even live in an apartment-style dorm in a different dorm. But all those options are more expensive. This semester, only one guy lives alone, and everyone else has a Chinese roommate, or CR as we call them. Trust me, you want to live with them. Not only are they incredibly useful (drag them to the bank, the restaurants – they know the area- and so on, due to being fantastically bilingual) but the TBC screening process means that they are all incredibly nice, wonderful, delightful people and make fast friends. They’re so cool, and come from all different places across China and are interested in all different things.

There’s one this semester who is captain of the alpine ski team, another who is really into Korean culture and dance, another who you can always find cooking in the kitchen, and another who you can count on to always be studying in the lounge, and so on. At first, you might be a little wary, especially you reading this if you haven’t even been to college yet first. But I assure you, the Chinese roommate experience is so awesome!

It really helps you get immersed in the Chinese culture and university life. Unlike Rome, you’re not in a bubble. For example, WeChat games (see my last post) spread like fire between the CRs and the students, since even though there’s a language barrier some games don’t even use words, so – bonus!

Plus, if you have a roommate like mine, they’ll make sure you celebrate Chinese holidays the right way, with the right food. I’m very lucky, since we’re fully in the holiday season, since sometimes I come back from a day of classes and Thea is waiting for me with some new treat or another. If/when you come to TBC, I would highly, highly suggest getting a Chinese roommate. When else will you have this opportunity? With the CRs, we do all sorts of things – from watching Mulan and laughing at the cultural inaccuracies, to walking around the Temple of Heaven area and pretending one of them is secretly famous, and so on. In Rome, I didn’t meet a lot of Romans my age, much less be able to call them my friends. These CRs, it’s only been two months, but I’m very certain that in the future when I come back to China, I won’t miss out on visiting them and seeing them when I can.

Plus, TBC also works hard to match you with a roommate. They won’t put a very clean person and a very messy person together, or if you’re a person against smoking, they won’t put you with someone who smokes heavily (none of the CRs do this semester), just like Loyola does.

All in all, I would more than recommend getting a Chinese roommate. When you’re studying abroad, go the whole yard for new experiences, and don’t be afraid to live with someone from a completely different culture!

Technology and China Living

Technology and China Living

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I wrote an article a while ago about apps you’ll need for college life, such as Venmo and GroupMe. Well, you need a whole host of other ones to really do well in China. And, pro tip, but don’t come here with a Google phone. One of my friends has hers with and it’s a huge pain!

First and most important:

WeChat, or WeiXin as they say in Chinese. It’s ubiquitous, powerful, and doesn’t just change the game – it makes its own. On the surface (and in the USA) it’s just a messenger app, like GroupMe, Viber, or WhatsApp, but it can also be used to ‘follow’ news companies with an RSS feed, and you can post ‘Moments’ just like Facebook updates. But wait, there’s more. Through WeChat, you can pay for your meals at almost every single restaurant, because you’re infinitely more likely to forget your wallet than your phone – and you don’t have to pay those pesky international cash withdrawal fees because it connects right to your card. You can pay your phone bill or order a taxi. You can rent a bike (more on that later), buy your train or movie tickets, and play games like it has a whole entire App Store (but free) inside of it. Right now, the game sweeping TBC is called ‘Tiao Yi Tiao’, or Jumpy Jump. It’s hot competition to see who can keep their jumping streak furthest without falling. It’s magic and it runs the world. Of course, it’s only so big because the Chinese government keeps a good eye on it, so you shouldn’t be spreading anti-governmental messages through it (if you’re the type of person inclined to that, which I wouldn’t advise while in China, but that’s your choice) but all in all it’s one you absolutely need while in China.

Second, ofo. Well, actually, there are a variety of apps just like ofo, and you can have one or them all, but I prefer ofo.

Why? Well, ofo is a bike-sharing app. It’s sort of like… the exact opposite of Uber. There’s probably millions of the bikes in just Beijing alone, and all you need is the app to take one. You simply scan a QR code on the bike, type in the passcode your app tells you too, and the bike unlocks – and off you go. Sometimes the bikes are not all that good, but there’s certainly another one you can take. And it’s dirt cheap – as in, I haven’t yet paid a single kuai (six-ish kuai is one USD) for all my rides, whether they’re five minutes or fifty. Plus, at the end of every ride you get a two-kuai coupon, so even if you do generate a bill of a kuai or two, you still won’t pay. They’re ridiculously convenient. I often walk to breakfast and then bike across campus to class, just because I can, or bike down to the nearest mall. It’s something that probably wouldn’t go down too well in the United States, because a huge team of people are in charge of finding wayward bikes (you can just leave them wherever you want, they require no charging stations or anything) and setting them up along streetsides so you can get to them easier. At least, I feel like people would complain in Chicago. They do take up a lot of room. Another bonus about the app is that it will tell you where the nearest ones are, so you don’t even have to look hard! Also, all ofo bikes are bright yellow. They sure stand out!

 

And third, Mei Tuan Wai Mai. If you thought WeChat and ofo sounded useful, well…

Mei Tuan combines literally every other useful American app into one. And by that I mean it will deliver literally anything you can dream of. Gone is the need to compare GrubHub, UberEats, Postmates, and the other food apps to see who has the restaurant – and the price – you want. No joke, today in class as part of our lesson, our teacher had me order cookies from Subway to be delivered. Just cookies. (They were amazing.) From places like DQ, Subway, Pizza Hut, and McDonald’s to the local tiny restaurants that only recently moved to take WeChat pay, Mei Tuan will bring you anything you want, ever. And… Not just food.

My homework tonight is to make a list of summer clothing I’ll need for my spring break trip to Thailand, so my teacher can help me order it during class tomorrow (there’s only two students in the class, including me.) From an iPhone X to a rice cooker to just a roll of tape, Mei Tuan can bring it to you the same day. You can get larger things (like a box of water bottles or a Ferrari car) on a similar app called Taobao that doesn’t do fresh food, but if you hate Amazon’s two-day delivery …. Mei Tuan has you covered. My friend once ordered an iron and got it within the hour. Possibly the best thing? It connects to your WeChat, which connects to your card, so you don’t need to input your card over and over again.

 

Of course, you’ll probably want a variety of other apps, from Baidu Maps (Google Maps doesn’t work here) to Elk (a currency converter) to Didi (like Uber, but also uses the taxi fleet) but I think WeChat, ofo, and Mei Tuan are the top three. Come study abroad here and you’ll see for yourself!

 

 

Food Feature: Hangzhou Xiao Chi

Food Feature: Hangzhou Xiao Chi

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Last semester I told you all about my favorite restaurant in Rome, Osteria dell’Anima, with the pear pasta I dream about sometimes. Although it seems I eat out for every meal here in China, there haven’t been many times where I eat out downtown instead of around the campus, because unlike Rome, there are restaurants taking every inch of space at UIBE’s perimeter. So let me tell you about Hangzhou Xiao Chi, which is located just three steps outside of East Gate, or as we call it, Eats Gate. I really wish the internet would cooperate and let me share pictures with you, but when I get back to Chicago you betcha I’ll upload them on my first day of work. You’ll just have to trust me right now.

Hangzhou is owned and operated by one small family from, you guessed it, Hangzhou City. They’re adorable and I love them. Just like a lot of small family-owned restaurants here in China, it’s not always easy to tell how exactly they’re all related, but they usually are. Hangzhou has two Ayis, or aunties, three Mei Nus, or daughters/younger women who help out, and then four Shu Shus, uncles, who do the cooking. The restaurant is about half kitchen and half seating area, and the seating area is six tables with small stools to sit on instead of wasting space with real chairs. It’s always packed. They serve both baozi, stuffed steamed buns, and jiaozi, dumplings, as well as about a hundred (that’s an exaggeration – perhaps fifty really) dishes, although I prefer to get their vegetable noodle soup, so then I can add anything I want, or otherwise I really enjoy their Chongqing noodles, which are flavorful, with chicken and peanuts, and spicy as all get-out.

They speak no English, but they’ll teach you the proper pronunciations of whatever food you want, and they have pictures posted of their most popular foods so you can just point. And ‘baozi’ is the easiest thing to say. You can’t visit Hangzhou Xiao Chi without getting a ‘lou’, or a plate of them. TBC students are currently heartbroken because one of the Ayis went back to Hangzhou for Spring Break and won’t be coming back until next semester so she can help her daughter study for the college entrance exam that all Chinese kids have to take if they want to go to college.

Eating at Hangzhou is like eating a home-cooked meal made with love, and the staff there can recognize all, if not most, of the TBC students by now. We go there… a lot. I’m not going to lie, before Spring Festival there was a week where I went every single day for seven days straight. I can’t help it. For ten baozi and a bowl of warm noodles, it’s less than 20 kuai, which is about three dollars. Three dollars! I’m going to cry when I get back to Chicago at the prices.

You can’t, and won’t, miss Hangzhou Xiao Chi if/when you come to TBC. Did I make you hungry? I’m pretty hungry myself. Guess I know what I’m having for dinner tonight.

Spring Festival? Spring Festivities!

Spring Festival? Spring Festivities!

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I told you about my Fall Break trip to Greece for ten days or so last semester, but Spring Festival trip here in China is a little bit different. Sure, last semester we had Fall Break and also Thanksgiving break, and this semester we have Spring Festival and Spring Break (and two long weekends as well), but Spring Festival break was a trip to Yunnan Province, down at the border of Vietnam and Myanmar. Everything in Beijing shuts down anyway, and it’s still slowly reopening now, so the school takes all of the students down south. And by all, I really do mean all 37 of us.

Just like Greece, I couldn’t go into full detail or I’d be writing a whole book, but it was truly amazing. We were lucky enough not to have to take the train at all, just airplanes and busses, which was nice because we could sleep and stretch our legs at rest stops when needed – and get places where a train could never, and probably will never, go. Our first day there, I met with one of my father’s college friends with some of my own. It was a really cool experience, to be able to learn about his home province and my parent’s past without them there. And then it was a whirlwind of food, shopping, Old towns whose architecture capture China as it was and as people picture it to be while holding shiny technology stores and the latest in fashion, and laughing with my friends. One of my fellow Ricci Scholars and I vowed to make a dance video, and so we have – every city we went to we jammed on camera, and now, a week later, I’m working on putting it all together. Unfortunately my own pictures don’t upload, as usual, so I’m just using things from the internet. 

But besides the cities big and small, we also visited homes and villages of several minority peoples of China. Although over 90 percent of Chinese people are Han Chinese, there are still 58 minorities in China, half of which live in pockets of Yunnan, and we got the amazing privilege of meeting them. We stayed overnight in a Yi village and took a thirty minute drive in the back of an open air truck to get to a hidden lake for dinner. We climbed through rice terraces where any strong wind could push us into the water with the kind Hani people as our guides. We lived in a Dai village for a night and sent paper lanterns into the sky over Myanmar. We learned how the Naxi language worked and were welcomed into their town for a night of rituals, performances, and storytelling. Some fantastically talented Bai people in Dali treated us to their famous Three-Course Tea ceremony while performing Tang dynasty music.

Although it sounds like we were busy for thirteen days straight, we also had a lot of free time. When not dancing around like idiots, we bought trinkets and souvenirs, tasted Pu’er tea from a lady who picked the leaves herself, watched New Year’s Eve fireworks on a riverbank then ate kebabs at a night market, took a ski lift up a mountain, and so much more without it being an organized part of the day.

I was exhausted by the end of the journey, but I could have kept going for forever, probably. It was hard to leave the Province and I really want to go back, to see how much it will change and how much it will stay the same.

What Did I Expect?

What Did I Expect?

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I think one of America’s biggest stereotypes of Chinese students is that they are very, well, studious. It may not always seem that American students are just as much, especially if you aren’t in university or don’t know many.

But trust me. Even in Chicago, even in Rome, especially in China, we American students have our nose to the grindstone! That’s really been what I’ve been up to. Study, study, study! I feel like I need to learn Chinese to talk to my grandparents and to get around here in Beijing, but if I never learned more I would be okay. Not too great, but alright.

Like I said last post, though, some people came here with no Chinese experience. In fact, one girl never left her home city before coming all the way here! She’s very brave. So everyone is studying very hard – I’m actually sitting in the quiet section of our lounge right now, and every sitting spot is taken. And it’s a Sunday night! The only sounds I can hear are the clicking of keys, the smacking of pens being flipped around, and music slipping out of people’s headphones. And the sipping of bubble tea.

Of course bubble tea! It’s China! Although boba has only swept into mainstream American foods/treats in the recent years, I have to say, we practically landed here right onto a bubble tea stand – I feel like there’s not an hour that goes by without me seeing the drink in someone’s hand. Here, you can get it warm too for this cold, cold weather. I never knew that in America! Trust me, if you haven’t tried bubble tea before, you absolutely should. Even if you don’t like tapioca pearls or the textures of the myriad other things you can put in it, there’s an endless variety of options. You can get it without the bubbles, in hundreds of ways! Plus here, unlike some places in the US that I’ve had, you can also get different levels of sugar and ice depending on your preference. Talk about endless options!

What else has been surprising but shouldn’t have? Well, I’m sure I already mentioned the heaven of food I have here. And how cheap everything is? This past weekend, I bought a blanket from the shop Uniqlo for 79 kuai, or about ten dollars. China’s really big on bike riding, and they have bike-sharing companies where you can rent a bike… for one kuai an hour. So if you bike twenty minutes to the mall like me, it’s just straight up free. Uh, yes please! Faster is less cold!

I guess another thing is that most students here at TBC aren’t from Loyola University Chicago. In Rome, I’d say about 80% of the students were LUC students, but here it’s less tightly knit with Chicago, so out of the 38 of us here, there are only maybe fifteen or so LUC students. Sure, we’re the biggest school here, but not the majority of people. Many people here are the only ones from their schools! But it makes it really fun and interesting. My Chinese classmate (since there’s only two of us) is from Stonehill College in the northeast, and their school is about the size of my highschool, so she knows practically everyone there. Whereas at Chicago, there’s more people I don’t know then people I do, which is the fun of it – there’s always more people to meet!

One of my favorite things here is that we’ve been watching Avatar: The Last Airbender together recently. Not all of us at the same time, of course, we can’t all fit on the couch, but that’s the fun of a common lounge only for us – friends can pop in and out as much as they want! I like this small group a lot. Many people are nervous for our upcoming two weeks in Yunnan province, though, because fourteen days in close quarters with 37 other people can be tricky and hard, especially for the introverts. The other Ricci scholars and I aren’t too worried, since we survived ten days in Greece with 50 people, but it should be an experience. Next week and the week after is Chinese New Year, and I’ll be on the road, so I may not be able to post much, but I’ll make it up to you! Hang tight, and I’ll see you on next time!

 

Also, no pictures again this week. So sorry! I had to battle the internet for a few hours today and we’re both tired from that match.

Beijing Life and Living

Beijing Life and Living

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Wow. I can’t believe I’ve been here for two full weeks already!

It’s certainly been an action-packed adventure already. If I were to go home now, I’d still have stories for a lifetime!

All of us here at TBC have settled into our lives here in Beijing, although just as a pattern and not as a hard mold. The fact is, we can’t explore Beijing much because it’s too cold! Nobody wants to go wandering the hutongs or exploring around the hip neighborhoods because after just ten minutes of walking around campus to get to class, we’re shivering and shaking. Of course there are still indoors things to do, such as museums and galleries and meals (of course meals) but the majority of fun things college-age kids like us like to do such as going clubbing or going to karaoke are nightlife, so we’re spending our days watching television in the communal lounge and studying. It’s been pretty good, lots of bonding between the small group of us.

Of course, all this cold hasn’t stopped some of us. This weekend two groups of us, about fifteen total, went out skiing! I have to be honest, the ski hill is about two hours south of Beijing and if you’ve ever skiied before, anywhere, you’d be underwhelmed by this place. It’s made for beginners and nobody else. Still, it was a nice experience to be with my roommate and just a few other friends.

The internet here in China is not good, so unfortunately I can’t add photos right now, but hopefully in the future I’ll be able to come back and add to this.

The Beijing Center also offers lots of activities and fun things to do to get to know Beijing and China better, even more than Rome did. To begin with, we have our Chinese roommates, who know the city and the area very well. And TBC also puts on programs such as a Culinary Arts lesson where they taught us how to make southern Chinese dishes, taking us to the arts district with a semi-guided tour of its history, and watching Disney’s Mulan with the roommates to point out the cultural inaccuracies of the film. Still, it’s all in good fun, and didn’t lessen my love of the film one bit.

 

We’ve all gotten through a week of classes and internships now, and gotten a gauge of how they’ll be. I’m really looking forward to it, to be honest, because I think I will really learn a lot in every subject. I’m really loving Beijing. It’s been an experience and I’m sure it will be even more so as I move through the semester. Right now I’m looking forward to our trip to the southern (and much, much warmer) Yunnan province, because, as they say in China here, I’m 冷死了 – leng si le – freezing cold!

Ni hao from China!

Ni hao from China!

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Coming to you live (and early) from Beijing, I’m abroad once more and feeling great! (So far.)

A lot has happened in the past week, but I won’t bore you with the orientation details. Let me just tell you about some of the surprises I’ve been having, and will continue to have, in this chapter of the adventure.

First off, in Rome I had a taste of what it’s like to live in a country where you don’t speak the language. But I picked up Italian pretty fast, signs were usually in Italian and English, and people usually spoke both languages. Even in Greece, where the alphabet was different, everyone spoke English and I didn’t have a lot of absolutely free time to jump into the culture and living anyway.

Here, I feel like a baby. Here’s a photo from my first ever trip to China with my aunt. Pretty much how I felt this first week. I think I’m pretty lucky, however, to have at least some of the culture ingrained in me and to know at least a basic grasp of the language. The other Ricci scholars and my new friends here mostly came in with no knowledge of the language or the culture. They’re really starting from nothing! Every day and every interaction though, I’m gaining more confidence. I haven’t yet eaten alone or gone downtown by myself, but I have no rush to. I want to get to know the people around here first! Meals are, in my opinion, the best way to get to know people. All my rusty chinese is getting polished, and fast.

 

But sometimes not knowing the language or the culture can lead to fun surprises! I have to tell you this story: my friends Mark, Jacob, Jenna and I were out for dinner at a restaurant none of us had been before. Mark wanted to try some Chinese beer, so I taught him the word for it – pijiu, since he already knew how to order something. He said it alright, I thought, but the waitress pointed to the menu, gesturing to the whole drink list. So Mark, not knowing how to read, assumed she meant all the drinks were beers and he should just pick one. Five minutes later, the waitress came back with a can labeled ‘herbal tea’, and gave him a straw for it.

The food here is so good. Of course, that’s not a surprise, but I’m always surprised by how cheap it is for the quality! You can eat a good meal for about 20 kuai, or just about 3 US dollars. We have a meal card for the canteen on campus, but it only has about 400 kuai loaded on to it (you can add more when you need), and you can spend it on the on-campus convenience store, so I’ve already spent about 100 kuai, which is about 20 dollars, on snacks and school supplies and other little impulse buys. I can’t help it! Everything is so cheap here! My friends and I went out for famous chinese hotpot, and our total came to 115 kuai each, which is only about 18 dollars, but we were shocked already. We will hate returning to the expensive USA, I can tell already!

I love China, I really do. The living is less loud than in flashy, fancy Rome, and it’s been really strange to see my friends from university back home who have started in Rome this semester, but I can tell how different I am because of Rome. I’m so glad I’m here!

What Happens in Study Abroad…

What Happens in Study Abroad…

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… Stays with you forever.

 

It feels like months ago, or maybe just yesterday, or maybe even that I dreamed it, but finals week was just last week. Less than seven days ago I was in Rome, typing furiously on my last paper due and studying harder for my upcoming tests. I was mentally saying goodbye to every room I walked out of that I would never walk in again, memorizing the streets of the Eternal City so that even when I return later, I will know that city well.

And here I am, sitting on my couch in Minnesota, dogs curled at my feet and a homemade meal in my belly. I admit I was too busy last week to write a blog post, so here you get my recollection post. Half of the study abroad experience is how it feels when you come back, so I’d like to share with you what it’s like, coming back from some of the best times of your life.

 

It’s weird, I’ll tell you that. Some of my friends are experiencing reverse culture shock – American things are so loud, so big, so similar and yet so different. Every day for four months we lived knowing that the culture we were in wasn’t our own, so we had to be careful and aware of making mistakes, and it’s hard to shake that habit, even when we know we’re back in our home country. Some of my friends are living life brighter than they did before. Most every day we reminisce and share photos, talk about things we said or did to the people around us that linked to study abroad. For example, I can’t help but say ‘grazie’ when a waiter puts my food in front of me at a restaurant, a habit I should be breaking and say ‘thank you’ instead.

 

But it it is also really nice, to come home and go to Target in your sweatpants and hoodie and have nobody give you a second glance, or to raid the fridge, or to just lounge about all morning without being roused by the construction workers sounding like they’re drilling holes in your ceiling ( thanks, JFRC). People in your life who have studied abroad talk about their experiences with you, and although you can never really share it with people that weren’t there with you, hearing other people’s adventures and stories feel more real because you do the same thing, telling what you did to an audience that can imagine it.

 

My friend Mark likes to joke that he was only studying abroad for the Instagram pics, and sometimes I felt like I was doing amazing things just to say I did, but those sorts of feelings are okay to have. Everyone at the J-Force, whether they’re still traveling over Europe or went home on the group flight alongside me, is learning to think about their experience in new and different lights. I for one don’t shut up about it, which isn’t a bad thing. My dad brought home gyros, and I got into a long tangent about my time in Greece, and how different the food was to American Greek food, a friend of mine is studying abroad in Austria next semester so I gave her all the apps and tips and tricks I learned, and so on, and so on.

 

I really, really encourage everyone to study abroad, even more so now that I’m not abroad – I can see how it’s changed me, how amazing it was, how influential those short, short months will have on the rest of my life. Even if you think your major or course load won’t allow it, there are plenty of J-Term and Summer opportunities – or, heck, don’t go to a Loyola Campus. Find a study abroad program that will take you to somewhere you need to go, and transfer the credits. Business student? Go to London. Physics? You can make it work, early in your academic career. Talk to someone in the study abroad office, and just see what you can do.

In just four months, I can’t tell you all of my favorite things I did, or even favorite places. Let me tell you some, however, just to give an example of the sheer opportunity that study abroad gives you. I:

  • jumped into the waters of Delos, Greece, where Apollo and Artemis were apparently born
  • picked olives from an olive grove and tasted their olive oil two days later
  • went to the house where Leonardo da Vinci was allegedly born
  • climbed a Scottish mountain in a blizzard, for fun, then celebrated by eating haggis
  • went to the Trevi Fountain at one o’clock in the morning and found it almost entirely empty
  • saw the sunrise over the Roman Forum
  • touched the porphyry of the Four Tetrarchs in Venice, and my inner art historian nerded out
  • stood where Mussolini stood as my professor taught about his rise to power
  • sang karaoke with my friends at a festive Halloween party, the likes of which JFRC hadn’t seen before
  • walked through San Marino in a misty fog so thick I couldn’t see my hands

and so, so much more. I miss Rome, I miss constantly seeing my friends, and I miss the freedom of study abroad, the beauty of Italy and the diversity of Europe. Go. See. Do.

And as always, if you have any questions, let me know. I’d be happy to talk! Thus wraps up the ‘pasta’ part of my journey. Next month: ‘Peking Duck’!