After reading the title, you might think "what’s wrong with pandas?" Nothing really, but the experience as a whole was kind of underwhelming. It probably didn't help that I was tired. I went to bed at a decent time, but I still woke up feeling not well rested. The bus ride took about an hour.... Continue Reading →
美国的生日 (America’s Birthday)
Today I woke up to rain. It made the sky even greyer than usual. Yeah, it didn't really give off a patriotic feeling. Obviously, the Fourth of July doesn't really matter outside the US, but it still felt weird not seeing all the red, white, and blue. There really isn't much to talk about in... Continue Reading →
The Start of a Snack Collection
I'm starting to get used to everything, and I'm settling into a pattern. From now on, I'll skip the boring details and head straight into the action. We got our class assignments today. As expected, I got into class B (the intermediate class). I was a bit disappointed, but I'm going to do my best... Continue Reading →
Things Are Actually Getting Started
Today was the big day, the start of it all, our very first full day in Chengdu. I woke up and hastily got ready. I still haven't quite gotten the hang of things, so I was definitely just floundering about. In the morning, all of us spent a bit of time with our host siblings... Continue Reading →
Bye, Bye, Beijing
I can't believe my time in Beijing is already over. Up until this point, I've felt like things haven't really gotten started. Being in Chengdu means that I'll finally start to learn Chinese, and that thought is equal parts scary and exciting. In the morning, there was a feeling of tension in the air. We... Continue Reading →
长城 (The Great Wall)
This morning I got up at 5 because the sun was blinding me. I almost forgot that the sun rises earlier over here. After staying in bed for a little longer, I decided to just get up and get ready. They told us that breakfast was on the 5th floor, but apparently a wedding was... Continue Reading →
The Essay that Nobody Asked For
Today has been a long day of flying, flying, and more flying. Since I'm currently trapped in a plane headed to Beijing, I thought it would be a good time to do some blogging. But, for this post, I wanted to do something a bit special. Today, I will tell you the tale behind the... Continue Reading →
A Bit of Time Travel
Being in China has completely messed up my sense of time. I was suddenly catapulted 12 hours into the future. But, besides the sudden time change, China didn't feel all that different. It's not like I expected there to be some dramatic moment when I stepped off the plane, but I certainly didn't expect it... Continue Reading →
Fly Me to the Moon
Today was the last day in New York, and if you couldn’t already guess, I didn’t get much sleep last night. I definitely tried, but by the time I started to get comfortable, the alarm was already going off. Fortunately, I had prepped everything the night before, so getting ready was a breeze. We went... Continue Reading →
One More Dawn, One More Day, One Day More!
Today was packed, so I’m gonna skip the introduction and jump right in. I actually got up at a decent time (like 6:30ish), and I slept pretty well. Breakfast was pretty good, even though I took way too many sweet things. One thing I like about our group so far is that it isn’t super... Continue Reading →
The Moonlight over the Bridge 