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Month: March 2018

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By Maya Haziza

I am now almost at my last week in my internship at a Hong Kong based fashion company. I am so glad that I decided to partake in an internship experience while living in Hong Kong because I believe that it is a unique experience that I might not be able to do for a while, or at least until I look for a job (potentially abroad). No matter where you are, I have realized that the best way to learn is by doing and this is exactly the mentality that I have maintained while working in Hong Kong. I am working for a company here in Hong Kong called AMENPAPA, a fashion brand and clothing company. Their clothes are sold all over Asia in countries like China, Japan, Korea, and more. My role at the firm for the 5 weeks that I am here is to focus on digital marketing efforts and build the company’s presence on social media and other digital platforms. It has been interesting to not only observe the nature of the company and its employees, but of how they do their marketing given their brand which is extremely unique. They are a fashion brand that seeks to synthesize spirituality and catholic teaching into fashion in order to empower people. As someone who is unfamiliar with the bible teachings and verses they print on their graphic items, it was hard to understand how exactly they market their products and communicate the brand story and the stories behind each collection. I have enjoyed our weekly meeting where the entire team sits down and shares something new they learned that week or a discovery they made. The team here has been very welcoming and I am grateful that I can now have connections in Hong Kong to the fashion business and industry.

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By Raman Mama

One of the best places I’ve had a chance to see so far has without a doubt been Amsterdam. I was lucky enough to travel to the city with my girlfriend who came to visit, and stay for 4 days and check out the rare culture and creativity that fills the city.

When we first got to Amsterdam, we flew into Eidhoven airport, which is a business district about two hours away from Amsterdam by train. Something to keep in mind when traveling to cities in Europe is that the airports are pretty far from the center more often than not, and it might take a bit more time than you expected to reach your destination.

After we finally got into the city, we had a chance to explore the legendary canals around which the city was built. This was incredible to me because though many notable cities such as New York, DC and Boston have been based around rivers like the Hudson, the Potomac and the Charles, Amsterdam is different because the canals weave in and out of every part of the city. There is not a single four-block radius where you don’t find a canal. As a result of this, there were many individuals who lived on the water in houseboats. The canals also affected the weather in Amsterdam – it was very windy and pretty cold in the mornings.

...continue reading "Travelling in Amsterdam"

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By tanvibanerjee

In grade school, I had to memorize a poem. I don’t remember much of it but this one line, “As gardens grow with flowers English grows with words.” In Singapore, its diverse and multi-lingual population has made its own contributions to the English language. Thus, creating “ Singlish.”

In my previous blog posts, I have talked a lot about the prevalence of Singaporean English or “Singlish” amongst the local population. While exposure to Singlish has allowed me to learn some Malay, Tamil and Mandarin words, Singlish has also thrown some curveballs at me. As such, I have misunderstood a lot of people, which in turn has led to some rather unexpected outcomes!

MISUNDERSTANDING NUMBER 1: It’s not all about ME.

For the longest time, whenever someone said, “I like me” or “me good lah” I thought that people were talking about themselves. While I was really excited about the self-love and positivity that some of my local friends displayed, I couldn’t understand the context in which they used the sentence.

A few weeks ago, I found myself eating home-cooked noodles prepared by my family friends’ elderly mother. As aunty (the term by which older ladies are often referred to in Singapore) served us the dinner, she pointed at her granddaughter and said, “She like me.”

...continue reading "“She likes Mee” and Other Things That I Misunderstood in Singapore"

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By shellytakessingapore

"We're finally here!" my friends and I said as we sighed with relief and disembarked from the train. The ride from Ninh Binh to Hue, the third destination on our trip in Vietnam, was a gruesome 14 hours long. After setting our belongings down in the hotel and freshening up, we went out to explore the Imperial City of Hue. Located in the central portion of Vietnam, Hue was home to the Nguyen emperors and briefly the capital of the country. My friends and I walked along the busy streets to the Citadel, a declared UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was amazing to roam the same hallways that emperors from the past. Hue also has dozens of charming coffee shops and restaurants that serve dishes from all around the world including American, French, and Italian. One of my best meals in Vietnam was a curry chicken and rice dish during a friend's birthday celebration dinner in Hue. Unfortunately, our visit in Hue lasted for a day as we had a bus ride to Mui Ne the next morning.

Apparently my friends and I really enjoy sitting in the same space for dozens of hours because after spending 14 hours in a train to Hue, we embarked on a 23 hour journey in a bus to Mui Ne. To keep ourselves busy we played card games, took multiple naps, and told each other scary stories in the night. Luckily, we were in a sleeper bus which meant that the seats reclined almost all the way down. Along the journey, we stopped at a city called Da Nang around 5am and had to switch buses. However, the second bus took over two hours to arrive which meant I saw the sun rise as I waited. The wait was not too horrible as I discovered we were one street away from the beach and saw the sun rise from there. Eventually, we reached Mui Ne and found our lodging consisted of several huts that had mattresses on the floor. Unlike the other destinations in Vietnam, Mui Ne has a unique geography. It consists of both beaches conducive to fishing and sand dunes similar to those found in a desert. Often times, Airbnbs in Vietnam will either provide tours for guests; we took a three hour tour through several different attractions. The first place we went to on our tour was the Fairy Stream, a light stream of water that flows through the sand dunes. The second location we went to was the fishing village where we saw the boats from the edge of a cliff that overlooked the South China Sea. The last two locations were white and red sand dunes where my friends and I rode a jeep up and down the steep dunes. We also rented plastic boards to slide down the dunes.

...continue reading "Recess Week! (Part 2)"

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By maxleo43

When talking to other people living in Shanghai, I frequently get asked if I like the city so far. This is an easy question to answer. Shanghai is amazing. It has a few flaws, but those are significantly outweighed by its amazing amount of culture, social scene and landmarks. I want to showcase a few of the things that I have found in this city so far, which perfectly illustrates what Shanghai has to offer.

  • Langxiao Jiutian: There are a ton of great restaurants within a ten-minute walk of where we live. This place definitely takes the prize for best meal. They roast whole lamb legs outside on a charcoal grill. You simply order a leg and then pay by the weight. They then bring it to your table and carve it in front of you. This has been one of the best meals I’ve had so far, and it comes at a great value, about $12 per person.
  • Yuyuan Gardens: These gardens provide a lively refuge in the middle of a busy city. It was mostly destroyed during the first opium war but was rebuilt in the 1960’s by the Chinese government. The garden can be very busy, but it features traditional Chinese architecture and a wide variety of different plants. It is a great way to step back in time while staying in the middle of downtown Shanghai. I went with the other students in the Global Bachelors program and we were all surprised by its beauty.

 

  • Epicure on 45: This restaurant is on the 45th floor of the Radisson Blu hotel, and has panoramic views of the whole city. While the menu is pricey, the views of the city are incredible, and it’s a much quieter atmosphere than some of the other viewing platforms in the city.

  • Starbucks Roastery: This is the largest Starbucks in the world, and they roast all of the beans in house. It is over 30,000 square feet and just opened last year. I personally don’t like the atmosphere of most Starbucks locations, but this one was very well decorated and just chill. The music was solid, and it is definitely a place I would consider going to do work. They also bake fresh bread and have a completely different menu.

  • French Concession: This is a very broad one, as the French concession is a very wide area that includes many of the top restaurants and bars in Shanghai. It is very popular among expats. The one thing that sometimes gets overlooked though, is the art. I was walking down a side street the other day and found an alley that was completely covered in murals. At the end of the street was a baby blue loveseat with a Michelangelo bust on it. It was one of the coolest things and could have been easily overlooked.

  • The Tipsy Fiddler: This is an Irish restaurant I went to for St. Patrick’s Day. They were showing the Ireland-England Rugby game and had a live band playing traditional Celtic music. It was a great environment and I met so many interesting people. Shanghai is full of people who are doing big things and so anytime I go anywhere, I like to talk to the people around me. I met a group of students from NYU Shanghai, another group from Fordham, and a woman who was in Shanghai for four days as a consultant for Deloitte. Overall, a very interesting group of people and a great way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.

I hope that this can show at least some of the variety that Shanghai has to offer. It’s a great city for everyone because it truly allows for as much cultural immersion as you are comfortable with. They sell western food everywhere, and you can easily go to establishments that are full of foreigners. At the same time, it’s also very easy to immerse yourself in Chinese, Taiwanese, and Korean culture, which is what makes this city so special.

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For everyone who understands the reference in this title I commend you and hope that you will forever remember these lyrics. This upcoming Tuesday the 20th marks the third week I have been able to call myself a resident of Germany’s Green City - Freiburg. While it feels as if I have been living here for nearly ages, each week the city throws me a pleasant surprise and this week it was snow. Part of the reason Freiburg is able to be so eco-friendly is due to its geographical location on the globe as the Baden-Wurtemburg region obtains the most sunshine per year out of every other region in Germany. This allows for an abundance of solar farms and a heavy reliance on solar power. It is due to this fact that the snow seldom sticks to the ground; however, this week the streets were packed to the brim with freshly fallen snow.

On Saturday, I rushed to the Black Forest to ski and see just what inspired the Grimm brothers to write their fairy tales. If you are particularly interested in skiing or snow-shoeing, I would recommend going to Feldberg Mountain, which is just outside Titisee and about an hour away from Freiburg city center. It is rather easy to commute there as the RVF (Freiburg’s public transportation system) goes straight to Titisee and then you simply have to take the 7300 bus to Feldberg. All in all it is about an hours worth of transport to spend upwards of 7 hours enjoying the ever crisp, clear snow and seemingly endless forests. The ski resort is situated in a rather small town where nearly everyone knows your name. (For example, I made the trek the weekend prior and they still remembered me and gave me a discount). The mountain has a wide range of runs including race courses, which was fascinating to watch local athletes compete. While at Feldberg you cannot help but just admire the sheer beauty and magnificence of the land and its immense power. Every moment spent in the Black Forest during the winter feels like Christmas morning. Pictures simply cannot due it justice, so you will just have to go see for yourself for I cannot include one. Typically you can see the Swiss-Alps from the top of Feldberg at Seebuck, which is 1,450 meters in elevation. Unfortunately it was rather foggy that day, but I have previously seen the Swiss-Alps and they are quite a landscape to awe at.

On Sunday, I woke up to a winter wonderland outside my room and immediately threw on my coat and sprinted to city center to capture the scenery with my camera. Freiburg’s historic and main church The Munster holds services in German every Sunday morning and rings in the hour with the chiming of the bells. I could hear these bells from about 500 meters away and I must say it was a phenomenal way to begin my morning. I then walked around town and grabbed a cup of coffee, which in fact I was able to ask for entirely in German. I was rather impressed with myself and truly just relished the fact that I have the opportunity to live in Germany for even just a short moment in time. This upcoming week marks the end of my introductory German and the beginning of my actual classes, which I am rather excited to start. More updates to come, but for now I shall continue to enjoy the snow!

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By Marissa Kirshenbaum

Life abroad is all about adjusting your mindset. You are in a weird place, knowing more than the tourist yet always less than the local. You look like you belong there, and people don't doubt it until you open your mouth, but you cannot associate with the vacationers. You are caught in between two different mindsets, and sometimes you can't even notice it until something interrupts the constant flow.

For me, this is what happened over Spring Break when my boyfriend came to visit. His French vocabulary comprised one word, "bonjour", and only recently grew to include "merci" and "s'il vous plaît": he is a raw American, a type that I have not interacted with that often since my time living in Paris. Over the course of the week, he brought things up to my attention that I had never noticed before about the city: he just saw things differently. He noticed the bilingual ads in the metro, the cafe seats facing the street, and the rapid weather changes. He compared the city to its American counterparts: New York, D.C., and Boston, using descriptions that I had never thought of before. Growing up learning about French culture through my nine years of language education, I had grown used to the differences that he noticed so blatantly. He allowed me to change my mindset around the city a little bit to an identity that is more familiar to me. For the first time, I saw Paris as an exploring American rather than an impersonating Parisian.

Perhaps the biggest mindset change happened when my host parents invited us over for dinner. Seeing as my boyfriend does not speak French and my host family does not speak English, I became the designated translator. Over the past month and a half, I have gotten so used to my way of living in my homestay. On the first day, I was so overwhelmed with the idea that I would not be able to speak at all in my native tongue to any of the members of the host family, but at this point it came as second nature. To have to change my mindset, my actual language and thought process when conversing with my boyfriend and with my host family was a strange yet eye-opening experience.

...continue reading "Switching Gears"

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By eevenden

Halló allir!

It’s Sunday again, almost time for Easter break! I have one more full week before I head to the U.K. to visit my Grandma. Before that though, I have a final project and two exams to get through!

This week, I spent a lot of time copying lectures I missed while Evan was here… but I was saved on Thursday night when my friend from GW, Katie, arrived for the weekend! Katie was visiting London this week for spring break and spent the last two days with me here in Reykjavik! Since Katie had such a short time here in Iceland, it was a bit difficult to decide what to do, but we managed! I’ll give a brief description and some photos of what we did over the last two days.

Friday (March 16th)

Katie arrived on Thursday night/Friday morning at 1 a.m. Though I am sure she was hoping for some rest, I would not allow that. The same morning, we got up at 6:30am to go on a field trip for my Volcanology class around the Reykjanes Peninsula. The field trip itself was a free, optional guided-tour by my professor to look at different lava formations outside of Reykjavik. Since it was optional, I figured there would be some extra seats on the bus. And since the trip was for a lecture of 60 people, I wasn’t worried about the professor recognizing a new face. We left the university around 9 a.m. (no attendance taken, so Katie just got on the bus no problem). The primary purpose of the trip was to learn to identify A’a and Pahoehoe formations. A’a and Pahoehoe are two types of non-explosive lava flows. A’a refers to faster moving lava which, when cooled, leaves lots of rubble. Pahoehoe on the other hand are slower lava flows which have very smooth surfaces when they cool.

One of our first stops was the “Bridge Between Two Continents”, a bridge built across an inactive section of the tectonic rift, seen below. While here, we were examining the layering of the cooled rock and discussing how you can distinguish different types of eruptions and their chronology based on the leftover geology.

Taken from the “Bridge Between Two Continents”

...continue reading "Exploring Some Rocks"

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By sheldonwongg

Studying in Nepal is not exactly your traditional study abroad experience. From the transportation, to the customs, to the everyday nuances, you'll find differences from every angle. However, I could not be more grateful to be studying in Kathmandu. In so many ways, I have begun to understand the ways in which the world operates and dismantle the associations I have instilled in myself. I think one of the biggest surprises I've encountered since coming to Nepal was just how wrong my preconceived notions of Nepal and Tibet were. Like most people, I thought Tibetans floated on air and didn't have the capacity to get mad at people. However, they are human, just like any other group. It sounds silly looking back in hindsight, but these stereotypes are ingrained in us and it takes a lot of reflect to fully understand how deeply embedded our ideas of the world are. The greatest form of learning I've done here in Nepal is unlearning. Unlearning what it means to be part of a global society, to associate two things together, to question the purpose of systematic belief.

 

One of the most humbling moments of this trip was hearing Tibetans thanking us for coming to study Tibetan and calling us courageous for being able to leave our country and travel to a place like Nepal and India. It really hit hard to realize how incredibly lucky I am to be able to travel and see life like this, but also have the comfort of knowing that it is temporary and that life as it is right now is only a point in time; a fleeting moment before I move on. I am constantly reminding myself that because of pure luck, I'm in this position and because of luck, they are in that position. I think one of the conversations I had with a member of my homestay sums it up pretty well. He said: Take what you learned here and don't forget about us [Tibetans], but when you go home, you have a place to stay, food to eat. All you have to do is be a good person.

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By Nora_Wolcott

As a Molecular Biology major at GW, I’m accustomed to spending long hours in the lab. Here, my friends in the UofA School of Science were shocked to learn this, as their system is quite different. Instead of having lab sections for each course, there are fieldtrips that take you to different exotic island locations to conduct scientific research. When I initially found out about this program I was less than thrilled, as it cuts into travel time I could’ve otherwise planned myself, an annoyance that has not fully dissipated. However, I have learned that there are several large perks to being an exchange student on these scientific field trips. The University pays for our transportation and lodging, a huge plus for a semi-broke college student trying to travel across this large island. In addition to this, they take me to locations I may have otherwise overlooked, as they are not always those advertised on TripAdvisor and similar travel sites. My weekend trip to Wenderholm State Park was an excellent example of this phenomenon.

I went on the Wenderholm trip for my General Ecology class, a course slightly outside of my usual scientific interests, so I was fairly skeptical about the trip. However, when we got to the location it was absolutely stunning. In order to reach the terrestrial ecology station we had to take an hour-long hike up a mountain, and though I consider myself fairly in-shape, by the time we got to the top I was panting like a dog. The view from the top was spectacular, all sheer cliffs and rocky islands stretching along the coast. Later in the day we made the trek back down to the beach to do some marine sampling. Under the shadow of a clay-streaked cliff we spent hours surveying periwinkle species on the shore. Towards the end of the day the wind began to pick up, and we were completely unsheltered on the beach, so I can’t say I was reluctant to leave; but all in all it was a great day, and I’d take it over 4 hours in an Orgo lab any day.

This was not my first field trip, and it won’t be the last. A couple weeks ago I made a weekend trip to Goat Island for Marine Ecology, and in mid-April I will take a longer 4 night trip to Whangeri. The Goat Island lab was fairly rigorous, but also a beautiful free trip to a location I may not have otherwise been able to rent a car to see. My mid-semester trip to Whangeri is also an exciting landmark for me, as I don’t know if I would’ve been able to stop back at this location in the 3 months I have left. Ultimately I really do enjoy the fieldtrip system, and if I had any sway with GW’s Bio department I would urge them to incorporate such hands-on experience into their curriculum. While there aren’t exactly locations like Goat Island or Wenderholm near DC, I wouldn’t mind taking a trip to Virginia Beach for Genetics, or the forests of Maryland for Developmental.

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