Now that I am back at home in North Carolina in self-isolation for 14 days, I have plenty of time to reflect on the fragment of my Spring semester I was able to have in the midst of the rise of the Covid-19 virus. Here is my coronavirus story that stretches from January to March, and takes place across Vietnam,
Just about a week after landing in Australia and settling into Byron Bay, three of my classmates and I booked our flights to Sydney. There was no way that we were going to spend a semester in Australia without visiting the iconic city. Here is a break down of the absolutely lovely weekend that I spent there along with some
Just two weeks into our semester in Australia, we traveled as a group to the trendy, southern city of Melbourne. We spent four days there visiting museums, meeting with local organizations and activists, and wandering around the city’s art-lined lanes and eating delicious food in our free time. Here are some of the highlights of our time in the city:
In the midst of all the uncertainty about the coronavirus and the future of our semester, we had the opportunity to celebrate the Lunar New Year with local Taiwanese families in Yilan County, Taiwan. We spent three days staying with our host families and participating in and learning about all of their traditions. It was truly a highlight of my
If things went as planned, this would be a preview of my semester in Hangzhou, China. But, crazy things happen and plans have to change. In this case, the crazy thing that is happening is the coronavirus, the pandemic causing a lot of global panic and causing China to essentially be put on lockdown. About a week into my semester,
Oh, Beijing. I visited the capital city of China back in 2012, and looked upon it with the eyes of a 13-year-old that had never traveled outside of the United States. Last week, I returned to Beijing with LIU Global for a week. There, we visited the typical tourist spots, visited international organizations, and listened to lectures from local professors.
This past Friday my classmates and I ventured to Wuzhen, a water town located between Shanghai and Hangzhou. When we arrived in Hangzhou in August, I began researching nearby places we could travel to in our free time, and I read a lot about the gorgeous water towns dotted throughout China. This blog post about nearby Wuzhen and all of
This past week took us one hour by bullet train from our “small” city of Hangzhou to the sprawling metropolis of 24.4 million people that is Shanghai, China. I visited Shanghai back in 2012 at the age of 13 as part of a school group – the trip to China was my very first time out of the country, and
Each year on the 15th day of the 8th lunar calendar, people in China and several other people celebrate what is known as the Mid-Autumn Festival. Origins are believed to date back to China’s Shang dynasty (1600-1046 BCE), and involved giving thanks to the moon and celebrating the harvest. Today’s modern celebration also includes celebrating the moon as the holiday
A Guide to Florence’s Must-See Sights: Museums, Galleries, and Churches Florence, arguably one of the world’s greatest epicenters of art and culture, is a hotspot for millions of tourists every year. Visitors unsurprisingly flock to the capital of Tuscany for delicious Italian cuisine, picturesque streets, and its abundance of famous art. UNESCO reports that 60% of the world’s most important