http://www.diversityabroad.com/index.php?option=com_jb2&view=rss description http://www.diversityabroad.com/index.php?option=com_jb2&view=post&PostID=786 I'm not sure how I managed to fit a semester's worth of belongings into half a suitcase, but I managed. Perhaps it's my disconcerting lack of winter wear. I don't know how I lost a bag containing all of my winter jackets, but I suspect it's a combination of me living 1,500 miles away from school, storing belongings in others' apartments, flooding*, and my utter mental disorganization. On top of that, I lost my favorite light jacket somewhere several weeks ago, somewhere in NY or NJ (who knows?). Me + jackets = Ø. Denmark can't be thaaat cold, right? Before I continue rambling, I think I'm required by Diversity Abroad to introduce myself. Hi! I'm Angela. 19/f/USA. Pics or I don't exist? (...I'll do my best to refrain from lame internet jokes/references from now on, but no guarantees.) I'm from Utah.... I divide my time between here and Evanston, IL, where I just finished my sophomore year at Northwestern University, studying Art History and Art Theory & Practice. (Someone please console my Asian parents.) Aaand I leave for Copenhagen in ~30 hours! That should give me enough time to figure out what to do with the empty half of my suitcase...   See you there!   P.S. The lack of food pictures in this post is inexcusable, so here's a picture of some things I ate in Manhattan two weeks ago: (Expect many pictures of food throughout the semester.) *Being from an area where furniture cracks from the dryness, I sometimes forget that rain (...as well as renter's insurance) exists.   http://www.diversityabroad.com/index.php?option=com_jb2&view=post&PostID=801  Man, I need to get better at this timely blogging thing. DA e-mailed me to suggest 1-2 posts per week, which means that I am 3-4 posts behind. Whoops! (Don't be fooled by the date on my first post. It was actually posted on AUGUST 20th and merely edited today because I spotted a typo!) So. DENMARK. Yes, I am the person who neglects to bring any rain wear, only to be greeted by day after day of rainfall and overcast skies. I'm not one for grey weather, but the payoff came last week, after a delightfully hyggelig dinner at a Copenhagen cafe with my Danish class. Walking out of the cafe, we were greeted by a double rainbow over the water -- absolutely stunning.   The last few days have been cool but sunny, and I am reveling in the light before the Scandinavian fall/winter come on and I turn into a pale, frigid . (I've gone to school in Chicago for two years, and I still, somehow, SUCK I'm living with a host family (which means I come home to lovely home-cooked meals every day!) in Ølstykke, about an hour's commute from school in Central Copenhagen. I have class at 8:30 every day but Wednesday, which means I'm getting up at 6:30 most mornings to shower, eat, and cram in a few minutes of Skype before I run to catch the train. Most people who know me would declare this utter insanity. I haven't risen at 6:30 on a regular basis since high school! My earliest classes ever at Northwestern have been at 9 AM--- and I can get away with [painfully] getting up at 8:30 then. Needless to say, I am not a morning person. But! This semester, my life is thrown off. I now get to wake up to see the sunrise rather than stay up to see the sunrise. I am kicking (or rather, attempting to kick) my ice cream-and-cookies-for-breakfast habit that dominated my summer. And I'm  half a world away from home, in unfamiliar territory. So far, so good. I'm sick (worst immune system everrrrr), and I miss my friends and my parents' cooking, but Copenhagen is charming. So far I've: Gone to classes (7! because I am apparently mildly insane), eaten too much food, checked out the Danish National Gallery several times, been in the Royal Library, gotten lost, learned how to successfully follow maps, stopped getting lost (for the most part), strolled through the red light district, chillaxed at a Danish hipster street party, discovered what a pissoir is, had a 3 am train station chat with a Senegalese dude regarding Chinese business in Africa (these things happen, I suppose), sipped hot chocolate in Tivoli, been brutally attacked by mosquitoes (word of advice: the next time you're in a swampy forest, wear pants), baked nutella & strawberry stuffed cookies (mouthwateringly delicious, IMHO), watched the changing of the guards at the Royal Palace, drooled over many a pastry, and more. Looking forward to getting to know the city better in coming weeks! http://www.diversityabroad.com/index.php?option=com_jb2&view=post&PostID=804  I JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND GIRLS THEY FIRST SHOW THAT THEY LIKE YOU BUT  THEN THEY COMPLETELY DESTROY YOU BY ARGUING WITH YOU. IF ANYONE CAN UNDERSTAND THEM PLEASE SHARE IT WITH ME. http://www.diversityabroad.com/index.php?option=com_jb2&view=post&PostID=799  Hey All, So today marks the one week anniversary of my arrival in Prague! I wish I could say that everything has been picture perfect since my arrival in Prague, but it hasn't. The other night, reality really hit. Although, I'm in a fantastic new place full of amazing things and amazing people - I can't allow myself to become wreckless. The other night, I wasn't thinking and I let things spiral out of control. I'll not going to go into complete details of what happened the other night, but I will say a little bit of what happened as a warning.  The other night, a bunch of kids in my program got together and celebrated at a local (and highly sketchy) bar near Osadni. One thing led to another and we ended up in a local club called Mecca. At the end of the night, I left with two other girls, whom I thought were going to the same place I was going to... but they weren't. I ended up in Staroměstské Náměstí (Old Town Square) alone and not in the right state of mind. I wondered about until I found the Metro, which was already closed down for the evening. Then I stupidly hailed a cab. Piece of advice: NEVER EVER HAIL A CAB IN PRAGUE.  I hailed a cab. At this point I just wanted to go home and sleep. The cab driver drove me all about the city until finally driving me home. We stopped in front of my dorm and he told me he the total price was 900 Kc, which is a ridiculous price for what should have been a 5 minute cab ride. I stupidly paid despite knowing that it was wrong to pay such a high price. NYU had repeatedly told us to use these little yellow emergency cards they handed out. On the cards they had safe taxi services printed with their phone numbers. They told us over and over to always call a taxi, but in my state of mind, did not think to do so and I got ripped off hardcore.  After the fact, there is nothing I can do. To make up for the money I lost, I have been staying in for the past couple nights. Money for me is always tight and this little trip up really set me back. (900 Kc is about $45) I have to take full responsibility for my poor judgement. But the reason I am blogging this embarrassing story is so you all can learn from it.  Don't let things get so out of control that your can't make proper choices. NEVER allow yourself to end up alone at night. Always have a buddy with you. I'm glad I made it home safe, but it was quite a high price to pay. On better note - I am going to see the Czech Philharmonic tonight! Should be a blast! -Justi http://www.diversityabroad.com/index.php?option=com_jb2&view=post&PostID=800 September 4th, 2010:   Morning:  Woke up at 8:30 and chilled in bed for a while and read a book.  Went downstairs at 10 to meet with the group for our Scavenger Hunt around Beijing.  My group was #4 with Alex, Namgyel, Jimmy, and Ryan.  We piddled around BLCU campus for about an hour and attempted to use our Chinese to find certain restaurants, famous places, and people; we kinda failed.  Luckily though, we met these three Chinese friends at the Muslim restaurant/chuan stand (In Beijing, the Uighur minority is famous for their lamb kebobs or “chuanr”.  We then spent the next three hours in Wudaokou with Jeff and his two friends who helped us write things in Chinese.    Afternoon: We all went to lunch at this Sichuan-style restaurant.  The food was HOT!!! Everything we ordered came in a blood-red chile sauce.  It was pretty good though. I got up the courage to eat duck’s blood and frog (which tastes like chicken—seriously).   Then, we grabbed a taxi to the Old Summer Palace about 15 minutes away from Wudaokou.  We totally kicked ass at the scavenger hunt. Evening: We got to the Old Summer Palace around 4ish and spent the next two hours walking around in the most beautiful place I have ever been in.  There was a lake, paddle boats, old-style brick walls and the most beautiful, colorful architecture I have ever seen.  I am totally in love with old-style Chinese architecture.  The whole time too, I was walking around with Namgyel (who used to be a Buddhist monk as a teenager) and he was telling me about his life when he was younger and how he had to readapt to living in “modern society” at 22 years old.  Totally cool.  After, our whole group performed tongue-twisters and skits in Chinese.  Apparently, it is possible to play a leaf like an instrument.  Namgyel came up with skill out of nowhere and played the “Happy Birthday” tune in Chinese while Jimmy, Alex, Ryan, and I sang in Chinese.  We ended up winning the scavenger hunt and got a 200 kuai gift certificate to a Wunan restaurant. http://www.diversityabroad.com/index.php?option=com_jb2&view=post&PostID=797  Greetings from Praha!    I have been in Prague now for almost a week now! That's hard for me to believe! This past week has been absolutely amazing! It is really beyond words. I had heard that Prague was beautiful but to be here and experience it, calling it beautiful doesn't do it justice. It really is like a fairy tale city. I have been taking daily Czech lessons through NYU and I'm really picking up on the language fast. However, it is a very tough language to master, but I can get around, order food, and make basic small conversation. I hope that by the end of the semester I can speak it semi-fluently.  Navigating Prague has been a bit of a challenge. I have been learning the metro system bit by bit. The most challenging part of navigating Prague is learning the streets. In Manhattan, everything is a grid so getting from place to place is rather simple. But Prague is a labyrinth of small cobble stone ally ways and streets that shoot out in all different directions. I've gotten lost quite a bit, but that's good! Getting lost is the best way to learn your way, in my opinion.  Another exciting part of Czech culture is the night life. There are a lot of kids that go out every night and party it up. Personally, I grow tired of partying easily, but it is still fun to grab a pivo (beer) at dinner. It is true that pivo is cheaper than water. Sad but true!  I'm going to go study my Czech. I'll write again later this week. :)   -Justin http://www.diversityabroad.com/index.php?option=com_jb2&view=post&PostID=795 Wow, I can't believe I'm in Japan! I arrived at the Narita airport at around 3:15 pm Tokyo time. Going through customs was actually pretty easy, although they insisted on taking my picture and fingerprints. I found some IES Abroad volunteers waiting for me as soon as I got through customs. Among them was my Japanese epal, who I had been in contact with throughout the summer. We became fast friends, and I feel pretty proud of myself that I only spoke to her in Japanese! I wish I had studied Japanese more over the summer, but it's coming back to me pretty quick. Hopefully I'll have more mastery before I take the language class placements exams next week... There are huge malls all around the area. Yes, I mean MALLS the plural form. There are towering skyscrapers completely surrounding the hotel, and each one is entirely dedicated to shopping. So many escalators... In terms of prices, I have very mixed feelings. The fact that a dollar is only worth 80 yen does not help. Keeping that in mind, I've found that food, manga, anime, music, and magazines are unbelievably cheap. 7-11 is now my favorite place ever. They have super cheap packaged Japanese food, like buns, bento, and onigiri. Two things that I've found to be very expensive so far however have been the arcade and the train. Most games at the arcade are 100 yen per go ($1.25!) and train tickets can be more than $15 dollars. Jet lag has not been fun. The first night I went to sleep at 9 pm and woke up at 3 am and last night I passed out at 10 pm and woke up at 4 am. At least I'm getting better though! I'm hoping to try to stay awake until at least 11 tonight. Jet lag was especially a problem last night, when my friends convinced me to join them in taking a train from here (Makuhari) to Tokyo at 6 pm. By 8 pm I thought my legs were going to collapse from under me! I had to find my way back without the help of those who actually kind of knew what they were doing . The Tokyo subway system is rediculously complicated, so I got pretty lost. Overall though, so far this country is all I imagined it to be and more... http://www.diversityabroad.com/index.php?option=com_jb2&view=post&PostID=796 Craziness for all. Beijing is totally awesome!!! The first few days I was here were spent doing group outings and having lots of meetings about classes. Friday, though, was a pretty exciting day. Our group went to the very center of Beijing and went through Tiananmen Square. The architecture is very beautiful and I had my first blueberry ice cream bar. Blueberry flavored things are very popular here. I would highly recommend blueberry iced tea. Then, we saw an amateur acrobatics show. Kudos to the people who have the skills to carry twelve people on a bicycle. The hardest part so far has been the language barrier. My Chinese skills definitely aren't good enough to carry on a proper conversation; so, for the first time in my life, I am struggling with inadequate speaking abilities. It's definitely frustrating because I'm always the person with flawless grammar who finds the SAT reading portion easy. All the people here are super nice and it's awesome to be around all the international students in my dormitory. In our dorm, Chinese is the universal language, not English. So, communication is amusing. I highly recommend to anyone who comes to Beijing to eat lots of chocolate fish. Best things ever. http://www.diversityabroad.com/index.php?option=com_jb2&view=post&PostID=794 helloHELLO! so after a few EXHAUSTING days and terrible jet-laggness, I'M settled and prepping for classes at Hong Kong U tomorrow. Culture-shock: not yet primarily because i've been sleeping half the day and then organizing my academics and registration fees. I arrived last thursday in the evening where my awesome "exchange buddy" greeted another student and I at the airport and then took us back to the university on Hong Kong Island. Since then i've had international orientation and then running around day-after-day to get into my classes, visiting different departments to get approval. The add-drop period begins tomorrow morning and I'm finally feeling less tired and near normal. This is just a quick update as have yet to really settle in; once classes begin and I figure out what i'm taking, and when/where i have to be i will entail a much more detailed post with pictures of my room (and stunning view) and experiences thus far. In a nutshell, this place is a CIRCUS. it's nuts and the humidity is KILLER. Until next week, cheers   DanO http://www.diversityabroad.com/index.php?option=com_jb2&view=post&PostID=793 Well now im in week 6 of classes - week 8 of living abroad and I there are a couple things I find myself missing from America (aside from family/friends and my puppy). Bagels - yes there are bagels in Newcastle (very few and only a one of the grocery stores - but they are packaged and normally there is only one bag left on the shelf). We plan on taking a trip to Sydney and Melbourne to get some fresh bagels in the near future. Bacon - yes they have bacon - but its more like canadian bacon or fried ham....and we all know how much I love ham.......  American Sit-coms - the australian written shows are crap (to put it nicely).  For the little TV we do watch, we play American shows downloaded off the internet or replay seasons that are on TV. Mayo, Caesar, Twix, and wheat bread - All of these products are found in Newcastle; however, the mayo and caesar is incredibly sweet, the Twix tastes nothing like the Twix from home and wheat bread is just MIA. Being able to drive- I feel like a pain in my housemates ...rear ends... always hitching a ride.  That and I have not been shopping for clothing since I have been here. ONE DOLLAR BILLS! I hate change and both the $1 AUD and $2 AUD are tiny gold coins...useless... I tend to lose them like I would lose penny's in the states. Drip Coffee - Coffee pots here are few and far between.  Even coffee shops avoid brewing pots of coffee.  Instead they use espresso machines and Batista equipment.  So instead I drink $3.30 Long black espresso or cheep/gross instant coffee. Well thats all I can think of at the present time. I also had a nice little encounter with the varmint Magpie birds today.  As I was walking along to class, crap instant coffee and toast in hand I was accosted by this little fella...   Photo from He stared at me for a long hard minute...and started hopping along with me, not taking his beady eyes off my toast. (hmmm this reminds me of NJ seagulls....just a little scary looking).  Without hesitation I finish off most of the toast, and quickly throw the crust at Mr Magpie to avoid confrontation (I hear they can be vicious, and look at that beak...). In general bird here are numerous. Photo from... These little guys are everywhere....they love to hide in the bushes and will watch you walk by to class.  Sometimes they like to fly out and scare the crap out of you as well.   Photo From... Then of course is the ever popular Kookaburra.  They are really neat looking and they just kinda sit in the trees until dusk/dawn when you hear them fighting and carrying on. Even though we get to see all these fascinating creatures, somehow it all feels surreal - like we never left America.  Anyways we are approaching the 1/2 way mark of my trip (time is flying).