After a long week with very little sleep I've finally finished my first week of Arabic classes. The school and the classes are very much like I expected and I feel like I'm getting more and more comfortable with the language. I haven't been overwhelmed by the course so far at all but I am quite a bit behind everyone else in the class. I'm the only student in the A2 (Beginner 2) Arabic before that hasn't taken an Arabic course before so my vocabulary is not up to their level in Classical Arabic (MSA). The good thing is that Laila has been helping me with colloquial Arabic since March so I actually got bumped up a level in the spoken Arabic class. I think after the first 2 weeks I will have improved my vocabulary ... read more

On the drive into Amman from the airport I hear calls to prayer from a nearby mosque and I know for sure "I'm not in Kansas anymore." After about 21 hours of travel I’ve finally reached the Middle East for the first time! So many memories of China are flooding back and my mind is racing making comparisons to my trip there and my home in the United States. Germany and Europe were a different experience, but Asia has to be the most unique continent, given that it’s the biggest and is home to so many different ethnicities. This is my first time in a predominantly Muslim country as well, so I have a lot of new things to see and culture to learn about. I’m in the Middle East until mid August to study Arabic ... read more

It's been a year since my last blog, mostly because I haven't been traveling! I've been studying International Relations at a university in Atlanta and haven't had time to leave the country. Life's brought a lot of new experiences in the last year, but none that take me abroad: until now. In about a week I'm headed to Jordan for 2 months to study Arabic, so expect more blogs! In Atlanta I did a bit of sightseeing, but studying has taken up a lot of my time. Atlanta is a huge change from what I’m used to, especially in terms of size; even Munich wasn’t so big. With the exception of NYC, I’m not used to sightseeing in the US, but I have been to a few of Atlanta’s major tourist attractions. They have the biggest ... read more

This weekend I flew to Cincinnati, Ohio to see my dad's side of the family. I hadn't seen any of them since I had been back from Germany so I was really excited and I'm glad the weekend went well. We did a lot. On one rainy day we went to the Cincinnati Museums, which are now located in the old Cincinnati train station. We went for the special Cleopatra Exhibition, which is only in 5 cities in the US! Cinci is the smallest of the cities where it's being held. It was a really fantastic exhibit. I had been to an exhibit like it here a few years ago about the Titanic and they were both very entertaining and educational. We were given audio guides and the freedom to walk through the exhibit at our ... read more

We started our third day in New York in the Financial District near Wall Street. We got off the subway and saw the Trinity Church, a small church jammed into a small square of real estate, with towering skyscrapers above. We walked down past Wall Street to see the Charging Bull sculpture first. It's featured in one of my favorite movies, "Hitch". It's a more popular attraction than I thought; there were tons of tourists there getting their picture with the bull. We walked back to Wall Street and right down past the New York Stock Exchange. It felt weird being out on the calm, quiet street knowing that it was complete chaos inside with people selling and buying. Security is really tight inside and you can't get in as a tourist anymore. Apparently, a while ... read more