Hey everyone, So 31 hours after leaving my house, I finally made it to my apartment on Thursday afternoon. Three planes and one very long bus ride, it was definitely the longest amount of straight traveling that I've ever done at once, and I was so glad once I actually arrived. On the way here, the questions what have you done? What are you thinking? What is wrong with you? You REALLY don't speak Korean, why didn't you just go to China? Then you would at least be able to get around. Crossed my mind no fewer than 20 times each. While I was still in China and the US, coming to Korea was just this vague adventure. And I honestly do still believe that “challenge” and “culture shock” are just synonyms of “adventure.” But once ... read more

Hey everyone, So I’ve officially made it back to the US! However, before I go more into final thoughts about the experience and into detail on what my next plans are, I want to take this moment to spend some time considering an experience I had that left an impression. One of the things that I was really excited to do while I was in Xi’an that I had not gotten a chance to do while in Japan, Korea, or China on my last trip was to visit a cat cafe. Although I heard that California just opened its first one a year or so ago, they’ve been quite popular in East Asia for some time now. There are tons of pictures and images on the internet from people who have been to these cat cafes, ... read more

Hey everyone! Wow it’s been a while. And the crazy part is that it’s been so long simply because I’ve been so incredibly busy; I haven’t even gotten to sleep in once in the last three weeks or so. My adventures started with a three-day program-organized culture trip to two different villages and a mountain. The first village was an agricultural village, and students were split into groups in order to experience firsthand some of the various agricultural practices. Some of us picked peaches and plums, some took care of the farm animals, such as donkeys and rabbits, some learned about the traditional forms of fieldwork, and some of us picked vegetables for dumplings. After making said dumplings and eating simple traditional Chinese dishes for lunch, we played some traditional games to finish out the day. ... read more

Hey everyone! 好久不見！(hǎojiǔ bùjiàn — long time no see!) Well, it’s been a couple of years since I studied abroad, and I’ve officially graduated from college. I’m a real person now! Actually, I’m not sure how I feel about that part. Like a real person job? Yikes. For that reason, I’m planning on taking a year or two to teach English (hopefully in South Korea). I still don’t have a job, but hopefully that will change in the next month or so. Anyways, as many of you already know, I am currently in Xi’an, China, on an intensive study abroad program. I am studying through the Critical Language Scholarship, which is funded by the US Department of State*. I arrived in Xi’an last Friday, and have now officially completed my first week of classes. In addition, ... read more

Hey everyone! My last post for IES Abroad has been posted: https://www.iesabroad.org/study-abroad/blogs/kmcgeepugetsoundedu/home-again-home-again I am back in the US for the foreseeable future! As such, I plan to write one more post on here sometime this week, so keep an eye out for that! Until next time!... read more