Michelle Chin

michellegchin

Michelle Chin

As I have had the craziest year in 2012-2013, it continued for a bit in 2014.

For the first year, as many already know, I did have the opportunity to travel to 16 different countries including: Russia, China, India, UK, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Iceland, Ghana, Togo. I did this through 2 different study abroad programs, one with Babson College, called BRIC (Russica, China, and India) and one with CIEE: Ghana- Business Development and Social Entrepreneurship, as well as a 5-week backpacking trip through Western Europe in the winter.

The next out-of-country trip that I took happened during Spring Break 2014, where I had the opportunity to teach entrepreneurship with a Babson Program called Babson Entrepreneurial Leadership Academy (BELA) in Tanzania. This concluded my many adventures with Babson College as I graduate(d) in May (2014).

With a little bit of more time on my hands I hope to be able to share more of the travel insights that I have had in the past, which I have yet to share with everyone, as well as continue to find new ways to explore the world, whether it be for work and/or travel.

I hope that you all will continue to share my posts with family and friends and to know that no matter what happens, life is an ongoing journey of its own.

Please feel free to continue to comment on posts- with questions or suggestions/dares! for me to answer/do.

I hope that all of you enjoy my posts, pictures, and videos, as I share my written journal and memories with you so that you too can see what I have experienced and learned through this crazy adventure that we all call LIFE!

CHEERS!

Ghana- Week 14: The End of These Little Monsters...

Africa » Ghana » Greater Accra » Legon April 19th 2013

IMG_5602

michellegchin

I know, super late, and I'm missing Week 13. To be honest, I don't remember what else happened during the week 14 besides ending my class at Ashesi and my internship. So with that said, here are all of my pictures that I've chosen to share with you all from my internship (a couple are repeats, but they're just so darn adorable that they had to be included in this last post about them)... read more

Ghana- Week 12: Castle on Strikes

Africa » Ghana » Central » Elmina April 12th 2013

KG1 Board

michellegchin

On Tuesday, because I still didn’t have my internship since they had a week of Easter Holiday, I just went onto campus early to try to type up my last blog post…which I failed to do until a week after. But I got to campus to not only find out that I didn’t really have access to internet but that the University Professors just went on strike…meaning that I didn’t even have dance class that evening. Instead I began typing up some documents for my Dance Professor because I can type a lot…faster than a lot faster than the professors and students in the dance department. So I was still put to work and my only thing that I could say once I finished was to have my work count towards my grade in anyway, like ... read more

Ghana- Week 11: International Easter

Africa » Ghana » Greater Accra » Accra April 11th 2013

International Day Dancers

michellegchin

*Just so you know in advance, this isn't the prettiest of blog posts, structurally but…it’s got some pretty awesome content. International Day- Danced and Acted/ Improv So without really knowing until the day of, after getting back from Kumasi, I was going to perform as part of the international Day celebration that was being held at the University by the International Office as well as the Performing Arts Department. So not only did I dance, with some students from my dance class in front of an small but sizable audience, but I also did some acting, or in this case, for me, improv, since I didn’t know what I was really supposed to say until the actual act. JHS1- Quiz I decided to give my English class a quiz, which they dubbed to be a TEST ... read more

Ghana- Week 10: Round 2!

Africa » Ghana » Greater Accra » Legon March 29th 2013

Sena and Me!

michellegchin

Last week was a bore, at the beginning of the week, as I was trying to catch up on my sleep from traveling to Kumasi, the week before. But the boredom did not last too long as my friend, Sena, (who I finally have a picture with!!) had a dance performance at Alliance France. This was on Wednesday evening, so of course, I found my way over to the Alliance France complex to see the beauty in dance and the arts as a whole. I was in a whole new world, (not to steal from Aladdin) when I entered Alliance, the atmosphere was like GIS (the International School that I’ve mentioned before) in the sense that it hid the pollution of the streets of Ghana, and there were so many posh internationals! I was once again, ... read more

Ghana- Week 9: Kumasi Home Stay

Africa » Ghana » Ashanti » Kumasi March 20th 2013

Wall Symbols

michellegchin

I had planned to post this blog right away, on Monday, but I had not realized what 5 days without internet would force me to catch up on many other as important tasks. CIEE, took the nifty nine, well technically now the ____ eight/ the ____ seven, and well, even at times just the ____ six (depending on the situation) to Kumasi (up North). We left at 5:30 am on Thursday morning for a 5 hour bus ride. First, we went to an Asante Traditional home where I got to read up on the history and hear about how the Asante dealt with British influence by keeping their traditions. Afterwards, we went straight to the Palace Museum to get a further tour of the Royal Chiefs and Mother Queens of the Asante Tribe. There were facts ... read more

Ghana- Week 8: Relaxed Celebrations

Africa » Ghana » Greater Accra » Legon March 11th 2013

TK Beads

michellegchin

This past week was a relaxed week due to not going to my internship and having Wednesday, which is normally my full day of classes off because of Ghana's Independence Day holiday. Without doing really anything significant this week it ended up being a great week for my body to decide to get sick. I was sick when I woke up on Monday morning. I had the shivers and was sweating more than I normally do. I had a headache and my stomach hurt. It was definitely not a good day for me. So while thoughts of the possibility of me having Malaria flew through my mind... I just ignored it and tried to tell myself that sleep would cure me. The next day I felt 10 times better, still had a few symptoms but I ... read more

Ghana- Week 7: Zebras, Performances, and Nature?

Africa » Ghana » Greater Accra » Legon March 7th 2013

Clap on Clap off

michellegchin

Firstly, I would like to apologize on how late this post is. I would mention about why I haven't written until now, but then I'd be taking away all of the writing material that I need for next week's post. Therefore, getting straight down to business, this is how my week looked summed up. 1. I saw Zebras... I know, I know, I don't really understand it either... but I did, there were four of them at some "company" that I went to visit on Wednesday. The company, while not really a business yet, but more focused in the R&D side of things was founded by some man who ran for president a few years ago...and whose daughter is now the prime minister something... ?? Overall, to be honest, I'm not quite sure what was going ... read more

Ghana- Week 6: Maame Instincts

Africa » Ghana » Greater Accra » Legon February 25th 2013

Eric

michellegchin

This past week my "Maame (Mommy) Instincts" kicked in and my photography skills (with the help of instagram). As everyone says, pictures say a thousand words... so while I tried to write captions under all of the pictures, use your imagination, because trust me, the week was not only of smiles, there were tears and upset faces all around because that's exactly what all maames see on a daily basis. So I'll just do a quick recap to let you get straight to the photos: 1. I failed at teaching my first English class...structure of the classroom is not the same. While I wanted to me more interactive with the class, I was interrupted by the teacher to just read from the book, word for word...After that first attempt, I just continued to observe from my ... read more

Ghana- Week 5 Continued: For Better or For Worse

Africa » Ghana » Greater Accra » Legon February 18th 2013

Kindergarten Classroom

michellegchin

My internship, which I had stated previously, was what I would be counting down each day until the last, could have been seen as a small part of my stay here, if I were to ignore what was happening and just be in the school environment versus actually living within it. Instead, I have decided to do the adult thing, and take everything I witness at my internship as a learning experience of the Ghanaian culture. So with that decided, my internship with not only be a huge part of my time in Ghana where I will go happily there, well that is after morning assembly (where most of the caning is done in public) but where I can understand the future generation, with not only a business mindset, of consumer mentality, but on the level ... read more

Ghana- Week 5: Culture Shock

Africa » Ghana » Greater Accra » Legon February 13th 2013

The Abandoned Room

michellegchin

My eyes are hallow, empty without the life and happiness that they had just yesterday. My host mother saw me yesterday evening when I returned home and merely said, “I see that you’ve cried, your eyes tell that you have felt pain, what happened?” Having cried for an hour straight earlier in the day, only a few tears were left in my tear ducts as I retold my day, I had not been the one who had to endure physical pain itself, but had been a witness to it, a bystander to what I felt was wrong. With the crack of a stick, I learned that I was powerless. I have been so privileged to be told that “I can do anything that I put my mind to,” “If I can dream it, it can come ... read more

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