A couple weekends ago my classmates and I went to the Temple of Heaven, or Tian Tan. The Temple of Heaven is a beautiful temple complex where the emperor used to go to pray on special holidays. It was built to mark the meeting place between heaven and earth. When we first arrived to Tian […]
Category Archives: Travel
Exploring the Hutongs of Beijing
A couple of weeks ago my classmates and I spent a saturday exploring Beijing hutongs. Hutongs are the remnants of the traditional housing of China. They are alleyways with stone courtyard houses and communal bathrooms. The city of Beijing used to be a city made up of hutongs, but for the sake of urban planning, […]
Walmart in China
That next day after a long morning of orientation, we learned drumroll please who was in what Chinese class!!! The first class (100) contained the very beginners and those who had studied for a semester or two: Tiffany, Seijen, Katora, Will and Hannah. The next class contained people who had studied for roughly three semesters […]
Eating Fried Scorpions
On the third day of orientation we had our language placement test. My language placement test was one of the things I was most worried about coming to China. I had barely even looked at Chinese for the last month and a half! What if I was placed into a lower class, then I would […]
Arriving in China
The day I left for China I had to leave my hostel at 7:15 to get to the airport on time. I needed to be at the airport 2 hours before my flight, the bus to the airport takes an hour and a half and I knew it would take me a good 20 minutes […]
Richelle visits North Korea
… well, close enough to take a picture. My last full day in Korea I woke up super early (6:45) to take a tour of the DMZ (de-militarized zone). I was picked up in a van at my hostel and driven to a bus containing tourists to see the DMZ. There were 4 English speaking […]
Plumpricots and Hannah Montana
Day 3 in Seoul: The next morning I decided to explore Myeongdong. I made my way down the hill of death to the main Myeongdong street. On the other side of that street was the Korean version of an outdoor mall with street vendors, shops, cafes, and tons of people. Now I was dumb and […]
Exploring Downtown Seoul
My second full day in Seoul, I packed up my things and, with the help of Monica, moved into my hostel in Myeongdong. We were smart and made two trips with the luggage this time. The goal was to spend the day wandering downtown Seoul, exploring what the city has to offer. My First Time […]
Cat Cafe and Grapefruit Tea
Wow I’ve been so busy and tired I haven’t been able to post anything! I’m in China now, but so many things happened in Korea I think it’s really important to write some posts about Seoul. My week in Seoul was JAM PACKED so I have to split what happened into different posts. Day 1: […]
Stepping into Seoul
The following is the story of my first time embarking on solo travel away from home. I was about to study abroad in China, but first I was traveling in Seoul for 5 days to meet up with my Korean friend Monica. The Plane to Seoul The plane ride on Korean Air was my first […]
