China!

After an hour and a half flight from Raleigh, NC to New York, NY, a thirteen hour and thirty-five minute flight to Tokyo, Japan, and a four hour flight to Xiamen, China…I am here! J I have been here for about a day and a half now, but we have all needed this time to get over jet lag and get settled into our rooms. A twelve hour time distance is a lot! Since I am in China, we are a whole twelve hours into the future – but this makes it really easy to figure out what time it is! All you have to do is switch the A.M. and P.M. and you’ve got the time here, but it is actually later in the day or the next day entirely. Right now it is 8 A.M. on August the 31^st, 2008 – this means that it’s actually 8 P.M. on August the 30^th, 2008, back home!

It has been so incredibly overwhelming but exciting to be here so far! There are so many things I could talk about but then, I have plenty of time to do so! Even staying overnight in Japan was an adventure in itself. Culture shock is starting to get to me as there are so many differences between China and my home of North Carolina, but I think as time goes by it will be easier to deal with!

Fortunately, the other fourteen participants here on this trip seem like really great people! I think I’ll get to find out more about them once classes start tomorrow. The classes I am taking here are Chinese language as well as two Asian Studies courses. I can talk more about those once they actually begin!

My internet access is limited right now as we do not have internet in our rooms yet. Feel free, however, to send me any questions you might have so I can figure out what to talk about in this blog! Maybe I can help explain the Chinese language as I learn more about it, as well as the Chinese culture in general! J I’m definitely going to talk about some of my own personal experiences and encounters with China while I’m here, but right now this blog is open to whatever direction would be most interesting!

Zaijian! (See you again!)

Megan

Back home :)

So..turns out that the internet in Thailand is extremely unstable, extremely expensive, and an extreme pain to get a hold of. :) I am now back home and recuperating from jetlag and my wonderfully overwhelming Southeast Asia summer experience!

I will post more about my time in Thailand later on, once I have gone through all of my pictures again - in the meantime, make sure to check out the Facebook albums of pictures available through my website and all of the videos I have been putting up! :) I'm not finished with either yet, but it has taken me a while so far to get back into the swing of things here in the States. Food is expensive again, people are driving on the right side of the street, and my sleeping at 2 AM is actually sleepiness at 2 in the afternoon here!

We did a lot in Thailand: we got to ride elephants, see panda bears, watch cultural dances and people in cultural costumes, cook our own Thai dinner, try lots of spicy Thai dishes, learn about classical Thai music, and much more! It was an exciting end to our trip abroad but I will post more pictures and updates later! :)

School's out for the summer :)

Finally - classes are done with! :) I have absolutely no idea how I did, but am hoping for the best!

Today is our last day in Singapore before we head off to Thailand to spend about three days in Chiang Mai and then three days in Bangkok. My last day here is just full of rest and relaxation before the busy days ahead.

I had the pleasure of meeting up with a UNC alum of the Kenan-Flagler Business School today for lunch to find out about working in Singapore and the sort of job he has here - it was a phenomenal experience (especially with the wonderful food we had and the teh tarik, my favorite!) I got to talk to Jagjit, who is a marketing consultant here in Singapore, and spends his time in his career helping companies all over the world with their marketing strategies and solving problems they have. It was a wonderful way to spend part of my last day here and I got to learn so much, as well as make a new friend! :) He told me all about his job and the things he did to get to the position he has now, as well as all about Asia and the places he has gone - last week he was in Amsterdam, next week he'll be in the US again, and he's spent so much time all over the place that it was amazing to hear from such a worldly traveler. :) I can't wait to go to some of those same places he has been to!

Of course, I can't wait to be home and tell everyone about my adventures, as well. But that'll come after a week of more experiences in Thailand!

Finals

Final exams this week :) Two finals, and three five-page essays to go. I will try to blog once this madness is over! Until then...wish me luck!

Zoo, Night Safari, Dragon Boat Racing - oh my!

The past few days have been completely overtaken by classes and then suddenly - fun stuff! :) We went to the Singapore Zoo, then the Night Safari (the evening zoo, basically), and then to the National Dragon Boat Racing Championship today!


The zoo was absolutely amazing! There was even a special "Cat Country" which was just perfect for me :) They had white tigers, leopards, jaguars, a cheetah, cougars, and more. They also had so many different animals that I had never seen or heard of before. It was so very foreign, but familiar at the same time! It was so similar to our own North Carolina Zoo, but some of the animals there I didn't even know existed!


Our first experience with the Night Safari was a fire dance performance outside of the exhibits, which was really impressive to watch. It was really unnerving to walk around a zoo with very few lights and in the dark, but it was also exciting and so different! It was even more of a challenge to find the animals in all of the exhibits, due to the night-time aspect. The Singapore Zoo and the Night Safari were also extremely open areas - we were around so many animals that we very easily could have touched or could have touched us! They had a lot of enclosed areas where the animals roam freely and you can walk among them. It was a very new experience!



The Dragon Boat races we went to were for the national championship. It was so exciting, especially seeing so many different countries and Singaporean colleges compete! It was basically a rowing competition, but it's special due to the dragon-design of the boats and the use of drums.

I got to have a lot of new experiences these past few days! But now, I'm off to eat some cheese pizza and enjoy some Western food to cure a bit of homesickness :)

Classes!

I don't have much to add at the moment because classes are consuming my soul at the moment :) We have a five-page essay for our Thailand History segment due next week, as well as a five-page essay on the politics of Southeast Asia and a five-page essay on the economics of Southeast Asia, not to mention our finals coming up! This means that I've been working hard and opting more to stay in and study the readings rather than be adventuresome, sorry! :) "Study" comes before "abroad" in studying abroad, though, I have to admit!

Instead, here are some pictures that other people have uploaded that I thoroughly enjoy! :) Hope you enjoy them too!

Singapore at night, from our home stay house! It's gorgeous :)


A dinner outing in Malaysia to a REALLY GOOD restaurant! We also ended up paying about $30 for a meal...for eight people! You can't beat some of the exchange rates here!


Myself, along with Angela and Beth, in front of the Esplanade. I like how I am the only one looking at the camera in this picture :D

A guy was nice enough to take our picture at the Botanical Garden together on our excursion through the Orchid Walk!

A picture of our home stay in Zhiqi's grandparent's flat! Alyzza, sitting beside me, are smiling a little too much because we were mean to each other right before the picture and now look like the best of friends :) I really do enjoy the company of most of my fellow SEAS participants!

Since things are going to be crazy the rest of the week, I'll probably do the same tomorrow and post some more of other people's wonderful pictures...hope they don't mind :D

Recuperation!

After being out for nearly a week, I'm finally doing better (thanks to the overwhelming amount of pills prescribed to me) and will just conveniently forget my trip to Malaysia, considering the wonderful impact it made on me...:)


This past weekend we went to Pulau Ubin - considered the "last village" of Singapore on a very untouched island full of tropical vegetation, dirt roads, and a thriving tourist population. We were able to see a granite quarry that had been filled in by water over the years, but even then...it was a familiar sight, considering Mount Airy's infamous granite! Cycling all over the island was amazing and we also got to go walking on a coastal boardwalk to see the mangroves that protect the island. Mangrove forests are a very important part of tropical environments as they host many species of creatures, prevent soil erosion, and just protect the main islands in general from storms and bad weather.


Today was the beginning of our last real week of classes (which is exciting, I must admit!) This week we don't have anything official planned, instead having lots of optional excursions. So today, some of our wonderful Singaporean friends hosted a picnic for us at Singapore's National Botanical Garden and it was absolutely amazing! Free food and lots of good company, as well as pretty flowers all around :) I took lots of pictures, just for my grandparents, of the Orchid Garden!


Our trip is definitely starting to wind down - hopefully I will be able to blog more about this experience after the fact, and I'm determined to write more while I'm in China! If I have any luck, I won't be out an entire week due to sickness in China, either...!