To Dwell in Possibility: travel

China

China March 2015

Spring in China: Cherry Blossoms Galore

Some sort of fruit jelly drink

A typical smoggy day in Shanghai

This one probably doesn't need a caption

Szechuan food: where they give you a towel to wipe off the sweat from eating the peppers

My mentor in Asian brush painting

My high school has a sister school in Shanghai, and every year a group of twenty or so students goes to visit, as well as explore the rest of China. My senior year, there was the added aspect that we would be doing a music exchange with a middle school and high school in Shanghai. We performed some individual songs as well as group numbers that we had to sight read (while very jetlagged) upon our arrival.

I also stayed with a host family in Shanghai! I sort of missed the cringe-y awkwardness associated with living with complete strangers. My host family was very caring and took me to eat Szechuan food, the spiciest cuisine of China. I think it was a nice gesture, my stomach would disagree. While with my host family, we celebrated the QingMing, or tomb sweeping festival. During this time colored pieces of paper are burned to send good wishes and fortune to deceased relatives, and there graves are cleaned. There was also a ridiculous amount of food. I ate frog legs, pig feet, duck feet, rabbit, liver, and various other body parts of animals. It was one of those "not good, not bad, just different," experiences.

After performing and leaving Shanghai, the group headed to Beijing. I was an old pro at host families, but I think certain people in my group were very excited about staying in a hotel. In Beijing, we did some shopping where I got to work on my bargaining skills. I'd like to imagine that I'd be better at bargaining now with a semester of Chinese under my belt, but some of those shopkeepers drive a hard bargain.

Perhaps most exciting, I climbed the Great Wall! It was as magnificent as everyone said. I wish I had time to do some geocaching or visit a section where there was tobogganing, but the experience in itself was fantastic. There was so much history, and pictures honestly do not do it justice. I also asked my boyfriend (now my ex) to prom on the Great Wall, which was a really fun experience.

I hope to be headed back to China for a semester of study abroad in my junior year, in which case, 我得学中文

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, by Hannah

Italy

Milan, Italy February 2015

El Duomo

Just Italy things

The stained glass inside the duomo, a tricky subject to photograph

Me being all touristy

Malls in Milan > Malls in the US

If you go to Italy and don't eat pasta, do you really go to Italy

While in Switzerland, it was decided that we should take a day trip to see Milan instead of only seeing the Milan Malpensa airport. As I mentioned in my Switzerland post, my family's Egyptian exchange student was with us, and actually had an Egyptian friend studying with AFS about an hour from Milan, and thank goodness for that.

There are some places where you can get by using English. Milan is not one of them. Mai's friend Mahmod luckily spoke Italian well enough to get us around. We did one of those super cheesy Hop on Hop off bus tours, mostly because it made it easy to get around the city. Our first stop was the Milan Cathedral, or el Duomo di Milan. I was dressed pretty conservatively, but still was asked to pull down my dress so it covered my knees before entering the church. The stained glass didn't even look real, it was so intricate. People were praying around the church making it one of those places where you don't want to talk above a whisper out of respect for both the prayers and the history of the place.

It was actually Ash Wednesday when we visited, but we were surprised to see no one with ashes in such a Catholic country. After much broken Italian and broken English attempts, we located someone at a church who was able to explain. In Milan, because they were so badly hit by the Bubonic Plague, they celebrate Ash Wednesday a week later to allow for more time for Carnivale. Essentially because so many people died, the Pope decided they deserved more celebratory time before Lent. Not something easy to convey in a foreign language, let me tell you.

I also did the super touristy thing of putting my heel in the floor of a shopping plaza, where the bull's penis in the tiling would be. You spin around three times to ensure that one day you will be back to Milan. I have never had much experience with that sort of thing, but I remain hopeful.

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, by Hannah

Switzerland

Lugano, Switzerland February 2015

Overlooking the picturesque Lago di Lugano

Despite the snow, some flowers outside of our hotel

How to properly do Europe

How to properly do Europe part 2: ten pound cheese wheels

A favorite shot from the trip

Entrance to campus

During the quite arduous process of applying to college, I stumbled upon a school called Franklin University Switzerland. You can check out their website at fus.edu for more info, but basically they're a dual Swiss and American accredited school located in the Italian canton of Switzerland. They have an amazing study abroad program in which you spend the final two weeks of every semester abroad or somewhere in Switzerland learning about course material. I was accepted in December with a good scholarship, so over my February break I went with my mother and Egyptian exchange student to Lugano to see the college. Unfortunately, finances didn't work it so I couldn't attend, but for anyone looking for a fantastic international undergrad program, definitely check out Franklin.

Because Lugano is in the Italian part of Switzerland, we flew into Milan and took a bus into Lugano. It was a breathtaking drive, everything was pretty flat for a while until thee started to be hills, then bigger hills, then suddenly the bus was driving on roads bordered by the Alps. Lugano is located on the aptly named lake Lugano, or Lago di Lugano in Italian. Most people spoke Italian, so my rudimentary French skills were of little assistance. When we really needed to, a mix of my French and my mom's Spanish somewhat communicated our points.

We stayed in a very peculiar hotel, in that it was located in somewhat of an office park. Other companies shared the building of the hotel, so there ended up being an ophthalmologist down the hall from our hotel room. The first night, we were surprised to wake up to snow, given that it usually doesn't snow after January in that region. The hotel courtyard also had a lot of palm trees, and snow looks very strange against such a backdrop.

In Lugano, we took plenty of time to explore the city and parks. As I said, the town is right on the water so many an afternoon was spent meandering through the park paths, eating gelato, because Europe. It's probably interesting to note here that I had a croissant for breakfast every day I was in Switzerland. Very European as well.

Because we were in Switzerland, it was high priority to visit a chocolate factory. Although the factory was sadly not operating while we visited, being surrounded by that much chocolate was a remarkable experience.

I can't get over how gorgeous this region of Switzerland is. The other regions are on my list to visit, as well as anywhere surrounded by mountains as magnificent as the Alps.

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, by Hannah

Ireland

Ireland Summer 2015

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Malaysia

Mabul Island, Sabah

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Indonesia

Pictures are worth a thousand words?

One of the royal bathing pools. This pool was for the women and children. The royal family would be washed in this, essentially an enormous bathtub.

Local women painting batik. Some batik designs are drawn on the fabric with hot wax to prevent bleeding but this one was drawn with normal fabric pencil. It can take hours to complete a design like the one on her shirt, and then the shirt might sell for only $10. It's a tedious art that I feel can be under appreciated. Batik is not easy!

Snuck my camera into the batik shop... Portraits like this can sell for $100. They might take days to complete. All of these are hand drawn, not traced or copied from somewhere else.

Overlooking one of the many temples we visited. A UNESCO world heritage site located in Solo City, each of the upside down bell stone structures used to hold a small Buddha statue. The temple was crafted almost entirely by laborers.

Civet poop coffee! Said to be the most expensive coffee in the world, Kopi Luwak is made from covet cat (kind of like a monkey cat mix) droppings. The cats eat the beans and then the acids in their stomach treat the beans to make an extremely dark and smooth coffee. Very strong, but don't add sugar or milk to appreciate the full flavor, aroma, and texture. (I sound like such a coffee aficionado!)

One of the royal family's pet birds. He was very old and seemed very sad. Forlorn looking body. But at least he wasn't caged. Then again, he wasn't singing.

My favorite part of the trip was meeting some of the other YES Abroad students that have actually been staying in Jogja since October! Julianne and Darlene accompanied us to yet another temple. It was strange talking about their years with them. I enjoyed it though, it makes me so excited to share my experiences with my very international group of friends!

The story goes: a suitor built all these temples for his lover before sunrise so she would marry him, but she refused and ever since then her spirit was locked in one of the temples. Indonesians are very superstitious people, so we weren't even allowed in some chambers of the temples due to spirits.

Favorite picture ever.
L to R: me, Sara from Italy, Ilaria from Italy, Irene from Italy, Teresa

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, by Hannah

holiday

Singapore

While staying in JB, Teresa and I went into Singapore one day so she could show me around. I was amazed as soon as we crossed the border. Everything felt really clean and super Western. It was a bit like being back in America again...
Doing what we do best, Teresa and I tackled the malls on Orchard Rd. Shopping is a shared favorite pasttime of ours.Only problem was I kept having to remind myself the prices were in Singapore dollars, not ringgit. The exchange rate there is really similar to the USD, so I kept having to remind myself that the costs add up really, really quickly. I didn't actually change any money for SingDollars either, so thank you my dear debit card and my dear daddy for funding me!
We ate lunch at a place called Skinny Pizza, which sounded promising but was kind of a letdown. The pizza was served on a cracker thin crust (hence the skinny) and covered with green. More salad than pizza. The sweet potato fries were way too sweet as well, but at least they had authentic A&W and real cheese.
After lunch, we headed over to the touristy area, Marina Bay. Neither of us felt like paying to go to the top and we couldn't figure a way sneak up there, so we hung around the hotel for a while and had some New Zealand cold slab ice cream (basically Coldstone! Miss that goodness.)
Finally, we decided to finish the day by going to Chinatown. After a bargaining battle, I bought my cheongsam for a 20% reduced price.
After doing the touristy thing, we had steamboat at a friend's house. Steamboat is a pot of boiling soup that you can cook meat, vegetables, and other small things in. It's really delicious and filling.
Singapore had this weird surrealistic feel to it. Everything was clean and sparkly, but you can tell that it's that way due to the strict fines. Apartments are stacked upon each other and crammed into already overcrowded city blocks. It's a country that's dreams are too big for it's area! Already many people are living in JB and working in Singapore. I liked visiting it as a tourist. The escalators move faster than the ones in Malaysia. Public toilets are cleaner. There's toilet paper. People tip. But I wouldn't want to live there. Everyone seems stressed and there's no room to breathe. Of course there are people who love that lifestyle, but not me. I loved the experience, but long term couldn't tahan. Strange how one day in Singapore made me homesick for Malaysia!
I'd take quality roti canai over a clean bathroom any day....