Food in Japan: A Photo Essay

Some (but not all) of my favorite eats 🙂 Traditional Japanese breakfasts can be eaten at hotels and ryokans (traditional Japanese inns). There’s often natto (fermented soybeans), some kind of fish, rice, soup, and vegetables. Okonomiyaki & Yakisoba The leftmost and rightmost pictures are okonomiyaki and the center is yakisoba. Hiroshima and Osaka were the two most popular spots I ate

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Reflections on a Semester Away: A Look into the Varied Experiences of Visiting Students

Beginning My Reflections  Boy, what a semester it has been. As is always the case with me, time felt so slow– too slow– in the beginning, but looking back at it from the end, it went by extremely quickly. My semester in Japan has been full of surprises (both good and occasionally not-so-good) and so with this post, I will

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First Impressions and Preconceived Notions of France

The Eiffel Tower from afar lit up at night

Hi everyone! This blog post will talk about some of my first impressions of Paris, the largest and most surprising differences I noticed between Paris and the United States, and some of my personal experiences and feelings as I spent time abroad.    As I settled into my classes at Hamilton in France and Sorbonne Nouvelle, I was stricken by

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Always Try Everything Once

After much consideration, the most useful lesson I learned this summer was to “always try everything once”. Obviously, there are boundaries to this saying– there are a handful of things I absolutely recommend never trying. But, in terms of cultural immersion through history, friends, and food, it’s hard to go wrong. I strongly believe that giving everything a try lets

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Goals & Preparation to Study in Paris

Hi everyone! I’m Sophie, and I’m excited to share my experiences studying abroad with you as the semester progresses. I will be studying abroad in Paris with the Hamilton in France program, and taking classes with Hamilton and at the Sorbonne Nouvelle. One aspect of the process that makes me nervous is that Paris schools don’t release their course offerings

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Reflecting on the Concept of “Home” while Studying in Different Countries

I think many of us can relate to wondering or being asked where we are from. I often go into a run-on sentence of self-instruction. It goes, “I was born in Korea but then adopted as a baby to the United States and so I grew up in New Jersey!”, and that tends to be the best-abbreviated version I can

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