Amherst College Global Education Blog
In the months leading up to my departure for Taipei, I began browsing the weekly billboards of Taiwan for their top 100 songs. I was ashamed, as a Taiwanese-American, to have neglected to integrate more Taiwanese/Taiwanese-American repertoire into my musical tastes. My exposure to Asian/Asian-American music had been limited to the ballads that my parents played in my childhood, the
Read more
Apologies for the late update! In East Longmeadow, Massachusetts, a town with a population of ~16,000, you need a car to get anywhere, community events are huge ordeals, and nightlife isn’t really a thing. Growing up, I certainly didn’t have a problem with this; I wasn’t itching to throw myself out into the world, accustomed to the stability of suburbia.
Read more
My last blog post feels like so long ago that I barely remember writing it. It has only been a month or so since then, but big things have happened here: my mom came to visit me, I went on three trips (including one by myself), I competed in a swim meet, Thanksgiving happened, I realized I’ve been dehydrated the
Read more
I will admit: having family in my host country has its undeniable perks. Even if spending the weekend with family often means sacrificing homework time, I consider it justifiable procrastination. Being around familiar faces, voices, and laughter makes the long bus rides worth it. With a strawberry ice cream cream puff in one hand, I’ll use my other hand and
Read more
It’s about halfway into the semester, and I’m here finally trying to reflect on what impact the time away has had on me. It’s funny, because even though I know sitting down and committing to reflection is good for understanding myself, I rarely do it. Dissecting experiences and categorizing the bits and pieces into different aspects of one’s identity is
Read more
Today, I’m 46 days into my fall semester, 63 days into living in Cádiz, Spain, and 78 days into study abroad. Finally, I feel like I’ve moved into the in-the-swing-of-things stage. There are a couple reasons why it took me so long, but a lot of it has to do with the structure of my program. When we arrived in
Read more
The first advice to someone who has never visited France should be to never say no when someone offers cheese. Gastronomical reasons aside, cheese symbolizes something more important – a something well-conveyed to me during my first dinner with my host family. “Harith, would you like to try a little bit of cheese?” asked my host-mother, extending an entire unopened
Read more
As we turn the corner from this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival, I spent some time reminiscing about the last year’s celebration at Amherst. I briefly retold the legend behind the important celebration in Asia, and ate mooncakes while moon-gazing with Dorit Song, one of my closest friends and Her Campus contributor/Instagram Social Media Manager. With Dorit in Switzerland and Amherst so
Read more
Everything in Cádiz is beautiful and walkable. From my apartment, where I live with a host family of four – Bibi, Jorge, and their children Paula and Guille – I walk 2 minutes to the nearest plaza, where I often meet an American friend in my program who lives nearby. I walk 10 minutes to school, where I’m currently taking
Read more
I keep trying to visualize myself in the city of Cádiz, which will be my home in about two weeks, but instead I end up with this mental image of me returning to Amherst after the semester is over. I guess it makes sense. My mind is returning to what it knows, staying inside its visual comfort zone. But it’s
Read more