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Margaret: 山和水 – Shān hé shuǐ – Mountains and Water

My second set of midterms are in the books for the semester!  While everyone at home is out for the summer, I am still in the thick of things with a third of the semester left ahead of me.  With exams out of the way, I now have time to fill everyone in on my absolutely FANTASTIC 21st birthday trip to Guangxi Province with my boyfriend Michael.  The environs were truly breathtaking, so you all are in for a treat! Our flight was delayed, and we literally didn’t arrive at [...]

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Holly: Last Few Days in Rome

If you can’t live longer, live deeper – Italian Proverb My last few days in Rome were bittersweet. For my final exam of my Italian Communications class, Sean took us to the Vatican Radio Station, to create a short segment about our work experience and then to the Vatican Television Station, where we were each able to talk about our study abroad experiences. It was incredible to be able to go into many places that only a select few have been to and to have such a lively and entertaining professor [...]

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Emily: Down the Queensland Coast—Lecture Recess 2012

This semester, JCU had a lecture recess (essentially fall break, or spring break for the Northern Hemisphere students!) in mid-April. Through a lot of planning, a group of American students decided that we would travel down the Queensland coast for our 11 day break. We booked our flights, talked with the JCU Travel agents, made hostel reservations and planned out our outfits…or maybe that was just me! However, it didn’t seem like we were about to embark on our first real trip since arriving in Townsville. A plethora of papers, [...]

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Holly: Birthday weekend

On April 20th, I celebrated my 21st birthday! The day started out with a mandatory field trip to a farm with our Sustainable Foods class. The farm that we went to was actually in Rome and I couldn’t believe that this wide stretch of land was hidden within the densely populated city of Rome. We learned about the farms’ organic and sustainable practices and got to see some of the cows and pigs. Although the smell of the farm wasn’t pleasant, it was very educational. After seeing the farm, we [...]

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Caitlin: Maa la raaw FUUF! (I missed you MORE!)

So, you guessed it, I’m home! My last week in Dakar was…interesting. I was sick pretty much all week with a high fever and abdominal pain. Still not entirely sure what’s going on but do not fear! I have a doctor’s appointment here in the states tomorrow. When I wasn’t spending countless hours feeling sick in bed, I was exploring different markets I hadn’t visited before and, oh yeah, writing that final 20 page French paper about our internships. Fun times. Especially after this week, I am definitely going to [...]

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Ryan: Arrivederci! (and photo wrapup)

As promised, I have created one more blog post before my arrival back in the states. I think for this I’ll just go through a bunch of the last pictures that I have on my camera and leave it at that. I’ve had some of the most memorable moments of my life so far abroad these last three and a half months, and to be able to put it all into words right now would be impossible, even if I didn’t have an immense amount of things to do on [...]

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Holly: Last cooking course & Abruzzo visit

On Friday April 13th, we had our last cooking class for our Sustainable Foods class at Sergio’s house. This rainy, gloomy day provided the perfect atmosphere for staying inside and cooking. We began with our usual morning cornetto and caffe, and then really got going. We all separated into our groups and started to work on the 3 different dishes. One of the groups went to the stove-top to start frying the bread for our appetizer. While they busy with that, some of us started to work on the ragu [...]

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Caitlin: Village life, la fin

At the end of our 5th week in Fatick, I was exhausted. I had been having some petits problèmes with my family and my internship, and Sophie and I had done an intense run with some four Senegalese garçons that left us pretty sore for the next few days (and me with a fresh cut on my knee! Note: roads in Fatick are not lighted at night).  So, naturally, I wanted to sleep in Saturday morning. Unfortunately, masonry workers outside my room at 7am made that impossible, so Sophie and I made plans to [...]

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Margaret: 旅游 – Lǚyóu – Touring

Today, Michael and I said our goodbyes to his mother and brother who were visiting Beijing.  They arrived last week on Thursday, and we’ve been running about the city everyday since.  It’s been great fun, and they’re really wonderful people.  Michael’s mother is a professor at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.  She’s been all over the world and once even lived in Thailand and India, so I’ve just adored hearing her stories and anticipating my own adventures as I too delve into academia. Here are a few photos from our week [...]

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Holly: 8 Essentials for European travel

Eight Essentials for Your European Excursions  Traveling throughout Europe for the past 3 months has taught me a lot about what is essential and what is unnecessary. I find it important to share this new acquired wisdom with the rest of the world to aid with pre-packing hassles. 1. Hand Sanitizer Hand Sanitizer  From Italians picking their noses and wiping it on the walls of the buses to sneezing directly on the hand poles of the tram, every square meter of Italy is crying out to be cleansed. Rome’s trams, buses, and [...]

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Ryan: Pasquetta!

Buon giorno a tutti. I know it has been quite sometime since my last post, so I’ll be sure to include one more here after this one before I return home. The pictures I have from this post are from Pasquetta, or simply Easter Monday. Joe’s family was in town for the week, and his dad made a huge meal for us and about twenty others in our program. We spent the whole day celebrating and eating at our apartment, and a good time was had by all. Above is a [...]

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Caitlin: Case studies project

One of my projects was to interview two women who were head Panchayats and write success case studies on them.  Men within the Panchayat were arguing that women were struggling and were not doing their work.  I was to report that these women were doing their work successfully and give them credit for the work they deserve and make sure society recognized their accomplishments.   Maya   My first case study was on Maya Palival.  She has completed primary school education and her husband is an elected member within the [...]

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Lindsay: Kochi, Kerala

I finished the program…ALREADY!!?? Now it’s backpacking time! On April 21st, a majority of people from my program went on a six hour bus ride from Jaipur to Delhi so five girls could catch their flight back to the U.S.  Since me and one other girl who will travel with me, Leigh, had a flight out of Delhi the next day to Kochi, we also went with.   It was a crazy, chaotic single night stay near the New Delhi railway station.  That was plenty of time for me in Delhi, [...]

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Margaret: 动物园 – Dòngwùyuán – zoo, literally “animal garden”

This photo basically sums up my weekend: Yes, I finally made it to the Beijing Zoo.  I had been putting it off all this time because everyone I’ve ever talked to about the zoo has told me how terrible it is.  I had always heard it’s constantly teaming with people, the cages are tiny, and the animals seem unhappy.  You tell me, are those sad pandas?  I didn’t think so. So admission to the zoo was $1.15.  The pandas were an extra $0.80.  Can’t complain there.  I was shocked by [...]

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Margaret: 改变 – Gǎibiàn – Change

Spring has somehow been busy although on the surface it always seems like I don’t do anything.  The fact is that this whole thing hasn’t gotten any easier.  It’s still a battle every single day, me versus China.  Me versus crossing the street, aka Frogger.  Me versus my teacher telling me I’m inadequate.  Me versus developing asthma from running outside.  Me versus getting ripped off.  Me with a load of wet laundry versus a ten foot laundry line.  Last night I woke up at four in the morning feeling like [...]

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