When you travel to a foreign country, there are certain things you have to do in order to truly experience the local culture. In Paris, you see the Eiffel Tower; in NYC, you might attend a Broadway play.
In Hong Kong, you visit Victoria Peak and have dim sum.
Dim sum is a traditional Chinese meal involving small portions of a variety of dishes served with tea. Legend says that there are more than 1000 different dishes — ranging from meat dumplings to steamed lotus seed buns.
Oktoberfest: the perfect way for Ben and me to end the last four crazy weeks of travel through Europe. Unfortunately, we could only stay for the first day—Ben had to get back to London for orientation at King’s College and our plan was to fly out the next day, shortly after noon.
But, for the time being, our thoughts were consumed by Oktoberfest—over two weeks of beer, celebration, and Bavarian bliss—one of the most famous festivals in the world, and the one that I had most wanted to go to in my lifetime. Now, the dream was coming true.
I find myself very comfortable with my life in Singapore now. The city is extremely clean, developed and Western, which facilitated my transition to life in Asia and eliminated my fear of culture shock.
Throughout the summer as I was combing through the news I would make sure to read articles about Britain thoroughly. That’s how I learned about the death of Benson, England’s favorite fish. In July, the 60 lb. wild carpe passed away in Kingfisher Lake at 25 years old.
Venice was by far the laziest segment of our trip thus far, and looking back it was still one of my favorite cities to visit. The place has a certain charm to it, a charm that is not lost even in the midst of the swarm of tourists that crowd its streets every day. Everywhere you turn there is a postcard-worthy scene, which is greatly due to the absolutely gorgeous buildings, many with cracked paint, but this takes nothing away from their blushing brilliance.
I've been in Granada for about a week and a half now, and it's felt like a vacation more than anything. This weekend I finally had an epiphany that I'm actually not going anywhere. I will be living here for the next four months. This thought is mostly wonderfully exciting, but also a tiny bit terrifying.
I can find my way around some of this incredibly beautiful city now, and I’m feeling more and more at home. But even as I start to feel comfortable, there are lots of little differences that consistently remind me that I'm in a foreign country. Here are a few.
The train ride up to Switzerland was long but gave Ben and me our first glimpses of traditional Alpine wear. The further our train took us into the heart of the Swiss Alps, the more oddly dressed old men we seemed to see: complete with green feathered hats and traditional lederhosen, and smoking wooden pipes tucked between their long, frizzy beards.
Ben and I left Gimmelwald after three cozy nights in the Alps and headed east to Munich, Germany—the last stop on our pre-term adventure. It was sad, in a way, to think that it was almost over—however, we still had a few days to enjoy ourselves in Munich before we left for London on September 20.
I'm finally in Spain! I got here on Thursday, but I already feel like I've been out of the country for about a million years.
When I arrived I was already in a bleary half-awake state, due to not having slept for about 36 hours, and having to go through immigration and customs and find my hotel all in Spanish seemed like a near impossible task. Luckily for me, though, immigration and customs involved minimal effort in Spain.
I find myself very comfortable with my life in Singapore now. The city is extremely clean, developed and Western, which facilitated my transition to life in Asia and eliminated my fear of culture shock.