It has been a week since I arrived back in Atlanta, so here are some updates: - Atlanta is cold - Atlanta is cold - I REPEAT, Atlanta is cold (~65˚F this week) Shouldn't it be 85-90˚F now? After staying on campus for Senior Week, leading the donating collection for the Bonner Rummage Sale, and volunteering for commencement activities, it was time to finish packing everything and leave for Atlanta! Jennifer's family drove up from Illinois to get her things and they graciously treated me to dinner and dropped me off at the airport. I checked two bags; one of them weighed exactly 50 pounds, the limit for checked bags (my heart was racing when the suitcase was on the scale). I thought airport security would be ridiculous on a Saturday afternoon but with TSA Pre-check, there was no one ahead of me, and I arrived to my gate 2 hours before takeoff. The flight itself was probably the best one I've flown; the plane was only half full, I had three seats to myself, there was no turbulence, and the plane landed almost an hour early. My flight's original arrival time was 11:10pm but the plane landed at 10:25pm and I was almost home by 11:30pm. Again, one of the best flights that I have ever taken. For the past few months, I have been slightly (I mean, just SLIGHTLY) obsessed with Marie Kondo and her amazing tidying techniques; I even bought her book. (Side note: I go through very interesting obsession phases) After learning about the KonMari method, I re-folded all my clothes and ended up with tons of extra space in my drawers. I was also super excited to put my skills to the test back at home. I still have piles and piles of school papers dating back to elementary school and I have been wanting to get rid of them. Aside from unpacking my suitcase within 24 hours of arriving back home (this has never happened to me before- usually the unpacked suitcase sits open for 2 weeks), I managed to re-fold my entire wardrobe and donated a trash bag worth of clothes. I ended up with 30 extra hangers and half of my closet empty. Surprisingly, it's not because I donated heaps of clothing, but rather folding and storing clothes vertically in drawers the KonMari way saves so much more space. Anyway, I really sound like I'm advertising for her but I can't believe that her methods actually forced me to organize my life and feel happy doing it. My goal this summer is to downsize my possessions; I still own many things from when I was around 9 or 10 and I really should donate them. I also imagine myself as a person with few possessions so that moving around won't be a hassle when I'm older (the travel bug always hits me hard). I want to create an environment that sparks joy (pun intended for Marie Kondo fans out there).
As far as general summer plans go, I will be interning at Reach for Excellence (where I graduated a few years back) for around 6-7 weeks during June and July, and I will also be working side babysitting/nanny jobs during weeknights and weekends.
That's it for now, Rachel
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It seems super cliche, but I really am in disbelief about the end of this school year. I still remember arriving on campus for the Bonner Pre-Orientation clearly like it was yesterday. Macalester and the Twin Cities is nothing like Atlanta but I honestly love it here. I found my group of friends and supporters as well as faculty and staff members whom I'm close with. This semester was an interesting one, three of my four classes overlapped in topics and reinforced different concepts and events. The international law I learned in my Codes of Conduct class gets mentioned in my Intro to Asian Studies class. The China unit in my Intro to Asian Studies class became supplementary to my Rise of Modern China class. Because of this, I was able to look at topics like the South China Sea disputes through a historical and international law perspective. Each of my professors elaborate on a different angle and I get to piece all of the information together to form a bigger picture. Since none of my classes this semester was math or science-based, all of my final exams were actually papers instead of sit-down exams. In all three of the classes that I mentioned above, I had the ability to choose any topic (ANY topic!) that relates to the course content. Honestly, I considered a minor in Asian Studies but since it has an Asian language requirement I decided not to pursue it, especially since I'm already set on a Hispanic Studies minor (which requires additional Spanish classes). I originally wanted to take Rise of Modern China due to my lack of knowledge on Chinese history. Now, I feel that I gained more knowledge on nineteenth and twentieth century China. For my paper, I chose to write about Deng Xiaoping's personality and its effects on modernizing China from the 1970s through 1990s. I decided on Deng Xiaoping because I always hear his name in Chinese history but I never understood his significance - I tend to only hear about Mao Zedong and his wrongdoings in twentieth century China. Through writing this paper, I am learning to understand China through a scholarship perspective and not from a perspective of a biased person. As a Hong Kong person, I was raised to feel slightly superior to people from Mainland China (whether this was intended or not, it was implied throughout my childhood). Sitting in class this semester, taught me to realize my own prejudices and forced me to be actively aware of my thoughts. Not everything (or everyone) is black and white and I should never take a statement at face value because every situation is usually more complex than it appears to be. Anyway, here's a copy of my Deng Xiaoping paper. I probably have some typos and such in my paper, so please do not mind them! I also attached my Intro to Int'l Studies: Codes of Conduct paper below. I originally wanted to write a more traditional academic paper, but my professor knew of my interest in Hong Kong so he pushed for me to write a more unconventional (but academic) paper on the status of Hong Kong and its relation to international law and the rest of the world. I hope the professors see my effort and passion in writing these two papers!
D-4 until Saturday, Rachel Sunday, May 1st- Stars On IceGoing to a college in the northern part of the United States means that I have more opportunities to see winter sports! I'm not super obsessed with figure skating, but I know the Shibutani siblings that do ice dancing as a pair (they won the 2016 US Nationals) and they are also Youtubers. I also know Meryl Davis and Gracie Gold's names although I'm not that familiar with them. Regardless, when Jennifer pointed out the Stars On Ice poster to me the beginning of this semester, I told her that I wouldn't go unless the Shibutani siblings are part of the cast. Interestingly enough, 2016 was the first year that the ShibSibs (for short) participated (lucky me!) in Stars on Ice. Unfortunately, I had a choral concert the same day right before the show, so we had to miss the first 1/3 of the program. Tuesday, May 3rd- Bonner family dinner :)
Saturday, May 7thTo celebrate the end of the year, Jennifer and I made a trip to Mall of America again! I can't believe the last time we went was actually in September (gah! It was so long ago...) Later that night, we went to Mirror of Korea for a Korean dinner. Both Jennifer and I had enough Cafe Mac food for the year.... :( But we still need to eat it the rest of the week (#brokecollegestudents). It was 90 F that day and I really wanted to eat naengmyeon (cold noodles) but they didn't have it since it's not technically summer yet. Instead, I ordered soondaeguk (blood sausage spicy soup). In case you haven't noticed, I'm a total foodie so I do eat everything including things like pig's blood, intestines, and stomach. 5 days until Saturday,
Rachel |
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February 2018
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