Hey guys!!!

Ahhh! This post is one much anticipated and is going up so soon after its happened!

As I hinted at in my previous post, I was fortunate enough to go to another island with Daniel. While I'm sure many of you were curious as to just what island I went to, I am happy to announce that we went to Maui!

Jokingly referred to as our "Maui Moon", the two of us left Wednesday night and left Saturday night.



Given the arrival time on Wednesday, we were left with no choice but to get the car and go straight to the hotel. Instead of a resort, the two of us agreed upon spending our time at a more low-key of a place called The Maui Coast. The location was great and the size of the room even better! I've never slept so good, and with so much space, than on that king sized bed on the second floor.

On Thursday the two of us woke up bright and early, 7:00, to grab our things and head off to breakfast at Kihei Cafe! Located less than half a mile from the hotel, we decided to drive and, instead of going back for the car only to drive right by the restaurant, we chose to leave right after breakfast to the next destination: Lahaina Town.

Kihei Cafe

Myself with my order, the regular omelet, and Daniel's kalua loco moco

On the way to Lahaina Town we pulled over to admire the view from a lookout. I thought the other island was Oahu, but it could have very well been Molokai or Lanai. Who knows!

Lahaina Town is a little marina town on what Daniel referred to as "The nugget", or the outer left, part of Maui. There are lots of boats, ice cream shops, tourist shops, and high end stores that one can expect to see. Personally I saw that Lahaina was the Cape Cod of Maui, due to how quaint and small-town the area felt.




In short, Lahaina Town is a little out of the way, but is definitely worth the drive. Daniel also called this "The Waikiki of Maui" due to the types of stores and scene of Lahaina.

After Lahaina, because it was Thanksgiving, we went back to the room to change and get ready for dinner. On the way we made a quick stop at the famous blowhole that has the heart shaped rock. While it was windy and very, very salty, the two of us agreed that we wouldn't risk walking down to but instead admire from the top.




 And then, after our quick stop home to change, we drove to Humble Market and were met with a delicious array of food at the restaurant. As it was buffet style, we made sure to get as many crab legs and prime rib as we wanted.
This dinner concluded Thursday.

Friday morning was another one that we chose to enjoy in the morning. At 8:00 we packed up our bags, which for me meant wearing a fanny pack, and started up the car. We grabbed breakfast in Paia Town at a cute little hole in the wall called Paia Coffee. Daniel and I both ordered the original scramble, only his had goat cheese and a bagel. Mine had toast.


After our hearty breakfast we loaded back into the car and started on the Road to Hana.

The Road to Hana is paved, quite literally, with over five dozen turns, fifty curves, and some of the most breathtaking views on island. While it was advised that we split the road into two days, doing half on Friday and the latter half on Saturday, Daniel and I decided that we would be better off knocking the entire thing out in one take. Needless to say we were nauseous as could be while in the homestretch of the drive.

Our first stop was Twin Falls. Twin Falls is, as the name implies, a hiking trail which leads one to two waterfalls. It's not the famous waterfall that you'll see in most pictures of Maui, but its a nice break from the road that I would recommend taking.








After the brief hike we were back on the road for a little longer before stopping again at another lookout.

 And another stop..

 Next stop on our little road trip was a cute little farm stand about halfway into the road. Daniel's only request on the road was that we somehow find him a coconut that he can drink from, and thankfully this bright little hut had some. After buying him the fruit we went above the hut on a little grass hill that provided us the opportunity to view the beautiful ocean.


 

 With only a handful of miles left to go on the road, this is when things got very inteResting. For example, on the Road to Hana one can find dozens of little fruit stand which operate under the honor code. What this means is that the fruits are left unattended and are accompanied by a little box that one can place money in. While each fruit is labeled with a price (often times fruits like banana's were less than $1 for a hand!) Many stands contained oranges, bananas, lemons, avocados, pineapple, and coconut. One stand even had dragon fruit, whereas another had coconut trees for $5.


 After our brief stop to admire the cute little stands we stopped one more time at the famous black sand beach (note: there is not just one black sand beach, but for some reason this is the most popular one).





And of course; what is a nice drive without some pictures of the drive itself?


 Stay with me; we're almost done! Our last stop was the national park. From here you can see one of the more famous waterfalls and a large bamboo forest!











Ok, now I promise we're almost done!

After the first hike Daniel and I knew we were on a crunch for time. We had dinner reservations to meet at 8 and, as hard as we may try, could not get cell service for quite a while. Naturally at the end of this road the two of us were absolutely drained, we finally got service and were fortunate enough to get the reservations pushed back to 8:30.

Dinner was, without a doubt, one of the most elegant meals I have ever had. Daniel treated me to dinner at Ruth Chris, which is a very fancy steakhouse. We ordered the: Ruth's Salad, Cream of Spinach, Porterhouse for 2, Lobster mac n cheese, and mashed potatoes. As delicious as it all was, I have never been that full in my life. With how high-class the restaurant was, we could not spare to leave any piece left behind. While Daniel took care of most of the food (I was way too tired and full to eat even half of it) what we did enjoy for the days thereafter was the lobster mac n cheese.

And that concludes Friday.

Saturday was our day of rest where we decided that, instead of waking up very early to go to Haleakae, we would sleep in and spend our time elsewhere, seeing the sunset at the top of the crater instead.

Breakfast was at Kihei Cafe again. I ordered the french toast with bananas and macadamia nuts (and coconut syrup on the side!) and Daniel went with an steaks and egg.

 After breakfast we spent some time walking around Paia Town again, where I was able to grab a very cute necklace of the Hawaiian Islands. While the weather wasn't very good I'm glad that Daniel and I were able to enjoy ourselves and spend some time window shopping. Paia is truly a very cute town.

With some time to spare we made a quick pitstop at the Lavender Farm; a place that Daniel still stands by as being one of his favorite places on Oahu.

The Lavender Farm is a quiet space up on the side of the mountain-- literally. With dozens of plants, a paved walking path, and cute benches to sit on and admire the view of the island, the Farm is by far one of the most underrated places on Maui. In fact, I didn't even bring it up at first because I didn't think it would be of interest; but I'm so glad we went.









Unfortunately the bad weather followed us, so while on the top of Haleakala I was not able to grab any photos besides this one. Unfortunately I messed up and put 1000 feet instead of 10,000, but you all get the gist.

And yes, you read that right. 10,000 feet is how high up we were. I'm sure you're also curious about just how cold it was up there, too. Well, at the very top, in the midst of all the rain and wind, the temperature was 43˚.

Rushing down the crater we were relieved to end up back at our hotel without that impending feeling of nausea. We grabbed a quick bite to eat at Monkeypod and, with bulgogi in my stomach and fish in Daniels, went back to our hotel for the night.

And with that Saturday came to a close.

Our last day on the island was Sunday. We were stumped with thinking of ideas of what to do, and while our original plan was to return to Lahaina, we realized about halfway there that it would only make sense if we did the Road to Hana once more, for good time's sake. Since this was the second time doing it, I didn't take any pictures, but for those wondering there was, in fact, an accident on the road. Granted, it was a tree, it still left the road backed up for a good hour.

In addition to the tree in the road, Daniel and I made sure to stop at the Smokehouse (quite literally a grill under a covering in a clearing on the side of the road) and got a quick bite to eat. Let me just say the meat was amazing. It was pork on top of a bed of rice on top of a leaf. Such an unique presentation but such delicious food. I would go back in a heartbeat.

Of course, there was no conceivable way that we could drive the entire road for a second time and still make our flight, so after the drive we turned the car in and then went to the airport to play the waiting game.

I'll spare everyone the boring details, but, in short, we were there for three hours with a delayed flight. Atrocious, I know. And the flight from Maui to Oahu is only 20 minutes, so why we were there for so long is still mind boggling.

After returning Daniel and I raced to get his car and grab dinner, something we had planned on doing hours before. We ate at Gen and enjoyed tasty meat and fish. Afterwords he dropped me off at campus and made the drive back to his place.

In short, because I know this post has been my longest one yet, Maui was incredible. It is, without a doubt, my favorite island. The things one can do, see, and visit are all so different than what one can have the opportunity to do on Oahu. I'm so so grateful for having had this opportunity and I cannot wait to go back.

Until next time,

Aislinn

Hey everyone,

Oh my gosh, I can't believe that I'm just now getting to posting. It has been quite a while, hasn't it?

Well, as always, when there has been some time between my post you can typically assume one of two things.

One, that things are going great! Classes are interesting, friends are inviting, and grades are good.

Or two, that things have gone stagnant. Classes are dragging along, there are no new happenings around campus, and grades are relatively okay; nothing extraordinary.

Unfortunately, things have been more of the latter. I have spent a lot of time these past few weeks dragging along in my classes which, for better or for worse, has gotten me here, three weeks away from finals just waiting for this semester to end. 

When I think about my posts from last year, at this time, I am reminded of how happy I was. Of how active I was on the island, and how my heart was full of love for both my home and school. But it hasn't been like that this year.

I'm trying. 

I'm trying to be more active, to see more, and to spend more of my time thinking optimistically rather than pessimistically. However, it's a feat that is much easier written than done. 

I'm sure that this post is going to leave many of you confused. But I thought you liked Hawaii? What happened to how much you loved Manoa? 

But let me stop you right there-- I do love Oahu, but I don't love Manoa. 

I think a lot of this stems from the fact that for the past two semesters I have been very unhappy within my major. I'm unhappy, especially, with how classes have been this semester. The fact that I have appointment to see counselors because of everything that has been going on is extremely upsetting. Life was not like this last year, when I had a solid group of friends and were taking classes I liked. School was not like this last year, where I wasn't being degraded by my professor for not understanding her- literally. My friends were not like this last year, where I'm being ignored because they're not my "first priority". None of this year has been like last year. 

And I'm not saying change isn't a good thing or that I don't look at where I am now and appreciate it, because I do. I appreciate that I'm able to get an education and that I have been fortunate enough to get myself this far, but it's growing increasingly harder to enjoy myself when I'm living in an environment that is not anything like what I wanted. 

I'm going to spend the next few weeks trying to live more optimistically, and if that means changing my major, transferring, or connecting with old friends, than so be it. I'm not going to waste my time here, especially under the premise that it could be my last year here.

Until next time,

Aislinn

Hey everyone,

I wanted to make this post to share the classes in which I have decided to take next semester. I have also decided to combine that with some other information-- an end of the semester grade update. It's been quite some time since I last talked about my classes in a more numerical sense, so I decided to write this post to do just that.

First, classes are definitely picking up. With only two weeks left in the semester, I'm at this point where all of a sudden teachers are realizing how little time is left and, to combat this, are assigning piles and piles of homework. For instance, I have a Korean essay, powerpoint, and vocab test all due this week. In Chinese I have two vocab tests, workbook homework, and a 500 word composition due. In oceanography I finished writing a 10 page paper but still have a powerpoint and lab to complete.

Of course, this is only the homework that is due. This doesn't even begin to explain how much work has been done during these classes and throughout the week as a whole. Naturally, with all of the work piling up, I'm going to catch myself overwhelmed and busier as the time goes on.

As far as classes go for next semester, I have decided to register for 17 credits. I know, I talked a lot about how 18 was "too much", but I think the reason I am less reluctant to take 17 is because the classes will be in areas of interest. For instance, I'm going to be taking Korean 102, Chinese Lang & Culture, Chinese Literature, International Relations, and quite possibly Chinese 302. With how this semester has gone, meaning how drained I am of Chinese both emotionally and mentally, the absolute last thing I want is to be taking another semester of Chinese with my current teacher. I do not have the same feeling for Chinese as I did in high school, or even this time last year, and for that I am sorrowful. But I'm not sorry. I tried my absolute best this semester, and very few people around me can say the same. Additionally, even fewer people around me can speak a second language, much less are learning one. I don't blame the language but I blame the teacher. I put in too much time and have reached a point where it seems futile to be trying this hard for a class that I feel I'm only going backwards in. 

As far as I'm concerned, next semester looks bright. I'm going to be in classes I enjoy, with a good schedule as far as time goes. I do have a 9am, but I actually would prefer it this way instead of having classes after noon. However, I still wasn't as fortunate because I have a pretty strict daily schedule of 9-4. 

I hope that, regardless of how my semester is going, that the rest of you are having an equally as eventful time in school. Once again we're in the homestretch!

Until next time,

Aislinn

Hey guys,

The past few weeks have been, in a word: exhausting. The classwork is starting to pile up, work is starting to grow increasingly tedious, and I have absolutely no idea what any of my grades are! Now, one would think, that since I live on Oahu I'm always at the beach, yeah? Except thats not the case at all, I mean when Daniel was gone it was but now that he's back we have more important things to do, like shark diving!

YES! You heard that right, the two of us went on a pelagic dive, meaning no cage. 

It was just as terrifying as it was relaxing, and after the initial wave of claustrophobia that consumed me when I first went into the water, I soon found myself drifting along watching everything below me, alongside me, and above me. I wouldn't call it "humbling", but would instead call it a surreal experience. 

Of course, I could not go through this without ensuring that I would have plenty of pictures. True to my word, here is a collection of moments taken by Daniel.







In total we saw about 5 sharks, but I would argue more. They were, if I remember correctly, all Galapagos. There was also a period of time where we were fortunate enough to see some tuna swimming around, too. 

The galapagos, I learned, are very curious sharks. They will come right up to you with absolutely no fear, and are quick to swim over to whatever object is making either a sound or vibration in the water. Overtime the water got a little too still the sharks had a habit of dispersing, but the second the captain turned the boats motor back on they were quick to come swimming back. 

As weird a feeling as it was to be swimming in open water alongside sharks, it was also an unexpected feeling to become seasick. While not physically sick, there was a point where I became very nauseous and, thankfully, this coincided with the time we were leaving the water. According to our head diver, people get seasick because there are prolonged periods of time where you can't see anything, and thus, that lack of focus causes us to become very sick. 

Besides the shark dive, arguably our biggest adventure since Daniel's return, we also spent the week prior out camping! We decided to go camping at a nice beach called Bellows (you may remember it having been referenced in a previous post of mine). We pitched a tent, bought some poke, and enjoyed watching the sunset. I didn't take any pictures, but here is a nice little video of the waves crashing against the shore the following morning. 


We've also taken time out to go to a Korean temple, Mu Ryung Sa, Pali Lookout, and go fishing, because it's one of Daniel's hobbies. 




Our next adventure will be a rather big one for us: island hopping!

I sincerely hope you are enjoying all that I have been up to. Expect more posts now that I'm going to be out and about! 

Until next time,

Aislinn

Hey everyone,

I'm not sure the direction this post is going to go in, just like I'm not sure if I'm going to be too repetitive. I'm posting it to get this off of my chest, as it's something I've been thinking about a lot over the past week.

I'm not sure if Manoa is where I want to be.

I know, I know, I talked about this last year. I thought that I would grow out of this- I really did. I thought that perhaps if I took classes I'm interested in and took advantage of more of what Manoa could offer that things would be different. But, truth be told, things are not much different. 

I would like to clarify, before I say more, that I mean this in an academic and social sense. Let me say that in no way does this post define my feelings of Oahu, just like, in no way, do I not like Oahu. I love the island, just not Manoa. 

Before this year started I made it my goal to take advantage of everything Manoa offered me, considering that I had given transferring some serious thought. I rushed, I became more active in the Korean club, and even tried for the collegiate magazine. However, along the way, I learned a few things. 

One- the Greek Life at Manoa is an idea that I am in love with that has been executed very poorly. The sisterhood I desired is not present at Manoa. I learned this when I rushed. The "sisterhood" at Manoa is backed by thousands in yearly dues for shirts that you pay extra for, events that are not mandatory, and quotas that must be met. If you're curious to read about my in-depth rushing experience, click HERE. 

Two- The Korean Club, while not as cliquey as last year, is hit or miss. In this semester, as many have argued, it falls more alongside the 'hit' category. The leadership isn't very present, and, unless your Korean is a rather high level, you might feel excluded. This can be prominently seen in the group chat, where the primary text is in Korean by the members in 300 and above. I thought that, by taking Korean, I would feel more welcome. And, while I do feel welcome, I have found it very hard to get to know the members, as my Korean level is so low. 

Three- The collegiate magazine is another way to surround yourself with your Sisters. I capitalize Sisters because that's everyone who is on the commitee- girls from one of the sororities on campus. I'm sure they're all lovely, but really, I don't want to feel excluded by not being a Sister, and I don't want this to be something that feels cliquey. 

Lastly, and I've said this I don't know how many times, but Manoa is not the college I envisioned myself at. When I pictured myself at a University, I wholeheartedly saw myself not only at a good school but an actual college. I mean this, of course, in the social sense. A school with a large quad, with a congregation of dozens of students all laying out or playing frisbee. Beautiful buildings that are really old but still hold well. Faculty who are easy to approach, and at the same time, make the effort to get to know you. Large lectures with hundreds of students that I can't all possibly know but would still enjoy attending. 8 am classes because I prefer waking up early now. All of this, and more, are things that I craved in picking my school. And, truth be told, I really wonder if I would be happy elsewhere. I really wonder if I would be better off attending a better school, even if it meant I would be paying much more. 

I'm constantly reminded of the decision I made to attend a lower school. I can't believe how hard I worked in high school, hard work that landed me interviews with Ivy League schools, to only end up here. Here is a place with no quad for students to gather at. The campus is primarily commuter, so the majority of kids in my classes still get driven to school by their parents. Here is a school with academics so easy, "I could fall asleep, wake up, and still get an A on my exam,". Here is a school where the professors don't make the effort to know you, and are very sardonic when you do ask for help. Here is a place where I do not feel like I'm getting the college experience, but merely living in a period. A place where nothing is coming and nothing is going. A pause in time. Nothing. Everyone around me is more concerned with going to the beach or spending their parents' money to really prioritize school. That is not who I am. I am somebody who loves education, whose desire to learn at a higher standard led her to applying at 7 tier one schools, and interviewing with every single one. I am a student who tries consistently to make the mark, and yet gets absolutely degraded by my teacher because the 10 hours of time I spend a week on their one class "isn't trying hard enough". Mind you, I'm in 18 credits, and since there are only 7 days a week, it is physically impossible to spend 10 hours studying for each class. 

At the end of last year, I was confident that this was "just a phase" or the onset of the Sophomore Slump. However, this week has quietly revealed to me that this wasn't a phase but that I was right. Manoa is not an academic place, but rather, simply a place where I am paying to eat, sleep, and live at a very low cost. 

I know that I shouldn't be complaining- "It is Hawaii after all!" But I really don't think people are understanding where it is that I'm coming from. It does not matter where I am, if I am paying I truly believe I should be happy. Don't you?

I hope the rest of the week treats you well. 

Until next time,

Aislinn

Happy Halloween everyone,

I'm very much excited for this post, as this is the first year I have, while in Hawaii, participated in Halloween.

I know that most people expect that once you hit that certain age that you will completely drop Halloween and hang up your costumes to instead pass out candy. However, I want to point out that the culture of Halloween, at least while in college, is completely different than the norm.

All day you'll see people walking around campus with their costumes or face paint. It's not considered "weird" and it's not frowned upon. I mean really, we live in Hawaii where some Polynesian males will walk around in their culture's own clothing, i.e. skirts. (The technical term: lava lava) And while my point is most definitely not to compare a costume to that of the lava lava, my point is that at Manoa it isn't weird to see people breaking "Mainland" norms.

While I didn't dress up all day, I was required encouraged to dress up at work, where the neighboring preschool would stop by to collect candy. Naturally, the group I work with had to go under the theme of: fruit. Given that this is a relatively difficult costume to get a hold of, I decided I would bite the bullet and DIY my costume.

Before I give it away, here's a picture of me (after work before I quickly changed) in costume. Can you guess what I am?

If you guessed watermelon, you're not along. You're wrong, but you're not alone. Contrary to that guess, I actually attempted creating a strawberry. I'll spare you the "Create Her Look" post, but for those interested in creating a quick, last minute costume, try making fruit. All it took was a large red shirt (plain), black fabric pen, and green felt.

Warning: this looks like something that would take you all but 5 minutes, but in fact it took me a good hour. So if you want to be cheap and commit an hour of your time to your costume, go for the fruit look.

After work I changed and went back into regular clothing. Unfortunately I have multiple exams to prepare for (Korean, Chinese, and Oceanography, respectfully) so I am choosing to stay inside, instead. 

I hope everyone had a good holiday. I do want to apologize for not posting much. Truth be told I'm back in my routine and haven't had much to post on. Here's hoping that changes.

Until next time,

Aislinn 

Hey guys, 

This week I wanted to give you more of an academic update. I know that, as of late, the majority of my posts have been about Daniel and all of our adventures around the island. To counter these posts, I wanted to publish one that discusses my recent academic endeavors. I hope that you enjoy.

I think it's best we start with the most prominent event thus far: midterms.

Yes, it's midterm season again. This means late nights studying, cramming for exams, and suddenly getting homework in half of your classes. 

Actually, it hasn't been like this at all. You would think that, considering how I'm enrolled in 18 credits, my semester would be like this constantly. You would think that I'm always staying up late studying, or either having some homework assignment to complete, but in reality it has been quite the opposite.

The classes I'm taking, for those of you that may have forgotten, are: Chinese 301, Korean 101, Intro to Political Science, China's Political Economy, Oceanography, and the accompanying OCN lab.

Now while those classes look daunting (and 18 credits sounds just as bad), let me put to rest the notion that I do nothing but study. These past few weeks I have been going out much more and even just doing much more, and there would be no absolute way I would feel comfortable doing what I've done if I would have had the amount of homework that many people assume an 18 credit workload has.

Instead, my classes are quite easy in terms of demand. For Korean, we have homework once every chapter. That's it! One worksheet every chapter. This means that once every four weeks (give or take) I have a worksheet to complete. How crazy is that? I could only dream of the day my Chinese class is this laid back. 

Speaking of which, Chinese class , the outlier of my classes and the bane of my existence, is the one class in which I have homework every night. To be frank, I'm not sure how I've been successful in doing any of the homework this past month and a half, because it feels like I have done no work at all. The workload of Chinese class this year is much more manageable than last, and while I might complain, I'm still so very much thankful. In fact, this semester I have all but lost that familiar "panic" feeling I used to get when entering the classroom. Instead, I have been showing up to class feeling like "You know what? I've got this." and feeling very relaxed overall. I don't know what changed, but I do believe that it has to do with my level slowly (but surely!) increasing. I definitely should make more of an effort to remind myself of this, as I all too often get caught up in tearing myself down for not understanding, instead of praising myself for when I do understand.

As far as science goes, in my Oceanography class I never have homework. In fact, unless you find yourself taking the lab, then you really won't have any homework. For this class the only grades are: participation, a class field trip, and the unit exams. However, if you do find yourself in the lab, your grade will be based on lab reports and a scientific paper on the topic of your choosing.

In my Political Science class our only homework thus far have been the readings assigned to us before every lecture. To be quite honest, you really don't even need to do the readings, as they are more supplementary material. You may find that you like them, or you may find yourself more-so in my boat, where, after a few weeks, I found them to be boring and realized they were not required readings.

In my last class, China's Political Economy, our only assignments for the entire semester are two reports and an accompanying two presentations. Our final? A take home paper and a private presentation with the teacher. This is arguably my most laid-back class, as you should all remember at the beginning of the semester she introduced herself by saying "I'm sure you've all read my ratings and know that, rest assured, you will be getting good grades.". While the class itself regularly goes off-topic, I wouldn't let the idea that it's an upper division, writing intensive class make you believe I'm doing any difficult work. In fact, I think it's been very nice that I'm able to take a class that I find interesting that also doesn't require much work. It makes enjoying the class all the much better.

And now, with a solid idea of how much work I have in general, it would be fair to assume that my midterms are either going to be extremely easy or insanely difficult. Let me break it down some more.

The midterms I have had thus far are: Oceanography and Political Science

Now, I know initially that this doesn't look like much. And really, it isn't. But I think that, now knowing how these two classes require such minimal work, that the bulk of my grades will ride on these exams. 

Thankfully, I can say with confidence that I believe I did very well on my political science midterm. Our test requires us to memorize 50 vocab words and 2 individual questions. On the exam itself, our professor choose 10 out of the 50 words and asked we define only 6 of our choosing. I also believe I did fairly well on the ID question, which had an additional 3 parts to it. This midterm will account for one third of my grade. The other 66% will come from our final and our mid semester paper. 

Oceanography is a different story. The class itself is, I find, relatively boring. I don't understand much of what the professors are talking about, and this made the midterm much harder than the political science one. If I'm being honest, the entire reason I took this class and not something like food science is because I heard from all of my friends that it's an easy science credit. Unfortunately, what I didn't take into consideration was that all of those friends were either marine biology majors or biology majors. I passed the midterm, of course, but knowing what I know now I will definitely have to study up more so that I can do better on the next exam. 

Also, since this post has been published, I will have completed another midterm: Chinese Oral. This one, to me, is such a disappointment. This semester I have felt like I have been doing so good, and then today I didn't have such great luck. Our test seemed simple, to talk 1-3 minutes about Chinese doctors and convince your friend why they should or should not see one. However, what I didn't know about, was that even though our regular class time is 50 minutes, the exam itself would only be 15. Which means that, even though we were told "record yourselves as many times as you need", when the teacher said "TIME!", that she actually means that the test is over. I cannot tell you the sheer panic I felt as I looked away from my computer screen and locked eyes with her at the front. At only 30 seconds into my fourth take, I knew that I was done for. I wanted to perfect my audio file, and unfortunately not knowing this exam was only 1/3 of the class time led me to, without a doubt, fail the oral. It is times like these when I feel the most discouraged, as I know that I know the information, but it just doesn't come out. I wish I could say it was no big deal, but with a fellowship riding on my back, solely dependent on the grade I get in this class, I cannot say anything less. I can only hope that the midterm reading, writing, and listening go much better. 

The rest of my classes don't have midterms! Which are really just China's Political Economy and Korean. It feels nice to come home and feel like I don't have anything to study for or to work on. Of course, one could argue that I always have something that I could be studying for, but for now I would like to enjoy this tiny period of rest. 

Additionally, outside of class, I have begun Chinese tutoring again and have also been going to the gym more regularly. I was really good about going in the beginning of the semester, but once classes started picking up things seemed to fizzle out. I really hope that these next few weeks I can spend more time on the treadmill and less on my desk chair. I have also started working at my new on-campus job! For safety reasons, similar to last year, I will not be sharing where I work. Just know that it is "as demanding, if not more, than a class." as my boss told me on the first day. I guess that, even with 18 credits, I can't get a break. 

I hope everyone is having a great week and that midterms aren't causing complete havoc on your academic lives. 

Until next time,

Aislinn