The sharp scent of red spices and curry powder. Heat emanating from the fresh pieces of naan bread. The sound of silverware clattering against each other. And the sight of native, desi food. I suddenly felt that a piece of me that had been empty for months was alive again.

I was in New York, where I had traveled for fall break in search of a taste of home.  I wanted to see all the famous sights of New York City of course, but I was most excited to visit the neighborhood of Jackson Heights. I had been told it was the hub for South Asian food and attire; a treat for all natives who want to seek home away from home.

South Asia is known for its spicy, fiery food and wide variety of dishes. From the day we are born, we adore food. Memories, events and photo albums are incomplete without remembering the food and if anyone ever says they don’t like food – well, they are pariahs from that day on (trust me, I have tried it).

Thus, when I came to America, it was hard for me to adjust to the bland, mild taste of pastas, pizzas and sandwiches. Every now and then, my taste buds started demanding a respite from the constant taste of cheese, tuna, lettuce and carrots, craving the more spicy chicken, beef, curry and green chilies. But until now, I had been unable to fulfill their wishes.

Gyro stand we found in Times Square

Other South Asian students who live in mainstream places like D.C., Chicago or California might think I’m crazy for going all the way to New York just for a taste of spicy curry, but that’s because they probably have places like that near where they live.  George Mason University in Virginia has traditional desi food available in the cafeteria every single day.  Even New Yorkers don’t have to travel to Jackson Heights for food – the streets in Times Square are lined with carts selling chicken gyro (a Greek dish popular among South Asians because of its spices).

However, Mount Holyoke College is in tiny, remote South Hadley, Massachusetts.  There it is impossible to satisfy such food cravings.

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Ah, it is summer again! The golden time for travel! Dear international students, are you familiar with traveling in America? As an international student myself, I can still remember my first travel in America. I learned a lot about how transportation works in the U.S., and I’m glad to share with you some tips I learned from my own experience.

Train is the primary means of long distance transportation for people in my home country China, while the most popular way in America is to take a plane. But there are lots of other methods of traveling far distances in America as well, that an international student may not know about or think about.

Since almost every form of travel here requires a reservation, you should think about how you want to travel well in advance of your trip.

Airplane

Flight is the most popular means of travel in America, since it is fast and comfortable.  During my last spring break, I took a plane to Los Angeles in order to save time. Spring break only lasts for one week, and I wanted to make sure I had as much time as possible for entertainment.
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Cody, me and Nathan

Back and energized from an amazing fall break! With a busy college term and constant assignments all leading up to midterms, it was great to finally get a break. Although the vacation was short, it was a much-needed time to rest and get away from the routine of books and college activities. I was fortunate to get the opportunity to truly interact with an American family and walked away renewed, physically and in my perspective.

I visited the home of my friend, Cody, in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Throughout that five days, I enjoyed a visit to Dollywood (a theme park by country singer Dolly Parton) and to Ober Gatlinburg (a hilltop resort), but more importantly I enjoyed the hospitality of Cody’s family.

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Daranita is a student in Cambodia, where she is majoring in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) and Business Management. This summer she came on a short exchange program to San Francisco to learn about entrepreneurship and innovation, and shares this story about her experience visiting some of the most famous companies in America.

After three years in high school, and two years in university, I have realized that there is no limitation of choosing my path in life. Everyone is being brought to the world with unique talents, which for me include my strong determination to be part of development for the community where I was born and raised.

This summer, I was selected to go to San Francisco with a group of students from different universities in Cambodia for a program focused on creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship, which fit with my major of Business Management and focused that determination.

The selection process was very tough because most of the students were from the top universities, but I was a shortlisted candidate last year, so I had a good chance for this year. The toughest thing for me was the visa interview with the U.S. Embassy, because we could encounter the failure anytime if we didn’t have enough documents for proof.

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The Empire State Building (lit up red and white to support Japan) - Photo: Reuters

Our wonderful VOA intern Jihye Choi, who comes from Korea, shares her second photo essay of pictures from America. Last time, the photos were of Washington, D.C., where she lives and works. This time, she had a chance to visit New York City and shares some great photos and stories from her trip.  I’m from New York, and I haven’t even seen all the places she visited!

Hello again! How have you been doing? Did you miss me?

Since Monday (22nd of February) was a public holiday (Presidents’ Day) in the States, I decided to go for a short trip for 3 days. As you can see above, I went to New York, which is the biggest city in the U.S.A.

Because I didn’t have enough time to see all of New York, I only looked around Manhattan at this time. This place was far beyond of my imagination. I found a lot of interesting spots that I want to introduce to you.

So, I’m going to take you on a short tour around NY! You will see not only classic tour spots, but also unknown attractions of Manhattan.

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Creative commons photo by Flickr user alexandralee

It’s a little crazy that my spring break ended just a couple days ago, but already the end of the semester is only a few weeks away. By the end of April, I’ll have finished all of my regular classes and will only have a couple of final papers left to turn in. I’ll be able to say goodbye to my responsibilities as a George Washington University student for three and a half long months.

As an undergrad, summer break meant going home to New Jersey for a few months, working a low-stress job as a groundskeeper or warehouse worker, and usually bumming around during my free time. As a graduate student though, since my program is all about professional development, it’s tough to get away with just going home for the summer. Almost all of my classmates have an internship, job, or some cool project already lined up.

For my own part, I’m fortunate because the Sigur Center for Asian Studies at my university awarded me a generous grant to study Mandarin in Taiwan this summer. It’s a pretty awesome deal, and I’m really psyched about it, but it was definitely a process getting there. There are a couple of things that I think helped me out along the way:

Getting started early

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Las Vegas. It’s the sort of place which has been portrayed in mythical terms in the movies and on television to such a scale that it seems impossible to think of it as a real place, an actual city where people live and work.

Photo: Carol M. Highsmith

I had been meaning to take a trip there for a long time, and this past weekend, as spring break sprung to life, a few friends and I set off from Santa Fe, New Mexico due northwest to “Sin City.”

I encountered many thoughts and feelings over the course of those few days. As many of my American friends had foretold, the word “surreal” kept popping up much more than “magical” or “mythical” in Las Vegas.

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It’s February and I’m back to Kansas after a month of vacation well spent next to my family, friends and all my loved ones back in my country, Bolivia. Since it’s February and classes are just starting I thought I could do a recap of how have the college and the town welcomed me back, including the delightful white layer of snow all over the ground that made the town unrecognizable for me.

Snow coats the ground in Kansas

I wasn’t the only one excited with this natural phenomenon, a lot of friends from different parts of the world, like Bangladesh, Uganda or India were also eager about their first encounter with it.

A fun thing I’ve noticed is how the different seasons change the whole calendar and even the customs of people. Flying to Bolivia in December I moved away from the cold winter’s first traces in Kansas to the already warm summer in Santa Cruz. And coming back to Lawrence I see the winter in its most cruel stage and yet most beautiful façade.

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If there is one thing I recently learned, it is that you never know what America has in store for you to explore. San Francisco is one of those American gems that charmed me immediately. I had a half-day layover last Saturday as I was flying back to school in New Mexico. Since my flight from Hong Kong to San Francisco arrived quite early in the morning, I decided to make a quick visit to the downtown area of the city.

Here are some photos I took (click on any picture to enlarge it to full size):

I took the BART train from the airport station to Powell station. This ride took me right to the heart of downtown San Francisco, where the streets are crowded with malls, retail stores, restaurants and cafes…

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I tend to ease into the same comfortable and predictable schedule every year when I return home for a winter break from school:

√ Christmas Eve: Visit cousins and eat copiously

√ Christmas Day: Exchange gifts with family and eat copiously

√ New Year’s Eve: Celebrate with old high school friends, eat copiously and drink champagne

√ Every day: Do anything but work

Going home to New Jersey and falling into this routine is like gravity to me.  My sister is home from college, my dad is home because our farm is off-season, my mom is home extra days from the office, and my old friends are home from school or wherever else.  I have a lot of people to take it easy with, and, anyway, the holidays are supposed to be the time of year when just loafing around is okay.

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After seven months of exploring, enjoying, adapting, torturing…. in the U.S., I finally went back to my home country, China! What was waiting for me there was the incredibly great city of Beijing, yummy Chinese food, old friends who I missed so much, my college, which is my favorite place in the world…and some CULTURE SHOCKS. Yes, I experienced the so-called reverse culture shock in the place where I lived for 20 years.

Renmin University in Beijing, by Flickr user chenyingphoto

Over-friendly

The first culture shock I got after landing in Beijing was about saying hi. In China, people seldom say hi to strangers like the airport clerk, waiters in restaurants or sale associates in shopping malls. That is very different from what it is like in the U.S.

I definitely forgot this tradition after I got out of the plane and said hello to the customs officer in the airport. What made things worse was that I said “hi” rather than “Ni Hao 你好” in Chinese. He stared at me weirdly for a few seconds until I suddenly knew what was going wrong. I just pretended nothing had happened and did not say anything later.

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