04/15/2014
As the end of the semester comes, the thing people have most asked me recently is what will I miss most when I leave D.C. I believe people have different experiences with this city, and so I would like to share my best memories of Washington, D.C. 1 . Cupcakes . It has to be on your to-do list in D...
03/31/2014
I have absolutely no sense of direction. I still get lost even in my own hometown. Therefore, adjusting to a new city is always a long and arduous process. I have tried many methods to get myself to better understand where on earth I’m going. I have stared at Google Maps until I was blurry-eyed,...
03/17/2014
In Washington, D.C., there are plenty of incredible things you can enjoy. For example, meeting two presidents at one time. Invited by the United States Student Association, a group of UCDC students including me were so honored to witness the State welcome French President Francois Hollande. As...
03/06/2014
I celebrated my 22nd birthday this weekend. After indulging in several emotional waves of nostalgia and reminiscence, I found myself back in the present and highly aware of the current circumstances. I am twenty-two years old. I am in my final semester of college. I am in Washington, D.C. I am...
02/19/2014
A New exploration. The main reason that drives me to participate in the UCDC program is to expose myself physically and mentally to the east coast. When I got off the plane, the breeze awakened me completely, reminding me that my journey had started! The takeaway from the orientation was that if...
02/03/2014
I recently finished watching the seven incredible seasons of The West Wing. It’s absolutely enrapturing. But it’s a dramatic TV show meant to engage devoted audiences; it bears little resemblance to reality. At least that is what I would try tell myself as I fixated on the screen - mouth agape -...
12/23/2013
In the span of three days, I went from 25 degree F weather to 65 F, from craving hot chocolate in blistering D.C. cold to sipping my mother’s homemade smoothies produced with berries fresh from our humble orchard in sunny California. Talk about a jarring (yet welcome!) change of pace. This was my...
12/16/2013
I still need to pack. The UCDC building kicks us out tomorrow, and that move-out date totally snuck up on me. These past weeks have been spent going to goodbye dinners for all the quarter students leaving, finishing up projects at my internship, going to professional-social holiday parties (they’re...
11/22/2013
So, a few things have changed in D.C since my last blog post. The federal shutdown ended after a grueling 2 1/2 weeks, during which the public and House Speaker John Boehner’s tears grew infinitely larger as they wept at the sad state of our nation’s democracy (or in Boehner’s case, his dismal...
10/28/2013
The start of the federal government shutdown of 2013 coincided with a spike in temperature. I know this for sure, because I celebrated surviving the DC summer humidity with a weekend of beautiful low- to mid-70’s temperatures reminiscent of Berkeley weather. And then the government closed down and...
