Studying abroad: Some best times of my life

[Updates about me: I’m currently having a blast in Jakarta, Indonesia, interning at a newspaper over here. New place, new experiences and hopefully I’ll be able to post more stuff on this blog about life here!]

I’ve wrote this piece a long time ago but could never find the time and effort to post it up to wordpress. I’m finally going to be doing this!

Studying abroad could have been my best experience in my three-years in college.

My first snow ever in Missouri.

I’m a journalism student, therefore, to be able to experience American free-wheeling media up close and up front is definitely a mind-blowing experience for me.

I was enrolled in the Missouri School of Journalism, the first journalism school established in USA and also one of the top three journalism school there. I had the most rigorous and hands-on journalism education for the past five months working in a fully functioning local radio station and website.

That\’s me at Jeff city, Missouri\’s state capitol, and trying to look as professional as possible.

Never had I ever thought that I would be required to produce radio and video stories every week. Never would I imagine that I could solicit articles from local citizens about what they thought of a school bond proposal. Never had I expected that I could get into the groove of local town politics in less than a month. But I did it all.

I have to admit that I was always a city girl. I grew up, eat, lived and breathe city life. Missouri is what I would call the heartland of America and to live in a little university town of Missouri came as a total shock to me when I first went there. There were vast acres of cornfields and farmlands beside the school. Driving became a must. Life all of a sudden became… slower.

But to have the chance to experience the rural life was just awesome, partially because I know I would not have another legitimate excuse to do it. I visited my friend’s farm, saw some of his horses, went fishing by the lake, sat on his tractor, played soccer and basically, got in touch with nature.

Jian Yue (in red) and Simin (in orange) pretending to be the tall weeds when we\’re on William, our American friend\’s family farm!

I’ve met new friends over there: Sometimes, we would go to farmers market together; Sometimes, we would work hard on our assignments together; Sometimes, we would just hang out to drink.

Did I forget to mention study abroad is also a good opportunity to travel around the country? Besides going to popular tourist destinations in the East and West coast, I’ve also got the chance to visit places less travelled to in the mid-west such as Chicago, St. Louis and Madison.

If you’ve got the desire to live on another continent and experience a different kind of lifestyle and culture, going for an exchange program is a fantastic chance for you to do so. And the good news for your parents would be that they do not need to burn their pockets to send for an overseas education but still allow you to live on a foreign land for a short while.

And I learned something new about one of America\’s greatest contemporary architect Frank Lloyd Wright in his hometown in Oaktown, Illinois

 

And I also get to imagine President Obama in U of Chicago

 

The week before all the exchange students left Columbia, we went out for pizza – the good old American way!