St. Olaf Global Semester 2017

Hi everyone, here is the post for Nov. 28! After many of us went to the bakery down the block for breakfast today, we started the morning with our Christology in a Global Dialogue class. Afterwards, in our free-time before Survival Chinese, we ventured separate ways, some getting coffee and starting on homework, others taking the time to catch a nap before class starts. For lunch, while many went to the all-you-can-eat sushi buffet in our dormitory. I personally capitalized on ramen from the supermarket for a quick, easy meal. In Survival Chinese, we focused on how to communicate while shopping and bargaining. While it is still a tough learning process, we are definitely making strides. With the rest of our afternoon free, people chose to do many different things. I spent the afternoon playing pickup basketball, finding delicious Chinese food for dinner, and exploring our new campus. Things here have been off to a great start. With a new schedule and new environment, it has been g...

Hello Everyone! Today we started off our day in Professor Ripley’s class discussing the book we’ve been reading through the semester. Then we got more free time before our final language class. I’m still not quite sure what to do with the free time we’ve been getting this week. Especially after a semester of being on the go constantly! :-) Quite a few of us headed to the coffee shop across the street from our dorm (how convenient!) to work on homework before lunch. One of the best discoveries this week (in my opinion) is the restaurant with a sushi buffet that’s in our dorm which quite a few of us ate at for lunch. After lunch we had our final language class. We learned transportation vocab today to help us navigate around Beijing. Our knowledge of transportation vocab was put to the test, as most of the class went to the Silk Market to look for warm coats, hats and mittens before we head to the Great Wall tomorrow (YAY!!). We finished the night at Laker’s for pizza, which is also c...

Hello followers, it's Rose again! Yesterday was a rather unusual day for us: unusual in the sense that we both had class as scheduled and when scheduled, and that we had several hours of free time over the rest of the day. We began the day in Professor Ripley's class with a cultural reflection activity to assess how we've changed in certain areas over the last three months of traveling the world; I think most of us found this exercise very interesting and illuminating. We then experienced that rare and elusive bliss of free time, which was rapidly distributed among several necessary things like doing homework, doing laundry, finding food, finding coffee, or playing basketball. After finding our own lunch (which for some meant all-you-can-eat sushi, for others French baguette, and for others just straight chocolate), we came back to survival Chinese class to learn how to order food in the future. Our Chinese has not drastically improved since yesterday, and since Chinese ...

Ni hao! It’s Erin again, here to take you through our second full day in Beijing and our first set of classes. After several weeks of touring and a quick vacation in Thailand, we’ve been struggling to get back into the student mindset. However, we’re quickly discovering that being a student in China comes with additional challenges on top of what we’re used to at St. Olaf. Not knowing the language, the layout of the neighborhood, what we’re eating, or really how to even communicate while shopping has definitely presented its difficulties, and today was no exception. Today began with another traditional Chinese breakfast at the same restaurant we ate at yesterday, and so many of us used the opportunity to fill up on our favorites from the day before (i.e. dumplings and yummy sesame doughnuts!) Afterwards, we had our first-ever “Survival Chinese” language class. I don’t think our poor teacher knew what she was getting into with our group, but she was extremely patient while teachin...

Hello Hello! Will here with blog for our second day in Beijing. We kicked the morning off with a Chinese breakfast buffet consisting of potstickers, pork buns, millet * , doughnuts, and omelets. Afterwards, we followed Zoe around for a campus tour and got acclimated to the ever so Minnesotan feeling weather (and we’re loving it). Next, we had an orientation meeting to familiarize ourselves with our schedules, the subway, and other various subjects. Now it was time for where the Globes truly shine, lunch. As plate after plate was added to the spinning table, we devoured the delicious orange chicken, vegetables, seafood, and rice. But alas, our eyes grew bigger than our stomachs and we were left completely stuffed and satisfied. We then proceeded to meet the Chinese students at CNU who we’ll be spending the month together with. After a few ice breakers, we split up into “buddy couples” and ventured off into the city with them where we ended the day. * Now millet, if you were not ...

Hello again friends and family of Global!!! Matthew here once again to tell you all about our day on November 24th. We started our last morning in Hong Kong by taking a bus to the airport and saying goodbye to our wonderful tour guide Vivian. After navigating through the Hong Kong airport and catching a tram to our gate, we boarded our flight for the quick two and a half hour jaunt up to Beijing. It was a bitter sweet moment for a lot of us, as this was the last flight that the entire global group would be together for. After this brief moment of sadness, we quickly got pumped up for our time in China. We met our new tour guide Zoe after we made it through customs, and she seems to be a bundle of joy and excitement. We were woefully unprepared for the cold weather that greeted us and quite a few globies could be seen running for the cover of the bus as soon as we ventured out of the airport doors.  After we got to Normal University of Beijing, we settled into our rooms and then pr...

Hi all! It’s Brodie. I’m excited to say that today (11/20) was our first full day in Hong Kong! We started our day off with a trip to the Confucius Institute where we received a brief introduction on ancient China and culture and afterwards we tried on some traditional robes. Apparently the black robes with red were usually worn by the Emperor and Empress (so Anna and I definitely made the right choice in robes). After our introduction, we grabbed lunch at the university’s cafeteria before walking over to the Hong Kong History Museum. The history museum had eight different sections and each contained exhibits and information from different periods in Hong Kong’s history (all the way from 400 million years ago all the way to the present). We allocated an hour to meandering through the museum, but definitely I could have spent upwards of 3 or 4 hours there (if anyone goes to Hong Kong soon, I would strongly recommend planning a visit there!!). After our history lesson, we hopped on a c...

Happy Thanksgiving from Hong Kong! As you might have guessed, Thanksgiving is not quite as big here as it is back in Minnesota. Though it felt a bit strange at first to be celebrating a holiday that no one around us observed, in a way that made it even more special and more personal to our group. We started the day with some group activities, sharing what we're thankful for on this trip and what this trip has made us thankful for back home, and then writing notes of affirmation to each other. After that, we shared in a turkey feast with a few Chinese students as well as some Oles who live here. The rest of the day was free so different people embarked on their own adventures. Many of us digested our food while watching Mulan, then some went shopping, others went to Victoria's Peak, and others just walked around the city. Though we all miss our families and our holiday traditions from home, I think the whole group can agree that we are very thankful for our Global family and fo...

Hello friends and family, Macy here. Today was the end of our break in Thailand, and the day we departed for Hong Kong. Although we are sad to be leaving our paradise, we are excited to see what Hong Kong and China have to offer! We started off the day with a much welcomed late start, before breakfast in and around the hotel. Some of us chowed down on pho, others had thai jelly, and still more ventured out. We saw our first Christmas decorations at a nearby Starbucks. At noon, the newly reunited group made our way to the airport and flew to Hong Kong! At the airport we met the energetic Vivian, who will be leading us around the city. Then we drove the Salisbury YMCA in the middle of the city. It is the most amazing YMCA any of us have ever been in. After a quick dinner at nearby fast food joints we turned in, ready to start a full day of touring tomorrow!

Today was a free day! Most of us chose to spend the day at Disneyland. This was a huge success, whether we were a part of the "savage group" who spent the day sprinting through the park, or we took a more relaxed approach, walking through the different parks, jumping on the rides, and picking up some snacks, everyone had a "magical" day. It was very relaxing to be in the familiar surroundings of Disney movies and songs which often lead to spontaneous singing and dancing down the streets.   Others of the group chose to adventure out into the city which was also a success. Activities of that group included a hunt for the picturesque basketball court that often appears on travel Instagrams, and the unique experience of dining at Mr. Wong's.   Throughout the day the excitement of Thanksgiving was another thing to look forward to, although this also included some feelings of sadness and a wish to be with our families. As we look ahead we are also excited a...

Sorry for the delay in posting! I'm Sophie and I'll be taking you through our hectic journey to Bangkok. As you know from reading our blog, Global has been full of long travel days and major changes in location and this was no exception. It's hard to believe that we just wrapped up more than a month in India and we're onto our next adventure-fall break in Thailand! I know we will all miss India and the challenging, stunning, and eye opening experiences we have had here. We got a little taste of this incredible country (definitely helped by massive amounts of curry and rice) but I know we all feel that we have only just started to explore India. That's the hard and great thing about Global -- you see a tremendous variety of places but not for long so you definitely have to come back!  We're excited to be making the transition to break as we are all exhausted from this month. Thailand promises to hold new adventures and hopefully some restful time as well! It...

Hi everyone, it’s Olivia. Today (11/15) we spent our first day in Thailand! Today is a half day of touring around Bangkok before we head off to our various Fall Break locations. Break at last!  After a bright and early wakeup call, we took a popular Thai mode of transportation—a boat along the river. There we cruised to our locations. First, we went to see the Temple of the Dawn. After that, we went to see the Emerald Buddha on the grounds of the Grand Palace. After that, we saw the reclining Buddha, a giant golden statue of Buddha, at Wat Pho. Then after a large lunch, it was time for fall break.                 After that, our group braved public transportation. We made our way through a busy station taking the metro and then 17 of us took a bus to DMK airport, which, as I’m sure you can imagine, was a lot of coordination and double checking to make sure everyone was there. We all made it to the a...

Hello everybody! Maren here. We woke up to a stinging cloud of smog today and an occasional breeze that refused to move it. The air is grey and thick in Delhi, as it has been all week, and we are not venturing outside of the hotel without our face masks. Recently, the pollution in India has skyrocketed, reaching palpably dangerous levels that threaten humans, animals, and the earth. Today especially, this environmental crisis has left us thinking about and wrestling with the social, biological, and moral conundrums related to Delhi’s air quality. Every year, pollution sickens thousand of people across India and throws delicate ecosystems into chaos. While large subsets of the living suffer long-term health effects, others die. In the human realm, the vast majority of India’s citizens, especially the poorest, cannot choose between staying inside to avoid the pollutants and going outdoors. In general, the average Indian is exposed to toxic, carcinogenic air pollution and its risks ...

Greetings from Delhi! It’s Anna again, and today was another packed travel day. We began with a late start and a visit to a museum about Dr. Ambedkar, who was a champion for the political rights of Dalits (outcasts of the caste system). We ran into a slight snag when the museum was actually closed, but these things happen on Global pretty much all the time, so we know the drill- 10 minutes later and we’d already found a cricket match to go to instead, and we were somehow sitting in a box with the announcer and Professor Ripley was tossing the coin to start the game. Just another Saturday! However, we also got really lucky, because the director of the museum made a special trip to the central office to get a key so we could take our tour. We heard about Dr. Ambedkar’s role in the political and social movement against Dalit discrimination, and his connection to Indian Buddhism.  After the museum, we stopped for a delicious lunch, featuring all the greatest hits we’ve co...

Hello hello! I'm Adam (Globie pictured on the left alongside the beautiful Erin Cochrane) and get ready to read about our crazy Indiana Jones adventure of a day! Our morning consisted of touring around the Ellora caves: a collection of Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain temples carved into the side of a mountain. We had much fun wandering around the caves - exploring all of the nooks and corridors, coming across statues of Hindu gods and goddesses, the Buddha, and Mahavira. The design of these temples blew our minds away! I, for one, was simply awestruck by the first Hindu temple we navigated through, a monument called Kailasha dedicated to Shiva and his dance of destruction. After the lunch break our day got even more exciting! We took a short drive to Daulatabad Fort, a fort constructed in the 14th century under the Tughlug dynasty. It was considered to be the deciding factor back in Medieval Ages as to whether or not an empire would be able to take control of all of Southern India....

Hi all! Alexandra here to celebrate our first day in Aurangabad! We jumped head first back into our touring schedule today with a trip over to the Ajanta caves. The caves were carved into the side of a mountain some 3000 years ago and every pillar, room, and statue was originally just the rock of the mountain. Some of the caves were also covered in paintings depicting the life of Buddha and could easily have fit in with the fine art we saw in Rome many moons ago. The bus ride to the caves took about two and a half hours and so in many ways, we spent more of today touring the Indian countryside than we did the caves. On the way to Ajanta, our tour guide, Joshi, was kind enough to point out some of the cash crops grown in this region, including cotton. While I slept for most of the ride to the caves, on the way home I saw countless small fields filled with rows of green stalks bursting with white fluff. As we drove by, I watched a man and woman harvesting their field, handpic...

Hi family and friends! This is Ellie to fill you in on the 69th day of Global semester. We started off the day by packing up to leave Chennai and head to Aurangabad. However, because of a 20 lbs lower weight limit, packing proved to be much more challenging than usual. In order to to make this low weight limit, we all had to access our limited belongings and decide what we were willing to part with. For me, this meant finally throwing out the flip flops I broke back in Egypt. For others, it meant tossing shirts that will be forever stained with sweat and leaving behind old homework assignments and handouts. Living out of a suitcase for the last 69 days has made us value our belongings we crave back at home as well as allowed us to consider the possibility of living more of a minimalistic life. With most of our bags carefully packed to 33 lbs, we headed to the airports in 3 vans filled with Oles and suitcases. All of us were excited to head to Northern India, but possibly more impo...

Hello! It’s Erin once again, and I’m here to tell you all about our first day in Tiruvannamalai! Home to the renowned Annamailar Temple and Annamalai hills, this picturesque town will be our home for the next 3 days while we get to see the various landmarks and interact with people. It’s rather out of the way, and getting there this morning proved to be quite the drive. Our group of 24 somehow managed to cram onto a tiny bus and drive 4 ½ hours on Tamil Nadu’s bumpy roads. I don’t think my squished shoulders have fully recovered, but our Disney sing-alongs definitely helped the time go by. I also really enjoyed having time to look out the window and see the vast diversity in the Indian countryside. I was definitely not expecting to see mountains with their tops in the clouds!  Once we got to Tiruvannamalai, we dropped our bags off at the hotel and headed over to Quo Vadis, an interfaith Lutheran organization that will be coordinating our excursions this week. The director...

Hi my name is James Faillettaz, as some of you know already. Before leaving for Global Semester I was the type of person that had a hard time waking up before 8 and cherished minutes of sleep, this has changed. Today was yet another early start to my morning, and yet another small step to concept that has always been so distant, that of the "morning person." Loading up the bus at 6:45 to find that it had been decorated for a special occasion, our second birthday of the trip! It is Clare Nelsons 21st birthday today (Happy Birthday Clare). From the hotel, we made the short trip to Quo Vadis to have our last breakfast in Tiruvannamalai. We said our goodbyes, loaded up the bus and started the all-day trip back to Chennai. The first leg was three hours of singing, reading, talking, and napping before reaching the town of   Kanchipuram . Here we took a short tour of a temple, were fortunate enough to get a tour of a house/ sari making workshop and had a wonderful lunch at  Saravan...

Hello Global friends and family! Matthew here to tell you guys about our first full day at ICSA in Chennai (Nov 2nd). We started off the morning with a delicious breakfast of dosa (a crispy crepe is what I describe it as) and then headed over to our morning lecture with Dr. Moses Manohar on religion and politics in India. We took a quick tea break and then came back to pick his brain over some of the more generalized questions that fell under these topics. We then heard a brief presentation about St. Thomas Mount before we loaded up the buses and drove over to see it for ourselves. The Mount is the spot where St Thomas was killed after preaching throughout a large chunk of southern India. The views were breath taking, and the artwork in the church was fascinating. I especially liked the paintings of all the apostles that showed what they were famous for in life and the method of their martyrdom....a little gruesome but interesting non the less! Luckily, the rain held off until we star...

Today marks the end of our time at HMI, drawing to a close our official class of the Religions of India with our final test. We started off the day with a yoga demonstration done by some of our fellow Oles who had been attending the morning sessions. This included poses such as the tiger which were very entertaining to see. Today was also a free day which included people packing, studying for and taking the exam, going on some last minuet excursions to explore Hyderabad and picking up their tailored clothing, and catching up on some sleep. Although we are excited to head even further south to Chenni, we will miss our HMI family that has made our stay here so welcoming.  Sribala, the coordinator of our program, has been wonderful and we have all loved getting to know her.

Hello! Brodie here. On Sunday (October 29), we hauled ourselves out of bed for a morning excursion to attend a service at a church in Hyderabad. The church there belongs to the CSI, or Church of South India, another d we were extremely grateful for the warm welcome and great hospitality their pastor and congregation gave us, and they asked Jason to give a quick introduction of our group and... talk about the Lutheran Reformation! Going into the service, none of us knew it, but apparently it was Reformation Sunday. That was a surprise and people were so excited to celebrate that they decided to extend the service to 2 1/2 hours! Despite the length of the service, they took an in depth look at the significance of the Reformation and discussed how the church, worship, spirituality, and our actions should be constantly reforming and growing. After the service, we all headed over to the Paradise Hotel for a lunch of Hyderabad famous Biryani. The food was delicious, and, needless t...