Hello all!
I am sorry I haven't posted in forever, but as we know, time kind of escapes us when we are busy doing what we love.
I think this semester has been a really turning point for me in my life. In high school, I felt I did the things I had to do, not necessarily the things I wanted to because of obligations I had made years before. Looking back on it, I think I would have been much happier if I had just stood up for myself and said enough was enough. It took me a long time to realize I had the ability spend my time doing things that made me happy rather than the things that made others happy.
I think this realization began at the beginning of last semester when I began to train for my marathon. Some could argue that coming to this school was the first thing I did for myself, but I think that the attention my acceptance received contributed a lot to my final decision, so I am not going to count it. My marathon was the first decision I made for myself. I was going to train alone, I was going to run it, and it didn't matter if everyone cared or no one did, because I made the commitment to myself and not to a single other person could stand in my way.
Starting this semester I started making goals for myself. They were small and attainable, and if you ask my mom this was a common theme for me in my childhood. I would make goals for my softball team or goals about running or getting good grades. I'm not sure why but goal setting seems to work for me. My goals this semester were as follows: Get an internship, get an english teaching job, find a service project, get all As, explore one part of Shanghai every weekend, find ways to get rid of my anxiety. (The list varies, and sometimes short term goals are added)
We are now midway through the semester and I have found my internship, gotten an English teaching job, explored new places in Shanghai, managed my grades excellently and I will now be going on a service trip to Cambodia.
NYUSH offers a service trip for 12 students to go to Cambodia every year. As some of you know, my Junior year of High School I took Literature of Service where I read Half the Sky. Half the Sky, in short, is about sex trafficking around the world, and one of the countries the author went to was Cambodia. Even in my junior year in high school I felt called to go there and serve, so when the opportunity popped up, I had to take it. I applied and by some miracle I was granted an interview. In the interview I explained to them very plainly that I was being called to serve there. They were impressed with my passion I think, and the rest is history.
Here's the thing about all the amazing things I've been able to accomplish so far. I am busy, yes but I am only doing what I feel passionate about. I have started to live a lifestyle where I want something, I make it work. I think I can contribute a lot of this drive, happiness, and thought process to my major. IMA has been a huge motivator for me. I wake up most days with the desire to create and learn something new. As the semester continues I am constantly reminded that moving out of business was one of the single best decisions I have ever made. Moving forward I am incredibly excited to be a part of the IMA family. Next semester I am taking incredible classes where I will learn how to use drones, how to make interactive clothing like the sleep shirt, I will also be learning about Chinese cyber culture. There were so many options next semester I am taking a full 18 credit load. I could not be more excited about my academic courses!
I recently attended a meeting with one of the IMA department heads. He told me something that holds true for me and gave me a bit of a new perspective. He was defining the words in IMA and when he got to art he told me that it has almost nothing to do with fine arts or creation, although thats how most people see it. He told me that Art can be defined as the things we do in life that fill us with the sense of purpose and breathe life into us. Art, in his sense, is the stuff that makes us happy and free. I couldn't have agreed more with his philosophy, because right now my life is, in fact, art.
I hope everyone is having a great week!
Love always,
Maddie
Thursday, October 22, 2015
Saturday, October 3, 2015
Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Macau
Hello all
I have just returned from a lovely fall break! Our first stop was Guangzhou, our accommodations were about 1.5 hours out from the actual city, which was a bit of a bummer, but we managed just fine. While in Guangzhou we got to see the Canton Tower lit up for Moon Cake Festival as well as see some very interesting museums and monuments attributed to Sun Yat Sen, the first president of the Peoples Republic of China. In addition to this we also saw the Church of Saint Paul, and toured a near by market that was selling all kinds of notebooks and candies and stickers. After two days of touring it was time for us to go to Hong Kong.
Hong Kong was my personal favorite. Although I couldn't use any of my Chinese and they drove on the opposite side of the road, I fell in love with that city. The buildings and architecture were absolutely amazing. We used the very clean metro without fail, and they had every international food brand you could imagine. Normally I would tell you that we only ever ate Chinese food, which is probably the cultural thing to do, but once you see all the international options, its hard to pass up. We ate at Patisseries, Turkish restaurants, Vietnamese, Thai food, you name it. The first night we went to a Dragon festival that was happening in town. It was 250m dragon that was made out of burning incense. At the parade, Hugh Jackman, of all people made an appearance. Other than Hugh the dragon ended up being a bit of a disappointment for the two hours we waited for it to appear. The next night we ended up going to Victoria's peak which has the most gorgeous view of Hong Kong I have ever seen. Pictures won't do it justice, but I will be sending some along.
I would like to preface this next story by telling you that our days in Hong Kong were some of the hottest I have ever had to spend outdoors with no air conditioning. For a lot of the time we had to just pretend not to be miserable because we were all sweating so much. The last day we decided to go to the big buddha which is one of Hong Kong's most famous landmarks. It took us probably three hours to get there. There were 2 ferry rides and a bus ride involved. By the time we made it to the Buddha it was close to 100 degrees. We climbed up all those stairs saw the beautiful view and I would have been so content to go back to the city after that, sit in a cafe and drink a gallon of iced water. However, in a group of 6 girls, group decisions must be made, and we decided to travel to a fisherman's warf, thinking we might as well see as much as we can. The warf ended up being a mistake, as there was not much there but house and fishing boats. At this point I had convinced half the group to travel back with me. It was so hot at this point, the ground was steaming to a point where we were desperate enough to find a fan and just stand there as it blew hot air on us. We couldn't have gotten on a bus back to the ferry fast enough. When we got back to the hostel we all showered and laughed about how miserable the fisherman's warf was. That night we had excellent Dim Sum and then went straight to bed to catch a ferry to Macau for our last day.
Macau was equally as sweltering. It is known for it's gambling but unfortunately you have to be 21. Getting to our hostel was probably the main event of the trip. We had to split up in taxis 3 and 3. The taxis dropped us off randomly and we had to find the hostel on our own. We don't speak any Cantonese or Portuguese so trying to find the place and our lost friends was a struggle. We eventually found our English angel in this beautiful hotel that happened to be across from where we were staying. She lead us right to where we needed to be, and our friends ended up not finding the place for another hour. The majority of our day was spent looking at church ruins and eating really good food. There were so many people out because of the national holiday, it was a really cool atmosphere. To end the trip we went out for a fantastic dinner at one of the Portuguese restaurants near our hostel. I am so glad that I got to go on this trip with the girls. We had so much fun and laughed all the way through. Traveling in Asia can be really hard, because so many things are out of your control, but in the end if you make it back to the dorms safe and sound, it's considered a successful trip.
I will definitely be visiting HK again-- but it's for sure a winter destination!
Love from Shanghai,
Maddie
I have just returned from a lovely fall break! Our first stop was Guangzhou, our accommodations were about 1.5 hours out from the actual city, which was a bit of a bummer, but we managed just fine. While in Guangzhou we got to see the Canton Tower lit up for Moon Cake Festival as well as see some very interesting museums and monuments attributed to Sun Yat Sen, the first president of the Peoples Republic of China. In addition to this we also saw the Church of Saint Paul, and toured a near by market that was selling all kinds of notebooks and candies and stickers. After two days of touring it was time for us to go to Hong Kong.
Hong Kong was my personal favorite. Although I couldn't use any of my Chinese and they drove on the opposite side of the road, I fell in love with that city. The buildings and architecture were absolutely amazing. We used the very clean metro without fail, and they had every international food brand you could imagine. Normally I would tell you that we only ever ate Chinese food, which is probably the cultural thing to do, but once you see all the international options, its hard to pass up. We ate at Patisseries, Turkish restaurants, Vietnamese, Thai food, you name it. The first night we went to a Dragon festival that was happening in town. It was 250m dragon that was made out of burning incense. At the parade, Hugh Jackman, of all people made an appearance. Other than Hugh the dragon ended up being a bit of a disappointment for the two hours we waited for it to appear. The next night we ended up going to Victoria's peak which has the most gorgeous view of Hong Kong I have ever seen. Pictures won't do it justice, but I will be sending some along.
I would like to preface this next story by telling you that our days in Hong Kong were some of the hottest I have ever had to spend outdoors with no air conditioning. For a lot of the time we had to just pretend not to be miserable because we were all sweating so much. The last day we decided to go to the big buddha which is one of Hong Kong's most famous landmarks. It took us probably three hours to get there. There were 2 ferry rides and a bus ride involved. By the time we made it to the Buddha it was close to 100 degrees. We climbed up all those stairs saw the beautiful view and I would have been so content to go back to the city after that, sit in a cafe and drink a gallon of iced water. However, in a group of 6 girls, group decisions must be made, and we decided to travel to a fisherman's warf, thinking we might as well see as much as we can. The warf ended up being a mistake, as there was not much there but house and fishing boats. At this point I had convinced half the group to travel back with me. It was so hot at this point, the ground was steaming to a point where we were desperate enough to find a fan and just stand there as it blew hot air on us. We couldn't have gotten on a bus back to the ferry fast enough. When we got back to the hostel we all showered and laughed about how miserable the fisherman's warf was. That night we had excellent Dim Sum and then went straight to bed to catch a ferry to Macau for our last day.
Macau was equally as sweltering. It is known for it's gambling but unfortunately you have to be 21. Getting to our hostel was probably the main event of the trip. We had to split up in taxis 3 and 3. The taxis dropped us off randomly and we had to find the hostel on our own. We don't speak any Cantonese or Portuguese so trying to find the place and our lost friends was a struggle. We eventually found our English angel in this beautiful hotel that happened to be across from where we were staying. She lead us right to where we needed to be, and our friends ended up not finding the place for another hour. The majority of our day was spent looking at church ruins and eating really good food. There were so many people out because of the national holiday, it was a really cool atmosphere. To end the trip we went out for a fantastic dinner at one of the Portuguese restaurants near our hostel. I am so glad that I got to go on this trip with the girls. We had so much fun and laughed all the way through. Traveling in Asia can be really hard, because so many things are out of your control, but in the end if you make it back to the dorms safe and sound, it's considered a successful trip.
I will definitely be visiting HK again-- but it's for sure a winter destination!
Love from Shanghai,
Maddie
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