A Trip to Dali

This past long weekend, I was lucky enough to spend a couple days in Dali, a small(er than Kunming) ancient city that used to be its own kingdom. Dali is about a 6-7 hour drive from Kunming and is famous for its beautiful scenery, old town, and the Bai ethnic minority. Though it threatened to rain at times, for the most part, the weather worked out in our favor -- meaning lots ...
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5 Reminders I’m Not in Claremont Anymore

But first, a quick introduction. My name is Madeleine Colvin and I'm a third-year student at Pomona. As this post's title indicates, I'm not in Claremont, but in Kunming, China, where I am spending the fall semester abroad at Yunnan University. While essentially everything I see/hear/smell/eat here is remarkably different from Claremont, here are some more obvious standouts (in...
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A Day in the Life (Abroad)

I'm Madeleine, a Pomona junior spending the fall semester abroad in Kunming, China. Here's a little taste of my average weekday: 7:00- If I wake up this early, I like to go down to Cuihu Lake where exclusively old people practice Tai Chi, their Chinese opera skills, embroidery, dancing, etc. I am a Chinese grandma at heart, so I feel especially at home here. 7:45- Wak...
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Nowhere Near Completion: The End of Summer

Of all the words buzzing around my still-embryonic and, thus, still-optimistic thesis research - which, now, can be best characterized as a heap of mistreated books, fingertip-oiled keytops, and looseleaf essays-that-I-should-have-read-electronically-but-printed-so-I-could-scribble-academic-nonsense-on-them - there are a few that linger a bit longer, that resonate in a higher r...
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A Meditation on Culture/Internationalism

Drip. I sigh as I brush my damp hair out of my eyes. Drip. Another sigh. Drip. “Where’s that sound coming from?” My hand moves to my forehead again as I get up from my prone position. A flash of light. The sound of rain pattering violently on tile. “Ah.” I shuffle wearily to the window. “That’s where the drip came from.” “About time,” my mom grumbles in ...
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