Study Abroad

Here in Kunming, I’m not just studying abroad in China. I’m studying abroad in Chinese. The Middlebury program I am on has a strict language pledge, essentially meaning we can’t speak anything but Chinese for the whole four months. It sounds intimidating, and it definitely was at first. One complaint about the language pledge is that it makes it harder to make friends. T...

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 ...

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...

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...