Rachel's Happy Planet

By Rachel Liou Monday, March 16     As you can see from the title, I'm back in the states already. Why am I back already, you ask? Well, it's a rather sad story...     Since the world has been cursed with corona, the number of cases in Denmark escalated quickly. By Wednesday the 11th, all schools in Denmark were shutting down. That included Roskilde Festival Hojskole, the place I have been staying at.     At first, it was just another typical weeknight. I sat in my room, laptop on my lap, struggling to write my research paper. My phone kept buzzing with WhatsApp messages from fellow DIS students regarding corona cases updates, but that wasn't enough to catch my attention. Suddenly, my roommate came in, telling me to go to the main building for a mandatory meeting. As we all gathered in the main building, our night teacher told us that the folk high school is shutting down and that we all have to leave. Although us DIS students were still waiting for an ...

By Rachel Liou Sunday, March 1     Yesterday was my last day in Finland. It was by far one of my favorite days that week--Sara and I finally got to visit the Moomin Museum! It's probably the cutest place in Tampere. (Fyi the Moomins are the main characters of a Finnish book series.) The museum had lots of original Moomin illustrations and 3D replicas of scenes from the stories, along with summaries and excerpts of all the Moomin books. Some of the quotes from the stories were deep and touches on life lessons everyone could relate to. Perhaps I should start reading the Moomin books now...     After the museum we went to Hotel Torni for coffee and to get a glimpse of the city view from the top floor. Despite cloudy skies, the view was gorgeous...but still, it would be nicer if there was even a hint of sunshine. I will have to come back to Finland again, just to see the Torni view on a nicer day. Hopefully I can return during the summertime in the near future. ...

By Rachel Liou Friday, February 28     It's been over a month since I left home, but I suppose it's never too late to start blogging about a semester abroad. To be fair, I ran out of my diary pages a couple days ago, but still need a way to document the remainder of the semester. So I guess that was a sign for me to get back into blogging.     In honor of my week off of classes, I've been enjoying a leisurely, luxurious vacation in Tampere, Finland since Sunday. It's by far the best week I've had during my semester in Europe--I'm getting fine dining each day, staying in a beautiful, cozy house (fellow DIS friends, feel free to be jealous as I am not paying for a hostel this week!) spending my time visiting museums and shopping (could I say I'm pretending to be rich?), but most of all, I finally get to see Sara again.     I first met Sara around November 2015, on the first day of our quartet rehearsal. She's a wonderful cellist, and since that day I a...

By Rachel Liou Friday, June 7     Whelp, the end is here. Today is our last full day here in Japan. In the morning we took our class time to reflect and share our takeaways from the past three weeks. We set up our classroom like an "art gallery" to showcase our class portfolios. Many students made standard photo slideshows. Others had scrapbooks, handwritten journals, or simple drawings. Mine of course, was this blog.     Since it was raining today, I spent the afternoon napping in my room. I have already experienced a lot of places at this point, so taking time to rest on a rainy day was all I had in mind, despite it being my last day here. In the evening we went to the (5 star?) hotel next door to have our final farewell dinner together. A traditional Japanese buffet, this might be the last time I'll get to have authentic tea, sushi, udon, soba, and tempura all in one meal. I'm going to miss the food here.     Everything today is the last of the trip....

By Rachel Liou Thursday, June 6     Sometimes the simplest things are just so hard to achieve. Have you ever seen the movie Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle (Harold and Kumar just want to go eat at White Castle but so many crazy things came up that prevents them from getting there)? Well, today was basically like that for me.     I went to Shinjuku today with a friend to explore some gardens and parks, as well as eat some ramen and cheesecake. We found a garden no problem, but later when we wanted to go see another park, we just could not find it--not even Google Maps helped! We wandered and wandered for over half an hour in the hot afternoon, until our feet ached and we were a sweaty mess. We finally gave up and decided to just go to the ramen restaurant. So we got on the train, went to the area closest to the ramen restaurant...and once again, Google Maps failed us. The restaurant, which should only take us seven minutes to walk to from the train station, g...

By Rachel Liou Tuesday, June 4     Not the most eventful day. The morning and afternoon were all spent in class--peer presentations in the morning, a guest lecture (about cute girls and creepy "otakus") in the afternoon. Still, I found a new landmark today: Kanda University of International Studies. One curious guy in my class showed the prof and I the University, which had a nice dining hall for a cheap lunch. I must take my opportunities for high-quality ramen at three hundred yen, after all. The student lounges and libraries were also lovely. Shelves and shelves of books, a spiral staircase, and a mini cafe all within the lounge makes it look comfy and homey. Why can't my school have spacious lounges with a cafe inside of it as well? Time to make a proposition for some campus remodeling...just kidding. Wednesday, June 5     More presentations in the morning.     I was so eager for class to be over today, as I am finally spending the day with a danc...