Countries

A Semester of Learning and Exploration in Cape Town 

By Sara Larson ’27 Academic Life Through the CIEE Arts and Sciences program, I have started my semester taking three classes at the University of Cape Town and one class with my CIEE program. UCT is a large university with nearly 30,000 students, so it has been interesting attending lectures with more than 200 students. At UCT I…

The rice grew, and so I did, too.

By Rachel Walker, ’27 When I arrived in Nepal, I had never seen a rice paddy before. I came to learn that the green I saw painted all around my host family’s home was rice, for as long as I could see. In Nepali, there are three words for rice. Dhaan is unhusked rice growing…

What Winter Means: Celebrations Across Campus

By Charlotte Li ‘28 Winter break is just around the corner, and excitement is building across the campus. Students are finishing finals, planning trips home, and looking forward to time with loved ones. At Wesleyan, winter is marked by celebrations of culture diverse in their variety and unique to each student, domestic and international alike.…

Advanced Language Training in Asia after Graduation 

Blakemore Freeman Fellowships are awarded for advanced study of Chinese in Taiwan, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Khmer, Thai, and Vietnamese. Blakemore Fellowships are awarded for advanced study of Chinese in Beijing. Graduating seniors, college graduates, graduate students and early career professionals who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents of the United States, and who have completed (at minimum) the third…

Anecdote From Abroad

During my first week studying abroad in Cape Town, I asked someone for directions to class. They told me, “Just turn right at the robot.” I looked around, completely confused, expecting an actual robot standing on the corner. By the time I realized “robot” means traffic light here, I had walked two blocks in the…

Keeping Cantonese Alive: At Wes and in the World

By Charlotte Li ‘28 歡迎來到我哋嘅家,香港。 Welcome to our home, Hong Kong. As the plane landed, those words in Cantonese filled the cabin, a simple greeting that suddenly felt like a warm embrace. It struck me how long it had been since I’d heard my mother tongue spoken all around me. Living in the United States,…

Crossing Borders: A Story of Survival and Courage

By anonymous The majority of people who are at Wesleyan are there because they have the privilege to be in an elite university. There is also a minority who have the privilege to be at Wesleyan, but they have a different story, and here is the story of one of them.  They tried twice to…

My First Ball in the City of Fury

By Ryan Wong ’27 On October 11th, I walked a little over five minutes from my apartment to Maquinal, an underground cultural center that frequently hosts drag shows, balls, and indie rock concerts, to attend the “Into the Mirage” ball hosted by the House of Raksha (formed in Buenos Aires in 2022). From the entrance,…