disalarming

Remember how I talked about how I was waiting to hear back about a fall internship? Well, I was offered my dream internship!! I will be a media relations intern at a prominent international organization. I’m really excited as this position will allow me to dive head-first into my field of study and gain valuable experience. I also strongly believe in this organization’s mission statement, which was one of the reasons why I wanted so badly to intern at this organization.

I will have a full day of orientation in exactly two weeks. After that, I’ll begin interning part-time throughout the whole semester. I’m so excited! :D

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.

This summer, apart from traveling, I was going to intern in Beijing and teach English in Shanghai. Initially, I struggled between which employment option to choose: interning, or teaching. Then, I found some magical way to incorporate both into my summer by interning the first half and teaching the second half. And then… complications arose and the whole plan fell apart. Except for the travel component, thank GOD, or else I would have had nothing to show for my summer besides lazing about and not using my hard-earned Mandarin skills.

Interning fell through not because I wasn’t a viable candidate or anything like that. In fact, I had pretty much secured the position, which was no small feat seeing as it was at a world-class PR company’s office in Beijing. However, the issues that arose were not to do with me, but with my Chinese visa and housing. I had contacted the company expressing my interest in interning through my study abroad program in Beijing, who conveniently forgot to mention that 1) I would require a student visa to intern, 2) They would not be providing me papers to renew my student visa, and 3) They also would not offer me any housing. So, thanks to no student visa and no housing, I had to decline the internship opportunity. Frustrated doesn’t even begin to cover how I felt when things came crashing down.

Teaching fell through for a myriad of little reasons, unlike interning. The school was incredibly vague on how much I would get paid, and how much of my working hours would be paid (last official thing I heard was that I would be paid three hours per day, but expected to be at the school and work for a minimum of six). They also wouldn’t cover any visa or visa travel-related expenses (a Chinese visa costs around $140USD for an American citizen, and to “renew” a double-entry or multiple-entry visa one must leave the country). Getting in touch with the school officials to confirm anything about the job was like pulling teeth – at times, it was altogether impossible. Not exactly the most promising work environment. Also, since the teaching gig was at the very tailend of my summer in China, I would have to piece together alternative living arrangements for the rest of the summer since the internship fell through.

In the end, I’m simply going to be traveling with family in China until mid-July. Then, I return home to Chicago for two weeks to pack up my things and move out permanently to my apartment in Washington, DC. After I celebrate my 21st (August 23rd!), I kick off my final year of my undergraduate degree. Needless to say, there are a lot of major changes coming up in my life…

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.

As of today, I have officially finished my second year of college¹. It’s been a very interesting year, with extreme highs and lows. On a whole, though, it’s been a good year. I’ve definitely learned a lot academically and even more socially, both friends-wise and relationship-wise. I’ve gained a plethora of work experience and have a much more impressive resume to show for it.

Academically, I’ve taken a full course load both semesters and have excelled in my classes. I’ve now taken classes that have begun to really get at the heart of my studies and I now know for sure that I am choosing the right academic path. I worked really hard fall semester and early spring semester on my scholarship application and was fortunate enough to be chosen to receive it.

Work-wise, I’ve held what might possibly be my favorite position, ever. I also had my first internship, which was a huge learning experience and gave me great insight into the workplace in my field of study. I made some great contacts through both my job and internship, and I am hoping to maintain them throughout the next few years. I also worked at a prominent museum for a brief interim last semester, and that most definitely taught me everything I ever cared to know about standing on my feet for hours on end!

Socially, I think I’ve learned more this year than in any other year of my life. I lost a best friend; I drifted apart from some of my old high school friends. I made a vow to detoxify my life from the “poison” that was in it. I also became so much closer to my core group of friends and met some absolutely fantastic people this year. In a nutshell, I learned who my real friends were and became a stronger person because of it.

There were some great memories from the year, as well as some pretty low ones. Last semester, I had a tendency to focus too much on the negative. (To be fair, the majority of the negative stuff from this year happened in the fall.) But this semester, I’m taking away all of the positives and running with it. These are the memories that will last me for my year abroad; these are the memories that will make me want to come back after being away for so long.

Throughout this entire year, I’ve been so eager for the school year to end so that I can clear off and go abroad next year. Now that it’s ended, though, I find it to be a very bittersweet ending. I am still as excited as ever to go abroad and am beginning to make more extensive and detailed plans for my adventures in Beijing. But there’s a lot I am leaving behind, and I’ll miss so many people. Still, everything will still be here, when I get back, right?

1. I would say I’ve officially finished sophomore year, but credits-wise, I’m somewhere in the murky area between a junior and a senior. [↩]

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.

My thoughts are all over the place at the moment, so I’m going to settle with bullet points for this entry.

• It has been 70F without a cloud in the sky all week
  I have been spending every moment possible outdoors, soaking up the sun. I appreciate this weather so much more after the Snowpocalypse and Snowmageddon. It makes having to stay inside and do work that much harder!
• I got accepted to study abroad in Beijing next year
  I got my acceptance letter yesterday! I’m going to be in Beijing next school year, baby! Words cannot describe how excited I am for this opportunity of a lifetime. Can it be September already?
• Mission Detoxify is going superbly
  There’s been some drama among my circle of friends this week, but none of it involves me, either directly or indirectly. Plus, I encountered someone on my list of people to cut out from my life in an effort to rid myself of negatives and I am very proud of the way I handled myself in that situation. I did my best to keep it classy and I definitely succeeded.
• I did well on my midterm papers and exams
  This week, I received all of the exams and papers I worked so hard on prior to spring break. I am very pleased with all of my grades; all I have to do now is keep them up for the rest of the year.
• I have been assigned awesome projects at my internship
  I am going to be assisting with the redesign of the website at my internship as well as working on the content and copy. While this project is still in the initial stages, I am very excited to be able to do something very tangible that I will be able to use to “show for” my work.
• I spent quality time catching up with friends I missed while away on break
  I might allude to all the drama that happens in my group of friends (which, frankly, happens a lot) but they are my friends for a reason. It’s been really nice hanging out with them and catching up this week, especially as the weeks will only get crazier as finals approach.

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.

As I begin to prep for the start of the 2010 spring semester tomorrow, I’ve been thinking a lot about what’s in store for me for the next five months or so. I have a lot lined up and while I actually am excited for all of it, it’s a little overwhelming. Krissy recently told me that she didn’t know how I found the time to sit down. While it was a joke, I think she might have a point…

Classes-wise, I am taking a full course load of five classes. Three are for my major/minor¹, one for a General Education requirement and one as an elective. It’s not going to be a particularly easy semester, especially as I’m starting to get into the heart of both my major and minor, but every single class is one that I want to take. I’m actually interested in all of these subjects, which will make a huge difference when it comes to my motivation towards academics this semester².

In addition to my classes, I am also working this semester. I have an on-campus job as a peer advisor (there are six of us total) in my school’s career center where I hold drop-in hours for students to get their resumes and cover letters critiqued, present in classrooms to promote the career center’s resources and facilitate workshops about all things job search related. It’s an amazing job; I love it. I’m incredibly lucky to be able to work in such a professional environment where I can establish contacts and network with experts while getting paid!

I also landed an internship this semester as the public relations intern for an international news broadcasting agency. I was interviewed for the position last month and was offered the job not even five minutes into my interview, which was a pretty big boost to my self-esteem! I’ll be drafting press releases, communicating with outside media, assisting with event planning and promoting different projects. This internship is what I am most excited for this semester as I want to work in the field of PR on an international scale and I’ll be able to experience just that as an intern at this agency. I’m even hoping I’ll even be able to assist in the Mandarin Chinese or Cantonese programs as I have the language skills to do so, although really, just being able to intern there is a huge boost to my career experience and resume.

I still maintain my web editor position of my school’s literary magazine³ but I’ve quit my museum job. I didn’t have the time for that as well as my internship, and I valued my internship more than my museum gig. I figure I’ve enough on my plate already without working at the museum, as I still have to fit in time to eat, sleep and oh, have a social life…

If I disappear from the blogosphere, you’ll know it’s because I’m insanely busy⁴. It’s going to be an absolutely crazy semester… but I’m hoping it’ll be the best one yet.

1. I’m a Public Communication student with a minor in the Chinese Language. [↩]
2. Last semester I had to take micro for a GenEd requirement, and I just about died because I discovered that my brain is most certainly not wired for econ. [↩]
3. I’ve been bumped up to Web Editor fromn Assistant Web Editor. [↩]
4. I’m really hoping it won’t come to that, though. That’s part of the reason why the blogging schedule is no more! [↩]

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.