My last week in Santiago was very productive!  I spent the week hiking with my host sister, eating the foods I love one last time and enjoying the last couple of days with people I love!

Molo means “hi” and Uyaphi means “where are you going” in isiXhosa, mama Mpumi taught us this during our homestay at her house last weekend. Although it only lasted a weekend we had many opportunities to immerse ourselves in the culture.  

Before I left for Dublin, I made a list of all the things I wanted to do while I was abroad. The list was a little long and hastily done, with little knowledge of what was actually available to me across the pond. I am fully willing to admit that it was done without much thought, and there honestly wasn't too much in it. Even so, I didn't manage to complete all of the things I said I was going to do.

"in this country, anything goes" I heard this twice this week, once from a local student and once from an academic.

I've 2 travel related stories for this post, both highlighting a central and simple phenomenon encapsulated in the quote above. While George Bernard Shaw and Thomas Hardy might have effectively captured past British social conventions, I wonder what a Turkish writer in a similar situation would illustrate Turkish society as being?

This past weekend we went to an art museum in 王府井(Wangfujing), which is a neighborhood in central Beijing with a reputation for wonderful shopping and a notable bookstore. We were treated to an amazing tour by the staff and given the opportunity to go into a back room and watch some masters of arts work on various Chinese art forms. Among the few that we got to see were sculpting, paper cutting, instrument playing, painting, and so much more.

I can tell you right now that I'm probably going to cry while writing this. We leave on Saturday, and I know I am going to miss everyone here so much. A huge, huge thank you obviously has to go out to Matt and Kristen for organizing everything and to IES for giving me this amazing opportunity. I am eternally grateful to them.

But you know, I'm grateful for a lot of things that happened in Sydney, so it's only appropriate that I make a list...

1)All the crazy wonderful people that I met.

“You get a strange feeling when you're about to leave a place, I told him, like you'll not only miss the people you love but you'll miss the person you are now at this time and this place, because you'll never be this way ever again.” -Azar Nafisi

            Today is the 20^th of July, and it’s my first day home since returning from Freiburg!  It’s fantastic to be home again, but I already miss being abroad.  Fortunately we did have a great last week!