College towns in the United States are known for having some of the coolest and tasty restaurants with decent prices. Colleges in China are no different, atleast when it comes to Beiwai. Here are some awesome local eateries around the Bei Wai Campus.

Xi bu Ma Hua — The delicious Chinese equivalent to America’s 24-hour diners. Reasonable prices, open all night and good cheap food. Try the Niu Rou La Mian, with hand-pulled noodles or the Gong Bao Ji Ding if you’re a fan of green onions.

I thought my mid-semester break couldn’t be any better after going to the Cook Islands for 7 days, and I was wrong.  After traveling to a few places in the North Island, it felt strange to be back in class.

Wow, it’s been a while, huh? I’ve been really busy lately, which I’ll get to eventually in another post.  First, allow me to finally wrap up what was my wonderful trip to the Cook Islands with the rest of the IES Christchurch group.  You can find my most recent post here and my first part of this series

Everyone who has ever tried to learn something new knows that mistakes along the way are inevitable. Learning a new language or culture is no different. One of the great things about IES is that, even if you didn’t know it yet, you are surrounded by a plethora of resources and people ready to help you out. Here are some tips to get you started on figuring out solutions to your minor issues while abroad.

Inca Link, the organization I’ve gotten to spend some time with in my time here, is finishing up a school for Christian community leaders in Huaticocha, a small pueblito in the Orellana province of the Amazon.  I got a last minute opportunity to spend a long weekend here with a volunteer group from the states a few weeks ago, and it was such a cool experience. I’m so thankful they let me tag along!

I decided to sign up for the IES trip to El Tigre over the weekend and I was certainly not disappointed. It’s a super cool place for a little getaway because of all the cabins/cabañas/resorts that it offers. You mostly travel around there by boat among the webs of inter-connecting rivers and canals– a pretty unique experience. We took a ferry down the river to an “eco resort” where we took advantage of the nice weather by kayaking, laying by the pool, and playing volleyball amongst other activities.

Scotland was the one IES sponsored trip that I was most excited about and it did not disappoint. We got up very early in the morning on Thursday to fly to Inverness, the capital of the Highlands of Scotland. From there, we drove to Aviemore, where the beautiful Cairngorms National Park is. Here, we all had the opportunity to feed and bond with real live reindeer! I absolutely fell in love with one of the babies, whose name was Bleu.

For one of the IES classes I’m taking, “The Making of Patagonia,” it only makes sense that we take a trip down south to actually experience the region we’re learning about. The class is interdisciplinary with the first half focusing on anthropological aspects of the region and the second half on literature. After finishing the anthropology part (halfway through the semester, which is crazy to think that it’s already been over 2 months here), our class of 11 students went to Bariloche in Rio Negro for 4 days.