Today was a pretty successful Sunday. Even though I have a cold (and don't worry I watched my fair share of TV),  I did some homework at Salvador's (an American style coffee shop down the street from my dorm) and found an apartment for the fall semester with my friends. The apartment is close to our school and is really nice for how much we would pay for it. Furniture is even included. Lastly, my friends (and new roommates) planned out where we are going to go for our first long break from school. We have two breaks, so this first break we decided to see more of China and travel to another country during our next break in October. That way we have more time to get our visas and figure out where we would be wwoofing. Our first break is in two weeks and we will have off for three. So even though that means our final is in two weeks, I am excited to visit northern Yunnan province. (Originally we were considering also going to Tibet as well, but we heard that the Chinese government forces all tourists to have guided tours. So after hearing that we wouldn't even be able to get the real story by going there, we ruled it out).

As a result, I have been thinking a lot about traveling today. I realized that China has been a place that I have always associated with transition and change that mirrored my own. There are so many places in the world that I want to visit, but what intrigues me about China is that I feel like I can question, change, or effect the world in any way that I like, and in turn I will change because of that. Though this won't stop me from visiting other countries, what is different about the rest of the world is that I really would be going there to just visit their culture instead of having their culture change me. I would truly be an outsider, while in China, I feel the way I always thought America was supposed to make me feel, but didn't.