Anywho, my CDIP (career discovery internship program) was absolutely amazing. I spent two days in Los Angeles and had an internship at Musick, Garret, and Peeler, a larger firm in Downtown LA.

My host was Cheryl Orr, Bates and UPENN grad. She is an appellate specialist and litigator. Over these two days I had a chance to read her cases, aid her in creating arguments and even attended a trial in Ventura, CA.

Cheryl was extremely kind and allowed me learn about more law school. She gave me advice on choosing a law school and told me that Bates really does prepare its students well. We also spoke about our Bates experiences-in fact, we both lived in Page!

Overall, it was a great experience and even though I’m not the biggest fan of litigation, I found the experience to definitely be worthwhile!

Musick, Garret & Peeler, LLP

Well, I got from PWM to GRR by noontime and as we got to the school I thought to myself this is a cute town. The city of Kalamazoo is more of a college town than Lewiston but I personally like the layout of Bates housing.

To be specific, Bates offcampus housing is still a block or two from campus but at K, they legitimately live half a mile away and you need to drive between houses! That being said, I do think that their houses are generally larger and cleaner ( at least my study abroad friend’s houses were).

When I was talking to nick he told me that he thought Kalamazoo food was terrible I couldn’t control myself and told him an all of our friends that he needed to come eat at bates!
Our vegan bar is phenomenal, with pad Thai, coconut toasted bananas, curry, etc, I don’t know how thy could go wrong. Te positive thing about K however was that were a lot of eateries. I was shocked!

If there was one thing that I was jealous about it would have to be the union jazz club and restaurantit’s absolutely amazing and the food is to die for. Nick and I got to listen to the Western Michigan Jazz Band play and we had a chance to eat amazing food. I had a Bells Pale Ale and he had a Bells Amber Ale that accompanied my Thai Flank Steak and his Filet Mignon. We also shared a yummy lobster fondue!

It was also great to have breakfast with my study abroad friends! We went to Main Street Cafe which is really similar to Bates’ Pop Shoppe. I loved reminiscing about Beijing and I missed seeing them and laughing along with there hilarious and weird stories. (seriously some of the weird things they do amaze me)

Overall my trip to K was pretty great; I went horseback riding for nicks gym credit and we also went to Chicago for the day and went to the cheesecake factory! I really want the boys to come to Bates though: short term is absolutely amazing and if they came by I promise that they would have an absolute ball.

In case you didn’t know, I have a brand new addiction: Twitter. I will make a quick plug before I start my blog entry and say that if you want to follow me on Twitter, you can definitely find out more info about Bates!

Now, going back to the Super Bowl, I am not the most avid fan of football, but I do like competition. That being said, I chose to root for the New York Giants, and wasn’t that a phenomenal decision?!

The girls and I believe that a good party always has good food. So we ended up making a bunch of food and brought it over to School Haus for the super bowl. This is where I need to send my mom a shout out for giving me the spinach dip recipe that was an absolute hit!

Look below for some pictures from that night

To give you an idea about what happened last night, here are the rules from WRBC who hosted the event!

“To participate in Trivia Night, you need a team. Said team can have as many people you want, but there are no limits. Teams greater than seven are recommended.  Sign ups will be during the first hour of the competition, 8 – 9 PM. Also necessary: a knack for figuring out the obscure songs and trivia questions that WRBC throws at you. Each team is evaluated according to how many points they win. There are three ways to receive points:

1) Trivia: While tuning in to 91.5 FM all night, you will hear all sorts of songs, from pop hits to obscure Chinese folk ballads, and each song has a corresponding trivia question. Using the special trivia night telephone number, call in (before the song ends!) and tell us the title of the song, the artist who is performing it, and the answer to the trivia question. Each of those answers are worth 1 point, so every song is an opportunity to get 3 points.

2) The real excitement begins with Physical Challenges. So maybe you didn’t know in which state it was illegal for mourners at a wake to eat more than three sandwiches? Well, luckily, you can earn more points through a random assortment of the physical challenge, which are announced on the hour, and then performed on the half hour at the WRBC studio. Winners of Physical Challenges are given 15 points, 2nd Place 10 points, and 3rd Place 5 points. These challenges are judged by a group of trivia night staff.

3) Make sure you’re paying attention, you don’t want to miss: Random points events. Because we’re nice people, sometimes points will be offered for certain requirements to be filled. These could really help you out, especially if you’re creative and listening carefully. So be on the look out!

At the end of all the many hours of radio, trivia, and challenges, each team must perform a skit assigned during the last hour of the broadcast. This final challenge holds a very high point value, so if you want to win, make sure you make it entertaining and ingenious.

Once all that’s happened, a winner is declared, prizes are awarded and it’s really early in the morning. WRBC officially recommends sleeping.”

As you guys can see, Team Iceland made it up to the 7am final challenge!

Here we are marching in our costumes over to New Commons ready to perform the last skit!

Did I mention that we tied for FIRST!?!

I took home a fun arts and craft wine cork trivet and a hairbrush

Make sure to listento WRBC’s 91.5 FM for more fun events this year!

Take a look at some photos I took!

And to celebrate, we had our friends (Almost Awkward) perform for her birthday! At Bates, our nights center around music and fun and this night was no different. Did also mention it was the 90s dance that night?!

Take a look

While the Puddle Jump (yes, it’s exactly what sounds like and yes, it is very very cold), Inflatables Night, and the WRBC concert are super fun and define Winter Carnival for me, one of my favorite events is the aCapella Night. Every group showcases they’re skills and it’s a great way to bring everyone together during the cold Maine nights.

As a senior, I know most of the kids in the aCapella groups, and it is with great pleasure to show you all Raina who is in the class of 2013! The Crosstone’s rendition of Rolling in the Deep is amazing, and I love Raina’s voice!

While visiting, I noticed that more and more shops were being introduced into the district and it seemed to me as if the district was moving away from being an unknown hipster district in the northeast on Beijing and was instead becoming a commercialized place every taxi driver knew about (despite ring across the city). 798 has over 500 galleries and even two weeks isn’t enough to see them all!

I managed to make to a little over 100 while I was there and noted a couple of interesting things: almost all of the galleries had CVs of the artists in both English and Chinese; the art was still the main focus although most of the art felt like it had a pop or commercialized feel; they all have 10-6 work hours but they choose which day to have off (ie Tuesday or Wednesday).

What was super cool and interesting to me was that after six pm 798 did not rest! In fact, when I came on New Years Eve there were two clubs open, people walking everywhere and restaurants open until 2 am!

Although the 798 district is not the place to go if you want to see raw crude art, it is a place that gets you thinking about life in China. Between surrealist figures in front of Tiananmen and Chinese heroines posing in outer space with an iron metal rabbit larger sized at over six feet, there is a lot to say about the direction in which China is moving towards

Between stray dogs and art by Ai Weiwei this district is the epitome of raw Beijing. When I walked into a gallery here, the first thing I saw was an earlobe operation video; weird but still something I could see in 798. However as I walked further in, I heard “summer of ’69″ blasting. I walked into the little black box and saw the music video redone so that clips from the concert in America were interwoven with clips of Chinese citizens swooning over the CCP. I still haven’t decided how I interpret the meaning of this, but one thing I was sure about was that this would not be found five minutes away in 798.

That isn’t to say that I don’t like 798 or that I think Caochangdi has the best art in Beijing but I do think its important to compare the two especially as they are located so closely together (Songzhuang is a whole other story as its kind of the In between).

Anywho, I loved both 798 and Caochangdi and I hope that I can visit the art again soon!

As i pack the final touches and get ready to see domodovo on the way to the beautifully smoggy city I call my third home, it’s no wonder that I get a little bit anxious.

What to pack, what to buy, what to do when in Beijing, home for four months exactly a year ago?

As always a book for the 19 hour flight
Is a must in my case it’s middlesex by Geoffrey Eugenides. But past that one memory that sticks out about that city and has impacted my packing is the weather. It’s cold. And when I mean cold , let us remember that I’m a very happy Batesie. A girl used to the winter. Enough said right?!

But past all the basics I’m really excited to have packed my journal aka WordPress app on my comp and iPhone.

While my memories may become more vague, the instant I write something down I get a burst of happy experiences rushing throughout my body. It’s for that reason that this years trip will be different.

I will be blogging almost everyday (or trying to at least) and writing down my thoughts and experiences. Because lets face it: not many people can say they’ve lived the culture of Beijing, and fewer people can say that they have lived their culture twice.

I thank Bates and my family. Without this education I wouldnot be able to have the goals I’ve created today. So peace my b’s bc I’m heading off to my third home: 北京