How to plan weekend trips!

A few friends has asked me how I plan my trips. During my year in Germany, I spent probably half the weekends traveling and doing stuff, whether it is going to a party in the next town over, or going to a city 8 hours from where I live. As a broke exchange student back then, how did I do it all? Here's how I did it.

Step 1: Figure out exactly how much time you have
So you ask, a weekend is 2 days, what do you mean by how much time? That's true, but not if you include your Friday afternoon if you don't have class, or your Monday morning if you don't have class until the afternoon. There are weekends where I have a good 72 hours to go somewhere (don't question me, question the German school system).

Step 2: Figure out where to go
Now that you know how much time you have, you can plan accordingly. With those 72-hour weekends, you can go somewhere a little further, or somewhere close that you really want to explore inside-out, or maybe a festival that you've had your eye on for months. Have a list of possible destinations.

Step 3: Booking stuff
For weekend trips, I don't recommend booking tickets / rooms on the go. That's because you only have 2-3 days to explore, you may very well loss that precious time running around clueless. With your list of destination in hand, use the almighty Internet to find the best deals on buses, trains, hostels and homestays. Any logical people would choose to go somewhere that's the cheapest, but you do you.

Step 4: Plan your itinerary 
By that, I don't mean to have something like "8am - Healthy breakfast at hostel; 8:32am - take bus 1 to location x entrance a". That's just way too much detail. Have a few places that you want to visit each day, plan an approximate route, and just go wander around! You never know what you could find.

Step 5: Go and have fun
Pack up your backpack (please don't take anything more than a backpack for a weekend trip) and go!!!

Day trip to Brussels

Day-and-a-half trip to Paris

PS: I dropped my old laptop so life has been a mess. Pardon me for the lack of (travel-related) posts because like half of my pictures are not backed-up :( 

CBYX online application tips!

This is hopefully somewhat useful for future applicants.. That is if anyone reads this blog.. 

Since I participated in CBYX (Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange) in 2014, I guess I can say my online application was pretty solid. This is all based on my application experience. (I actually wroe this back in 2014. I decided to re-post this because a lot of people actually read it.)

- Essays: After you wrote and edited your essays, don't hesitate to ask people (preferable alumni, parents and teachers) to read them! Believe it or not, I attacked at least 15 people with my not-so-good essays and their comments helped me improve a lot! Essay is one of the most important parts of the application, since it's the only way the judges get to know you as of now. They look for genuine and motivated applicants; bragging and lying in your essays doesn't help.
In the interview, the interviewer(s) will be reading your application while asking you questions and talk about things you put on the application; it is IMPORTANT for you to review what you wrote in the application before having interview [and congrats if you've made it this far!]. 

- Host family letter: This is different from the essay in my opinion. This letter is for your future host family to know more about you, so there isn't a specific prompt to follow. Before you write, ask yourself what you would want to know if an exchange student is coming to stay with you for 10 months. The student's family life? Social life? Hobbies? Interests? Personality? If you don't have a word limit for the letter, just keep writing, but keep in mind that you don't want the letter to sound boring and redundant because, once again, it's the first impression you have for your future host family. I would say keep it under 700 words and don't just restate everything you wrote in the previous essays, because they'll most likely review your whole application. Try to really give them a glimpse of who you are. 

- Teacher's Recommendations: Double check if the teacher's recs are in. A lot of people didn't complete the application because a teacher's rec was missing. If you aren't sure about it, email the person in charge of application processing! It never hurts, plus this would show him/her that you actually care about the program. 

- Your cover picture: This is the first impression that the judges (and possibly host family) have on you. So you better look nice. I'm not saying you should be complete dressed up for it. Like me, I just wore a nice sweater and had my hair down, nicely combed, and smile like how I would normally. It's better to just show your personality (while looking professional). I'm kind of a casual person and I wear sweaters all the freaking time so that's what I chose to wear. As long as you don't look like a hobo or someone who just woke up, you should be good to go. 

- The grades: There's a section where you fill in your grades by hand, please don't fake it. It's so obvious since you'll be required to provide a transcript anyways. Grades aren't as important (still important) if you have an outstanding personality and desire to go :) 

- Your activities and awards: It's important to show how much you involve in different activities, because this is what the judges are looking for: people who are active and will involve in activities in Germany. In the tiny column they provided us, I included a little description for each of the things I wrote. For example, I didn't just write "Equestrian" or "Art". Instead, I wrote "Equestrian - Started in Hong Kong Jockey Club and continued in Sam Houston Equestrian Center; assisted in youth riding classes", and "Arts/crafts - School elective and personal hobby, participated in numerous local/regional/state competitions and auctions". This will give a little bit more insight to the things you do without having to write a whole essay. The judges will feel like they know you better.

The Student Information and Stats, Academic Certificate, Medical Information, Media Release etc. really just depend on you and the school. You can't really screw those up unless you filled them out incorrectly. Make sure you review your application and forms to check for mistakes! 

Future applicants, I hope this helped and I wish you the best of luck!

Annie

Kyrgyzstan in Less Than 12 Weeks!

I have been accepted into the Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan Russian as a Second Language Program hosted by my school and SRAS (the School of Russian and Asian Studies). I COULDN'T BE MORE EXCITED!! I will be there for 10 weeks, starting from late May to early August. I might even add in an extra 2 weeks before he program starts so that I can go explore some more! While my primary purpose of studying in Kyrgyzstan is to learn Russian, my secondary purpose is definitely go on hikes and watch people eagle hunt (among many, many other things)! The landscape in Kyrgyzstan is unlike anything I have seen, and I am literally dreaming about the scenery in my sleep. 

Beautiful landscape of Kyrgyzstan - Source

Horses are a bonus! - Source

Most of my Russian class is going to St. Petersburg, Russia. I thought about it, but I decided to go with Bishkek. Why?

1. It's off-the-grid
9 out of 10 people I talk to have no idea where Kyrgyzstan is, and I am going to study there. How cool is that? Since not many people have gone down this path, there isn't really something that I "must" do (other than Issyk-kul and the bazaars in Bishkek) and I get to do whatever I want and share these unique stories with others. Also, I'm just an awkward person that doesn't like super mainstream stuff.

2. Mountains. And Lakes. 
If the pictures above aren't breathtaking to you, I don't know what to say. I simply can't wait to finally see and hike them in person! 

3. Less distraction, maybe
While my classmates are probably getting drunk and partying in a bar in St. Petersburg, I'm probably sleeping in a yurt. I'd say that's a fair trade. But then I'd be tempted to ride horses everyday, so that could be a slight distraction.

4. The people
The Kyrgyz people are known to be hospitable and gentle. They are not from big, modernized cities, which makes them perhaps more innocent and easy to communicate with. They also probably speak less English than Russians, which would help me in learning my target language. 

5. Kyrgyz food
Some might say they're weird (fermented mare's milk??! Yes that's weird), I can't wait to try them. Honestly, I have never tried any food like Kyrgyz food, so I have absolutely no expectation for it. But at the same time, I am pumped to try something complete new to me. (I've also heard they're really yummy) 

By the way, this is a yurt. - Source

In conclusion, Bishkek just sounds better for me. Now all I need to do is find $9000 on the street or something to pay for the program.