As you may have already guessed, this journal is going to concentrate mainly on culture and lifestyle. In fact, I am sure that many of you are wondering how am I dealing with the differences and similarities of culture. However, before I get there, I want you guys to know that I have received a lot blows from many of my African brothers and sisters due to my nationality. So many Africans from South Africa and different countries in Africa alike have asked me, "So, how are you finding Africa? Did you think there would be wild animals everywhere, and dirt roads crowded with orphan children who are infected with AIDS, too?"

The past few weeks have flown by. It feels like I've been here in New Zealand for months and months already, and it's hard to believe I only arrived here a little over a month ago.

Outside, I can hear the song of crickets, a sign that autumn is coming. It seems that the first signs of the changing seasons come right after the 4-H County Fair. Even though it is still hot and humid, and there are a few weeks left of the summer, the crickets, the chill in the night air, and the blackbirds which line the power lines show that fall will soon be here. While the signs of changing seasons haven't changed, this fall is not going to be the same as the last two since I will not be returning to Bucknell for the fall semester. Instead, I will be heading off to Granada, Spain!

...a bit of blogblock. How many hits did we get, again, sir Jim who sends me emails? A few thousand? Huh.

'Ello Mate, This seems to be the classic London greeting and I've picked it up myself. Wow, it's only been a week, yet I feel like I've been here for quite a while.

There are not really words to describe my past week.

Where has the summer gone? I just arrived back home from dropping my younger sister off in Ithaca for her first year of college and it has finally set in. Summer is just about over, only a week left to pack, organize, and say goodbye to my family. I depart Aug. 31 for France, and it feels like a ghost town here in upstate New York with all of my friends already back at school.

China is certainly nothing I could have expected, and I am glad to say that I came with an open mind because the culture in the streets of Beijing is both fabulous and shocking.

Zoya and I have successfully moved into room 3033 on the MV Explorer. We share meals, hallways, and classrooms with some of the brightest professors I've ever met and some of the most interesting students in the nation (and Ecuador, Colombia, Mauritius, India, Mexico and, of course, Bulgaria...) Our room is small, but not unbearably so. We have two twin beds, a bathroom and "large" window in our cabin. Some students paid a slice more and have a "sitting area" or even their own singles. Others, who paid less, have no window or sitting area. Cave life, anyone?