27 Days and Counting

Tonight, for the 27th time this month, I stood on my balcony, watching the sun set over the Pacific ocean. Sometimes it’s…

It’s me again. I’m still at home in New York, but it’s worse now. NYU New York has become 上网纽约大学 and many of my friends who came to study at the New York campus have gone home for Spring Break, and to be closer to family. The virus situation in New York is getting worse and my parents have instituted a self-imposed quarantine, meaning I can’t…

Home Away From Home

I’m back in the bedroom that I’ve called home for six years. But it doesn’t feel like home anymore. New York is familiar but isn’t mine anymore. I moved to Shanghai before some of you did, when I was 13. I left when I was 16. When I moved back to New York, it didn’t feel like a return home. My…

Surprise Spring in NY

Well 朋友们, I certainly never thought that a virus would interrupt my undergraduate career and I definitely didn’t see myself in New York until the spring of 2021. I can’t help mourn for the loss of my artistic community and outlet in Shanghai. For all my NYU Shanghai thespians: I miss y’all…

Rainy Days in New York

The camera is winding down streets, passing stores so quickly it appears to be nothing more than a fleeting image, but the familiarity of it all resonates with me: “Shanghai!” I think, and to my satisfaction I am right. The Chinese film I’ve decided to watch today is, in fact, filmed in…

Ground Rules

Hi, everyone. Glad you took the time to explore this blog and read some of your classmates' experiences during this time apart. There are…

At the time I began drafting this post, I was writing from my dorm in the Chinatown in New York City, feeling disconnected and nostalgic. Don’t get me wrong, I still feel disconnected and nostalgic, but that was one of the reasons, I hesitated in writing too soon, to avoid creating an echo chamber. I’m not alone in feeling confused and uprooted, in…

Trying to Adapt

My family moved to Chongqing, China in 2016. Me and two younger siblings took a gap year here, in which I was able to reach a level of Chinese comparable to the HSK 4. I practiced my speaking and listening skills by merely talking to the taxi drivers, waitresses, and street vendors. Chongqing is…

178 Days and Counting

I’ll begin by admitting that, yes, tonight I did sit and count back every day on my calendar between now and February…