To briefly summarize my education abroad experience -- I have none! Like many other students, my study abroad plans were impacted by COVID-19. Originally, I was on track to study abroad in Norway during summer 2020 and then in China during fall and winter 2020/2021. Once the pandemic hit, I decided to switch my destination to Taiwan hoping that the outbreak wouldn't spread internationally. Unfortunately it did and my program in Taiwan was canceled in quick succession. While I was able to take part in my program in Norway remotely, I was essentially studying rather than studying *abroad*. In an effort to study abroad--something that I had planned to do since 2017--I re-applied to my program in Norway, only to have that program canceled as well. I then applied to a program in Japan and a program in Thailand before I had to (temporarily) give up on studying abroad. In total, I applied to six study abroad programs in five countries from 2019 to 2021 back to back. To this day I've been unable to leave the United States, but hope to be able to study abroad in the future. 

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What I lack in international experience I make up for in my self-directed attempts to gain more knowledge about the world beyond my own and beyond the United States. I had the opportunity to study Mandarin Chinese, Russian, Norwegian, and Japanese as an undergraduate student. Additionally, I took Chinese and Russian literature/history courses, a course on marginalized social groups in Japan, and learned about Norwegian culture in my language course. I was even interested in other cultures as a child, dabbling in languages like Macedonian and Korean, introducing my family to momo dumplings and rambutan, and listening to music in foreign languages more often than music in English. I try to use these experiences and the knowledge I've gained from them to connect with others and to challenge the stereotype of the self-centered, culturally ignorant and uninterested American.