Good Morning, Vietnam!

Traveling around Southeast Asia is relatively cheap, and quite easy. Taking advantage of this, my friends and I flew to Da Nang, Vietnam, last weekend. After dropping our bags at the Airbnb, we made a beeline to the beach. I didn’t realize how much sitting at the beach would remind me of Lake Michigan. All …

Time for Thailand

I arrived in Thailand a little over 3 weeks ago on August 10th. Every day since then, I have given thought to what I should share in my first blog post. It hasn’t been the easiest task to decide on what to write about because a lot has happened since I got here. I flew …

As they say in Les Miserables: Who am I?

Who am I, you ask? Well, to make a long story short, my name is Katie Joachim and I am a rising senior at Hope College, studying Theatre and Creative Writing. Some of you may have seen me as the Baker’s Wife in Hope’s production of Into the Woods last fall. Currently, I am an …

Pick a Favorite?

Every Monday, the classroom is filled with chatter about what everyone did the previous weekend. “How did you like [insert city name here]?” “What did you do there?” “Oh, I loved/didn’t like that city” “What’s your favorite place you’ve been so far?” Of course I participate in these pre-class discussions. How could I not? The …

Shetland Islands

The University of Aberdeen’s final exam schedule is spread out across three weeks. Because of this extended time frame, a few friends and I were able to fit a two-day trip to the Shetland Islands between studying for exams. The Shetland Islands are a group of islands north of mainland Scotland. We took an overnight …

WWOOF – World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms

In my freshman year at Hope I had the opportunity to participate in an immersion trip that went and did some volunteer work in Jamaica over spring break. The trip had been advertised to me by a friend as an opportunity to experience all the benefits of a vacation while also doing some good for …

Concert in Glasgow

After spending nearly three weeks traveling around the UK and mainland Europe for the University of Aberdeen’s spring break, I arrived back at Aberdeen late last night. I rarely had reliable WiFi on the trip, so I had planned on submitting a few blogs about the trip today. When I went to do this; however, …

My First Cricket Match

In the first week of classes, the University of Aberdeen hosted a refresher’s fair aimed at introducing new students to its large number of clubs and societies. I went to the fair and signed up to be notified about when most of these groups met. Fast forward one month, and I am bowling my first …

Robert Burns Night

As an aspiring poet and avid reader of poetry, I was familiar with Robert Burns and his work before coming to Scotland; however, I was not familiar with the celebrations hosted on and around January 25th (Burns’ date of birth) to commemorate the famed Scot. “Robert Burns Night” or “Robbie Burns Night” is a very …

Es una Broooma

I’m anticipating that when I get home, people will ask me what my favorite thing about Chile was. My answer for them will be this: the sound that Chileans make as they’re waiting for you to get their joke. It’s a very specific “aaaaah,” and it’s shared by basically everyone I’ve met! I love this particularity …