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A Summer of Growth: Inside and Out (Summer '25)

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When people ask me how my summer went, I find myself smiling. This wasn’t a summer filled with airports or new countries. It was something far more important, a season of discovery, healing, and transformation. I indulged in new interests like cooking pasta or making matcha ice cream and I healed myself mentally and physically, and focused more on myself with all the free time For the first time, I truly discovered gardening. It started with a few pots on the balcony, but soon I found myself checking on my plants each morning as if they were old friends. In the quiet moments of watering and transplanting, I found peace. Who knew that something as simple as soil and sunlight could calm a restless mind? This homework blog, oddly enough, introduced me to blogging itself, and I found I had so much to say! I began expressing my thoughts online, and for the first time, I felt heard. Of course, I didn’t stop there. I enrolled in multiple online courses and extracurricular activities, build...
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Sakura, Sushi and Shinkansen: My Japan Tour (Summer '24)

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Imagine this: you come home from a tiring summer day at school, yearning for one of those cool popsicles, and your mom approaches you with a smile. It seems weird at first, but then she tells you that you're going to Japan for the holidays! This was an extremely fortunate reality for me, as my mom found the perfect package which would take us there during cherry blossom season. (The cherry (pun intended) on the cake? I would get to skip my checkpoint exams as the flights were fixed and not adjustable!) So, on the 12th of April, many students were focused on their English checkpoint, but not me - I wrote the exam thinking the whole time how I would be in Japan tomorrow by this time, and raced back home to head back to the airport that evening. Middlepoint Malaysia: The Layover Chapter Before we could admire Tokyo, we discovered Kuala Lumpur - the capital of Malaysia, on our layover. This Malaysian Airlines layover flight made our prices cheaper, (although I was scared as we all know...
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Skyscrapers, Souks and Sunsets: Dazzling Dubai (Winter '23)

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  Imagine you just finished your exams, and your birthday, and you hear some of the best news ever - you get to visit the most excessively glamourous city in the whole world - Dubai! (For the first time, I don't have to pack warm clothes as if I'm heading to Antarctica - I'm going to a hot desert!) Dubai has been depicted as a city of riches and a symbol of Arabia. So me and my family went there to experience the glam and find out whether the city is as real as it is described, or an artificial dystopia. We hopped on the midnight flight out of India, visas in hand. In the next few days, we discovered both modern and historical sides of Dubai, met the people and found out for sure the atmosphere of the city (Field note: Nights in deserts get really cold, do NOT neglect packing warm clothes!) Dashing Departure, Dazzling Destination We headed on to the airport at an ungodly hour of the morning but truth be told we all had been awake all night, in excitement. This trip was our ...
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Mountains, Monks and Mysteries: My Bhutan Adventure (Winter '24)

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I think I found Shangri-La.  Recently, my family and I were going to Bhutan, a small country nestled in the Himalayas cut off from the rest of society - exactly what we needed to escape the dust, noise and stress of the city. So we packed all the jackets, socks and sweaters we could find (It was never enough!) and we headed outside. What we stumbled upon was one of the most spiritual, refreshing and exciting adventures ever.  Arrival and First Impressions We first arrived in the enchanting border town of Phuentsholing. As soon as we stepped out, I could feel the cold air biting my legs like a persistent animal (It was at this point, I knew, I needed more clothing). A tour guide then came to pick us up. His name was Karma Shering, and he was a kind young man who would guide us for the rest of the journey (He was very patient with our dumb doubts about Buddhism). He was wearing a weird coat where one end overlapped the other, with enough space to carry around a baby, and no pant...
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Location: Nemjo, C9HX+64X, Paro, Bhutan
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