Posted: September 13, 2016, 4:31pm
May 11th, 2016 marked the first day of my summer break. I packed by bags and left for the airport, embarking on what would ultimately be a truly transformative summer.
I left Los Angeles having just finished my first year of my Master’s degree program, feeling both excited and exhausted. I was headed to Greensboro, North Carolina to attend some of my good friends’ graduation. While in NC, I was also able to drive to visit my family in both Virginia and South Carolina, who I haven’t seen since my undergraduate graduation, a year ago.
On May 20th, armed with my newly purchased Nikon DSLR Camera, I left Greensboro, NC and started my best travel experience to date. I left the country headed for Paris, France, to meet one of my undergraduate friends who was working in Munich, Germany at BMW. Despite it being pouring down raining the 3 days I was there, I had an amazing time. I was able to tour the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre Museum (Pictured Below), had the best crepes I have every tasted, and most importantly got lost roaming around in the city.
We left Paris and headed back to Munich, where I spent 3 days visiting some of the local top tourist destinations such as the BMW Museum, Marienplatz (pictured below), and Olympiapark.
From Munich, we, accompanied by some other BMW co-ops, drove to Cinque Terre, Italy, a group of small cities on the coast of Italy (Pictured Below). During the 8 hour road trip, we were able to drive through Austria, Switerzland (where we saw nice views of the Swiss Alps), and the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Pisa, Italy (Pictured Below).
From there, I was able to visit both Venice and Rome, Italy. While in Venice I was able to see the Grand Canal, Piazza San Marco, Saint Mark’s Basilica, Rialto Bridge, and both Murano and Burano (Pictured Below).
When in Rome…
While in Rome, I was able to tour the inside of the Colosseum (Pictured Below) and the Roman Forum where our tour guide gave us a very informative history lesson of all historical landmarks we came across. I also visited the Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, the Vatican City.
Last but certainly not least, I flew to Tokyo, Japan where I meet up with my roommate, PhD Student also attending USC, who was conducting research at a local laboratory in Japan. While in Tokyo, we visited Senso-ji Temple (Pictured Below), Odaiba, the Odaiba Statue of Liberty (a replica of the one in New York) (Pictured Below), Tokyo Tower, and witnessed the world’s busiest intersection at Shibuya Crossing.
Leaving Tokyo on June 6 2016, while on my long 10 hour flight back to LA, I couldn’t help but reflect on how I literally just flew around the whole world in 27 days. Being able to witness and interact with that many cultures, back to back, in such a short period of time was nothing short of a mind blowing, perspective shattering experience.
One day after arriving back in LA, I was in my car driving up interstate 5, headed to Portland, Oregon to start my internship with the Intel Corporation. As an intern, I worked in the Motherboard Testing Group, where I was tasked with different printed circuit board design projects with the goal of increasing the group’s productiving by decreasing testing time. Also while living in Portland, I explored the city as much as possible. In my free time, I enjoyed doing outdoors activities such as hiking Multnomah Falls, and cliff jumping into the deepest lake in the United States, Crater Lake.
Finally back in Los Angeles, reflecting on my summer, and the only way to describe literally flying around the world, visiting 7 countries, in 27 days and living in Portland, Oregon interning with Intel… Life Changing.
Published on July 24th, 2017
Last updated on July 26th, 2017