While Chinese was really hard to learn, I had a great teacher and classmates for all four years of high school. They encouraged me to stick with it in college, which I did.
For college I went to The Catholic University of America (CUA)/ I studied politics and theology, or religion. While at CUA, I decided I wanted to see more of the world and study abroad. I ended up spending my entire junior year of college studying abroad in Beijing, China.
Living in China was awesome! The food and people were great and I found the history, culture, and language fascinating. The whole experience left me hungry for more, but first I had to graduate from college.
I graduated from college in May of 2015. I had to make a decision on what to do next! I could go back to Asia on a Fulbright Scholarship to Taiwan to teach English. Or, I could accept a scholarship from the University of Notre Dame and become a high school social studies teacher in the U.S. Eventually, I decided that I was interested in being a teacher, so I started my studies at the University of Notre Dame. Do you know where that is?
I spent the next two school years studying at Notre Dame and also teaching high school social studies in St. Petersburg, Florida. While I really enjoyed my experience teaching in Florida and studying at Notre Dame, I still wanted to go back to Asia. So, I reapplied for a Fulbright Scholarship and got again! That is the story of how I ended up in Taiwan.
Besides studying Mandarin Chinese I have a lot of hobbies. My favorite is reading all kinds of books. In my free time I like to go fishing, go swimming, ride horses and write fictional stories.
