I don’t know what’s worse - waking up in a different country and realizing that I’d been drooling on the person next to me the whole time or proceeding to loudly apologize to that person in a language they couldn’t understand. The 13-hour flight to Shanghai had left me drowsy, confused, and wondering why I had decided to travel 5,783 miles by myself to a country full of people speaking a language I could barely comprehend. Yet...

Masala pears are an interesting concept. A freshly-ripened pear’s sweetness mixed with the strong flavor of red masala spice can make for either a delectable snack or an unpalatable mess. When I first tried them, the salty-soury taste of the masala made me gag. The three clashing flavors combined into one came off as strange to me. My friend, on the other hand, savored every last piece before proceeding to judge me for my reaction. To her, the masala...

As a human being, I’ve always been drawn to learn more about how our bodies function and fit into the grand scheme of things, from the way our cellular makeup effects our physical makeup to the way this physical appearance is perceived by everyone around us. At USC, however, where the minorities make the majority, this perception of physical appearance is suddenly not a large factor of our human interactions anymore. Instead, we’re able to focus solely on...

Growing up in a rather suburban area, I was ready for a change. Boston University’s ideal location, right in a major city full of people from different backgrounds, called out to me. Particularly, I was looking for a university that was larger in size and had a good student to teacher ratio that would allow me access to more research opportunities, especially in the biological sciences. Being a top research university with a 12:1 ratio and biological sciences as a...

If you were to walk through the halls of any school, you’d take note of three types of conversations: the after-school plans conversation, the did-you-hear-about conversation, and the why-am-I-here conversation. Personally, I fit into the last category. Every day at school was just another day of added stress and confusion about obscure topics I didn’t have any interest in. That is until I dissected my first frog in my anatomy and physiology class. Now, don’t get me...