Hello dear friends, it's been a long while—On March 1, I submitted my History and Literature senior thesis!!! During spring break, a hundred of us embarked on the annual peer-led Israel Trek, which took us from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, into the West Bank and territories under the Palestinian Authority, to a hotel by the … Continue reading Harvard Israel Trek 2022
Category: Travel
Disney, nocturnal me, Harry Potter
Classes are over for the semester, senior year is past its midpoint, but Thanksgiving break still feels like yesterday. I feel older, not wiser, still grasping at the last straws of magic — of a world slinking away. The gates of college contain within them a world of their own, as do amusement parks. At … Continue reading Disney, nocturnal me, Harry Potter
Just A Sunday Hike: White Mountains, NH
Crawling up slippery rocks, hair flying in the wind, shoes squelching, toes numb, fingers scrambling for a grip on branches, on trunks, on anything. Muddied gloves gripping hands that pull me against gravity. Anxiety, wonder, anxiety, wonder. And the air—so, so clean. A blast of oxygen after a mask-filled existence. There’s the easy rhythm of … Continue reading Just A Sunday Hike: White Mountains, NH
I, Istanbul
Note: Thank you to Harvard's Center for Middle Eastern Studies (CMES) and to our phenomenal trip leader Jesse for the chance to spend two weeks of my winter break in Turkey. Harvard kids, apply!!! Check out the program here. *** The cypress and plane trees, the rooftops, the heartache of dusk, the sounds coming from … Continue reading I, Istanbul
2019: A Tale of Many Cities
滚滚长江东逝水，浪花淘尽英雄。 是非成败转头空。 青山依旧在，几度夕阳红。 白发渔樵江渚上，惯看秋月春风。 一壶浊酒喜相逢。 古今多少事，都付笑谈中。 《三国演义》开篇 Roiling waves of the river flow, Rippling tides sieve out heroes, Wins and losses now hollow. The earth lies here still, Many sunsets come and go. A snowy-haired elder perches by, Seasons ebbing in his eyes. History’s many tales All washed down with wine, Drowning in laughter with … Continue reading 2019: A Tale of Many Cities
Overheard in New York
Thank you, New York. Many things you were, but boring you were not. I will miss you. x Finished typing this list as I was standing in line at JFK — it's surreal how fast these two months passed (although there were patches when the days felt meandering and Mondays when I could not get … Continue reading Overheard in New York
From A Foodie: California Dreamin’
Read other From A Foodie installments: From A Foodie: Tasting Japan & Its Shokunin Spirit 🍙 From A Foodie: Tasting Taipei — worn, but lovely 🍹 From A Foodie: Singapore Chinatown Hawker Adventure!!! 🥟 From A Foodie: Favorite Eats around Harvard & the Best of Boston 🦞 Before you start reading this post, first play this song: California Dreamin' by … Continue reading From A Foodie: California Dreamin’
The Big 21
On May 31, 2019, I turned 21. The big 21 is sundrenched in Californian heat, pulsing in road trip vibes, and peppered with desert sand and surrealist tree-like cacti with muscled arms (think: the Whomping Willow in Harry Potter). Outside of the window are lonely gas stations, abandoned houses, and then a humongous pink ice … Continue reading The Big 21
Oh, Cairo
Returning from Cairo, Egypt is like waking up from some hot, hazy dream. These first few days after spring break I fall asleep each night as though I'm drugged. My skin feels like papyrus, my eyes are always heavy. There is a residual kiss of the city on my forearm — dark brown tendrils, an … Continue reading Oh, Cairo
Interning at Northern Light Venture Capital in China
Before I get swept up in the semester, let me close the chapter of winter break. I'm writing down my internship thoughts in the polar chill of Cambridge, MA. January has ended. Everything's days and continents away. Did you do anything meaningful over the break other than drink bubble tea?Yes!! (Doing meaningful things and drinking … Continue reading Interning at Northern Light Venture Capital in China
From A Foodie: Tasting Taipei — worn, but lovely
Read other From A Foodie installments: From A Foodie: Tasting Japan & Its Shokunin Spirit 🍙 From A Foodie: California Dreamin’ 🌴 From A Foodie: Singapore Chinatown Hawker Adventure!!! 🥟 From A Foodie: Favorite Eats around Harvard & the Best of Boston 🦞 I ushered in 2019 in Taipei with my parents — the three of us … Continue reading From A Foodie: Tasting Taipei — worn, but lovely
Sky Lanterns & New Year Resolutions
Get off the old train, step onto the platform, merging into the stream of bobbing heads flowing along at the speed of a sweating snail. Squeeze past the human gantry, craning my neck for a look at the sky behind the canopy roof. See the miniature sky in the phone screens held up by the … Continue reading Sky Lanterns & New Year Resolutions
From A Foodie: Tasting Japan & Its Shokunin Spirit
Read other From A Foodie installments: From A Foodie: Tasting Taipei — worn, but lovely 🍹 From A Foodie: California Dreamin’ 🌴 From A Foodie: Singapore Chinatown Hawker Adventure!!! 🥟 From A Foodie: Favorite Eats around Harvard & the Best of Boston 🦞 Although my two months in Japan were ostensibly for Summer School (note the … Continue reading From A Foodie: Tasting Japan & Its Shokunin Spirit
[Story] Hills
She isn't sure what it is, the colors—Supreme red, the blocky black letters of Balenciaga, the wild marbled swirls of Dries Van Noten—sharpening like psychedelic blotches, the strap on her shoulder suddenly prickly and leaden, an indignant discomfiture that rises like a gorge in her throat until she furrows her brows and realizes with a … Continue reading [Story] Hills
[Story] 7-Eleven: A Summertime Romance?
When she trudges home that night, it’s forty minutes later, after two transits and twelve stations. She is about to turn left, head down the bridge, cross the crossing under a flickering street lamp and follow that path she has walked for twenty-one days when she notices the 7-Eleven store. Undimmed, the fluorescent white from … Continue reading [Story] 7-Eleven: A Summertime Romance?
When In Kyoto ≧◡≦
Kyoto is one-hour strolls along train tracks, washed-out pink carpets hanging on strings, bottles of sake behind second-storey windows, two scrawny girls trying to catch a pale yellow butterfly with a net, watery rice paddies beside a parking lot full of Toyotas & Hondas. Kyoto is that moment my hair almost rustles as my bones quiver … Continue reading When In Kyoto ≧◡≦
From 20-year-old Me, With Love
Today I turn 20! I wonder how past birthdays feel like because this one feels very homely despite the fact that I'm in a country I've never been before. Last night, I was sitting cross-legged in a hotel room on the 46th floor of Japan's tallest building, wearing a dripping sheet mask, clad in Mickey … Continue reading From 20-year-old Me, With Love
Girl in D.C.
Dear You, what is art for? Last week, I was in Washington, D.C. with seven other Harvard students on a 10-day Wintersession at Dumbarton Oaks revolving around this topic: Culture and Power: Art, Philanthropy, and Diplomacy in America. In those 10 days, I've seen art like this: And this: Interestingly, this: But also this: Lastly, my … Continue reading Girl in D.C.
My Vipassana Meditation Retreat: 10 days of absolute silence, veggies & no technology
The word Vipassana means seeing things as they really are. It is the process of self-purification by self-observation. One begins by observing the natural breath to concentrate the mind. With a sharpened awareness one proceeds to observe the changing nature of body and mind and experiences the universal truths of impermanence, suffering and egolessness. The Code … Continue reading My Vipassana Meditation Retreat: 10 days of absolute silence, veggies & no technology
Bali: opening to you, the heart of life
This...unsettles you, from your ordinary, rooted world. I was in the land of photogenic temples -- places of worship perching atop seaside cliffs, nestled in misty mountains, carved within caves, and residing around every bend in rural villages. There was more to Bali than temples, of course -- soaked green carpets of rice terraces, beer-bottle thronging beaches, and museums … Continue reading Bali: opening to you, the heart of life
[Story] Macau: Casino Lights Dancing
It felt like the universe had conspired in magnanimity to lay out before me all the stars it had in its pouch. There's a boy seated next to me at the roulette. It's a round-table congregation of tense, weeping or energetic men (some slightly crazy-eyed); this boy who seems unperturbed by it all; and then there's me, … Continue reading [Story] Macau: Casino Lights Dancing
Selina Xu 