Who am I?

Hello! My name is Rachel Aseltine. I was born in Carson City, Nevada, a long time ago. This is what Carson City looks like:




































And these are the kinds of things you find in Carson City:






























Well, technically this spider car is in Moundhouse (see, it says it on the license plate!), which is actually the town where I spent my first two years of life. It is a tiny little place nestled in the Sierra Nevada mountains, which are what I miss the most about Nevada.

So when I was still a wee child, my parents packed my brother, my sister and our nanny Ma Win Kyi (MA-WIN-JEE) up and we all moved together to Bangkok, Thailand. There I started school at Ruamrudee International School, where father was the high school principal and my mother was a high school teacher of English literature and US History.

This was the logo of the school I went to in Bangkok. It is an International School with around 1700 students. I have fond memories of exploring the campus, seeing peacocks roaming around freely, and spending lots of time reading Roald Dahl novels in the library.


I lived in Thailand for two periods of three years, between which I spent one year living in a tiny town called Tongduchon near the northern border of South Korea, and one year living in Reno, Nevada. That was the only year that I ever went to public school in my life, and the only significant amount of time that I spent in the United States during my childhood.

Then one day, we moved to China. Beijing, China, to be exact. I went to a small school called Beijing BISS International School.

China

Yes, China. I love China. I miss China. I hope that one day I will go back.

Here's a photo that I took of the "Bird's nest" Olympic stadium. It was across the street from where I used to live:



























And here is a photo of delicious, greasy, authentic Chinese food:



























Yummy.

Anywho, I went to middle school and high school at BISS, then I spent one year studying Mandarin at the Beijing Language and Culture University in the Wudaokou university district of the city.

This is me receiving my high school diploma:
























And here is a picture of my two cats, Puck (in the back) and Mercutio:



























They are cute and fluffy and I have not seen them in three years because they live with my mother in Burma. Fortunately, I have seen my mother since then.

So, one year after I finished high school, I decided it was finally time for me to go to University. I chose Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina. And I loved it.

College, Part 1

So when I was 19, I finally decided it was time to start University. I chose Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina. The campus was pretty, the weather was mild, and the Quakers seemed to have a good outlook on life.






























My first two years at Guilford were fun but difficult. I was not used to living in the United States, and I found it hard to really connect to people who had so much in common from having spent their childhood and high school years in similar places. Still, I found a good group of friends, and I spent lots of time exploring the beautiful lake and woods that covered two thirds of my school's campus.


























See, that's me in the woods.



























And this is a bench by the lake in the winter time.

Of course, I went to classes sometimes, and they were usually in this part of the campus:



























The buildings at Guilford are very pretty. They are all made out of red brick, and they all have lots of grass and trees that surround them. I studied French and Art History at Guilford College, but since it is a Liberal Arts school, I also took classes in a broad range of subjects. Some classes I took outside my main fields of study included Chemistry, Psychology, Daoism, U.S. History, Political Philosophy, Beethoven, German, and the Science of Wine.