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Hopkins-Nanjing students volunteer at school for migrant children
By Aaron Daniel Cantrell

A bell rings. Within seconds doors swing open and children stream into the Mingguang Elementary School’s yard of dirt and concrete. Runny noses, untied shoes, loud voices, big smiles and enviable energy—this is recess. The kids push and swarm and laugh for a short ten minutes before heading back to the classroom. They are typical kids; they could be from anywhere. Anywhere except Nanjing.

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Playing poker with passports
The experience of transnationals
By Anna Yukhananov

I found my first SAIS party by the huddle of students on the stoop, gesticulating with their cigarettes. Inside, some people were drinking Bordeaux, some were espousing the virtues of European enlargement, and two were musing over the lyrics of a Japanese children's song. The lingua franca was a smooth mixture of English, Spanish, French, and Italian, with occassional interjections in Mandarin, Arabic, or Russian.

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A week in Saudi Arabia:
Male and female SAISers' perspectives

By Nadav Davidai
If only to prove to the rest of the school that it was indeed the best department at SAIS, the Second-Year Middle East Studies group headed to the Middle East for its second all-expenses-paid trip in three months.  Not even three months into the New Year, this lucky group of students has now logged a full month of buffets, meetings, and 5-star hotels in its region of study.


By Tania Nour Hamod
Thirty minutes before the plane landed, each of the women had to go to the bathroom cabin to change our clothing.  We dressed ourselves in the customary attire of the realm; black abayahs covered our bodies, and black hijabs veiled our heads. We did not wear the niqab over our faces, yet many other women on the plane did.