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Welcome Claire to the VGB fam #TEAMGOLD

 

The Verbal Gold Blog fam is so excited to welcome a new writer and member to our team!  #TEAMGOLD Our new Golden Girl is from Charlotte, North Carolina and I have a feeling y’all are just going to love her.  So don’t be shy, make sure to show her some love!   Meet Claire!  
 
Hey y’all! I’m Claire- and I’m verrry new to the whole
blogging world. I’m from Charlotte, North Carolina (the best state, obviously) &
I’m a Kappa at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I’m double
majoring in Global Studies and Chinese language, and just in case you were
wondering- as of right now I have absolutely no idea what I want to do after I
graduate.

Downtown Charlotte

 

My Kappa Family
<3
 
I love to travel (my dad is a pilot for U.S. Airways… now
American Airlines I guess, so free flying until I’m 24 ~* YAY *~).  I have been
studying Chinese since the sixth grade (and even went to Chinese immersion
summer camp one summer after freshman year of high school) and- go figure-
China is one of my favorite places. The summer of 2012 I received a NSLI-Y (National
Security Language Initiative for Youth) scholarship to study in Shanghai for
about six weeks at East China Normal University, and I received another NSLI-Y
scholarship to study Chinese at a Chinese high school (Beijing No. 80 High
School for those of you who are curious) in Beijing for the 2013-2014 academic
year. If any of y’all are in high school or know anyone in high school (or are
a recent high school graduate) who is interested in studying languages that are
less commonly taught at high schools in the US (Chinese, Korean, Arabic, Hindi,
Persian, Russian, Turkish) I would highly recommend to apply for a NSLI-Y
summer or year scholarship. It is sponsored by the U.S. State Department and the
scholarship covers all costs (living, airfare, food, etc.) except personal
expenses (aka they won’t pay for all the souvenirs and gifts you get to take
home).
 

 

Some of my other favorite places include Charleston
(Middleton Place is my absolute favorite- mainly because walking through the
grounds is like walking through Pride and Prejudice) and Miami (plus, one of my
best friend’s lives right outside Miami).  I also love going up to the mountains
of NC.
The beautiful grounds
at Middleton Place



Visiting my Best
Friend & her family in Florida
A waterfall off of a
trail in the mountains of NC
 
I would definitely consider myself to be a nerd (if you
haven’t already figured it out yourself… since I did voluntarily go to Chinese
summer camp during high school…). I’m obsessed with Harry Potter, I’ve read the
books and watched the movies too many times to count. I collect the books (I
have the original American set, the British set, a set in Chinese, and other
special edition sets that have different covers), and yes- I even have a wand
that also works as a remote control for the TV. However I have not yet been to
Universal’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter yet, but hopefully that will happen
in the near-ish future (although my big goal is to go to London to see the
Warner Bros. Studio Tour- The Making of Harry Potter).
 
I spend what some would consider an unhealthy amount of time
watching TV and movies. Some of my overall favorite series are Homeland (duh-
they filmed like the first two seasons in Charlotte), Doctor Who, The
Inbetweeners, Summer Heights High, We Can Be Heroes, Angry Boys, Broadchurch,
Parks and Recreation, The Mindy Project, Outnumbered, Suburgatory, Pillars of
the Earth … and many, many more….
 
I have two Pomeranians, Owen and Graham, who are both just
as fluffy as they are cute.
 

   Owen                        Graham
 
My best friend in the entire world is my older sister Drew.
We both believe that we were meant to be twins, and although we are ten years
apart random people often ask us if we are twins. 

 

Can’t wait to get to know everyone more!  You can find me on instagram @ClaireLoudermilch
xx