来自华盛顿美利坚大学（American University）的五位学生介绍了他们各自的2015年暑假活动。

来自牙买加的乔迪·迪克森（Jody Dixon）

迪克森这个夏天留在华盛顿，为学校的一个项目工作，这个项目是为对国际事务有兴趣的中学生开设的。迪克森和她负责管理的中学生参观了政府机构，并利用一个周末到当地一个食品库做义工。在工作之余，迪克森观看了她的第一场棒球比赛，并在她喜欢的牙买加说唱明星Chronixx来华盛顿的时候，观看了他的演出。不过她认为，最棒的经历是看7月4日国家大草坪（National Mall）的焰火。迪克森说：“这是一个非常，非常有趣的夏天。”

来自沙特阿拉伯的瓦西姆·阿什绍瓦夫（Wasim Ashshowwaf）

阿什绍瓦夫今年夏天一直在上课。他攻读的是一个将工商管理学士学位与市场营销硕士学位合二为一的专业，因此很有挑战性。他在暑期选修法语和统计学课程，以便如期毕业。

虽然他不能回家探亲，但幸运的是，他的父母能够来看他。他们一起参观美国国会图书馆（Library of Congress），前往德国大使馆，并在华盛顿的乔治敦（Georgetown）区购物。

来自缅甸的安东尼·昂（Anthony Aung）

像每年暑假一样，正在攻读国际关系学士学位的昂回到家乡，为他自家的旅行社带旅游团。这些年来，他带团游览过缅甸、日本、韩国、中国和泰国。但今年夏天，他除了在缅甸履行专业导游的职责外，还接待了来自香港的美利坚大学同学，并去日本与大学其他朋友见面。

来自以色列的诺伊·考夫曼（Noy Kaufman）

这位来自以色列的医学预科生无论何时总是非常忙碌，暑假也不例外。考夫曼到美利坚大学的一个实验室，为与国家技术研究所(National Institute of Technology)合作的一个阻燃涂料项目工作。晚上，她还选修了两门生物课，这将使她可以在下学期选修高年级课程。考夫曼计划在八月回以色列度过大部分时光，然后秋天回到华盛顿继续读书。

来自印度尼西亚的恰克拉·温那索（Chakra Winarso）

来自印度尼西亚的恰克拉·温那索主修国际关系专业。今年暑假他开车穿过美国南部去体验这个国家更多的地方。他说：“我一直都很喜欢旅行。” 在得克萨斯州(Texas)和田纳西州(Tennessee)的朋友们为他担任了地方导游。恰克拉说：“我有机会看到我以前从未见过的文化。”他和来自中国和科索沃的另外两名美利坚大学学生，从华盛顿驱车3000公里，抵达了位于得克萨斯和墨西哥边界的大弯国家公园(Big Bend National Park)。温那索说： “我们穿过了田纳西州和阿拉巴马州(Alabama)。我们在新奥尔良(New Orleans)住了两晚。 我有机会看到很酷的音乐表演——爵士，蓝调和乡村。这是一次美妙的经历。”

What I did with my summer vacation …

International students in the U.S. enjoy the summer months of June through August. Some focus on their studies and careers with summer classes or internships. Some head home to connect with old friends (and new). And some stay Stateside and take to the road and explore.

Five students from American University in Washington share what they chose to do during the summer of 2015, between semesters.

Jody Dixon from Jamaica

Dixon stayed in Washington this summer, working with a program at her college for secondary-school students interested in international affairs. Dixon and her young charges visited government offices and did a volunteer weekend at an area food bank. When she wasn’t working, Dixon caught her first baseball game and got to see a favorite Jamaican rap star, Chronixx, when he visited the city. But she rates the Fourth of July fireworks on the National Mall as the best. “It was a very, very fun summer,” Dixon said.

Wasim Ashshowwaf from Saudi Arabia

Ashshowwaf has been taking classes this summer. He’s enrolled in a challenging program that combines earning a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a master’s degree in marketing. The French and statistics courses he’s taking during the summer months will keep him on track for graduation.

Lucky for Ashshowwaf, while he couldn’t go home to his parents, his parents came to him. Together, they visited sites such as the the Library of Congress and the German Embassy and shopped in Washington’s Georgetown neighborhood.

Anthony Aung from Burma

As he does every summer, Aung, who’s working towards his bachelor’s degree in international relations, returned home to lead tours for his family’s travel company. Over the years he has led tours through Burma, Japan, the Republic of Korea, China and Thailand. But this summer, in addition to his professional tour-guide duties in Burma, he hosted fellow American University students from Hong Kong and traveled to Japan to meet up with other friends from college.

Noy Kaufman from Israel

This pre-med student from Israel who stays busy all the time makes no exception in the summer. Kaufman has been spending her summer days in a laboratory at American University working on flame-retardant coatings for a project in conjunction with the National Institute of Technology. In the evenings, she is taking two biology classes, which will allow her to take upper-level classes next semester. Kaufman plans to spend most of August back home in Israel before returning to Washington in the fall for college classes.

Chakra Winarso from Indonesia

Chakra Winarso, an international affairs major from Indonesia, is seeing more of the U.S this summer with a road trip through the American South. “I’ve always loved travel,” he said. With friends from Texas and Tennessee acting as native tour guides, Chakra said, “I get to see cultures I’ve never seen before.” He and two other American University students from China and Kosovo are wending their way 3,000 kilometers from Washington to Big Bend National Park on the border of Texas and Mexico. “We drove through Tennessee and Alabama. We stayed in New Orleans for two nights,” Winarso said. “I got to see cool music — jazz, blues and country. It has been an amazing experience.”