Monthly Archives: June 2012

Awaiting my trip to India

Hey guys,

My name is Carolyn Vilardi and I am a student of Sociology and Human Geography at Penn State University. I have many passions and interests like human and environmental justice, vegetarian cooking, yoga, writing, and a bunch more; and I know that my study abroad experience will awaken new passions and enrich my journey as a student and global citizen.

I will be studying in Delhi, India for Fall 2012, beginning my junior year in mid-July. I am especially excited to experience a new culture and lifestyle, and although I have a few ideas and expectations regarding my trip, I realize that I will encounter many surprises.

I can’t wait to share more about myself and my encounters in India as I travel, study and interact in a new place. I hope my reflections evoke a new understanding and enthusiasm for our world. I am so eager to explore India; I already started packing!

Location: Home; Brooklyn, New York

Waiting for 4 years…

Hi! My name is Chris Gutierrez, an architecture student going into my fourth year of study (5 year program), and this August I will be headed to Rome, Italy!!

As part of the architecture program in Penn State, it is mandatory that we go to Rome in our fourth year. This is a fact that I’ve known that fact as soon as I was accepted into the program, and I have been looking forward to it ever since.

I have heard much about the program from many others who have already experienced it and keep hearing it that it is the time of one’s life. I am extremely excited about going to Rome and exploring all the different kinds of architecture there.

I wish to one day have a career in city planning and the experiences of all different types of cities will be invaluable to me.

I can’t wait until I get there to explore and share all of the unseen wonders of Europe!

Location: New York, NY

Amy’s Anticipation of Adventures Abroad!

Greetings from Lancaster PA (not just the home of the Amish)!

My name is Amy Kautz and I will be coming to you from Maastricht, the Netherlands this coming August 20! I am a world campus student, working and schooling full-time, and am striving to keep my Crohn’s disease (an chronic inflammatory bowel disease that = crappy, literally) under control. Although this should technically be my last semester, I will have to complete the capstone class at PSU when I get back from studying abroad.

I currently work as a barista, baker and candlestick maker (just kidding on that last one). Here are a few pics of the little cafe at which I work, located strangely enough in a (upscale) retirement community.

The residents for the most part don’t get it…”Starbucks” or “cafe” is just not in their vocabulary, but I try. Just try explaining “espresso” or “g�teau au chocolate” a 90 year old! Most of my regulars, however, are very excited for my study abroad trip to begin. We have a weekly count down going…some of them are very sweet.

I am a psychology major and will be studying at Maastricht University (UM…well, that’s the abbreviation from the Dutch spelling!). I signed up for the Psychology and Neuroscience Program because they offered so many neuropsychology courses that I couldn’t begin to fathom trying to fit similar courses into my already crowded life! I wait with bated breath to hear back from UM on whether I got my first choices for my fall schedule. If all goes as planned, I’ll be taking the core course for the program, a Dutch language and culture course, a neuropsychological rehabilitation class (with work-site visits, I think!), intro to clinical neuropsychology, and evolutionary psychology!!! There are not enough exclamation marks in the world to express my joy/anticipation/anxiousness/giddiness/delirium/excitement/terror/fear/bliss at all these lovely course selections and to the whole studying abroad thing–IN EUROPE!

Insert cheesy line~~~> sometimes dreams really do come true!
…okay, that will be enough cheesiness, I promise 🙂

If you couldn’t tell, I am as surprised to actually be studying abroad as I am that I will be studying such a wonderful courses…in Europe, the dream of my youthful dalliances in fantasy and adventure! So, aside from the obvious “I CAN’T BELIEVE I’M ACTUALLY GOING TO EUROPE–FOR ALMOST FIVE MONTHS!!!”, there is the “oh crap, I still have to take care of my Crohn’s!” When initially contemplating studying abroad, I nearly let the fear of a flare or the difficulty in obtaining the medicine needed stop me. I pushed that silliness down fast! You see, I have to take a medicine called Remicade–an immunosuppressant that knocks out my immune system to keep it from attacking itself (i.e., ME!). In the states I go to a medical outpatient unit, where they also do blood transfusion and chemo treatments, get hooked up to an IV and then usually watch a free movie while it infuses (about 2 to 2 1/2 hours). Not knowing what the frak I would or could do while abroad, I nevertheless pressed the button: APPLY (for study abroad). Upon a little more research, I thought it a good sign when I searched where to get Remicade in Europe and found a manufacturing plant in Leiden–right there in the Netherlands! Good news. When I broke the news to my GI doc, I received a surprisingly exuberant response…not the furrowed brow and shaking head that I had envisioned, rather his excitement for me only solidified by confidence in my decision.

My goals for this blog are: to contribute to it regularly, try to minimize (or give fair warning to) the toilet talk–sorry, that’s just such an intregal part of my daily existence from which I can’t escape that it will inevitably end up here–, relate my experiences as world campus student (who has only ever taken university classes online!), and as a non-traditional student. And also include lots of photos, videos, and maybe some vlogs!

As of now, I am of the mindset that this will be akin to a life-break…no house, no kitty-cats , no boyfriend, no JOB!, no car–I feel like I am about to time-travel back in time to an alternate history version of my life! Upon all else, my goal is to give a unique perspective to studying abroad, through which I can hopefully inspired someone else, be it a non-traditional or on-line student, a full-time worker or someone with a chronic illness, to study abroad! My original inspiration was reading someone else’s blog (located I’ve forgotten where now) about struggling with Crohn’s disease AND studying abroad…twice, if I recall correctly. Inspired.

Thanks to all who have read through this long-winded, rambly first post!

More gratitious cat pics…what can I say, I love ’em!

Introduction

My name is Evan Farrell and in the fall I will be in Freiburg, Germany with the Environmental Studies and Sustainability Program. Currently I am majoring in IST with a minor in German and Supply Chain.

While over there I hope to visit other countries in Europe including Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, France, and Austria. I hope that I can start to understand the language better and learn to live in a new culture.

I enjoy many activities such as hiking, running, climbing, skiing, and camping which I hope I get to do while in Germany.

Location: State College, PA

Snow Day

It’s full blown winter here now and it’s starting to get a little chilly. Cold enough in fact for it snow down here in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was a record -1 degrees C and the coldest June day they have had in 30 years. Which means of course Kiwis are far from prepared for such weather, even if it is just an inch of snow. So campus was basically completely shut down for 2 days and the first day of exams in the two week exam period were cancelled. To celebrate this occasion a bunch of us had a snow ball fight out on one of the lawns and made a snow man.

I haven’t played in snow like that in a really long time.

Location: Lincoln, New Zealand

The games

So I finally understand the game of Rugby, five months later. After several trips to watch the games at the stadium I’ve grown to even like the game. It’s like football but more brutal, which I can appreciate.

I think I’m going to keep up with it when I get back to the states. Now soccer on the other hand I have loved all my life so it was so amazing being in a country where the sport is literally everywhere. There are more soccer fields than McDonalds (hard to believe I know!!!). For a special treat CIEE took us to see a soccer game where the Ajax (pronounced ayax) played the pirates and it was AWESOME, mostly because we were in Cape Town stadium built for the 2010 world cup and yes it is more beautiful in person.

Overall thumbs up for the sports experience.

Location: Cape Town, South Africa

Here is where we part

I’ve now been living in Japan for nine months. My entire junior year has been spent in a completely different country, learning Japanese, meeting new people, learning how to live in a city, how to fend for myself, how to travel, and the like. It’s been quite a ride, from the very first night I came, jet-lagged, delirious, exhausted, shell-shocked in a tiny hotel room with only ten channels, a hard bed, and obnoxious summer heat. To now.

Have I changed? Has this country impacted me in all the ways that people said it would? Yes. Absolutely. Subtly, perhaps not so, but all the same, this country has shaped and molded me just a little bit more, making me both nervous and excited to come home to the states.

Of course, so much of this would not have been possible without all the people I’ve met along the way. My host families, who showed me the ropes of living in Japan, helped me when I needed it most, fed me, laughed with me, and generally tolerated my odd habits and needs. My other study abroad students, who understood the problems of kanji better than anyone would. My teachers, who not only taught me what I needed to know, but helped me understand language in ways I never thought of before. My Japanese friends, who taught me just about everything else, including how to hunt down attractive boys.

Japan has been everything I wanted it to be and more. I have spoken with strangers on trains, I have seen temples plated in gold, sung “We Are!” among other Japanese people in a club, had class canceled due to a typhoon, met a famous ikebana teacher, ran to catch the last train of the night, felt a 3.9 magnitute earthquake, saw trains being canceled due to suicide, onsen, went to the YG Family Concert, built a reputation at a dance club, saw FEM for free, went to the naked man festival, dressed up as a ninja for a day, witnessed rare snow in Nagoya, tasted tomato-flavored, as well as sake-flavored, ice cream, planned a trip to Tokyo, went a baseball game, the One Piece Dome Tour, multiple nomihoudais, and even met a real geisha.

I’ve fallen in love with a city in a way I never knew possible. I have been a citizen of Japan, however brief, and while there have been difficulties, frustrating moments, I have still loved every single second of it. I have done what I came to do, I have checked the list of things to do, and I have just rounded off the best 9 months of my life.

It’s hard to believe that I finally have to go.

But i’ll be back. Wait for me, Japan.

Location: Kasugai, Aichi Prefecture, Japan

Prologue

Hi,

my name is Alexandra Haeusser, and this is my GeoBlog, which I will use to document and reflect on my experiences before, during, and after my study abroad program to Perugia, Italy, in Fall 2012. I want to welcome and thank all of my readers for tuning in to my stories and hope they’ll be exciting for you to read like they’ll be for me to experience!

Some brief background on me…

I just finished my sophomore year at Penn State University in the Schreyer Honors College, and look forward to starting my junior year in Italy:) I’m majoring in Secondary Education for English and am a member of Springfield THON and VIPS Tutoring in State College.

And some background on my study abroad program…

I’ll be studying at the Umbra Institute in Perugia, Italy, through a program run by Arcadia University. While abroad I’ll be taking a lot of literature and writing classes taught in English in order to fulfill requirements for my major. I’ll also be continuing my Italian language studies and look forward to learning more Italian and talking with the locals!

I wanted to keep the first post relatively short, but hopefully I’ll be back soon to reflect on my preparations before I leave August 30. All I can say right now is that there are a lot of things to do, and along with my two summer jobs, they are keeping me very busy:)

On a sweeter note…

Location: Hatfield, PA

My Day In Cinque Terre

Last Sunday I had the amazing opportunity to go to Cinque Terre for the day. Cinque Terre is located in northern Italy in Liguria.

I had heard of this interesting city before coming to Italy. In my Italian class last spring semester our final project was a presentation on a region of Italy. One of the girls in my class did her project on Liguria and spoke a lot about Cinque Terre. She showed pictures of the most beautiful beaches and towns and I knew right away that I wanted to go there.

When I arrived in Florence I learned about a couple different companies that offer cheap weekend and day trips for students studying abroad. They both offered day trips to Cinque Terre so I quickly booked a trip for only 40 euro with a large group of my friends.

Cinque Terre literally translates to five lands and that is exactly what it is. There are five different sections and you can either hike to get from one to another or take a train. We took the train to Cinque Terre and walked from the first section to the second. Once we got there we walked around the town, got some lunch and then took the train to another section. We then had the option to go on a longer more difficult hike with some amazing views of the towns or to take the train to the last section and spend a couple of hours at the beach. I went with the second choice and spent a few hours laying on the beach and walking around the shops and restaurants that lined it.

Spending the day in Cinque Terre was one of the best days I have had so far since I’ve been in Italy. The towns are so different from anything that I have ever seen in America. The bright blue water, amazing hiking paths and stunning architectural landscapes are all extremely beautiful and I would absolutely recommend spending some time in Cinque Terre if you are ever in Italy and have the chance to do so.

Location: Florence

The Old Biscuit Mill

If you want to see as many CIEE students as possible, all you need to do is go to Old Biscuit Mill (OBM) on a Saturday morning.

The OBM farmer’s market is open once a week that sells all kinds of foods and clothing and every Saturday we go it is always packed with people come rain or shine.

You can go there just to eat for the day or to shop for your weekly groceries. I think my favorite part of the mill, besides the free samples and falafel, is that it shows how diverse South Africa really is, from the lady from France who makes the best French health bread, to the South American couple steamin’ up a mean bowl paella.

I also love to buy food and just sit on the hay bags and chat with strangers about almost everything.