Tag Archives: About Me

T-minus One Day…

Want to read a rousing account of adventure and hijinks of a college student studying abroad?  Well then, you have probably come to the wrong blog.  However, if rambling accounts of misadventure are more your style, then read on!

 

Hi, my name is Kelsi and I am a junior at Penn State studying chemical engineering (and minoring in English).  This lovely spring semester I will be leaving behind the sunshine of State College and instead study in sun-starved northern England at University of Leeds.  Although Penn State doesn’t really get too much sunshine, Leeds is in another league.  In January, Leeds averages 54 hours of sunlight A MONTH. Which is actually wonderful because I am slightly allergic to the sun (ie I break out in hives the first couple sunny spring days) and burn very easily.  But I digress, if you’re reading my blog, you probably want to learn other details about me that are more interesting than my propensity to burn.

 

What do I live to do when I’m not slathering on large amounts of SPF 100 to avoid the sun’s rays?  Well, I absolutely love reading and often will stay up into the wee hours trying to finish a book.  In fact, to “research” for England, I attempted to read every British book (from this century) I could find in the public library.  


When not cozying up with a great book, you can probably find me outside.  I love running but view treadmills as evil machines that must be treated with great caution so I’m constantly trying to find new running routes.  I’m excited to be in a new place so that I can inject some new life into my running routines and not have to worry about getting sunburned on my run. 


I also like to hike and backpack and hope to go on some backpacking adventures while I’m in England.  Below, you can see me in all of my hiking glory.  This picture was taken by my lovely sister when we climbed Longs Peak, a 14,259 ft mountain in Colorado.  Although I won’t encounter any mountains of this size in England, I hope to have some equally epic adventures πŸ™‚


Kelsi BRIDGE.jpg

 

Hopefully, in the coming months, I will be able to write about amazing places, people and adventures.  However, you might have to settle for accounts of me getting horribly confused by the differences in American and British culture and my complete mis-adventures.  Stay turned for my next segment: Kelsi thought she was finished packing two days ago but now realizes that she forgot several key items and is panicking. 


Location: Mechanicsburg, PA

About Me

Hi! My name is Lindsay and in the spring I’ll be studying abroad in Seoul, South Korea.  I’m majoring in International Politics, so naturally I’m studying abroad (in a place that seems to be having some political issues… good for my major?).  Currently I’m a junior at Penn State, and hopefully after studying abroad I’ll still be able to graduate on time.  My family lives in State College, so this will be a pretty big trip for me (other than the previous two times I’ve studied abroad).  This will however be the furthest I’ve ever been away from home.  I’m really going to miss my family and friends, but I’m excited to do something different for a semester away from Penn State and State College.  So everyone should come visit me while I’m gone!

I decided I wanted to study abroad a long time ago, however it took me a long time to decide where I wanted to go.  I’ve already studied abroad in Germany twice, so I wanted to go somewhere different.  However, other than not wanting to go to a German speaking country, I had no clue where I wanted to go.  After looking at programs in Senegal, Norway, Australia and as a last resort, even Germany, and after finding reasons why I shouldn’t go to each of those places, I finally decided Korea was where I wanted to go.

I looked at the program page and the pictures they had on the page looked pretty cool.  The one problem I had, and still have, with studying abroad in a place like Korea is that I don’t know any Korean.  I’m hoping with the time that I have before leaving I’ll be able to pick a little bit up, but really I’m going to rely on the kindness of Koreans to help me with the language barrier.  I’m really excited to be going somewhere so different and exciting, but I won’t lie, I’m a little nervous to be going to a place that seems to be having some sorta scary problems.  But I’m hoping by February things will have calmed down enough that my mother will allow me to go without worrying too much, and things will be safe there for me as well.  As far as I know there’s only one other student from Penn State (UP) going to Sogang University, so I’ll definitely be making some new friends while I’m gone!

I’m excited to go to a place unlike any other I’ve been to before, and I’m looking forward to all the new things I’ll get to learn about and experience. Hopefully my next post will be from somewhere exciting in Seoul!


This is going to be my home for five months! Just a little bit different than State College…
I think Seoul is bigger than any place I’ve ever been before.


Location: State College, PA

About me & Preparations

Hey everyone! I figured I could get some things started on here, however little there may be at the time, about my preparation status and a little bit about me πŸ™‚ (If you don’t wanna know about me, skip this next paragraph and it gets more into the program info.) 

To start off, I’m a junior at PSU, majoring in Japanese and Asian Studies with a minor in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). I’m from Brockway, PA (1.5 hrs NW of State College), a tiny town of about 3000 that most people have never heard of. I’ve taken 2 years of Japanese, a few years of Spanish, and plan to eventually extend my language learning to a few others (Korean, Chinese, French, and some others).
I’ve been accepted to the Tokyo – Intensive Language, year-long program. I’m trying to do a homestay, though I won’t find out about that for awhile as we get our housing assignments about a month before the program starts. The start date is Aug 31, which involves general orientation, class registration, moving in, etc. I just got my ticket and finished all my IES paperwork, so I’m set on that front.
Since studying in Japan is very expensive, especially for a year, I’m attempting to get some summer work (though, around here, it’s not very easy) and save up a bit. My first piece of advice, while somewhat obvious, is to apply for scholarships early and make sure you get as many done as you can. There are a ton of opportunities through PSU to get financial aid, you just have to know where to look and who to ask (David is a great person to start with πŸ˜› ). Figure out the requirements for all of them early and stay on top of the deadlines. I didn’t do the first part and had to ask my professors a couple times for letters of recommendation (a lot of scholarships request one or more).
I’ve also been looking into possibly working part time while in Japan, maybe as an English tutor or something along those lines…I’ll have to wait until I start my visa stuff to see how much extra paperwork that’ll take.
Another thing I can recommend is to take your time when buying your ticket. Depending on the site you use, when you buy your ticket for, etc. you can save a few hundred bucks. IES recommends statravel.org, studentuniverse.com, and some other sites in the acceptance handbook you get from them. These sites are specifically for students and offer discounts and flexibility with round trip tickets. Since you have to extend the date of your round trip ticket to fit it into the academic year (AY) program anyway, try for some different ‘return’ months to see when is the cheapest. As far as I’m aware, the cost to change your ticket is the same no matter how big of a time difference the change is, so that can save you some money as well.
Something to be aware of when looking into an AY program is that over your winter break, you will have no housing assignment (i.e. can’t stay with your host family), so you will have to arrange something yourself. You may be able to get housing in the dorms, though this isn’t guaranteed. What I’m doing is getting a few friends that are doing the same program as me and we are going to look into hostels or any other form of short-term housing and split the cost. As to how well this will actually work out, I don’t know. I’ve heard of problems with sharing rooms in Japan… I’ll talk more about that as I find out more information.
That’s all I can think of for now, I’ll update sometime later on!

Location: Brockway, Pennsylvania

My First Entry

Hi everyone! My name is Alexandra Meringer, I go by Ali, and I am currently finishing up my junior year at Penn State University. I am 21 years old and my major is Communication Sciences and Disorders. This week is the last week of spring classes and I cannot believe how fast this semester has gone by. This summer, beginning May 25, I will be traveling to Barcelona, Spain for 6 weeks with the IES program. I am extremely excited and cannot wait to begin my education abroad experience. I have never traveled to Europe or anywhere far before and I hope to share all of my new experiences with you as I go along. My trip is quickly approaching and I cannot wait to start getting everything ready and begin my summer in Spain! I will be traveling with one of my best friends and also hope to meet many new people and students while I am over there. Hopefully, my best friend and I will be placed in a home stay location and will be living with a great family, who I cannot wait to meet. I will be taking 6 credits in this summer program and the classes I hope to take include a beginner level Spanish course and a course on the history of Barcelona. I have previously taken 4 years of Spanish in high school and 1 semester here at Penn State. I hope to have some time to practice my Spanish speaking skills before I leave and to learn a lot about the language when I am over there!

I am beyond excited to be able to write and share my experiences with my family and fellow abroad students and hope to have many future entries that will help me to remember and document every experience! I hope to include many pictures and insight about the shock of living, studying, and traveling in a new country. I will also try to include some entries in Spanish πŸ™‚

I will most likely be making an entry very soon about packing, getting ready to leave, and the nerves I will be having flying to Europe by myself!


Location: State College, Pennsylvania

Introductory Post

My name is Erich Stoekl, and as of Spring 2010 I am a sophomore in Computer Engineering at Penn State, University Park.  I am from State College, PA and my dad works at Penn State as well (Allan Stoekl, professor of French and Comparative Literature).  I am also an employee of cisco systems and will be working at their San Jose branch this summer.  Starting October 2010 I will be going to Tohoku University (ζ±εŒ—ε€§ε­¦), in Sendai Japan, and I will be there until August 2011.  I am going through the Department of Engineering exchange program with Tohoku University, and will be studying computer and electrical engineering.  In addition to this, I have the personal goal of learning the language as much as I can, and seeing as much and learning as much about the country as I can.  I will also try to take as many pictures of the areas I see along the way as possible.


Location: State College, PA

What’s Up

What’s up fellow GeoBloggers? I’m Kristen McKnight, and I am the die hard Pens fan wearing the jersey in the back of the room. GO PENS! I am, therefore, obviously from Pittsburgh, PA, but have not always lived there. I was born there, then moved to Switzerland for 4 years (already a world traveler!), then to Connecticut and finally back to the good ol’ burgh. I am a sophomore Elementary Education major, and am participating in the CIRT program next year through the College of Education. I will be traveling to Bognor Regis, England for fall semester, and Jonkoping, Sweden in the spring. I;m super psyched and ready to go. I think I have already figured out how everything is going to work for me next year, except how to pack! Knowing me, I’ll want to take everything I own, but I’d never be allowed on the plane with 18 suitcases… so that should be exciting.

Anyways, I am planning on having a happily ever after movie experience, but I’ll keep you posted on how real that imagined reality turns out to be πŸ™‚

Pumped to get to know you all through the internet in a non-creepy way.

Peace, love, and Penn State!


Location: Gibsonia, PA