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Month: November 2013

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By rohitaj

Hello all, this is Rohita speaking from Kigali, Rwanda. I’m currently here with SIT’s Post-Genocide Restoration and Peace-building program. This last month has been incredibly challenging. We’ve visited jarring genocide memorials, a women association of genocide survivors, spoken to former perpetrators and spent two weeks studying the LRA conflict in northern Uganda. It’s been a lot to take in and to be honest I don’t think I have taken much of it in just yet.
Visiting the genocide memorials is not something that I feel I am competent enough to describe in words. All I can do is encourage you to make the trek to Rwanda to visit one of the most powerful testaments to loss and forgiveness that I have ever witnessed. On a more uplifting note, visiting the Women’s Association was absolutely incredible. There are these groups of women, some whose husbands have died in the genocide others whose husbands are in jail for crimes committed during the genocide, but regardless they live together and support each other. Visiting them and hearing their stories is once again indescribable. All I can say is that I have never met a tougher group of women!
The next phase of my program is for independent research. My research is going to focus on the role of the village in conflict mediation. I plan on speaking with village chiefs, the ministry of local government and just regular citizens to hear their take on the matter. The reason I find this concept so fascinating is because it s so different than anything we have in the US. So imagine this: Your neighbor is building a house and he without realizing it builds on your land, but you haven’t been in the area for like 10 years so he tells you that too bad deal with it! Instead of suing him for all he’s worth you take it up with the abunzi. This literally means the one who reconciles. The abunzi is a member of your village who is of “honorable character”. He assembles a table of witnesses and you all talk it out and come up with a solution. No government; no lawyers.
I find this absolutely amazing. There are many other means of reconciliation used in the villages. In one of my earlier posts I talked about the umuganda, the day of mandatory community service occurring at the end of the month. The village in Rwanda does so much. It operates where the national government cannot and strives to fill gaps in development, security, and peace.
So that’s the focus of my research. I can’t wait to get started

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By nlgyon

Happy New Year, everyone! You might be thinking, "Nick, what are you talking about? Don't you know it's only November?" Indeed. But yesterday marked the celebration of the Islamic New Year, or the Hijri New Year. This holiday signifies the beginning of the Islamic calendar, which started in 610 AD, when the Prophet Muhammad emigrated from Mecca to Medina, a journey known as the Hijra, hence the term "Hijri New Year." The first day of the first month of the New Year varies from country to country; some calculate it based on local moon sightings, and others rely on astronomical calculations.

While of little significance to a non-Muslim such as myself, I was happy to hear the Prime Minister announce that Thursday, November 7 was an official holiday. I decided to take the long weekend to chill out at home and work on some long-term projects/job searching. As far as I could tell, there weren't any huge public celebrations like there are for the common new year; it seemed like more of a family-oriented holiday, celebrated by attending mosque and perhaps having guests. There were, of course, fireworks. As often as I hear fireworks, I imagine the complement every holiday or celebration. At least I hope they're fireworks.

I'm sorry I don't have any adventures for you this week; they will resume in a few weeks as I reemerge from a deluge of midterm exams, presentations, response papers, case studies, and scholarship applications...

 

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By tinavisc

The last week of my study abroad program has at last arrived, and I feel exceptionally unprepared to part from the close friends I've made. Somewhere in the mix of university studying, working, and exploring Cape Town, I forgot to spend every waking second with my new friends! I feel so blessed to have met and learned from the wonderful people on my program, however I'm not quite ready to let them go.

I felt very similar the last week before I left D.C. for South Africa. It had been the first time in my life that I didn't want to run away; I had essentially planted my roots and my love in one place. I was comforted by the fact that D.C. would still be there when I got back. Sure, life goes on and things change, but the friends I consider family would still be there. The friends I've made in Cape Town are a different story. Who knows if we will, in fact, ever be in the same geographical location at the same time? Who knows if we'll be able to maintain global contact in this ever distracting world? In any case, thank goodness for Skype.

I have a feeling that as life goes on, you experience more and more friendships with this naturally expiring time limit set. This fact, however dismal it may be, can't let you avoid making friends in the first place. We can always learn and grow from each other, no matter how long we'll be in each other's presence. Although I'm so sad to part from my new friends, I'm so thankful to have met each and every one of them.

I will forever hold a special place in my heart for those I've shared this incredible journey with.

When the friends you’ve made, the ones who’ve forever changed your life, return to their lives around the planet. #GWU #GWAbroad

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By maxikaplan

I’ll admit that I’m jealous of students on other study abroad programs who are able to afford more free time than me given their class schedule and workload, but my decision to come to the London School of Economics was made knowing that I eventually would face this harsh truth.  LSE isn’t easy, and I don’t anticipate it getting any easier from here, but I don’t regret, not even for one second, my decision to come.  When I tell my other friends abroad about my work schedule, they lament how this is the one time in my life to really travel, and that I could have chosen to make my time abroad much more fun.  I do agree that my time here is work intensive, but I wouldn't have it any other way.  A simple revelation made me understand why.

Classes at LSE are different from lectures—it is the smaller meetings with your TA’s that consist of only 10-15 students, whereas lectures are much bigger lessons taught by professors.  But classes are no walk in the park.  They are taught by PhD students studying at LSE extremely well versed in your lecture topic, and they challenge you constantly.  Exhibit A: it is my third week of class and I have a 45-minute presentation to make this coming Friday.  The revelation I had occurred this past week during a student’s discourse with a group making their presentation in my Business in Britain class.  The way in which he spoke, the nature of his question, and the expectations he had of the students to fully answer his question, all provided me with an odd sense of inspiration.  This, I thought, is the reason I came to LSE, because although traveling and seeing the world is undoubtedly a learning experience and something I look forward to, it is an entirely different experience to have your beliefs questioned academically in a way that forces you to see the world from a new perspective.  Both avenues—travel and academia—provide different paths for a person to perceive the world, and it was clear to me during this argument that my view on things is never going to be “right”, but the way in which I change my view is where I find my inspiration to work and to live.  LSE is a special place to do this, and it goes almost without saying that the rest of the students in my class were keen to voice their own opinion in just the same manner, which I found incredible.

Contrary to my rambling, I have done other exciting things this week, such as take my first tour of Parliament and eat Indian food three nights in a row.  But what really made my week was sitting in that class.  I’ll be back to report how my own presentation goes this week, and maybe during my next blog I’ll learn to not focus so narrowly on my own experiences.  For now that is all as I enjoy the fact that the clocks in London were set back by an hour.

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By mtumasz

Kia Ora mates, unfortunately this will be my last post.

I will be departing New Zealand this Monday, November 18th. These past 5 months have been absolutely incredible, and they have definitely flew by. I could blog all day about my amazing experiences, and I would still not be able to write it all out. Studying abroad has been one of the best decisions of my life, and I highly recommend if anyone is even thinking about study abroad, that they should definitely do it.

I'm not totally sure what to write about in this last post, other than I am so sad to be leaving. I have not started packing because I am in denial that I have to leave. I have been trying to cram in all these last minute activities to do before I leave, to help keep my mind off things, and I think this method has worked pretty well!

While I am wicked sad to leave this amazing country, I am also really looking forward to being home, especially for the holidays. Having to start school in mid-July was totally worth it so I could be home for Thanksgiving and Christmas. My family and friends are thrilled for me to return, but hopefully they don't mind when I'm cranky from all the jet lag!

I hope all of you have enjoyed reading my blog these past 5 months and I have hopefully given you some useful travel information and heaps of incentive to come to New Zealand!

Cheers!

Merideth

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By mfretes93

One of my favorite days of the year, every year, is Halloween. I've just always found it to be something that people of all ages can enjoy: the young get free candy from neighbors whose names they can't remember; teenagers have an excuse to throw eggs at things to feel alive; and adults can dress up as their favorite character from anything and no one will make fun of them. It's a win-win for everyone!

But Halloween is especially a big deal for college campuses all across the country, with students dressing up as anything that exists on the planet, from witches to animals to TV characters to personifications of ideas. Needless to say, it's an event that all students look forward to, and I was saddened that I wouldn't be able to join in the festivities this year.

In fact, I thought that October 31st in Rio de Janeiro would be like any typical weekday, and that maybe one of my American friends with have a Halloween get-together in their home out of necessity, and that would be it.

Little did I know, America has a very strong influence on the culture of the world. Which is to say, even through I thought Halloween was primarily an American thing, it turns out that other nations across the world have adopted the practice of dressing up on October 31st, since the U.S. made it so marketable to do so.

Which isn't to say that countries don't have their own unique take on the holiday.

My roommate and I, thinking that Halloween would be unimportant outside of the U.S., put absolutely no thought to our costumes, up until three hours before our American friend's Halloween party. This friend was having said party to not only allow fellow Americans to indulge in their favorite holiday, but also to show our Brazilian friends what Halloween is like for us in the States.

But with so much going on in our lives, from school to volunteering to planning trips and talking to family, my roommate and I had little time to put as much planning into our Halloween costumes as we would've liked. So, minutes before leaving for our friend's get-together, my roommate, who has been on crutches ever since a freak samba accident, dressed up as a character (Walter Jr.) from a TV show that he has never seen (Breaking Bad) by taking an old t-shirt and writing the character's "slogan" on it. While this happened, I put on an oversized tank top and athletic shorts and called myself a "frat boy" for the night.

What we expected to see upon entering the apartment was a roomful of Americans wearing various costumes of varying levels of creativity, with most of the costumes being some variation of "cat" or "witch."

What we ended up actually walking into, on the other hand, was a room full of mostly Brazilians and Europeans, all dressed up in extravagant, expertly-designed, and actually frightening costumes. Everyone was dressed up as something scary, whether it was a witch, a ghost, a zombie sailor, or a bloody vampire. Not only were all of these costumes well-designed, with fang accessories and all, but everyone, men and women, had perfect makeup to go along with their costumes, fake blood and bruises galore.

It turns out that, especially in Brazil, dressing up for Halloween doesn't mean looking up the latest cultural trends and figuring out how to turn it into a cheap costume. There are no Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, or Nicki Minaj costumes to be seen on October 31st throughout the streets of Rio. Instead, people choose to dress up as scary things: a costume on Halloween is supposed to inspire fear, not a chuckle on the street.

Needless to say then, both me and my roommate's costumes went over everyone's head. Few people watched Breaking Bad, and even fewer people even knew what a fraternity was. We were the two silly Americans in silly clothes in a sea of costumes that would give Carnaval a run for its money.

So while we may have experienced enough embarrassment for one night, we at least know now to always ask about holidays abroad before trying to celebrate them. After all, America doesn't have a monopoly on all the world's fun.

Is Halloween a thing abroad? #GWU #GWUAbroad

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By fdecristofaro

I completed my Portfolio for SIT. This project is meant to work out some of the kinks we may encounter for our final Independent Study Project (ISP). I did a small case study of 4 rivers upstream of the sugar cane processing plant and studied the water quality to determine level of pollution. I did the data collection working with my adviser, Dr. Mmochi of the Institute of Marine Sciences, a part of the University of Dar Es Salaam in Zanzibar. Everyone at IMS is very helpful however they are also extremely busy so it was hard to get everything completed in a timely fashion. Also due to external factors, such as two national holidays, and a weekend my week was eaten up before I could analyze my data. I was able to take extra time to complete the study but it was frustrating. This was a good experience to test the waters for my ISP such as going to the site and getting an adviser. I also learned the valuable skill of learning the layout of the lab here so I feel much more comfortable expanding my research to an area downstream of the factory during the month of November that is set aside wholly for our ISPs. At this point I am still going to look at Dr. Mmochi’s 1997-1999 study of the water quality in the Mahonda sugar cane factory area and collect samples to compare how the shut down of the factory has improved or degraded the surrounding environment since its shut down in 1999. I also did research and found that the WWF has created Better Management Practices (BMPs) for sugar cane factories in critical areas such as Zambia, South Africa, and the Indus River Valley. I hope to compare the management plan of the Mahonda factory with these and create a new plan that will help improve the local environment by integrating aspects of natural resource management, and the BMPs. But we shall see if this ends up being my final plan. For now I am excited to have a purpose and a preliminary study of the situation.

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By DandyLion

Hello GW!

The past month at LBV has passed calmly with few speed bumps; although some responsibilities and tasks were increased in volume, everything has passed very well. This month, I participated in the maintenance of amicable relationships with many of the nearby hostels in hopes and efforts that they will promote LBV to their clientele. To do this, a lot of time is required in that you must walk around the city for quite a few hours going from location to location. It is very entertaining however; you have the opportunity to meet and talk with countless people, making new acquaintances and friends alike. When we arrive at the site visits, we rearrange advertising materials as well as meet with the receptionists and other personnel who communicate with the travelers to discuss how we can take steps to encourage them to send their customers to us for tours of various types. This task has been also greatly helpful in learning more about the city of Santiago, Chile and has made orienting myself eons easier.

In other work, I have been added to a task force in which we are performing research on the top hotels, bed and breakfasts, aparthotels, and other assortments of lodging to uncover where the most popular sites are located, what types of people tend to frequent them, and so forth in efforts to discover how we can embark on marketing to new types of accommodation establishments. This research is rather easy but a bit tedious in that it involves spending large quantities of time on the computer and internet on sites such as travelocity.com and such to obtain an idea of places that would best serve our company. This work definitely seems to be benefiting the company as expanding to new venues is key in company growth. Hopefully, the joint efforts of hostel trips and office work can help LBV grow to another level of travel planning!

Until next time,

Danielle

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By arosema93

Well I’ve had quite an interesting last week, and not in a good way. It involved an aspect of my host country that most exchanges never experience or know much about: healthcare. And no, I’m not talking about politics here. While most exchange students go through their time without any medical glitches, I knew I had one coming eventually. I think the last time I went more than a year between hospital visits was when I was ten, and considering I am here for a year, something was bound to happen. I made it a grand total of 9 months this time. Basically, I fell on my hand and the next day it was super swollen and painful. By the time I decided it was worth getting checked out, it was after 5 on Friday and due to a public holiday on Monday the earliest time I would be able to see a doctor would be Tuesday at least. So it was off to emergency at the hospital we went.
From there I am going to skip over the majority of the story as it is mostly full of frustration and futility as I try to get one of the many worthless doctors to at least act like they know what they are doing. Long story short, I am currently writing this (very slowly with one hand) one week after the injury and I still have no idea if anything is wrong with my hand or not, despite already spending 10 hours in hospitals and doctors’ offices mostly waiting around. Many of the doctors here seem to be incompetent at the least and the system as a whole is full of bureaucracy and impossible to negotiate. Hopefully soon I will figure out what is wrong, but I am starting to lack quite a bit of faith in the Australian health care. Of this is anything like what our system will be under Obamacare then Obama will probably be remembered as the worst president ever. But it’s hard to picture America’s system ever being this bad. The only upside is that it is free* (when you pay $600 a year as an international student to buy into the system). However, although our overseas student health coverage gets us basically everything free, it also means having to initially pay quite a bit upfront and then spend several weeks trying to work through the bureaucracy enough to get a refund through insurance. My lasting piece of advice is this: If you go to another country, just don’t get hurt. Actually though, just don’t do it. It’s a waste of time, money, and frustration, and you never know exactly how the system will end up working out. Upon coming to Australia I was never too scared of the millions upon billions of poisonous snakes and spiders due to the knowledge that there are antidotes for all bites available at every hospital and this is a first world country after all, they should be able to take care of you. Now I am much more confident that I would end up dying during my fifth hour spent in the emergency waiting room.
Don’t take this the wrong way. Don’t think I now hate Australia or anything or that I’m saying don’t go abroad. All I’m saying is stay safe, especially when you don’t know the system. I would write about something else at this point, but that has literally been my life for the last week. Oh, and don’t expect this to change anything…I’ll still do just as much crazy and dangerous stuff as I always have :)

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By mtumasz

I"m typing this as I'm cooking dinner, so of course I have food on the mind. As I'm nearing the end of my time here in New Zealand , I started to think about the delicious food I got to go back to. But then I also started to get sad about all the food (and drink) I would have to say goodbye to here!

Things I'm looking forward to when I go back to the States:

  • Dunkin Donuts (or simply filtered coffee)
  • Chipotle burritos
  • My mother's banana bread
  • American Chinese Food
  • Cheez-Its
  • Ben and Jerry's

Things I'm going to miss from New Zealand:

  • Kiwi fruit
  • Pavlova - the lightest dessert, it seems like there's no calories! (there are...)
  • L&P soda - a soda unique to NZ!
  • The chocolate! For some reason, their chocolate is amazing. Hershey's got nothing on them...

You don't realize what you're going to miss whenever you leave or go somewhere new. Who knew I was going to start drooling as soon as someone mentioned Chipotle? I did luck out though, because New Zealand culture is fairly similar to the states, so I didn't have to worry about the food being too different. But the few things they don't have here (like filtered coffee) have caused me to go a little insane. I can't wait to get my American food fixes when I return, but I also have to figure out how I can mail New Zealand treats back to my house...

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