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By bbarfiel

Wow, the time has truly flew by! However, I want to take the time to appreciate this experience for all the lessons that it has taught me. Reflecting back on my semester, there have been numerous adventures, challenges and obstacles that I have conquered. I’ve written about some of those in my previous post..but this one is different. ...continue reading "Reflections"

It's a bit of an understatement that the United States is big on sports. Be it baseball, basketball, or football, almost every American student has been on some sort of athletic team or taken lessons at some point during their childhood. Even more so, in the states, "sports" as a concept has taken on a life of its own: it's a billion dollar industry with multiple TV channels and a slew of weekends over the course of a year dedicated to various sporting endeavors.

So how do sports fit into Europe? More specifically, how do sports fit into the United Kingdom?

The biggest sport - in both Europe and the United Kingdom - is clearly football, or soccer as Americans call it. Each country has a national team, and various cities have their own teams as well. London, for example, has four teams that I know of, and near the end of October I went to one of the games.

I saw the Tottenham Hot Spurs play (and defeat) a Greek team at their home stadium. A friend of mine, who loves European football and actually understood what he was doing, organized the trip and booked field-level seats near the center of the pitch. The stadium - being outdoors - was quite cold, and it even started to rain at one point. However the atmosphere was lively - fans jumping out of their seat and screaming at goals or fouls - and the home team dominated play. Though I didn't know the official rules, it was easy enough to follow the action. My friend ended up explaining the rules to a group of us, but I mostly ignored him and focused on watching the game; I chose to apply NHL rules to the football game instead of struggling to digest my friend's diatribe, and for the most part, it served me well.

Hockey is one sport that England does not have, but the rest of Europe - especially the Slavic countries - loves. For me personally, one of the worst aspects of studying in London was the lack of hockey. Though I'm a Californian, my father instilled in me a love for the Philadelphia Flyers and ice hockey, and it kills me that I'm missing the first half of their season.

So when I traveled to Prague immediately following the football game in October, I made sure to catch a hockey match. The team names were all in Czech, so I have no idea who played who, but I do know that the home team won and it was a fantastic game. Since I'm so much more knowledgeable about hockey than I am about football, I can actually detail some differences between NHL hockey and European hockey.

To begin with, European rinks are slightly larger, their goalies are allowed to play the puck from anywhere behind the net, not just within the trapezoid, and offensive players are not allowed to enter the goalie's crease. Moreso, European hockey includes harsher penalties for players who break the rules.

And what do these rules include? No fighting. That's right, hockey lovers, in European hockey, you aren't allowed to fight or even be too physical. Check too hard? You're ejected from the game. Throw a single punch? You may be suspended for several games. As I witnessed in Prague, this creates a completely altered style of hockey. Instead of being physical, players emphasize their finesse and puck-handling skills. They use more fancy, fast passes and less of a forecheck to take the lead. How do I feel about these changes? Well for one thing, it makes it a little more understandable for me to watch players in the NHL - such as Finish Kimmo Timonen or Jaromir Jagr from the Czech Republic - play games so much less physical than American or Canadian born players. In general, however? I think I prefer American hockey. Though the skill with which these Slavic players handle the puck is awe-inspiring, there is a certain level of physicality I’ve come to expect in hockey, and it doesn’t feel right to watch the game without it.

Overall, Europe lacks some of the American sports - such as basketball and football - and it has some sports that we don’t have, like cricket and rugby. To anyone interested in studying abroad, I highly recommend watching some sort of athletic game in your foreign country; it can be really telling in regards to the culture.

By claudiainpune

 Hanuman Temple600 steps to the top of a temple, believed to be the birthplace of Hanuman, the monkey god, seemed like an unreachable feat. My 3 friends and I had just biked about 5 miles, trekking historic and religious landmarks around Hampi, the ruins capital of India. Once we reached this temple, I was ready to just sit at the bottom as the rest of my friends went up. But, something told me that I wouldn't want to miss this. As we climbed the hilltop completely barefoot, monkeys surrounded the ancient staircases and women in their saris with their small children swiftly passed us, making their way to the top. Older men and women also dared to take on the climb and, suddenly, I felt a new sense of motivation and determination. With each step, the view became more and more breathtaking. The entire hill was composed of rugged, gigantic rocks. And, looking out into the distance, patches of paddy field looked like a solved jigsaw puzzle. Once we reached the top, we entered the temple that is dedicated to Hanuman and were offered holy water and the vermilion colored powder Hindus wear on their foreheads. ...continue reading "Looking Back"

By clairemac93

I woke up this morning in the bed of my best friend, in the city of Washington. I proceeded to lie there and stare at the wall, while slowly separating my eye lids which were stuck together because I had slept so hard that I basically fused my eyelashes together. “Where am I?” I wondered. “How did I get here?”

After 25 hours in transit, I had a right to be both physically and mentally confused of where in time and space I was. Yesterday, or rather two days ago, was my last day in Stellenbosch. With many of my friends and fellow students already well past finished with exams, I was one of few remaining to write for my departments. It meant a lot of scattered goodbyes, a quiet campus, and trying to process leaving while at the same time focusing on the (seemingly) 1 billion equations and graphs I needed to be memorizing for exams. I felt like I was running out of brain space for so many puzzling concepts. Having then only finished my semester on Wednesday evening, I spent my few free days afterwards sort of bumbling around town, unsure what act would solidify or best end my time there, while at the same time keeping in mind that after a year in a small town- it was more the people I would miss than things in the town itself. In the end, my last day was perfect in its simplicity. I went to breakfast with my best friend’s family, who have acted as a pseudo-host family all year and have given me a steady dose of Afrikaans language and culture since the beginning (perfectly summarized in their goodbye gifts which consisted of my own potjiekos pot and lifetime supply of rusk). I then spent the day at an organic farm exploring, in the striking heat that was hinting of summer being just around the corner.

Cue then to arriving in Washington. After making the pivotal mistake of admitting to having brought with me produce from the African continent, I lost what seemed like several years of my life to customs at Dulles airport. I started to envision that I would have a movie made after my experience called The Terminal 2. Once freed from the grasps of airport personnel, I finally took my first new steps into the United States. The sky looked exactly like what I remember a November sky looks like- bulbous and cloudy with every shade of gray included and a dull light seeping through. But aside from the sky, everything else in the city looked familiar in the most foreign way, as if I was visiting for the first time again. As if I didn’t identify with these streets anymore. As if the paths I had hammered into these sidewalks had slowly molded to someone else’s while I was away.

Spending the evening with close friends of mine, I realized that a lot of work will be involved to identify the spot where this “new me” fits back in here. Work at NGOs? Internships? Applications for scholarships? Homemade beer kits? Brunch? $20 for a meal at a burger joint? What are these things? What do I talk about? Where is the intersection between what I want to say and family and friends care to hear?

And so the process begins. I know people will tell me that I have done this before (Germany 2009-2010), and that I can do this again. And they’re right. However, it’s hard to accept that when looking at the daunting idea of condensing and packing away a year of your life into a digestible portion of your personality and then moving on from it. But I have to remember that this, this coming home deal, is also a part of my South African adventure as much as any other part. It is the part where I challenge what I truly learned there, what parts I want to keep and discard, what parts taught me lessons and which just happened and I’ll have to accept.

Updates to come later.

By marisalgado94

After almost 3 months of being in a classroom, becoming knowledgeable on theory, and having the chance to travel through field excursions, the hallmark part of an SIT program has finally arrived- the Independent Study Project (ISP).  When this program first started, the ISP seemed like something that was far off and removed... yes, I understand I need to conduct a research project but first, let me get acclimated to an entirely new country and learn a whole new language.  But as time went by and assignments for research prep were due, the project became very real; I was terrified.  I have written many long research papers before, understand the format and goals of a project, and have taken research methods classes to make sure that all parts of my study are ethical and giving something back to the community.  However, I have never really conducted research in the field, where all of my information is primarily supposed to come from first hand sources, interviews, observations, and analysis.  The way that SIT work's is that for the last month of the program, you are set free for three weeks to do your research independently.  While you are matched with an adviser to guide you, your project is very much dependent on your own motivation and dedication to your work.  All of this was intimidating at first but guess what y'all?  Today was my first day in the field, and I am happy to say it was a successful day!

Let me tell you a bit about my project.  I have always been passionate about helping kids, bottom up community development, and health education.  I have found a way to combine all of these things into my project.  I will be spending time learning about Nordeste de Amaralina, a community in Salvador that is characterized by low socioeconomic status, racial discrimination and marginalization, and high levels of violence, drug use, and drug trafficking.  I will be familiarizing myself with the community through a drug research and treatment center through interviews and determining what the risk factors are in the community for drug use among teens.  Then I will be doing observations and interviews with instructors and parents from the Amaralina Kids Body Boarding Team, a team that focuses on giving kids a positive environment to spend Sunday mornings and providing them with positive role models.  My hope is to see how this program is addressing and helping reduce the influence of the risk factors for drug use and what ways community programs could be expanded in Salvador to better serve this population.

Today was spent doing observations of the teams structure, team member/ coach interaction, and attitude of the teens during the program.  While at some points it was difficult to understand some of the things that were going on in Portuguese, I felt like I was able to overcome the challenges by asking questions and using context clues to define words I was unsure about.  Through this next week, I will be attending a parent/ coach meeting where I will hopefully conduct interviews with individuals.  While I am nervous since these interviews are a large part of my ethnographic research project, I am excited to learn from these families and coaches and see how their lives have been impacted by the environment they live in and what is being done to make life better.  One day of research down, 25 more to go!

I've been writing for GW Blog Abroad for nearly three months now, and I think it's about time I confess something: I am physically limited.

Well, kind of. I'm in the grey area of disability: it's not bad enough that I need to declare it on any forms, but it is severe enough that I require surgery and physical therapy. I have scoliosis - a curvature of the spine - and it prevents me from doing certain things (like run or wear corsets) without my lungs being ironically impinged by my rib cage. I can't stand for more than an hour at a time without incurring nerve pain, and my limbs will occasionally go numb for no apparent reason. It's unfortunate, but I don't let my issues impinge upon my ability to participate in life, pain or no pain. 

Essentially, my plight isn't bad enough to require a handicapped sticker on my license plate, but if the US army ever returned to a draft system, I'd be declared unfit for duty.

So how is it that I've been backpacking around Europe for the past three weekends when simply wearing a backpack makes me limp? How have I been staying in hostels, hurrying to catch trains, hiking in Prague? For that matter, how can any student with consistent physical pain partake in the GW study abroad student-rite-of-passage of traveling cheaply? For that matter, how can anyone other than the strongest athlete manage to carry around their belongings from city to city?

Simple. You pay attention. Stepping on mismatched cobblestone and the mile-wide gap of grout in-between causes my vertebrae to grind together, so I actively seek out the smoothest sections of the street. A six hour train ride into Nantes makes my muscles ache and spasm, so I get up and wander the train every hour or so. Carrying my backpack through a crowded airport for the two hours before my flight takes off makes my head light and my sciatic shudder, so I set my bag down (my leg looped though the strap to protect against theft) whenever I can. Most importantly, I always do these things before I have pain, not after or during.

The number one tip I can give is to be preventative by paying attention to both your body and the world around you.

It does you no good to tough it out - keep your pack on your back - until your legs are shaking and you're ready to cry. Any moment you have the chance, set your bag down. Lean against the wall, stretch your body, and pay attention. By giving your body breaks whenever you can, you'll last longer and be able to keep up with more able-bodied people.

My other favorite thing is to spread out my belongings. Obviously, if I'm traveling anywhere long-term I bathe in the luxury of a rolling suitcase. However, for older cities like Prague (in which a paved road is essentially a tourist attraction in and of itself), a rolling suitcase is not a possibility. My trick? I place anything fragile or heavy in my backpack, and then carry a lightweight tote filled with toiletries or clothing. Having a second, easy-to-maneuver bag let's me rearrange how I carry things if my back starts to hurt or things get too heavy for me.

The old adage is "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." It's a cliché, but it's a cliché for a reason, as people like me know. Recovering from a day of intense pain is a harrowing experience, and it can easily kill an entire vacation day. It's better to not put yourself in that position at all. So watch the world around you - pay attention to your body - and cheat. Find the ways of standing, sitting, and backpacking that don't bother your body, and work them into your travel as often as you can. If you stretch and pay attention, there's no reason you can't travel like everyone else.

By bevvy2212

This upcoming week is going to be rough, seeing as how most of my finals and papers are due this week so here are a few tips for you future youngsters to avoid being snowed under seven feet of work, like me.

1. Time management. Ok, I exaggerated in the previous sentence. I do have a lot of work due this week but since I'm a little bit of a control freak so I had everything sort of planned out ahead of time. That's the key: keep a planner/calender. I don't think I need to stress the importance of having a planner as you are all probably used to doing that back at GW. The thing is, the last week here at Sciences Po generally contain some make-up class periods. Some time during the semester, if your professor had decided to cancel class, they will generally be made up during this week and the schedule does get a bit hectic because depending on the time and availability of the rooms, your make-up class might not be at the same time/room as your normal class period. So keeping a planner will definitely help you keep track of what's due on what day.

2. Some classes will have their finals during the last week of classes. Actually I think most electives and seminars do. (Hence the importance of having a planner and knowing when your classes are during this week) But the lectures usually have exams during a designated week after classes are done, kind of similar to GW. So bear that in mind when making travel plans.

3. The second half of November, starting December is generally hell-ish for a lot of the students here at Sciences Po. Exchange students generally take a lot less classes than those who are actually enrolled in the school. I have quite a number of friends who are doing their Masters at ScPo and their schedule is just, overwhelming. Whereas I am only taking six classes, they usually take up to 10 or 12. So when they say they really don't have time, it really is, because they are dying from all the work, not because they don't like you. Which brings me to my fourth point:

4. If you can, stay a little bit after your semester is done in Paris, catch up with friends who are too busy to meet up with you during finals weeks or do the things that you haven't done yet in Paris. I regret not doing as much as I could back in September/ October when I still had a lot of free time on my hands. I always thought, oh I'll have time for that later when the tourist season thins out but now I only have a week left and I have all these things on my bucket list that I have yet to cross off.

Final rant: for as much as I've complained about Paris through my #dailyrant statuses on Facebook, it is very depressing to be leaving Paris in like, a week. Especially with all the Christmas lights up and going. Paris truly is magical.

I recently had the opportunity to travel from São Paulo up north to the state of Bahia, to the city of Salvador. The state of Bahia is in one of the poorer regions of Brazil, the Northeast, whereas São Paulo is firmly situated in the wealthier and more developed Southeast, and in fact is the economic center of the country as a whole. This made for a very interesting comparison between the two areas.

My time here in Brazil has been amazing, but São Paulo has not been at all what I expected out of Brazil, for a number of reasons. Salvador, on the other hand, fulfills what I had held as my mental image of Brazil. Without a doubt, I have experienced the openness of the Brazilian people and of Brazilian society here in São Paulo, but the people of Salvador and of Praia do Forte, the beach town I visited, took it to a whole other level. Strangers on the street, complete and total strangers, are called "friend." Anyone else, people you've spoken to even once before, are called "brother," "sister," "tia," "tio," even me.

It was interesting, first of all, to compare the populations of Salvador and of São Paulo. São Paulo is an unusual case in terms of Brazilian cities in that that the favelas ring the periphery of the city, making the downtown areas--the only places that I go with any regularity--solidly middle- and upper-class. I've volunteered in the center of the city, which is significantly poorer than the neighborhoods in which I live, go to school, and hang out, but the poor or homeless live either on the street or as squatters in abandoned buildings, or in one of the two very small favelas that are located in the city center. What this means, more or less, is that it is easy, in São Paulo, to forget the levels of poverty and need that exist in the rest of the country. In Salvador, for me, that was not the case. The "normal," so to speak, people are poor, in particular compared to those in São Paulo. However, from what I saw, they are also happy and beautiful. Early one morning, I saw a line of perfectly coiffed women, in brightly colored dresses, stranding in line to pick up their free bread with their state vouchers. I can say with absolute certainty that I have never and probably will never see something like that in São Paulo.

The cultural differences between the two cities were also striking. My general sense is that São Paulo is an international, cosmopolitan city located in Brazil, whereas Salvador, had I gone there for my time abroad--which I seriously considered--would have been a truly Brazilian city. The culture, which is a specific mix of Afro-European-indigenous influences creating a wholly Brazilian culture. The religion, a syncretic mix of Catholicism and African religions, the love of music, the food, the beaches, the colors all contribute to a culture that fills the city to the brim. São Paulo is, of course, full of so many elements of Brazilian culture, but they don't necessarily manifest themselves on the surface in the same way, and certain elements, like the religion and the music, are in fact confined to the Northeast.

In any case, I am so, so glad I got to see and experience Salvador, to enhance my understanding of Brazil as a whole, and to understand São Paulo better within the Brazilian context.

By mcbitter

It seems like just yesterday that I was writing my very first blog post - it's hard to believe that this is my last! My classes are wrapping up this week, as are my final exams, so soon I'll be leaving this wonderful city and heading back to the States. In a way, I'm ready to go home, but it's really bittersweet because I'm not sure when I'll be back. (I know I will at some point, though!) Before I leave, I'm making sure to check off a few last things that I didn't get around to visiting, like the Catacombs (which I hear are AMAZING) and an exhibition of American photographer Garry Winogrand. Overall though, while I didn't have the chance to visit every corner of the city (it is definitely too big for that), I think I've gained a thorough understanding of Paris, which became my primary goal throughout this trip.

What am I going to do once I'm back in the States? First thing on the list - after getting over my jet lag, that is - is to visit my friends and family. They've been a huge source of support right from the beginning, especially when I was homesick. Speaking from experience, homesickness abroad was a real issue for me, and it was a different animal than the kind I experienced when I first got to GW because of the time difference and not seeing family midway through at Thanksgiving or parent's weekend. All I can say is that I am eternally grateful for Skype! Also, speaking of homesickness, I will most definitely be paying a visit to two very important parts of my heart: Chipotle and Target. (Yes, I went there.) It might sound silly, but those are definitely the American things I've missed the most while I've been here. No Mexican restaurant or French store could replace either of them!

I've realized that I'm really glad that I decided to study abroad in the fall because I get to come home to the holiday season in full swing. Christmas and New Year's are bound to be amazing in Paris, but being with my friends and family is what's most important to me. Overall though, coming here for study abroad has given me incredible opportunities, and I won't soon forget that. I traveled to numerous places, including Ireland, the Czech Republic, Belgium, and different regions within France. I got to improve my French and see how French people live on a daily basis, especially when I began babysitting a little Parisian girl on some weeknights. I've made a lot of new friends from all over the world, most importantly the GW and Sciences Po students with whom I've spent the last few months. Most important, though, is that I really and truly learned a lot about myself. I know that everyone says something along those lines, but it really is true. Studying abroad has been probably the biggest challenge I've ever faced; some days were really hard, to be completely honest, but others were simply amazing. Looking back, I'm really proud of myself for taking advantage of this incredible opportunity and will definitely carry it with me for the rest of my life. So, yes, it's been a crazy ride - thanks for coming along with me!

By makenadingwell

image (9)Growing up in England, thanksgiving was never a big holiday. Although I’ve lived in the U.S. for years now, I’ve given the holiday little thought every year, and even went to Canada to eat curry and nachos with my friends last year instead of binging on turkey. However, after spending the day with Americans abroad and hearing frequent nostalgic mentions of family traditions, I’ve come to realize how important and seemingly irreplaceable cuisine can be in respective cultural customs.

In Spain, there are many gastronomical habits that both follow and oppose stereotypes, solely judging from my homestay meals. There is a very generous amount of ham in meals, but I had no clue Spain consumed the largest quantity of fish per person in Europe. People occasionally drink sangria, but there’s much more beer and wine and even vermouth. Chorizo is popular, but morcilla (blood sausage) is sometimes better. My host mom hates gazpacho, loves lentil soup, and snacks on sunflower seeds while watching movies. I have paella often, but my favorite is black squid paella, which as it sounds, is dark, tangy, and can include a variety of calamari.image (10)

In reality, the most common and easy to make Spanish dish is the Spanish tortilla, which is actually a thick omelette with potato, and is not something you can wrap a burrito in. This was particularly confusing the first week since a French tortilla is a plain omelette. And while most of us miss peanut butter, I have found that plenty of nut-centric desserts that pop up around Christmas are festive alternatives. One named turrón, which is made of honey, almonds, and other nuts, tastes like condensed peanut or almond butter and can be found in large bricks everywhere. Lastly, while churros certainly aren’t an everyday staple, when Spaniards go out until the morning hours and the famous churros place in the center of Madrid is open 24hrs, grabbing a few with friends is an inevitable final activity.

Of course there are plenty examples of American culinary influence all over Spain. Besides the scattered assortment of Starbucks and KFC stores, there are many twists within them too. The “Dunkin’ Coffee” shops (that's right, coffee before donuts) serve pastries as well as tomatoes on toast (so Catalan) and Serrano ham. McDonalds also offers gazpacho and cherry tomatoes.

image (11)Thanksgiving dinner was again an opportunity to for a Spanish interpretation of an American practice. We started with tapas, like croquetas and spring rolls, and finally received a healthy portion of turkey, with stuffing, gravy, mashed butternut squash, and a chestnut puree. The most controversial part was the accidental heating of the cranberry sauce, however the experience was a flawlessly Spanish thanksgiving. After pumpkin pie and tiramisu and plenty of wine, our program leaders left us to dance to the live music with the local Spaniards before hurrying back to our home stays.

To be honest this year I went to two thanksgiving celebrations. I attended GW Madrid’s swanky, intimate restaurant dinner and a friend’s program’s much larger, potluck style dinner the next night in France. However it was pretty clear at the second that the company of the “GW Madrid” family, and the indescribable Spanish flair incorporated in all our experiences, are incomparable to any other and I am thankful and very full.image (12)