August 2016 – Page 9 – GW Blogs from Abroad

صفوفي (My Classes, etc.)

AdminAugust 29, 2016December 14, 2018

No matter where you're studying in the world, homework will always take up approximately 86% of your time. Classes have started and, as such, I've had so much less time to see Amman. At the same time I'm learning more Arabic than ever. That tends to happen when all of your classes are taught in Arabic. With Fusha (formal Arabic) and Aamiyya (Jordanian Dialect Arabic) classes, that's not so bad. We have vocabulary lists every week. On the other hand, try taking a college-level Literature class in Arabic. In our last class we collectively struggled to describe personification in Arabic. The Language Pledge is like a game of Taboo that never ends.

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Swiss Cheese Fondue, minus the ‘Swiss Cheese’

AdminAugust 29, 2016December 14, 2018

By jkichton

I did it. I can leave Switzerland fulfilled now. I finally had Swiss Cheese Fondue! For the past three weeks, everyone had been raving about the fondue here. No wonder, since Switzerland is known for it! The only reason I could hold out for so long is because this fondue was paid for by my provider program, SIT. Therefore, I had to suppress my urges every time I saw fondue pots at little cafes in Geneva. Around town, a typical pot for two is about Fr. 22 per person. (Here they use the Swiss Franc.) But at the restaurant that SIT took us to, Le Basseruche, it was Fr. 57. So, this was some high quality cheese, and I knew that I would need to get my due fillings worth.

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First Week in Vienna

AdminAugust 25, 2016December 14, 2018

By Ty Malcolm

Grüße aus Wien!

Greetings from Vienna!

With my first post, I'd like to give a short intro on my exchange university and then describe my experience arriving, moving in, and getting settled in the capital city of Austria.

The GW Exchange with the Vienna University of Business and Economics (or, in German, Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien, “WU”) has plenty of advantages on paper. Largest business school in Europe, huge cohort of international students, extensive English-language course list. It's cheaper than that Tier 3 program you looked at, and the university buildings look like modern art on Google Images. For a GW student studying business and economics, those are pretty common criteria to pick your abroad program with. But when you first arrive, those characteristics on paper probably aren’t on your mind. The first week in-country, you will likely be more concerned with the practical things, and in the first week, this program did the practical things well. WU has made everything easy, without making you feel like anything is mandatory.

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Being a Woman of Color Never Changes

AdminAugust 23, 2016December 14, 2018

By bmnobles

Before going abroad I didn't really know anyone in my group, I had met one guy Max one time last year. Thus, I was pretty nervous that I wouldn't fit in or find people in my group that I really clicked with. On the day of our at-school abroad orientation, something really stuck out to me. At the end of the GW Programs specific orientation, the person leading the orientation said "Oh, and if you're a minority student or a woman you should probably look up how your host country treats those groups of people". I sat there astonished, not only that the possibility of my oppression (being both a woman and a person of color) was treated with such nonchalance, but that when I then took the time to look around the room, we were few and far between. That was when I realized that I, simply by existing and doing the things that I love and am passionate about, am revolutionary.
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