February 2018 – Page 6 – GW Blogs from Abroad

A Beginner’s Guide to Studying in Iceland

AdminFebruary 5, 2018December 17, 2018

Halló! Velkomin á bloggið mitt frá Íslandi! (Welcome to my blog from Iceland!) This semester I am taking a break from the hustle and bustle of D.C. to study abroad at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik. As a part of a scholarship I am receiving from my university, I will be keeping a blog for the time I am here. I have already been in Reykjavik for nearly five week, so I have a lot to talk about! For this specific blog post, I will focus on general impressions and what it has been like to be an American in Iceland so far! Let’s dive right in!

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"Multicultural" in Barcelona

AdminFebruary 5, 2018December 14, 2018

By neerjapatel

Indian. Asian. Brown. American. All words that can describe me because of my origins, appearance, or citizenship. But this is not my identity. My identity comes from a combination of these terms and more, in what I would call multi-cultural.

My name is Neerja. I was born and raised in Vermont but my family originated from Gujarat, India. Growing up as a minority in Vermont, a 97% Caucasian population, I had to learn how to immerse myself in my own culture while in a very homogenous society. During my childhood, I was faced with a single perspective on my culture. My grandmother had lived with my family since birth, teaching me the ideals, lifestyle, and religion from my homeland. I grew up celebrating Indian holidays, speaking my native language of Gujarati, as well as practicing ethnic dances. This environment allowed for my passion and love for my culture to flourish. However, there was a lack of diversity in the community, making it more difficult to express my culture. But as I grew older and entered high school, I found ways to overcome the lack of diversity in my community, one of which included creating a Bollywood Dance Club to empower all different kinds of students to showcase talent and culture, resulting in only a source of pride for my background.

As I entered GW, I wanted to continue to express my culture in a different setting. I joined the GW Raas team, a competitive Indian dance team based on a type of traditional dance from Gujarat. Through this activity, I was not only able to gain a group of friends but a family with similar backgrounds and the same source of passion to dance as I did. Being part of this team was something I was always proud of and still am. Students from various backgrounds at GW came to support our dance team when we performed on and off campus for competitions. The growing support for the team and our culture is something that is allowing me to thrive at GW with the identity that I have.

Now, I’m in Barcelona; a city filled with excitement, culture, and adventure. However, it’s very different than DC and Vermont. As I walk around the streets every day to school, there is much less diversity than I expected but at the same time I feel welcomed by the Spanish people and their warm culture.

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My Study Abroad Identity

AdminFebruary 5, 2018December 14, 2018

By mlopez97

It’s difficult to confine my identity to a singular sentence, paragraph, or even blog post—perhaps because different parts of my identity become more prominent depending on my environment. I am a biracial woman; I am the daughter of two mothers; I am an atheist, although I was raised partly Jewish and partly Christian; I am from the United States.

Throughout my life, my background has served a source of constant confusion. I had trouble identifying as a person of color (POC) for most of my life because I have not experienced most of the challenges of POCs, as I am half white. There have been moments where my brownness is more present, like when I am in a room of all-white people, but when I am with my friends from home, most of whom are people of color, I feel whiter than ever. I do not know how to check the race and ethnicity boxes on a census nor do I know what it would be like to walk into the Hillel at GW, knowing that I have not been bat mitzvahed and have not grown up in a traditional Jewish household.

My confusing identity has certainly had a frustrating presence in my life, as people are constantly asking “what” I am or where I’m actually from, or denying that I’m Jewish. However, because I live in the United States, there are people around me are going through similar challenges and I have grown up in places where diversity is theoretically celebrated. This has allowed me gain pride in my identity. I will continue to hear the question “what are you?” on a daily basis, but answering that question is certainly easier than what I have experienced abroad.

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Ni Hao, China

AdminFebruary 5, 2018December 14, 2018

By Maya Haziza

When I first decided to travel abroad and live in Hong Kong for the next 5 months, the question that I got from my friends and family time and time again was “why?” Why did I decide to travel to China over any other destination in the world? My response was simple, “I decided to travel to the place that scared me the most.” As funny as that may seem to some people, it is completely true. I realized that I had never had the chance to study the most populated, developing, and bustling economy and country in the world – China. 1.4 billion people. 663 cities. 200 individual dialects.

Most people will tell you about the culture shock that sets in when travelling to a new country, but you never truly understand it until you feel it for yourself. The most difficult aspect of my transition to Hong Kong was the diet. As a vegetarian I found it difficult to transition into a culture that incorporates meat into almost every meal of the day. Slowly, but surely – I learned that the culture and city changes for no one. I learned to embrace the uniqueness of the tastes and preferences in Hong Kong and in China at large.

One of the reasons I chose to study with SU Hong Kong is because of the amazing opportunity to travel to mainland China for the first two weeks. This was truly one of the best ways to dive into the Chinese culture and learn about its past, present, and future. The lectures were in hotel conference rooms, but the real learning happened in the cities we wandered. The first city we visited was Xian, the ancient capital of China. As someone who appreciates art history, I was in awe of the Terracotta Warrior Army museum. Through learning about the first emperor of China, I understood the grandeur of the Terracotta Warriors protecting their ruler’s mausoleum. The next city we visited was the current capital of China, Beijing. Our group travelled through Tiannamen Square, The Forbidden City, and most importantly The Great Wall of China. My visit to the Great Wall of China was by far my favorite day in all of mainland China because of the beauty of this ancient and massive structure. This was also the only day where I saw a clear blue sky in China. The first few weeks in China, I wore a face mask to guard myself against the PM 2.5 air quality – an experience that led to my learning of Chinese environmental challenges. Lastly, my visit to Shanghai was filled with exposure to the mixture of western European influence on an Asian society.

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"And we danced on the brink of an unknown future, to an echo from a vanished past."-John Wyndham

AdminFebruary 4, 2018December 14, 2018

By shannonfitzz

I have just returned home from two weeks of traveling in Europe and Iceland, and currently sit at my computer with a huge mug of green tea and a snowy view outside my bedroom window in upstate New York. In just a couple of weeks, I will begin my study abroad program in Shanghai, China. Since Chinese Universities do not resume classes until following Chinese New Year in February, I have had an extended winter break, thus providing me with the opportunity to travel a bit before I leave.

I decided to travel to Europe and prior to departing, my future adventures and experiences were largely unknown. I had a one-way ticket to London and plans with a volunteer organization in Greece, but other than that, the future was sort of a black box. I intended to spend a week exploring the city of London prior to heading to Serres, Greece, where I would volunteer with Refugees from Iraq, teaching yoga to women and children. Upon arriving in England, I met up with a friend with whom I was staying, and began ironing out the details of my arrival to Greece. Unfortunately, there was a bit of a mishap with the volunteer organization where I was scheduled to work, and my exciting service plans fell through. Life has a funny way of throwing little curve balls into your world and seeing how you respond- almost like some sort of game set up by the universe to see how you react in different situations. I knew I had to make the best out of my situation. After all, I had never been to England and was excited to be in a new place.

So, I was in London, without much of a plan. As bummed as I was that I couldn't spread my love for yoga to others, I used my time in Europe to explore different experiences and cultures, and to see things I had never seen before. From bustling market places, to ancient Catholic churches, to sacred Buddhist statues, I made it my adventure and task to explore new sights, sounds, peoples, and cultures with the goal of expanding my perspective beyond what it had been when I left New York . From London, I was even able to plan a trip to Iceland on my journey back to the States and experience the magic of this Nordic island country.

...continue reading ""And we danced on the brink of an unknown future, to an echo from a vanished past."-John Wyndham"