It’s over. Two words that are having trouble sinking in. I’m officially home.
Its hard to imagine summing up this experience in one post. It’s also hard to imagine this being my last blog post.
I’m currently wearing shorts, holding a pair of car keys, listening to country music, and sitting in a neighborhood Starbucks. Welcome to the burbs.
Where to start?
The question I have already gotten 5 times “what was my favorite part?” ...continue reading "Eye Opening and Life Changing"
6 days. 12 hours. 31 minutes until my flight takes off across the big pond back to the land of free water, country music, and ranch dressing (among other things). INSANE.
I’m having a terrible time wrapping my head around this fact. It’s that hell week. When you have to pack up everything you own, while studying for finals, saying goodbye to friends, and maintaining sanity. Finals week in the spring is horrific situation endured by college kids across the world but this week in a different country is a sick joke.
Trying to plan out this beautiful master piece of scheduling, making sure you fit in everything before you leave until god knows when is hard (drastic understatement) So what’s on the list? What do I have to do before I depart back to the DC life?
I can hardly think of a thing. My initial reaction to this realization was confused/horrified.. but giving it a second thought, not having anything left you absolutely have to do before you leave? That’s definitely an ideal situation. I know what I have done in Europe is just the tip of the ice burg but I think I completed the things I was really set off to do coming to Europe. ...continue reading "Finals and Departure Prep"
On Tuesday, the new king of Holland was crowned and naturally, we were there to celebrate. 6:30am in the car on the way for the biggest party in Europe. Its traditional to wear orange.. lots of orange. I bought 3 euro bright orange leggings at the midi market last week that worked out perfectly. We got a hotel next to the airport for super cheap (the rates were sky high due to the festivities in the city). We took a shuttle to the airport from the hotel and caught the train into the city for 8 euro round trip. The train was a short 20 minute trip right in to the center of the city. THERE WERE SO MANY PEOPLE. People of all ages, speaking all different languages, and clearly from all different backgrounds. There was singing and dancing outside every bar and vendors selling everything orange, glasses, hates, shirts, etc. ...continue reading "Queen’s Day"
After travelling for spring break, I have a new appreciation for Belgium. Some good, some bad.
1) Compared to Italians, Belgians are extremely quiet. I love this about Belgians because I found the Italians to be rather loud.
2) Everywhere has nicer weather than Brussels (everywhere but London) It was so nice to travel South and get some sun. I have returned half way through April and the forecast this week is in the 60’s.
3) Compared to London, Brussels is tiny. London was too big. Not in the over whelming since but in a impossible way to get anywhere. The hour transit and multiple transfers on the tube made me miss Brussels’ simple and quaint system to get around. ...continue reading "Cultural Differences"
In the CIEE Brussels Business program, the students have a choice between living in a home stay or living in apartment style housing. In this blog, I'm going to compare two options however first I'm going to address the slightly confusing way you go about signing up for housing and how I was a little nervous and concerned about the process.
One of the greatest things about choosing Brussels as you study abroad destination, is you ability to travel. Brussels in centrally located to most of Europe and the airport is relatively easy to get to. While, I considered studying somewhere with a larger culture shock like South Africa and Hong Kong, they are much harder to travel out of. Therefore, I have taken a handful of trips to get a better feel for other parts of Europe. In Brussels, there are many ways to get around:
It is that time of the year, Midterms. Study abroad midterms are no different than midterms in the states, they are no fun.
My midterm course load consisted of two take home midterms in Operations Management and International Banking Systems, a traditional midterm in my Belgium cultures class with multiple choice and short essay questions, a midterm in french, and my economics professor doesn't like conforming to traditional midterm operations. While this seems like a lot, it is completely doable. The perks of being abroad is not having club meetings and appointments. ...continue reading "STUDY abroad"
During study abroad your life changes in more ways than just living in another country. I think there are a ton of different ways I didn't think about like budgeting your money for example. When abroad, budgeting for food and hygiene products stays constant but instead of saving money for that sweater you saw online or prepping for a trip this summer everything is so in the moment, you budget for trips, clothes that you forgot at home, and authentic food from the places you travel. It's funny how your life revolves around getting to new places, meeting new people, getting to know a new culture, and doing research on what is best to do or see. Juggling planning with school and keeping in contact with everyone at home is a struggle. ...continue reading "Ode to Abroad"
I have touched on the language barrier issues that exist in Belgium; however, I would like to expand on these issues and the extent of obstacles they produces in not only Belgium but in Europe.I work for a company called EuroJobsites. It is a company with different websites posting job ads for specific industries like euroengineers, euroscientist, eurobrussels, etc. All of our job postings are in English. Naturally, this means our job postings attract an audience that speaks English but also companies that speak English It has taken me a couple weeks to process and really understand the extent of this. ...continue reading "Dissecting the Language Barrier"
As most the world knows, the Pope Benedict XVI has retired as the current pope, a retirement that has not happen in 700 years. I first heard about this breaking news story when running on the treadmill at the local gym; CNN international is one of the only channels in English.
I found this news story particularly interesting. Not only because I was raised Catholic, but I think more so because I am in Europe and much closer to action. The catholic church is one of the largest body of people in the world consisting of over 1.1 billion people. In recent history, no ruler of such a mass of people has voluntarily stepped down. I think this is significant for many reasons such as what does this mean for the church, does this change perception of the catholic church and how did the world react?
Apparently, I was the only one curious. The reaction in Europe is completely different than I thought it would be. I was expecting people to be moved by just a ground breaking action. After all, humans are a creature of habit. We like rules and laws to keep law and order in society and nothing could reek havoc more than breaking a tradition that is more than 700 years old. ...continue reading "Farewell Pope Benedict"