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Tag: CIEE

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By jcapobia

Because it's midterm week and I just finished climbing two mountains, I will make this blog quick and to the point.

As I was climbing a mountain in Cercedilla, Madrid today a question came to me. Something that I didn’t have an answer for and could use some help with. (Please send your answers to me in the below comments, in person, through Facebook, etc. I will aggregate them and reveal them in the next post).

Why study abroad?

  • To travel: Is it to see the world? Should you be traveling to any and every country in your area so that you can experience many different cultures? Should you spend your last dollar (Euro) to experience everything while you can? How much are those pictures of the Sagrada Familia worth to you? How about that gondola ride in Venice? Can you even remember it all?
  • To experience one culture / immersion: Should you stay in your host country and try to immerse yourself as best you can? Should the goal be to experience one culture in full, rather than 18 cultures in passing? Should you just stay, save some money, and explore your own host city, hang out with the host family, and immerse yourself in the culture as best you can?
  • To learn differently: Is studying abroad useful because you can learn from foreign professors, learn with foreign students, and see a different style of schooling?
  • Resume builder: I know you want to put “World Traveler” on your resume. 
  • Meet new people: Is it to meet people who come from vastly different worlds and cultures? To exchange ideas and worldviews with them, opening up your mind to things you had never thought about.
  • Instagram photos: Photos of ice cream in front of European castles really do bring in the likes
  • Economic: Cheap Drinks!
  • Political: Lead the resistance against Trump from Abroad!
  • Anything else?

...continue reading "A Question from 1500m Above Madrid"

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By jcapobia

JoeC 2/27-1

“Fitting in” is something everybody deals with. When we are young we try to fit in because we think that “fitting in” will make us cool, get us friends, and shield us from looking like an outsider. This was mostly achieved through appearance (new shoes) or cultural (listening to “cool music” and buying the new Lil Wayne album). As we grow older, this desire to fit in recedes to our subconscious a little bit and becomes less obvious.

When I arrived in college I found that people didn’t care about fitting in anymore, they didn’t care about conforming to what was considered “correct” or “cool: In college, people are more confident in themselves and don’t try to adjust themselves as much. I think when people get to college, they forget about trying to fit in because as we become older we become more cognizant of our worth and confident in our abilities.

Although that burning desire to become a chameleon and blend in with your surroundings recedes in college, it never really goes away. In Spain, I’ve found this “fitting in” urge to be very strong, something that I am constantly cognizant of. I visited London this weekend, and I can’t stress how similar I found it to a U.S. city and how “blended in” I felt. Although London is obviously London and has its own charm and culture, I found myself more comfortable there then I have in Spain so far. And I don’t think it was just because there was no language barrier in London. It felt like being in Washington, D.C. again. People were professional, ate at normal eating times, dressed similar to me, and had similar complexions to me.

...continue reading "An American in Madrid"

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By KMorris117

Brace yourself; you’re in for a long one.

Have you ever had one of those days that were just so great you never want it to end? Well February 23rd, 2017 was one of those days for me. It was Defender of the Fatherland Day, which is a national holiday. We did not have school, and instead we spent all day exploring and experiencing the new things Russia, and this day in particular, had to offer.

KMorris 2/27-1

 

KMorris 2/27-3

 

 

 

To begin, I’ll briefly explain Defender of the Fatherland Day. Like our Veteran’s Day, it is a day to honor those who have served in the military. However, in Russia, this day has become a bit more all encompassing. Instead of just those who have served, it has turned into a day to honor all men. It seems a bit odd to me. When I asked my host sister about it, she said it sort of became that way because there was no national men’s day to counter the widely celebrated International Women’s Day here. “It seems ridiculous,” she said, “because every day is men’s day in Russia.”

...continue reading "A Day in the Life"

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By lrich522

This past week all 40 CIEE students traveled across every region of Senegal to complete a mandatory part of the program: the rural visit. We had heard a couple of horror stories (real or not I’ll never know) about rural visits from semesters past; students getting lost without being able to speak the local language, people losing all of their money, and there was even the story of a girl getting bit by some mysterious bug and going blind for a bit (I actually met this girl and she can in fact see again) .

The anticipation was intense, and only made worse by the fact that we would be traveling independently of our program staff/host families. A few days before we left, we were charged with the task of ranking our top three locations that we wanted to visit while taking into account whether or not we wanted to stay with a peace corps volunteer, their specific sector within the peace corps, travel distance, and whether or not we wanted to travel with another CIEE student.

I am an extremely indecisive person, and normally when given a few options I ALWAYS pick the wrong one. So I decided to take the list of places and google each of them. In doing so, I was the very last person to turn in my ranked villages and ended up being assigned to one that was not where I had hoped to go and not in the sector that I had hoped to observe. I need to be less indecisive. That being said, I was still placed with peace corps like I had hoped, and I was partnered with another student who is absolutely marvelous. (Shout out to Sarah for always laughing, for sharing her “meta moments”, and for almost passing out on the bush car then sticking through the rest of the trip like a champ). In hindsight, I am extremely grateful for the week I had, the people I met, and the honest and thought provoking insight I received from my Peace Corps volunteer host, Taryn.

On Monday, with travel instructions and duffle bag in hand, I set out to take a taxi from my home to the gare. Sarah and I were meeting there that morning so that we could take the sept-place together to Linguère, which is the town closest to the village we stayed in. Luckily we got there within minutes of each other because right when I stepped out of the cab there were a bunch of men asking me where I was going and offering to lead me there.

...continue reading "Rural visits: mosquitos, bush cars, and a full moon"

Published on

By jcapobia

joec 2/22-1

Following up on my last blog post, I attempted to put words into action and completely immerse myself in the language and culture. Starting on Monday of last week, I attempted to fully and unequivocally surround myself in Spanish culture and language. This consisted of only reading, speaking, writing, listening to music, and, most importantly, thinking in Spanish all day for a week. I was going to immerse myself fully in Spanish culture and language, completely shutting the American culture and English language out for an entire week.  

And what a week it was. I don’t think I can overemphasize the amount I learned and the level of immersion I felt. While I’ll admit that I failed in my goal to only do Spanish things for a week (as you can probably tell because this blog is written in English), it was still a pretty cool experience.

Immediately I saw benefits:

  • When I couldn’t think of a way to express something in Spanish in my head or I didn’t understand a word in the novel I’m reading, La Torre Herida Por El Rayo, I looked it up on the SpanishDictonary app on my phone. This vastly increased my vocabulary.
  • Orally, I found myself more fluent in the sense that I didn’t need to change languages every second. Whenever I heard or read Spanish, since I had been thinking in it all day, I didn’t need to translate it in my head. In a weird way it was received by my brain in the same way I naturally receive and understand English.
  • And most important of all, I felt more like a true Madrileño, a feeling I won’t try to put into words because it was surreal and I’m not really sure how to express it.

...continue reading ""I’m Tryin to Raise the Bar High, Whose Tryin to Jump and Get It?""

Published on

By KMorris117

This past week, I have spent a good amount of time on public transport. St. Petersburg is an extremely accessible city, and there is a bus or train that goes just about everywhere. While the set-up is similar to that of DC, there are some major differences as well. The following are 8 facts/observations I have made about St. Petersburg public transportation the last few weeks.

  1. The escalators (or lifts as they say) are incredibly long. The ride up/down takes multiple minutes, which gives you enough time to really think about how far underground you are going. Spooky.
  2. People don’t walk up or down the escalators like most do in DC. You pick a stair, you stay on that stair, and you ride the incredibly long escalator all the way down. It’s nice, though, because people are not in such a hurry. There isn’t the same frenziness that one can often feel on the DC metro. Although a lively and crowded city, the overall pace of St. Petersburg is no where near as hurried as DC or New York.
  3. The escalators (last one about them, I promise) are a prime spot for PDA. I have no idea why because they are all well-lit, and at first I thought it was just one-time thing. But no, it is a consistent thing that many Russian couples participate in. Valentine's Day was very interesting.
  4. The Metro face. Russians tend to smile less and look more serious in general, but it gets brought to a whole new level on the metro. I’ve never seen so many faces stay so straight for so long. It’s impressive-no noise or sudden halt fazes them.
  5. The public transportation is very on time and very efficient. Trains come about every 3 minutes, and buses are just as punctual. After the disaster that was the DC metro this past summer, this aspect is very much appreciated.
  6. The metro stations themselves are beautiful. The architecture makes each station look like some sort of art museum. There’s paintings and ornamentation on the walls, marble pillars, and even some chandeliers.
  7. Each ride on the metro and the bus is a flat 40 rubles, at any time to get you anywhere. No rush hour pricing. It’s lovely.
  8. There is no limit of how many bodies can be squeezed into a metro car. There is also no concept of personal space. I’m used to crowded train cars, but that definitively has taken some getting used to.

...continue reading "Public Transportation: An Adventure in Itself"

Published on

By hjensen95

I haven’t ventured into Czech cuisine as much as I thought I would. I have a few dietary restrictions, namely remaining pescatarian and straying away from dairy as much as I can. A large part of the Czech diet consists of heavy foods such as meat, potatoes, bread, pastries, and cakes. I’m used to eating healthy foods back home with the occasional indulgence. Thankfully, Prague is a very international city and I can find pretty much everything I need or want here. I’ve taken a liking to a local salad chain called Ugo (which is sort of like a Sweetgreen).

One thing here that differs from my eating patterns in the state, is the emphasis on lunches. Lunch is the biggest meal and most people eat it at restaurants because it’s typically very reasonably priced. So, I’ve been trying to follow that dining cue. I’ve been aiming to eat breakfast and dinner at home while enjoying my lunch out.

In a classic Czech Restaurant, you will find items such as Svíčková na smetaně (beef sirloin in cream sauce) and Vepřo-knedlo-zelo (Roast pork with dumplings and sauerkraut) on the lunch menu. Another popular dish is Goulash, which is a stew made out of meat and vegetables, however originally from Hungary – many consider this dish to be a classic Czech meal.

...continue reading "Eating my way through Prague"

Published on

By hjensen95

I LOVE transit here in Prague, it is the simplest, most intuitive and, useful I’ve experienced in my life. It is based off the “trust system,” in that you only need to show your ticket if you’re asked. Meaning you can just hop on and hop off the metro as you please. There are three methods of public transportation; the tram, the metro, and the bus.

I use the tram most times and occasionally the metro and I’ve never used the bus. The nice things about the program that I’m on is that they provide you with a metro card to use for free the duration of the entire semester. Now having this luxury, I couldn’t imagine having to pay for public transportation in cities like London or Paris.

Cost is something that came into consideration when choosing a place to study abroad. Prague has one of the lowest cost of living throughout Europe and that is apparent when traveling to other cities. For example, most meals cost between $4 - $8 USD – a steal compared to other major cities.

Most locals eat lunch out because it’s both cheap and the largest meal of the day. I’ve started to get into the rhythm of making breakfast and dinner for myself and eating lunch out. Today I ate chicken with potatoes and gravy and that cost me 100 Krona (or $4 usd).

While I’m not studying it in school, I’m interested in international economics and how the costs of things (say a coffee) differ between countries and economies. I can get a coffee for about $1 or $2 that I would pay around $5 back in the states. While some things are overpriced; when I first got here I accidently paid around $18 USD for a shampoo (without realizing the conversion rate until too late).

...continue reading "Daily life in Prague"

Published on

By lrich522

Leah 2/13-3

Things haven’t been particularly easy in this third week, but overall I’m really and truly enjoying myself and loving it here in Dakar. There is definitely a more relaxed vibe here, and no one is ever too rushed to stop and ask how you're doing. Now that I’ve started my internship and found myself in a routine of sorts, I thought I’d outline what a typical week looks like for anyone who may be curious, or interested in this program. (note: details vary for everyone. Except for the part about not having toilet paper. That's definitely a constant.)

Mondays and Wednesdays are for classes. I wake up around 6:45, shower, get ready, eat breakfast (which is always a giant piece of baguette with chocopain and tea), and catch the bus around 8:00 with some other students who live in my neighborhood. The bus stop is only a five-minute walk from my house and the stop where we get off is about ten minutes from the CIEE study center.

We normally arrive at the study center somewhere between 8:30 and 8:45. Classes start at 9 (however I have the first time slot free so I try to get some homework done during that time), and each one is an hour and fifteen minutes. After my free space I have beginner’s Wolof, public health, lunch, democracy and governance, and advanced French for development studies, all of which are in French. For lunch, we can leave to buy food, go home, or even ask our families to pack us a lunch, but normally we eat on the roof terrace where there is a small kitchen with a kind woman named Marie who sells spectacular food. There’s a menu consisting of massive sandwiches on entire baguettes or you can by the “plat du jour”. Each of those cost 1,000 CFA francs which is equivalent to about $1.60. Last week I had the plat du jour, which was a plate of couscous and beef, and it was absolutely fantastic.

...continue reading "Une semaine à Dakar"

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By KMorris117

Привет!

It has been a little over a week since I first touched down in Russia, and what an exciting one it has been. I have moved in with my host family, and the experience has been fantastic so far.

Marina, my host mother, makes sure I am (overly) fed every day. She is kind-hearted, hardworking, and enjoys talking about growing up in St. Petersburg and in the USSR.

Liza is my host sister. She is working towards a Master’s Degree in art history, and she also works at a contemporary art museum in St. Petersburg. She speaks English pretty well and has helped me in adjusting to my new environment.

Ivan, or Vanya, is my host brother. He works and goes to school, and he is a great musician. He plays guitar and sings, and the other night we were jamming to some Adele and John Legend. The music I have heard in Russia is incredibly interesting to me. At restaurants and cafes, many of the songs they play are in English. Some are more recent, popular songs, and others are songs I haven’t heard since middle school. On Friday night, the bar we were at was playing all the pop hits from 2007-2010. To say us international kids were excited is a HUGE understatement.

Obviously, things are very different here than they are in the US. Still, I was surprised at how much of a bustling city St. Petersburg truly is. When many imagine Russia, they imagine a cold, barren wasteland. However, St. Petersburg is a constant hub of activity; it is like any other European city, except everything is in Russian!

Morris 2/13-1

...continue reading "Anti-Cafes: My New Favorite"

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