So being an International Affairs major has its perks and pitfalls. I can pretty much study whatever I want: security, development, the Middle East, Turkish, Russian, Chinese, diplomacy, history, the US and every other government. I can study abroad three semesters with no problem. I can afford to take more art classes than an art major without stressing. I can learn from the best and the brightest professors that GWU has to offer.
But. ...continue reading "Oh Where Oh Where is my Stagiaire?"
By oncptime
I’ll be perfectly honest with you; I’m not much of a team player. I’m the guy who’d rather build his own diorama of the Pantheon. I’m that guy to wander away from the guided group tour. I’m that guy who, against all recommendation, likes to travel completely on his own. Wandering the world alone lost in audiobook, armed with nothing but a map and a canteen full of water, I am at my happiest.
You might call me antisocial. I wouldn’t necessarily disagree with you, though I prefer to think of myself as “independent.” There’s something to be said for exploring on one’s own whileabroad. We’ve all seen those groups of students taking “cute” pictures with the Queen’s Guard, or beneath the Eifel Tower. That’s well and good, but I always find myself wondering whether these people are really experiencing their surroundings. There’s nothing quite like frantically navigating your way across a strange and foreign city in an attempt to catch the last train back to your hostel at 2A.M.
By rlubitz
British kids are proud of their music and they should be. Their music revolutions turn into our music revolutions from pop to goth to punk and a little bit of soul. Then of course there are The Beatles, four boys who made this country and are always hanging around London in advertisement and art.
Before I came to London I was terribly concerned with being cool. I’m giving up now and embracing my full on lameness. There is just no competing. The kids here play David Bowie at parties and Radiohead when they get home. In America we play vain songs from vainer artists. Walk through my freshman dorm and you can hear The Libertines, Florence and the Machine and Mumford & Sons who are every British kid’s patron saints since the release of their newest album.
I can’t pick a song that I love here because there are just too many. So here are a few of my favorites old and new. ...continue reading "British Beats"
Some days are moche. Other days are exellente. As I last wrote my stage, or internship, with Medecins Sans Frontieres isn’t going ideally. But this Wedenesday last, I got lucky.
So I’ve been trying this new thing called “networking”. I don’t really like people too much so for years this is something I’ve been trying to avoid. Under the scrutinizing pressure of my awesome German-American boyfriend, who now has more friends in Geneva after living there for two weeks than I probably will throughout the duration of this lifetime—and the next—I gave the whole networking trend a try. ...continue reading "The Whole “Networking” Thing."
By asthaa
On a recent Saturday afternoon, after a few hours of both procrastinating and studying, I decided to enjoy the beautiful day and get a breath of fresh air. Luckily for me, El Retiro, what I think of Madrid’s version of Central Park, is less than a ten-minute walk from my host family’s home and is the perfect place for a stroll. Every Wednesday, in order to get to my art class in the Prado I have to walk from the east end of Retiro to the west, and for some reason because of this 15 minute walk I thought I knew much of Retiro. Oh, how I was wrong. This Saturday, as I headed in a direction away from my normal route, I came upon the Palacio Cristal and the most delightful pond that sits close to the steps of the massive glass structure. At first I stood staring at the fountain in the center of the pond, where a couple of families of ducks and swans swam. When I finally pulled myself away from the water, I decided to step inside the gorgeous glass, “crystal,” structure behind me. ...continue reading "Palacio Cristal – Loud and Clear"
By squeakyrobot
I never thought I’d be in Russia teaching English. Not that I was ever opposed to the idea; it just never even occurred to me. But I’m grateful that it eventually did.
I work with two separate, unrelated groups every week. On Wednesdays I travel to Vasilievsky Island to meet with a lawyer and her daughter, a pair I met via my program. The woman, Veronika, is very kind and loves to travel. She wants to learn English to aid her travels and she wants her 12-year old, Ksenia, to speak it simply for the opportunity and general usefulness. I’m less of a teacher with them and more of a conversation partner. We drink tea, eat, and talk at the dinner table. We watch How I Met Your Mother. They ask me about the States, I ask them about Russia. I hope I needn’t point out that the whole thing is mutually beneficial.
...continue reading "The English Teacher is Learning English from Russians"
By jfbarszcz
The Czech Republic has produced a great number of visionaries: the composers Antonín Dvořak and Bedřich Smetana; the writers Karel Čapek and Franz Kafka*, and the playwright-activist-turned-politician Václav Havel are just a few. A name that was unknown to me until recently, however, was that of late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century painter Alfons Mucha (pronounced MOO-kha). Perhaps he's better-known to people more versed in art history than I am, but I had never heard of him until I came to Prague. ...continue reading "Week 6: In Which Jake Talks About Art Or Something"
By oncptime
I haven’t been blogging diligently these past few weeks. At least not for GWU. You see I have been “dropping the ball,” as the kids say. But hear me out. I’ve got a good reason. It’s not that my classes have been particularly hard—we’ve still only really discussed one topic in each of them. I haven’t been doing too too much traveling. And my brief bout of homesickness cleared up after my first few days here.
“Well Charles,” I’m sure you’re thinking. “What ever could be your excuse for slacking on your blogs?”
Here’s the thing. I have a job. Here in Florence. I didn’t go looking for the job; but rather it found me. It’s sort of taking over my life and to be perfectly honest with you? I absolutely love it. ...continue reading "Opportunities Abroad"
By rlubitz
I’ve never lived in a place like London and frankly never really thought I ever would. But now that I am, now that I’ve gotten to roam these streets and never gotten tired of them, I can’t think of living anywhere else. It’s a tough city where people are incredibly polite but not necessarily warm. That’s excluding very old English men because they are actually the best people that inhabit this earth. It’s been an adjustment but a fast one.
That being said, on my many walks around the city to nowhere in particular, I’ve run across a fair amount of amazing street art. Graffiti, I feel, lowers this art to mere illegal acts by people who are running from the law with bandanas around their mouths, etc. The art I’ve seen is fantastic.
I didn't initially want to take two art classes but each was only worth one and a half credits so I had to take two in order to get them to count for anything. Bon chance, to me. I'd forgotten since my freshman year sculpture class how good it feels to work with your hands and create something out of nothing. This evening, from seven to ten, I made something out of dirt.
I sculpted from terre, or earth, my own rendition of the girl who posed nude for the class. It was shocking at first, watching her strip down to nothing, but after only a few minutes I eased into the effortless comfortability that the rest of the class had been in the whole time. And to be fair she was an easy muse to work from. She was beautiful.