Skip to content

By jfbarszcz

Once again, I'm writing this week's post in a bit of a rush, since in just a few short hours I'll be boarding a plane to Amsterdam for the weekend! (Yeah yeah I know, I'm doing such stereotypical American college kid things in Europe: Oktoberfest, Amsterdam.... Definitely looking forward to spending the next couple weekends after this one at "home" in Prague though!) So I apologize in advance for any weird incoherence caused by my not thoroughly revising/editing my post.

My prompt this week is "Discuss what the academic culture is like in your host country." While I can't really say for sure what academic culture is like as a whole in the Czech Republic, I can talk a little about what I DO know about it, as well as how my academic experience thus far has been similar to and different from my experiences at GW. With that disclaimer out of the way let's get started.

...continue reading "Week 4: Classes etc."

By littlemisadventures

Recently, I had the somewhat disturbing epiphany that I have only been homesick in terms of food. Specifically, I miss Trader Joe’s and Thai Place. I am not going to delve into what that says about my psyche in this post, but instead talk about the new foods I have found to enjoy. D.C. food withdrawals are assuaged by the fact that being here is much better for my student budget.

Alex Top is a hole-in-the-wall koshary place on Zamalek. Koshary is a concoction of macaroni, lentils, chickpeas, tomato, and rice. It is served in plastic tubs and staves off hunger for about 48 hours. Hot sauce is provided but must be dispensed carefully; there is a fine line between perfectly spicy and bursting into tears from the pain. This happened to me the first time I bought it and enthusiastically dumped in the whole bag of sauce.  Alex offers ruz w laban (rice and milk) as well- a gooey, delicious mixture of sugar and happiness.

...continue reading "Forays into Foul and Falafel"

By rlubitz

Being that everything in London is roughly five more dollars than it is in America, I’ve resorted to eating non-meals. Meals don’t really happen very much unless you count pub food. Which, while we’re talking about pub food, steak and ale pies are like sent from heaven I don’t think you really even understand.

You see a lot of people walking around with a croissant or a sandwich or a burger. There are fast food restaurants around but basically just McDonalds, Burger King and KFC exist which usually elicits photographs from tourists. How many pictures have been caught in the background of with a bag of McDonalds in my shaky hands?

Seven.

Just kidding, I have no idea. Probably definitely more than that.

But anyways, there’s a way to exist in this city on not very much at all and it’s to eat little stuff. Following this blog post I am going to publish a diet book entitled, “Just Eat Little Stuff” and it will sell millions and I will be able to actually maybe come back to London and big stuff. Follow the knowledge below and maybe you can save money and eventually eat big stuff.

My Top Five Cheap Eats:

...continue reading "Cheap Eats Because I Am Poor"

By littlemisadventures

Cairo has turned me into a shameless eavesdropper. In an effort to acquire vocabulary and learn grammar, I listen to Arabic conversations around me all the time. As I learn more Egyptian Colloquial Arabic, or Amiyya, I can actually understand some of these conversations. I’ve learned how to negotiate a lease, buy fabric, and compliment people’s clothes.

...continue reading "Untranslatable Words and Other Facts of Life"

By oncptime

Normally, you wouldn’t think of “I’m sorry” as slang. In Italy, however inflection is everything and scusate or “I’m sorry” is something of a chameleon word. By the end of my first day of Italian classes I’d learned three things: Carlo was to be my Italian name, my professor and I shared an undying love for 50’s American jukebox music, and apparently scusate would be the one phrase I needed to know for the next 24 hours.

“In Italy, scusate is more than sorry,” Nicoletta (my professor) explained matter-of-factly. “It is an apology. It is an assertion. Scusate is a foreigner’s best friend"

...continue reading "“Scusate”"

By hfirlein

"Everytime you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing." -Mother Teresa

Mandela DayIn South Africa, Nelson Mandela is more than just a politician- he is a national hero. And every year his birthday is celebrated through service; people take time to honor Madiba by helping others.  For Mandela Day, CIEE, along with a local organization, took us to a township about 20 minutes outside of Cape Town. This was my first trip to a township, and while I understood poverty in theory, I don’t think I was entirely prepared for the state in which people lived. There is very limited access to electricity and water, none have indoor plumbing. Unemployment in the townships surrounding Cape Town is an average of 50%, schools are overcrowded, and residents have little hope for a brighter future. Faced with such daunting conditions, I wasn’t sure how a group of fairly privileged American students could possibly empathize with and in some way help these people.

...continue reading "Smiling for Madiba: Mandela Day in Cape Town"

By rlubitz

At the moment I’m living in a building with about two hundred eighteen-year-old students. These are students who for the first time are living without parental supervision and in a city where you can basically do anything you want…expensively, but really, anything.

In America this building would be considered the worst place in the world, a place criminals should serve their entire existence and people who you hate should reside for the rest of their lives but like the entire British population…it’s lovely.

It might be the fact that their parents raised them more maturely or that their cultural immersion basically rocked from day one but these kids are cooler than I’ll probably ever be. The girls are nice and the boys are kind and every weekend is fun in a way that you don’t want it to end. In Saturdays in America you’re exhausted and usually yearn for Ben and Jerry’s and a child-size onesie from Target (not that I’ve totally got one or anything) because Friday night was too much for you.

...continue reading "British Kids: An Appreciation Post"

By hwscott

Since my last post, I have gained so many new understandings of the complexities of Bolivia that, as I read it, I feel almost childish. But I guess that is the point of naïveté. I'm sure the same will be true for my next post as well.

Hunter While I  haven't started my research, and won't for a while, I have been exploring other research questions and topics, all within the general subject of the relation between Catholicism and revolution in Bolivia.  I have been able to do this in the context of what we are studying in the program. So far, we have heard speakers on the Mexican, Cuban, Bolivian, and Venezuelan revolutions. We have dug deep into the history of indigenous to peasant back to indigenous struggle in Bolivia, and the differences between highlands and lowlands, the complex overlap between Aymara and Quechua languages. We just got back from Brazil, where we studied the Landless Workers Movement (MST), a 30 year old movement that occupies unused land for rural peasants, and then establishes communitarian agricultural settlements on the liberated land (also was founded in the context of Liberation Theology!) This week, we are back in Bolivia in Santa Cruz, looking at the movement for autonomy by the landed elites (quite a shock, coming from landless movement in Brazil, who fed us in tents on the side of the road). Spending a few days in uber-rich Santa Cruz by the pool has given me a chance to write this and think more about my potential Independent Study Project topics.

...continue reading "Revolutionary Movements in Bolivia"

By jfbarszcz

Hey all! So my blog post is going to be a bit shorter this week because I'm actually in the middle of packing for Oktoberfest! Obviously I am very excited for this, but it means that I leave Prague at 7 tomorrow morning and won't be back until late Sunday night (and I know I'll want to sleep when I get back) so I'm writing this post at about 11 PM Thursday night). Anyway, this week's topic is... restaurants.

You can learn a lot about a local culture by visiting restaurants. Obviously, cuisine is a very large part of culture, but it can also be an educational experience in other ways. Dining in restaurants in Prague has also taught me about local etiquette, money and prices, and even a bit about the Czech outlook on life.

...continue reading "Prague’s Restaurant Scene"

By bbuck92

Valpo Surf ProjectIn Valparaiso, a city comprised of homes built on the hills surrounding an industrial port, there is a disconnect between its youthful inhabitants and the ocean. The Valpo Surf Project (VSP) was in part inspired by that disconnect and the need to repair it. VSP explains it’s founding as thus, “Although most see the ocean everyday of their lives, many of the city’s youth have never had the opportunity to experience the Pacific Ocean and Chile’s beaches. We wanted to create a way that Valparaiso’s disconnected youth could learn to engage with and protect the local marine environment. The resulting idea evolved into the Valpo Surf Project, a community organization that engages its young participants with the surrounding marine environment through weekly surf outings and focus on fostering three distinct components: personal character development, environmental consciousness, and English language education.” The program works with children ages 7-16 from various organizations within Valparaiso, including the neighborhood organization of Cerro Mariposa and SENAME.

...continue reading "Surfing and Stewardship of the Environment with The Valpo Surf Project"