Tag: Switzerland

By Savita Potarazu

Last week, we submitted our big independent study projects and I can safely say everyone in our program looks incredibly relieved. The whole month of November was dedicated to research and it has finally come to an end. While the whole process was very rewarding, it was a new kind of challenge I hadn’t had to navigate before. While abroad, the academics have not been as rigorous as they are on campus. I found that balancing independent research and this flexible time period was a challenge that resembled student life for me back at GW. This time frame pushed me even harder to establish a temporary balance between research and leisure because there was still so much I wanted to see and didn’t get to earlier in the semester. Now, we’re in our presentation period and learning about each other’s presentations. It’s truly incredible to hear from my peers researching and pursuing their passions. I’m very pleased with the way the directors of this program organized presentation period because it allows students to showcase their wealth of knowledge on incredibly interesting topics that I would have not otherwise discovered. This does, however, mean that the program is coming to an end.

Saying goodbye to Switzerland is definitely going to be bittersweet. I’ve had an amazing semester abroad here and feel like I’ve made the most of all this country has to offer. Sure, the cost of living here is astronomically high, but there are ways to make it work while still having fun. I have met incredible people abroad and I look forward to keeping in touch and planning visits with them. The bonds we have been able to establish on such a short timeline are at a level I did not anticipate coming into the program. Traveling and studying abroad with my friends has only brought us closer and I can only wish everyone has the privilege of experiencing the wonders of friendship abroad. That’s not to say I don’t miss my friends back home. I think of them every day and we have kept in touch as much as our schedules have allowed. We count down the days and brainstorm all the things we’re going to do when I return.

It feels like it was just yesterday that I was meeting other students at the Nyon hostel for our orientation. Yet here we are… traveling, singing, dancing, laughing with and supporting each other. Soon, we will go our separate ways and back to the lives we temporarily left. I am both excited and nervous for the transitions of readjusting to DC life. One thing’s for sure though and that is I am forever grateful for the love, mentorship, support, and friendship during my time abroad and seek to carry these warm memories wherever my next adventures take me.

By Savita Potarazu

As a non-French speaker, I picked up on some interesting new phrases during my first few weeks here. Now that we only have 2 weeks left in the semester, I can safely say that I’ve adopted the following into my everyday vocabulary:

C’est chou! = It’s cute!

In beginner French, I learned that “chou” means cabbage. Before learning about this, I didn’t question it. Then I started to wonder why people were calling things “cabbage". I still don’t know the origin of it but I guess it’s just slang for “That’s cute!” or “S/he is so cute!” Now I say it all the time... but mostly as a joke because it still doesn’t make sense to me.

Cou cou = My dear

French is such a melodic language. The way people say Cou Cou actually sounds like a stereotypical cuckoo clock but it’s much cuter coming from a person. Usually elders say it to younger people, or, at least those are the contexts in which I’ve heard it said to me or to others. Just cute Swiss things…

Ouais = Yeah

Basically, Ouais is the english equivalent of “yeah” (oui is “yes”). After a while of me knowing what it meant I began to feel super formal saying oui. You could also say that I started saying it to sound cool but that’s up to you to decide… 🙂

By Savita Potarazu

By Savita Potarazu

Geneva, Switzerland
21 Oct 2018

I know many GW students still have midterms going on right now… but this week we have our final exams! So soon, right? Yet here I am sitting in one of the few places open on Sunday in Switzerland, relaxing and doing a bit of work for this week. Something special about SIT is the way our directors design the academic schedule for this specific program. The framework of our semester includes 2 months of classroom time and excursions. The latter half of our time here includes a designated research period and a few french lessons.

Sipping tea and writing my Local Case Study paper in Geneva. Not much is open on Sundays here!

As a senior, I have become well-accustomed to studying and taking tests at GW and, to some extent, I find them to be predictable based on the types of questions I have been asked in the past (this is department-specific, of course). Because we only have midterms and finals here in Switzerland, adjusting to this style of testing has been a large portion of the acclimation to life abroad. However, we students quickly learned that these exams and the professors who created them do not intend to trick us or foster self-doubt.

I think I mentioned this briefly in an earlier post but our mentors here also encourage us to learn, process, and apply the concepts we’ve learned to real-world circumstances particularly as they pertain to extremely vulnerable communities in conflict zones or areas affected by natural disaster and/or political turmoil. Additionally, every time we have a guest lecturer or visit a pre-eminent organization there is, quite predictably, a discussion about career and personal development in the field of global health and how each expert has taken a different route to work in this highly integrated discipline. Thus, the way our exams are designed allows us to integrate our notes and assemble a narrative about such integration and why this approach allows humanitarian aid and development policy to be as complex as it is. I also believe that it would be unjustified for our professors to expect us to regurgitate this high-volume of information and still experience the Swiss lifestyle, void of anxious energy particularly in the classroom setting. I have thoroughly benefitted from this style of teaching/ learning and wish the American college education that we're exposed to resembled this. It took me some time to understand that these assessments (papers included) are not intended to deplete students of energy; they are meant to be informative, engaging, enjoyable and most of all enriching.

International Labor Organization (ILO) in Geneva, Switzerland. Our lecture here pertained to Child Labor and the role of global governance in addressing hazardous and inhumane working conditions for children.

United Nations event entitled “Where will we go?” about the implications of climate change on humanitarian aid. UN Office in Geneva, Switzerland.

Me at the Doctor’s Without Borders office in Geneva, Switzerland. As an aspiring physician, I am thrilled to have had the opportunity to have our lecture at MSF.

Taken outside of our lecture hall at the UN Environmental Program office in Geneva, Switzerland

By Savita Potarazu

Zürich, Switzerland
26 Aug 2018

I have been in Switzerland for two weeks and I still cannot believe I am here. After landing in Zürich, meeting up with extended family, going on my first breathtaking hike in Switzerland, and beginning to acclimate to a new life here, orientation snuck up on me!

Nyon, Switzerland
28 Aug 2018

The program I am pursuing in Switzerland is the Global Health and Development Policy program through the School for International Training (SIT). There are about 30 students, myself included, who have left their families, friends, and universities behind to experience historically renowned diplomacy, study global governance in public health, hike in the Swiss Alps, and embrace Swiss culture through the homestay experience. What better way to break the ice with new classmates than to randomly room with 5 students for a few days. At the Nyon Hostel, I began to navigate whatever expectations I had about meeting new people, knowing with certainty that we had at least one similar interest: global health.

Although I have many, many years of Spanish in my back pocket, my proficiency in French is quite limited (but growing quickly!). And because our program is actually based in Nyon with many excursions to Geneva (a very international town), my new friends and I have been thrown into rather homogeneous French culture. I learned very quickly here that Switzerland is both land-locked and incredibly culturally diverse. With Austria, Germany, Italy, and France bordering this tiny country of around 8.4 million, the geopolitical boundaries crisply define language prevalence. The good news is that before arriving, this program provided access to and highly encouraged students to utilize the online self-learning language platform (Màngo Languages) for French to at least be able to engage minimally. With two weeks of Màngo at the tip of my tongue I was pleasantly surprised to be able to converse with the waiter at our first dinner as a group in Switzerland. With French as a required course here, I have no doubt the language barrier will be reduced (and so will my many faux pas…)

The first Saturday after our orientation each student received her/his homestay family. We all nervously awaited our host parent(s) arrival to the hostel to retrieve us. Little by little, the students went off to join new families and begin to settle in. The days leading up to this moment were filled with butterflies and excitement. Now, I’m two weeks in, quite settled into my new home. My current host mom has been with SIT for many years and has warmly welcomed yet another student. Isabelle is a loving, caring, inquisitive host mom and impeccable chef. As a vegan, I can safely say that being surrounded by some of the world’s finest cheese and chocolate gets quite tempting but Isabelle has graciously compensated for this. So far she has cooked me lovely meals with fresh bread, pasta, lentils, homemade crepes, and vegetables/fruits grown in her garden. In her two-bedroom flat, my room overlooks the sunsets over a vineyard and the Swiss Alps. It sounds like a fairytale and it looks like one too. I am very grateful for having been placed here! After settling in over the weekend, I gradually prepared for upcoming classes.

(View from my homestay bedroom)

The academic component of this program probably excites me most (next to living in the mountains, of course). The Independent Study Project (ISP), common to most if not all SIT study abroad programs, is a culmination of our work during the semester and will be serving as my senior thesis this school year as well. It is also in this capacity that students are able to develop a topic of interest, conduct primary qualitative research, and devise a significant paper that is entirely our own creation. With Geneva right in our backyard, we have been given access to the United Nations Library, Graduate Institute of Geneva, and a lengthy list of resources to explore what makes Switzerland the diplomatic, direct-democracy that it has been known to be for many centuries. The first two weeks of class have really been dedicated to (1) jumping right into our coursework and (2) the preliminary stages of research for our ISP. Given all the adjustments that come with studying abroad, getting a grip on the coursework has required more focused attention from me (many students here would agree on this too). I believe it is a natural process given how new our surroundings are and I have been ever-willing to embrace the thrill of being exposed to the great unknown here in Switzerland.

(Me at the UN Library in Geneva; the mural behind me is entitled “Dream of Peace”)

Of course there are challenges that come with studying abroad, particularly as a senior! With most of my college years behind me, so too is all that tuition. Switzerland is not exactly the most affordable country to live in, but we students have been navigating this financial challenge with increasing mastery. With a bit of budgeting and exploring the most economical means of spreading out costs for food and travel, my friends and I hope to maximize the Swiss experience and minimize our spending as much as possible. Beyond the necessary costs of a residency permit, visa paperwork, and other required payments, being pennywise has actually been a fun challenge to take on here because it has really pushed us to explore as many options as possible before deciding on one activity, restaurant, means of transportation and/or accommodation. In my humble opinion, he Swiss transit system is quite foolproof and so incredibly accessible. One of the biggest perks of this program is that we each receive a SwissPass that takes us on virtually all buses, trains, and boats within Switzerland (and even to our neighbor, France!). Recently introduced to the program, the SwissPass has definitely made my commute and Swiss explorations a breeze. In fact, the first two weekends of this semester you could find me hiking in the Alps without having to pay extra to get there from our homes. It really is a special treat.

Looking ahead, I have midterms this week and our excursion to Morocco for 8 days at the end of this month. There, we will be conducting field studies at rural health clinics and learning more about their infrastructure and development model. The directors of this program really have planned an incredible few months for us and I look forward to learning more about humanitarian aid, health as a human right, the role of global governance, and plenty more in the weeks/months to come. After a relaxing weekend trip to Interlaken and a spectacular hike I am ready to take on week 3!