Friday, October 10, 2008
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Share your thoughts while studying abroad! We look forward to hearing from you.
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Blog Abroad
The Language Learning Center in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures is interested in student testimonials while traveling abroad! Please share your thoughts and advice with your classmates, professors, and the ODU community. Feel free to discuss your successes and challenges in a new environment, your impressions of other cultures, your language skills, and much more!
6 comments:
The ODU spring break trips are fantastic. Three credit hours for having a week-long travel adventure... I went to spain and france a few years ago with the linguistics department and got to eat all sorts of strange things, try to speak Basque and spanish, meet loads of spanish people and learn the history of the region, which I probaby wouldn't have done on my own.
"living abroad" is even better because the little differences in the way people live their everyday live is fascinating. If you live with locals, usually they are also happy to explain things to you...like how local sports are played, the history of their family, and how to get the cheapest train fare. the local expat community is also a good resource...usually everyone is happy to have a new arrival and will try to invite you to things and show you around. major cities will usually have a sizable american community (or english-speaking american, brit, aussie, kiwi, indian, jamaican, all other english speakers community). you might even find their webpages ahead of time...Munich has a magazine just for the expat community. usually these people have lived all over the world and have travelling down to an art.
I haven't lived abroad long but so far its been awesome!
If your dreaming about something like studying abroad don't let anything hold you back! go for it!
I feel like my dreams are coming true and my real life has been sitting right here waiting for me!
and where ever you want to go just do the reserch in advance and learn how to adjust unless you already love the culture like myself. I'm in Japan so I'll have lots of updates for all interested.
I just have to say: I love how when you buy something in a store with change and they give you even more change back lol ^ ^
I've lived in the States for almost 4 years. I've been here for long enough that I can build my second life. It had not been easy. I had to face a lot of difficulties: communication, school, friendship, work, etc. But I believe that going through difficulties made me a stronger person.
Also, I've met so many wonderful people from different countries and cultures. Friends that I met here are the most important thing in my life:)
Living abroad can be one of the most memorable and enriching experiences you could ever do while attending college. If there is ever a time to do it now would be it. No day is promised to us. Not even the future we have mapped out after graduation, should you be one of those people putting off the experience of a life time. You can accomplish your goals and dreams and ten times more. There is something special that happens to us when we venture out in to the uncharted territories of the world. The different people, cultures and ways of living is a fascinating experience that you don’t want to miss!
I lived abroad in Japan. I will tell you the tale of Japan for me. I had lots of adventures, up’s and downs and while crazy stories. Everything put together is what made my experience there what it was, and it was awesome! It has transformed my perception and helped me to become the changed person I am today. I wouldn’t trade anything for the memories I have experienced abroad.
Japan Arrival:
When the plane landed on the grounds of Japan, never had I ever experience so much joy in my heart until that very moment. I was so happy that I could barley contain it, in fact I didn’t so much. However I did manage not to follow through with my plan to roll on the ground that day. I had never cried such a river of happy tears in my life. It almost seemed like a life’s time worth of tears. At that moment I started to live my dream. All those years in the same place fixated on your dream destination, researching, learning, hoping, pretending, and praying, but now… I could dream with my eyes open. What made the experience that much more enriching were the friends I had there to be with me. My first days I spent in Hirakata city with friends who had previously studied at my University abroad and that were from my University. I also hung out with friends in Kyoto and later stayed in the beautiful country side of Fukui in the mountains with a friend and her family. It was winter time and I was living in a traditional Japanese home. There were a lot of adjustments that I had to make and they needed to be made fast. It was very different, and interesting, living how they lived, but it made it that much more special to me that was living it with them. Imagine having to go to the bathroom that’s out side and you have to trek across the courtyard through the freezing snow hahaha!
Good stuff! But trust me this is -100% of the stuff I’ve got coming up. From trail and error, communication failure and all kinds of interesting fun stuff that I faced while in this new unfamiliar place. Until next time! Next blog Meeting new people (The Transition)
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