Orientation Week
Finland: Arrival: “Orientation Week” by Matthew Papaly
Arrival: Host Country & Cultural Immersion
Ireland: Arrival: “Living in Dublin” by Lena Pulve
France: Arrival: “Summer in Lyon” by Grace Peyerwold
Ireland: “Arrival” by Brittany Mureno
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Spain: “Arrival: Host Country & Cultural Immersion” by Olivia Esparza
Czech Republic: “Arrival” by: Sarah Zinda
Arrival
While packing for Prague, I still didn’t feel like I was actually going to be leaving for a foreign country for nearly 5 months. When I boarded my flight, same feeling. Arriving at my new apartment, nothing. I still don’t think it has hit me that I’m in the Czech Republic with the chance to experience something I never expected to have an opportunity for. I’ve always wanted to travel, but until now I have had school to finish. Although I still have classes while I am here, it’s not quite the same. After finishing my first week of classes I am expecting a somewhat difficult semester academically, but with the help of Prague’s charm I think I will make it through just fine.
Germany: Arrival: “Cultural Immersion” by Elizabeth Moorhead
Cultural Immersion
With only 5 more weeks in the program, it’s high time to reflect on the experience thus far. Although there are not many posts here, I am writing consistently in a travel journal, and will post entries from there after the program is over. There is a balance between writing about things so you can remember them, and experiencing new things so you can write about them later. Writing in a paper journal gives me the time to make more memories, as writing about experiences twice takes twice as long.
France: Arrival: “Settling In” by Brenna Roach
Settling In
Today marks my third day officially living in Lyon, and my fourth day since leaving the United States; and let me tell you, it has been a rocky first few days. I’ve gotten lost, had to walk through dark places alone, had issues communicating, and gotten locked out. However, there’s also been many more good times to overshadow these troubles, so you could say it’s been a roller coaster journey thus far.
Fresh off the plane, (after 16 hours of travel) I received an email from my advisers with instructions for getting to La Statue de Saint Exupéry à Place Bellecour, where I was supposed to meet my host family for the first time in a few hours. With four hours on my hands I decided to give public transit a shot. The instructions seemed fairly clear to me, so having navigated the Portland public transit a lot I thought I could handle it. Of course I was wrong.
Spain: Arrival: “La Llegada a Madrid” by Alexis Mathews
La Llegada a Madrid
I have been in Madrid for a little over three weeks by now. I still haven’t quite adjusted to the heat yet and the fast pace of life but I am finding a sense of rhythm and routine. One of my favorite things thus far is the architecture of the city. It seems like around every corner there is a new and interesting building to stop and admire. Even down a simple alley way, you can find a colorful pink building with Juliet balconies lined with flowers. In the busier parts of the city the grand and ornate buildings of the Plaza Mayor or the Palacio Real are easy to encounter.
I take classes at a local university that is located just outside the city and easily accessible by the Metro. Tucked into a quite area of Madrid is Universidad Rey Juan Carlos. I attend classes there most of the week unless I am having class in one of the various museums in the center of the city. I am taking two classes while I am here, a class about European art and another about travel writing. Since it is the summer and many students are away on vacations it seems the only students on campus are the ones in my program. There aren’t many activities or clubs since it is summer holidays but on the flip side, the spare time allows me to explore the city more.
My experience with the locals is at times brief, I spend much of my time with the locals on the Metro (the underground subway of Madrid), ordering at restaurants and conversing with my host mom. But overall despite the busyness that there is in Madrid, the locals are kind and willing to help, despite the lack of Spanish vocabulary in some instances which can make conversing difficult at times but worth it since it can be used as a learning opportunity to learn new words.
My university in the U.S. had prepared me for what was to come: culture shock. I thought I wasn’t going to have a problem with culture shock because I knew the language and I felt like I had studied the culture and history my entire student career. But was I wrong. In my mind Madrid wasn’t a big city and it was going to be one of the small Spanish towns that you see on postcards. I had an idealize version of the city and when I first arrived I was struck with the sheer size and multitude. I should have expected it to be as large as it is because it is the capital of Spain. Upon arrival I quickly realized that I would have to use the Metro system to get about everywhere in the city. The web of lines, trains and stops was intimidating at first but once I understood how it worked, it became much easier to navigate my way to the various parts of the city.
In hindsight, I wish had researched more about the city and how it functioned. Much of my research has been on the job training as I have been going about my days here in Madrid. I feel that more research of the city would have lessened the shock I received when I first arrived. But on the other hand, having to figure things out on the ground has helped me grow as a person and as a traveler.
~ Alexis
Spain: Arrival: “When in Spain, just chill out” by Liza Alter
It’s been 17 days since I arrived in a bus to Granada, my body full of sleep and my mind full of the chatter of strangers. The world looked blue out of the tinted windows as I watched hill after hill go by, white houses like snowflakes scattering the countryside. Andalucia is beautiful. History here is so tangible and common – most of those snowflake houses are now in ruins, a fragment of the family that used to live there. These places in the US would be hunted out, given a groundskeeper, and to visit you’d have to brave through no-trespassing signs.
So, yes, for those of you who’ve read my last post, I’m not over it.
Cuba: Arrival: “Seeing the Sights, Classes, & Hurricane Irma” by Questen Inghram
Seeing the sights, classes (briefly), and Hurricane Irma: Arriving in Havana
My flight between Miami International Airport and Jose Martí International Airport had to be booked through a charter company, which gave rise in my head to the idea that we’d be taking a puddlejumper, but it turned out to be like any of the three Delta flights I took the day before to finally arrive in Miami. The flight to Havana was over before I realized it was happening. Barely waiting in line, my passport was stamped with not a word spoken. The wait for the baggage claim, however, took longer than the flight itself. As I left the airport, stepping into the Havana sun, my eyes fixated on the nearest old blue Chevy.
France: Arrival: “Home Sweet Home in Grenoble” by Libby Babb
Ireland: Arrival: “Maynooth: Home Sweet Home” by Mikayla Monroe
I am having such as amazing time in Ireland, I honestly don’t know what to talk about first! Maynooth, where I’m based at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, is such a cute college and commuter town. Two-thirds of the city’s population are students during the school year. The rest of the people range from babies to retired couples and plenty of dogs! The locals are friendly and happy to help with directions or have a conversation with us students. Downtown Maynooth is a couple of streets of delicious restaurants, bakeries, shopping, Maynooth Castle, and sightseeing opportunities. Dublin is a quick train ride East and the train is only a half mile from campus. That’s one of the great things about Maynooth: everything is conveniently within 10 minutes of walking distance. There’s also a great running or walking trail along The Royal Canal that passes fields of sheep. Heck, I can even hear sheep “baaa”-ing from my dorm room while I do homework! I love walking to the store or to class and casually passing by an ancient castle; it’s just an everyday sight here in Ireland.
France: Arrival: “Bienvenue en France!” by Sebastian Zgirski
South Africa: Arrival: ” One week in!” by Daria Gausman
https://darigoestoafrica.wordpress.com/
One week in!
Denmark: Arrival: “Summer in Copenhagen” by Megan Dale
I have now been in Copenhagen for about 2 ½ days now and I have never felt so comfortable in a new place so fast. The Danes have been so welcoming (in there own, uniquely Danish way, but I’ll get to that later). I have been so astounded by everything around me. I have never even been to Europe so this is all so new. I’ve already done so much and eaten so much good food (like the hotdog from a street cart pictured here that I was told was a MUST and it definitely was).
Germany: Arrival: “Week 1” by Joyia Squires
South Korea: Arrival: “It’s a New Week!” by Allison Ogle
http://boldnewadventures.weebly.com/
It’s a New Week!
3/7/2017
Things here at my school are going really well! I’ve co-taught one English lesson so far and I have taught a lesson about my hometown(s). Because I am in a public Korean elementary school, a lot of the instruction during the day is in Korean. This means that it is really hard for me to be a regular classroom teacher. Instead, I am what the teachers call a “subject teacher” my job is essentially to provide English instruction as a native speaker of English as well as to share lessons about my home culture. I am planning on teaching a 10 week (one lesson per week) unit on America and American culture. The scary thing is I will be teaching these lessons to all of the grades in the school. First grade through sixth grade. That is kind of scary but I’m really excited to take on this role of being a bit of an EFL (English as a foreign language) specialist which is extremely similar to my endorsement that would allow for me to teach ELLs (English language learners) back home. I will essentially be teaching the same lesson to every class but it will be tailored to meet the language and developmental abilities of each grade. I’m supposed to start with some fourth and fifth grade classes on Thursday so I hope it goes well!
Last night, we as a school went out to dinner! It was really great! We ate a lot of traditional Korean foods and we also went out for coffee afterwards. I posted pictures of this in the pictures page here. (Click it, it will take you to the picture page 🙂 ). I had a lovely night and tried several new foods like stingray/skate. It had a good taste but the texture was very different from how it looked.
I had a lovely time after school today with several of the teachers. Every Tuesday, the teachers get together to play badminton and have a good time. I really enjoyed badminton all throughout school but I never really had the opportunity to play it recreationally so it was really nice to be able to go play a fun sport with several of the teachers from the school (even the vice principal!). It was a great time! I really enjoyed how we could all play a sport together and not really need to use our language. We were all simply having fun! I am now glad that I was forced to take some of those PE classes in school 🙂 knowing some of the rules to badminton came in handy!
I know this post was a lot of different things smashed together but a lot has happened in just a few days! Please go look at the pictures page if you want to see some of the pictures that I have taken while I’ve been here! It’s a bit more interesting than just reading all of this :).
South Korea: Arrival: “Personal Space” by Allison Ogle
http://boldnewadventures.weebly.com/
Personal Space
3/11/2017
So, I’m learning a bit about personal space in Korean public spaces.
I had read online before I came to Korea that because Korea is such a small country and there are so many people, it is common for people to bump into other people and not really worry about it. People wouldn’t say sorry or excuse me because it was so common and normal. I’m really seeing this now. It’s really weird for me!
When I was walking around and shopping in Myeongdong, I was often in a tight spot with a lot of people around me. I was bumped into several times and I even bumped into other people a few times. It really wasn’t a big deal and even when I said “excuse me” to pardon myself, people didn’t really care. It was an interesting feeling. The same thing happened on my subway ride home. On the last leg of my subway journey, there were so many of us in the car that I couldn’t move. People weren’t being rude or pushing and shoving. It was very civilized and everyone was very chill about it. Again, it was weird for me but I think I could get used to it.
South Korea: Arrival: “It’s Been Two Weeks!” by Allison Ogle
http://boldnewadventures.weebly.com/
It’s Been Two Weeks!
3/12/2017
It has been two weeks since I arrived in Seoul. Now that I’m here, I’m really enjoying a lot of things about Seoul! Everything is really close and convenient. I have two convenience stores within 1-5 minutes of walking distance. These convenience stores have EVERYTHING! There is packaged and processed food and there is fresh food like eggs, meat, vegetables, and fruit. There are also household items and cleaning supplies among many other things. I’m also very close to the subway station. This means that I can go basically anywhere quickly for quite cheap. I’m also really close to the school where I’m student teaching. It makes my mornings really easy! There are so many things that I really like about Seoul, it’s hard to name them all!
There are a few things that are challenging. Culturally, Korea stays up very late. Though I like staying up late, I think it’s a bit tough for me to stay up late on a school night. I’m also having to learn a lot about speaking Korean. I wish that I would have studied a bit more Korean but I’m getting by. I can say a few things and get my point across as well as understand the point of the person with whom I’m speaking but it’s still a challenge. There’s also a difference in personal space! Overall, Seoul is living up to my expectations and very often exceeding my expectations which is great!