My whole life, I wanted to study abroad. I had no particular place in mind, but the last place I’d expected to spend a semester was Poland. When I looked up the city of Krakow I was intrigued by the beauty of the city. I hadn’t realized that it was the only major city in Poland that basically escaped World War II with little destruction to the architecture. Upon…
I can’t believe how quickly my months in Spain have come to a close. I remember leaving for the airport, not realizing how nerve-wrecking it would be to go off to another country alone. I will never forget trying to pack to be gone for 3 months. I ended up under packing and bringing all my clothes in one backpack, which allowed me to buy more clothes abroad and…
“Que no hay en la vida nada como la pena de ser ciego en Granada”- Francisco A. de Icaza “There is no greater sorrow in life than to be blind in Granada” Study abroad was something that I knew I wanted to be a part of my college experience. With a minor in Spanish and a strong desire to learn the language, a Spanish speaking country only made sense.…
My experience abroad was an absolutely life-changing one. Pau was a small, beautiful city in southeastern France. Almost everywhere you went, there was an incredible view of the Pyrenees mountains. There was always something to do, and always a new place to explore. My friends and I took many weekend trips to other French cities like Paris, Bordeaux, and Toulouse. Pau’s close proximity to Spain made it easy to…
Wow, were to begin? Coming into college, I did not expect to spend a semester abroad. I had heard about people spending semesters abroad before, but semesters abroad always seemed so daunting and out of my price range. Luckily, during my sophomore year, I started looking into some faculty led summer trips- I really just wanted to go somewhere (anywhere) new for a little while. I emailed my study…
Hello, my name is Ethan Gossett and I am a History and Humanities International Studies major here at UTC. I decided in May of 2018 that I was going to study abroad in a foreign country. Where exactly? I had a lot of options, but I ended up deciding to study in Japan. Therefore, I set my sights on studying abroad in Japan and from that moment on I…
I knew that food would be cheap. I knew that restaurants would keep strange hours. I understood there would be a language barrier. I was not prepared for this. I was standing in the middle of a train station, surrounded by hundreds of people, and I could not understand any of them. I knew that if I had a question – if I missed my train, if I got…
Studying abroad in Granada, Spain was an insane experience throughout its entirety. Not only was I able to develop my language abilities, expand my values as they extend to culture and politics, and communicate effectively with others, but I was also able to find a part of myself I had previously lost. Spain was an experience in which I never completely experienced “culture shock”. Upon arrival and first encounters,…
Going to Japan was a realized pipe dream. Growing up as a child of small-town America, the fact that I made it all the way from Columbia, Tennessee to Tokyo, Japan still amazes me after my trip has ended. Seeing life in a different culture made me appreciate that, even though we live completely different lives, everyone is, at their core, the same. While in Japan, we stayed at…
I studied abroad in Nairobi, Kenya and it was truly a once in a lifetime experience. I spent 3 month (99 days) becoming intimate with the Kenyan culture. One of the most prominent aspects on this trip was “Kenyan time”. Over and over I hear this phrase and it is 100% true; there is no rush in Kenya. If someone were to tell you to meet them somewhere it…
