I can’t believe it’s already my last week in Florence for this program! It has been a very unique learning experience, especially since we have had the opportunity to apply what we learn in the classroom into real life Italian culture. Yesterday, after class, we were given a guided tour of the Museum of the Innocence. It was originally a hospital that took in abandoned children, opening in 1419. The…
I am currently studying abroad in La Rochelle, France, working towards the completion of my French and Francophone Studies minor. I am attending class at La Rochelle Université, which is a public, French university, about the same size as CofC. It has been so cool to experience life as a student in France, while also meeting so many interesting people. I did not have many expectations as to what attending…
Initially, transitioning to life in Japan was a little difficult. I went from a country where everyone speaks English to a country where Japanese is the main language, and English speakers are not always around. In the beginning, there were times I would freeze at a restaurant or check-out counter because it would take me a second to process the Japanese being spoken to me. I would try to translate…
I’ve been very busy this past month! I’ve mainly been focused on my schoolwork this month, so I haven’t traveled as much as I was last month, but it’s reading week which is basically a weeklong break where students can catch up on their schoolwork or travel around. I’m planning on going to London for a couple days and go out to Southend-on-Sea (where some of my family is from!)…
I have thoroughly enjoyed my experience of living with a host family thus far, and am very happy with my decision to do so. I live with a French couple named Pascal and Sophie and their cat, Croquette. They have a daughter and a son who are both just slightly older than me and their daughter is living with us temporarily. They are also currently hosting a french college student…
As I have now been studying abroad in London, England for about a month, I have learned many things I would have never thought I would learn. From making friends with girls from countries around the world, I have had more culture shocks than expected. Our simple day to day mannerisms differ in little ways, and larger ways. Though, together we spend every day going through the streets of London.…
When you wake up, the tip of your nose is cold. You realize that when you drifted off the night before, you’d forgotten to close the window all the way, and the smell of fresh autumn air and damp leaves completely surrounds you. Often in the mornings, you wake up confused about where you are, even after over a month having left the states. I’m in France, you think to…
As a reward for completing our first three weeks of classes here in Japan, my friends and I decided to take a trip to Nara the following Sunday. For those who do not know what Nara is, Nara is a very popular prefecture in Japan that is known for their temples, shrines and most famous of them all, the bowing Deers. We left pretty early as we wanted to get…
My study abroad experience in Senegal helped fulfill a long-held dream of mine. As an African American, tracing lineage on either side of my family comes with feelings of sadness when we eventually hit a roadblock and can no longer go any further. Slavery, as many of us have learned, broke many familial bonds that existed. Mothers and fathers were taken from children, and families were broken apart to never…
Studying abroad has been something that I have always wanted to do since I started college. Through the help of the CofC study abroad office, I was able to find an affiliate program that worked with my major. I have been studying in Florence, Italy for almost a month now and have seen so many different things. The style of learning here is very different from College of Charleston, here…
