こんにちは！My name is Jackson Bass. Right now I am a sophomore at CofC, and I’m majoring in International Studies with an Asian concentration. The program I have chosen is the Asian Studies Program at Kansai Gaidai University, located in Osaka, Japan. I have a strong desire to work in Japan after graduation, so naturally the ASP at Kansai Gaidai was a good pick for me! While I am here in…
This past weekend our university hosted a sports festival called Yui Cup, which was a competition between all the floors in the Yui international dorm. Sports days at schools in Japan are a very common competition to raise morale and bring the school closer together. Kansai Gaidai’s sports day consisted of dodgeball, scavenger hunt, ball toss, and a relay race. I had a lot of fun competing with my dorm…
When I first signed up for a semester abroad in Japan, I was filled with various emotions. One part of me was nervous and sad, while another part of me was excited. One of my fears before coming to Japan was not finding my people. My nervousness came from the fact that I felt I would immediately be hit with a wave of homesickness and that I would want to…
As I approach my last week in Belfast, I want to take the time to express just how grateful I am to have the opportunity to study abroad and that I have learned so much about the world and how other people interact with the world since I have been here. I’m hoping to take everything that I have learned from the class setting to the hands-on experience of walking…
Studying abroad isn’t always as glamorous as you’d expect. Things don’t just fall into place. People can be rude. People can be kind. Things will be tough, and you will be confused and sometimes you find it impossible to do ordinary things. Also, being the only American in my house of 12 Dutch roommates can be tough. Everyone is always watching what I do, what I eat, and what I’m…
My name is Laura Wintjen and I am currently a senior at the College of Charleston. I was recently accepted to study abroad; the program is an exchange with the University of Groningen in Groningen, Netherlands. I chose to study here mainly because they offered the classes I needed as a senior Finance major, but also because the people here speak English incredibly well. The goals I set for myself…
Academically, things are very different in the Netherlands. You have much less class and a lot more individual studying. It is not ideal for procrastinators! You have to stay on your toes and keep up with the work. Finance is interesting because it is mostly numbers, so you might think it’s the same around the world, but the currency used is different, interest rates are different, and concepts are called…
Before leaving to study abroad in Greece, I was worried about who I would be living with andwho I would be able to travel with. I knew that I wanted to travel throughout Greece and other European countries. At the time, I only knew one other girl who was studying abroad at the same university as me. So I had intentions of either traveling alone or traveling with people that…
I knew before coming to Greece there would be many cultural differences. I wasn’t aware of all of the differences before arriving in Athens in September. I decided not to take an official class to learn the Greek language, but to learn the language from the locals. Greek is a rather difficult language to speak and to understand as it uses a completely different alphabet. However, I have been trying…
I was so anticipating my trip to Japan. Ever since I was a child and my dad told me stories of going to Japan, the dream of visiting Japan was a goal I had set. Finally, being able to travel to Japan to experience the culture and try out my Japanese (since I have been taking it for the past 3 years) was a dream come true. First time out…
