#bu abroad

[hereiamwandering]

“ Matt enters and Luke exits” 

Alternatively known as that time we collectively decided to screw all the slideshows and power points that told us not to eat street food, and ate something we don’t even know how to say in Arabic. 

[findyoureternity-blog]

Follow my study abroad/travel blog!! :)

[asdbbu-blog]

Crème de la Crème: Paris Abroad

Bonjour tout le monde! My name is Alberto Medina Jr, I am a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences double majoring in Biology/Pre-Med and French! I am originally from El Paso, TX and boy is this blizzard something! Definitely not like the desert!

Anyway, one thing I love to talk about is diversity and culture, and what a better way to do that than to go abroad! One of the main reasons I chose to attend Boston University was for its amazing study abroad programs! Ever since middle school, I was very interested in the French culture and the language and chose to continue pursuing it up until college, which explains the major. I had the two most best experiences of my life through this amazing resource we have on campus. Two years ago I had the opportunity to go to Grenoble, France where I did one of our pre-med science programs at the university Joseph Fourrier. Most people do not get to go abroad sophomore year, but this program is specifically designed for pre-med students who need to take certain science courses, such as Cell Biology and Organic Chemistry. I took four classes, all in English (I mean let's be honest, organic chemistry is already hard in English...imagine taking it in a foreign language!). What was even more exciting was the fact that we had actual French students in our classes! I definitely felt like I was incorporated into the culture, more so when I stayed with a host family. I lived with a single mom and her 12 year old son, they were sweet and quite accommodating. I also had a small internship in a chemistry lab where chemists were doing research for synthetic drugs on how to combat cancerous cells. Overall, the experience was inevitably amazing!

This past semester, I had the second opportunity to go abroad...again! Like I said I was obsessed with France and what better way to indulge than to go to Paris, the city of love! This time around I did the Paris Internship Program, where I took three classes (all in French) and then the second half of the semester consisted of an internship. The classes were great! It is awesome that this program provides all your courses in french! If it didnt, then the point of coming here would just be to live in Paris for a semester. People need to know that just because it's abroad it doesn't mean all fun and games and easy grades. Not at all! Everything is in french! You study in french, live in french, and eventually work in french. People also need to have at least 4 semesters of french in order to be eligible for the program. That said, since you only take 3 courses the first half, that means that a semester's worth of material is squished into half of the semester. Not to panic though! It's reasonable and up to BU standards, so no surprise there

This time I stayed with an older French lady who lives literally 10 minutes away from the Eiffel Tower, I could actually see it from the living room, the view was AMAZING. I am quite comfortable as BU carefully selects who the hosts can be for the program. A cultural difference is definitely table manners, especially at dinner. For example, one does not put their elbows on the table back in the US, here it necessary. It is like a symbol of showing your presence at the table and that you are involved in the diner and conversation. Another difference is that you don't start eating until everyone has been served. I really like it, much nicer that the American way of eating as soon as you get served and not being mindful of everyone else in the table.

As for my internship, I interned at the French-British Hospital L'Institut Hospitalier Franco-britannique, where I shadowed several pediatricians in, well of course, the pediatrics department! It was beyond awesome! I love kids! I hope to one day become a pediatrician myself. This experience exposed me to my first hospital setting and I can say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. When I went abroad the first time, in Grenoble, I realized that the lab setting was not for me. I'm too social and need interaction with others to be locked away in a lab the whole day. I hope to take this experience as a step towards achieving my career goals of going to med school at some point. This is why I think internships and programs like these are so important. You won't know what you do or don't like, what will fit or won't fit you, unless you try it and give it a shot. We can always learn from all types of situations.

Overall, it was also an inevitably amazing experience! It was my dream ever since I was young to one day live in this wonderful city and get to experience everything it has to offer. Differences are that everything is smaller, yet bigger in a sense. The cars are smaller, streets are narrower, people are tinier (lol) and then there's everything else that's bigger/longer: like the nights out, the monuments, and diners. Things just work differently in Paris (and Europe in general) there's a much more "relaxed" style of living here, even with the busy metropolitan setting. I feel like the American lifestyle can be a vicious and repetitive cycle, whereas the French style is a more relaxed, spontaneous, and more flexible cycle. I like the change it is like a breath of fresh air.

The people here are different form those in Boston, who are then different from those in Texas. In Texas you have the southern hospitality feeling, whereas in the Northeast you have less of that. In Paris, you get a mix of both, a lot of people think that the french are mean, cold, and rude, which is plain stereotyping! You can't really understand the culture until you have actually lived in it. Parisians are definitely different from the rest of the French though, especially with their chic and egocentric personalities (haha). I definitely tried to hang out and talk to Parisians, it is just a little harder when you're older. The French have three types of friends by the time they are about 24: their grade school friends, their college friends, and their work friends. Once they have come to this age, it is harder for them to go out and about and make new ones; they're set to go. This therefore implies more effort on the American part to be social and friendly, but definitely not impossible! You just have to put yourself out there a little more and chat someone up you find at a restaurant, bar, or wherever.

EVERYONE NEEDS TO STUDY ABROAD AT LEAST ONCE. It is a life changing experience and literally the best 4 months of your life. You will love it. Tips for people considering going abroad is that it isn't always for everyone. You have to have an open mind, be ready to accept challenges, and be comfortable being out of your comfort zone, ironic huh? (haha) Like I said, everything is French, which can be frustrating at times, especially when you need to communicate with someone or express yourself and you can't exactly always have the perfect words. But it gets better! Also, don't always have the best expectations for everything, my experience here was very lucky, but not everyone gets the same package and experience (obviously). Some people live 30 minutes away from the BU center in Paris, whereas I live a couple of minutes away. Some people got an internship in fashion, I got mine in a hospital. It is different for everyone. On that note, don't compare yourself with others, it is not worth it because you are two different people, with two different experiences. You have to MAKE your experience, it doesn't just come all on its own. You have to be ready to take that extra mile sometimes and put yourself out there, just like you did when you were a freshman coming to college for the first time :)

Lots of love guys! And never forget, everything happens for a reason!

~Alberto

[laursoar]

THREE WEEKS.

[laursoar]

I'm never leaving.

[asdbbu-blog]

Enjoying Life with the Danes

Hey Everyone,

This will probably one of several posts where I will share with you stories about my incredible time studying abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark. (BTW, if you did not know, Denmark is the land of the Vikings.) So far, I have only been in Copenhagen for about two weeks, and even then I have learned so much about Danish society. For one this is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. On that note, it is also the second most expensive city in Europe. It did not hit me how high the cost of living is until I had to buy a bottle of water which cost me 15 Danish Kroner (roughly $3). Within the blink of an eye I had spent the equivalent of $180. One of the reason why the cost of living is so expensive is the high taxes. The lowest tax bracket is about 33 percent and the maximum is almost 60 percent. From an American perspective, this seems outrageous. However, the Danes get their moneys worth. Top-notch free healthcare, free higher education, incredibly vast and efficient infrastructure. Which at times has made me think why cannot America get it right. For example, the Metro runs every five minutes, whereas the T runs every "whenever-it-feels-like-arriving" minutes. Here is the kicker, Copenhagen's Metro is completely automated!!! Makes you wonder right?  

Aside from these interesting observations, my time in Copenhagen (though limited) has been remarkable. My apartment is spacious and located not only near the University of Copenhagen campus, but also near the downtown area. Where I am living is probably the equivalent of living near downtown Manhattan. On my block there is a huge area with venders of all kind, from Chinese Take-Out to high-end goods. Another great thing about Copenhagen is that everyone bikes, so the city is extremely green. I am so excited to buy a bike and start discovering the city that way. Things in my list to do include visiting Tivoli (which is the world's amusement park), seeing the famous Little Mermaid statue looking over the Copenhagen harbor (google her), and visiting mainland Denmark called Jutland. Copenhagen is actually on a island. When I do all of these activities I will be sure to post my experiences. For now enjoy some cool photos that I have taken so far. 

Your Main Man from Copenhagen,

Santiago Gomez

This is me inside of the Danish Royal Library. Apparently they have one of the largest Judaic collections because the Danes were smart enough to hide Jewish books during WWII.

Sick view/twilight that I have everyday from my room.

This is me frolicking in the downtown shopping district, probably the cheapest thing I can do. The prices here will make your head spin.

[swisscapades2011-blog-blog]

Registration, or a series of small heart attacks

This weekend, in honor of the first week on November, Switzerland scheduled rain all over the country. That's right - the whole country was forecasted to rain all weekend long. This idea, while unfathomable to an American, is very real to the less amazing countries in Europe and the rest of the world (except Canada).

Because of this dismal forecast, and not owing at all to my newfound addiction to 30 Rock, I decided that I wouldn't take any big trips this weekend. We get free and reduced rail track fees within Switzerland, so traveling anywhere else in Europe is basically economic treason. So, with those two travel options out of the way, some friends and I made tentative plans to attend a chocolate festival in a nearby suburb of Geneva on Sunday. "Isn't every day in Switzerland a chocolate festival?" You ask. Well yes, yes it is! However this chocolate festival promised to include chocolate sculptures. We wanted to attend in order to eat said sculptures. 

On Sunday morning (afternoon), I awoke only to realize with agonizing horror and dread that today was Registration Day (cue scary movie music). Registration day is a horrible, terrible day designed by college administrators to raise the heart rates of college students to the same, horribly high levels of real adults. It's a quick and easy way to help us obtain a healthy amount of gray hairs. 

On Registration Day in the US, students are forced to wake up at the crack of dawn in order to sit at their computer hitting the "refresh" button every five seconds as they watch the seats in their required classes disappear before their eyes. You see, BU "randomly" assigns each student an "ID number," and we register in an order based on the last digit in our ID numbers to keep the server from crashing. Naturally, all of the athletes and merit scholarshipers register first. All students dream of the day when they are seniors and will move to the front-ish of the line and get the chance to sign up for a yoga class which they will never attend! (Unfortunately, no one warns these bright-eyed students that by the time you're a senior, you'll want to take grad level classes and then the grad students get to be in the front-ish of the line). 

Anyway, being in Europe, my crack of dawn registration was at 4 pm local time here. "Hallelujah!" You might think at the triumph of your blogging hero. But, alas, this tale does not end happily. 4 pm happens to be smack in the middle of the afternoon, meaning smack in the middle of when I would theoretically be at the chocolate festival. Upon realizing this, I cried, I gnashed my teeth, I pulled my graying hairs out. And then I rolled over in bed and went back to sleep until noon (Okay, 12:30). 

On Registration Day, your whole day revolves around registering, and so your main objective is to check the BU "student link" in order to stress over how there are only 42 seats left if Polunski's Cold War seminar. And do you know how crucial that Cold War seminar is to graduating on time?! Exactly. So, usually we all just put something on Netflix and then switch over the student link every 5 minutes in order to experience a minor cardiac event. 

At 12 noon (1 pm) today, I got online do go through this exact ritual for what I thought would be the last time ever during my undergraduate career. I was so excited (stressed)! My schedule for next semester is nearly perfect, with three classes at the graduate School of Public Health and one creative writing class (come on, I'm a senior, I have to have at least one bullshit class). However, (cue suspense music) when I logged onto the student link, I got an ERROR message. Give me an error message on registration and you may as well tell me that my whole future is ruined forever and I'll never have a real job or get married or succeed in anything. I did some more teeth gnashing before doing the only logical thing for a technology generationer to do - I went onto Facebook. 

Here I learned that, fortunately, I was not the only person begin afflicted by the faulty website. Still, with no word from BU,  I was unsettled (freaking out). I went onto the tech website and sent a frantic email to them. (I might have sent it to the Microsoft Office helpline on the website, or to the library - I'm not sure. I saw a "contact us" link and I went for it...). The message I sent read like this, "The Sudentlink is not working!!!!!! I need to registere on 2 hours! Heoppppp!" It was not my proudest moment.

Finally, exhausted from the sheer effort of stressing out. I collapsed onto my pillow (I was still in bed - don't judge). I fell asleep and had a harrowing dream about trying to do work at my internship but realizing that I was actually blind and couldn't do anything, and then my boss told me to read a great book about being successful and I wanted so badly to download it on my Kindle for iPad (c), but I couldn't because I was blind! After this dream, I woke up to find that I was blind and my roommate was talking to me. I quickly put on my glasses and then I could hear what she was saying.

"They rescheduled registration." She was laughing at the hilarity of it because she's in a different college at BU that registers people who are abroad on the Friday before Registration Day (why am I not in that college?). I rolled over and let out a groan. This news meant that I would have to endure yet another day of suffering sometime in my near future. If BU was trying to prolong the harrowing roller coaster of emotions and heart palpitations that is registration for me since it will be my last time doing it, they were doing a damned good job!

[swisscapades2011-blog-blog]

There is a Portuguese man who may live in my kitchen

At the Boston University Geneva (BUG) program house, there are lots of things we are kept in the dark about. For example, we were not informed that the mysterious locked doors near the study room were actually bathrooms - bathrooms that the administration does not trust us enough to let us use. Instead, those of us who live on the 5th floor (not me, thank god), have to walk all the way up 5 flights of stairs (yes, 5 flights, because in Europe the ground floor is the Zeroth floor) to use the bathroom.

This is just a minor inconvenience that comes with being a fully grown college upperclassman who is being treated like a five year old for no apparent reason. (Because we're American? Because of how awful the students from previous semesters were? Because we actually are irresponsible assholes? Not sure)

So, back to the point of this tale - Amadeu (not sure how to pronounce this one, actually, since everyone at BUG seems to say it a little differently). Amadeu is the "concierge" here at BUG. Now don't get all excited thinkin' that I'm at some fancy-schmancy hotel-like place. In Geneva, the concierge is basically a glorified handy-man who takes out the trash and schmoozes with the other concierges all day. 

Amadeu has another hobby though - yelling at people. Not only does Amadeu yell at people on a regular basis, he yells at us in a language that he is positive we won't understand. If he knows that you understand French, he'll switch to Portugese, because only approximately 100 people in the whole world actually speak Portugese (this is not a World Bank statistic, but I'm 97% sure it's accurate).

Here are some things Amadau will yell at you about:

-  Spilling one half of a milliliter of orange juice on the counter -  Rinsing your bowl and then putting it in the dish washer -  Being in your room while he's trying to vacuum mushrooms off of the ceiling -  Putting the cereal box in the wrong place on the counter  -  Having the light on in your room -  Trying to use the printer (this printer is the Xerox Prison Edition meant for use in state penitentiaries and half-way houses - it has padlocks on the paper tray so the convicts students won't steal the incredibly valuable paper) (the printer is also designed to be impossible to use in order to further reduce paper usage)

There are other things that Amadeu yells about, but the great thing is that you can't understand him! 

The reason I assume that he lives in the basement is kitchen is because of the following reasons:

A) The kitchen is locked after breakfast so no one can enter. B) There are locked cabinets in the kitchen. This is where he must keep his clothing, toiletries and other necessities. C) He is very touchy about us getting too close to said cabinets, probably because he doesn't want us to find his stuffed animal collection. D) Sometimes, at night, Amadeu wanders around the residence looking for people to yell at. If he had a home somewhere else, why would he come back to the house full of people that drive him crazy all day long?

You see how it all adds up? Yep, thought so.