Search results matching tag 'Study Abroad'

Happy 18th Birthday to me!

BUTaylorM — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 23:40:00 GMT

I am 18! How exciting! I started off this very important day with a shower... I don't know why I am sharing this with you but... alas, I am. I had class from 9-12 and had lunch with the girls. I took time to watch, embarrassingly enough, the Hannah Montana movie (I cannot believe I am admitting this. It may be removed upon further judgement). At this point, I am doing anything to avoid homework or studying or anything of the academic sort.

I think I am still in the childhood mindset that birthday's are supposed to be some huge extravaganza. Birthdays are supposed to be filled with fun and parties and sweets and no cares or worries, right? Well, I suppose, in a college-y way, it was. I had more wall posts on my facebook than I care to share (thanks friends!), lovely Katie S. made me a card (thanks, girl!) and my dear friend Laura bought me cake and peppermint ice cream (she knows me TOO well). Once again, I am finding college's little moments really mind blowing. Every time I find myself doubting anything, my unit friends seem to pull me back together.

On my 'birthday' high, I made a list of goals for my upcoming college years (like a new year's resolution...only on my birthday) and I have decided to share it with you in hopes that you all will keep me motivated to stick to my goals!

Have a 3.5+ GPA this fall semester-- after that, hopefully, it's all looking up
Apply for the Honors Program (I got in at admission but failed to turn in the application on time... how foolish of me)
Study abroad (Spain or London, please)
Get a job at Borders/Barnes & Noble (I am an English major, after all)
Intern/work/volunteer at a library
Become a big sister (and I don't mean my parents have another kid... haha)
Rush/Pledge --If I don't do it, I'm afraid I'll regret it.
Read a book (not for school) every 1-2 weeks
Get ahead; Don't fall behind
Make someone's day everyday

I think these goals are realistic and I am going to try my hardest to attain them. In writing these goals on this very important birthday, I vow to follow through.

80s Prom!

ChristinaL — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 15:08:00 GMT

One of the things that the juniors and seniors at Butler are most proud of is our status as children of the 1980s. Yes, we are the babies of the decade, and we really don't have too many coherent memories from it, but it still makes us feel way more retro and cool to say we lived in such a ridiculous and out-of-date era.

We celebrated this cultural golden age last night at my sorority's 80s Prom.

Dances, usually called formals or informals, are another long-standing tradition of Greek life. We rent out a space at a hotel or restaurant to host a dance, and then we all take buses over there together. If you were on the Homecoming decoration committee or if you went to prom four times in high school, then you would love this aspect of being Greek. I, on the other hand, went to precisely three dances in all of high school: two Homecomings and a Disco Dance. I left the Disco Dance early to see Harry Potter in the theatre at midnight. A lot of my friends went to dances, but that just wasn't my thing at the time.

By the time I got to college, I was a bit more of a dancer but formals were not a priority in my schedule. In my sorority, we typically have a formal and an informal dance each semester. The informal ones are the best, in my opinion, because they usually have a fun theme that involves dressing up. However, up until now, the ONLY dance I've been able to attend was a formal two years ago when I was a sophomore. I usually have a super busy schedule in the spring where I'm traveling for different conferences and am out of town on a lot of weekends, and last fall I studied abroad so I obviously couldn't go. However, here I am, a senior, now finally ready to go to my first informal. Thank goodness we picked such an amazing theme as 80s prom.

My little sister happens to be a Goodwill guru, so I asked her if she had anything she could lend me for an 80s prom. She, of course, just happened to have a bright purple, full-length, vintage 80s dress hanging in her closet. HUGE poufy sleeves? check. Bow the size of a small child on the back? check. My cousin lent me big gold hoops earrings, and I was ready to go.

Working the 80s with my old roommate, Kim!

I decided to bring my friend Jared as my date, because he was one of the 17 Butler kids in my study abroad group in Spain last fall. I love my Alcala family to pieces, and Jared and I are especially good friends because we lived across the street from each other in Spain and our host parents were close. We spent our first day in Spain exploring Alcala together with my host dad; we would walk together when we went out at night; one time, Jared even lived with my family for a week when his mama had a family emergency.

Here we are together with Don Quijote on Day 1 in Spain:

But the most epic bonding experience that Jared and I ever had was when we decided to try the gym just down the street from where we lived. We got passes for a free trial, and I convinced Jared that we should go to a group fitness class. The one we happened to pick turned out to be a mix of hip hop striptease aerobics led by a young man wearing women's workout clothing. The class was entirely populated by middle-aged Spanish women. We were definitely the only Americans AND the only ones under 30. However, the situation was so funny that we just had to get into it and dance like fools! Jared is a great dancer and not afraid of anything, so we ended up having a really fun time. After that, we would always laugh and try to recreate our aerobics moves when we went out dancing with our friends. Since the 80s were a time of aerobics and bad prom dresses, I thought I would combine the two by bringing my good old study abroad buddy.

Mini reunion at the Prom! Jared and I with our friend Chelsea who also went to Spain with us.

Although we couldn't remember any of our Spanish aerobics, we still had a great time, and it was so much fun to catch up with an old friend and hang out with all my sisters for my very first informal. Somewhere along my college career, I have become a person who actually likes dancing. I learned a lot about looking like a fool in Spain and, of course, being a Student Orientation Guide this year was all about letting loose and looking silly to help the freshmen lighten up.

If the 1980s taught us anything at all, it's that looking ridiculous is cool - as long as you're having fun!

Road Trip: Toronto Fringe Festival!

ChristinaL — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Hello again! Can you keep track of where I've been in the world this week? : )

As some of you may remember, I am interning for the IndyFringe theatre festival here this summer. Last weekend, my coworker Justin and I went on a "work" trip to check out the Toronto Fringe and see how they run things up north. We drove all the way there from Indiana... so we spent two days on the road and two days in Toronto! haha. We did have some interesting stops, though, and it was definitely worth it because we totally fell in love with Toronto... I love Butler, but don't be suprised if I transfer to U of Toronto in my final semester and try to become a Canadian ; )

Our first stop was Frankenmuth, MI. This is a German town in northern Michigan that has been developed into a tourist attraction involving chicken, polka and Christmas (and some kitschy Bavarian buildings.) It takes me way back to my Michigan childhood - I have fond memories of going on vacation there at age four or five. My return trip at 20 was slightly different, but of course, we indulged in some of the world famous chicken and ran around taking tourist photos. It is also home to the World's Largest Christmas store. They aren't lying; the place is so big, they give you a MAP when you walk in the door!!

The most entertaining part of the Christmas store was definitely the culturally horrendous "international ornament" section. Most of the European countries were pretty well represented, but guess what my beloved study abroad country was symbolized by?

Hmmm... must have missed the cowboys and jalapenos in my Spanish education! I guess Spain and "Mexico" are kind of the same thing... No, no they are not, Christmas store.

After our Christmas in July adventures, we eventually did make it Canada, where we stayed in a backpacker's hostel in downtown Toronto. It was just like studying abroad and bumming my way around Europe again! I loved it.

We started exploring right away - Toronto has SO many cool neighborhoods. Here are just a few pictures:

The Old City Hall - beautiful!

The Distillery - historic industrial district now filled with art galleries, boutiques, cafes and a theatre. Quite adorable.

We also got to visit the University of Toronto. I was a little jealous of their ivy/overall Hogwarts vibe. The best part was accidentally stumbling across the Toronto Pi Phi house, though. Yes, they do have sororities in Canada.

Queen St. - lots of fun shops and, as you can see, interesting street performers! This man stacks rocks.

Augusta Avenue in Kensington Market - aka my hippie haven. SO MANY great restaurants; we could barely choose. There were also lots of independent stores, public art, and environmentalist elements like green roofs, bicycles, and this statement about cars!

We saw even more cool neighborhoods - downtown on Yonge St., Chinatown, Little Italy and the Fringe home base on Bloor St. - and that was only in two days! It was such a blast riding the street cars around and just exploring. Toronto definitely had a very liveable, cultural, European feel to it and it is one of the most diverse cities in the world. Also, all the Canadians were out-of-control nice to us! What fabulous people. I need to live there someday.

So, you may have noticed that I went to Toronto for the Fringe festival, and yet I have no pictures of that. The reason is because when we were at the festival, we were SO busy! Since we were visiting from another Fringe festival, we got VIP passes so we could see any show we wanted to for free!!! AMAZING. We had to take full advantage of that.

If you are not familiar with the concept of "Fringe," it is a term for a theatre festival that allows total artistic freedom. The participating groups are chosen by lottery or first-come first and can do whatever they want. The festival takes care of securing venues, promoting the festival, etc. but the performers keep ALL the money they make, so it is very supportive of independent artists. It's also low cost at only $10 per ticket. Because it gives support to smaller companies and younger artists, Fringe festivals tend to attract new works and performers, so we definitely didn't see the same ole thing you could find at any theatre!

We saw six plays in two days!

- Killing Kevin Spacey (two-man comedic play about a man who realizes his life is a mixture of Kevin Spacey characters)

- Quarterlife: The Musical (... a musical. About quarterlife crises in NYC. Except that the actors were Canadian. We called them out on their accents!)

- It's Just a Phase (musical comedy about lesbians)

- Dancing in my UnBirthday Suit (dance/physical comedy)

- Head First (aerial dance set to indie rock by an all female troupe!)

- Politically Correct Bedtime Tales (fairy tales sarcastically reworked to invoke PC values - so funny)

All very interesting and entertaining shows!

Hanging out around the festival was such a blast. The Toronto Fringe staff were ridiculously nice. They made us feel like part of the family and gave us great ideas! We also had an awesome time chilling at their headquarters and meeting cool people. We spent like three hours talking with the producer of Quarterlife and met some of the actors from various shows. I think that is an experience that not every theatre festival can provide!

Overall, it was such a great trip. We ran all over Toronto, made some great new friends (including our waiter at an Indian Tapas place. We're bffs.), fell in love with Canada, laughed until we cried, and got mildly interrogated/had our car searched at the border before we could re-enter the United States... apparently wearing matching t-shirts from our edgy festival made us supicious! Okay, that part wasn't great, but it was funny, and definitely worth it in the end.

There used to be a billboard at the US/Canada border that always cracked me up which refered to Canada as "The World Next Door." Toronto, at the very least, is a world of its own, and one I couldn't love more. I can't wait to go back to visit again... and i especially can't wait for us to have our Fringe festival here in Indy!

The S Word...

ChristinaL — Thu, 07 May 2009 04:12:00 GMT

...stands for SENIOR. Also known as what I have officially become as of 5 pm Monday. But let's not say it too much, because the last few days and thinking about how little time I truly have left in college has gotten me even more stressed than finals.

I had no exams, but my finals this year were intense. I had a final paper to write for every class. Normally I like writing, but jamming this much into the end of the year, on top of a whole semester writing articles for my internship at NUVO Newsweekly? No longer fun.

In the end, I wrote about 40 pages (and did LOTS of research & prewriting) within about 9 days:

5 pages in Spanish analyzing the postcolonial/gender theories in the works we read about Hispanic "women on the road"

9 pages about Lolita for my American novel class - the last thing I turned in... I think I may have lost all brain power by that point.

9 pages arguing against a literary critic about The Tin Drum - definitely the most challenging one

18 pages about working women's role in the women's suffrage movement in New York City - definiely the most time consuming one. My room turned into a mini-library, with so many books for research...

I am just SO SO SO glad it's over. I feel like I have grown so much as a writer this year. I'm not sure whether that's coming from having to write in Spanish, or being challenged with new assignments, or the pressure of having to write professionally for my internship, but I have definitely improved... nevertheless, my improvements have made me really obsessive about my writing. I do SO much planning and outlining and I am never happy after one or two drafts. My final products may be better but I am spending a lot more time on them! Stressful. I am ready to take a break from writing...for like a week. Then I am back to work at NUVO.

Anyway, I had kind of a chill day after my papers were all turned in. I had to move myself out (my parents don't always come down to help me anymore... boo for getting older and more independent) which took the better part of Tuesday (but interrupted with breaks to watch the Real Housewives of NYC marathon. perfect for packing, and realizing that your life is NOT that dramatic. I had dinner with a few of the senior girls from Pi Phi (who I will miss ridiculously... there's that s word again! let's not talk about it because I'm in denial.)

Now I am back home in Chicago. My mom and I went out shopping today, but she took a wrong turn and we accidentally ended up having to turn around at O'Hare airport. That was especially weird because I started out this school year at O'Hare, boarding the plane to Spain for my study abroad semester. Now it's the end of the school year and here I am. It truly seems like September 1st was just a few weeks ago, but just thinking about how much my life has changed since then blows my mind.

I've been really nostalgic in general lately, but especially about Spain. The people I met there are so dear to me, and the experiences have shaped me forever. This semester, I feel like I've grown tremendously as a student and through my internship, especially... but I just haven't been happy the way I was in Spain.

I think I've had way too much on my plate and not enough free time to enjoy the things and people I love. I've had good times with so many people I love at Butler... but really, not enough, and I haven't been able to spend the time I wanted to with my family... even the ones just down the street on the east side of Indy. I haven't been healthy to my body... too many almost-all-nighters, too much soda and junky food, not enough exercise. I guess I just want something a little more simple and calm for next year. I don't know if I'm capable of doing that. Butler offers so many opportunities, and I'm just not good at saying no. But, I guess that's my challenge if I want to end out my career with a happy and healthy "s word" experience. I've got one year left. I need to be smart about it.

This summer is my chance to get started... I'll still be around Butler and blogging, so stay tuned and wish me luck!

What I Learned from Studying Abroad

ChristinaL — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 04:58:00 GMT

Although I’ve been back in the States for about two months now, I still find myself thinking about study abroad on almost a daily basis. Almost everything reminds me of something from Spain. I talk about my experience in my classes all the time! It is ridiculous how much you can learn about the world in 4 months.

I am taking a Comparative Lit course this semester, and I think I mention something I learned in Spain at least once per class (three times a week! yeah, my class is sick of me haha). During one class period, I was able to draw on knowledge from three of my four classes in Spain (Spanish History & Civilization, Great Masters of Spanish painting and 19^th Century Spanish Short Stories)… and we are studying India in Comp Lit. Learning about one country in depth makes it so much easier to understand other foreign cultures.

Spain has also been on my mind because last week the three Pi Phis that were in the Alcala study abroad group (me, Rebecca and Chelsea) gave a presentation to our sorority house about our experiences. We told a lot of funny stories, but I tried to make it a little more educational by reading my sisters this list I made on the plane ride home from Spain. I hope this helps to give you a better idea of what studying abroad is all about and why it is so important!

Shooting the arrow (our Pi Phi symbol) at a Templar church in Soria, Spain.

What I have learned from studying abroad:

There is so much out there that I don’t know about! For example, this year I have discovered the European Union, Spanish politics, history, literature, etc. If I lived twenty years without knowing about all these interesting things, just imagine how much there still is to learn about in the world. I’m just getting started.

Being a tourist has helped me realize that there are fascinating things to see everywhere! It’s not just Europe. I will definitely take more advantage of all the cultural opportunities in my hometowns, Chicago and Indy.

I now have a very strong desire to be multilingual. I am definitely on my way to being bilingual in Spanish, but after I met so many people who speak three or more languages and then I fell in love with France (I speak no French), I became anxious to add more languages to my repertoire. They say the third language is easier to learn than the second! Let’s hope it’s true.

I definitely have an increased love of talking to strangers and trying to learn from absolutely anyone I meet. Take the bus. Sit next to a stranger. Say hello… and get ready to meet the coolest people in the world.

Rebecca and me and Jose - a Guatemalan UMass alum with a Boston accent who returned to Spain with the book his Spanish ancestors wrote about their move to Guatemala. Basically one of the coolest people I've EVER met. He taught me all about the corruption in Guatemlan politics and the non-profit he started to help kids on trash heaps. We met him on a bus....Talk to strangers.

I’ve learned how to do what I want - not just what other people tell me is best or what they want from me. I’ve gotten better at listening to myself and my needs. I need to go to sleep at 9:30 pm on a Saturday? Okay. I am sick of art museums and churches and cannot handle looking at every single painting in Paris? No big deal. No guilt. Sometimes you just have to do what will make you happiest and not what seems like the cool or sophisticated thing to do.

I have found my independence. If I don’t take care of me in Europe, who will?! There is nothing like being halfway across the world from your parents to help you grow up.

I am not so uptight! Everything will be okay in the end. We miss buses, we buy the wrong ticket, we get sick…but now I just stay calm and let it be. There are some things I can’t control, and that is okay.

I am not so afraid of looking stupid. My friend Jared really helped me with this one in the beginning when I saw him speak terrible Spanish to anyone with no qualms (we were all pretty much terrible, but I was way more shy!) and even go to an old-woman-aerobics class with me. Everyone looks like an idiot sometimes – especially in a foreign country. That’s okay. You learn from it, you laugh about it, and you move on. If you don’t risk looking stupid every once in a while (or every day, in my case), you will miss out on so much.

My Spanish is SO much better. I couldn’t even remember “DINERO” when I got on my plane to Spain and now I could probably hold a conversation with anyone on the street and more or less read a newspaper or books.

I have a genuine interest in art… and now I actually know something about it! (I was a huge art museum nerd in Madrid – you have to be with three of Europe’s greatest art museums all within 10 minutes of the downtown train station!

I actually like wine now and will try almost anything to eat… seriously! even the slimy-looking clams covered in lemon juice that my friend’s host mom made us. And guess what? They were amazing!

fabada = bean stew with blood sausage - one of my favorite Spanish dishes!

I appreciate hanging out with myself and the beauty of down time. One of the greatest and worst things about college life is that you are always surrounded by your friends… Spain gave me some time to go solo. It was nice to know that I can have so much fun on my own, and to get inside my own head and have time to think. There is also something to be said for not being SUPER busy like I always am at Butler. I found myself just walking around town, enjoying the trees and the buildings and watching the people and smiling at how beautiful the world is when you take the time to slow down and look at it moving by. I think for the rest of my life that will be my gauge of happiness; when you walk around and find yourself smiling all the time for no reason other than you love being alive, then you know you are truly happy!

I think I have a lot more options for my life after college. My Spanish university has a graduate program for foreign students called Teach & Learn where you can come back and get a master’s degree in multicultural education while working as a teacher in a Madrid school… and they pay you for all this! I will definitely consider this and any other option that will take me back to Europe. I know living abroad has to be part of my life in the future.

This was my second time living abroad, and yet I learned so much more in 4 months than I ever expected. Studying abroad is scary, and exciting, and liberating and messy and comical and amazing in ways you will never expect.

When I was trying to plan my study abroad semester during the spring of sophomore year, there were times when I thought I didn’t want to go. The application seemed like too much work, or I was scared to speak another language, or I just couldn’t bear the thought of everything I would leave behind at Butler. But, I remembered what my AP Lit teacher in high school told me: her greatest regret from college was not studying abroad. She said that was the one thing she would urge all of us to do.

Whenever I thought of not going to Spain, I remembered Ms. Hitzeman’s advice, so listen to me now and remember this when you start to make excuse or have doubts:

STUDY ABROAD! It will change your life.

True Life: I was an Undergrad Law student in a Foreign Country

ChristinaL — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:49:00 GMT

Hello from BUTLER! Yes I am finally back at school getting ready for sorority recruitment (and loving it!). However, before I get totally back into the swing of my crazy BU life, I want to hang on to the study abroad memories a little bit longer with a few extra posts I wrote in Spain. I know they’re a little late, but enjoy!

When you tell people that 1) you’re an English major and 2) you don’t know what you want to do with your life, there is a strong chance you will be labeled as one of those artsy hippie types who will probably never have a real job and/or contribute to society. Thankfully, there is always a fallback response for dealing with those who doubt the value of a liberal arts education: just tell them you’re going to law school. This gives you the advantage of feeling creative for having an artsy major and a future with lots of money.

However, in these last few weeks, I involuntarily became a Spanish law student, and let me tell you – law school is definitely not all it’s cracked up to be!

Let me explain. When signing up for my classes, I decided to branch out a little bit from the usual literature classes and take “Spain and the European Union,” which I imagined as a fascinating mix of political science and current events.

This was a bad assumption.

Our EU class was taught by a professor from the Universidad de Alcala law school, who kindly puts up with American students to educate us on the European Union. Unfortunately, that meant that the class was not about debating hot topics; it was essentially a law course.

If you’ve been burning to know what the principle of collegiality in the European Commission is, or if you were just dying of curiosity over what the third type of case heard by the European Court of Justice is, then you are in the right place. And if you didn’t know you were signing up for law school, well, good luck.

Luck was exactly what I needed when I set out to write my ten page paper in Spanish over gender equality in the European Union. The first step was to go to the Law Library. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to a law library, but they are intimidating places. Our library at Butler is a great place to study, sure… but it also has a fountain, and comfy couches, and computers where you can go check Facebook if you get bored.

There is no facebook or fun in the law library. Here is what there is:

1) Silence. Always. Hold that sneeze.

2) Massive books full of directives and recommendations and treaties and theories and jurisprudence and other fascinating topics.

3) Very serious students camped out at rows of study tables for hours with piles of notes colored coded with nine different shades of highlights (You can't tell how crowded it usually from the picture because I took it during their lunch break. I didn't want my non-flash photography to disturb anyone.)

If you have ever wanted to take yourself way too seriously, put on your reading glasses, grab a reference book and head to the law library for a little light reading.

(Some of my research WAS in English (it is one of the three working languages of the EU) but that crimson lightweight is a law theory book entirely in Spanish. You may have seen it on recent bestseller lists.)

However, as much as I complained about sifting through legal jargon, I have to admit that being in that library with my 900 page discrimination law theory book was satisfying: I felt extremely smart and superior to all other students who simply read things that are intelligible.

Okay, I’m being a tool, but in all seriousness, I did realize something valuable in that library. There I was reading Big Boring Book of Law Theory in Spanish, when I realized:

I am sitting here with law students doing research in a foreign language…

I just might be approaching something like bilingual. And that is pretty exciting.

I stopped complaining, wrapped up the paper and turned it in knowing that even if I’ve already forgotten the term length of the EU Commission president, I have come so far in my Spanish, and isn’t that really the core purpose of taking classes in Spanish?

My goals for the semester were to see Europe and grow as a person, and if possible, improve my Spanish. Thankfully, the language was never just a side project – it was my everyday life. Even though I wasn’t thinking about it too much, and my vocab lists and grammar books started collecting dust after about a month, somewhere along the way through all my crazy adventures, I learned a foreign language

I’ve done a lot in college, but when I look back on it, I know that learning Spanish will be one of my most proud accomplishments. I feel like I’m ready to grow up and be a citizen of this new connected world, wherever on the globe it may take me. My world has fewer borders now, and that’s an amazing feeling to have.

Strange Encounters of the Butler Kind

ChristinaL — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 05:53:00 GMT

You might think I’m making this up just to make a good story for my blog, but I SWEAR, this really happened to me, not once but twice in Europe.

Let me explain.

As you may remember, I recently took a trip to London, where obviously, I needed to go on a Harry Potter tour. Our guide designated one of the little boys to be our “Harry,” and after the kid announced that he was from “Indiaaaana” (in a British accent), I went up to talk to his father.

I learned that the Harry had a British accent because he has been raised in London, but the family is originally from Indiana. In London, meeting someone else from Indiana would be coincidence enough. However, when I told Steve that I am a temporary Hoosier attending Butler…

[suspense]

…I learned that Steve was a Butler pharmacy grad from the 80s!

I could not believe it. It was like meeting a long lost cousin or something.

(Here are Steve, his kids, and I with our eclectic Harry Potter tour guide. Please also observe the Harry Potter-style Butler scarf I am wearing.)

We quickly bonded over the Butler connection and spent the whole tour chatting about BU and traveling in Europe. After Butler, Steve went to law school and now works for Rolls Royce in London, where his family has had the opportunity to travel all over Europe, so he had lots of advice for me. I also got to give him an update on life at Butler, since when he went to school, the Mall was still a street, and there was *gasp* no Starbucks. Don’t worry, though, they had C-Club back then. Steve couldn’t believe that the name of our infamous food court and his favorite study spot has stayed the same.

Then, a few weeks ago, my friend Brian and I randomly decided to take a last minute trip to Salamanca, the oldest university in Spain which dates back to the 1200s. Pretty sweet, right? Well, we were exploring the university museum when we stumbled upon this tiny little exhibit about the Civil War. There we are, reading up on the Spanish Civil War when we hear the door open… and in walks Caleb, another Butler student who lived across the hall from Brian in Ross Hall their freshmen year!

Caleb is also studying abroad in Spain, but he’s in a different program in Sevilla, seven hours away from us. What are the chances that we would not only randomly decide to go to Salamanca on the same weekend, but that we would cross paths in such an obscure place?

Only Butler.

I had never met Steve or Caleb before, but I left them both feeling like I was saying goodbye to old friends. Butler is family, and especially when you’re across the Atlantic, there is nothing better than seeing a smiling face that reminds you of home.

England Experiences... on my own!

ChristinaL — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 23:01:00 GMT

You all know that I love living in Spain, and that being here has inspired me to declare my double major. Still, my first love – and my first major – is English Literature. Luckily, I was able to ditch Spanish class for a few days and head off to the land of Shakespeare, Dickens and Jane Austen for almost a week. The craziest part was that I decided to go solo.

Travelling alone was definitely a learning experience. There was one point when I missed my bus, couldn’t get in touch with my hostel and thought I might be stranded in London without a place to sleep. In that type of situation I would normally: 1) Freak out. 2) Call my parents. However I was: 1) On a bus surrounded by British strangers. 2) Unable to call the US without incurring an approximately $17/minute cell phone charge.

So, I stayed calm, figured it out, and everything turned out alright in the end. I think that experience was one of the reasons that everyone tells you to study abroad: so that you might come home with the feeling that you can take care of yourself, wherever you might be in the world.

…and that was just my first two hours in England. I couldn’t possibly tell you about everything I did, but I think I have a good way to give you the highlights. Throughout the semester, I’ve been glued to my Rick Steves’ travel guide, which is based on his “Europe through the Back Door” philosophy of digging in and experiencing the culture like a local.

He encourages travelers to collect experiences, not souvenirs – which is the perfect motto for a cheap college student in Europe. I can always tell when I’m having one of these moments, because I just look around myself in awe of the beauty or cultural significance… and sometimes just because they made me laugh or smile or think I can’t believe that just happened. Either way, I know I never want to forget these experiences.

Here’s my “collection” from England:

Bath

Being alone in Bath Abbey in the morning. The abbey is filled with so much stained glass, it’s known as “the Lantern of the West.” I visited early in the morning when the church was empty –with sunlight streaming through the windows and the sounds of the organist getting in an early morning practice, I wandered through an eclectic collection of gravestones marking Bath’s history since the 1700s.
Jane Austen come to life! The city of Bath features heavily in Jane’s novels, and as you may have noticed from the size of the Jane Austen tag for my blog, Jane features heavily in my college career. I first read Persuasion in my very first English class at BU and have since presented a paper on it at our undergrad research conference and taken a Jane Austen seminar where I read her all her novels… so it was gratifying to finally see the actual locations from a story I have spent so much time with. Here’s the path they are walking on in Persuasion when Captain Wentworth declares his love for Anne:

...but, um, where's Captain Wentworth?

London

Sitting in on sessions of both Houses of Parliament, and visiting the War Rooms where Churchill and the Allies leaders hid during WWII bomb raids… It is impossible not to feel immersed in all the history that has gone down in those buildings.
Attending church at Westminister Abbey. The choir sang an amazing evensong service… and we were in Westminister Abbey. On my way out, I walked by Issac Newton’s grave. You know, just a normal Sunday at church.
Being a huge English major nerd. If following Jane Austen’s footsteps in Bath wasn’t enough, I also went on a free Charles Dickens’ tour, visited his house, saw manuscripts from Charles, Jane, Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll, Virginia Woolf and more at the British Library, and walked by the Globe theatre on the South Bank. This was when traveling on my own was a good thing, because none of my friends had the attention span to accompany me. They’re not English majors – they just don’t understand! Unless it comes to literature a little more popular in nature…

Seeing the Changing of the Guard. This extravaganza is, in itself, overcrowded with tourists, long and drawn out and not my favorite thing about London. However, you will NOT believe what song the royal bands played …. the Austin Powers theme song. In front of Buckingham Palace. I couldn’t believe it either, but there is video evidence on our Youtube page. I mean, I guess Austin Powers is a Brit…

[YouTube:qv7ee3zm3aw]

Bargaining on Portobello Road. I may be the only one who remembers the song about this classic London market from the old school Disney movie Bedknobs and Broomsticks, but if you've ever seen Notting Hill with Hugh Grant, then you know the neighborhood. Notting Hill is full of adorable antique shops and vintage clothing boutique that are fun to look in but nothing I can afford, but on Saturday the Portobello Road market is full of cheap and unique finds... and I got an even better deal bargaining for my clothes. Even if you don't want to buy, just wander around, look through the antiques, listen to the street musicians playing the Beatles, or get a snack from the fresh food market that pops up halfway down the road. Definitely my pick for the most fun shopping experience in Europe.

Getting rained on at the Tower of London. If the weather was good the whole time, it just wouldn’t be England, would it? Besides, there’s nothing like a nasty day to make you appreciate the merits of an almost 1000 year-old stone roof over your head.
Eating everything but Spanish food. London is a cultural melting pot… so grab a fork and dig in. I had sushi off a conveyor belt, tasty Indian curry and rice, cheesy Italian pasta, American fast food and finally a British classic:

Talking politics with an old British man in a pub. On my last night in the UK, I realized I still hadn’t tried traditional pub food, so I headed out in search of some bangers and mash (see above). An old man making his nightly rounds of the pubs saw me sitting alone and struck up a conversation; we ended up talking for almost an hour about the state of the world! Greasy comfort food and random intellectual discussion is all I could have ever wanted out of my pub experience, and I nailed it on the first try.

I am so glad I decided to go to England on my own. When I first found out that my London friend Johnny wasn’t going to be around to host me, I was really bummed, but going on my own was such an adventure. Sometimes it was really awkward eating dinner by myself or wandering around the city alone, but it gave me so much time to get inside my own head and notice all the small, beautiful moments.

Now here I am, back in Madrid with only two weeks to go. Is it possible to race to the finish, max out every moment, but still slow down enough to enjoy it all? That's the goal. I'll keep you posted.

How easy is it to study abroad?

ChristinaL — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:15:00 GMT

I got a great question about studying abroad from rme3 the other day and thought I would share the answer with all of you:

How easy was it to study abroad? Do you lose essential classes to graduate or can you complete those abroad?

Studying abroad at Butler is easy to do (and totally worth it!). We have over 110 programs in over 40 countries, so there is something out there to fit your needs.

The process goes like this:

1) Attend a study abroad info session. These are offered several times every semester by the Center for Global Education. They give an overview of the study abroad process, different programs affiliated with Butler, when in your college career is best to go, and most importantly – a list of websites for programs in every part of the world so you can start your own research. You can go to these at any point during your academic career… I went during freshmen year just to get an idea of what options were out there. There are also specific information sessions for Butler programs such as the Semester in Spain (my program), Semester in D.C., and Global Adventures in the Liberal Arts.

2) Start looking at programs and get a idea (even if it is very broad) of what you might be interested in.

3) Sign up for an advising appointment in the Center for Global Education. The advisors will help you refine your plan. They can give you more specific information on many programs, answer many of your questions and give you advice on the program that might be best for you based on your interests and goals for your study abroad experience.

4) Choose a program and fill out the application. This usually involves a short essay and one or two recommendation letters.

5) Go to a pre-departure orientation meeting. This goes over the details of how to transfer financial aid, getting your passport and visa, what to expect about living in a foreign country, adapting to culture shock, etc. For the Butler Spain program, we had our own orientation (where we learned specifics about our program) as well as a get-to-know-each-other gathering at our professor’s house.

So, as you can tell, we get a lot of support from the university. I found the process very easy… when I first arrived in Spain I almost couldn’t believe I was there, because it really didn’t take a lot of pre-planning on my part.

Now for the other part of the question… how does credit transfer? Can I finish my major? Do classes abroad count for anything?

Yes! Studying abroad is, contrary to many beliefs, NOT a wasted semester in your progress towards a degree. The credit that you can get is very much dependent on the program you choose – what classes are available and which classes you sign up for.

However, it is possible for students from every major to study abroad.

For some people with very strict schedules (I’m thinking pharmacy, education and possibly dance majors) it might be necessary to take some summer/online classes or study abroad in the summer, but it is still possible.

For me, studying abroad actually allowed me to pick up a double major in Spanish that I probably would not have made the time for back at Butler. And don't worry... I will graduate on time with a double major, a minor and the Honors Program. I am choosing to count all my classes towards my Spanish major, but other students here are counting classes towards programs like Business, Literature, International Studies, etc.

I would advise finding a program that offers what you need – for example, some programs have science and business classes….some only offer the humanities. Do your research! If you cannot find classes that fit your major requirements, you could always take more general classes towards your core curriculum: ie. your art class, your social science credit, etc. There is even a Butler program called the Global Adventures in Liberal Arts which travels around Europe and gives you four core credits for Butler. Core curriculum is credit that EVERY Butler student needs, so you can definitely fit it into your schedule if you plan ahead. I know even the Honors Program is willing to give you credit for classes you take abroad.

After you sign up for classes in your study abroad program, you email the Department Head for the department from which you want to receive credit with info about the class. They evaluate the information and let you know if you can get Butler credit for it. If not, they will advise you to take a different class. So, the key here is communication! (Oh, and just a sidenote... study abroad classes appear on your Butler transcript, but your grades from that semester do not factor into your overall GPA... BU understands that classes in a foreign country can be totally different and your grades might not be the same as usual.)

I know this can be kind of confusing if you’re not in college and don’t understand our curriculum requirements, so if anyone has specific questions, please comment and I’ll try to be more clear.

But, overall, I cannot emphasize it enough… STUDY ABROAD! When will you have this kind of opportunity again?! It was definitely one of the best decisions I’ve made in college and I recommend it to everyone.

Feel free to ask me more questions, or check out the Center for Global Education website, which includes FAQs and a list of our programs.

Last minute trip to LONDON!

ChristinaL — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:28:00 GMT

I hate to flake out on you guys without a "real" post this week, but it is already 1:30 am in Spain, I am leaving for England TOMORROW... and I haven't even started packing. Typical Christina.

I actually did have intentions to plan this trip ahead of time. I was going to go in three weeks and stay with my friend Johnny who lives in London... but then Johnny's parents surprised him with a month long trip to South America... great for him but it meant I was back at square one. However, this weekend three Butler girls here in Spain are going to London, where they are going to meet up with other Butler students studying abroad in London as well as one visiting from Scotland for the weekend. You know i can't resist Butler love... so I last minute decided to tag along on this trip.

However, flights for the weekend were not so cheap, so I came up with an even better solution... Get a cheap flight on Tuesday, and stay for two extra days. Yeah, this means missing 2.5 days of class... but you only study abroad in Europe once, and I have only missed one class all semester, so it's fine. The crazy part is that for those two extra days, I will be on my own in England. This is my first ever "vacation" alone!

I decided that my time alone would best be spent being a nerdy English major and going to Bath to see the settings of the Jane Austen novels I spent my life on sophomore year when I took a JA seminar. My prof will be so proud : ) The only crazy thing is that I am going to get into Bath at 11:45 pm and then I have to find my hostel solo. Wish me luck and safety!

Anyway, I am so excited about London, because there are tons of free historical things to see during the day and then great theatre and nighlife in the evening. Add that in to time spent with Butler friends from all over Europe, and it should be fantastic! Because it's so last minute, I really haven't planned everything out yet... and that's okay with me! It's time to have some adventures. I'll keep you posted!