Valpo Voyager

Student Stories from Around the World

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The British Education System

November 1, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Author: Emma Hecht

Location: Cambridge, England

Pronouns: She/Her/Hers

The education system here in England is extremely different from what we’re used to in the United States. I attend two different schools: the University of Cambridge and Anglia Ruskin. The University of Cambridge is made up of thirty-one colleges, each with their own dormitories, libraries, and classrooms. Each student accepted to the university is part of one and only one college, such as Kings or Trinity. However, students from each college sit in lectures together, which are not held at any college in particular, but on a different part of campus in buildings of lecture halls. The lectures are typically small, about twenty students, but can be up to around two-hundred. The lecturer basically just walks into class, gives a speech, leaves, and class is over. After the big community lecture, the students go back to their respective colleges and meet with a tutor (a different professor that belongs to their college), which is the person that facilitates a discussion about the class. These meeting might be one on one or in a very small group. Students will turn in all their course work to this tutor, not the lecturer. Speaking of course work, English professors do not assign coursework for a grade during the semester. The only thing that is due for the entire semester is a substantial paper at the end that expresses some sort of knowledge regarding an aspect of the course. There are recommended readings each week, but no quizzes, exams, or in class discussions of what you read. You can choose to read what’s recommended, read something different, or not read at all. Since Valpo students can’t belong to one of the thirty-one colleges, we get access to our Cambridge classes through the Westfield House, the building next door to our house, which is part of the Cambridge University Theological Federation. It’s like a Lutheran seminary that is connected to the lecture halls of Cambridge. So, Valpo students can have lectures in the Cambridge lecture halls, and then we come back to the Westfield House and meet with our tutor (e.g.—I sit in a twenty-five person lecture at the Faculty of Divinity lecture hall for my Sociology of Religion class and then come back to Westfield and meet with Dr. Gunjevic and two other Valpo students to talk over readings and decide on our paper topics). My classes at Anglia Ruskin are similar to Cambridge, but much more relaxed. It’s a small school like Valpo, where my classes (Database Design, Writing Poetry, and Prose Fiction) consist of ten to twenty students. Like Cambridge, there is only one assignment, due at the end of the semester (some of them due after the semester end at the beginning of January). Because they only assign one cumulative assessment, each class typically just once a week for two hours. For these classes, you have to “tap in,” which means you tap your student ID on a little electronic device on the wall inside the door that takes attendance. Even though Anglia uses this system to track exactly how many classes you attend, many students skip classes. But if you study abroad here, you are not allowed to skip more than two, or you get sent back to the States.

Anglia Ruskin University (where I take 3 classes)

Faculty of Divinity, Cambridge University (where I have my lecture once a week)

Study Abroad in Reutlingen Germany (Part 2)

October 31, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Author: Shannon Ilg

Location: Milan/Reutlingen/Copenhagen 

Pronouns: She/Her/Hers

October 5th

This is a chapel in a rather inconspicuous looking church and guess what those interesting decorations on the walls are?
Human bones.
That’s right. Hundreds and thousands of sculls line the walls of this chapel, very different from anything I had ever thought to use as decoration. Our tour guide said that it was actually fairly common in the Middle Ages to use this type of decoration as death was not seen in the same light as it is today. Rather than being repulsed or disgusted by the thought of death, it was a daily occurrence that no one thought twice about when presented with it, so there was no problem with it at all.

October 6th

Okay, so… you can’t go to Italy and not eat some pasta. I mean, would it really even make any sense at all? It was really tasty and the fresh basil made a great difference.

October 7th

Here is an example of the beautiful flowers decorating the city. This large pink flower was growing on a median in the middle of a street.

October 8th

Back in Reutlingen! This is a picture of the very small elevator in the dorms. The stairs just go around it in a square. I don’t usually use it because I live on the fourth floor and I can usually make it up faster than it would take to go all the way down and then back up to my floor.
Ooh, but here is a good time to mention the floors in Europe, or at least Germany… come to think of it I really don’t know if it is like this everywhere or just Germany… Anyways, it is like Wehrenberg as the ground floor is called the ground floor and after going up a flight of stairs you are on the first floor, etc. It takes a little getting used to but honestly it makes more sense to me now to number the floors in this way: when you walk up one flight of stairs you are on floor one… two flights of stairs and you’re on floor two…

October 9th

I want to mention the uniqueness of doors here in Europe. This is just someone’s front door in Reutlingen that I thought was geometrically interesting. But usually, every door is unique. Perhaps not so much in our dorms or office buildings, but in older houses and castles, there are rounded doors, triangular doors, doors with square cutouts, etc. In Copenhagen, I saw a lot of small rounded doors with circular windows. Oftentimes, in an older building there won’t even be two of the same door in the same building. I love how even just looking at doors throughout Europe there is something different and unexpected at every corner.

October 10th

This is right outside the door of the apartment building I live in. It’s interesting to see hot air balloons flying overhead every once in a while. In fact, since taking this picture I have seen the same hot air balloon several times. I have no idea where they come from or where they are going, but it’s always a nice surprise to look up and see one floating by.

October 11th

Okay. Above you see the beginnings of the best trip ever. No exaggeration at all. The magic 8 ball even said so. I’ll begin several days earlier: I asked my friend Andrea if she would want to join me for an adventure where we make no plans at all. We both were very excited and invited another student, Mark, to join us because we thought he would be very interested. We met and agreed to leave Thursday and get back sometime Saturday. That was the extent of our plans. See, the three of us have this rail pass (Eurail if you’re interested) that allows you to travel almost anywhere in Europe for two months. So we didn’t really need a plan anyways.
Thursday, Mark asked if he should bring the magic 8 ball from his floor. Obviously, this was a genius idea and it became our mode of all decision making on the trip.

October 12th

Our first stop was Zurich, Switzerland. You know, where they make all the watches. We got there around midnight and just explored the dark, quiet city at night. It was quite beautiful; all of the tall important buildings were lit so you could see them from very far away and nighttime gave it a very interesting appeal. Above you see the storefront of a lamp store. It was super cool and, though I wouldn’t want a single one of those lamps actually in my house, it was really cool to look at.

October 13th

I would love to talk about all of the things we did on this trip, but it would take far too long as we ended up spending time in 13 different cities over 41.25 hours, so I will stick to just this last bit. We ended up in a small town called Meiringen near Interlocken (Switzerland still), because we saw a cool waterfall from the train and the Magic 8 ball agreed that we needed to see it up close. On the way to the waterfall, we explored the countryside a bit with beautiful mountain views, a stunning river, and purchased fresh milk out of an atm at a farm (like… you give it some change and fill your water bottle with milk… it was great!). When we finally got to the waterfall, we decided to climb up to the top, and it was a treacherous journey ending in a beautiful view.

October 14th

Coming back from our wild amazing adventures, I had a lot of homework to work on. Here, we see my attempt to capture the most boring picture in the history of the world. Have I succeeded? Perhaps not, at least it says hello!

October 15th

In the midst of so much excitement, October 15th I was doing homework and did not get around to taking a picture of anything new, interesting, or even boring. Instead, above I have provided a picture of a previous day, when I took a walk in Reutlingen. Beyond the university, there are miles of walkable paths through fields, hills, and small mountains. It’s always really pretty just to go for a walk or a run around here.

October 16th

Once again, I failed to actually photograph anything this day. Instead, I give you a piece of grass from my floor at the beginning of the semester. I thought it looked like a dinosaur.

October 17th

Another student and I went with my German teacher to go bouldering for the third time. Afterwards, she made us a wonderful dinner of pasta with pumpkin sauce. Afterwards we tried Quark, which is kind of  like yogurt but closer to cheese. I absolutely loved it. Here, you see some Russian nesting dolls that nested to an impressively tiny size. The little pink dot was the final doll. Overall, it was a very lovely experience in a very genuine German home.

October 18th

Above, you see the deck of the ferry to Copenhagen on my second journey there. This time, the ultimate stop is Stockholm, Sweden, with a day in Copenhagen. It was a really cool city so I was thrilled to explore it again.

October 19th

This is one of the many interesting finds in Copenhagen. It is a sun-heated sauna you can enjoy on like Wednesdays or Thursdays. We didn’t go in, but it pretty much shouted at us to look so we gladly did.

Traveling…a lot!

October 29, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Author: Mark Young

Location: Reutlingen, Germany

Pronouns: He/Him/His

To start out my month, I traveled to Ulm and Blauburen. Ulm is known for its eponymous Muenster. It is the tallest church cathedral in the world. Blauburen is known for its 21 meter deep karst spring. I went alone and while hiking through the mountains, got a bit lost but still found some amazing views (and my way back).

 

While in Munich for Oktoberfest, we went on a walking tour and enjoyed lively scenes such as this. It was a very fun place to be.

 

The next day we went to Heidelberg and climbed a mountain to a ruined castle. The view from the castle was amazing. This was the view from another castle looking west down the Neckar River and through Heidelberg.

 

A few days of rest in between travels…but still some late nights shooting astrophotos. There is much less light pollution in Germany than in America.

 

After a week of classes, two other students and I went to the train station, got on the first train we saw and ended up in Switzerland! With no plan, over the course of two days we saw Zurich(by night), Luzern(also mostly by night), Interlaken, Meiringen, St. Gallen, Kreuzlingen, and Konstanz. It was quite a wild and extremely fun trip.

 

This is a typical view in the Jungfrau Region, where Interlaken is. You can see the silhouttes of paragliders in the sky.

 

A quick stop in Meiringen…an absolutely beautiful town.

 

A late night view from a beach in Luzern.

 

Weekends in England

October 26, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Author: Emma Hecht

Location: England, United Kingdom

Pronouns: She/Her/Hers

Three weekends ago, six other Valpo students and I loaded ourselves into a van with our director, Dr. Brugh, and her husband, and took a trip to Stratford-upon-Avon and Bath. When we arrived in Stratford, we ate dinner at the Dirty Duck and afterwards, as Stratford is Shakespeare’s hometown, went to a play. Our group split up, half of us going to Tamburlaine and the other half to Maydays, a choice we had made a few days previous after reading a synopsis of each half. I was in the Maydays half because I knew it was contemporary (I did not want to sit through two hours of Shakespearian speech) and for some reason (a delusion) I thought it was going to be funny. It wasn’t funny. It was extremely political, there was a ton of yelling, and through that ton of yelling, a ton of spit spray. Thankfully, we were not in the front row.

The next day we walked around Stratford, touring Shakespeare’s childhood home and walking through an outdoor market. Mid-afternoon we all piled back into the van and headed for Bath, the home of the Roman baths. As I understand it, the baths were where old rich men could come and bathe together… The baths are still filled with water; however, no one is bathing there now, unless they want to be submerged in a sticky brown and green pool.

A Roman Bath

Two weekends ago, on a beautiful fall day, all of us gathered up again and made a trip to Blenheim Palace and Coventry Cathedral. Blenheim Palace was the home of Winston Churchill’s grandparents, where he would have lived as a toddler. For proof of this, they’ve mounted locks of his five-year-old hair above a bed in one of the rooms. However, it’s not only Churchill that stems from Blenheim Palace, but also Princess Diana Spencer. While she never lived there, the palace is still in her family.

Blenheim Palace

Blenheim Palace Grounds

Coventry Cathedral was our other stop. In preparation for the trip, we learned about the architecture of the Cathedral. It was bombed, obliterated during World War II. The walls of the original church are still somewhat intact with a little bit of the original stained glass, but there is no roof, so the area has been turned into a courtyard. Mid-twentieth century, the contemporary space was built, connected to the courtyard. The architect who designed and build this church was in close communication with the man who designed the Chapel of the Resurrection at Valpo. Some things are extremely similar, such as the paneled walls leading up to the altar. The chairs are exactly like the ones in the Chapel (although, rumor has it that the seats in the Chapel were widened three inches to accommodate Americans’ “size difference”). But instead of a stained glass window at the front, there is a huge tapestry that covers the entire wall. I still like Valpo’s Chapel better (nothing beats the stained glass window), but it was interesting to see a beautiful contemporary church in England, which seems dominated by Gothic architecture.

Coventry Cathedral Courtyard

Study Abroad in Reutlingen Germany

October 25, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Author: Shannon Ilg

Location: Reutlingen Germany

Pronouns: She/Her/Hers

This is the second set of pictures from my adventures here in Germany. Since my first set of pictures, I have done a lot of traveling outside of the country. I have been to Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Denmark, and I’m on my way to Sweden as I write. It has been so much fun, and I have learned so much. Below is the second collection of pictures I took daily of the beautiful, strange, and mundane for me, your good-ol’ average Valpo student. I hope you can take a moment to see and appreciate the little things I have photographed, feel free to skip around, and maybe even be inspired to take on your own journey!

 

September 19, 2018

In Germany, we take the trains all the time. This is an underground entrance to one of the train stations that is particularly colorful. For the most part, the graffiti on the walls seems to have been paid installations. They are very interesting and colorful; it always gives you something to think about or appreciate. While traveling around Germany, make sure to keep your eyes open, because sometimes you’ll stumble upon really cool murals on the back of buildings or similar places where you wouldn’t necessarily expect.

September 20th, 2018

Here you see the first (and only, up to this point) attempt to make a pizza from scratch with the limited resources that my friend and I could find here. I purchased a circular metal plate for one euro to use as a pan which has actually been quite a good purchase. Since then it has been a plate, a lid to a pot of carrots and potatoes, and a tray to carry other dishes back and forth to my room.
Anyways, the pizza was actually really good. The only weird thing was that we used pasta sauce instead of pizza sauce or tomato paste, so it had a little bit of a strange flavor.

September 21st, 2018

We made our final full group trip to Liepzig which ended up being kind of a smaller version of Berlin. This building caught me off guard because it was so, you know, chopped in half. It was a really interesting café with statues of elephents in front of it.

September 22nd, 2018

Our second day in Liepzig we went to a Bach Museum. Around the museum, you could listen to the different musical arrangements that Bach had written, and in the room pictured above, you could listen to different pieces and decide which instruments you wanted to hear by pushing buttons on and off for each instrument. It was quite interesting.
Another cool thing about this museum was how evolved it was for the blind. It makes sense that a museum about music would be somewhere a blind person would enjoy, but they really go out of their way to make sure it is welcome and easy to enjoy for those who cannot see. At one point there were organ pipes hung from the ceiling that when you touched them, they played different musical compositions. In the above room, there was a book explaining every instrument in Bach’s time. Each page had a plastic page in front of it with braille, and the pages with pictures had a plastic page in front of it with a three-dimensional model of the instrument. I was very impressed that such accommodations were made so that those who cannot see have a wonderful museum to explore while discovering the beautiful history of music.

September 23rd, 2018

This is Wartburg castle where Martin Luther hid after nailing his theses to his church’s door. We went on a tour throughout the castle and got to explore the halls for several hours. The day we were there it was rather rainy which made the view outside foggy and after leaving, we all got soaked to the bone. In general, it was a good fun trip: standing in the rain when everyone is just as soaked as you never fails to bring a few smiles.

September 24th, 2018

After our final day in Liepzig, we all went off to go on our own smaller excursions. A friend and I decided that Austria would be our next stop. This was a delicious hot chocolate from a small café we ate at while waiting to check into our Airbnb.

September 25th, 2018

We had one full day in Austria, and we decided to climb a mountain. It was a beautiful journey up, every turn different and more amazing than the one before. By the time we reached the top, it was pretty steep, and I tripped and fell, scraping my leg pretty good on a rock. We ate at a quiet restaurant at the top and then headed back down. Let me tell you, I laugh at every time I ever thought as a kid ‘dang it, I really wish I was going downhill’ when I was going uphill. I am not a mountain climber; I was clad in plain tennis shoes with a bit of a cold, along with a high level of clumsiness. I slipped and fell like at least twelve times on the way down. I honestly never felt so incapable of anything in my entire life, where every single step I took was one step closer to complete and utter failure. But even so, it was so much fun, and unbelievably beautiful. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

September 26th, 2018

Just look at this wonderful view we had from our Airbnb. Down the hill on the left is a field full of very large friendly cows. On the right is a beautiful panoramic view of mountains all around. Behind the photo where you cannot see is the mountain that we climbed. Everything was so unbelievably beautiful, and I would recommend the Austrian countryside to anyone looking for a calm and stunning view.

September 27th, 2018

Welcome to the Oktoberfest, in Munich! First things first… Thursday was a great day to go. It was lively, but we could still get a seat to get a drink. It was not impossible to walk. It was a blast!
In case you don’t know exactly what the Oktoberfest is, it is a German festival with wonderful food, music, beer, and carnival rides. I have also heard that the Munich Oktoberfest is actually not quite as genuine as some of the smaller cities’ versions of Oktoberfest because it has been turned into a bit of a tourist attraction. Of course, this makes sense, but it did not make it any less enjoyable for me… because I am a tourist.

September 28th, 2018

This entire semester, they have been tearing down this building. In this picture, I was standing on the seventh floor of one of the apartment buildings that Valpo students are staying in. Behind the large pine tree in the top right you see the other building where we are staying. That’s my building. In between there used to be a third similar building but now all that is left is several piles of rocks. Oftentimes, I wake up in the wee early morning to the sounds of construction, or rather destruction vehicles. It has been quite interesting to see the complete process of the tearing down of the building.

September 29th, 2018

This is a little potted plant in the communal kitchen/lounge on my floor. It was just sprouting a flower in this picture. At the beginning of the semester there was a cute note next to it asking people to make sure it was watered while the owner was gone. Thankfully it survived and is here to show us cute little red flowers.

September 30th, 2018

This is the top of Georgenberg, a mountain on the outskirts of town where you can see the entirety of Reutlingen. It makes for a decent hike and a beautiful view. My favorite thing about it is that from the top you can see and point out pretty much every major place we had been to in Reutlingen. You can see our dorm buildings and the University, you can see the Church downtown and between the two you can see everywhere else that we had been in town.

October 1st, 2018

This was an issue that I have had a couple times eating Pringles. When I went to open the can, the inside foil covering peeled away from the cardboard. It’s not particularly strange or anything, it just hadn’t ever happened to me before. But it of course does not affect the quality of the beloved Pringles so I still enjoyed them.

October 2nd, 2018

Above you see Johannesbeeren. It is a delicious fruit that I discovered at a local farmer’s market. I had never eaten or even seen them before but guess what? They are around in the US, too! It’s a currant! I mean, I just never thought that you can eat them plain and not cooked in anything. They are wonderfully sweet and sour, and you can literally put the whole stalk of them in your mouth and pull out the stalk and eat all of them at the same time. They are so fun to eat, and I am definitely going to see if I can find them as well in the US when I return.

October 3rd, 2018

Above is our perfect, uncooked pie. It is made with apples directly off of a tree, and a wonderful blend of sugar and cinnamon (I haven’t been able to find brown sugar though, which is okay, just a little weird for pie). It turned out a little bit overcooked on the top and a little bit undercooked on the bottom, full of an inch of liquid from the apples… It tasted delicious, but this picture is definitely more fun to look at than the one of the cooked pie. Hey, but pie is pie, and it was a blast making-and eating-it.

October 4th, 2018

Here you see the first super interesting thing about Milan, Italy. I took a weekend trip there with a couple others and we ended up having a really fun time. In this picture you can see the track for the streetcars going right through the grass. There were other places where the grass was even growing in between the tracks. As for the rest of Milan, there were beautiful plants and flowers growing everywhere. And I mean everywhere. They were even abundant on the sides and rooves of buildings. I really enjoyed the feeling from this, as it gave the city a very green appearance and feeling.

Weekend Adventures in Germany

October 15, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Author: Ulises Hernandez

Location: Germany 

On September 20th, I had the chance to travel to Germany along with some of the other students that are also part of the Cambridge study abroad program. From London, we took a plane to a small town called Memmingen, which is about two hours from Munich. From the airport, we took a bus to Munich and we walked around the city before checking in into our hostel. The whole city was preparing for a major annual celebration known as Oktoberfest. Everywhere you turned you would see vendors selling the very famous Lederhosen outfits which are a very important component of the celebrations. After walking around for a few hours, we decided to check into our hostel to leave our backpacks in order to see what Germany had to offer after sunset. For dinner, we stopped at a local market where hundreds of people enjoyed eating smoked meats, bread, sausages, dips, and soft pretzels. After spending some time in the market, we walked to the very famous Hofbräuhaus where we were very lucky to find a table, especially with all of the tourist that were already in the city of Munich for the Oktoberfest celebration. While we were there, we enjoyed eating soft pretzels with our drinks while live authentic German music was being played a few tables away from where we were sitting. After having enjoyed the music, we went back to our AirBnB to make plans for the following day.

On our third day in Germany, we as a group decided to visit the very famous Neuschwanstein Castle located in Schwangau, Germany. It was a three-hour train ride from the Munich train station to Schwangau, but on the way there, we were able to see the very beautiful German countryside. Once we got Schwangau, we took a bus to the castle since the castle is located on top of the mountain. Once we got to the castle, we were able to do a tour through a small section of the castle and hike parts of the beautiful mountain. After spending many hours at the castle, we took the train back to Munich in order to spend some time at Oktoberfest. The next morning we got up very early and took the train back to Memmingen in order to make it back to Cambridge on time for our Monday classes.




The Thing I Liked Most About Oktoberfest Was the Ice Cream

October 5, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Author: Emma Hecht

Location: Ireland/Switzerland/Germany

Two weekends ago, late on a Saturday night, I flew into the Shannon airport in Ireland and got into a cab with three other Valpo students and our very Irish cab driver. He was one of the nicest, funniest people I’ve ever met, but I had absolutely no idea what he was saying for at least a quarter of the drive. Most of his sentences went something like this: “Oh! Yeah, ye hmnhmnhmn Limerick!” Yes, Irish people do say “ye” for “you.” And yes, they’re mumblers (disclaimer: in my own personal experience). We made it to our hotel just fine and the next morning (the morning of our only full day in Ireland) and woke up at a nice and early 10:30 am to take a three- hour bus trip to the Cliffs of Moher. As I ambled off the bus, still trying to wake up from my nap, I was stunned at how beautiful the Cliffs were. They span a little under nine miles long, are over seven hundred feet tall, are over three hundred million years old, and have starred in movies like Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince and The Princess Bride. Maroon 5 even filmed a music video there. And, as my words are totally insufficient to describe them:

(Photos above by Mark Young, markyoungphoto.com)

We spent our entire day at the cliffs, only heading back into Limerick when we thought we were going to pass out from hunger. After scarfing down our late dinner, we headed back to the hotel to go to sleep before we had to get up at 4:45 am to make our flight back to London. Last weekend was another excursion—this time to Salzburg, Austria and Munich, Germany. My friend Claire and I went to Salzburg specifically to do The Sound of Music tour, which is hands down the most touristy thing I’ve experienced since I’ve been in Europe (the bus was packed full of Americans). When we arrived at our Airbnb, our hosts, Luke and Jenny, said that they had never seen The Sound of Music… and apparently, that’s typical for Austrians. Pictured below is one of our stops, which we made not for The Sound of Music, but for the beautiful Austrian view.

Our next stop was Munich for the first day of Oktoberfest. Just a five-minute walk from where we had just gotten off our train, we stood and watched the long parade of floats and bands, which led to the tent where the opening ceremony occurs (in which the mayor taps the first keg with a loud pop and says “O’zapft is”. “It’s open.”

Throughout the day, we walked around. In and out of different beer/food tents, in between amusement park rides, by food stands selling schnitzel and heart-shaped gingerbread cookies. Inside the tents, there was live music, everyone standing on tables… we got to witness over five thousand drunk Germans singing (at the top of their lungs) John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads.”

This weekend we’re off on a class trip to Stratford-upon-Avon and Bath, both located in central England.

 

Financial Advice from Germany

October 4, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Author: Michael Boyaijan

Location: Reutlingen, Germany

Guten Tag reader, and welcome to my blog! For the past month, I have had the pleasure of studying abroad in Reutlingen, Germany. Throughout my time here I’ve seen many amazing places, made lots of friends, and already had numerous unforgettable experiences. Although there is so much to share, I have decided that the focus of my blog will be more financially-based. For many people, myself included, money plays a large role in whether one can afford to study abroad at all. Although Valpo gives out an estimation of what a student will spend studying abroad, expenses are different for each student. This semester, I will be reporting my personal budget and expenditures so that you, the reader, can get a real-feel for what it costs to study abroad in Reutlingen, Germany. Along with this, I will be explaining things I learn and mistakes that I make.

I started my semester with a budget of $3,133. Like I said before, expenses vary from person to person. Some people spend a lot of money, and some people don’t. At the same time, what people choose to spend their money on varies drastically. What I did not know is that Germany is primarily a cash-based society. Yes, credit and debit cards do exist here, but for everyday purchases (i.e., groceries, public transportation, etc.) Germans generally use cash. With that being said, here is tip #1: Open a bank account/get a credit card that has little to no foreign transaction fees. I have a Chase College account and every time I take out money from an ATM, I get charged a small fee. Additionally, the conversion rate from US dollars to euros varies. So far, I have paid for everything in cash. The amount of cash that I have taken out is $781.80. I have used that cash for groceries, trips, souvenirs, a guitar, and meals out. So far, of the $781.80, I have used $675, leaving me with $106.80 that will still be used. My current budget is now $2,458.

For the first month, we spent a lot of time going on group trips and excursions, rather than in class. As a business student at the ESB Business school here, my classes only recently began. Going forward, I expect to spend less money as I will be doing less travelling, and I will not be buying another guitar. I hope you find this post useful in your decision to study abroad! Tschüss!

My Adventure in the Great Country of Ireland

October 2, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Author: Ulises E. Hernandez

Location: Limerick, Ireland 

A few weeks ago, I was able to experience one of the most amazing weekends of my life because I had the opportunity to visit the famous Cliffs of Moher. Ireland, like all countries in Europe, has been shaped by war and by many devastating events. I didn’t know a whole lot about Ireland before visiting that truly amazing country, other than the stereotypes that all Irish like beer, the color green, and leprechauns. During our visit, I got to learn a lot about Ireland thanks to our fantastic and very funny tour guide. According to the guide, the Irish have faced very difficult times due to the English. Not only were they banned at one point for practicing their religion, but they also lost their land to the point where they couldn’t even grow their own food to feed their people. Due to this unfortunate event, the Irish were forced to rely on potatoes as their main source of food which caused a famine that killed thousands of people. It is sad to hear how history shapes people’s nations, but thanks to its magnificent and beautiful natural scenery, Ireland has received many immigrants and a lot of tourists from all over the world which has helped their economy tremendously.

When it comes to people’s identity, the Irish are very different in comparison to the English or even the American people. Not only do they have a very unique accent, but they also tend to be very outgoing and surprisingly happy people. The very first person that I got to meet was our taxi driver. He was an old gentleman with a caring heart, a great sense of humor and overall a great representation of the Irish people. The difference between the Irish and the English is shocking. Based on what I have seen, the English tend to be very reserved and private, which is the complete opposite of the Irish. Regardless of who you are, based on my experience, they treat you like family and they make sure that you feel welcome at all times regardless of where you are. That’s something that I have not experienced to the same level in England, and it’s not that the English are rude people, it’s all due to people’s identities that are shaped by culture and traditions. Based on the people that I talked to, the Irish do not like the English due to the unfortunate events that I mentioned earlier but they are still very welcoming since many people within our tour were English and they received the same treatment as we did.

The pubs and city life in Ireland are very similar to the English. My great friend Ben and I spent the night at a town very similar to Cambridge called Limerick. Even though this small city is not a college town, it still provides its locals with a large selection of pubs, malls, and a great transportation system. Limerick also holds a lot of historical landmarks similar to Cambridge. This town is home to many churches, castles, museums, and historically significant pubs which make the locals very proud to share with the tourists. A very similar problem Ireland and England face is their infrastructure. When I say infrastructure, I don’t refer to their buildings, but their lack of roads that are capable of accommodating the needs of small and large vehicles. Our bus driver had a very difficult time navigating through many of the local and country roads due to how narrow the roads were paved, which is also a problem that I have noticed in England as well. Even though this is just an everyday life struggle for them, the Irish make the most out of what they have and based on what I saw they tend to look at things through a more humorous point of view.

Overall, I had a very wonderful and welcoming experience in Ireland which is something that not everyone shares when visiting a foreign country regardless of your ethnic origin. The Irish are very wonderful and joyful people that are willing to share their culture and beautiful country with the rest of the world. I hope to come back to Ireland at some point in my life and bring my loved ones along so that they too can experience the breathtaking natural scenery that Ireland has to offer.

 

My First Month Abroad: Reutlingen, Berlin, and Ireland

October 1, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Author: Mark Young

Location: Germany/Ireland

One of our first days in Reutlingen we climbed Georgenberg, a nearby mountain with a beautiful panoramic view of Reutlingen and the surrounding towns. Nearly all of the houses here have red roof.

 

Walking through the city provides many gorgeous views of the natural and man-made landscape. Houses often have neatly paired stone and vines which give off a rustic and aged feeling.

 

The dogs are extremely well trained here — many are walked without leashes. This good boy was waiting outside a cafe for its owner.

 

We visited Tubingen in our first week here. Tubingen is home to the University of Tubingen which causes the city’s population to be one-third student. It is a very pretty and historic city.

 

Just a short walk from the dorm you can find many gorgeous views of the Swabian Jura.

 

Our first trip was to Berlin. This is the Altes Museum at night. Hitler once addressed mass rallies up to a million people on the steps of the museum. It now holds antique paintings, drawings, and other classical pieces of art or history.

 

This is the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin. It contains 2,711 slabs of concrete arranged in a grid. It was designed to replicate the Mt. Olive Cemetery.

 

We also visited Sanssouci, the summer palace of Frederick the Great. It is often considered the German Versailles.

 

After our trip to Berlin, I went to Ireland, with a two day delay in Mallorca, Spain. The rocky coastline of the Celtic Sea was gorgeous and sublime.

 

As if the rest of the coast wasn’t magnificent enough, the Cliffs of Moher commanded respect and admiration. Standing next to such a sheer drop-off was both terrifying and exciting.

 

Back in Reutlingen, a couple friends and I climbed another mountain and watched as the sun set over the city from a ruined castle’s tower.

 

The one month I’ve been in Reutlingen has been wonderful. While language barriers can sometimes cause minor issues, the people are accomodating and friendly; the city is historic and pretty; and the landscape is a nice change from the plains of Indiana.

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