Category: Semester

Semester

William Duncan (April 28)

I’m extremely glad to be back home in the States. I’m ready to go visit H-SC and see my friends, I’m ready to see my family and be in my own bed. I am going to miss Barcelona like crazy, though. There are many special qualities of that place that are giving me excuses to go back in the future. What I found that I loved from Barcelona and Europe was the quality of the things there. The food was fresh – you can buy a fresh baguette for 35 cents and have a great, cheap sandwich for 2 days. […]

Semester

William Imeson (Valencia, Feb. 23)

I have been in Valencia for a little over a month now and it’s finally beginning to feel almost normal. The initial shock of waking up in the mornings and realizing that I’m halfway around the world has worn off, and now I’ve settled into a fairly standard weekly routine. I have classes from Monday through Thursday, and these three day weekends are fantastic. The UVA center here offers 90-minute Spanish classes twice a week that feel pretty similar to the classes at HSC. Each morning, I have three options for travel to get to class. I can walk, take […]

Semester

William Duncan (February, Barcelona)

It already feels like I’ve been in Barcelona much longer than one month. As I’m notoriously bad with directions, I shocked myself with how quickly I learned my way around the city. I didn’t get much practice with using the metro in my home town of Pinehurst, North Carolina. My first time ever on a metro was a week after Christmas in order to pick up my Spanish visa for this trip. Now that I live in a city where my primary source of transportation is the metro, I purchased the T-Jove pass, which is a three-month long pass. At […]

Semester

Taylor Anctil (Provence, March 4)

My walk from home to school takes about twenty minutes if I walk leisurely, but I can get to or from campus in twelve minutes if I’m walking at a quick pace. No matter the day, I thoroughly enjoy the walk from home to school and back again. I have probably taken fifteen different routes to school, but there are three main routes that I take regularly. The first is very much “as the crow flies,” and I use this route when I’m running late or need to get to town in a hurry. My second route is my favorite […]

Semester

Quentin Smith (Reflection on New Zealand)

My twenty-first birthday is easily the most memorable birthday that I will probably ever have, but not for the reason that many other people would say. On that day, I landed in New Zealand for my study abroad adventure and my first time outside the United States. The first few days at orientation were incredible—we were all exposed to some of the New Zealand landscape, the wildlife, and the food relatively quickly. After a short period at orientation, my group elected another gentleman and me to represent them all as chiefs at a traditional Maori marae, or meeting house. I […]

Semester

William Duncan (Barcelona, Jan. 23)

While choosing to attend Hampden-Sydney College was a difficult decision to make, the decision to determine my study abroad location to be Barcelona, Spain proved to be oven more challenging. As I don’t know what I want to do after college, I have been set on studying abroad for some time now. I’m biased towards warmer weather, so I knew I wanted to be somewhere close to water and in a warm climate. I had never been out of the country before and I knew I wanted to see Europe, but I was unsure where I wanted to spend the […]

Semester

William Imeson (Valencia, January 16)

William Imeson (Valencia, January 16) I have now been in Valencia for almost a week and it is already far more than I could have ever anticipated. As I prepared for the trip, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, other than the basic cultural differences that come with visiting another country. I knew that I would be taking some classes with my program and that I would be with other students my age. I knew that Valencia has two official languages: Spanish and Valencian. I knew that people in Spain eat different kinds of food at different times of […]

Semester

Taylor Anctil (Provence, Jan 25.)

Hello everybody, it’s Taylor S. Anctil reporting from Provence, France. I chose to come to France because I thought it was high time I took my study of the French culture and language seriously. I chose the IAU College program because it offered several courses that would contribute to my major and because I would be residing with a French family. During my time in France, I am most especially looking forward to exploring all of the nearby villages. I already have my bus pass and my travel companion, therefore I shall be reporting back soon with inside knowledge of […]

Semester

Taking Part in a Foreign Culture

By Justin Smith ’11 As Americans, we often find ourselves visiting other countries, whether it be for business or vacation. We spend a week or two shopping, eating out, and visiting famous museums and beaches. We then return home, making the claim that we visited “this place, that place, and everywhere else”. But do we truly understand the countries we visit? Do we take part in their culture, discovering what makes them so unique? I thought about these questions as I partook in the study abroad program to Buenos Aires, Argentina. I wanted to experience what it meant to be […]

Semester

Studying Abroad in Paris

by Joseph P. Andriano ’10 When I exit my apartment building every morning, it is quite clear I am no longer in Farmville, VA.  I make a quick left off my street, and I am on the hustling and bustling Avenue de la Grande Armee.  This road runs under the Arc de Triomphe, and on the other side of the Arc is the very famous Champs Elysees.  I quickly enter the Paris Metro, a world with countless people each doing his own thing.  The Parisians keep very much to themselves, and they do not make eye contact with each other.  […]