Semester

David McElrath: Post 3

David McElrath JYF Sweet Briar Paris, France Fall 2018 You know, I feel as if I should caveat my blog posts by assuring you that yes, I actually do have school work to do most of the time. What you don’t see (largely because I only remember it as a kind of edifying blur) are a great many hours sitting in large classrooms crowded with other students, most of whom speak French far better than I do. In terms of material, it’s pretty similar to what I imagine I would be learning back at H-SC – just with longer lectures, […]

Academic Year

Christian Blankenship: Post 1

Christian Blankenship London School of Economics London, England 2018/19 For the next 10 months, I will be studying at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Studying here for the entire year was one of the factors interesting me the most because most programs do not last for the entire year. One of the things about studying at LSE that excites me the most is the different method of instruction practiced here compared to back at Hampden-Sydney. However, this new instruction style is also one of the things worrying me the most. Unlike in the US where there are […]

Semester

David McElrath: Post 2

David McElrath JYF Sweet Briar Paris, France Fall 2018 I was asked this week to write about my commute to and from my classes during the week. To be honest, I was (and still am) not entirely sure where to begin – and I think the confusion stems from the fact that my commute is never the same any given day. Now, there are a few reasons for this. The first is this: there are always at least two ways to get to any given destination (thus, an enormous variety of routes to explore). Personally, I have always preferred to […]

Semester

David McElrath: Post 1

David McElrath JYF Sweet Briar Paris, France Fall 2018 These last two weeks have flown past in a nearly uninterrupted flow of lessons, experiences, and memories made with new friends, at new places, and with new adventures each day. Our extended orientation weeks have given us, as a group, time to get to know one another and our respective host families here in Paris. Last weekend, we took a group trip down to the Loire river valley, enjoying an extended look at the plains of France’s heartland. While there, we visited three different royal palaces, each with its own unique […]

2018 Fall, Semester

Arthur White: Post 6

Arthur White IFSA- Butler Universadad Nacional Heredia, Costa Rica Fall  2018 Safety Abroad So many of the individuals in my study abroad program have been abroad before this semester, not specifically to studying but in general they have all left the country before this year. For me, this is truly my first time out of country, and it is for a substantial amount of time and independent to a degree. That said, when you are abroad there are a lot of precautions to take while abroad that an aspiring traveler should consider. Now, I know this list is nowhere near […]

2018 Fall, Semester

Arthur White: Post 5

Arthur White IFSA- Butler Universadad Nacional Heredia, Costa Rica Fall  2018 Manuel Antonio, Cerro de la Muerte, and Monteverde, Oh My! So, the past few posts I kept teasing information about my adventures outside of Heredia, and now that I have finally gotten pictures back from my trip to Monteverde, it’s finally time for an adventure post! Shortly after we arrived in Costa Rica, the group decided to take our first and only available long weekend to go to a town called Quepos, specifically about 15 minutes outside of Quepos, near a national park called Manuel Antonio. The actual little […]

Semester

Arthur White: Post 4

Arthur White IFSA- Butler Universadad Nacional Heredia, Costa Rica Fall  2018 Money Matters and the Formal Dude So, the topics of my first couple of blog posts came to me rather easily, I basically just took the things rattling around in my head post-arrival and sorted the major things out until they were coherent enough for anyone to read. When contemplating the topics for this post, I reached out to my mom and asked what she thought would be interesting, and she mentioned that it might be a good idea to cover some of the things that had me stressed. […]

2017 Fall, Academic Year

Jamie Agnew: Post 6

Jamie Agnew London School of Economics London, England Fall 2017 This semester has been going great! It has also been flying by. We are on spring break right now, which is much different than spring break in the United States. We have an entire month off for the break, which means we have manage our time efficiently because we have exams when we return from break. I have four exams, which are all going to be tough. There are no tests or quizzes over here, so the exam is your entire grade, which adds even more pressure. I plan on […]

2018 Summer, May Term

Ethan Gaines: Post 3

Ethan Gaines H-SC May Term Abroad Vienna & Budapest Summer 2018 My experiences abroad in the imperial cities of Vienna and Budapest went above and beyond my previous expectations of the trip. I expected only a few statues and monuments carefully placed throughout the cities, but I learned quickly that we would easily view around a dozen during our rigorous and in-depth tours. The food was much better than I expected it would be, and there were even many American cafes and restaurants in walking distance from our hotels. I had no idea how the people there would react to […]