Category: SIT Study Abroad

I MADE IT!!!! I arrived well I forget what day it actually was… I arrived on the 26th and ran into about half my group on our flight to Nepal. Walking off the plane you go outside and chill while a bus comes and picks you up and drives you to the visa area. I…

I left Belgrade on December 20th for Romania. It was after an amazing night where all of the students on the program, all of our professors and our homestay families and our friends got together one last time. That morning I packed my bags and hugged my homestay mother and cried. I was only gone…

I am a first generation immigrant, and those far away distant lands that I may have called home in some other life became ever so nearer. The trip to Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina was enlightening. About 25 years ago stood a country called Yugoslavia, consisted of six republics (now individual, sovereign countries): Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia…

The final week in Belgrade I spent much time packing, and repacking just to make sure that I had everything ready by the time I had to leave the city. I did not have much time to ponder about the great concept of things, and what had just passed over upwards of three months ago….

We’ve all heard that “you don’t know what you have until you lose it” and that “distance makes the heart grow fonder,” two expressions that come to mind when I consider how my travels have affected my identity. I left for Jordan seeking perspective and an appreciation for a different culture than my own, and…

Europe is weird. America is weird. These are the first few thoughts I had while on my layover in Europe and upon returning home at the conclusion of my study abroad experience. It did not hit me until I jaywalked across a Frankfurt road and was chastised by a Frenchman. So the next time I…

I sit now in Montage cafe, at the bottom of Rainbow St., right before the steps which lead down to Wasat al-Balad (City Centre), downtowan Amman. A thirty minute walk, this hidden cafe has played host to numerous social and academic endeavours of mine. Here I met Shadi, the soft voiced but endlessly talkative Palestinian waiter…

Donald Trump makes it hard to be an American in the Middle East. I am Muslim, proudly. I am Puerto Rican, proudly. I am Arab, proudly. But above all, I am an American. On a sunny September evening 21 years ago, I was born to a pair of poor immigrants in an Orlando hospital. My…

It is widely held among young, liberal arts educated students that the United States media possesses inherent biases that, for better or worse, shape our worldview and influence our interaction with our immediate and perceived environment. This first became eminently clear upon my field study to Cuba where I observed that indeed Cubans are not overwhelmingly…