ISP… When you finally figure the rest of your life out.. or just one month of it. As my last two school days are coming my class and I are preparing for the beginning of our ISP period or independent study project. Many students are going all over Nepal and India but I decided the…
Category: SIT Study Abroad
Bylakuppe Adventure to South India
Bylakuppe: We left for Bylakuppe on the 12th which was a very long travel day. Knowing I had a presentation coming up in Bylakuppe, I spent the morning trying to do research, but just being part of a generation who has been spoiled with fast internet… I wanted to rip my hair out trying to…
Happy Losar
Night one of Losar ( the Tibetan New Year) was very peaceful and made me realize how materialistic our holidays are. We started the night by some of my family’s friends coming over and I played with the kids just like I do Christmas Eve at home. I helped my ama-la and aunt prepare the…
The Big Arrival
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…
Leaving Belgrade
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…
Dust in the Westward Wind: Letters from America
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…
Final Thoughts from within Belgrade
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….
Looking Back
Now that it has been almost an entire month since the 40+ hour travel home from Samoa, I have had time to stop and think about how my life changed in the past four months and what I experienced. On one of my flights home, I decided to make a list of only a few…
Armando At Home: A Brief Reflection on Identity
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…
Final Blog: Jordan
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…