As I sit here on a Qatar Airways flight heading to Amman, Jordan with a layover in Doha, Qatar, I can’t help think back to one of the main reasons why I chose to study abroad: to challenge myself; to change me. It’s not that I don’t like who I am, it’s just that, in…
Category: SIT Study Abroad
Love Letter to ISP: A Closing Reflection
The last five or six weeks of my time abroad could be described as a whirlwind in which my schedule, hectic even for SIT’s standards, hardly allowed me the time to pause and reflect on the enormity of all I had experienced and learned and how quickly my time in Chile was coming to an…
New Suns
As I begin to write my final post for the spring semester of 2018, I snack on a ginger and mint smoothie bowl at Banan in Honolulu, Hawaii. Ginger and mint you might wonder? It’s a delicious juxtaposition. I decided to extend my layover in Hawaii to two days. I was hoping for peaceful relaxation,…
A Reflection on Studying Languages
During the very first few days of my program, I remember having a conversation with one of my fellow classmates that has continued, throughout the entirety of the semester, to perfectly encapsulate the tedious, complex, and yet entirely fascinating process of learning a new language. Our talk followed a particularly-lengthy orientation lecture, during which, at…
Finding Family in Fasito’o
After a weeklong stay in a rural village, my knowledge and understanding of Samoan culture has grown significantly. I found myself doing things I never could have imagined – like scraping a coconut on a bench or having someone fan my food while I ate. I was accepted into an enormous family of about seventeen…
Promesa de Putre
Yesterday marked the end of our first of two excursions during our program and, though physically exhausted, I feel a newfound emotional and mental revitalization that has brought me out of a slump that, before this trip, I hadn’t even known I was in. During the last six days, I have traveled to both Arica,…
Life at USP
I’m heading into week five of being here in Samoa. Week six of being away from home. I’ll never understand how these weeks have felt like forever but just like a day too. So much has happened in this month here. Places have been explored, cultural values have been understood, and amazing friendships have begun…
Doce Días Más
It has almost been two weeks since I first landed in Chile, and I am not sure how time can move both so fast and so, so slow. This paradoxical passing of time is part of the magic – and genius – of SIT’s study abroad programs, where the tightly-packed schedules keep you so busy…
Te veré pronto, Chile
There is exactly one week left in the agonizingly-long wait for the start of my study abroad program in Valparaíso, Chile, where I will be attending SIT’s Cultural Identity, Social Justice, and Community Development program. As someone who prefers to be continually busy, I have found this long break leading up to my departure unsettling,…
A Hawaiian Orientation
Although I left Hawaii over a week ago, I still need to make a post about the incredible island state. I had started writing this in the airport, awaiting my flight to Samoa. I figured I could post it once I got there, but that was definitely not the case. Wifi has been a struggle…