1. Introductions

Hello, hello, hello!
My name is Sam and I am a junior at NYU studying Media, Culture and Communications in the Steinhardt School. I was born in South Africa, where all my family is from, and also lived in England for a few years. As of now though, I live in Boston, Massachusetts. As part of the Liberal Studies Program, I studied in Florence, Italy for my entire freshman year of university. As you may be able to tell, I love to travel. This semester I am studying abroad again, this time in Accra, Ghana.
 
When I would tell people that I was going abroad in the fall, it was always the same. Their faces would light up in excitement as they asked the natural succeeding question of “Where?!” and I would immediately respond with enthusiasm and confidence, “Ghana!” I wouldn’t exactly say that their expressions fell necessarily, but a definite combination of disappointment and confusion would come over their face; followed by the ‘I’m trying to be nice, but really don’t understand why you would want to go there’ phrase of “ooohhh….wow. Okay…”. After the first few dozen times of hearing this reaction I would simply shrug my soldiers and say the only thing that I felt could be said-
 
“Yup.”
 
“So what are you going to do there?” is always what follows, as if, just because it is not Europe I need some specific purpose. It must be community service they all think. But I am here to study. Just like any other study abroad program.
 
Except that NYU in Ghana is not just like any other study abroad program. We don’t have hundreds of kids in our group. We are a modest and close 32. No one school of NYU is dominant here. We have a small sampling of almost every one. We are not attempting to see as many countries in four months as we can. But rather truly immerse ourselves in the Ghanaian culture through internships, home stays and excursions throughout the country.
 
We all have our reasons for choosing to study abroad and for the location we decided on. I am not entirely sure why I chose Ghana in the beginning, and I know my reasons have and will change over time, but I also know that I am in the right place. And I am determined, hopefully with a little help from this blog, that I will be able to prove to those disappointed and confused skeptics that I made the right choice. That far from being disappointing, Accra actually is the perfect place to study abroad. I look forward to reading all of your adventures and hope that you will enjoy mine.
 
Yebehyia bio! (Talk to you soon!)

I’m Hillary and I’m a junior at Gallatin, studying Food and Health Justice with a Focus on Women.  My concentration addresses most of my interests, namely sustainable and healthy food, public health, alternative medicine, and women’s health, specifically reproductive issues and maternal care.  Given my concentration, it made the most sense for me to study abroad in a developing country where I could learn about improving healthcare and food access.  So here I am, living in Ghana for the next three and a half months. 
I always knew I wanted to study abroad in college.  My parents introduced me to traveling when I was eight with a trip to Bali, Vietnam, and Cambodia, and I’ve been hooked ever since.  I’m always looking for ways to go somewhere new, whether it’s a community service trip in Thailand or a surf camp in Costa Rica.  In high school, I spent my junior spring in Rome at an international school.  It was a mixed experience, but the challenges only made the semester more valuable.  I came back far more mature and independent and, as clichéd as it is, with a greater sense of the outside world.  Since Rome, I’ve tried to travel with a purpose and grasp a non-tourist perspective.  This usually involves ending up in bizarre but wonderful situations, like painting a chicken coop on a farm in Italy or stumbling into a Austrian wine tasting.  I figured Ghana would provide the least “touristy” study abroad experience and would challenge me far more than the typical European semester.  As wonderful as studying abroad in Europe is, I felt like I already had my turn—spending another semester in Europe would be too familiar, too easy. 
Even though I signed up for a dramatically different experience by choosing Ghana, there are certainly moments when I wish I’d chosen Berlin or Florence.  It would so simple to just sit in a café and sip a latte.  In Ghana, everything requires effort and thought.  Every interaction with Ghanians is so loaded with cultural complexities—white/black, foreigner/native, Western/non-Western—that even buying a mango is challenging.  On the walk to the fruit stand, I’ll attract stares and men call out, “hello, hello.”  When I get there, a young girl, no older than ten, will sell me the mango.  Instead of going to school, she has to help her mother’s fruit business.  It should be a simple transaction, but it raises so many difficult issues of race and class that it becomes exhausting.  Yet I remind myself this is why I’m here, to challenge myself and better understand the developing world.  Before this year, I envisioned myself working in the global public health field, improving maternal/child health in developing nations.   This semester is a test for myself, a way to gauge whether I truly want to work in that difficult field and live without the comforts of first-world countries.  After Ghana, I’m spending my spring semester with International Honors Program, studying public health around the world.  I’ll be spending around a month in each country (Brazil, Vietnam, and South Africa).  Ghana feels like just the very beginning of a challenging, but hopefully an amazing year. 

(own picture in Senya Beraku) 

          I have never been one for introductions.  I am absolutely miserable at those silly icebreakers or name games played amongst a group of strangers. “My name is Jenny, J is for….umm jolly?” Jolly? Might as well introduce myself as jolly, old Saint Nicholas. Perhaps I will be asked to say some interesting fact about myself. Well let’s see, I am a relatively average girl from suburban Massachusetts.  I am a junior studying Economics, while dabbling in Politics and English. I have no particularly extraordinary talents: Average athleticism, minimal foreign language knowledge, no exotic hobbies. Let’s be honest, I am a twenty year old college student, with no major life experiences, still trying to figure out what the hell I’m doing with my life. To tell you where I want to be, rather than where I have been, would paint a much clearer picture for you of who I am.
            Where do I want to be? Everywhere.  I can’t remember just when I caught the travel bug, but I can’t seem to eradicate the thing from my system. I avidly follow travel blogs, I save clippings from Travel and Leisure in a scrapbook, and I idolize Samantha Brown. For some time I struggled to find the source of my travel obsession. It wasn’t until I came across a copy of “The Art of Travel” in The Strand my freshmen year, when I found the cause of my symptoms. De Botton explained how, “The constant calls of screens, some accompanied by the impatient pulsing of a cursor, suggest with what ease our seemingly entrenched lives might be altered were we simply to walk down a corridor and onto and craft that in a few hours would land us in a place of which we had no memories and where no one knew our name” (37). I then realized that my affinity for travel was derived from its sense of escapism.  How thrilling it is, to arrive in a new place, explore a new world, and explore a new side of yourself. So, when I came across “The Art of Travel” in the University Registrar, I became excited to explore my semester abroad, based around the book that helped me realize just why I wanted to travel.
            This is my first big adventure, and I’m adventuring to London. Though it may not be one of the most romantically foreign cities, it provides this travel rookie with a platform to dive head first into all that is British, while getting my feet wet in some European culture.  For me, this semester isn’t about racing to see all that I can within the next three and a half months; it is about discovering myself as an individual and as a traveler.
 
I look forward to sharing my experiences with all of you and reading about everyone’s international adventures!

 (The attached picture is one that a took on my first day out in London by the Household Cavalry Museum) 

 

Hola, my name is Griffin and I'm studying abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina. What was my reason for choosing Buenos Aires? Well it seems to be the best balance of exotic and I am a Junior at NYU and am actually at CAS but I took a Sense of Place and hence I am using up my last 2 credits out of CAS to take another one of Steve's classes. My major is Environmental Studies with a minor in Psychology. Nothing abroad really pertains directly to my studies but I am really just abroad for the experience and hopefully to learn Spanish. I am taking Spanish classes, a creative writing class, and a class on Latin American studies while I am here. I am also living in a homestay so I can further immerse myself and force myself to speak Spanish. They are a really cool family with a four story townhouse that is amazing and right in the heart of the city and that certainly wouldn't exist in New York. The family has a 12 year old boy, 22 year old twin boy and girl and a 24 year old guy, oh and I can't forget the big Bernese Mountain Dog Pampa. I am hoping I can make some Argentine friends and not just stick to expats and students because that is obviously the easy way out. Already on my flight down I sat next to an Argentine independent film maker who said he would take me around the city and show me his favorite spots the tourists can't find.

I am originally from Carmel, California. A small coastal town about 2 hours south of San Francisco. The last 2 years or so living in New York have been amazing but it took some getting used to. The first year I was just ready to leave the cold and go back to the beach at home but by sophomore year I loved the gritty city and finally felt it was really becoming my home and this past summer I stayed in the city the whole time only going home for a couple of days at the end. It feels as though as soon as I got settled in and found the New York that I can call mine I get uprooted and sent down thousands of miles away to South America, so leaving was bittersweet but regardless I am excited for what the semester here will have in store, especially for all the travel that I'm planning on doing. 

my photo

Salut tout le monde!


My name is Alyssa, and I am a Junior in Gallatin.  My Concentration is International Archaeology, a mixture of International Relations & Law, Archaeology, and Languages.  I'm from the very exotic upstate New York, along with a good portion of NYU, and am excited and scared to call Paris my home for the next couple of months.  As far as classes go, Paris is interesting in that you don't really know your schedule, where you're living, or who you're living with until you spend a few days in a Hostel with the other students in the program undergoing orientation.  So, I'd post about my tiny apartment or my excitement about my class schedule, but I'm still pretty much in the dark- which doesn't help any abroad apprehensions- though, I'm sure you all understand that.

I'm just going to start off by saying I have dually high expectations and no expectations about living and studying abroad.  On the one hand, it's been exciting and nerve-wracking to build up an image of a romantic dizzying wine-filled existence full of strolls by the seine, new people in the city of lights, the city of love- Paris. However, on the other hand, I've tried to maintain a no-expectations mindset.  I'd like to let study abroad to just happen to me.  There is an end, and it will do what it will.

On that note, one thing that I would like to accomplish while abroad is realizing the things that are happening in Paris right now.  I'd also like to get a taste of the French world view first-hand as I'm living here and experiencing France from an outsiders' perspective.  Hopefully these posts will serve as solidifiers for the fact that this study abroad experience is happening now-and all of the experiences for all of us at our respective sites are going to change us...It will be interesting to see how all of us document the progression of what the profound effects of living and studying in a foreign place will have on us.

With that,  I hope those of you who are already abroad are settled in as best as you can be so far- and I look forward to reading all of your posts!

Oh, also, the image is a portion of France's Motto "Liberté, égalité, fraternité"- "Liberty, Equality, and Brotherhood."


Bon soir,
Alyssa

¡Hola chicos!

My name is Esthela Lopez. I'm a sophomore at Gallatin. Originally from Los Angeles, California and currently in the beautiful city of Madrid, Spain. I am still a bit undecided on my Gallatin concentration, but I’m looking towards cultural analysis and nonprofit management. I am definitely interested in various cultures, especially because I came from and go to large cities: LA, NYC, Madrid, etc. I love the concept of civic responsibility and I hope to see how different cultures abroad respond to such a concept. As a member of the Generation Y, I have seen several young people respond to the ‘call of duty’ and I would love to participate here in Madrid.

I have been in Madrid for about two days now, depending on what time zone you’re in. I was supposed to arrive three days ago but the whole hurricane Irene severely impacted my travel plans. I am still a bit jet lagged and haven’t really taken the opportunity to go sight seeing. I have taken advantage of siesta. Which, I might add, is a fantastic idea, and I encourage everyone to take advantage of it! Anyway, so far I have felt very comfortable in Madrid. Which is strange since I am typically someone who gets homesick very often. Ironically since I go to school so far away from home. I think it has to do with the weather of Madrid and the architecture. It feels like all the beautiful places I have ever been in one locale. 

Classes begin next Monday and I am definitely excited. I am taking primarily all Spanish culture classes in the Spanish language. As a native speaker, I don’t have any formal training in Spanish. I think my biggest challenge this semester might be thinking and learning in a formal Spanish setting. Let’s see how it goes! 

Hi everyone,

My name is Rebecca (Becca) Zeidman. I am a Junior in CAS studying Anthropology. I am minoring in Global Visual Art and Media, Culture, and Communications. I don't have a specific career path in mind but I know I want to do something with travel and photography later on. This fall I am studying in Shanghai and I joined this course so that I would be forced to actively examine my experience abroad as well as learning about people's experiences at other study abroad sites. I am also working as a photo intern at Time Out Shanghai which hasn't started but should be an interesting experience. I have been in Shanghai for almost two weeks and my experience so far has been very positive. Though this is not my first time in China (I have actually vsited Shanghai twice before) this time it feels remarkably different becuase we live and go to school quite far from the tourist/city center. We are just finishing up our first week of classes and they have been fairly normal so far (Elementary Chinese I four times a week is a bit much but it is a requirement of the program to be taking a Chinese course). Each of the non-Chinese classes are three hour blocks once per week which can be a bit draining. 

As you may or may not know many social networking sites (and a host of other sites) are blocked or limited in China including - Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. So I set up a WordPress blog linked to my facebook before I left home (http://shanghaishanghai.wordpress.com/). It has a bit more of my daily life and funny stories about the first two weeks.

The internet in my apartment is very weak but once I get back to the school building I will be able to upload more/better pictures.

I look forward to your posts and comments,

Becca


(This first photo is one that I took on my little cell phone of raw beef on ice at a great hot pot [cooking food in boiling broth] restaurant near the apartments)

Hello everyone! My name is Olivia and I am a junior in Tisch studying Theater, but I am also double majoring in Anthropology and Linguistics in CAS. I was born in Boulder, Colorado but grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I absolutely love Ann Arbor, and had an overwhelmingly positive high school experience at the alternative high school (which reminds me a lot of Gallatin’s create your own style of studying.)  Considering the fact that both my parents are college professors, I consider myself lucky to have grow up in a college town, yet decided that for my own college experience I wanted something different. Hence New York City and subsequently NYU.
 
While I was a sophomore in high school I studied abroad in Genoa, Italy. This changed many things about my life. As a result of that study abroad experience I was bit with the travel bug and knew without a doubt I would be studying abroad in college. Again, looking for something drastically different, I chose Accra, Ghana. I have been here for almost 2 weeks now, one of which was orientation, the other the first week of classes. I am excited about all of my classes, most of which focus on the humanities (Non- Western Art History, Play Analysis and African Popular Music.) I am taking one anthropology class about modernization in West Africa. In this class we are going on a weekend home-stay to our professor’s village to learn and experience first hand his culture and how it differs from the city life in Accra. All but one of my classes are at the NYU academic center in our neighborhood, Labone. The non-NYU class is my play analysis class, which I am taking through the University of Ghana Legon.
 
After hearing many horror stories from the other students who elected to take Legon classes, I was very nervous about mine. The classes tend to be gigantic lecture style courses, with virtually no student participation taught in three-hour blocks (note: classrooms are more or less massive pavilions with open sides, creating a constant battle against the inevitable lethargy that will ensue due to the heat.) I hesitantly went to the first day, forcing myself to keep an open mind. Even though my class was pretty large, I was pleasantly surprised by the professor’s accessibility and incorporation of the students. He did however call me out for being an abruni, or foreigner, asking where I was from and what my name was. With my red curls and pale complexion the phrase “fish out of water” does not even begin to describe how much I stood out. After I got the full once-over from all 150 of my classmates, class resumed as before, except now I sat there more self-conscious than I have been in recent memory, bordering on humiliated. While the overall experience was stress inducing, I remain optimistic at the opportunities and valuable friends that I will gain by studying at an actual African university. After all, getting out of the NYU bubble for one day isn’t going to kill me, right?
 
The photo is my own, taken at the University of Legon campus.

Well hello, how do you do? As you all probably realize, I’m a latecomer to this party, fashionably late as some like to put it. So please, allow me to introduce myself.
 
My name is Carol. If you cannot tell from my picture above, I am spending the semester abroad in London. I’m 20 years old and a junior in New York University’s College of Arts and Sciences with an interest in psychology (my major), math (a minor I’ve managed to barely just scrape by in) and child and adolescent mental health studies (a minor I plan on starting next semester when I get back to New York).
 
Some might be thinking that studying in London isn't that big a hop, jump, or skip from New York City. I mean, comparatively speaking, they are both big, cosmopolitan cities. They both speak English with an accent. There's a convenient Tube system to help civilians get around akin to the Subway system. Almost every ethnicity is visible and represented in the bustling streets and crowded neighborhoods. People are more concerned with passing you on the sidewalk than being courteous, because you walk too slowly for their liking.
 
All-in-all, it doesn't seem like the adjustment period would be too extensive or grueling, but let me put things into context for you. Growing up, I was born and raised in New York City. I have resided in Queens for the past 20 years, so moving into the dorms at NYU was a big step in leaving the nest despite being just over the East River. I also don’t travel all that much, so I basically am only familiar with New York City. After 2 years at college, however, I was starting to get restless and needed an extreme change in my life. I figured it was time to spread my wings once more and go on a lengthier journey. Studying abroad felt like the perfect opportunity to do so. I just needed a little more excitement in my life and the chance to get away from the things that had become a little too familiar to me. I hope that these feelings will keep me from missing home too much.
 
In trying to decide where I was going to study, I was torn between going somewhere where I would feel more comfortable culturally (London) and a slightly more obscure location where I would be forced to attempt to assimilate into a completely different culture (my other leading option was Madrid). The ultimate deciding factor for me though, as I am sure it is with many other students that end up coming to London, was the courses being offered. Let’s face it, I didn’t want to go abroad and throw away perfectly good tuition money on courses that will not count toward the already large number of classes I need to take before graduation. While I’m here, I will be taking Issues in Contemporary British Politics and Culture, Cognition, Abnormal Psychology, and this class of course.
 
So far, things have been going fantastically well here—better than I could have ever imagined them going. While I’m here, I hope to learn an appreciation for other cultures beside “American”. I want to grow out of my skin a little, become a little less shy, take a couple of risks, and push the boundaries of my comfort zone. While I’m here, there’s no turning back, so I might as well take full advantage of this opportunity before it comes to an end and I realize that I didn’t seize each and every single day.

Boo-ya, a dorky-couple-blog at last. Every class has one. I should probably address out some of the rumors about people like us: yes, we’re nice people, and no, we’re not haughty and pretentious because of our relationship. The only reason we don’t hang out with they group most of the time is because we’re usually stuck in our room crankin’ out origami cranes or playing spin the bottle. So instead of going out, getting trashed, and spreading disease di amore, we’re in there making macaroni necklaces. We don’t hate anyone. We just wish you guys would come and maybe take a look at our arts n’ crafts?
 
I’m 20 years old, and currently studying in Florence with my girlfriend, Ashley. Great gal, this one. We’ve known each other since the first days of college, and have essentially been together ever since. Strong, elegant, and caring, Ashley has changed the way I interact with the world. Some call that love; some call that a woman that gets what she wants. Perhaps, if the weather is right, I might show pictures of her macaroni necklaces one day.

I love acting, talking to people, teaching others, playing games, looking great, beating the competition, and whatever else that isn’t really deserving of merit or indicative of integrity. I stayed up last night until 5AM playing an online game of Risk which I knew I was going to lose 3 hours earlier. Still played anyway. Should give you a pretty good indication of my level of self-respect.

Other than that, there isn't much more I'm urging to say about myself other than that I like the word "thyme" and I think sentences sound better when they end in the word "tile." Really irrelevant, but it works great for slam poetry nights. "Beverage" and "crisp"... also great candidates.

I took Meisner training for a year at Tisch--long enough to show me that in life, you really don't get very far without having an objective. You need purpose, you need a goal that you've set to accomplish. If you have a goal, everything else that comes your way is easily tackled. For example, take a normal scenario:

I want milk. I'm craving it. The depths of my body are hungering for milk. So I walk into the kitchen to grab a glass and I find one of my new floormates, David, drunk and lonely from a night of too much sangria and a lack of nice, wholesome Jewish girls. I obviously enjoy people, so as my body is bulleting towards the refrigerator to satiate its depths with the creamy beverage, an intricate choreography ensues in which I engage in social contact while simultaneously fulfilling my own parched throat—all in a matter of seconds. I am nobody's master here. I am Man: beautiful, powerful, and in complete control of the helm of my own ship. My girlfriend? Sit down, woman, I tell you when you are hungry, I rub your feet when I want to, I tell my plant when it needs to be thirsty.  Several seconds later, I crack a funny joke or give a piece of advice and make my way out of the kitchen, my objective acquired. As I’m about to shut the door, David, completely spontaneous and unprovoked, jumps up and gives me 250 dollars.

And of course, the alternate scenario, in which my mind is floating in a vacuum:
I know I am Adam. I detect that I am thirsty. I enter the kitchen because my cave instincts tell me that this is where liquid is held. As I open the door, I stumble upon another human being known as 'David.' He is a friend. I like talking to friends. I have a mouth and am capable of talking. Might as well say something.
"whats up."
Big mistake.
As a result, I am now awkwardly standing in the corner with my arms straight at my sides like I'm holding buckets of water listening to a story with the same feigned intensity as when I'm asking a puppy if it wants to go play. 30% of my brain is undergoing physical suffering. This must be what gives people cancer. I scraggle together some pathetic excuse of a smile across my hollow and lifeless face and say goodnight, my milk already gone because I drank it while trying to find something to do to ease the pain of the hellfire-infused conversation that was obviously more than I bargained for. I leave the room. David does not give me 250 dollars.

Moral of the story? Has nothing to do with wanting milk (though milk's prtty gd). Rather, someone who knows what they want usually gets through life on the surfing board of their moral behavior—in this case, my morality included cracking a joke and giving some advice.  Why surfing? Well, you don’t think about how you surf, do you? No, you just surf. People don’t write books about surfing. Doesn’t make sense. Almost like making a movie about an alcoholic homeless man who actually turns out to be a guardian angel granted with immortality and chooses to spend his days on hobbling around the streets of inner Los Angeles. Doesn’t make sense.
 
Getting back to the point, you don’t think about behaving, you just behave. Thinking about your behavior makes it ultimately inauthentic and that’s when you can tell a cheesy date from a real swanky one. People with a developed sense of moral behavior are able to engage in a multitude of interactions rapidly, taking mere seconds while living moment to moment. Hence… the surfing board of moral behavior. You don’t think about what you want, you get it. Cougars don’t admire the antler design of moose or wish they had the snuggly fleece of sheep. They’re fuckin’ cougars. They just attack things.
 
Whatever it is you’re doing, whether you’re getting milk from your refrigerator, shopping for a pretty pink dress, or planning to kill your ex-girlfriend because she dumped you for your dad—you get to enjoy an adventure along the way. In my case, it was, I say again, cracking a joke and giving some advice. It will obviously be very different for anyone else.
 
The theme of goals has permeated my days for a long time. I’ve never been able to settle on a particular future. At least in my case, my rejection of a specific profession is a manifestation of my rejection to identify myself. My desire to prevent myself from being identified by one thing, however, has ironically prevented me from being identified with anything at all.  
 
I need to take this time in Italy to figure out what I’m doing with myself, and to craft my own identifiable moral behavior.
 
I need to learn how to wear the clothes, and not let the clothes wear me.

The biggest motivating factor out of all this? By the time I graduate from NYU, I'll be $100,000 in debt. Ashley never deserved that burden.

I came home from my freshman year at Lynchburg College knowing I wasn't likely to return. What I had yet to figure were my plans for next year. Those few weeks of uncertainty during May drove me crazy. Everyday, around 3:30, I would head down the driveway towards the mailbox. Attempting to be inconspicuous I usually brought a basketball to dribble or rode my skateboard the length of my short, flat driveway (utilizing my full range of skateboarding skills). For a couple weeks I was consistently denied and resultantly more and more anxious on a daily basis. The mail would arrive with no school news save the tons of junk being sent to my high-school-junior brother.
 
At least two weeks into my summer vacation, transfer decisions began to (finally) roll in. The first was an acceptance from GWU in the form of a huge packet sealed by a bright, gold sticker bearing George Washington’s face. This was news! By this point I was desperate for anything. I’ve never been one to be left intentionally without a plan. So, at least, skateboarding up the driveway with my GWU packet in hand, I knew I would be going somewhere come fall. The next day I was contacted by NYU via email. It read: “We would like to offer you the opportunity to enter the College of Arts and Science by spending your first (Fall 2010) semester at one of our academic centers in Berlin, Florence, or Madrid.” Wow, I thought, this scenario had never occurred to me. From Lynchburg, Virginia to Europe just like that. Deep inside I had been holding out for NYU and this option just seemed too cool.
 
My need to have a plan walks hand in hand with my need for practicality. After some research it appeared that Florence was the only of these sights to offer economics classes and besides, everyone I talked to who had visited the city became sparkly-eyed as they peered into their memory recalling for me that it is the most beautiful city they have ever seen. Italian sounds sexy anyway, maybe not as sexy as the way the Spaniards slur and lisp their way through Spanish but definitely more attractive from the mouth of a beautiful woman than the harsh, spit-spraying sounds of German. Italy it was.
 
My desire to travel stems from my enjoyment of culture shock and learning experiences. After some research I learned that highly touristed central Florence was very accommodating to American travelers and especially American students. Finding my way off the tourist track and into culture shock has sometimes proved a challenge but is certainly not impossible. I can’t help but beam when walking into a restaurant that I know and feel is authentic, during Thursday night’s experience at The Nextech Festival amidst a crowd of twenty-year-old Italians or even just on a jog with the locals into the city’s eastern outskirts. Everyone told the truth, the home of the renaissance is truly beautiful and to have the opportunity to gaze daily upon it is amazing.

picture taken along the Ponte San Nicolò
 

Heya, so I’m never not awkward with this whole introduction thing. I’ve been doing a lot of this lately— it’s sort of necessary with this meeting new people thing that goes along with being in a new place amongst people who don’t know me very well. I guess such introductions have to happen at the start of classes every semester, but here I’ve dealt with far more introductions than usual—it’s making me feel like a freshman again—which I surprisingly don’t hate, despite my recent complaints about all these intro activities I’ve had to do in Paris (scavenger hunt, really? And how many times do they need to tell us that there is a counselor available for us when we need her and that we are on HTH insurance?? And why, oh why, did they put us in the FIAP for four days? Why couldn’t we just move into our apartments right away? But… at the same time… how many more times in my life am I going to be treated like a little, lost freshman again? This whole hand holding thing isn’t all so bad every once and a while). ANYWAY, I go off on tangents, and I believe tangents and stream of consciousness writing style are acceptable in the blogging world…? I hope? Because otherwise I think these entries would be a tad bit dry (that is—if I tried to filter my thoughts into a more formal style).

To get on with it—my name is Katie, I am in Paris maintenant, I’m taking classes that I thought looked interesting… a 2 credit art course at my professors studio in the 19eme arr. where we can work on projects of any medium. I’m thinking photography, songwriting, drawing? Maybe video art? It’s hard for me to narrow these things down. I’m also taking a 2 credit “French through song” class where we sing French songs to improve our articulation of French words. I’m taking a 2 credit prelim French course which just reminds me of every French class I’ve ever taken. I’m also taking a 4 credit conversation and composition French class. And finally a K20—Paris and French expats literature : “we will ask, what is the role of place in the imagining or invention of the self? How does the experience of a specific city, Paris, influence the formation of identity? How do these authors represent, or subvert, the notion of the ‘real’? Although the focus of this course is literary, we will also engage with major political, cultural, and artistic movements of the period, exploring the ways in which our writers negotiate history through their writings.” I think this will be a good course to relate to my spring philosophy course (Existentialism and Phenomenology), especially since we’re reading De Beauvoir and talking about “the notion of the real” and the “invention of the self.” SO excited. The authors that I am most pumped about are Simone De Beauvoir, Marguerite Duras, and André Breton.

Anyway, my concentration? I could keep it simple and call it, maybe, human ecology. But, it’s basically: “the sociological and philosophical implications of sustainable agriculture incorporating activism.” I love the environment (yes, I’m often accused of being a hippie) and sociology (and anthropology) and philosophy and think the food system in America is messed up, and because I am often too ambitious, I hope to learn more about why our system has evolved to what it is today and to think of ways to change it. Now, you may be wondering why I am in France? I guess it’s not totally related to my concentration, but I’ve been taking French for seven years and have always planned to study abroad in Paris in college, and really liked what little taste I had of French culture (I had a few foreign exchange students in high school and went to Paris and Cannes in 2008. As for what I like about their culture—that they just seemed more honest, seemed to be putting on less of an air than the ‘average American,’ I guess, and they aren’t wicked bubbly but are rather a bit cynical. And yet seem to really appreciate simple things at the same time and aren’t extravagant but seem, in a way, more fulfilled… I guess. Ok, I just reread this parenthesized phrase— I should just stop and mention now that I am an idealist). Other than liking France and the French, I also needed to escape New York and America in general for a while, and I also wanted to sort of do my own mental ethnography on French attitudes towards food, because they have a very different relationship to it here (which I noticed immediately upon arriving). I’m still observing and absorbing this Parisian attitude towards food, so I don’t want to really make any conclusions or assumptions right now, but perhaps I’ll write about it later on, if an assignment allows me to do so.

Well, I’ve written more than 827 words, so I guess I’ve finished the assignment? Yet, I’ve barely mentioned any basic facts about myself. I think what I’ve written will probably reveal more than my favorite bands and activities and books etc, but I’ll quickly mention them anyway. Music is a big part of my life—I love listening to it, attending events centered around it, making it, talking about it. I’m in a band and I am the singer and write the lyrics and will eventually play theremin and second guitar in it. Um, I really shouldn’t list my favorite bands because I can’t really narrow them down to a small list… but I guess I can copy and paste my facebook profile listed bands:
“The Velvet Underground, Beat Happening, Elephant 6, Can, The Vaselines, The Zombies, Bauhaus, Tom Waits, David Bowie, The Kinks, Amon Duul II, Os Mutantes, The Ventures, 13th Floor Elevators, Nick Drake, Nico, Jefferson Airplane, Sly & The Family Stone, CSNY, The Sonics, Iggy & The Stooges, The Jam, Wire, Joy Division, Delta 5, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cramps, The Delmonas, Alan Vega, Butthole Surfers, Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, Cocteau Twins, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Spacemen 3, Spiritualized, The Raincoats, The Breeders, Orange Juice, The Pastels, The Shins, Broadcast, Sparklehorse, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Brian Eno, Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti.”
Sorry, that was long but I can’t narrow it down more. Erm. I like Goethe and Edward Abbey and Henry Miller and David Foster Wallace and Nietzsche and Oscar Wilde and Slavoj Zizek and Sartre and Baudelaire, to name a few. Oh, I’m from Boston, but not really— I’m from Milton Mass, which is on the south border of the city of Boston. I like yoga and running. I barely ever sleep. I am a vegan. I am obsessed with hummus, and now that I’ve arrived in Paris, I am also obsessed with figs. I am fascinated by dreaming and have a dream journal to improve my dream recall and have been trying to lucid dream for four years but have only succeeded a few times and get sleep paralysis sometimes. Oh I like lots of films but I guess my favorites are James and the Giant Peach, The Cruise (with speed levitch), Koyaanisqatsi, every Charlie Kaufman film, the Room, The Holy Mountain, David Lynch’s stuff, Waking Life and Slacker and most Linklater films, Woody Allen of course, Mon oncle d'Amérique and some other Resnais films, Run Lola Run, Man on Wire, The Five Obstructions… Ok wow, I now feel very narcissistic, I’ve written 1266 words, mostly regarding myself (I wonder how autobiographers must feel?), so I’m done. Also, sorry this assignment is so late, I’ve barely had access to a computer and internet until now and have been super busy with lots of orientation activities every day.

A bientôt,
Katie

So, yes. Up until eight days ago I had never been outside of the United States. Hell, I had never been west of Nashville, Tennessee, save a school trip to Hawaii, but since I flew out of Atlanta and over all of the good stuff (if the breadbasket could be considered "good stuff") I can't exactly count that. South Carolina isn't exactly the most cosmopolitan place to grow up (if you can imagine), so world travel was never readily accessible or even thought about. At least not by anyone but me, as it seemed. So a few weeks before leaving my east coast bubble, I began to get nervous, which is an entirely foreign concept to me. Usually, I am completely calm when it comes to uprooting myself, even in the face of "You're going to school in New York?! Aren't you scared?" "You're going to get lost/mugged/raped!" and for the entire summer I seemed to be the only one who wasn't concerned about the culture shock of moving to Italy for a few months. "Do you even SPEAK Italian?" "You'll be pickpocketed!" "Don't go home with strange men!" If anything, my friends' and family's concern made me more stubbornly determined that I wouldn't suffer from the expected culture shock.

Naturally, arriving in Italy for the first time when you've never really been anywhere else is an honestly gratifying and awe-inspiring experience. I'm convinced that there is nowhere quite as beautiful as Tuscany. Even with my limited realm of knowledge, I would stick with that statement. The countryside, the architecture, ugh! Being here is truly humbling.

It is quite interesting, however, that the men in Italy are quite the opposite. Awe-inspiring? ...Not so much. Humbling? If I had to try to guess how many times I've heard "bella! bella!" in the past week, I might have an aneurism. Italian men will go to great lengths to flatter you, and if that doesn't work, they will try to follow you home in broad daylight after going for a jog in the park (this was me mere hours ago). As subtly elegant as Italy is, its men trade subtlety for tactlessness. This has probably been the biggest adjustment thus far - adjusting to the see-through motives of the Italian men and having to worry about having my ass grabbed while running in the park.

But aside from being brainwashed by a week of orientation entirely devoted to how we WILL be pickpocketed and we WILL be raped if we talk to Italian men (and therefore being way more paranoid than I would like to be when I am trying to enjoy a beautiful new country and clutch my bag as close as possible at the same time), I am determined allow myself to be a little bit more trusting. How else am I supposed to get closer to the locals and farther from the overpowering touristyness of downtown? Here's hoping that doesn't come back to bite me.

La Gallega is my street name here in Buenos Aires. It’s a feminine diminutive for women from the northeastern city of Galicia, Spain; and although I am a woman, I am not from Spain. I did however, study for a year in the middle of the country, in Zaragoza, my junior year in high school. I have an "accento marcado", so people in Buenos Aires incorrectly assume and respectively (or disrespectfully- it is a stereotype after all) identify me with the stereotype "La Gallega". I'll take it- because not only is it flattering that my Spanish insinuates native fluency but also it’s an instant conversation starter.
 
I am a Gallatin senior attempting a concentration in "Global Citizenship in the 21st Century.” It’s my second semester studying abroad- my first was spring semester of my sophomore year in Florence. While Florence was beautiful and the pasta bravissima, it was the wrong choice for me. It was too small, too touristy, too much like being stuck in the same museum for fourth months. I needed the grind, the rhythm, and the hustle of a metropolitan city. I thought I found what I was looking for the summer after Florence- in Barcelona. I played out my Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona fantasy (for the second time); even managing to stay in the house where it was filmed because of my friend’s dad is friend’s with the architect, artist, and resident Javier Corberó. But still, the city was lacking the essential ingredients of what I was looking for.
 
I knew when I stepped off the plane, heard the shrill sounds of the airport café, mixed with Latin cumbia and the melodic notes of the Argentine accent- that I finally found “it”. Buenos Aires is as cosmopolitan as New York, as dangerous as Mexico City, as elegant as Paris, the people are as open as in Spain, and the city parties rival those of Berlin. I think I’m in bohemian heaven. I even believe I’ve found Narnia in way of this tango Milonga called “La Cathedral” that I discovered ONLY after two hours of the drum show “La Bomba” in the middle of this converted warehouse theatre “The Konex”. All I know is every Tuesday night I’ll be ready in my Sunday best to go to my version of church. 
 
There’s just something about this place. So many old boy cafes where it looks like the same men have been occupying the same stools sipping the same cup of coffee ever since Perron stepped out on the balcony of the Casa Rosada. Maybe it’s the fact that I only have class two days a week, or there are ranches with horses ten minutes outside of the city, or I can wander through the streets find good wine, flagrant coffee, cheap cigarettes, and lovely Argentines to talk too at ANY time of the day or night. (literally)

It displeases me to bore others, so I’ll try to skip a lot of hemming and hawing and general illusions of self-importance, and instead give you, my lovely reader, some fanciful an sparkly insights into my life and time abroad. Maybe I’ve already done myself in with that first sentence, but I aim to make this blog a magical experience for the both of us.
 
My name is Liza! I’m twenty-years-old, and I’m originally from Ohio (no, that does not mean my family home is in a corn field). I like: puppies, princesses, heavy metal, Maaza brand mango juice, run-on sentences, parentheses, and rambling on and on and on!
 
This semester I’m a third-year Gallatin student, but I still haven’t written my IAPC. Until now I was too busy worrying about potentially failing a class and maybe not being allowed to study abroad and about romantic drama (oh, PS, I’m a girl, so things like this are important to me).
 
Anyhow, I aim to title my concentration ‘Foreign Language and Culture.’ Over the years I’ve studied some French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, and Japanese. And of course, what you care about, fair audience: this semester I’m studying abroad in Florence, Italy. This summer I also spent six weeks studying in Madrid, Spain (prepare to hear a bit about it; it’s my favorite subject other than, perhaps, Rammstein). I was also accepted to attend a month-long Bulgarian language and culture seminar in Veliko-Turnovo in between the NYU programs, but I didn’t have the money. I have a fetish for Balkan and Slavic folk music, you see. One the plus side of my rejection, I got to come back stateside and see my wonderful, poodly boyfriend. He’s delightful, and he has a huge nose. He’s the best.
 
I’m not sure what to think about living in Florence yet. I wouldn’t say I’m excited. I know I ought to be, but I’m not. I don’t have a special attraction to Italy like I do to some other countries. Some countries are just special for you, you know? I’m actually only taking Italian because I dropped out of my last Japanese class due to scheduling issues. Plus I just got out of a love-hate relationship with Spain. It’s a beautiful country, but I don’t think I can take any more ham-ophiles with mullets. Finally, I am leaving that beautiful boyfriend I mentioned for an entire three and a half months. It was bad enough when I had to go to Spain for six weeks, but now I have to leave him again for this monster of a vacation. Er, excuse me, study abroad. Because this shit is serious. Or something like that.
 
But I digress. The NYU in Florence program offers the most appealing classes to me (and food—food here is crazy good). So I decided to take it easy this semester. I’m in Florence, for god’s sake, why stress myself out? I'm taking Advanced Review of Modern Italian, History of Italian Fashion, Introduction to Painting, and Renaissance Apprenticeship. And, of course, The Art of Travel. I’m taking this course because it’s a good way to satisfy those pesky, unfulfilled K-credits that are looming ahead of me, and also because taking an extra class will help me graduate a semester early. I actually have another blog, a more whimsical one that I think no one reads and which I rarely update, at poodlesinyarmulkes.tumblr.com . I think if someone does read it, s/he must think I’m bipolar. Which I’m not.

…the end.