Amherst College Global Education Blog
Today, I’m 46 days into my fall semester, 63 days into living in Cádiz, Spain, and 78 days into study abroad. Finally, I feel like I’ve moved into the in-the-swing-of-things stage. There are a couple reasons why it took me so long, but a lot of it has to do with the structure of my program. When we arrived in
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The first advice to someone who has never visited France should be to never say no when someone offers cheese. Gastronomical reasons aside, cheese symbolizes something more important – a something well-conveyed to me during my first dinner with my host family. “Harith, would you like to try a little bit of cheese?” asked my host-mother, extending an entire unopened
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As we turn the corner from this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival, I spent some time reminiscing about the last year’s celebration at Amherst. I briefly retold the legend behind the important celebration in Asia, and ate mooncakes while moon-gazing with Dorit Song, one of my closest friends and Her Campus contributor/Instagram Social Media Manager. With Dorit in Switzerland and Amherst so
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Everything in Cádiz is beautiful and walkable. From my apartment, where I live with a host family of four – Bibi, Jorge, and their children Paula and Guille – I walk 2 minutes to the nearest plaza, where I often meet an American friend in my program who lives nearby. I walk 10 minutes to school, where I’m currently taking
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I keep trying to visualize myself in the city of Cádiz, which will be my home in about two weeks, but instead I end up with this mental image of me returning to Amherst after the semester is over. I guess it makes sense. My mind is returning to what it knows, staying inside its visual comfort zone. But it’s
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~~~ A slightly unrelated but crucial foreword: To all the folk, family, and friends impacted by the natural and politico social turmoil in the States and on the Amherst campus, I would like to extend my most sincere condolences and offer my deepest sympathies. While I cannot be there in person to support you, I still send my prayers for
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In some ways, it’s ironic that I was instructed to avoid “travel writing” for this blog, seeing as Study Abroad is, at its core, about travel – or at least, is contingent on some sort of long-term travel and living in a new place. In other ways, however, it’s completely understandable. People read this blog to understand Study Abroad –
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Bonnie loves to ask questions and learn about the world. During her two years at Amherst College, her greatest achievements are declaring a major in statistics and not yet setting any kitchens on fire. For the next two years, she plans on explaining to people why dental school will want a statistics major as she deals with the pressure of
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Countless times, I’ve found myself struggling to explain to my fellow students at Victoria University here in New Zealand exactly how Amherst operates. I start off by talking about how liberal arts schools usually operate – requiring students to take courses in a series of different subjects, from math to languages to science. Then, I add, Amherst is the same
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What does it mean to be home? I’ve been back for two months now, a length of time that has given me the space to reflect on my experiences away, but also allowed for the raw and visceral elements to begin to fade around the edges. Looking back on it, I’d have to say that the differences, not just between
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