There are really two reasons that I’m studying abroad. The
first is that I’ve lived in the Knoxville area my entire life, and I haven’t
really gotten many chances to travel before. I was dying to go somewhere, and I
realized that studying abroad would be the easiest and most rewarding way for
me to travel while I’m still in school. From there, I built up my academic plans
to fit the resources I would have available at my study abroad site.
Originally, those were resources on refugees and climate change in Jordan, but
now that a travel warning has been issued for there, and I don’t know where
I’ll be going, I can’t say exactly what I’ll be studying. Ideally, it will be a
combination of sustainability issues and social issues, culminating in research
that will be environmental justice-oriented. If I get into one of the schools I
applied to in the Netherlands, I might have the opportunity to incorporate
gender into my research, which would go well with my new Gender and Women’s
Studies minor, which would be even more exciting.
I’m
nervous to be traveling alone for the first time, but I’m a compulsive planner,
so I’m pretty sure I won’t end up, you know, going to the wrong continent or
anything. For the most part I’m just really excited, and right now I’m excited-nervous
to see where I’ll be placed. But no matter where I end up (all schools are in
Northern Europe), I plan to travel while I’m there. There’s no way that I’m
going to be in Europe without going to Alnwick Castle in Northumberland,
England (Hogwarts), and I’d love to spend at least a little while in France. I
also hope to make friends with people who live in my host country, as well as
my fellow exchange students, because I feel like it would be the best way to
familiarize myself with the culture, and it’s always nice to have a travel
buddy. Lastly, I am going to try to find a faculty member or two that I feel
could really help me with my senior thesis topic because having that academic
input would be invaluable.
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