Improving Myself in Prague

Studying and interning in Prague will help me advance my personal and professional goals. Going to Prague will help me kick off my journey around the world. This is my first time indulging in my wanderlust and traveling outside of the U.S. Because I will be working, I will be able to expand my professional network to include people who live beyond my country's borders. This will be a great help in the public relations industry. I will be able to get a feel for other cultures and learn how to live outside of my comfort zone.

I will also look for ways to make the most out of my summer abroad. I am going to look for opportunities to get involved on campus and in the local community. I have already begun to research local groups that share my professional and academic interests. I have contacted campus representatives also to see how I can contribute to and be involved in campus activities. Another group of people I have been in contact with are others who are participating in the Prague study abroad program. I will be allowed to network, learn new skills, and grow as a person while completing my internship in Prague.

Blog 5: Vocation-Aryne Feldman

While studying abroad at the American University of Rome in Italy, I will be making the most out of my time.  Throughout my entire life, I have been infatuated and in love with the idea of fashion.  Throughout high school and middle school, I have always wanted to have a career in fashion, but not actually designing the clothes.  Maybe a marketing opportunity or advertising but still focusing on the fashion aspect.  Going abroad, I signed up for fashion marketing classes, which is not offered here at Maryville College.  That will contribute to my vocational goals enough right there, but I want to do more.  I decided that while I am there, I will be finishing my last two chapters of my thesis on fashion.  I wrote mainly about plus size women in America and what it says about our culture, but then I decided that I want to value my time abroad in a different way than others, and that I would take my two courses in Italy and on my down time work on my thesis.  After talking with my thesis advisor, we decided it would be best to observe women in the magazines in Italy, and walking around.  The problem with that is, most women who are in the heart of Rome are mainly tourist, as it is a high populated tourist area.  Therefore, I need to go outside the city and explore and maybe take a couple days to observe local women.  This is one step toward achieving my goal and career choice of fashion marketing.  I hope to gain skills in understanding consumer wants and needs, demand for what products, and what is making the big bucks basically.  The class itself will help a lot with underlying the key factors in fashion marketing, which would be needed for working with fashion in a career.  It will also look awesome on a resume to have that I studied fashion marketing in Rome (how cool is that?)  Studying abroad will be five steps forward in my career, and when I come back I will have the tools and knowledge of what it is like to do field work for my thesis regarding fashion, and to have taken a course that contributes specifically to what I want to do with my future.  

Living like a local in Prague

As I prepare to live in Prague in the summer, I am looking for ways to immerse myself into the culture. I have been researching the culture of Prague and trying to understand the typical etiquette practiced by the local population. But one thing I plan to do is something that I have done before: get involved. Whenever I am in a new place, I try to find something in which I am interested. Recently, I decided to find ways to get involved on campus at Anglo-American University. Being that I am a writer and assistant editor for The Highland Echo, I looked up the campus publications. I have contacted the editor of Lennon Wall Magazine and plan on contributing to the publications website this summer. I have also reached out to campus organizations that focus on media studies.

Beyond getting involved on campus, I, and others going to Prague through CEA, are looking into experiences that would place into direct contact with Czech citizens who were born and raised in the culture. Going on trips outside the city and getting involved in the community are in the plans. Also, finding ways to keep up with the routines already established in our home cultures. Trying to not live like a tourist involves acting "normal." Finding some normalcy in a host culture is important. While attempting to integrate new experiences, I will also try to find some sort of a routine to adhere to that mimics the one I have at home. I understand that I will also be fighting some culture shock, so a routine will help lessen some of the anxiety of living in a new place. 

Living La Vida "Local"

For my internship abroad, I can loosely call it a two for one deal because I’ll have the chance to explore two major cities of New Zealand – albeit one more briefly than the other. So, I get to essentially live by myself in two settings! Yay. (Note the trepidation in my tone here.) To date, that will be the longest time I’ve been away from my home and the farthest that I’ll have ever been away from anybody! To say I’m scared is a bit of an understatement. The only way that I’ll be able to get over that is to do my best to not feel like I should be there, for starters. While I am incredibly excited to be working at a prestigious medical school (in New Zealand!!!), I’ll probably be wondering why I’m there even until after I arrive.

To make it less scary in my head, I’m trying to think of it as an opportunity for venues previously not considered. This is a chance for me to test my chances of surviving out in the world. Can I handle money on my own? Can I buy groceries on my own? Can I SURVIVE on my own? CAN I? If not, I guess it’ll be a time to learn!

That is one of my main goals to accomplish while there which if accomplished will give me some comfort before I go out into the “real world.” Since I’ll be in the heart of the capital city, I think this will be a good way to somehow experience everything. My focus while I’m there is getting to knowing myself better.

In regards to healthcare, I’m going to see if there will be any opportunities for me to volunteer in healthcare settings as an international student because that is an experience that I would very much like to take back with me and apply to my professional future. Perhaps that will be available through my institution or just something I can do on my own.

On the other hand, I want to take more of an opportunity to explore Asian cultures since this isn’t as available to me at home and I do have a strong interest in the Maori culture since they have the unusual circumstance of growing as a culture but in isolation.

Overall, I want to fulfill my interpretation of living like a local which is to learn more about being myself in new places. I still plan to do my routine of being up early and being productive, exercising semi-regularly, and asking millions of questions.

As for the parts that I’ll feel the need to complain about, I’ll just do what I always do – grin and bear it and make the best of it. After all, nothing is ever as bad as it seems. 

Blog 4: Intercultural Competency

Blog 4: Intercultural Competency

·       I want to get involved a number of ways when I am at Nanzan. There is the Japan Plaza, where I get to practice my Japanese with Japanese students, and there is also the Coffee Hour, where the host students will plan different events for the exchange students. Other than those two opportunities, I'm not sure what other opportunities are available on campus. I would love to be a part of a language exchange, or see if there are some clubs I could be involved in. I will get to live with a Japanese student and two other exchange students in an apartment.

Living like a local means integrating yourself into the community and almost kind of blending into the crowd. Yes, I am from a very different culture, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't respect their culture and their values. I will be the minority there, so I will have to try my best to learn about the dos and do nots of Japanese culture. I don't want to be the tourist who makes a fool of herself everywhere she goes. I'm going to try my best to get myself out there in the community by seeing what opportunities are available and getting involved in local events and festivals.

My day-to-day life might look like this:
Getting up, showering, studying/eating, going to class, eating again, going to class, eating dinner, studying and going out with friends/exploring by myself.
I really want to gain lifelong friends through this experience! It's going to be an awesome journey taking classes at Nanzan and taking different field trips around Japan! As an ESL teacher, this will definitely help my understanding of Japanese culture if I ever teach Japanese students.
I've tried my best to research cultural differences as much as possible, and I will cope the best I can if I have trouble dealing with the adjustments. 

Intercultural Competency

Although I have been to a new country before, I still had places to stay with the people that I already knew up in England.  I had met people online prior to going and got the hang of things pretty fast.  This will be different.  I will be going into a place where I do not know anyone, and living there rather than just visiting with friends.  When I get to Rome, I will be picked up at the airport with the group of students who also chose to get airport pick up.  From there, the first thing we do is go to a restaurant where we sit down and get a taste of the Italian food everyone goes gaga over.  From there, we kind of do a meet and greet and get to know who we will be spending the next six weeks with.  Luckily with the American University of Rome, there is a lot of student activities.  There are festivals listed on their page and places to attend.  I also am provided with the opportunity to go on already paid for excursions, therefore I will get to enjoy part of Italy with my fellow students and hopefully new friends.  Before I go, like my past trip, my adviser has given us the opportunity to leave a contact number and information about ourselves and it will be shared with other traveling students going to Rome the same time I am through CISabroad.  This will give me the opportunity to meet the people I will be staying with, maybe come connected on social media so we all won't be as nerve wrecked as we were.  Living like a local means actually taking the time to embrace the country I am in.  Here in Tennessee, I like to spend my days with my family, working, and playing with my dogs.  I know, lame.  But when I get a chance to take a nap throughout the day, just like every other college student, I will.  But in Italy, when I get the chance to nap, I will want to go out and explore, because I know it will be awhile before I get the opportunity to go back there, which I know I will.  Living like a local also means checking out the food places.  I want to steer away from the expensive tourist places and go to some locally owned restaurants that serve the best tasting Italian food I have will ever experience.  I want to be aware of the events going on, which are listed on AUR's website, and go to these festivals and/or events.  In the community, it will help to steer away from the tourists places because they remain busy from what I have researched.  I want to interact with locals and learn about the ways they live differently than I do, and to do that I feel as if I should explore outside the city of Rome and go to smaller cities surrounding there.  I know I get nervous when going to a place I have never been, but I know in order to get the full experience, I need to take chances and get myself out there.  I have looked up local bars and clubs, which I can go to with the friends I make from my school or maybe my roommates.  When going to these new places, I can meet new people and that is an opportunity that comes with putting yourself out there, of course safely.  I know that going there, I can going to have stomach problems.  This happens in every country that I go to, and that I just need to take it easy.  My best friend, Henry, is actually in Ireland right now studying abroad and he gave me some great tips.  He says to save money ,the first thing I need to do is grocery shop with my roommate.  He says that will help us bond and it will save the money of going out to eat all the time, which of course gets expensive.  That way each night we can make dinner together and become closer, and give us the opportunity to hang out.  Also, he said that the first couple days before my classes start, get rest.  I know I will want to go around and explore everything in the city, but in order to do that with the time change, I must get rest and adjust to the time difference, which they are five hours ahead of us.  Going there, I will just have to take the time and set time aside to sleep off my long plane trip and adjust the culture, if needed.  Hopefully everything will go smoothly, but I know I just need to think smart, stay safe, eat healthy, and most importantly put myself out there.

Getting involved in the community and campus is the easiest way to learn the new culture and adapt to your surroundings. i plan to get involved with multiple people from my classes as well as meet some players form the baseball team. living like a local means you do just that abandon your old ways and take on the new ones which allows you to get the full experience abroad. i plan on eating any and everything no matter how gross it may seem. i plan to adjust to the daily life such as certain times people do things including eating resting and playing! i make friends pretty easy and me being a international student will allow me to have an intriguing feel.