This time last year...

In April of last year, I was just returning to Brussels from my three-week long spring break travels. To start off, I spent a week in Geneva, Switzerland for the Harvard World Model United Nations Conference with some local students at my college. We were there as delegates, but we had a lot of fun exploring the city when we weren't in committee. There were eleven of us.. We stayed in a twelve-person hostel room, where we all got really close. It was definitely a bonding experience. After Geneva, we headed back to Brussels to regroup, and then my roommate and I spent nine days traveling to Budapest, Prague, and Vienna. It was the trip of a lifetime!



Le printemps en Genève (Spring in Geneva)



View from Várhegy (Castle Hill) in Budapest, Hungary

We were very tired by the end of our trip, but it was worth it. We met lots of different people.. other American college students, a British guy our age who was spending some time traveling after university, a lady in her sixties who always wanted to see Vienna... just to name a few. I can't wait to go back to Europe and travel to all the places I didn't make it to while abroad.

Posted by: Jen, Brussels, Spring 2007

State Pattys Day

This past weekend was Penn State's newest official holiday... State Patty's Day. Studying abroad in London last semester I missed the first annual holiday. I definitely made up for it this year, green beer and all. Nevertheless, the whole day I could not stop feeling somewhat nostalgic and even made a few phone calls to friends I met while abroad.

Last March I was lucky enough to spend St. Patrick's Day in Dublin, Ireland. I took the Sail-Rail from London to Wolverhampton to Dublin. The day long, freezing journey was well worth the experience. I definitely recommend everyone who studies in the UK use the National Rail and have the opportunity travel on Titanic like ferries.

We stayed in a hostel right in downtown Dublin and spent the whole weekend exploring the city. We went to Dublin Castle, Dublin University, the oldest pub in Dublin, St. Patrick's Cathedral, and got lost down every street we could. As well, we hit up the Guinness Factory. We sampled as much Guinness as we could, learned about the process of making Guinness, and finally learned the science of pouring the perfect pint!

On March 17th, we woke up and went to the famous St. Patrick's Day Parade. Standing in a crowd of thousands we found the only bar serving pints of Guinness. It was a breakfast for champions!! We spent the day traveling to and from bars and meeting as many local Irish people as we could. Of course we had a pint at the famous Temple Bar (I even bought a shirt). Those two days in Dublin were some of the best times I had while abroad!!


Dublin, Ireland 2007


State College, Pa 2008


Much like my Saturday in State College, Dublin is filled with amazing memories and drunken moments with my best friends. I tell everyone I know to try to make it to Dublin, especially for St Patrick's Day!!! Just don't forget to book your hostel well ahead of time.

Posted by Alison M., London, Spring 2007

For all the Beer Connoisseurs

While I was out to dinner with my friends this weekend, I looked down at my icy cold glass of Miller Lite. I do enjoy Miller Lite, "old faithful" as I like to call it, however I couldn't help but miss the wide variety of great Belgian beers I sampled while living in Brussels. Since Belgium is known for its beer, and the locals take the subject very seriously, one of the first things I learned when I arrived is that every Belgian beer is served in its own special glass.

My personal favorite of all the Belgian beers was the golden ale Duvel:



A close second was Leffe Blonde:



Followed by Chimay:



During my first week in Brussels, our group was taken on a tour of the last operating brewery in Brussels, the Cantillon Brasserie. It is a family-owned brewery, opened in 1900, that brews lambic beers such as kriek (cherry-flavored beer) and gueuze (a more acidic beer). We got to see the entire brewing process, from the storage of wheat, barley, and hops, to the brew kettle, to the cooling tun, to the barrels used for aging, and finally to the store shelf. My tour guide at the Cantillon Brasserie described the process as if it were an art form. During my five month stay in Brussels, I learned that beer is an integral part of Belgian culture, and it was also an important part of my experience in Belgium.

Posted by: Jen, Brussels , Spring 2007

Bruxelles.. Tu me manques!

Being a peer adviser for the Office of International Programs has enabled me to share my life-changing study abroad experience with other Penn-Staters. Sometimes, when I’m talking with another student, I get nostalgic for Brussels… I wish I could snap my fingers and be back in my apartment on Rue Veydt! I wish I could walk around the corner and browse for breakfast at Delhaize (our neighborhood grocery store), shop on the trendy Avenue Louise, have a beer at Café Belga… I could go on and on.

Even though my study abroad experience in Brussels ended in May of 2007, a part of my heart will always be there. Every time I look at pictures of the magnificent Grand Place (arguably the most beautiful square in Europe), the Manneken Pis, or the Atomium (Brussels’ version of the Eiffel Tower), I think of all the great memories I have and I feel like I’m there again.

Studying abroad is an experience that you will always carry with you... as cliché as it sounds. Never in my life would I have expected to fall in love with a city like I did with Bruxelles.

Posted by: Jen, Brussels , Spring 2007

Our First Excursion: Madrid!

After about our first month in Seville, Spain my friends and I decided it was time to plan our first overnight visit to another city. We decided on Madrid, as it is a must see in Spain and a relatively easy trip to plan on the four days of preparation we allowed ourselves. We chose the cheapest mode of transportation to reach our northern neighbor, the bus. We scheduled the midnight bus and arrived in Madrid at 6am, with our excitement temporarily clouded by our sleep-deprived status. Feeling both adventurous and also skeptical about booking our first hostel on the internet, we figured since we knew a good deal of spanish at that time we would find a hostel once we arrived. And so, 3 American girls began strolling up and down Gran Via in Madrid looking for lodging in the early morning hours. We settled on the first place we found with a vacancy: Hostel Acapulco, a nice place, but a bit expensive. We did not yet know the ins-and-outs hostel living: good rates, the best websites, the different room options. The little, old madrileño working at the front desk let us know it would be a few hours until the room was ready, so with no other option we hit the streets. After a brief stop for a cafe con leche we got out our trusty map and began whizzing through the city. As the Spanish are known for their late nights and late mornings, we had much of Madrid to ourselves during our first hours of sight-seeing. We were so excited to explore the city and just see a new city for a change, as we had been itching to travel. Ever since high school Spanish classes I had learned about the great paintings of Velazquez, Goya, el Greco, and Picasso housed in Madrid museums. Seeing the paintings in person was like coming full circles as I could remember sitting in Spanish classes looking at these paintings in textbooks and dreaming of studying abroad in Spain one day. It was hard to believe the day had come. Throughout the trip we made near constant comparisons to Sevilla, as we had become so acquainted with it. We noticed similarities and differences in the food, the accent, the character of the people. Maybe it took out first trip away to see how connected we had gotten to the city, our new friends, and our host families. The weekend helped us see another side of the country of Spain, another aspect of its personality.

Posted by Clare, Seville, Spain, Spring 2007

News from Past Peer Advisers, now in Thailand

Note: two peer advisers from the 2006-2007 academic year, Kristine and James, decided to move abroad again after they graduated in May '07. They now live in Khon Kaen, Thailand, where they teach English. We received this update from Kris in early January 2008.

Sawatee Ka!
Happy New Year!

I had a pretty interesting time spending Christmas in a Buddhist country. James and I celebrated by exchanging gifts and eating a really good breakfast. Then we decided to go to the Nine Tier temple in Khon Kaen look at some of the relics and statues, after that we walked around the lake, had some good coffee (another oxymoron being that I am in THAILAND), and had a wonderful dinner in a little restaurant up the street from us. The next day I had to be back at work for the little kindergarteners to celebrate Christmas. The next day the celebrations continued with learning “The Twelve Days of Christmas” as part of their math assignment. Friday is where the real fun begins because now I have four days off for New Years!

The trip starts at 8pm when James and I along with 7 Thai teachers load into two cars, and embark on a 12 hour journey to Chiang Mai. It was 12 hours because every hour and a half we stopped for 20 min to use the bathroom or get snacks at 7-Eleven! We arrived at our destination at 8 am had a shower and then a Thai massage. Afterward we had lunch then went to the Hot Springs where we got to boil and eat eggs. I even ate Quail eggs which tasted exactly like regular chicken eggs. There were two pretty tall Geysers and around the hot springs you could stick your feet in the warm water. This was also the point where I said "hey, could James and I go to the Mountains for the day and come back?" *Thai people begin to speak rapidly* and voila...we are going camping on New Year’s Eve and of course I don't have my sneakers.

The next day we met with three more Farang teachers, inform them of the impromptu camping trip, and spend the day in the Queen Sirikit Park seeing botanical gardens and waterfalls. It was all beautiful and when we came back to the city we went to the central Night Market. I saw some really cool things and of course began to stock pile, I will have to ship stuff back at the rate of which I am collecting gifts for people. There is a temple at the end of this market where people were sending these white cylinder shaped balloons with fire up into the air. We learned that it was for the New Year that you chant, then lift away all your sins (so to speak) and bring good luck for the coming year. The higher it goes the more luck you will have.

The next day we went camping. There was a campfire and we roasted meat and also made sticky rice inside of hallowed out bamboo shoots. It was really easy; you fill the shoot with enough rice and water that it is about an inch from the top then cook it over a fire for however long it takes for the rice to cook. It was really cool to do and I hope that I will be able to re do it when I come back. We did the countdown on the mountain I will have to say that this is one of the best new years I have ever spent in my life! The next morning we pack and get ready to go back home. Finally we are ready to leave at 3pm (we were supposed to leave at 6am but oh well); or so I thought. But nope, we went to visit Taki's family in Lampung, it was cool and I enjoyed drinking a bit with his uncle. My Thai is not that great so communication was a bit hard but somehow we got a bit of conversation going. Final arrival time back in Khon Kaen 3:30 am in the morning and I had to teach at 10 am.

Book Review

I just finished reading a book that I recommend to all those who like travel. It's called The Sex Lives of Cannibals (it has nothing to do with the title really) and is by J. Maarten Troost, a guy who moves with his girlfriend to live on Kiribati in the equatorial Pacific. The book is so funny; I've laughed out loud reading it. It's a memoir and Troost just talks about all the mishaps and adventures that he experiences in the 2 years the he and his girlfriend live in Tarawa, an island that is in Kiribati. It's interesting to read about how life really is on an island in the equatorial pacific and just how things are pretty different. I think my favorite chapter was when he talked about their acquiring a handful of dogs and a cat and about how there are stray dogs everywhere and that he finally became immune to the American humane way of treating animals and would throw rocks at the to keep them away (not that I think the inhumane treatment of animals is funny, just his description of the events is). It's a pretty quick and easy read, so it's a good distraction from all the fun reading you get to do for class. Pick it up and start reading it-I promise you'll like it!

Posted by Jaime, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Spring 2007