Funny Story, Bro

Since it is Friday and we’re feeling a bit silly in the office today, we thought that there’s no better way to enjoy the day than to reminisce over a few odd or interesting stories from our time abroad. Now, not all these stories are our own and I am not going to label who said what (though I’m sure a few are quite obvious), but hopefully you enjoy a few of our tales from abroad. Here it goes, from Hannah, Holly and few others we won’t disclose. 

                While studying abroad in the Netherlands, I was given the opportunity to work on an organic, pure graze Dutch dairy. It was the highlight of my trip and taught me so much, but one of the most essential lessons I learned there came during one of my daily chores. You see, it was my task to trudge out across the fields to the very back pastures where the heifer cattle and beef steers were kept. I would go out every morning to move their fence lines, offering them new grazing options. My boss had painstakingly showed me the correct paths to follow so I wouldn’t get lost in the tall grass. One morning I decided to make my own path and marched across the field in grass easily a foot above my head. All of a sudden, the ground beneath my feet turned to water, and I was thrashing violently in one of the murky canals as some of my charges watched mockingly from across the way. No harm done, I climbed out soaking wet and quickly found my way back to the correct path, finished my chores and got to endure the nickname Kromowidjojo (a Dutch Olympic swimmer) for the next 24 hours. #SticktothePath

a few of my Dutch bovine charges

When I was living in Frankfurt, Germany, there was this bridge that we hung out under. So here’s the bridge, right, and then beneath it is this small overhang and beneath that is the train tracks. Occasionally, I would find myself sitting on that overhang enjoying the view. One morning I had just enjoyed watching a gorgeous sunrise, and was on my way back home when I came across an older gent.  I had just come back across the bridge after ducking back from the overhang when we crossed paths. He started out the conversation with this statement: “I can tell you’re not from Germany because you look like you don’t have a cold heart.”  That initial remark about my foreigner status was just the beginning of big long tale about his supposed life story that to this day I am not sure was true. Regardless, at the end of his gallant tale he then proclaimed that if I should ever need assistance, he would kindly become my mentor. He even gave me his name, phone number and email address. To this day I have yet to contact him, but I have always wondered what he might say if I ever did. What other excellent advice might he offer up? #OddConvo

Frankfurt, Germany

Generally, students are required to get a special VISA in order to study abroad. Some countries don’t mandate it based on length of stay or other concerns, and occasionally there are other loop holes students can use to avoid paying that special fee. Well, being a poor college kid, myself and my fellow American friends decided we would wait to complete our VISA payments. Word to the wise, that’s never a good idea. Feeling a bit homesick, we decided to spend our Thanksgiving holiday in London in search of a turkey dinner (we found it). There wasn’t much issue leaving our host country, but upon our return we encountered a “slight glitch.” Our passports lacked a special VISA stamp, and so the customs officer pulled us aside, spent ten minutes scanning our documents, and then finally sat us down on a row of plastic chairs while he called in back up. That’s right folks, we had just got detained.

 Now, our detainment wasn’t really too terrifying if you ignore our individual panic attacks (and my obnoxious sarcastic version). In fact, the cute, yes cute, male officer who was handling our case even offered us tea or coffee to ensure we were comfortable during our 2 ½ hours of waiting. To make matters worse, it was a Sunday afternoon. Now, if you’ve ever traveled in Europe, you know what that means. Everything is shut down. So, as the officers attempted to contact our host school to confirm our identities, all that replied was a voicemail. After a couple hours of trying phones without luck, one of the officers took one of my friends aside and talked to her privately in another room. At that point, we were all thinking this was the “individual interrogation” part of our crisis and were sitting huddling getting our story straight while she went first. Luckily for us, the officer simply wanted to know if she had access to any proof of our intents. God bless her, she had saved our acceptance letters in her email. After advising we pay our fees and stamping our passports with the government seal, they sent us off to continue the journey home to our host school. #DutchDetainment

a glimpse out of the Schipol Airport where we were detained

When I was in Switzerland, I had these two splendid best friends. One was a fellow American girl named Kristina who was studying in Bern, just 30 minutes away from my location. The other was a Swiss girl name Evi who I went to school with during that whole year abroad. Now, the two only met once during that year.  At my birthday or something, I can’t recall. Anyway, earlier in year before they met, Christina went to the Czech Republic and stayed with girl there named Mara. After Kristina and I left Switzerland, Evi, the Swiss girl went to Spain on study abroad to improve her Spanish. Needless to say, she ended up living with a girl by the name of Mara from the Czech. Turns out the girl who my friend Kristina stayed with in the Czech Republic was my other friend Evi’s new roommate during her study abroad in Spain. #SmallWorld

                Over winter holidays, my friend and I decided to spend two weeks country jumping with our first destination being Ireland. Wanting to hit up all the “hot spots,” we decided to stay in Dublin, and then take a tour bus to Galway and other locations. The day we spent in Galway was wonderful, of course, except for one detail. While wandering down shop street (the main and best street by far) we ended up in another random back alley. Out of nowhere, an old Irish man appeared and asked me to take a picture of him. At that point, realizing that he wanted me to take his picture with my camera, I should have caught on to the plot at hand, but being the naïve American tourist, I dutifully pulled out my P&S camera for his photo op. As I was about to snap his photo, he abruptly pulled down his trousers and laughed loudly. I was blushing so profusely and in such shock that I completely failed to take the photo then simply thanked him awkwardly and dashed off back to the main road. #IrishEncounter

Shop Street, Galway, Ireland

My friend and I were staying in a hostel in Dublin one night in preparation for our flight to London the next day. Well, unfortunately, my friend suffered food poisoning and stayed behind an extra day while I went on to London (through Ryan Air of course, since that’s how we college kids do). In hostels, you generally are placed with other 20-30 year olds in a room full of bunk beds. Well, there was a guy in the bunk underneath me and although I never spoke to him, my friend managed to strike up a conversation with him the next day after I had left. Turns out he was a student from UW-Platteville. #Smaller World

#Nate
#Edit
#BargingInUninvited
#Didn'tWantToBeLeftOut:(
When I was studying abroad in Thailand, I met a Thai student who was a representative of my host university's drama club. I never joined that club, as they met on weekends and I needed to keep my weekends open for responsible good times. He asked me where I was from. I replied the United States, as those from outside the US and Canada typically aren't aware of where Wisconsin is located. He asked which state, at which point I of course replied Wisconsin. He asked where in Wisconsin. I didn't expect him to know the area, but I told him that I studied in Platteville. To my surprise, he was aware of Platteville and its amazingly large M, due it part to its proximity to Dubuque, which he had been to. #AlsoASmallWorldIncident

One weekend we went to the (in)famous beach city of Pattaya. On Friday evening we had dinner at a local restaurant, visited some nightlife establishments in a responsible manner, and came back to our hotel room to sleep. Except for two of our friends (anonymous members of the "Green Park Gang"), who decided to stay out all night. We had been scheduled that next morning to go on an official excursion provided by GlobaLinks Learning Abroad, an official Affiliate partner of UW-Platteville. The excursion was taking a boat to a small island off the coast and spending the afternoon on the beach. Unfortunately for our two friends, they were nowhere to be found, and unable to be contacted by cellular phone. We immediately formed a search party for the two, and put their faces up on bulletins for the entire city to see. Just kidding! We assumed they were adults that could handle themselves, and that it was their fault they missed the boat. After a few hours of beaching it up, I grew bored, and decided to explore the rest of the island. I found a small bike trail, and walked up it for a short while. After turning around and arriving back at the start, I saw to my amazement our two lost friends speed past me on a single moped. They managed to make it to the island after all, and after catching up on where they'd been, we all hopped back on the bike, and the three of us rode that tiny bike all around that island, including up and down some scary hills. #VerySketchy

Sanuk mak! (Very fun!)

The Netherlands: Stereotypes Revealed

Alright, it was bound to happen. I was going to have to- at some point- write a post regarding the fabulous and splendid Netherlands since it was my home away from home for about six months. Now, as much as I'd love to tell you every delightful detail from that wonderful time in my life, I realize that would make for one very long blog post. And so, I have decided to follow a similar trend to my previous post, "Finally Friday!," and utilize images to tell you a bit about the Netherlands- mostly by clarifying all the half-truths that foreigners generally think up first when attempting to describe the Netherlands.

First of all, there is a quite large difference between the Netherlands and Holland. You see, Holland is actually only part of the country. In fact, the Netherlands, similar to our dear United States, is comprised of 12 provinces all with their own specific regulations and cultural backgrounds- some even speak a completely different language! On top of all that, the country of the Netherlands is actually just one part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands which includes the cities of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba, as well as the additional island countries of Aruba, Sint Maarten, and Curacao. For a thorough explanation on all that confusion check out this hilarious video compliments of Madi Traffico: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLuFYEw7Ick

Second fact of the day: not all Dutch people smoke pot. In fact, only 11.4% of Dutch people age 15-24 have consumed cannabis and the number has been dropping steadily each year. Also, it is technically illegal to smoke pot in the Netherlands, though there is a policy of tolerance especially where the coffee shops of Amsterdam are concerned. So yes, you can smoke weed there, however, don't expect all your Dutch friends to accompany you. For more information on what's legal and what's not, check out this wonderful article from CNN: 
http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/17/travel/amsterdam-travel-legal-parameters/

Number three in our list would have to be that all Dutch citizens are tall, blonde and blue eyed. Yes, the Netherlands is home to the tallest average population measuring in at over men coming in at 6'1" on average, but you need to keep in mind that the Netherlands is not just for the original "Dutch" anymore. Like the rest of the world, the Netherlands has seen a large increase in immigrants from places all around the world. Besides that, Amsterdam is one of the largest salad bowls this side of the equator and very well known for its multitude of different cultures.

Fourthly, the Dutch people do not wear wooden clogs everywhere they go and for all occasions. Undoubtedly some of the older generation, tiny tots and rural population still stick with the traditional Dutch clog to tromp about the country, but a majority of the population wear normal shoes like the rest of the world. However, they are still content to let us carry on thinking this common myth in order to help boost clog sales by the surplus of tourists that poor into Zanse Schaans annually.

           

                                     

Fifth on the list would have to be their surplus of windmills. With all the weather and wind that sweeps off the North Sea and the Ijsselmeer, it's no surprise that the Dutch have a strong relationship historically with Windmills, but nowadays most of their windmills are just more tourist attractions and museum types there to compliment the landscape and draw in more tourists. In fact, the Dutch have definitely improved on the old model and expanded their collection of wind turbines to better utilize the weather that still batters their sloping shores.

The sixth and final item for my brief blog post is, naturally, the Red Light District or de Wallen in Dutch. Generally whenever I give classroom presentations, students are too nervous to come out and ask about it, so here's the sitch. It's overrated, and in my opinion not worth your time. If you google it, there are tons of websites promoting it's splendor and telling you what a lovely tourist attraction the Red Light is, but honestly I wasn't very impressed. To top it off, when I mentioned it jokingly to a Dutch friend, he promptly told me that he'd rather wait outside by the canals than "sample the wares" from the shops lining the lengthy street.

Not that I'm telling to avoid de Wallen, but there are a slew of other more worthwhile attractions to check out should you find yourself meandering the streets of Amsterdam such as the Rijksmuseum, Anne Frank Huis, Vondel Park, Artis (the zoo), Heineken Experience, Science Center Nemo, the Royal Palace, Heineken Music Hall, the Van Gogh Museum, and Albert Cuypmarkt just to name a few. I'm sure this blog post will be followed up with more regarding the Netherlands, Dutch culture and my experiences, but for now I hope you enjoyed our Friday edition.

Finally Friday!

Alright, since Hannah outblogged me and posted on “things to do to satisfy the crave” first, and Nate one upped me with his assortment of fabulous fruit pictures, I have decided to entertain you guys with a Friday fluff piece.

That’s right; I dedicate this post to all the Education Abroad memes out there! Also, let’s do a bit of analyzing to check out how accurate they are compared to reality. Some apply to students who have yet to take the plunge, but most of them are for those of us who are in search of our next opportunity to fly across the big pond. 

Alright for our starter meme, let’s just take a moment to enjoy the smolder that is Ryan Gosling.

Yes this can apply to your personal relationships, but overall let’s just examine how hot education abroad looks in regards to your future. Employers love, love, love to see that students have a grasp on global issues and possess basic intercultural communication skills. How better to achieve that than a semester immersed in another culture?

 

Mmkay, we all realize what Wonka is getting at? Sometimes Ed. Abroad returnees can be a bit obnoxious, but why not be proud of yourself for picking up a new language? I don’t even half to help you draw the connection on how language skills can benefit your future, but let’s just sit a bit and enjoy how awesome you are for learning a new language. Not that you have to learn a new language while abroad (since most courses are taught in English), but why not at least try how to say your please’s and thank you’s to wow the natives and earn brownie points with that cute Italian girl who sits in front of you during Roman Art class?

I absolutely cannot stand the myth that Education Abroad is not affordable. Wrong. So wrong. Yes, in general, students spend between $2000-$5000 more studying abroad than they would at their own university, but that’s simply because either (A) they weren’t very resourceful before leaving the country or (B) they truly dedicated their trip to exploring all the possibilities. Hopefully, it’s option B. Education Abroad can be expensive, but if you apply for scholarships, grants and plan accordingly it can be equal in price or even cheaper. Besides, Education Abroad is worth every penny, so if you spend a bit more, trust me when I say it’ll be worth it.

The above meme draws back to the “all Education Abroad returnees are obnoxious myth.” False. For one, not all of us want to discuss our travels in depth upon our return. Now, if we do, that’s probably because that was our life for the last 12 months. Are you telling me I can’t talk about my awesome London Thanksgiving, but you get to rant about how your Grandma forgot to make the cranberry sauce you love during said holiday? The point is, yes, we’re going to talk about, and yes, it may get obnoxious, but if that’s the case, just let us know. Or better yet, be an awesome friend and ask for all the juicy details we’re dying to tell.

Although I too am guilty of this meme, I must say that a healthy mix of the two is a great way to develop your viewpoint on other cultures and help you better evaluate your own country. Yes, it’s okay to relax with your American friends, but don’t forget that you can chat with them upon your return home as well. This also applies to WhatsApp chats with mom for 2 hours daily or devoting your nights to skyping your significant other. Go out, explore, and connect internationally.

TRUE! Everyone loves a great deal, and there are plenty to be had, just make sure that you plan accordingly. If you are going to take RyanAir to Paris for the weekend, print your tickets to avoid the printing fees or make sure that you have a hostel booked for when you arrive. On a similar note, don’t forget to keep the “Education” before “Abroad.” It’s nice to travel, but it’s nicer to travel and come back with all the credits you’re supposed to.

 

Completely accurate. Yes, you could save some dough and stay at home, but think of everything you could be doing while studying abroad? How about learning about renewable energy in Germany and touring the Rathaus while sampling a few German beverages? What about meandering the streets of Amsterdam after a week of classes on Dutch language at the Windescheim University? Perhaps you’d be relaxing on a beach in Fiji or diving into some of their freshwater springs? Truthfully, in our global economy, can you really afford not to study abroad? There are so many opportunities through Education Abroad, all you have to determine is which destination and program appeals to you.

Because honestly, if you don’t go, this is all we have to say.

For more hilarious Education Abroad meme content, check out this post from AdventureSeeker

http://www.adventureseeker.org/travel-inspiration/the-50-best-study-abroad-memes-ive-ever-seen/

Besides, even Grumpy Cat is doing it!