Capilano University Students Blogging Abroad

“You can't stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes”. (Winnie the Pooh)             It’s been thirty-one days, thirty-one days since I boarded Air Canada flight 550 and I can still feel the tears running down my cheeks. The cabin was freezing but it felt like fire trickling from my eyes. It was 8:00 o’clock in the morning and the city looked gorgeous. I knew I was going to miss the fresh air and the spectacular mountains, I felt like I was leaving a part of myself behind. I was on my way to an unfamiliar location with seven strangers. I told myself that I was not afraid, but you can only lie to yourself for so long. The next six months of my life was too much for me to comprehend, I couldn’t even look past the first month. Well that month has now past and I can’t even begin to reiterate what has happened. To look back on the past four weeks, is to look back on some of...

There have been some changes over the last month, with just a few of them being that I’ve met people from around the world, visited new places, and turned the significant age of 21 in the USA. Thi s blog is going to talk about the 21 st birthday I had at the University of California Riverside and the events that surrounded it. Turning 21 in the states was brilliant. I wasn’t sure if we were going to be able to celebrate it as I thought we would be too busy to do anything important, instead not only did we take a cab to downtown riverside to have an awesome meal in an Italian restaurant (which was far too fancy for a rowdy bunch of UCR students…) but it just so happened that we had planned a trip to Las Vegas that weekend. A point I am trying to make is that although we were always busy while in Riverside there was always free time to plan a trip we just had to make use of every moment and seize the day. Going to downtown riverside was an easy process, all we had to do was cal...

My experience has been everything but ordinary, it has been like I fell down a rabbit hole and ended up in this wonderland with everything upside down or sideways. When we arrived at Riverside, California it wasn’t the Hollywood glitz and glam place that I was picturing. It looked like we we’re walking down this dark, scary path but not trying to scare you, I actually miss living in Riverside. Sometimes that beautiful garden that you want to see (like glitz and glam of Hollywood) is not always the better place. Instead of painting the rose’s red, I ended up meeting some of the craziest and “mad” characters that now I am proud to call my friends! We’ve already had so many tea parties and celebrated numerous un-birthdays with more exciting moments to come. It still feels like a dream to me, the fact I am living in Orlando, Florida working at the wonderful world of Disney. I am still waiting for someone to pinch me to wake up from this fantasy. Unlike Alice I am not running away fr...

On the day that I flew to the University of California Riverside I was so excited to meet new people, especially everyone from different countries.   I just kept thinking about how cool it would be to have friends from different countries and cultures.   I knew that I was going to be arriving in the United States so I never really thought that I was going to experience culture shock.   When I got to the hotel in California I was quite overwhelmed when I realised that a majority of the others spoke a language that I did not understand.   I had been so happy to meet everyone that I never really thought that they would have any troubles speaking English.   Even though I was in the States which is quite similar to Canada, I instantly felt culture shock.      For the first few days, everyone pretty much only hung out with the people that they came with.   Everyone was really friendly but since it was so hard to communicate, no one was real...

You have to experience a culture, place, and concept on your own skin to fully understand it. This adventure has proven this statement already. First encounter with my classmates at the LAX airport wasn’t very promising. Everyone stayed within his or her group from their own home countries, within the comfort zone. As the days went by, friendships started forming between different cultures despite the language barriers. During the first few days at Riverside, California, the Euro Cup 2012 was taking place and we all went to watch the final game and cheered for our favorite. Of course, Spain was the main competitor in the soccer games, given the fact that in our program there are 30 Spanish people, we all cheered for their country. During the final game, I could see and hear their passion for the sport. Soccer is a big part of the Spanish culture and I was delighted to share that experience with them. I even have started conversing in Spanish with some of my new friends in order to b...

The Heathrow airport is one of the most active airports in the world, but yet I felt it was amazing how it was full of activity with people entering into London on the day I left. I reflected on the people coming into London that day and imagining my first day in London and how it changed my world view on life. After I boarded my flight to Vancouver, leaving behind the place I called home for the last 6 months and the 2012 London Summer Olympics. After this amazing semester abroad in England, I found my views and perspectives have changed; however, my behavior remained the same. Interestingly, People around me expected more from me than ever; for example, my soccer teammates in Vancouver were expecting me to show David Beckham’s free kick skills.   The unrealistic expectations of my friends have taken a vice on my view on my experience in England. To add to the pressures of my peers; my roommate asks me if he is speaking British accent correctly. To satisfy his curiosity I ...

Today is my day off and I find myself sitting here writing a blog instead of being out in the sun :( (Not to happy) haha JK. But seriously when ever you guys go on exchange you will be having so much fun, the last thing you’ll want to do is write a blog: P. But either way, I do feel like writing this blog to tell you guys to live by one word that I hate very much… YOLO (P.S thanks Sam Glennie: $ haha) For those that don’t know what this word means, it means You Only Live Once; Sam certainly made sure to engrave that word in everyone’s vocabulary haha. But she does have a point; whenever you study abroad you have to make sure to enjoy everything you can! I do understand that some of you are trying to safe money, but before saving money you should really ask yourself if you will ever get another chance to study abroad. If have taken a loan to pay for this trip, then why save it? Spend it all having a great time, and then when you come back I’m sure you guys will have a plan to p...

You have to study abroad to get the full experience of a degree.   I knew I would enjoy it and I knew I would learn a lot, etc etc, you’ll hear all that.   However, you can’t connect what all that really means until you go out and really live in it.   The things about study abroad that scare people or cause people to hesitate are temporary – financial issues can be alleviated with low-interest student loans, financial aid, fundraising, working while abroad, or savings.   Having no one around you that you know might just force you to get out there a bit a meet people, try something new, push yourself harder or even enjoy school more for the content.   Having a new setting is something people say they aren’t scared of but so often shy away from with lame excuses. My advice is that if you’re thinking about going abroad you need to do it. Now is the time, while you’re doing a bachelor and you have fewer commitments than you will later.   If you wait for a ‘...