Phones have become a ubiquitous part of nearly everyone’s lives. They allow for instant communication, quick photography, and simple navigation which are almost always essential tools for study abroad experiences. A phone’s versatility and omnipresence often makes it difficult to live without. While I walked along streets in Rome, I would find myself drawn back…
Category: Global Program
Thinking and living like a Parisian
Coucou, hello! I have been in Paris for a bit over a month now. Though I have experienced so much, it feels like time has went by incredibly fast. I’ve grown quite a bit from the first day I landed in Paris and felt somewhat clumsy using the metro or weighing produce for groceries. I…
Lessons Learned in Belfast: Inside the Classroom
I got home from my study abroad program a little over a week ago and have had ample time to sit with what I have learned during my time in Belfast. In my first blog post, I touched on some of the reasons why I thought this program would be beneficial to me. However, there…
Finding Community in Paris
One of the reasons why I chose to study in France is because it is part of my heritage. My mother was born in northern France, and was the only member of her family to immigrate to the United States. She rebuilt her life in America while the rest of her family remained in France….
Snapshot of Seoul: Daedongje
Over a month ago was Korea University’s Ipselenti Music Festival—one of the most anticipated events of the semester. Since the day I moved into the dorms in February, other students told me about this fateful week in May where some of the biggest A-list names in K-pop come to perform on campus. Now that I…
Final Reflection: What Bavaria Taught Me
If you asked me to name one moment from this trip that I keep coming back to, it is Neuschwanstein. Not the inside of the castle, though the gothic bedroom and the walls covered in paintings of people in love were unlike anything I had seen before. It was the drive into Füssen. The Alps…
The Arc of Connection
Community on this trip built itself slowly, rather than all at once. The first night, over schnitzel and spätzle at a traditional Bavarian restaurant, I remember feeling a little nervous about whether we would actually connect with the German students or just politely coexist for two weeks. That nervousness didn’t survive the meal. They asked…
Bonjour Stonehenge
My fourth week in my internship was spent with the Organizational Development (OD) team. Organizational development is the practice of using psychological, sociological, and other scientific practices to intervene in people or systems based problems within an organization. My coworkers for the week were mostly focused on consulting with care teams to diagnose what the…
Reflecting on Five Transformative Months Abroad in Northern Ireland
Hello! My name is Cole Perkins, and I wanted to say one final hello as I close this incredible chapter of my life in Northern Ireland. For geographical orientation, I have added a map of Ireland and the surrounding area with a pin for Belfast. (Picture from Britannica) I include this picture because, when my…
Pura Vida, Costa Rica!
I’ve landed back in Pittsburgh, I’ve had a few days to reflect on Costa Rica, and I think my biggest takeaway is that I need a little bit more “pura vida” energy in my life. As I said in my first post, “pura vida” translates to pure life, and, among other things, can be used…