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Sep 02
2010
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Judges
Rudy Maxa, host of PBS's RudyMaxa's World, an editor at National Geographic Traveler, and former host of NPR's The Saavy Traveler.
RateYourStudyAbroad's Weekly Blog
RateYourStudyAbroad's Weekly Blog
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Jul 29
2010
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Henry James, Travel BloggerPosted by henryvw in Untagged |
Like Mark Twain, Henry James (1843 - 1916) was, in a way, one of America's first travel bloggers. When he was 26, he 'studied abroad' in Europe. Like a good blogger, he would publish his impressions of Europe, and his travels there, for the rest of his life.
His observations were perhaps keener than today's study abroad student, who thoughtfully blogs to us about her Spanish backpacking trip. You know, the one that "totally changed my life and my outlook!!!"
James made one of his most humorous observations while in the Netherlands, where he noticed a Dutch woman scrubbing her already-clean stoop,
"A rosy serving-maid, redolent of soapsuds from her white cap to her white sabots, stands squirting water from a queer little engine of polished copper...
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Jun 22
2010
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Tortoise Wins the RacePosted by alancwebb in Untagged |
If the slow travel movement (long the preferred mode of vacationing for residents of non-American western countries, who are accustomed to 4 weeks of vacation or more a year), then what could be slower than a semester abroad?
We have written before about programs that allow you to jam as many locations as possible into one trip. But do these programs miss out on the deeper cultural experience that comes from nesting down in one place for 3 or more months?
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Jun 15
2010
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Introducing... Anna Fitzgibbon -- the newest RateYourStudyAbroader!Posted by annafitzgibbon in Untagged |
G'Day. Ni Hao. Bonjour. Sabaai-dee, Bula.
My name is Anna Fitzgibbon and I am the newest addition to the Rate Your Study Abroad team! I feel that as a new member, I owe the RYSA community a proper introduction. I should tell you that my lust for wandering began after graduating from James Madison University in 2006, when I picked up a backpack and went to New Zealand with no plan, no expectations and very little money. I should also tell you that for the past 4 years I have spent my time working, volunteering and backpacking in all corners of the globe and that they were the best years of my life. I guess I should also mention that I am a huge advocate for education through cultural and regional exploration and that I believe international experience is as valuable as any diploma. However, in order to give you an accurate summary of myself, I am instead going to share with you the following...
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Jun 06
2010
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Charles Dickens, Travel WriterPosted by henryvw in Untagged |
"'And now,' Dickens writes as his train rolls farther into France, 'I find that all the French people on board begin to grow, and all the English people begin to shrink. The French are nearing home, and shaking off a disadvantage, whereas we are shaking it on.'"
So quotes Frank Bures in his WorldHum.com piece last week about Charles Dickens' Travel Writings, which have recently been re-published.
Continues Bures, "Travel is not that interesting. People are. Stories come alive only when there are people in them. Travel and nature writing both purport to be about physical things. But they are really about us, and to the extent that they aren't, they are simply bad, or boring, writing.
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May 28
2010
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Alex Hoyt is one of 5 students authors who wrote Travel Essays about their study abroad experience. He graduated from Davidson College in 2009. 
When I met George, he was wearing an ascot with a white shirt, corduroy blazer, jelly-smeared khakis, and Reebok sneakers. He looked older than 92, if that’s possible, and his face reminded me of a walnut. It was my first full day living in the bookstore and, being a college distance runner, I was stretching before my run. Suddenly he accosted me. Was I a guest? Was I a runner? What was my mile time? Did I know he had run a 4:40 at Boston College? Had I read the Alexandria Quartet? As we looked over the balcony onto the Seine and Notre Dame, he regaled me with stories, intermittently pausing to yell at the Turks who loitered below. He told of his years as a fledgling communist during the McCarthy purge, the time he stayed at Eva Peron’s plantation, the poetry readings where Allen Ginsberg had to drink a jug of red wine before he read “Howl”. And then there was the story of his bookstore.In 1951, amid the Latin Quarter’s dingy hotels and mountebanks, he opened the store in a crenellated building that had once been a monastery. His bonhomie and taste attracted expatriates, travelers, cockroaches, and Gregory Corso.
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May 22
2010
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Pillage Abroad: Go Viking and visit ScandanaviaPosted by henryvw in Untagged |
No one traveled in more style than the Viking marauders who decimated the coasts of Europe, sacking cities and plundering monasteries.
Now you, too, can study abroad like they once did (well, almost).
Here are a few options:
- Harvard University has set up the Harvard Viking Studies Program. "We explore the rich archaeological, cultural, and literary heritage of northern Europe in the early Middle Ages. Itself founded during the Viking Age, the lovely Danish city of Åarhus and its modern university are our principal hosts."
- Reykjavik University has a great program for international students
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May 15
2010
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“Acropolis? Acropolis?” Another swing and a miss. Isn’t Acropolis a Greek word? How are you supposed to say that in Greek?
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May 14
2010
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Oui! J’aime beaucoup le cinema! I rattled on about how I was dying to see a French movie, while trying the whole time to figure out if the guy I was talking to qualified as attractive. The bar was dark and smoky, and the DJ was blaring some hybrid of pop and techno. I turned to see my friend lean across the bar to make out with the bartender for giving her yet another free drink, and then turned my attention back to the movie-loving Frenchman. He was in the middle of explaining how, if I would let him, he would love to take me to the movies. Il y a beaucoup de films toujours au cinema. Viens avec moi!
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May 14
2010
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I’m sitting in a tiny, wooden canoe floating on pitch-black swamp water and hooking pieces of raw meet onto a simple, wooden fishing rod. The question isn’t whether the fish will bite, but whether I’ll be able to yank the line out of the water before the little monsters have devoured the meat and darted off. Such is the rub when you’re fishing for piranha in the backwaters of the Peruvian Amazon.