College of Liberal Arts

Madelaine Corbin is an Applied Visual Arts major in the College of Liberal Arts at Oregon State University. During Summer of 2014, she spent two weeks in Athens, Greece, through AHA International. She delighted in taking in the surroundings, learning about art and even learning more about herself. Below is a continuation of her artwork, as in her previous entry, along with excerpts from her blog that she wrote while still in Greece.

“Jack Kerouac’s writing brilliantly inspires people to adventure. One of his writings states, ‘there was nowhere to go but everywhere, so just keep rolling under the stars.’ My goal in life is broad, but it is ultimately to go everywhere and do everything passionately with a fire inside.”

“The city of Athens is buzzing with life. Millions of people meander the streets and go about their days embracing the sun and smiles that saturate the air.”

“Remember, stay hungry, value each of your moments, and just keep rolling under the stars.”

Rhiannon Williams is a senior at Oregon State University. She is in the College of Liberal Arts studying Spanish with a minor in Psychology. She spent a semester with IFSA Butler in Valparaíso, Chile, improving her Spanish skills, taking literature, history and culture classes, and volunteering to care for animals affected by a forest fire. Here she tells us about her journey learning Spanish, and her path to realizing that fluency does not happen overnight.

Half way through my semester abroad in Valparaíso, Chile, I experienced an important turning point in my journey. My host mother sat me down and asked if I was happy with my living situation. I never felt completely comfortable living with my host parents during the first two months in Chile but I could not pinpoint the issue. My host mother helped me realize that I had been coming across as aloof. I knew I had been very reserved in the beginning as I became accustomed to the new culture. I realized that I had put up invisible walls and did not communicate enough with my host family. The issue was how to become accustomed to living at home with a family while going to university. I was very familiar with coming and going as I pleased at university in the U.S without having to answer to anyone. Even though I lost some independence that I had in the States, I gained two caring host parents.

After that moment, I interacted more with my host family which boosted my happiness and comfort. I know that my timidity is a part of who I am, and awkward silences are sometimes unavoidable. At first I was upset that I may have wasted the first two months of my study abroad journey. Then, I realized that it was an incredible learning experience. Since then, I have been living by this quote: “Optimist: someone who figures that taking a step backward after taking a step forward is not a disaster, it’s more like a cha-cha”.

My constant struggle with the language Castellano (Chilean Spanish) closely ties with this. I would be so concerned about what to talk about in Spanish with my host family during meals that I would sit silently with thoughts whirling around in my head. I learned to just talk and not worry so much about making grammatical errors. Some days were easier than others and I could tell that my Spanish improved when I decided to just let things be.

I also had an internal struggle with English. I would feel guilty for conversing in English with my friends instead of practicing Spanish. I would then silently fight with myself instead of interacting with my friends. I put so much pressure on myself to reach a high level of fluency in Spanish while abroad. I realized that I would not magically become fluent and I needed to make peace with this. Every day I spoke Spanish, as well as English occasionally with friends. Although it was often difficult to see, my Spanish improved tremendously over the five months. It is most important to view the improvement from when I arrived to when I returned to the United States rather than compare myself to others, or wish that I were closer to fluency. So many people told me as I left the States that I would come back fluent in Spanish. I returned improved and more confident which is more important to me than the end goal. The journey is more important than the destination.

Madelaine Corbin is an Applied Visual Arts major in the College of Liberal Arts at Oregon State University. During Summer of 2014, she spent two weeks in Athens, Greece, through AHA International. She delighted in taking in the surroundings, learning about art and even learning more about herself. Below is some of the artwork she created while abroad, along with excerpts from her blog that she wrote while still in Greece.

“The bright natural light mixed with the native plants, friendly faces, and thoughtful architecture is the perfect environment for inducing creativity and happiness (as they are nearly synonymous).”

“Greece may use the Euro as its currency and kilometers per hour to measure speed, but the true measure of currency and efficiency is in the grace of a smile. We travel at a smile a minute, and true payment comes in the form of the well-received curvature of the edges of our lips.”

“Outside our apartment window is the most pleasant of balconies, where I am currently sitting in fact. There is a small fenced railing where my resting feet can just peer over the edge. Beyond the tips of my toes lies the never-ending city of Athens. There are beautiful surrounding hills that lead to the sea of buildings. The Parthenon sits atop the Acropolis; it is true too, you can see the Acropolis from almost any point of the city. It’s hard to get lost when you can always orient yourself with such a monument, thank goodness.”

“If home is where the heart is, then Athens is my home. Upon arrival yesterday afternoon, with messy hair and a thirsty heart, I made my way through the Athens airport and took a taxi to the apartment I now call home. I share the apartment with two lovely girls, just as easer for adventure and excited about art as I am. We took a little time to breathe after traveling and then immediately headed out into the beautiful landscape of the city to get to know both this new home and each other.”

“Athens cannot be put into words, and I am so grateful this is my home for the next three weeks and to be learning about art.”

Oregon State University graduate Rebekah Smith majored in Public Health and minored in Psychology. As spring term was coming to a close in Corvallis, Rebekah was nearing the end of her internship in Quito, Ecuador with Child Family Health International (CFHI). As an IE3 Global Internships scholarship recipient, Rebekah participated in an internship involving medical rotations, and was able to reflect on her experience while still abroad.

I am now ending my seventh week in Quito, Ecuador. I have three more weeks in this amazing country and am in no way prepared to leave. To provide some insight into how huge of a development this trip has been for me, let me explain just how new international travel was to me just seven weeks ago. Prior to this trip, I had never left the United States, nor even had a passport of my own before applying to intern with CFHI and IE3. Understandably, these factors led me to have a ton of anxiety, which combined with the fact that I did not speak any Spanish. Despite the many “firsts” I’ve tackled recently, I have grown not only comfortable overseas, but have developed a huge passion for traveling and experiencing other cultures.

My internship involves attending clinical rotations and taking Spanish classes with incredible instructors in Quito on weekdays. I’ve found that having some responsibilities in the city makes me feel as though I have a purpose here and am bettering myself professionally. My biggest words of wisdom when spending time in another country’s healthcare system would be to remember why you are there. This can be very difficult, especially with regards to healthcare because systems can vary so greatly between countries. Remembering that you are solely there to learn will help when experiencing things completely different from the U.S. It will only cause stress to think that you are there to fix issues or judge another country’s healthcare system. Our purpose as interns is to act like sponges, learn everything we can, and return to the U.S. with a better perspective and deeper compassion for health care. This concept will help you in all areas of interning with this program. When I was volunteering in the schools I also had to remember this because they teach different subjects and use different techniques than we do in the states.

On the weekends, I am TRAVELING! Traveling has been such a huge aspect of my experience here and has taught me about the culture and country just as much as the program itself has. Traveling to the different Ecuadorian cities is such an incredible experience because within a few hours you can be in the Andes Mountains, on the beautiful coast, or deep in the jungle. Traveling forces you to practice Spanish and allows you to meet an outstanding amount of people, both foreign and local. I have traveled to a cloud forest in Mindo, the sunny beach in Montanita and Canoa, and am soon traveling to a gorgeous volcano in Cotopaxi. I also have plans to yonder on to an adventure-filled town called Banos, as well as the jungle in Tena. Traveling around is affordable and easy, as well as gives you opportunity to develop a great sense of independence and cultural competency. Traveling is also the way to make everlasting memories with other students in your program! You are stuck on buses together, staying in amazing hostels and going through both stressful and exciting times together.

Being abroad in Ecuador has taught me many things so far. One of the most impactful things I have learned is patience. America is very “Type A” and extremely punctual, these things are not a priority in Ecuador. I have waited over an hour for one of my preceptors to arrive at a meeting, I have had doctors show up twenty minutes late to appointments and many other experiences. You are also very commonly juggling your wants and needs with those of the other students who you are working with, and this requires a large amount off adaptability and patience. These experiences have taught me patience, and how to adjust to other cultures. For example, I don’t go anywhere without a book here! It is your job to adjust to them, the entire culture does not need to adjust to you, so learn to adapt! It’s been nothing but beneficial because I have finished two books just traveling and waiting for meetings, It’s GREAT!

Some final advice I have is, to bring more money than you expect. You will never be able to be totally prepared for traveling abroad or be able to know what you will be doing. Having money hold you back from being able to engage in a great opportunity would be upsetting so just budget extra! I also advise to release any expectations you have or restrictions you have in the U.S. For example, two of the guys in the program were vegetarians for ethical reasons in America and came to find that it restricted them so much here in Ecuador, and they wanted to be able to experience the culture so they put their expectations aside and decided to return to being vegetarian when they returned home. I really respected their choices because they fully immersed themselves in the culture and benefited from it greatly. As far as avoiding cultural mistakes, I was so lucky to have a friend who had been here for a long time before I arrived, and I was constantly asking her questions and observing how she interacted with locals. This was really helpful for me because I was able to learn polite mannerisms and safe tactics while in Ecuador.

This experience has been life-changing. As cliche as that may be, it truly has been an experience that has helped me grow and develop my independence and cultural competency. I only want to continue the experience, I am NOT ready to go home in three weeks!

This blog was originally published on the IE3 Field Notes Blog. For a link to the original entry, click here.

Breanna Balleby is a junior in the Oregon State University Honors College majoring in English and International Studies and minoring in French. During Summer 2013, Breanna studied at the Centre international d’étude de la langue française (CIDEF) at the Université Catholique de l’Ouest in Angers, France through the summer intensive french language program offered by AHA International. She also detailed her term-long experience abroad in her own summer travel blog.

Weekend excursions, soirées with the moniteurs (teaching assistants), dinners with my famille d’accueil (host family), and of course mes cours (my courses) made my first experience abroad a flourishing success. All aspects of my French language proficiency (speaking, listening, writing, and reading comprehension) skyrocketed while studying abroad. Combine that with my continued appreciation and understanding of the surrounding culture française and it’s easy to see how my experience abroad was so fulfilling. To top it all off, I found it was the unexpected and spontaneous moments out and about in Angers that really enhanced my time abroad. It was at these seemingly unimportant times that I found myself fully experiencing la vie française (the French life) and practically blending in with the rest of the Angevins (people from Angers).

One of my favorite moments may appear rather mundane from an outside perspective, but to me it represented a realization of true immersion. I was waiting for the bus, as I often did while in Angers. By the way, I must take a side tangent to compliment Angers, along with the rest of France on its exceptional public transportation system. When I first arrived in Angers, my host family told me the bus would always be within six minutes of the time it was supposed to be there, up to three minutes before and up to three minutes later than the proposed time. I have to say, as a frequent rider of ligne 3 between my host home in Avrillé (a suburb of Angers) and centre-ville (downtown), I was very pleased to find that my host family’s tip was correct! It was quite an efficient transportation system and definitely made me recognize some ways we could improve our own public transit back home. Needless to say, I was a fan of irigo (the Angers transit system).

So anyway, I was waiting for the bus, right? It was a beautiful summer day, but there was an occasional downpour or two even in the warmest months of the year. Let’s just say, I came to France not knowing the word for “storm,” but left knowing very well that it is called an horage. This late-July day, I was almost to the bus stop when I felt a few raindrops on my arms that were soon accompanied by the sound of distant thunder. Within seconds, I had made it to the bus stop and the rain was pouring. It was amazing how quickly it was coming down, but what was more moving was the instant sense of community ignited by this deluge. People who had been walking along le Boulevard Foch quickly popped into the bus stop in order to escape the rain. In this moment, language was unnecessary to express the general shock and partial humor of the situation. A group of us were huddled together in that bus stop away from the beating rain and rushing wind, half smiling and half in awe of the scene before us. This moment only lasted a few minutes, but it is much more powerful to me than just getting stuck outside during an unexpected horage. At that time, everyone who piled into the bus stop was similar, and we transcended the normal roles of Angevin, foreigner, student, passerby, etc. As simple as it was from an outside perspective, it was one of the first times where my identity as “a student from the United States temporarily living in France” disappeared momentarily, and we all became “some people who happened to be outside during a passing horage.”

This experience marked the beginning of a grand appreciation for living in the moment. From that point on, I continued to search the beauty of simplistic or routine qualities of life in Angers. On Saturday, I went to the local marché en plein air (Farmer’s Market). I tried sushi for the first time ever with my French friend, Anne-Claire. I visited le Musée des Beaux-Arts (the local art museum) not once, but three times, after finding out that admission was free for students. During my one week off from classes, I even figured out how to get a library card at the municipal library! Lastly, I would always take up the opportunity to walk around Angers whether I was on my way home from the university, wandering downtown, or exploring the beautiful riverside park behind my host family’s house. Overall, it was these experiences that helped me fully integrate into the Angevin culture. By focusing on these serendipitous and passing moments, I transitioned from being an outsider and a tourist to becoming a participatory and understanding student of la vie angevine.

It is this quality of life, more than anything that I’ve taken away with me from studying abroad in Angers. So now, no matter where I am in the world, I have continued (and plan to continue!) to fully participate in and reflect on those seemingly unimportant moments. These preciously simple instances of day-to-day life should be appreciated for the potential of adventure, spontaneity, and/or even just a possibility of a shared human experience that lies within.

Claire Ostertag-Hill, a senior double majoring in Biology and Psychology and minoring in Chemistry at Oregon State University, interned at the Center for Social Medicine in India through IE3 Global Internships during Fall 2013 and explains the impact her experience overseas has had on her day-to-day life.

After completing my internship at Pravara Medical Trust, I was fortunate to be able to travel northern India for a little over a week before visiting Thailand and then making a short stopover in South Korea. These post-internship travels allowed me to transition more slowly back into life in America. I first got the chance to explore the grand cultural diversity and visit some of the big sights in India, followed by embarking on new cultural adventures in Thailand and South Korea. This gave me an opportunity to first reflect on India’s culture through contrasting it with other Asian cultures and appreciate the cultural ideals that are maintained across Asia. The excitement of my post-internship travels initially prevented me from realizing the lasting impression India had made on me during my eleven weeks there.

Now that I am settling back into my life in the U.S., the lasting impacts of my time in India are becoming much more evident. Of course it is nice to be back with my family and friends, to have conveniences of American life, and the freedom to safely make my own decisions. However, there are many things I miss about India – my friends, the culture, the bright colors, the lively streets and busy village. I miss the unpredictability of life in India, and the knowledge that each time I stepped out my room, I would be embarking on a new adventure with new observations to be made and new things to be learned. I love India for all the amazing new experiences it has enabled me to have over the past eleven weeks, from the novel medical and health exposures, to becoming an active participant in the rich Indian culture and visiting the absolutely breathtaking architecture, and to the exciting activities I engaged in such as para-sailing, riding on the back of a motorcycle, and riding an elephant and a camel. It is difficult, nearly impossible, to fully describe everything that I have experienced in India and the lasting effects it has had on me as a person and potentially on my future.

Follow the link below to Claire’s original entry on the IE3 Field Notes Blog: http://ie3global.ous.edu/blog/comments/1363

Kristin Chase recently graduated from Oregon State University with degrees in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and International Studies and an Anthropology minor. Kristin recently returned from Amman, Jordan where she studied Arabic through the SIT: Intensive Arabic Language Studies program. Additionally, Kristin interned at Ruwwad: The Arab Foundation for Sustainable Development through IE3 Global Internships.

I returned about a month ago from spending five amazing months in Jordan. While abroad I had the opportunity to build upon my Arabic language education, as well as apply my research skills and passion for social justice. Since OSU only offers second year Arabic courses online, it was imperative that I go abroad in order to continue working towards my goal of becoming fluent. I chose to study through SIT because they offer a seven-week intensive language program in the summer. I wanted a program that was focused on language and had a homestay component. I lived with a middle class- Palestinian family who spoke fluent English, but also spoke Arabic with me. I was able to experience Ramadan in a family setting and learn more about Jordanian life from the perspective of a particular class in society. The program was also a good fit for me because we took many excursions that allowed students to understand more about the country’s culture and history. My favorite part of the SIT program was the Bedouin homestay experience. I had such a sweet family and I went back to visit them for a week after the program ended. Not only did my host family treat me as one of their own, but I also quickly became close with many members of the village. Overall, it was great starting out with a structured program as it provided a smooth transition into Jordanian society.

After completing the language program, I started a three-month internship with Ruwwad, an organization based on community and youth empowerment that hosts many sustainable programs to benefit the local people. I chose this particular internship because of the organization’s focus on women and gender equality. Ruwwad allowed me to merge my interests in, and apply my skills related to, women’s issues, Arabic language and culture, and research writing. I wouldn’t do the organization justice by trying to describe all of the incredible work they do, so I will focus on my particular projects. Since I am a Women, Gender, and Sexuality studies major, I knew I wanted to focus my efforts on something that would benefit women. Therefore, I taught women’s English classes (which were content based) that allowed me to develop relationships with many women in the community. My conservative dress and knowledge of Islam made me quickly accepted by the female students and their family members. Reputation is extremely important in such a community. The classes provided opportunities for the students and I to speak about clothing and modesty, gender roles, the Arab spring and other political issues, leadership and community involvement, as well as the media. Every day was such a pleasure because the women were really funny and opinionated and I enjoyed watching them express themselves as they became more comfortable in class. Our conversations gave me a deeper understanding of the power issues women face in their particular community, which helped shape the other component of my internship. I developed a conscious building module that Ruwwad will translate into Arabic and implement over the next few months. I am really excited about this and think Ruwwad is a model social justice organization. I feel so blessed to have been selected to intern for them.

While completing my internship, I lived in an apartment with a British woman who worked as a refugee activist. It was really nice to live with someone who shared similar passions and could relate to being a woman abroad. Living in a new environment, particularly the Middle East, has a lot of negative stereotypes attached to it—especially if you’re a woman. However, I highly recommend it! I found that in general, because of my respect for the local customs and interest in the language, culture, and religious dynamics, most families and women accepted me and treated me as family. Jordan, and some neighboring countries, I would argue, are much safer than reported by the media. Moving somewhere new with such a complex and fascinating culture forced me to rely on myself and become more competent, not only in navigating new geographical spaces, but also in understanding sociocultural dynamics, my own identity, and other people. I have become so much more confident and grown into myself by embarking on this journey and I am beyond blessed to have had this opportunity. I can’t wait to go back!

OSU Abroad

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Category Archives: College of Liberal Arts

Art in Athens: Part Two

Turning Point: Learning to Cha-Cha

Art in Athens: Discovering Greece Through the Eyes of a Painter

Reflecting Before the End

Joie de vivre: Discovering the “Joy of Life” in Angers

Leaving India with the World in my Baggage

My Second Home: Jordan

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