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Category Stories: Wellness, Health, and Safety

  • 7 Ways to Stay Mentally Healthy During Study Abroad

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    7 Ways to Stay Mentally Healthy During Study Abroad

    7 Ways to Stay Mentally Healthy During Study Abroad Study abroad can be very daunting, especially when you have to simultaneously juggle so many things: staying on top of your academics, making time to explore the country, trying to cope with the cultural differences, making new friends, etc. I find that being a first generation…

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  • How Cheez Whiz in Mexico Helped Me Find My Path to Medical School

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    How Cheez Whiz in Mexico Helped Me Find My Path to Medical School

    “Cheez Whiz.” “Qué?” “Cheez Whiz!” I flush from the combined efforts of interpreting the command, understanding what Cheez Whiz could possibly mean in this context, and the lack of air conditioning in the hospital. Soon I will start sweating, which will only cause the latex gloves to stick to my skin and fluster me more.…

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  • Learning to Appreciate Nature in Chile as a City Girl

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    Learning to Appreciate Nature in Chile as a City Girl

    Chile’s Beauty Right outside my apartment window sits Cerro Santa Lucía, a beautiful European-style urban park in the heart of Santiago. If I walk anywhere in the city, I am bound to pass a park, whether it be Chile’s largest urban park (and the third-largest in the world) – Parque Metropolitano – or the picturesque picnic spot and…

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  • Tips for Student Athletes Studying Abroad

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    Tips for Student Athletes Studying Abroad

    One of my worries about going abroad was how I was going to continue athletics in another country. I play on the women’s lacrosse team at my home university. Because lacrosse is a spring sport, we have a set plan of workouts to complete throughout the fall semester. The workouts consist of lifts in the…

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  • Living Gluten Free in Peru

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    Living Gluten Free in Peru

    For the past couple of months, Sophie has been adapting her gluten- and dairy- free lifestyle to Peru; one of the most food-focused countries in the world.  Sophie has celiac disease and is lactose intolerance. In Lima there is increasing awareness of dietary restrictions and a growing market for gluten- and dairy-free products. However, it still hasn’t reached the…

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  • Learning How to Swim in Troubled Waters

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    Learning How to Swim in Troubled Waters

    Life is truly unpredictable. You never know what’s going to happen, when it’ll happen, or where you’ll end up. In some cases, this means being granted some of the best blessings in life; exploring countries you never thought you’d ever see. In other cases, this means dealing with hardships that derail you from everything you…

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  • Yes! Extroverts Get Culture Shock Too

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    Yes! Extroverts Get Culture Shock Too

    I had been anxiously awaiting my semester abroad so much that I didn’t sleep the night before my 7 a.m. flight to London. I’ll admit I was too tired to do my normal fidgeting on the plane but once I touched down in the U.K. I felt a wash of relief and assurance that the…

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  • Abroad: This is For Me, Not For You…

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    Abroad: This is For Me, Not For You…

    Being First Gen My background as a first-generation student has been crucial in determining the experiences I’ve had growing up. For me, being first-generation means coming from a low-income family with immigrant parents; well meaning but unable to give advice on how to navigate the U.S. education system and careers that follow after. It also…

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  • How Study Abroad Helped my Mental Health and Emotions

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    How Study Abroad Helped my Mental Health and Emotions

    Mental Health Back Home My emotions are something I’ve struggled with a lot in the past. In particular, I feel this at my home university because at Colby I feel stressed and sometimes lonely. Being so far away from home at Colby is hard. I always miss my family and the comfort of Chicago: of…

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  • Homesickness Abroad: How To Get Over the First Month Slump

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    Homesickness Abroad: How To Get Over the First Month Slump

    Homesickness Abroad: How To Get Over the First Month Slump Part One: The Slump Ask just about anyone who studied abroad and they will all likely tell you the same thing: it was life changing. Ask me? I will without a doubt agree. But if you would have asked me, “How do you like study…

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