Category Stories: Wellness, Health, and Safety
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What No One Tells You About Study Abroad
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You will want to go home. And that’s okay. In my experience, before studying abroad everyone I talked to only referred to it in positive terms, raving about how it was the best time of their life. Now that I’m at the end of my study abroad term, I understand why. There are so many…
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Adjusting to Cultural Norms in Argentina
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We may not realize it, but staring is taboo in the United States. Here, personal space dictates a standard halo of two feet, with arms, legs, and eyes inside that bubble. One of my U.S. professors told me Americans can’t make eye contact for five consecutive seconds without getting into a fight or having sex.…
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“Abroad Changed Me” – Mental Illness and Embodying a Cliche
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I left the United States for the first time in the summer of 2019 right before my freshman year of college. I had very little travel experience. I could count the number of flights I had taken on one hand. Entering college, I did not think that I would study abroad. As someone who has…
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7 Ways to Stay Mentally Healthy During Study Abroad
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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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“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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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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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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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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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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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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