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3 Ways a Student Can Save Money in Northern Ireland
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What I Didn’t Plan For Financing a study abroad program can be a challenge for some students, especially, it seems, first-generation students. I know that one of my most pressing worries was “Do I have enough money to sustain myself in a foreign country?” I was very careful about anticipating expenses and planning my budget…
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How to Believe in God in Buenos Aires
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I like to think about God. I like the idea of God. I like the bruised, vast mass of enthusiastic yet estranged believers scattered across the planet. I like the founding myths. I like the traditions and the weight of people who have come before. I like the smell of incense, and I like the…
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3 First and Lasting Impressions of Sydney
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First impressions are everything. Whether they end up being right or wrong, they help us size-up our surroundings. When I first arrived to Sydney, Australia, my mind spat out a plethora of thoughts and emotions. After processing that I had just completed the longest travel adventure of my life, I started to form my initial…
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Feeling on Top of The World, All on Your Own
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Understanding the experience of being a first generation student is difficult; sometimes it seems like all students share the same issues and emotions, and other times it feels like nobody struggles the same way “first-gens” do. Yet, being a first generation student is truly a unique experience. These students are often highly motivated on their…
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Coping with Recent Terrorist Threats in the U.K.
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This summer, I began to grow nervous about my decision to study abroad in the U.K. A few terrorist attacks occurred at the beginning of the summer, and I was worried I made the wrong choice. Three days after I arrived, there was another attack on the tube at Parson’s Green. While normally at home…
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Cell Phones in the U.K. : A Beginner’s Guide
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IFSA-Butler has a new policy that students must have a cell phone which can send and receive local calls and texts while they are abroad, because it is important to be able to reach them in case of emergency. In the U.K., there are a few options for this. Different plans work for different people,…
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Home Is a Verb: Building a New Life in Galway
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It’s 10:30 am, and I’ve stumbled, bleary-eyed, off the bus into Galway City. The drive from the Shannon Airport to my new apartment’s only about an hour, but it feels more like five. I’ve been sitting on an airplane for almost half a day, and my perception of time and sense of place can’t be…
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Café Musts in Buenos Aires
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Buenos Aires is often accused of being culturally a ‘European’ city, and while I can’t speak much to that because I haven’t been to Europe, I can vouch for the fact that European café culture has certainly gained a firm foothold in Buenos Aires – and it is a very, very good thing. First of…
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Science and Engineering Abroad
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Every weekday morning, the University of Auckland campus inflates with over 30,000 students. Eight hours later, the campus shrinks when nearly all of the students commute back to their home outside of Auckland city. The University of Auckland is New Zealand’s highest ranking university, and it’s renowned for its research and success in STEM. Yet, coming from a university…
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For the Student Activist Abroad
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By January of my sophomore year, I was feeling emotionally and physically drained. It was almost as if all of the energy I had mustered over a lifetime had been sucked out of me by my academic and social situations, as well as the political climate. I had been working over twenty hours a week,…