We are happy to announce the results of the CIEE story contest. We asked all Spring + Summer 2007 CIEE Study Center participants to submit their story – a reflection of their international experience. We asked: what did you learn about the local culture, people, yourself? How has it changed your outlook? What would you tell other students thinking of going abroad?
We received many wonderful entries. It was hard to pick the winners! For those who participated, thank you. We greatly enjoyed reading all about your experiences on a CIEE Study Center program.
Congratulations to all!
Overall Winner
Gwen Hopkins, Trinity College, CT
CIEE Study Center in Dakar, Senegal, Spring 2007
Senegal is Delicious
[And Other Things I Learned in Wolof]
One month and one year ago, I was up late having a heated discussion in my common room at Trinity College. I was enlisting everyone I knew to lend input and opinions on a question I had to answer by the end of the night: study abroad in France or Senegal? I should’ve known that it had to be Senegal just from the fact that I was asking the question. Advice for future debaters: if you have even the vaguest curiosity, feel even the vaguest pull away from the Western world, you have to go. The fact that I was asking for others’ opinions meant that I was looking for validation, which was unlike me. Normally other people’s opinions don’t have much of a place in my life decisions – but here I was looking for reinforcement, needing people to tell me that it was perfectly sane if I decided to Africa while the rest of my friends went to Europe and Australia. I was afraid.
I knew my parents were afraid for me, and that freaked me out a little. I knew that if I went, we wouldn’t be able to tell my mom’s parents, who had forbid me from going. I knew that if I went, I would be leaving most of the rules and continuities that had structured my entire life. I knew that the part of me I admire most was the part that wanted to go: adventuresome, curious, headstrong, impulsive, thrill-seeking, but above all the traveling part. But I was worried that part of me wasn’t big enough, that everyone else one the program would be 100% all those things and well-versed in politics, geography, the art of navigating cities, and the patience and confidence required to be a racial minority.
Read Gwen's entire story...
Second Place
Sara Ronald, Indiana University
CIEE Study Center in St. Petersburg, Russia, Spring 2007
My CIEE Story
Anyone who studies abroad is going to have a variety of defining experiences, in quiet museums and in loud bars. But the one story that stick with me the most happened at a most unexpected place and time.
It was a Sunday in late March and the weather was fantastic. My host mother had been encouraging me to visit the pedestrian-only park of Yelagin Island for some time, but on this day she insisted that such good weather must not be wasted. Of course, good weather at this point meant that the temperature was barely above freezing and it wasn’t snowing. My friends and I were going to a play later that evening, so I figured most of them would be spending the afternoon finishing their homework, so I went alone.
Read Sara's entire story...
Third Place (tie!)
Jonathan Hines, Indiana University
CIEE Study Center in São Paul, Brazil, Spring 2007
A Public School in São Paulo
My group of twenty-five American students walk off our private bus onto an unfamiliar street 40 minutes outside the center of São Paulo, the most populous urban habitat in the southern hemisphere. Our driver has taken us west across a polluted river towards the poorer periphery of the metropolitan giant. He navigated the shifting, tangled web of traffic and infrastructure as if possessing a sixth sense as we chatted expectantly in the back of the vehicle. Though we are all accomplished college students, field trips still excite us.
As we cross the street and pass through a gated entryway, I can’t help but notice the disheveled look of the place. The building is ugly. All concrete and chipped paint, it hardly seems an optimum environment for learning. I am about to tour a public school in Brazil.
Read Jonathan's entire story...
Third Place (tie!)
Michelle DePlante, Providence College
CIEE Study Center in Sevilla, Spain, Summer 2007
Sevilla, nos vemos.
Guiri,
Send me a letter.
Fill it with suitcases full of material things,
me da igual
Vamos a desayunar,
Language barrier bringing awkward silence.
There's so much more I want to say, Vale?
Venga, walk with me, toca tu guitarra,
Ten cuidado, cerca de la fuente.
watch the doves and talk about la vida.
Almuerzo, super sol here we come.
We'll sit out on the second bench and watch the tourists with their maps.
Mira los guiris.
Zumo de naranja y media con aceite,
I can order my own now.
Que fuerte tia!
Stand on your doorstep,
Clap me a rhythm, llena de colores, castanets,
....flamenco por favor
Anda!
Sevillana.