We are happy to announce the results of the CIEE story contest. We asked all Spring & Summer 2009 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 and inventive 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
Erin Jones, University of Texas at Austin
Cape Town, South Africa
Good Morning
It starts with a hot sun ray oozing languidly over my face.
I open my eyes, an awakening, and take note of my failure last night to pull the heavy blue curtains all the way across the windows which occupy an entire wall of my room. I view my alarm clock; the face is partially obscured by a black digital liquid which follows the cracks that appeared last week when I dropped it violently (and accidentally) on the hard wooden tile floor. I see that the hour is 7, and the minute begins with something that has an L-shaped bottom left corner.
I have time, all of it. This alarm clock situation is freeing, my new-agey self thinks philosophically. A broken alarm clock reminds me that clocks do not embody time, but merely describe it; time does not, in fact, exist. The clock is useful because it tells me the hour but refrains from impolitely troubling me with the minute.
I won't fix it.
Read the rest of Erin's story.
Honorable Mention
Jessie Nance, Scripps College
Santiago, Dominican Republic
The Bulla
I can still hear it. The bulla as they call it in the Dominican Republic. Music, voices, television; noise of any sort that fills streets, permeates walls, and sometimes makes you want to invest in earplugs. But most of all, I remember the laughter.
I’m back in the States. I’m walking outside of my job, and I try to find it, any sort of sound or smell that will take me back to Santiago, back to my community. But I struggle. I’m wearing my bracelets given to me by my host brother and sisters. I’m wearing a necklace given to me by my host mom. I’m wearing the confidence and the pride that Dominican women instilled in me. And eventually, I’m there again.
Read the rest of Jessie's story.
Honorable Mention
Bradley James Whelan, Portland State University
Shanghai, China
China
As the sun beat down on me from its seat above in the deep blue sky, I took another step into the sandy dune, drew in a breath and continued upward. When I reached the top and looked out upon the vast and seemingly endless dunes of the Gobi Desert, I knew immediately that studying abroad in China was the best decision of my life. The night before I had spent four hours to the east in the Mongolian Grasslands, where I had rode a horse across the equally vast plains, wrestled a Mongolian native, and ate lamb off the bone. This all sounds fictional, like some fabricated story, but it is real. Here I was, one day later facing one of the largest deserts on the planet. It took a car, a jeep, and a camel for me to get here, but I made it.
Read the rest of Bradley's story.
Honorable Mention
Isis Irizarry, Trinity College, Connecticut
Santiago, Chile
Santiago, Chile
She awakes and, without opening her eyes, knows she is in the same bed. She lies with her head towards the cordillera ("To find east, find the mountains" they always told her), her face pointing south, her feet towards the sands of beaches, and her back to her past: north. She feels the weight of the multiple comforters that shields her from the cold of Chilean winters. A wiggle of her shoulder readjusts her protection. She wants to enjoy this moment a few minutes longer.
Read the rest of Isis' story.