Studyabroad @ MindSay

BlogAbroad.com Season 4: Behind the Scenes

As a BlogAbroad Blogger, you have an unparalleled opportunity to share your study abroad experiences with both perspective students and other interested readers. You will soon find people eagerly reading your posts and responding with comments, questions, and even advice. Some of our previous bloggers had feature stories written about them in several national newspapers as well as their hometown and college papers.

Your blog can also help you stay in touch with family and friends back home, and keep them updated on your actions. Your blog will later serve as a journal and record of what you experienced abroad. It will be something you can reflect on and treasure for years to come.

And as though all that weren't enough, there is a $500 prize for successful completion of a semester blogging for BlogAbroad.com.

In order to be a BlogAbroad Blogger, you must meet the following criteria:

You must be 18 years of age or older and in good standing at a college or university.

You must be enrolled in a full-time semester-long study abroad program for Fall of 2006.

You must be willing and able to meet all stipulations as described in the Blogging Content Guidelines.

You must post at least 3 times a week while abroad as well as once per week before leaving for your program.

You must post 3 pictures of your adventures a week.

You must be willing to interact with those reading your blog by responding to at least three comments per week.

You must be willing to complete a follow up interview after reentry.

Also please read the complete Blogging Content Guidelines and Contest Rules before auditioning.

Fill out the BlogAbroad Season 4 Application Now!

Please come to BlogAbroad.com and fill out the quickpoll on the right hand side!

For me personally, the entire BlogAbroad "project" has now come full circle.   Years ago we started the project, and there weren't many people who understood exactly what we wanted to do.   Yesterday, all of our hard work and many-hour sessions building what is the only real time multimedia study abroad experience on the internet and in the world paid off.

Gunnar Larson, who has done some amazing reporting for BlogAbroad this season stopped by and interviewed our BlogAbroader Jeff, who has been studying in the Czech Republic.   Click below and enjoy the video.

This is Study Abroad, and this is why BlogAbroad exists.

Thank you for your support everyone.

- Drew

The front porch of the house I stayed at for my weekend home stay.

I’m really glad that I don’t have freckles because it makes it really easy to search for bed bugs.  Yes that's right.  Bed bugs!  Honey-sugar-lemon-ice-tea!  I just finished my home stay and I contracted bed bugs!  The bed I slept in last night may have been a little smelly but I think it was the longest, solid chunk of sleep of had my entire time here.  I slept from 10:30 PM to 6:00 AM - amazing!  It was so lovely to slowly awaken to sunbeams filtering in through the decorative wooden molding and screen along the ceiling.  

 

Besides the bed bugs (which remind me of deer ticks) I had an absolutely wonderful experience which was completely worth the current full body loofah exfoliation I just endured.  God bless Brenna for thoroughly examining my back and picking off the tiny bugs.  Luckily I slept in long pants and long sleeves because they are (let's be optimistic - were) all located around where my shirt met my pants. 

 

Now that I finished my indignant rant on the dozen pin point size parasites that latched onto my hips, back, and thighs I'll share with you the joys of a home stay. 

 

I arrived at 9:00 AM in the morning, my most important parcels being a tattered Spanish-English dictionary, my beloved camera, and three packages wrapped in newspaper.  My host “mom” was Miriam the same lady who two weeks prior, took me in and taught me how to make spinach tortilla soup with fresh cilantro.  A group of five children guided me from the street to her home where I met her on the porch.  Immediately after our greeting, I gave her one of the packages and the other two to two of the children.  She unwrapped a container of Old Bay Spice, a twin named David opened an American flag notepad and a mini American flag, and his sister opened a bag a Hershey dark chocolate miniatures. 

 

Sunday morning after a breakfast of fried plantains, fresh pineapple, gallo pinto, and a tomato and goat cheese sandwich on white bread we went to church.  I didn’t really pay too much attention to the sermon besides when the priest said it is important to be true to yourself and when to stand sit and kiss people because I was so engrossed in people watching.  When the choir sang, a few silent tears fell down my cheeks as I thought about my little brother simultaneously singing in a church in Nicaragua with his college choir.  This is the first time he has left North America and I yearned to hear and see him and to know what he was thinking at that moment.  I think another reason for my tears was that I was overwhelmed by the beauty of imperfection.  There was a tiny, elderly women sitting in front of me in a homemade brown dress with a crooked spine and a middle age women who walked by with fat hanging off her arms.  In front of me was an old man in a hat, his neck was weathered and leathery.  We are all so fragile; I think that’s one of the things that makes the human condition so magnificent. 

 

Surrounded by the Ticos I felt a little uncivilized because I smelled of lemon grass soap while every else was scented with rich perfumes.  Because it takes so much extra brain power to understand the language,  I tend to tune out words and focus more on my other senses such as the feeling of the wind blowing through the open church and the sound it makes as it rush past all the skirts and pants of the church goers.  A lot of the architecture here is open to the sunlight, I really enjoy watching the flicker of light and shadow.  Something I learned from this home stay is to never underestimate the communicative power of smiles, winks, body language, and grunts.

A view of the kitchen, as you can see in the top left corner, along the ceiling was a wooden mesh that gave the house great aeration and lighting.

 

Miriam, my host Mom, prepares coffee by pouring boiling hot water through a cloth filled with coffee grinds.  Yummy!

 

Miriam taught me how to fry plantains!  Aren't they gorgeous!

 

I don't know why the caged bird sings.

 

[My next project after Spring Break and traveling to Nicaragua is to spend a week surveying visitors in Poas Volcano National Park on their ideal picnic area because the current area is in a state of disrepair and the government has given the park $10,000 to spend on a new one. Before we survey visitors, we need to write up survey questions. My request to you is to give me ideas on survey questions, what you think a park picnic area should include, and any photos you have of good/bad picnic areas. Thank you!]

A view of Volcan Poas taken last week before the clouds rolled in.