Why Study Abroad?

So why go abroad at all? My reasons are pretty simple. The Arabic we learn in classrooms is not the Arabic any one actually speaks. I have to travel to learn Arabic the way I want to. But even if you're majoring in something you can learn just as easy in Seattle, there are plenty of benefits to studying abroad. The value of increased understanding across cultures and languages is, I would argue, undeniable. If you're a student who works and goes to school than this opportunity to experience a quarter of just studying (or that "typical college experience" that a few of our lucky peers and almost every college student in movies get to have.) My friends who have studied abroad have come home with incredible stories and friendships that shape their lives. This is an experience that could benefit every student, no matter what our major. I get questions about non-traditional students or students with exceptional circumstances about studying abroad, and what follows is my advice and suggestions. Please keep in mind that I'm not a professional anything, especially not a doctor, and that your school has a whole office full of professionals to help you make these kind of decisions. Don't just take my advice. If you're at UW, go to the IPE office and if you're at another school, find out what resources are available to you.

So you want to study abroad, but...

What if I'm in a relationship?


I thought I'd get this one out of the way upfront because I'm the least qualified to answer it. I've traveled on short (2-3 week) trips while in a relationship and each time I came home to find out my SO had met some one else or wanted to break up. I don't blame the travel, but I think my pessimism on the topic of dating while traveling is more out of personal experience than actual knowledge. I do know this: my grandparents waited for years while my grandfather fought in WWII and still made things work. They didn't have anything more than semi-regular letters to keep in touch with. Every relationship and set of circumstances is different, so no one can tell you that you will for sure break up or that you will for sure stay together. No one. You might go abroad and stay together, you might stay home and break up. No one knows. What you should keep in mind is how much contact will be a. practical and b. necessary once you're overseas. I think that keeping in touch with any one (friends, family, significant others) is an important part of travelling. Relating your experiences, sharing what you see and feel with those at home will not only help you remember the trip later it will help you make sense of the completely normal feelings of homesickness and alienation that can come up when you're far from home. So writing long emails to your boyfriend every day might be helpful, but there is a point where spending too much time staying connected with people at home actually keeps you from fully experiencing the opportunities of studying abroad. My advice: Study abroad is still possible while you're in a relationship, but you should decide ahead of time how much communication is reasonable and stick to it. Dan Savage has some sage words on the topic, as well.

What if I have kids?


Wow am I NOT qualified to answer this one. I did some research and found a number of parents who have been able to study abroad, either by leaving their children with a spouse or other family member (and before any one leaps to call them a bad parent for this, I just want to point out that military families leave their children when they're deployed, frequently for much longer periods of time than a typical study abroad program.) A few parents took their children with them, a decision that requires quite a bit more planning (both financial and logistical) but seemed to work out OK. The parents I know (single and otherwise) are already used to making the kinds of dramatically more complicated decisions that having a baby requires, and, as a non-parent, I am hesitant to second-guess them about it.

What if I'm a vegetarian? 


Now we're on to topics I'm familiar with. I've been a vegetarian for 22 years. At this point in my life eating meat isn't a choice I can physically make without, I would imagine, a pretty significant objection from my body. But that's OK. Being a vegetarian (or vegan, or gluten-free or having a peanut/shellfish/whatever allergy) is not the single most important defining characteristic of my life. When I have traveled abroad before I've generally found it no trouble at all to manage. I try not to inconvenience any one (as far as is possible) and I make sure that I communicate my needs beforehand. Flexibility is also a good thing. For example, at home I would never eat food cooked in chicken broth. In Palestine, a friend's mother made us a delicious dinner and made a special meatless dish for the vegetarians which, unfortunately, included rice boiled in broth. I made the decision to eat it anyway, mainly out of politeness but also because I was hungry and it was GREAT. My best friend is also vegetarian and currently in the Peace Corps in Burkina Faso. She has had to eat meat a few times when other options weren't available, but mainly manages to remove the meat from her food or just prepare her own. If you're really worried about it, look into cultures where vegetarianism is pretty common. India is a great example of this, but there are plenty of places to go where the high price of meat makes vegetarianism fairly commonplace. My only advice is to know how to explain your dietary needs in the language of the place you are going before you get there.

What if I'm afraid of spiders?

Great, me too. Let's start a club. This is why I live in a 5th-floor apartment, because my last house had wolf spiders that thought my leg was a great place to chill while I slept. SERIOUSLY. So then I went to Palestine and found out the only thing scarier than Spiders is what has to be the most science-fiction creature of all time, as portrayed by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

That's right: Scorpions. I have this running joke with friends about how I'd rather take on a meth head with a knife than deal with a spider (I have kind of a weird job) and scorpions are basically what would happen if you gave a spider meth and attached a knife to it. So I suppose I probably shouldn't be going to a desert to study abroad but it turns out the whole world is covered in scary things with too many legs and lots of poison. Or stingers, or teeth or claws. The world is scary. My fifth-floor apartment is possibly the only safe place in the world anywhere but I can't live here forever.

What if I have a mental illness or a physical disability?


I know that depression/anxiety and related illnesses are a big concern for college students. If you don't believe me, then you can probably skip this part and yay for you!

Ok, if you're still reading it means you have/might have/know some one who has a mental illness like depression. I just want to say (again) that I am in no way a doctor or an expert or anything. But I have had trouble with depression in the past and I don't think it should stop any one from going abroad. Here's the truth: depression sucks. It sneaks up on you, it changes the way you perceive reality, it make you believe very very bad things. But, if you have depression, if you know you have it and have dealt with it for years and especially if you've ever gotten professional help or treatment, you also know what to expect. Any one who goes on a study abroad program is at risk for pretty extreme emotions; homesickness, stress, alienation, all kinds of totally normal feelings that many people don't deal with on a daily basis. If you're already some one who deals with unpredictable emotions, you might actually be better prepared to handle it than a student with no prior experience with depression/anxiety/whatever. Find out what kind of support your program offers, and make sure you ask for help when you need it. Err on the side of caution. Don't think you can handle it alone, don't try to change/go off of your meds and don't imagine for a second that you're the only one there feeling lost. Open up to your classmates or friends or advisors. I'll say this for every one and I'll say it again when I talk about health and safety but Don't do drugs. It's a bad idea for anyone, but particularly if you're less emotionally stable and in an unfamiliar place.

As for physical disadvantages, so long as you are upfront about your needs from the start, you program should be able to make reasonable accommodations. It varies from person to person, place to place and situation to situation. Talk to your study abroad office and talk to your doctor. Don't just assume you won't be able to go.

As you can tell, I'm not a believer in any obstacle being big enough to hold you back from going abroad, if that's what you really want. If any one has any questions or wants to tell me I'm an idiot please e-mail or comment.

Why Morocco?

Last time I wrote briefly about choosing a program for study abroad that fits your budget. Of course, finances can't be the only reason you pick your destination. There are a number of factors to consider. Today I'll write about the process I went through to arrive at the decision to go to Morocco, as well as some country- and region-specific issues.


One of the first things to consider is what (if any) foreign language you'd like to learn. Not that you would ever let money decide something like this, but the Gilman grant does have supplemental extensions of up to $3,000 for the study of languages deemed "Critical Need Languages" these include:

Arabic (all dialects)

Chinese (all dialects)

Turkic (Azerbaijani, Kazakh, Kyrgz, Turkish, Turkmen, Uzbek)

Persian (Farsi, Dari, Kurdish, Pashto, Tajiki)

Indic (Hindi, Urdu, Nepali, Sinhala, Bengali, Punjabi, Marathi, Gujarati, Sindhi)

Korean

Russian

Swahili

I study Arabic, and I also receives a SMART grant from the government (not for study abroad but for my 2010-2011 academic year) as a result. While Romance languages may be more widely used in daily life, or a natural extension of your High School language studies, I encourage every student to strongly consider studying a CNL, both for the employment opportunities it will offer upon graduation and because (as the name implies) the country needs more Americans who can understand the languages spoken in the places where it goes to war. Whatever your personally political beliefs, communication is an essential step to understanding. (I'd also make the case that more of these CNL's should be taught to High School students, but, alas, I'm getting too far off of topic already.) 

Another thing to consider are the State Department Travel Warnings. Most, (if not all) American universities will not allow students to go on study abroad trips to any of the countries with travel warnings. I experienced this first-hand when trying to study in Palestine in Summer 2006. There are ways around this, but I don't recommend them. For one thing, you'll likely lose all of your financial aid. For another, you'll travel without the support of your school and all of the benefits that go with that (like people who answer phones and tell your parents to stop panicking.) Of course, every place has dangers, but you'll save yourself a lot of trouble if you check the list before considering any programs. 

So choosing a study abroad program based on your linguistic educational goals is pretty obvious. Further considering the affiliation of the program (mine is UW faculty-led, which means I'll be taught by a UW professor and my credits will count as specific UW classes) might save you transfer-credit headaches (or, in my department, placement-test headaches.) While Moroccan Arabic is not the most widely used or understood dialect of Arabic, the program at ALIF is both the most credits for my money and the easiest to count toward my degree. In taking a summer intensive I'm effectively saving myself an entire year of Arabic classes and graduating in August instead of June 2012. 

Morocco comes with a unique set of challenges and opportunities. This will be true wherever you decide to go, so I strongly encourage you to learn as much about customs and culture before you get to your destination. 

In Morocco, a predominantly Muslim nation, social norms are frequently tied to religious standards. Dressing modestly may be a challenge for the men and women in my program, as it will be incredibly hot, but I suspect that we'll be all right. Having pre-departure orientations has helped, particularly because our professor is from Morocco and can give us very practical answers about what is appropriate and not. Like the time when one particularly silly girl (me) remembered that I have 8 tattoos and sent a near-panicked e-mail asking if my host family would hate me for it. He calmly replied with links to photographs of Moroccan women with tattoos. These are things you can't ask a guide book. 

The expected modesty of dress is going to vary from city to city, but it is a good idea to consider this ahead of time, especially if you are staying with a host family. Another thing to learn about is the current politics of the country you'll be visiting. In Morocco, recent demonstrations against various policies of the government have remained relatively peaceful, but some violence has occurred, most notably the Marrakesh bombing by AQIM. Knowing about these issues ahead of time will help you avoid dangerous situations and also to be sensitive to the way local politics may affect the family you stay with or the people you encounter. 

Other social expectations (about, for example, alcohol consumption) will be very different in Morocco, but I'll blog more about that once I'm there. 

Happy weekend! 

Here is a cute cat video for you:

On Budgets and Air Travel

Hello!

In order to get the boring stuff out of the way, I'll first talk numbers:

This is the estimated expenses for my program, as provided by the International Programs & Exchanges (IPE) office of the UW:

Program fee/tuition: $4,500

Books & Materials:  $150

Housing: (included)

Food (some food included in homestay): $600

Local Transportation: $200

Roundtrip Airfare: $2,000

Program-related Expenses (passport, visa fees): $140

Program-related Personal Expenses: $500

IPE Fee: $250

Health-related expenses: $705

• UW Study Abroad Insurance (required) $111
• Travel Clinic - Standard Visit $169
• Immunizations $425

Total Estimated Cost: $9,045.00

To give you an idea of my personal financial situation, my AGI for 2010 was $17,613. This included the first 6 months of the year when I was employed full-time (and, as was the case, in a higher-paying job than I am currently) as well as the grants and scholarships I received for Fall quarter 2010. Currently I work 25-30 hours per week at above-minimum wage and I have my entire tuition and part of my living expenses covered through financial aid, but my AGI for 2011 will be significantly less than it was in 2010. 

As you can see, the Study Abroad program will cost more than half my entire annual income. (Significantly more than half, when you consider I can't work while I'm in Morocco.) 

This is one of the many reasons why I didn't even apply to study abroad programs in the past. I didn't think I could afford the trip, the tuition or the time off of work. (I've been consistently employed at least part-time since the age of 16.)  My early experience with college financial aid was frustrating; like many of you, my parents make enough money that I was disqualified from need-based aid and usually given a package that included a few smaller scholarships and tons and tons of loans.  From those early years I still carry about $14,000 in student loan debt. (Just writing that makes me a little anxious, to be honest.) I know that I have still been comparatively lucky. Many of my peers have upwards of $25,000 in loan debt, and many may have been "poor enough" to qualify for need-based aid but still struggled to reconcile the demands of a college education with working to support children or just to pay rent and buy a few groceries. Qualifying for Pell Grants might seem like an enviable thing to a middle-class kid taking out loan after loan, but surviving in America while living at or below the poverty line is no picnic. 

I think there are a number of things wrong with the financial aid system, but that is another blog post for another blog. Once I turned 24 I no longer had to claim my parents' income on the FASFA and paying for school became exponentially easier. The fact that I'm able to work only 25-30 hours a week still feels like a miracle. (At one point during my Sophomore year I was balancing 3 part-time jobs and, during one memorable week, clocked in 72 hours between them all while taking finals. Yeah, I slept very little and cried a lot that week.) There are a number of other factors besides age that can qualify you as an "independent student" (Emancipation as a minor, military service, marriage or having babies are the main 4.) If you don't qualify, however, all is not totally lost. 

Here are some tips for choosing study abroad programs with money in mind:

-Homestay: As you can see from the IPE budget, my program includes a homestay. The cost of this is included in the program fee, but is significantly less expensive than programs that put you in dorms or in apartments. Look for programs with homestays. You'll save on food, lodging and you'll be far more likely to experience life in the country you visit as a local and not just a tourist. If you're in a language program like me this is practically essential. 

-Regional variations: Look at countries with lower costs of living than the US. This site  can help with that (the link is to a Seattle/Casablanca comparison but you can change the entries.) I know Western Europe is great and beautiful and has lots of programs for people who speak only English, but it is also crazy expensive. There are ways to live cheaply in Europe and there are less expensive parts of Europe, but I would encourage any one looking to study abroad cheaply to consider other regions, unless it is essential to your field of study. 

-Airfare: The estimate for my trip was $2000. I paid $1443. This brings me to my airfare advice extravaganza!  

DO:

-Start hunting early. Airfare is usually cheapest 3-6 weeks before the date of your flight. There are exceptions to this, of course, but the earlier you start looking (and the more places/times/flights you check) the better. 

-Consider airports. Many airports are monopolized by one or two airlines, so flying in and out of them can be more expensive. Getting a cheaper flight out of an airport that is a train/bus ride from your destination can save you tons. I'm flying into Casablanca instead of Fez and then taking the train. I think the train ride is about half (maybe as little as one third) of the cost that the extra flight to Fez would have been, plus I get to ride a freaking train through Morocco and see beautiful sights. Win-win. 

-Layovers! No one likes to hang out in airports as much as I do. On this trip I have layovers in NYC and in Madrid. In NYC I'll be meeting a high school friend for dinner and in Spain I'll have 28 beautiful hours to wander the city, try to remember high school Spanish and stay in a super cheap youth hostel. I'm saving a ton ($229 vs $89) by flying out of Madrid a day later, plus I get to hang out in Spain for a day. Win-win. Kayak is a great site to help you compare prices on various days and other travel sites. Try booking your flight in pieces rather than all at once, but keep in mind that if you do this you probably have to go through security all over again so leave lots and lots of time between flights. Also, many cities have multiple airports (Paris is a good example of this) so be prepared if you need to use public transportation to get to another airport in the same city/country. Leave enough time, learn enough of the language and try to have some local currency ahead of time. 

-Pack light! Airlines are starting to charge for extra bags and extra heavy bags. If you can spare it, leave it at home. 

-Consider professional help: Many schools have partnerships with local travel agencies (the UW has one with STA on the ave) and if you're really struggling or computer-phobic, see if these agencies can help you. Often they will have programs for students on financial aid, which allows you to book your flight and pay for it when your aid is disbursed. 

DO NOT:

-Skip the airline ticket insurance. $80 seems like a lot when you buy a ticket but if something goes wrong that will save your life. The first time I tried to study abroad a war broke out and I wasn't able to go. It took me a month of arguing with the airline on the phone but I eventually got $1100 of my $1300 ticket refunded, which was better than nothing. 

-Buy a one-way ticket and decide to worry about the rest later. I met a girl in Amsterdam who'd flown one-way from Australia and was going to travel & work for 6 months and then buy a ticket home. 3 months into her trip she was down to her last 10 Euro and jobless. I met her in our hostel because she needed money for a phone card to call her parents for a ticket home. They didn't have the money to send to her, so some guy walked up to us and offered to let her stay on his couch for free. I don't know what happened to her, if she made it home or if she's still in Amsterdam going home with strange men (more on that in health and safety tips.) The point is that a way home is one of the most important things you'll need, and, unlike the cash you're bringing/expecting to earn, can't be stolen, spent frivolously, or subject to change based on local work visas or economic downturns (and one-way tickets are usually more expensive anyway.) 

While you may not share my geeky glee for the thrill of hunting airfare bargains, hours of frustrating searching can save you hundreds of dollars. 

One thing to keep in mind is that many types of aid will not cover airfare (the Gilman does) and some that do (like the Gilman) will come with the stipulation that you fly only US-based airlines. (My Gilman grant is for $4500 and so the airline restrictions don't matter as the money will entirely be applied to tuition.) My advice is to plan on coming up with the money for you plane ticket all by yourself. For one thing, you'll probably have to pay for your ticket well in advance of your trip/aid disbursement anyway. This also gives you an idea of what you should be saving for and how much you'll have to save before you book your flight. If family, friends, or the feds want to give you money for your trip, that's great, but you can always use that to cover program fees or living expenses in-country. Don't count on it for airfare. As far in advance of your trip as possible, estimate the expense of airfare (estimate high and don't forget taxes, airport and luggage fees) and make that number your savings goal.

Every one saves differently. For me, cutting out many social expenses (meeting friends for drinks at home instead of in a bar, for example) made a big difference. I was able to save up the cost of my plane ticket, first by examining how I spent my paychecks and then by eliminating some of the expenses I felt I could live with out. 

If you're in college you probably already know how to live cheaply, but a site like Mint can help you look at the patterns in your spending to identify places where you can make cuts. Try to give yourself a formal plan to save enough money- by increasing your income or decreasing your spending or both- and give yourself a deadline. 

Let family and friends know as far in advance as possible, so that they might consider Birthday/Holiday/Graduation/Just because they love you gifts of cash or necessary trip-related supplies (more on that in an upcoming post on what to pack.) One great thing that my sister offered to do is to make her contribution in smaller pieces on a monthly basis, so that I'll still have money coming in later on in my trip. While every one's family circumstances are unique, and in these economic times most of us are struggling just to get by, I've been continuously surprised with the generosity of the people in my life when it comes to an opportunity like this. 

Ok, that's enough about money for one day. I'm planning on updating this blog every Monday, Wednesday and Friday until I leave, and then on a weekly or bi-weekly basis once I am in Morocco. 

Please, as always, comment or email me with questions, criticism or anecdotes from your own travel experiences. 

Ahlan wa sahlan!

Introductions are so awkward, aren't they?

Today is Monday. In just over two weeks I'll be leaving on a study abroad trip to Fez, Morocco. As part of my Gilman grant from the lovely people at the US government, I'll be keeping a travel blog to help prospective study abroad students learn from my misadventures with trying to study abroad on a limited budget. Because I wanted to get the awkward introductions out of the way while no one is reading this, I thought I'd just post a little about myself and a few teasers for what I'll be blogging about in the next few months. 

I'm a 25-year old senior at University of Washington (henceforth to be known as UW.) If, dear reader, you are thinking that 25 seems a little old to still be an undergraduate, I can only say that I agree with you whole-heartedly, which is why I am so looking forward to graduating upon my return from Morocco. I'm a Near Eastern Language and Civilization (NELC) major, which can mean a really shocking variety of things at UW, but for me it means I study Arabic language and contemporary Arab history, culture and politics. (Other NELC majors might study Farsi or Hebrew or Turkish and the civilizations of any number of regions/eras, which is part of the joyfully nonspecific nature of the NELC major.) 

I'm graduating at 25 and not 22 for one very simple reason: money. Money isn't generally a polite thing to talk about, but it's something we all deal with. I don't know a single college student who doesn't have some financial-related issue determining the school they attend, the school they transferred from, the number of credits they take or the amount of studying they sacrifice to holding down a job. So I'm going to talk about money. I'm going to talk about money not in the general sense but in the very specific, with numbers. It isn't the most comfortable thing to talk about, but I think it would be helpful for many (and I know it would have been helpful for me) if, instead of treating money like a taboo, intangible abstraction,   we could just speak frankly. 

Money shouldn't stop any one from getting the kind of education they want, but it turns out Santa Claus isn't real and unicorns don't live in the arboretum (I know, I checked.) Money stops us all the time. I hope that money won't stop you from studying abroad. I'll wax poetic at great length about the benefits of studying abroad at some later date, but for now I just want to say that studying abroad is important even if your major isn't about studying foreign language or culture. If you're thinking about studying abroad and worried about how you can afford it, I hope you keep reading. In the days, weeks and months ahead I will blog about:

*How I budgeted for study abroad 

*Suggestions on better ways to budget for study abroad now that I've learned what I did wrong

*How to apply for scholarships, aid and beg money off of family/friends. 

*How to score cheaper plane tickets

*What I'm packing for Morocco

*What I wish I would/would not have packed for Morocco

*What to do/not to do while traveling abroad

*Safety/health tips

*Tips for family members with students abroad

*Links to better and more professional resources for UW & non-UW students

*Adventure stories! Photos! Videos! Possibly cute animals! 

So welcome to my blog*, sorry I'm a bit awkward at first, but I'm really glad to have you. Please feel free to post questions/comments or to e-mail me directly (let me know if it is OK to answer your question on the blog.) If you've got a study-abroad experience to share, by all means, post a comment! 

*I should warn you that, though this is part of my Gilman follow-on project, any views expressed here (ie. socks are a useless thing to pack!) are entirely my own and in no way a reflection of the UW, the NELC department, the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship foundation, the US government or President Barack Obama.