CAPA WORLD

Gabriella is a CAPA Dublin student for spring 2018, sharing her story this week on CAPA World. A Journalism major at Auburn University, she is studying abroad in Dublin this semester.

In this week's post, Gabriella takes us along on the path of Howth Cliff Walk and gives us a look at some beautiful sea views around Dublin.

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Thanks Gabriella!

Kelly is an official CAPA blogger for spring 2018, sharing her story in weekly posts on CAPA World. A Journalism major at University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, she is studying abroad in London this semester.

In this week's post, Kelly discovers God's Own Junkyard and takes a look inside this neon sign heaven.

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About a 15-minute walk off of the Victoria line’s Walthamstow Central Tube Station, a wonderland filled with neon sign exists. Unless you're looking for it, you won’t find it. A sign leading to it fittingly reads: “Heavenly junk in a hell of a location.” And it’s true. It’s an incredible treasure of a spot in a completely random location.

God’s Own Junkyard is like a gallery. It’s where old neon signs are given new life. The man behind the magic is Chris Bracey, the “Neon Man.” For 37 years, he’s been creating neon art pieces for photographers and artists including David LaChappelle and Martin Creed. He has made, installed and collected signs that have appeared behind the likes of Tom Cruise in “Eyes Wide Shut” and Johnny Depp in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” When a film is finished and neon signs are discarded like yesterday’s leftovers, the Neon Man collects them and never lets them die.

We're honored that our Diversity Advocates Program was selected as a finalist for the 2018 GoAbroad Innovation Awards in the Innovation in Diversity category! The GoAbroad Innovation Awards recognizes strategic efforts to expand international educational opportunities to traditionally underrepresented groups for the Innovation in Diversity category.

Launched this spring, CAPA's Diversity Committee created this initiative to exemplify our commitment to diversity in ways that are academic, experiential, and personal for our students to transport their activism and passions abroad. So, what exactly is the Diversity Advocates Program and who are our Spring 2018 participants?

Will you represent your study abroad city as one of our official CAPA bloggers or vloggers for Summer semester 2018?

Depending on your program length, each student on our team of storytellers will receive a grant of up to $275 along with up to $135 as an explorer fund to help you create awesome weekly content for the CAPA World blog. 

Besides helping finance their adventures, previous CAPA bloggers and vloggers have loved the experience for a bunch of different reasons: 

Claire Shrader is an official CAPA blogger for spring 2018, sharing her story in weekly posts on CAPA World. A Pre-Occupational Therapy major at Mississippi College, she is studying abroad in Buenos Aires this semester.

In this week's post, Claire talks about the ways she keeps in touch with her family and friends back home and how she toggles between speaking in Spanish and English.

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Within our first week here, we had a guest lecturer on culture shock. I kind of rolled my eyes through most of the conversation. I had arrived to Argentina early, and this was my third time here. I loved it, and thought surely I, the one who has been drinking mate and making empanadas at home for six years now, won’t experience culture shock or homesickness or any of the normal things. After all, I love Argentina.

Video chatting between Argentina and the U.S. What a joy to be connected!

I do love Argentina. And though I knew Argentina when I got here in February, I knew it like you know someone after a couple of dates. I was still enamored with every part of it and my knowledge was more dreamy idealizations than reality. After two-and-a-half months, I’m not so naïve as to say I know Argentina like I’m married to it, but I know it like a best friend. I still adore it and am enamored with it and so thankful to call it my home for the time being, but sometimes I get frustrated with it or, dare I say it, homesick.

Brandon is an official CAPA blogger for spring 2018, sharing his story in weekly posts on CAPA World. A Political Science major at Clark University, he is studying abroad in Dublin this semester.

In this week's post, Brandon shares why he recommends attending this My Global City event to Belfast and how rich the history in Northern Ireland is.

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Today I thought that I would spend some time talking about another My Global City event. Last Friday, we went on a CAPA-sponsored trip to Belfast, which was mandatory for those in Irish History (which is a Griffith-offered course) and optional (but highly suggested) for all others on the program. I’m not in Irish History, but I do know that before the trip began, the professor emailed them some videos about Belfast’s history during the Troubles and various other materials to better illustrate the stops during the trip. He explained it to all of us, however, so reviewing this material beforehand was not necessary.

Graffiti of a wall outside a Catholic neighborhood.

We started out for Belfast bright and early at 7:15am; taking a coach bus north from Dublin on the M1. The bus was filled with a lot of other international students who were quite hyper for how early it was. I tried to nap and get some rest, but they had apparently filled up on coffee before getting on the bus, so I ended up just putting in my headphones and watching the scenery fly by. We stopped briefly at a truck rest-stop having crossed the border into Northern Ireland to have a bathroom break and for people to get a quick breakfast if they were hungry. It was so odd that there was no border wall or any kind of checkpoint between Northern Ireland and Ireland. There was the slightest line in the road to mark where the border was and that was it. With the implications of Brexit, however, this free flow between the two countries is much contested, and it is not known if there will be actual checkpoints in the future.

Kelly is an official CAPA blogger for spring 2018, sharing her story in weekly posts on CAPA World. A Journalism major at University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, she is studying abroad in London this semester.

In this week's post, Kelly shares how she's conscious of her representation of the U.S. while abroad and how she blends in as a Londoner in all aspects, including riding the Tube.

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Loud, obnoxious, disrespectful—those are the stereotypes I assume most Europeans have of Americans. As a study abroad student, I’ve thought a lot about how I am representing Americans while abroad. Thinking about this has made me conscious of my behavior in relation to the stereotypes of Americans that exist.

At the Camden Tube station.

While navigating my way through the Tube, I try to look like I know what I’m doing (which I often did, but I didn’t in the beginning). I make sure to walk on the left side unless there are signs stating otherwise or most people are walking on the right, so as to blend in with the crowd. This is something that even in America I tend to get annoyed by when people don’t walk on the “right” side. While sitting on the Tube, I mind my own business as most do and don’t make a lot of noise or eye contact.

Claire Shrader is an official CAPA blogger for spring 2018, sharing her story in weekly posts on CAPA World. A Pre-Occupational Therapy major at Mississippi College, she is studying abroad in Buenos Aires this semester.

\In this week's post, Claire attends a one-of-a-kind, comedic drama experience in complete darkness to celebrate her 21st birthday in Buenos Aires.

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This past week was my birthday. I could write a whole post about the experience of celebrating a birthday abroad, but in summary: it’s sad because you miss your family and weird because all of your normal birthday things like the vanilla sheet cake from the grocery store or normal sized birthday cards don’t exist here, and also wonderful because people still gather around you and sing “Feliz Cumple” over you and pull your ears 21 times for the 21 years you’ve been on this earth and dulce de leche covered cake is possibly an equal rival for the grocery store kind I love.

Fun night with these friends at Teatro Ciegro.

Basically, it was different, as most things are when you spend a semester in another continent, but it was beautiful nonetheless. My U.S. friends Sophie and Ali decided to celebrate with me on Thursday night, and we went to see El Infinito Silencio, a comedic drama that tells the story of an Argentine family through the lens of one of the daughters, who is now an author and is writing out her family’s story. The plot was hilarious and moving, but what made this show really stand out wasn’t the family’s story or the fact that it was my first ever all-Spanish play.

Brandon is an official CAPA blogger for spring 2018, sharing his story in weekly posts on CAPA World. A Political Science major at Clark University, he is studying abroad in Dublin this semester.

In this week's post, Brandon visits Amsterdam and analyzes how a course in Dublin changed the way he views cities and traveling.

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I would like to use this blog post to talk about my weekend trip to Amsterdam and how taking the Analyzing and Exploring the Global City course has changed my view of travel. I went to Amsterdam last Friday (a day earlier than the rest of my friends because I don’t have class on Fridays) and stayed through Sunday night.

I didn’t really have a set plan for Amsterdam. I didn’t do any real research about attractions or things to see. I just figured that I would get there and walk around and stumble upon something interesting. Friday was spent wandering the winding streets and canals. I really got a feel for the city as a whole. I happened to chance upon an enormous park and spent an hour sitting on a bench basking in the sun and people watching. I came across several open-air markets with stalls selling everything from thrift clothes to waffles to antiques. I walked along the canals and saw the house boats.

"Thoughts on Education Abroad" is a monthly column written by CAPA The Global Education Network's Deputy President and Chief Academic Officer Dr. Michael Woolf.

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At the annual CAPA symposium in March we discussed these inter-connected themes because they are crucial to the theory and practice of education abroad. They will also be explored in greater depth in our next Occasional Publication (May 2018). The notions are problematic, made complex by history and contemporary dynamics. A myriad of factors including technological change, political will, prejudice, aspiration, ethical practice, competing ideologies shape the ways in which we perceive borders, and understand mobility and migration. In addition, the question of mobility signifies a distinction between privilege and dispossession on a global scale; critically, do you have a choice, and can you go home again?

Borders

Crossing borders is at the heart of our endeavours in education abroad. These borders may be geographically defined or, like nations, be political inventions. They may also be metaphorically constructed, as the perceived barriers between ourselves and the unfamiliar. They are also not static: political borders and nations come and go. Where is Yugoslavia? In An Atlas of Countries that Don’t Exist (London: 2015), Nick Middleton supplies examples of 50 countries whose borders are now matters of aspiration or imagination. In our living memories, the map of Europe has been redefined.