The Symbolic Universe of Guatemala
22 February 2017 Some of the most important things are invisible and impalpable. Love has no color. Freedom has no taste. Hope has no smell. Peace has no texture. Respect has no sound. For this reason, we have developed symbols. Hearts represent love, for example. But the symbols we use are by no means the....
Hope and hospitality
Hope and hospitality; the two words that I feel best describe our time in Beit Sahour, Palestine for the past three weeks. Given the opportunity to stay with local families while we’ve studied and explored here has opened my eyes to an exciting culture and to the challenging realities of living in this land. I....
Comfortable?
Comfortable? Are we comfortable? Being so far away from friends and family Not understanding half of what is going on Struggling to communicate what we are thinking? Are we comfortable鈥� Staying with families who don鈥檛 have hot water and others who do Living in a gated community with guards Getting catcalled in the street? Are....
Jordan: desert community to current issues
2/5/2017 Marhaban! (Hello in Arabic) Our group is now settling into host family life in Beit Sahour, a small town just outside of Bethlehem. We are looking forward to the next three weeks of getting to know our host families, and embracing the challenge of learning Arabic. Before we arrived here we spent eight days....
Exploring culture with host families and hard realities
31 Jan 2017 By now, we鈥檝e finally gotten accustomed to our new families and new routines. At first, of course, everything was unexpected. Before we left, we had hours of orientation to help us prepare mentally and emotionally for the culture. But every family is a culture unto its own. Every zone in the city....
From Cairo to Luxor to Sinai
1/25/2017 Hello from Jordan! This is our first night in a country other than Egypt, and it is safe to say that we are all excited to see what adventures this new place holds. But first, here is a quick summary of our time in Egypt. When we first arrived in Egypt, we drove through....
CASAS – Getting Started
Hello readers of 91大神, who hope to read about our adventures! You should be excited to know that we landed safely in Guatemala and are currently with our host families. First a little bit about our trip over. We flew from Dulles Airport to San Salvador in a flight of nearly 4 hours. 聽From there....
Dancing around chandeliers and the familiar
December 11, 2016 When I arrived in London鈥檚 Heathrow Airport, I experienced one of the most significant culture shocks of the trip. I went to the cashier, prepared to pay for my salad and smoothie, he spoke to me, and I, having no idea what he said, froze in confusion. Now this confused freezing was....
Free Travel
If you were given the opportunity to travel anywhere in the United States for 8 days, where would you go? As the month of November was coming closer, the members of the group were beginning to plan for more traveling.聽 Despite the towns, cities, and countries the students have already visited, this experience would be....
Cultural adjustments, Vienna style
November 22 This past week has seen our time in Vienna come to a close. For two months, we toured cathedrals, went to museums, and did our best to learn German. We regularly went to plays, including performances at the Austrian Burgtheater and the Vienna State Opera. We saw fringe pieces at Brut Wien and....