Daughter survived study abroad

Applying to College
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<p>Just a quick update for all our buddies. After 27 hours of travel, including stopovers in Dubai and New York, my daughter arrived home safe and sound from her around the world adventure today, wearing Indian clothing and remnants of a henna party from last weekend. Of course, for the second time, the airlines failed to deliver her bags, but she had them going thru customs in NY so hopefully it won't take five days like it did when she arrived in Beijing.</p>

<p>She apparently had a wonderful time and worked her tush off. Apparently the program was intense in terms of having an incredible amount of stuff scheduled and she felt like she had to be "on" and "focused" the whole time -- especially because, in addition to the days, the homestays require a lot of mental effort at night, especially when there were big language barriers.</p>

<p>Funniest story so far is a Beijing homestay story that would make a terrific scene in a movie. By tradition, Chinese families will not let homestay kids stop eating. So, the first day or so, here is my daughter who has learned exactly one phrase in Chinese -- "I'm full!" -- and her Chinese mother who has learned exactly one phrase in English -- "eat some more!". So the American kid is saying "I'm full" in pidgeon Chinese and the Chinese mother is saying "eat some more" in pidgeon English back and forth until they all fall over laughing. She said that over the course of the month, it developed into a standing comedy routine with her saying "I'm full" while holding her hand up to her forehead indicating full the to the brim and her mother saying "not full" and holding her hand at waist level and back and forth.</p>

<p>Mini: she loved India. She said not everyone on the trip did, but from the moment she landed she had the mindset of just enjoying the chaos. She made a gallant effort to organize a weekend trip to the Hotel Sunbird, but they were scheduled morning to night 7 days a week in India, including weekend adventures sleeping in barns in farm villages outside Mysore. She had one long weekend free (long meaning they could break free early afternoon on Friday but had to be back for the daily halfhour rickshaw commute at 8 am Monday morning) so several of the kids flew to Kerala and rented a hut on the beach. Agra was just not going to happen leaving Friday afternoon and returning Sunday with 2000 miles of travel in between. After checking with travel agents for flight schedules, she figured her only shot was to fly to Delhi, stay in a hotel at the Delhi airport and take a day trip to Agra and back on Saturday. Just seemed stupid. And, they needed to recharge their batteries. </p>

<p>Too jetlagged to get a lot of impressions, but she did say that the transition from Beijing to Shanghai was totally jarring. She said that, in one respect, Bangalore was a little disconcerting because there were NO women out and about in the city. Everywhere they went, she and her friends were the only women. That had not been the case in Buenos Aires or China.</p>

<p>BTW, she said that knowing everything she knows now, she'd do the trip again in a heartbeat....or, maybe after finally getting a chance to wash all her jeans, take a real shower, and eat some salads and fresh veggies. She was craving salad for dinner.</p>

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<p>Excellent stories! Actually seeing, hearing, feeling, touching, tasting gives incomparable depth to experiences. Warning, though: Asia is addictive. :)</p>

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<p>Momrath:</p>

<p>She even got a little bonus: a three hour tour of Singapore during an airport layover. She thought it was fantastic. Said the rural areas reminded her of the low country in South Carolina.</p>

<p>BTW, there were two female Ephmen on her trip...both of whom are going to do study abroad again next semester! One is spending the semester in Africa (this trip only made it to South America, Asia, and India) and the other a language immersion program in France.</p>

<p>I have hunch my daughter may want to go back to one of these countries for senior thesis research this summer, but this was not the afternoon to go into that stuff. I was more interested in just getting her telling stories. I don't think she's really had the opportunity to even begin to synthesize her experiences in her own mind at this point. Even on the periods of downtime, she was paragliding and horseback riding in the foothills of the Andes or eating fresh caught fish tiki seaside in Kerala or partying in a karaoke bar in Beijing -- sensory bombardment.</p>

<p>The most amazing thing: four months and she never got Montezuma's revenge or any travel illness beyond the sniffles for a few days.</p>

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<p>Sounds like a great semester. The Chinese are compulsive hosts. You sit down to a banquet meal and you SWEAR you will not overdo the first courses but it doesn't matter. By the tenth course you are bursting and they wag their fingers and laugh because there are six courses still to arrive! :eek: Don't get me started on the cognac toasts!</p>

<p>Wai Yah!</p>

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<p>ID, you have a smart young lady. Key, she is craving salads. Bring on the veggies.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
The Chinese are compulsive hosts. You sit down to a banquet meal and you SWEAR you will not overdo the first courses but it doesn't matter. By the tenth course you are bursting and they wag their fingers and laugh because there are six courses still to arrive!

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Yeah, I've had that problem in Hong Kong. Although the most laid out I've ever been by a meal was a lunch in a trattoria in a small village in Italy. I was waddling by the end of the antipasto and had to be wheeled out by the final course. Then, we were supposed to eat a big fancy dinner. I don't think I ate for two days afterwards.</p>

<p>My daughter said that she had to learn to eat with her hand over her bowl because, otherwise, her Chinese mother would just keep refilling it whenever she wasn't looking!</p>

<p>The two things she wanted today were brie cheese on crackers (paneer being the only cheese she's eaten for months) and my Italian green salad with tart apples, walnuts, parmegiano reggiano, and proscuito. She knew that raw veggies and some fruits could kill her (or darn close to it) on this trip.</p>

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<p>Hi interesteddad,</p>

<p>It's great to hear about your daughter's trip! Has she told you anything about India that she would have liked to know before she went, things she wishes she'd brought, or other little surprises?</p>

<p>I ask because my sister is leaving shortly for her semester abroad in Calcutta, and though she somewhat knows what to expect, I get the sense she may be overlooking some very important details. :-)</p>

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<p>Thank-you for posting about your dd's wonderful experience! I have a real wanderlust college freshman who is just itching to get her study abroad going, so it's nice to hear all of this. I'm sure you're enjoying having her home, if only transiently. What was the academic focus of her study abroad?</p>

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<p>WOW! What an amazing experience!! What college program was she involved with? I have a cousin who just moved to Singapore, and I would love the opportunity to visit that part of the world!</p>

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<p>
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It's great to hear about your daughter's trip! Has she told you anything about India that she would have liked to know before she went, things she wishes she'd brought, or other little surprises?

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</p>

<p>No big surprises that I've heard about. I think she was pretty well prepared. Her worst time came after arriving in Beijing after 36 hours of travel and not having her bag for 5 days. She had the clothes on her back and her carry-on bag. I think the combination of extreme jet lag, culture shock, and the thought of having to start from scratch shopping in Beijing made for a hard few days until the airline found her bag somewhere between Argentina and China. </p>

<p>I gather that the most important preparation for India is to get in the right frame of mind to enjoy the chaos of it all. Her only surprise was that it was chilly at night, a suprise because she had mailed all of her sweatshirts home from China! Out of the blue this morning, she said, "Oh, I rode an elephant". I think we are in store for a lot of those little moments.</p>

<p>
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What college program was she involved with?

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</p>

<p>It's called "Cities of the 21st Century" and is focused on a range of issues facing the expansion of cities, particularly in countries undergoing accelerated transitions from rural to urban economies. Her semester started with 10 days in New York, then Buenos Aires, Beijing, Shanghai, and Bangalore (India). Each semester has a somewhat different itinerary. Homestays in each country. Extremely demanding schedule of lectures and site visits in each country -- factory visits, architects, environmental projects, shanty towns, government officials, etc.</p>

<p>The group is called International Honors Program and they run several similar programs organized along different themes:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.ihp.edu/programs/c21c/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.ihp.edu/programs/c21c/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>The outfit has been around for about 40 years. Starting next year, they will be affiliated with the SIT study abroad programs, which I think will be a good fit for what they do. Both IHP and SIT concentrate on theme-based study abroad, independent projects, and a high degree of immersion.</p>

<p>She was not surprised by the difficulty of the program and the intensity of the schedules: she had talked quite a bit with a senior at her college who had just done the trip. But, I think some of the kids were surprised. Definitely not a relaxing study abroad semester.</p>

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<p>Thanks for all the info Interesteddad...Sound like a fabulous program...Can't wait to read the details as you post them on CC!</p>

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<p>How amazing. Thanks for posting. How cool that you've given your D. both wings and roots. In my heart I know the trip may well be as safe or safer than living in, say, New Orleans, for example, but I think I would have been "nervouswreckmom" instead of InterestedDad the whole time.</p>

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<p>I'll just piggy-back on your thread. DD is not safely back from study abroad yet, but she emailed to say that she had just got off the trail (meaning, just finished walking the Inca Trail and visiting Machu Picchu in Peru), then would be heading back to Cuzcu, then Lake Titicaca (what a name! :eek:), then Santiago, Chile, then HOME!!!! She has had 5 months in Chile to solidify her spanish language skills, and see some more of the world. She enjoyed her classes at the P. Universidad Catolica de Chile, but is ready for some 'Merican style education next semester. We can't wait to see her this Saturday!!!!!</p>

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<p>
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...but I think I would have been "nervouswreckmom" instead of InterestedDad the whole time

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<p>The only time we a little nervous is when she e-mailed that she was going paragliding in the Andes the next day. We e-mailed back to request confirmation that she had survived!</p>

<p>We figured that it just wasn't worth worrying about it. She was halfway around the world. There wasn't anything we could do and odds are that she wouldn't run into any trouble. They lived in pairs in the homestays, so most of the time when they were commuting back and forth they were with another student. Late at night (in Buenos Aires), they took cabs.</p>

<p>The group had a relatively uneventful trip from a safety standpoint. A couple of kids got pickpocketed on crowded subways in Buenos Aires. I think there may have been a pickpocket incident in Beijing, too. One girl broke a bone in her foot and was on crutches for a month in China. But, otherwise, no big catastrophes.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
Has she told you anything about India that she would have liked to know before she went, things she wishes she'd brought, or other little surprises?

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</p>

<p>I asked her. She said that she wouldn't give any advice or tips....just go and be surprised! She did say that, after a month, she realized that it wasn't really chaos after all...that there were well-defined rules governing traffic and life in India...that it just looked like chaos. Even on the most absurdly chaotic street with bicycles, motorbikes, cars, auto-riskshaws, and cows, there were still rules that governed the seemingly random flow of traffic. One of the rules in Banglore is that everything is two hours late...order in the chaos.</p>

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<p>Completey OT,


The only day in elementary school geography worth remembering. ;)</p>

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<p>Thanks so much for posting the report- I'm looking forward to hearing more about her trip. I bet there were big hugs all around upon her return!</p>

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<p>
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I bet there were big hugs all around upon her return!

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</p>

<p>Yeah. Especially because we had heard very little from her in India. Inconvenient Internet cafes and a schedule that just didn't allow for e-mail time.</p>

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<p>And the final bit of good news. My daughter's large bag was lost (for the second time) on her return home from India. This one was really annoying because she had it in her hand going thru customs at JFK and then rechecked it for the short direct flight to Boston.</p>

<p>It contained EVERYTHING she had bought on her travels plus storage cards from her camera with over 1200 photos. Delta finally managed to find it today, four days later! Yippee!</p>

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<p>BTW: a practical tip for parents of study abroad students. Thanks to the wonders of Google searches, you can probably follow along their travels by finding photos of places they visit.</p>

<p>For example, I found this photo of the beach on the southern tip of India where my daughter and five friends went for a weekend getaway:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.indiamike.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/7595/cat//size/big%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.indiamike.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/7595/cat//size/big&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>They rented two bamboo huts at the top of the cliffs, $1 per person per night:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.indiamike.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/7598/cat//size/big%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.indiamike.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/7598/cat//size/big&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>