I decided to take a painting course while studying abroad in Florence, Italy. I have always been interested in creating art, but I never felt like I had the opportunity to pursue it. My class was small—less than 20 students—and we were all on an introductory level. On the first day, the professor took us out of the studio and into the city to buy our own art supplies. While it is typical to purchase your own textbooks in college classes, it was a new experience to go out with my classmates and buy what we needed for the class; it almost felt like a field trip. Trips like this ended up... Read More
Pitt Global Experiences Students' Blog
-
-
Hello readers! I am so excited to be writing to you from across the pond in London, England! To start with a little about myself, my name is Hailey Hunter. I’m a rising senior marketing major with certificates in business analytics, leadership & ethics, and public & professional writing. This summer I will be blogging from the Global Business Institute London program, where I will spend 6 weeks with CAPA, The Global Education Network. There, I will be taking the classes, Writing the City as well as Analyzing and Exploring the Global City with a cohort of American students from... Read More
-
As someone who had never traveled abroad before, I was a bit concerned with the types of challenges I could face. Germany is so different in terms of culture, workplace environment, and daily activities such as going shopping. Though I did not have to speak a different language because most people in Berlin speak English, their interactions are very different. One experience that I can say became less challenging throughout the program was grocery shopping. My first time going to a grocery store in Berlin, I was fully prepared to use Google Translate for product names, but I was not... Read More
-
The housing for my specific program was all apartments. My program leaders saw it as a way to fully immerse us into the culture and lifestyle of Italy, so we lived in apartments all across Florence. I had 7 roommates, which was the most that one could have. At first this overwhelmed me, as I had never lived with a roommate before—much less 7 strangers. When we arrived in Florence, we stayed at a hotel the first night while our apartments were being prepared for our arrival. It was there that I met 2 of my eventual roommates, and we instantly got along very well. They were just as nervous... Read More
-
Before coming to Berlin, I had high expectations for my experience while trying to remain open to whatever may happen. I was so intent on ensuring that I would grow professionally, academically, and personally that it actually began to stress me out. Making the most of my summer in Berlin was so exciting, yet so anxiety-inducing when I thought too much about my fear of wasting the opportunity. I wish that I had known there was nothing to worry about, because growth happens naturally in new situations, especially a nine-week program in a new and exciting country.
After... Read More -
As a picky eater for the first nineteen years of my life, I would agree that food is the window to the soul. My particularity about what I eat definitely reflected my stubbornness and specificity for my life choices. Like with my food preferences, I was always a bit rigid and stressed out easily when things outside of the norm occurred. I am so glad to say that this experience in Berlin changed that. I felt that as I grew to be a more open and flexible person, my food palate also expanded. Something that remained the same, though, was my affinity for eating out much too often. Even in... Read More
-
When planning to travel abroad, the essentials always come to mind first. Whether it's your favorite pair of socks, a specific kind of toothpaste that you always have to use, or a hoodie that holds significant value to you, everything has its place within your suitcase. Things like your passport and ID will always travel with you, but I’ve found that it’s mental preparation that catches you off guard before something you forgot to pack. For example, while traveling to Belgium, I accounted for the six hours of sleep I would lose by staying busy all day and crashing hard onto the hotel bed... Read More
-
Not only is food the window to the soul, food is the backbone of culture and will define your experience abroad. Every culture develops a cuisine influenced by the environment and tastes of the people and cultural groups who call the area home. While we often think of things like barbecue and burgers as “American” cuisine, a trip down any street will display a variety of restaurants and eateries with roots all across the globe. Every culture develops its staples based on what is available and can be made into a delicious meal, or what warms the heart and soul while providing nourishment to... Read More
-
Studying abroad taught me a million and one lessons, ones I didn’t even know I needed to know. From traveling on planes, trains, and automobiles, to celebrating home country’s holidays, to breaking down language barriers in non-english-speaking countries, I believe there is no better way to catalyze one’s global competency than studying abroad. However, because there is so much to learn and explore, no one can ever be fully prepared for what they’re getting into. And I am no exception.
One piece of background I wish I would have developed before going abroad was the history... Read More -
During my time in London, I took an international finance class through CAPA, which is the program that coordinates study abroad with Pitt. This class was similar to my classes at Pitt in terms of things like class structure and assignments and I really enjoyed learning about international finance in a different country as it allowed me draw upon differences between what the finance world looked like in London and in America. The class assignments included a midterm, a final, and a final group project however the material our professor taught us adequately prepared us for these assignments... Read More