The Blog Express Newsletter
Season 2: Volume 4
An Update to Our BlogAbroad.com Bloggers
Jon
Nessie
Amy
Kez
Dear Readers,
As a post Thanksgiving treat for you, we would like to introduce you to a new member of the BlogAbroad.com team. Brian Freedman is a former high school English teacher with a Master's degree from NYU. He is a novelist and freelance journalist, and is now adding BlogAbroad.com writer to his resume.
Expect some fantastic and informative articles from him in the future. Today, he will give you his take on this whole crazy BlogAbroad.com thing.
Plus, we are very excited to inform you that Andrew Olanoff, the creator of BlogAbroad.com, is back and dedicating his time to making this project the best it can be. Now that he's back, expect some amazing things.
And finally, one more interesting piece of news. Season 3 auditions are now open! Audition today to get your name into the hat and get the chance to be featured as a BlogAbroad.com blogger.
Thank you and enjoy the ride.
Sincerely
~The BlogAbroad.com Team (John, Matt, Drew, Brian & Kim)
Back in the BlogAbroad Mix
By Drew Olanoff
Starting BlogAbroad.com with talented people like Matt Ulmer, Kim Gradel, and John Duncan has been the most rewarding experience in my career. I've read about and participated in many blog and technology related projects, but this has been the most successful and exciting experience by far.
When we started talking to the Study Abroad community about this project a year ago, we received some puzzled looks and a lot of questions. We've heard "What is a blog?" all the way to "Why would anyone read this?". The answers are simple, as we've learned. A blog is a journal that allows an individual to share their thoughts or experiences. What better way to get information to those who have either studied abroad already, or are thinking about it? None that I can see.
We've had hundreds of thousands of readers, successful study abroad journeys, and I have personally learned quite a bit from the bloggers that we've worked with.
Who can forget Phil's experiences in Rome during the Pope's untimely passing? Phil was our newsman, passing along the sights and sounds of what was going on during a very important time. Honestly, it felt like I was right there with him.
I went on a hiatus from BlogAbroad recently, and during that time, I missed out on most of Season 2. I of course still read the blogs and kept up with their adventures. To be back and in the mix again is exciting.
Expect great things from BlogAbroad Season 3. We'll be integrating new technologies and beefing up the content, and there will be a lot more interaction with the people who matter, you the readers.
So hold on tight, we don't call it "The Living, Breathing Study Abroad Handbook" for nothing.
Blogging From Abroad
By Brian Freedman
Remember that ride at Disney World, the one in the Magic Kingdom with all those creepy looking people-robots of every race, religion, and ethnicity singing "It's A Small World" in native and quasi-stereotypical costume?
It turns out they were right. The world is small - tinier than it's ever been. Suddenly, getting from here to way-over-there isn't so difficult anymore. Suddenly, the junior year abroad is no longer the privilege of a select few, but the legitimate expectation of the many. There are literally tens of thousands of programs for students who want to experience college somewhere else, somewhere exotic. Alicante? ¡Definativamente! Moscow? Da! Strasbourg? Mais oui! The choices are limited only by your imagination and your sense of adventure.
But there, of course, is the tricky part. The world can sometimes feel frightening in the variety of experience it offers. And not every city feels like Ann Arbor or State College. So how are you supposed to find out what a place is really like before you go? Is it possible to see the truth behind the glossy and sometimes rather sterile picture presented in the brochures?
Thanks to BlogAbroad.com, the answer is a resounding yes. Or da. Or oui.
Blogging technology has changed everything. Now, real-time online chronicling makes it possible for anyone, anywhere in the world, to experience the action as it unfolds. Think of it as a much hipper, much more interesting version of one of those 24-hour cable news channels. Or as a much less cheesy version of The Real World.
So now, instead of going into your study-abroad experience blindly, you can follow, sometimes on a daily basis, the adventures of someone who is actually doing it, who is actually out there in the world experiencing all the things they'd only seen in the movies. And by following their blog, you get as honest and insightful a take on what really happens as you're likely to find.
The brochures would have you believe that the students studying in London, for example, spend all their time marveling at the Picassos in the Tate Modern and brushing up on their Hieroglyphs at the British Museum. And while they certainly do their fair share of these things, it's not all they do. Heck, it's not even most of what they do. Studying abroad, after all, is about actually living in a city, not just visiting its famous landmarks.
With BlogAbroad.com, you'll have the chance to see how students really live, whether they have made friends in the local pub, or become experts on West End curry restaurants, or any of the million and three other things that make a term abroad wonderful and unique and life-changing.
This technology wasn't available just a few short years ago. Now, however, there are dozens of Internet sites that allow you to set up your own blog if you want. So if you're already scheduled to take to the skies and head on over to some distant land, you can actually keep your friends and family back home in the loop. And on top of that, it'll reduce the number of phone calls you have to make, saving you both time and money.
With blogging from abroad, the world has become a much smaller place, indeed.
We're Looking For a Few Good Bloggers
How are we going to top this season's phenomenal bloggers? How about with you?
We are now accepting auditions for the next season of BlogAbroad.com. If you or anyone you know is about to study abroad and wants to earn $500 and become famous in the process, go to http://www.blogabroad.com/audition.html to fill out a 250-300 word written audition and be placed in the running to become a lucky blogger.
Then you might be the one featured in the update section of this newsletter.
And once again, this train isn't called Express for nothing. It continues moving whether you hop on board or not. So make sure you get in before the doors close. Uh oh, I think I hear the whistle. All aboard!
This is the fourth of Season 2's many action packed newsletters detailing the adventures of Jon, Nessie, Amy, and Keri. We will continue to follow them as they explore the world. We will also continue providing useful information about studying abroad and blogging, as we feature different programs, provide answers to your questions, and more. Tell us what you would like to see in this newsletter.
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