The Blog Express Newsletter
Season 3: Volume 2

Dear Readers,

As you can tell, we are back into our bi-weekly schedule. This issue will give you an interesting article on technology while abroad as well as tips for how to pack for your semester.

Plus, it has the honor of being the first ever interactive BlogAbroad.com Express.

What do we mean by that? Well, we want to start sharing your stories and your experiences with the BlogAbroad community. We will periodically ask for anecdotes and facts that we will compile and feature in an upcoming issue.

Today's is holidays. Tell us about some experiences you've had with foreign holidays. Tell us about the holidays in general. What are they? How do they differ from American holidays? What are the traditions?

You decide what you want to talk about, and then you tell us. Either e-mail them to mulmer@edudirectories.com or reply to the appropriate blog on http://www.blogabroad.mindsay.com.

And while doing that, please enjoy the latest blogs and podcasts.

Sincerely,

The BlogAbroad.com Team

What to Pack

You've gotten into the program of your dreams, registered for all your semester-abroad classes, read every book ever written on the geography, culture, and history of your destination, and sworn to stay together with your boyfriend or girlfriend no matter how far apart you are (cue sappy song by former America Idol winner here). All that's left to do now is pack.

Ugh.

Packing for your semester or year abroad is likely to be the single most difficult luggage experience of your life. Depending on where you're going, you may have to squeeze a parka and a solar-powered water heater into your suitcase or carry-on, an appropriate selection of waterproof footwear, or a suit and tie as well as jeans and tee-shirts. And on top of everything you'll need to survive while you're away, you will also need to throw into your bags a few items that remind you of home for emergency use when those pangs of extreme homesickness hit you, as they likely will at some point.

And the airlines don't particularly care. Too much stuff piled into the trunk of your parents' car as they drive you to the airport? There's a three-bag limit on Air OverThere flights and you've packed four?

"No luggage for you!" yells the guy behind the check-in counter at the airport.

It's a good idea, then, to avoid these problems in the first place. And with careful planning, a well-crafted packing list, and a willingness to leave your entire collection of Hollister tee-shirts and Abercrombie jeans at home, you can and will survive preparing for study abroad.

The Clothes Make The (Wo)man

Dave Letterman is known for his double-breasted suits. Jon Stewart would look pretty strange in anything but his sober, dark-toned, single-breasted numbers. Michael Jordan never once showed up at a press conference in anything but a perfectly tailored dress ensemble.

You, on the other hand, will be studying abroad, and the sartorial norms are a bit different Over There than they are stateside. But that doesn't mean you have to look like you've just come back for a cover shoot for GQ or Cosmo every day; you just have to keep in mind that what is acceptable on campus will likely not be the way to go when you're abroad.

If you're studying in Paris or London, for example, it's vital to remember that a bit more formality is key. Not that you should stuff your suitcases with cocktail dresses and tuxedos, but a nice selection of button-down shirts and stylish jeans or slacks for the guys, and a few simple blouse-and-pants outfits for the ladies are vital. There will, of course, be times in these places when a tee-shirt and jeans are just fine, and a suit or dress may not be a bad idea if, for example, you're invited to dinner with a local notable, but for the most part, take your normal collegiate styles of dressing and bump them up a notch or two for study abroad.

If, on the other hand, you're headed to a field studies location in someplace like Costa Rica, like BlogAbroad.com cast member Tammy is, a solid pair of waterproof sandals, a lot of shorts and tee-shirts, and a bathing suit are more appropriate. Remember, to make the most of your study abroad experience, and to really get an insider's view of the culture in which you're hoping to immerse yourself, try to blend in as much as possible. Don't loose yourself, of courseÑdon't ever do thatÑbut keep in mind that the way you dress is often the first thing locals will notice about you. Imagine how a German student would be received if he showed up in Times Square wearing his favorite pair of Lederhosen. It's not a pretty picture, is it?

There's No Taste Like Home

Taste and smell are two of the most emotionally powerful senses humans possess. In the same way that music can bring us back to a specific time and place, an occasional taste of a favorite food can be of great comfort in those moments of homesickness.

You'd be surprised at the food items you may not be able to find while studying abroad. When I studied in Paris in 1997, it could not find a jar of peanut butter anywhere. Also, bagels were terribly hard to find, as was American-style cream cheese. And for the first few months, I didn't give it a thought. Who needs a doughy, carb-laden bagel when you're living in the home of the croissant? Why would I ever eat Philadelphia Brand cream cheese when I had access to an entire universe of fine French cheeses at my fingertips? After a while, however, and despite the fact that I fell madly in love with the croissants from my local boulangerie, I needed a fix.

My parents and girlfriend visited me a few months into the term, and they all brought the foods I craved, but it would have been much easier if I had just packed them in the first place. Sometimes, no matter how much you love your new home city, you just need a taste of your old one.

Just make sure to check with the airlines and the consulates before you pack a ZipLoc bag of your mother's famous three-alarm chili: Some things, after all, were just not meant to travel.

Readin'?

No matter how much research you've done, no matter how many hours you have spent brushing up on the language in which you'll be communicating for the next semester or year, nothing can replace a few novels written by the well-regarded authors of your destination country. All you have to do is check out Sarah's blog to understand the power of reading Austen and Dickens in London. Personally, and cheesy as it probably was, I never went anywhere in Paris without my trusty copy of The Sun Also Rises or A Moveable Feast in my bag.

No matter how much you think you've gotten out of your favorite books before, layer upon layer of new meaning will be added when you read them in the cities and towns in which they were written.

But don't limit yourself to the work of writers you're already familiar with. Spend an hour Googling local authors before you leave. Stop by the office hours of professors who work in the departments specializing in the culture, history, and literature of the country in which you'll be studying. Literature, after all, is one of the best ways to understand how people see themselves and the world.

Finally, pack early. As the days tick away and take-off time gets closer and closer, you'll be too excited to remember everything. Finish packing a few days before you leave, and then sit back and bask in the glow of the amazing experience you know you'll have.

Technology can and should play a vital role in your study abroad experience. Keeping track of everything you do via a blog can allow your friends and family to keep track of everything you do via your blog. Remaining in constant e-mail and instant message contact with those same friends and family can keep you somewhat connected to your past life and all the changes that are occurring back home. Even satellite and world phones offered by companies like Telestial, Inc. can let you hear your family's voice every once in a while. And sometimes all it takes is a few minutes with a familiar voice to make life easier.

Yes, technology can really help with your time abroad. And technology is changing the way BlogAbroad.com works:

Studying Technology Abroad

By Brian Freedman

Technological advancements have made Season 3 one of the most exciting so far, and it has only just begun. It's amazing how quickly these things happen: Just a few short years ago, back when "blogging" was one of the coolest ways someone could spend his or her time, it was enough of a task for us to keep up with editing and posting the constant inflow of content that makes up BlogAbroad.com. And now, barely two years later, we've moved beyond where any of us thought the technology would take us.

BlogAbroad.com, after all, is based in an office building like a million othersÑat least from the outside. It's situated on the outskirts of Philadelphia, maybe a twenty-five minute drive from Center City, and staffed by an energetic team of young-ish lovers of travel and college and, naturally, study abroad. We are a mix of writers, idea-people, and tech folks, and we spend much of our time thinking up ways to improve BlogAbroad.com, to make it even more interesting and relevant than it already is. For my part, most of my day is taken up with generating ideas for the show, editing content for the site, and writing articles. I am, by nature and by training, a writer. Which means that I'm most comfortable hunched over a computer in some forgotten corner of the office. That, indeed, is my happy place.

Which is what makes all these new features this season so interesting for us here at the BlogAbroad.com office. From posting the Podcasts our bloggers leave to recording our in-house AudioBlogs and all the way to dealing with the million and one little crises associated with producing StudyAbroad Live, life here at BlogAbroad.com is increasingly lived in a brave new world of ever-evolving technology and perennially shifting job-descriptions.

So it's not just the students we work with who are learning new skills. I spent a good chunk of last week writing scripts for our AudioBlogs and BlogAbroad Live, and I have to write a new one for our next filming. Andrew Olanoff, the man behind the idea of BlogAbroad.com, and Paul Fleming, our resident video expert, have spent hours editing the raw footage Stacy Pagnano and I have generated just trying to make it through each individual taping without laughing or flubbing our lines. And then there's Matt Ulmer, who's responsible for getting the media to cover what we're doing, and John Duncan, who is in charge of everything, including usÑthey spend hours on the phone and the Internet, looking for ways to improve our services, even when they're not at the office.

But at the end of the day, we think it's worth it. Reality shows, after all, are not supposed to be easy to produce. I doubt that the producers of The Real World have ever wished they had chosen an easier course. And who knows? Two or three years from now, we'll probably all look back on what we consider high tech now and laugh at the primitiveness of it all. I can only imagine the technical challenges involved with getting life-sized holograms of our bloggers to shoot out of the headphone jacks on the next generation of iPod micronanomini's.

The wonders of technology are endless.

BlogAbroad Season 3 Cast Member Updates

Sarah

Sarah has finally gotten herself settled into Jolly Old London Town. And despite a few setbacks in the first week of classes ("Many of my classes end when another begins, so I have to run to get to them, but usually end up late any way. Thus I have to interrupt the Professor as I walk in, with my eyes averted, trying to find the closest available seat. The timely students, however, take all of the seats that are closest to the door. So you have to either fight your way through the seated students who are trying to listen to the lecturer who is now pretending to ignore the fact that you're bumping into chairs and can't find a seat, to the back of the classroom where the Professor can then stare at you resentfully for the remainder of the lecture, or you can take a seat on the floor in the front of class where you can't see the lecturer, but he or she can't see you. I sit on the floor a lot"), Sarah has finally found her rhythm and is making the most of her time in England. She's studying hard, meeting a lot of new people, and taking full advantage of all the culture that famous city on the Thames has to offer.

Taylor

Taylor never expected to fit in as well as she does. Tokyo, after all, is not just on the other side of the planet; it's also a world away culturally. She was, at first, a bit confused by some of the more high tech aspects of living in Tokyo ("My bathroom is too high-tech for me. The toilet has its own remote control, and some of the buttons scare me") but she has since found herself feeling right at home in Japan. And despite all the money she's spending ("Save your money once you get there as well, because you will want to buy everything you see"), she's having a blast.

Jeff

Jeff recently arrived in Prague, and he fell in love with the city even before he stepped foot in his new apartment ("I arrived a few days ago as the snow was just finishing to fall and the views from the airplane were out of this world. The city was covered in fresh snow and the red roofs of the city were peaking out from beneath. CIEE, the program with which I am studying here at Charles University, [met] the group of 20 students that rushed off my plane at the airport and we were off to the city. Our van of guys riding to our apartments were so pumped to be studying here. None of us had been to Prague and we were soaking it all up as we traveled through all the Prague towns leading to Prague 1 and 2, the center of the city and where I was going to live"). He's not only having a fantastic time, but he's really soaking up the local culture: One of his roommates is Czech, so he'll definitely get an insider's view of life in Prague. It promises to be a very interesting semester for both Jeff and for all of us following his adventures.

Tammy

After all kinds of drama packing and prepping for the trip, Tammy has finally taken to the skies. Earlier this week, her father drove her to the airport, helped her with her bags ("In total I've dragged along 94 pounds of luggageÑand that's not including my carry on. The guy at the X-ray machine teased, ÔGeeze, girl! Is there anything you didn't bring?' To which I proudly informed him, ÔThe kitchen sink'), and sent her off. The last we heard from her, she was in the plane on the first leg of her journey to Costa Rica, watching the earth recede below. By now she's in Costa Rica, and her adventures have begun. Lucky for us, we get to experience them with her.

Well, there's an update on our progress and our new cast. As you can tell, this is going to be a phenomenal season. The first set of blogs are up, so get reading and live the adventure of a lifetime from the comfort of your computer chair. And don't forget about the revolutionary new StudyAbroad.com Live.

Once again, this train isn't called the 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!