The BlogAbroad.com Team

Foreign Holidays -- The Result of Our First Ever BlogAbroad.com Survey

One of the most surprising aspects of the study abroad experience for most students is the variety of unfamiliar holidays celebrated throughout the world. And the other side of the coin proves true, as well: Many of the most beloved American holidays mean nothing to people of other countries. Thanksgiving, for example, celebrates the arrival of the Pilgrims in America, so why should the Japanese or the Costa Ricans celebrate it? Nonetheless, this is often one of the hardest parts of living abroad for students to get over.

But it is also one of the most interesting, for one might argue that great insight into a country can be gained by understanding what it is they celebrate. In order to help all of you learn a little bit more about what makes the citizens of Costa Rica, England, Czech Republic, and Japan tick, we here at the BlogAbroad.com Express have found some of the more interestingÑor, at the very least, uniqueÑholidays that people celebrate in those four countries, and the ways in which they celebrate them. And even if some of these holidays sound familiar, the ways in which they are celebrated are most likely not.

Costa Rica - "Miércoles de Ceniza (Ash Wednesday). Celebrated nationwide by processions. In Guanacaste, processions include...horse, cow and bull parades. In Liberia you're invited to attend the Guanacastecan bullfights (animal lovers relax; the bull is not harmed).

- June 25: Anexión de Guanacaste. Commemorates Guanacaste's 1824 entrance into the Costa Rican union.

- September 15: Día de la Independencia (Independence Day). A nationwide celebration of independence from Spain in 1821; lots of parades and speeches.

- Christmas week. Costa Ricans celebrate the season with a week of fireworks, bullfights and funfairs in San José. There is a large consumption of apples and grapes during the holiday times" (www.costarica.com).

England - Boxing Day (The day after Christmas) "The name goes back to medieval times, more than 800 years ago, when alms boxes were placed at the back of every church to collect money for the poor. Traditionally, it is on this day that the alms box at every English church is opened and the contents are distributed to the poor.

- Shrove Tuesday "Christian carnival day on the eve of Ash Wednesday, which begins Lent, a time of fasting and devotions. Pancakes are often served.

- July 15: Saint Swithin's Day "Saint Swithin was England Bishop of Winchester. 40 days of bad weather will follow if it rains on this day.

- Remembrance Sunday (Early November). The Queen, the Prime Minister, and other dignitaries lay wreaths and observe a minute's silence (at 11 a.m.) at the Cenotaph to commemorate those who gave their lives for the country in both world wars. Afterwards, the Bishop of London takes a short service of remembrance" (www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk).

Czech Republic - July 5: Cyril and Metodej Day (in Czech, Den slovanskych verozyestu Cyrilia a Metodeje). "In 863, Church teachers [Saints] Cyril (Constantine) and Metodej (Methodius) came to Great Moravia to propagate Christian faith.

- September 28: St. Wenceslas Day-Czech Statehood Day (in Czech, Den Deské státnosti). In 935, St. Wenceslas, the then patron of the Czech State, was murdered by his brother.

- October 28: Independent Czechoslovak State Day (in Czech, Den vzniku samostatného Deskoslovenského státu). Creation of Czechoslovakia in 1918.

- November 17: Struggle for Freedom and Democracy Day (in Czech, Den boje za svobodu a demokracii). Commemorating the student demonstration against Nazi occupation in 1939, and the demonstration in 1989 that started the Velvet Revolution" (www.en.wikipedia.org).

Japan - Second Monday of January: Coming of Age (seijin no hi). The coming of age of 20 year old men and women is celebrated.

- February 11: National Foundation Day (kenkoku kinenbi). According to the earliest Japanese history books, on this day in the year 660 BC the first Japanese emperor was crowned.

- May 3: Constitution Day (kenpo kinenbi). National holiday remembering the new constitution that was put into effect after the war.

- December 23: Emperor's Birthday (tenno no tanjobi). The birthday of the current emperor is always a national holiday. If the emperor changes, the national holiday changes to the birthday date of the new emperor" (www.japan-guide.com).

- Taylor adds: The Official End of Winter (Setsubun). In the original tradition, one would throw soybeans out the window and say "oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi", which means "devils/demons out, good fortune in". Today it's become a much different event. I attended setsubun at Zojoji Temple in Tokyo, which is a major temple and was the family temple of the Tokugawa shogunate. Several hundred people gather around the temple steps with their hands or open bags raised. At the top of the steps, priests, local students, people dressed as boxes of popular snacks, celebrities, and the like shower the crowd with soybeans, candy, snackfood, and sometimes toys or tissues. Between tossing their items, the assorted participants entertain the crowd, perhaps with a symbolic battle between a local elementary school and men in oni costumes. Around this event is a carnival-like atmosphere, and everyone is in on it. Even little old ladies will elbow you in the face to get the toy thrown your way. Imagine a mosh pit, for all ages, and you won't be far off.

*Another interesting foreign holiday Ð Cindo de Mayo. Anyone have any interesting stories related to this holiday?*

Getting Around While Abroad

Studying abroad is about much more than just experiencing another culture, though that is, of course, one of the main benefits of leaving your school for a semester or a year. It is also about taking yourself out of your comfort zone and forcing yourself to rethink how you go about your daily routine.

Some students who attend colleges or universities in big cities may choose to remove themselves from the fast-paced atmosphere of living full-time in an environment like that and study abroad in a small town, or at least in a smaller one than what they've become accustomed to. Usually, however, it works in the opposite direction: Students who ordinarily attend a small-town, central-campus-style university, often decide to study abroad in a big international city. And though that is a wonderful way to broaden one's horizons and really challenge all the resources one possesses, it can also pose some very rea

l problems. But like most things, if you know what to expect before you actually have the experience, you'll likely be better able to handle it once it actually happens. We at the BlogAbroad.com Express, then, have put our heads together and come up with the three most common issues facing this latter type of student.

Learn To Love Public Transportation
Forget all the movies you've ever seen; most of them blow it all out of proportion. We all know the scene: The innocent teenager or young businessman is riding the New York subway after dark. The graffiti speeding by looks both menacing and overabundant. The squealing of the wheels on the tracks drowns out all other sound, the lights flicker, and then, with no warning, an entire 500-person gang magically materializes in that exact subway car, robbing and assaulting the main character. The message is clear: Stay above ground if you value your life.

The truth, of course, is just the opposite: In most major international citiesÑNew York includedÑpublic transportation is not only the cheapest way to get around, but also the quickest. It's also generally quite safe.

In a city like Paris, for example, or London, the metro area is spread out far and wide. A taxi from one end to the other would not only cost a small fortune, but it would take forever. The Metro (in Paris) and the Underground (in London), offer direct, fast routes from wherever you are to wherever you want to go. Of course, you may sometimes have to change subway lines midway through, and occasionally more than once, but it is almost always faster than cabbing it.

The added advantage of public transportationÑwhether that means subways or bussesÑis that you get to really see how the local people live and interact. Because very few people can afford either the time or the expense of hopping into a cab whenever they need to leave their neighborhood, riding the public transport system gets you into close contact with the people who have chosen to make their lives in that city. And riding a subway or bus next to the locals is second to nothing when it comes to really integrating yourself into the fabric of a city.

But Still...
Which is not to say that all subways and busses are perfect. Far from it. The truth, of course, is that many cities are overcrowded, and some bad people live in all of them. You can see where this is going: On occasion, bad people will try to do bad things to you on the subway or bus. But you're far from defenseless.

First of all, try not to stand out. The worst thing you can do is look like you don't belong there, like you have no idea what's going on around you. As most study abroad advisors will tell you, much of the rest of the world is far more politically knowledgeable than we are here in America. As a result, there is, these days, a fair amount of antipathy towards Americans. So while you're in another country, interacting with locals and perhaps dispelling some of their preconceived notions about Americans, you don't want to flaunt the fact that you're not a local. In other words, avoid wearing baseball caps with sports-team logos, and red-white-and-blue sweaters, and anything else that boldly proclaims your Americanness.

You should, of course, be proud of where you're from. In conversations with locals, you'll likely be called upon to answer questions or correct misperceptions about Americans. But the worst thing you can do is be loud and tacky about it. The same thing goes for not just your clothes, but also the way you carry yourself. Be confident, friendly, and unafraid to try out your language skills with the locals. But at the same time, it is imperative you stay alert at all times. Not paranoid, mind you. Just make sure you pay attention.

Sometimes, However...
There are times, however, that a cab ride is the best gift you can give yourself. Maybe you've had too many drinks. Or perhaps time got away from you and it's suddenly very late. Maybe you plan on taking the subway or bus home but the station is desolate and you just don't feel comfortable waiting there alone. In this case, there is but one piece of advice that you should follow: Trust your gut. It's always better to spend the money on a cab than to do something that makes you feel unsafe. Because at the end of the day, studying abroad is about having wonderful experiences, finding out more about yourself, and living your life, while you're there, to the fullest. And you don't want to do anything that will ruin that.

This Thing Called Study Abroad
Written by Gunnar Larson
Edited by Kit Muller

There is a little fact about this thing called study abroad. It is called sadness.

It is very hard to travel outside the United States and come back the same person. Most likely it will happen to you, and you will not realize it right away. When you do, you will try to think back and try to put your finger on when exactly you started to change, but you will never recall when exactly it happened - you will just know, you are different now.

When you come back home to the Untied States after your semester abroad, after you have finished answering all the questions from your family about your experience, you will retreat to your bedroom, to just be alone.

While you lie on your soft, warm bed, and gaze up at your ceiling, you will remember the children in shantytowns. You will remember how your heart skipped a beat when a local on the street flashed you the most beautiful smile. You will remember the rickshaw ride when you almost ran into a sewer lagoon. You will remember your visit to an orphanage, for deaf and blind children.

Remember when the orphanage director told you that just a small touch makes these children's day? You did not believe it. But as you turned around to make sure no one else was looking, you leaned down and touched one of these children and saw that, indeed, you made their day. How could something so simple mean so much? The memories will soon flow like the river Nile you visited; the sights, the smells will all come back to you.

You will tell your friends back at home about your trip to the orphanage. "Were they deaf, blind, AND dumb?!" they will say and think it to be hysterically funny. Just at the moment your friends start laughing, you will turn your head to the side, your eyes will focus on your friend's face and narrow ever so slightly, and you will not be able to help but think how ignorant people are.

Ignorance is bliss; with knowledge comes sadness. And you cannot help but pick up amazing experiences while on your study abroad trip. Yes, while you lay and look up at your ceiling, in your nice warm bed and remember that there are billions of others sleeping on mats, in the streets, or with their belly rumbling because they are hungry, you will feel sad.

In a couple of months, you will be your old self again, hardly taking heed of your experiences and memories gained while you were abroad. You will joke with your friends about the homeless woman on the corner. You will pass a playground and not even remember the little one's day you made at the orphanage. Or will you?

You have two roads you can travel that night when you are lying in your bed. You can push it all away, into a corner of your brain, as an experience where you took a lot of pictures, learned a bit, and that was that. Or, you can put your study abroad experience to work in your life.

"What can I do?" you will ask yourself if you choose to take the second, harder road. "I am just one person, and I cannot change anything in this world by myself," you will say to yourself. You are one person, one lucky person. One person who marvelled at the constellations in the southern hemisphere, and witnessed a lion tackle a gazelle in Africa. You can do anything you want.

So what do you do then? I don't know. That's for you to figure out. Whatever you do though, it is all up to you. Just promise me one thing though. In five, ten, or thirty years from now, when suddenly something reminds you of your study abroad trip, that your sadness will not reincarnate as sadness because of the knowledge that you did not do anything with your study abroad experience, but rather happiness, because you did.

BlogAbroad Season 3 Cast Member Updates

Sarah just finished her first reading week, which is the British equivalent of midterm exams. But instead of filling in little bubbles with a number-2 pencil, students spend the week reading the books that have been assigned and then writing papers on them. It is a time of high stress for students at British universities. Luckily, Sarah figured out a way to make it a little less horrible: "My friend came over and together we baked super chocolately cookies for our flats as a Valentines Day present. Unfortunately, because it's reading week, about half my flat has gone home to study and one of my other flatmates decided to dress up as a fifties house wife and bake brownies and a Victoria Sponge cake for Valentines day. So now we're sitting around the flat, I'm chained to my desk, and there is a mountain of baked goods calling to me from the kitchen, the majority of which are chocolate based. This is not good. Oh well, I'm working under the theory that sugar helps me type."

It must have worked, because she made it through the reading week unscathed and is now in Madrid, visiting her friends from back home. It's been a nice change of scenery for her. Literally: "Madrid has more sunlight and nicer weather. When I arrived it was around six o'clock in the evening and it was still sunny, that never happens in London! (Or hasn't yet, to be fair, the days are getting longer). Also, although we had rain the weekend I was there, it was just an occasional sprinkle and Hannah and company were completely disconcerted by it. Compared to London, where a day when it doesn't rain is more unusual than a day when it does, that sort of weather was perfect." Like most travelers, Sarah is discovering just how much there is to love out there if you're willing to experience it all with an open mind.

Taylor

Things have turned interesting for Taylor. Most of us, after all, think of Japanese culture as very reserved and proper. But last week, she found herself in a most unexpected situation: "I've mentioned before that Japan was the most seismically active country in the worldÑwell, it's got volcanoes too, Mt. Fuji being one (although it hasn't erupted in several hundred years). Most volcanic activity manifests itself in the form of natural hot springs. The historic Japanese onsen is a hot spring used as a public bath, sometimes with a traditional inn built around it.

Today, while the old school onsen hasn't gone out of fashion, the idea has been made a lot more accessible. The water is imported from springs all across the country to onsen "centers", which at first glance look like fitness clubs, with juice machines and a snack bar, massage beds and chairs, and TVs waiting in the lobby. In keeping with tradition, you leave your shoes at the door. However, on the other side of that door is a surprise.

"A bunch of naked old ladies. I should clarify that the sexes each have their own side of the onsen to bathe in, but that being said, your privacy ends there. In that locker room, you drop those drawers, no matter who's looking, no ifs ands or buts. You better hope you're with a good friend, because there will be secrets afterward."

On top of that, she recently announced that her band will be performing live in Japan. So even halfway around the world, Taylor is pursuing her dreams.

What else is there to say? The world is an amazing, and amazingly surprising, place. Luckily, Taylor is willing to experience as much of it as she can. It doesn't sound like she's been disappointed.

Jeff

Jeff recently returned from a trip to Budapest, which astounded him in how similar it is to Prague. From the castles to the old synagogues and churches to the layout of the city itself, Jeff found himself feeling right at home as he and his friends wandered around the city. But the amazing thing for us is the similarity of experience two people can have even when they are on opposite sides of the planet: "A good trip to Budapest, we were told, always ends with a day at the baths. Budapest is near natural hot springs, so the city has various bath houses that might make for the most hilarious, uncomfortable, and unforgettable experience for any American tourist. Located in the middle of a city park is a huge building that looks like a castle. You enter and tell the cashier what service you would like (choosing from a list that includes: baths, mud massage, stone massageÉ.seems glamorous, right? Just wait.). Then you pass through the gates into huge dressing rooms that look more like a mental institution than anything else. A quaky man opens your dressing room for you and in broken English says he will lock it up for you, so trust him (sounds safe). Before I describe the baths, a question is necessary...when you are at a hotel pool and you head over to the hot tub, if there are 8 or 9 older gentleman in Speedos sprawled out in a crowded 4 person hot tub, you usually decide to come back later, right? If not, the next description won't be so odd." For the full story, check out Jeff's blog.

He also has discovered a local delicacy in PragueÑCzech hot chocolate: "Apparently, they take hot chocolate literally here, as this is no Nesquick drink, but just a full Czech chocolate bar melted and placed into a cup. I'm eating it more like ice cream than anything else."

So, Jeff and Sarah love the local chocolate, Tammy sings and Taylor is in a band, and Jeff and Taylor both had experiences in public baths. The similarities are unbelievable.

Tammy has, it seems, been all over Costa Rica. From the streets of San JosŽ to the largest organic market in Costa Rica to the beautiful waterfalls of Los Churros, she never seems to have a dull day. Or, for that matter, a dull night: "Sunday morning, I slept in past my regular 5:30 am to 9:00 am. I was in my sleeping bag; overtop a soft bed, with light streaming in from the ceiling window. At first I was unsure where I was; only that my eyes were tearing up, my ears ringing, and all my stuff reeked of cigarettes. Then I remembered our previous night of reggaeton dancing from 11 pm to 3 am in the morning. To put it nicely, that was a learning experienceÉ"

But even when she has a day off from classes and touring around, she doesn't get bored. In fact, she makes the most of her downtime: "Life is tough. I spent half the day working on my tan, lying out on Steve's awesome float raft reading about the economics of our world water supply. I have an amazing talent for falling asleep while reading in the pool and not dropping the paper articles into the water. This is an important skill for any environmentalist who doesn't want to waste paper. Another great place to hang out and read is in one of the campus's many comfy, colorful hammocks. Can you tell I'm addicted to hammocks?" You have to feel bad for her, don't you?

Gunnar

Gunnar has visited and left Lebanon, where he was in awe of the kindness of the people and the beauty of the natural environment. He is right now ending his Middle East swing in Southern Cyprus and will next be heading over to Italy and eventually the rest of Europe. But there is no way to fully capture his experiences in this limited space. For the full Gunnar experience, check out his AudioBlogs and the new video he sent us. And then sit back and prepare to be amazed.

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!