Horns meet World. World meet Tiffany Fung. Tiffany was a Sociology major here at UT, and she spent spring of 2014 studying abroad on an affiliated program with IES in Barcelona, Spain at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). During her time abroad, she kept a blog of her adventures. In the post below, she writes about her travels in Northern Europe before going to Spain and the pre-study abroad jitters and expectations.
I’m currently sitting in my friend’s apartment in London. My journey in Europe has already began since the start of winter break. In Finland and Switzerland, I saw the Northern Lights in Saariselka, slid down the longest toboganning track in the world, snowtreked under the star-covered sky in Zermatt… I am having the time of my life, and yet it’s just the beginning.
After two weeks in the cold, I’m looking forward to the warmer weather in Barcelona. I love traveling, but I am also excited to settle down, at least for a few months, in my new home and with my new family. I don’t feel prepared at all and I don’t really know what to expect. But perhaps these are the few things I have in mind:
1) Practice the very limited Spanish I know and get better at it. Throw out the worries, insecurities and just SPEAK it!
2) Explore Barcelona like a local. Get familiar with the city, discover hidden boutiques and cafes, parks… Learn about its past and present,
3) Find inspiration, then create! This includes visiting art galleries and antique markets, wandering around with my camera to take pictures and film things, sitting down with my sketchbook or a good book to read.
4) Meet new people, and learn about their stories. students of IES and UAB (the local university), my host family and roommate, locals, random strangers… hmm.
5) Travel. Other than visiting other countries (Morocco, Turkey and India are on the top of my list), I also want to see Spain as much as possible.
The most important goal I have for myself is to embrace challenges, to make the most out of my semester abroad.
This list could go on and on… but I guess the most important goal I have for myself is to embrace challenges, to make the most out of my semester abroad. “How?” you may ask. Well, I’ll figure that out when I get there!
If you enjoyed reading about Tiffany’s experience in Northern Europe, take a look at the program that got her there. If you’re a Sociology major or in the College of Liberal Arts like Tiffany, make sure to browse through this database of scholarships (looking at the COLA exchange scholarship and the Liberal Arts Council scholarship for study abroad in particular) in addition to this listing of additional departmental scholarships. And, as always, check in with us next week to see where in the world our Horns pop up next!
Take care.
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