With two short weeks left in my program, I can’t help but feel great sadness to be leaving a place I’ve really started to call home – knowing that this experience will never be able to recreate itself. Although I traveled extensively during my study abroad experience, some of my favorite moments have been those that …
Tag Archives: International Studies
Independent Study Project
As a part of every SIT study abroad program, students must complete an Independent Study Project, or ISP. Usually the ISP has something related to the overall theme of the program and consists of a 20-30 page paper (depending on the program), and an oral presentation on your topic. This SIT Samoa program is about …
The Problem With Dogs
I really have enjoyed my semester abroad in Samoa. It is a fascinating place, and a unique travel destination. I happily recommend it to anyone willing to get a bit “off the beaten track.” That said, this semester I feel like I would like to acknowledge something that has troubled me this semester. After all, …
Fiji
This past week I went on my last SIT excursion. We spent one full week on the main island of Viti Levu in Fiji. What an experience that was. We arrived on October 25, which happened to be a big holiday in Fiji, the Hindu festival of lights called Diwali. Fiji’s population is divided roughly …
Travels around the EU!
Since my last post we’ve have traveled to Luxembourg, Paris, and Brussels, gone to the Swiss Alps, Lucerne, little towns in northern France, castle ruins in southern Germany, Munich, Strasbourg, studied the inner workings of the EU by visiting the institutions, conversed over problems in the Middle East and the way immigrants are integrated (or …
American Samoa
Last week we had an outing to the other Samoa, American Samoa. The Samoan islands were divided by the Germans and the Americans in 1899 after a few brief skirmishes. The Germans took Western, or what is now Independent Samoa made up of Savaii and Upolu, while the US took the islands of Tutuila and …
White Sunday
October 12th was one of Samoa’s biggest holidays–White Sunday. White Sunday originated with the arrival of the London Missionary Society in 1830. It always falls on the second Sunday of October, and it is a church service in honor of the children (in Samoan it is known as “Lotu Tamaiti,” or “The Children’s Service”). My …
Berlin & Prague
IES EU sets apart 21 days during our time abroad to travel as a program to different cities around the EU with the purpose of comprehending the current status and the inner workings of this intricate nation-state partnership. They break the time down into 3 separate segments and in September I had the chance to …
Savaii
This past week I went on an excursion with my class to Savaii. The country of Samoa is made up of two big islands, and a few smaller ones. For the past month, I have been living on Upolu, the smaller but more populated island. Savaii is the big island to the northwest, with the small …
Lotofaga Village Visit
This past week I had a 10 day home stay in the rural village of Lotofaga on the south side of Upolu. This was an incredible experience. My host family consisted of 11 people, which was a very average family size for the village. I had a host mother and father, four host sisters, a …
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