Category: Off-Campus

I lost my glasses in the Mediterranean Sea.

Twice. I don’t miss them one bit. Why? Because I learned two important lessons when I studied in Spain last May.

First, don’t go kayaking without securing your glasses. Second, you have a rare opportunity to earn college credit while having a marvelous adventure by finding a new way of seeing things — in more ways than one, in my case.

At Hope, I’m used to a rather “structured” academic schedule as an engineering major. I went to Spain in May 2018 with Dr. Berta Carrasco to finish up my Spanish minor and also fulfilled my Culture Heritage II credit without putting my engineering class schedule in crisis.

Before going to Spain, I had to figure out how to afford my trip. There’s obviously an upfront cost to studying abroad other than just the plane ticket, housing, and college credits. But really, it just depends how you look at that upfront expense when thinking about how you’ll afford it. For me, it was an investment in my education by taking a class I would have to take anyway, with the added benefit of spending that time abroad. Not only would I have a pretty awesome time, but I’d have a unique experience as a global learner that would set me apart from others.

Of course, loving travel is also a huge part of it. Seeing the world is an experience that you just have to do, especially since we’re so young. For us as Hope students, we should take advantage of the interdisciplinary opportunity that we still have. Seeing the world not only allows us to learn more about the world, but allow us to get out of our comfort zones. In my case, it was being able to speak Spanish for an entire month while taking in the culture around me.

Once you study abroad, you also get a very rare opportunity for clarity. You get a chance to step away and embrace a different way of doing things, at least for a little bit, and experience what really matters in life from a different point of view. This new way of life may grant you a few things: More free time, more opportunities while you’re abroad, a different pace of life, or all the above.

The moment you leave home, you’re just not worried about the same things anymore.

The free time is amazing. For three whole days during my May Term in Spain, I did nothing but contemplate life while on a hilltop in Norway for a weekend.

The moment you leave home, you’re just not worried about the same things anymore. You have a chance to make the most out of your experience and chase your next endeavor wherever you decide to go abroad.

Still curious? You can learn more by consulting with one of Hope’s global ambassadors at the Center for Global Engagement office inside the Martha Miller Center.

We all know Porsche. One of the most luxurious and most technically developed cars one can buy in current market. People think Porsche is one of the symbols of brilliant German engineering, precision, and reliability. As of right now, it is truth, but most people do not know that Porsche is not German company. It is Czech company, which moved to Germany and became German. Actually, the founder Ferdinand Porsche, was born in Vratislavice neighborhood, which is part of Liberec, my hometown. He went to Technical University in Liberec and got a job in Vienna when he turned 18. On of the reasons, why he did not come back to the Czech Republic (Czechoslovakia back then) is because he sympathized with Hitler and his ideas.

Also what people do not know is that Volkswagen Beetle is a reality only because of Adolf Hitler. The VW Beetle is a direct product of Adolf Hitler. He actually contracted Ferdinand Porsche in 1934 and asked him to design and construct it.

The fact that Porsche had a lot of sympathies for Hitler was a big controversy of reconstructing his house where he was born in Vratislavice, Liberec. Nevertheless, Škoda the Czech car manufacturer bought it and made a museum out of it.

I talked about Prague a few blogs ago, but I have not mentioned my hometown and the city I was born. There is a lot of things to talk about, so I will probably write two or three more posts about it because my town in many ways is really a pearl in a sea.

Liberec or as many people know the city as Reichenberg in German, is a city located on the North of the Czech Republic, only 30 minutes from German and Polish border. It has population of 102,000 people and it was first mentioned, and therefore established in 1352. It is a pearl in the sea, because of its population and economic power and demand, it is very beautiful and historic.

Liberec has a lot of beautiful, historic and modern buildings that form the city, but those Jětěd and Liberecká Radnice are the symbols of the town.

On of the great things in Liberec is its location between mountains, so people can in 20-30 minutes drive outside Liberec and ski, mountain bike, walk, or cross country ski. On the top of the mountains is a telecommunication tower and hotel at the same time. It was designed by Karel Hubáček and built in 1973. In that time, people saw it as “futuristic” building.

The second symbol of Liberec is Liberecká radnice, which would translate to English as Town Hall of Liberec. The architect of this was Franz Neumann, an Austrian architect. The building was finished in 1893 and it is a “smaller” copy or version of the Town Hall in Vienna.

Even though it is the start of a Spring, Prague, the capital city of the my home country, the Czech Republic, has something spectacular. In every bigger city in the Czech Republic there is a Christmas market. There are always very Christmasy, relaxing, and romantic, but the Prague Christmas Market is in the league itself. It was ranked as the number 1 Christmas Market in the world by CNN.

The market happens on the Old Town Square in the heart of Prague. Its historic square dates to 11th century. The biggest attraction is an astronomical clock in the town hall called Orloj. There is a sad and amazing regarding the clock. The sad one is they blinded the builder of Orloj right after he made it, in order to prevent him of making it somewhere else. The positive news is that, Orloj has been working since it was constructed in October 9, 1410.