Study Abroad Blog

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and spent with the people you love the most. I wanted to do a short post before I left Terre Haute and headed to Chicago for New Years and my flight to Manchester on the 4th.

Thanks again to everyone from “The Dirty” that helped me make this journey possible. I hope all of your enjoy reading this while I’m abroad.

I’ve never left Terre Haute for an extended period of time before and it will be an adjustment I’m willing to make.

I love all of you in Terre Haute and please keep up to date by reading this!

Last weekend I traveled to Fort Wayne, Indiana to visit some great friends of mine along side with my international friend from Malta, Shawn James. I intended to shoot a lot more footage, but many of you know the joys of technology and I was only managed what you see below. I wanted to say thanks to Keely, Samm, Lea, Pat, and Matt for a great weekend. And check out the tattoo’s Shawn and I got from my buddy Matt!

I leave so soon, it’s still all unreal!
My tattoo is on the left and Shawn on the right!

I’m in the final stretch of classes at Indiana State, only two more essay’s and an exam stand in my way. I’m spending Christmas here in Terre Haute with my family and then headed to Chicago. I plan to upload lots of videos in Chi-Town.

In other news my great friend from Malta came to my parents house for a traditional American meal last night. He loved it, he also loved the structure of the house, as many homes in Malta are not comparable in size to the homes we have in the U.S.

I’m going to make an effort to update this much more after classes let out, so I hope everyone is as ready as I am!

Hello all! As some of you know already, my names Jon Moore and I’m from Terre Haute. My video was selected as the 2011 winner of InternationalStudent.com’s great video contest. I can never say “thank you” enough to everyone there for this opportunity. To be honest I never thought in a million years a rap video I made with my best friends would grant me something so amazing.

When I started this semester I really had no intentions of studying abroad, I’m currently working two jobs and though the thought has crossed my mind I never had the proper motivation. That’s when I met Shawn James. Shawn is an international student from Malta currently studying at Indiana State. I met him in class and we became friends instantly. Shawn had the opportunity to live and study in London for six years and was constantly telling me how perfect of a place England was for a guy like me. I scheduled a meeting with Indiana State’s Study Abroad Advisor Janis Halpern (“I went up to Janis…I asked her what the plan is..”) and she showed me Edge Hill University in Ormskirk. After applying, being accepted, and meeting with representatives from the University I knew I needed a way to pay for the trip. I was up late one night when I came across InternationalStudent.com and knew that was my calling. With the help of many of my friends, “English Swaggin” was born. Since my duties were needed as the star of the video, I contacted John Wakim, a fellow Sycamore student who also contributes to Sycamore Video. To see more of John’s great work check out his Youtube page at http://www.youtube.com/user/WakimDream1

I currently have 36 days until I leave Terre Haute for Chicago where I’ll be spending my last week in U.S with friends that attend DePauw and Columbia to bring in the New Year before flying out January 4th for Manchester!

I look forward to updating this and sharing my journey to the U.K.

Православни икониикониматраци“So, how was it?”

It’s a simple question. Sometimes asked out of curiosity, sometimes just plain courtesy. But since my return, I’ve heard this question more times than I’ve eaten pasta in the past two months. After a lot of trial and error, I still don’t have an appropriate answer.

But I will tell you this: It’s not about the places. It’s not about taking a picture of an important monument or gawking at a masterpiece in a museum, either. While all of those things are wonderful, and I have been incredibly lucky to admire some of the finest history this world’s got to offer in some of its most enchanting cities, I’ve realized there’s something actually greater than all of that.

The people.

It’s about meeting the sort of people that you never expected to cross paths with, but then not imagining your life without having met them. The kind of people that reinvigorate your appetite for conversation and reinvent your definition of friendship. The kind of people that you can’t stop thinking about on the flight back home.

These sort of life changing experiences are rare. But even more rare? Having the opportunity to share them  with your best friends. After having spent nearly every waking moment next to Deborah and Lisa, it’s safe to say we talked about it all (just to reassure ourselves it was really happening). But on the flight home, there was one feeling none of us could put into words. So instead, we just shared a smile and exchanged the kind of glances that said more than a 9 hour conversation ever could. Deborah and Lisa, thank you for allowing me to binge on Piu Gusto chips as frequently as I desired. Sharing these experiences with the two of you was priceless. We’re locked.

The concept of travel is easy. You book a flight. Reserve a hotel. Follow the handy guidebook and take a few hundred photos. But to truly travel means not only to physically move from one location to the other. It means to remember to pack your toothbrush and leave behind your inhibitions.

“So how was it?”

I still can’t answer that, except that, well, I wish you could have been there.

And once again, thank you International Student – the opportunities you are providing for students are absolutely invaluable (you’ve gained a lifetime walking billboard). It also seems my video making skills have improved since once-upon-a-few-months-ago:

http://vimeo.com/13731171

PS:  Always remember… chi non risica, non rosica

Some afternoons, I sit on the steps of San Lorenzo, with a book in one hand and a gelato on the other. In front of me, a Great Dane quietly sits next to it’s owner, while some kids toss a soccer ball back and  forth to my right. I see one of my classmates from afar, taking a stroll with an Italian boy she had told me about. I think  his name was Niccolo. Anyway, I’ve never seen her smile so big. It’s a sunny day in Perugia but the cool breeze alleviates the stings of heat on my skin.  It’s these little things, le piccole cose, that make up most of the in between. I’m not complaining.

I don’t know what it is exactly, but being in Europe makes you feel unstoppable. It’s as if the millionaire dollar advertising campaigns run by the likes of Orbitz and Expedia aren’t enough to convince me that travel within America is all that accessible or well, appealing. Whereas here, I have found myself in-flight more times than I can count on both hands. Here’s a little glimpse at what I’ve been up to:

Cape Sounion, Greece

Athens, Greece

Mykonos, Greece

Barcelona, Spain

Barcelona, Spain

Marrakech, Morocco

Marrakech, Morocco

Marrakech, Morocco

Sunday night was fantastic. Despite Italy not making it to the World Cup finals, the Perugian excitement for Netherlands vs. Spain was in full force.

Surprisingly though, the overall reaction to Spain winning didn’t seem to please most of my Italian friends. Something about having to “hear about it for the next 4 years.” Oh, boys.

But the celebration continued all night from real Spanish students who happen to make up a big portion of the student population in Perugia. Most of them are here through ERASMUS (European Region Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students), a program within the European union that gives students the opportunity to study at least 3 months to 1 year of their career studies in another country… The possible catch? Some of these programs require that the coursework is in the language of the country you’re visiting! My upstairs neighbor for example, Antonio, had to learn his art history in Italian, a language he knew very little of before arriving to Perugia. I can’t even imagine how difficult it would be to have to take one of my English literature courses in Italian!

Anyway, the point is that there are tons of Spanish students here. And they made their presence very known after Spain’s win on Sunday. Let’s just say there were many historic fountains invaded… (by overly enthused, quite likely inebriated, soccer fans).

Perhaps in an attempt to show off all the Italian they had been learning during their ERASMUS (or just to rub it in), they kept chanting:
“Siamo campioni del mondo! Siamo campioni del mondo! Siamo campioni del mondo!”

Every summer, Perugia hosts a 10 day jazz festival called Umbria Jazz. Now, this shouldn’t be mistaken for as some ordinary, run-of-the-mill music festival. In fact, it’s safe to say that Umbria Jazz is actually quite extraordinary.

As if I wasn’t lucky enough already, it just so happens that Umbria Jazz began Friday. I must admit that I am not well versed in the sounds of B.B King, Tony Bennett or Miles Davis, but this is the kind of festival that makes the never before jazz fan – well, a jazz fan for life.

For the next 10 days, Perugia becomes absolutely intoxicating (and I don’t just mean from birra e vino). But the free performances on the two main stages across the city center and the impromptu street shows, truly bring this medieval city to life. Not only do native Perugino’s partake in the fun, but thousands of people across the world come to this little town in central Italy to indulge in the music and melodies.

E una cosa bellissima.

Where do I even begin?

The mid-day strolls down Piazza Novembre? My love affair with a true Italian (first name cioccolato, last name gelato)? Or the fact that after a year of anticipation, in between rigorous (mostly awesome) Italian classes, I get to sit back on the steps of the cathedral of San Lorenzo, overlooking the subtle grandeur of Fontana Maggiore and really understand what that wise person once meant when they said, “La vita e bella”.

Being here is a dream.

One thing is learning Italian back home next to students who are more preoccupied with chatting about who they’re voting for on American Idol, and another completely mind-blowing experience has been having my peers each be from a different corner  of the world and collect in one open-air classroom, not because of the language’s world practicality or because they need the course credits, but because of the pleasure they get from the way each syllable in the word arrivederci rolls off of their tongue.

Our professors emphasize the fact that attendance is not mandatory, and that exams are merely a university technicality so what should really matter is how well you put to use what you’ve learned. For example, after day 1 of classes, I put it to very good use.

Me: “Salve, buon giorno! Posso provare un po di vaniglia?”
(I would have never figured out I didn’t like the vanilla gelato)
Me: “No, preferisco un cono piccolo di ciocolatto. Grazie.”

And so every morning at 7 am, Olga from Russia, Sofia from Spain, Dimitri from Greece, Mert from Turkey, and all of the others make it to class after what feels like a 20km cardio walk uphill.

Somehow, the risk of falling behind in basic introductory phrases is a risk not worth taking.