Simone Grimard
4th Year Bachelor of Arts
International Experience.
Prior to studying abroad, my global experience consisted solely of trips across Canada and a family trip to a resort in Mexico. However, studying abroad in the United Kingdom has significantly broadened my global experience. Not only did I get the opportunity to live and study in a different country and a different culture, but I also had the opportunity of exploring the country I was studying in and to do some independant backpacking through mainland Europe and the rest of the UK.
Three Weeks of Independant Travel in Europe
(April 2014):
While studying abroad in Wales, the university I was studying at had a three week Easter break in April, rather than the one week Reading break we get at TRU. I decided to maximize my time abroad by seeing as much of Europe as I could manage in the three week break I had so I decided to backpack to six cities that I have always wanted to see. This experience was both personally awarding, in terms of the confidence, the soft skills, and the knowledge I gained, as well as culturally awarding, in terms of the intercultural and historical knowledge I gained about different parts of the world. Below are a few of the places I visited that impacted me the most.
Study Abroad--University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Carmarthen Campus, Wales, UK (Winter 2014):
In January of 2014 I left Canada to study abroad and I ended up in Wales! Now how did I choose Wales? Well, I didn't. Wales sort of chose me. I had been planning on studying in England to fulfill my English requirements for school but the university was not taking students at the time and right next door was Wales. Before I left for Wales, I did not know much about the country except that there were supposed to be a lot of castles (642 I later found out), that there would be a lot of sheep, and that they spoke some Welsh. What I did not know was how much I would come to love the country and treasure the experience and now, looking back, I am so happy that I ended up in Wales, and I wouldn't trade the experience for the world.
While there, I studied 3 courses: British Culture, Welsh Heritage, and Abnormal Psychology, all of which counted towards my degree at TRU. However, I learned more than just what was cinluded in the objectives on the course outlines, I aso learned that different countries have different teaching styles. For instance, in Wales, a maximum course load is three, whereas at TRU it's five. Also, they have fewer assignments that are just weighed more heavily.This is anot to say that one method is better than the other, they are just different.
I also learned a lot about myself while studying abroad. Going to Wales was only my second international experience and this time, I was alone! I found I learned how to be a lot more self-reliant because I didn't have any family or close friends nearby and it was harder to get in touch, and I also found that I grew to know myself better. I learned to rely on my instincts and to recognize when I needed to take a break. I also learned about my strengths and weaknesses (for example, I learned that I am not good with directions or reading maps, but I now know that I am good at organizing trips and staying calm in tricky situations). These experiences have increased not only my independance but also, my self-confidence in my abilities.
This is just an example of what I learned about myself and about other cultures while studying abroad. Overall, the experience of studying abroad was unarguably one of the highlights of my life. I met so many amazing people from all over the world and I got to see so much more than just the country I was staying in during my three week Easter break, and ultimately, the experience sparked a hunger in me to travel further, and to see and experience as many other cultures as I can because I now know that you can never really understand a culture until you go and experience it first hand.
Amsterdam, Netherlands (March 29-April 1, 2015):
Amsterdam was the first city I visitied in mainland Europe and was probably one of my favourites. While we were there we did a walking tour and learned about the history of Amsterdam and the creation of the canals. I think Amsterdam had such a big impact on me because it really made me realize how different cultures and societies deal with contested issues differently, such as prositution. It made me really appreciate how different societies can approach these issues and deal with them so differently yet it also made me realize that no one society has the "right" way of dealing with things, just different ways. Also, the bike culture in Amsterdam really surprised me. Whole families will commute with bikes, carrying their children both in front and behind their bikes with no helmets and yet, they manage to function safely, effectively and in an evironmentally friendly way which means less insfrastructure is needed in Amsterdam for vehicles, and more space can be devoted to living and green spaces, creating a more compact city. This is a concept I found quite interesting, especially coming from Canada where hardly anyone commutes by bike and where so much of our infrastructure is dedicated to roads and parking lots, making our communites a lot more spread out and covered in oavement.
Airline ticket from Amsterdam to Berlin
Airline ticket from Berlin to Krakow
Airline ticket from Krakow to Paris
Berlin, Germany
(April 1-5, 2014):
Berlin was another city I found really interesting and felted impacted by. When I got off the airplane I had help finding my way to the metro and was told which train to take to get to my hostel; however, when I got off the metro, it was late at night and I realized I didn't have a map to get from the metro to the hostel. I knew it would be close but the metro stop was in the middle of a square and I had no idea which direction to go. I had an address but not many people were around and the only person around only spoke German. That was my first experience traveling where I felt truly put to the test. It was dark, it was scary, and I was trying to get directions from a man who didn'd understand me and who I didn't understand. Through some pointing and gestures he eventually sent me off in the right direction but for a while I was uncertain whether I would be able to find the hostel or not and I felt truly alone. I learned from then on to be more prepared, to always carry a map with my hostel circled.
After the first night, I found Berlin to be quite hospitable to the English-speaking traveler. Most people spoke English and from then on, getting around wasn't a problem. On the third day I did a bike tour of the city where we visited the Berlin Wall and all of the war memorials which really made me think. When learning about the Berlin Wall and being reminded that it was only knocked down four years before I was born, it really put things in perspective and made me think about how recent this event was, and how events like this are still going on in other parts of the world. It also made me feel so lucky to live in a country where I can feel totally safe.
Krakow, Poland
(April 5-7, 2015):
My intent for visiting Krakow was to experience the history of World War Two and the concentration camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau. This experience was quite impactful and life changing in terms of learning about and seeing the actual places where thousands were horrifically mutilated, tortured, and murdered on mass and seeing the actual remnants of the humans that went through these camps, such as the left over hair and shoes and belongings and seeing the buildings where they were incinerated. The experience left me feeling both physically ill and utterly humbled and is a experience I wish everyone could have, just to realize how entirely fortunate we are.
Krakow was also the city I felt the most impacted by because of the culture shock I faced being in the city. Riding in on the bus from the hostel I looked at my surroundings and me and a friend were the only tourists in a bus full of locals, and I felt myself as a minority. No one spoke to us or acknowledged us and I could feel myself being in the way. Also looking outside of the bus as we traveled into the city, was quite different from any of the other cities we had entered. We passed miles of rural landscape with small houses on a flat landscape. To me, it looked very unlike the city I was expecting. This of course changed when we enetered the city but I felt the shock again as me and my friend went to stores to buy food and no one spoke a word of English. For the first time, I felt truly like an outsider, like I didn't belong. I felt humbled and embarassed that I didn't know that they were asking me for smaller change because I only had large bills and it took us quite a while to figure this out.
Overall, my experience in Krakow was a great one. I learned a lot, met some amazing people, and ate some incredible food; but it was also one of the hardest cities to adjust to and it humbled me as an individual.