Traveling to a foreign country, even one that shares similarities with the United States, can be an exciting and startling adventure. The past six months have been full of lessons, interactions, and discovery as I traveled to parts of the United Kingdom, France, and Spain. The lessons I have learned from this experience—both academic and life—have given me a broader perspective and skills that I can use in the real world. Perhaps the most beneficial experiences involve the travels I have been on, the practical skills I have learned within the courses abroad, and my interaction with the people.
Traveling abroad for the first time was an amazing experience. I enjoyed the idea of flying alone and not being linked with people I know for the entire semester. However, being raised in a rural area and suddenly landing in one of the largest cities in England was quite surprising. I made sure to prepare in advance through contact with the hostel and visiting the National Express coach station to double check the route in order to avoid getting lost or ending up late. However, I did make sure to spend some time looking around the city and visited a famous—and free—art museum in the China Town area of Manchester.
England is a very diverse place from the large metropolitan cities to the beautiful countryside. Small cities like Bishop Auckland and Durham have a beautiful historic charm while combining modern shopping areas and restaurants. The larger cities like Newcastle and Manchester was full of cultural exploration and modern entertainment. The rural areas like Spennymoor and Hexham were beautifully organized plots of land with hedges and boulders lining the land into perfect squares. Whether someone is interested in tons of adventure, a cultural experience, or a relaxing walk through the countryside; England truly had it all.
However, the most exciting and wonderful experiences with travel came when I traveled to other countries. Edinburgh, Scotland was one of my favorite cities to visit throughout my stay in the United Kingdom. There was something about Edinburgh that was historically beautiful but at the same time had this amazing modern feel to it without being contradictory. Scotland was participating in a national rugby tournament against Italy that day, so the group I traveled with had to leave the city a few hours earlier than scheduled. The part of the visit I enjoyed the most was the famous Edinburgh castle.
During my spring holiday, I spent some time traveling through France and Spain with a fellow international student. Our original agenda for the trip did not go according to plan, but it was an once-in-a-lifetime trip and not many people from around the Appalachia region can say they spent their spring vacation in Paris, Barcelona, Valencia, and Madrid. The trip taught me how to become more resourceful and enhanced my critical thinking within real-life situations.
As a communication major, my predominant reason for attending the University of Sunderland was to learn some practical skills that I can use for the future. The variety of classes I took ranged from creating news programs in television studio, creating live and recorded radio packages in radio broadcasting and production, directing a three minute video for video production, and studying the different genres of television and their hybridizations in popular television genres. The classes were very interesting and I enjoyed not only learning the theory within the classes, but actually using what I learned and practicing the skills in order to gain a better understanding of media communications.
One aspect of studying within a larger campus was the chance to interact with more people from different cultures. Britain’s diversity ranges from native British, Indian, African, and Pakistani to as far as Hong Kong and China. I was shown the different aspects of cultures from their rituals to their cuisines and how they interact with others from different cultural backgrounds. In one case, there was a problem with the dynamic of a group that caused a project to crumble in terms of quality, however, it was so interesting to study the different aspects of different cultures and how different cultures could coexist within the same neighborhood that it makes me wonder why we can not have the same unity in other parts of Britain or even other countries.
College age individuals in Britain seemed to act very differently from college age individuals—not only in Berea—but in America. There is a large focus on drinking in Britain, but other than this aspect of their culture I believe the British citizens are better at socializing than many American students. One habit I have noticed in high schools and colleges are couples who no longer socialize, or who socialize drastically less, with their friends and spend a considerable amount of time with one another. Occasionally, I have seen circumstances where the couple will socialize with only the female’s group of friends or the male’s group of friends, but the couple rarely every decides to have a “girls night out” or a “guy’s night out”.
In Britain, however, the patterns seem to be quite different. I had many male and female friends who were in relationships, yet they spent a considerable amount of time socializing with their own friends and occasionally going on dates. This was not always the case, but from all of the students I have seen that followed the pattern of coupling, it was primarily the American study abroad students who remained the most likely to be within their own couplings or groups. Meanwhile, some of the other international students, British students, and I did all sorts of activities together such as shopping, dancing, and traveling. Even when their dates came, it was mostly within a large group and everyone seemed to socialize with one another rather than focus their attention on their partners. I would like to look more into why different cultures have different ideas of relationships in future studies.
One of the stereotypes I have seen in America that was very different from the actual truth in Britain was the British attitude. Many of the portrayals of British natives in American cinema seemed to make them appear as though they are prim, proper, and very arrogant. However, the people I have met from Britain seemed to be quite friendly and were willing to help in any way possible. The citizens from the northern part of England told me that the individuals within the southern part of the region were more isolated and less friendly, but I did meet a few people from London and Ipswich and they seemed nicer than what their northern counterparts stated. I found it amusing to see that England had the same north and south views that we do in America, but much like their road system, their opinions on which part contains economic stiffs and which part contains friendly rural people is the opposite of America’s view. To clarify, the American north sounds like the English south and vice versa.
Studying abroad was one of the most amazing experiences in my life. The chance to travel and study the different aspects of another culture, even one similar to my own, taught me lessons I would not have learned by any other means. I believe students who are willing to step out of their comfort zone in order to learn more about the world should study abroad. After all, we are becoming a globalize society and the understanding of a different culture and travel experience could become useful in future careers.
