Category: Semester Programs

Submitted by Jasmine Pennington the 2024 Spring program in Athens, Greece…

My whole study abroad journey was the best 4 months of my life. I was in the study abroad program in Athens and while studying; I was able to travel through Europe. When I was young I told my mom I’d be the daughter who would get on a flight and text her later when I arrived. I dreamed and hoped for an opportunity to travel and when the study abroad program for Greece was shown to me; I knew it was now or never. I want to see the whole world and have even planned on Spring break 2025 to head to Lisbon and Barcelona. My top Destinations I visited were London, Milan, Rome, Venice, Chania, Heraklion, Santorini, Aegina, and exploring the city of Athens. I simply cannot thank the University of Delaware for this opportunity. I have so many pictures of my adventure and want to be able to share the incredible essence of nature’s beauty across Europe. These photos are from my Film camera which I developed recently and wanted to share them with others who share the same dream of studying abroad. I think Athens was the best city for me to truly learn more about myself. It showed me that a simple walk to clear my head made me more productive later in the day. Towards the end of my semester in Athens, I chose to take the last two weeks to truly explore the islands in Greece and one solo adventure; I walked the entire coast of Aegina and it was an 8-hour trek there and back with limited water. I could’ve easily ubered from one side to the other but chose to walk and enjoy nature and see amazing views i couldn’t have imagined in Delaware. I can attach some photos from this walk and it will show why I stopped so much. I’d say in that aspect Greece is truly breathtaking in comparison to the city of Newark. Then I had to run to the ferry because I am a poor planner of time and kept taking stops to just sit on the benches along the way to truly take in how blessed I was to be the first in my family with a passport and first ever in three generations to travel across Europe. 

Then fast forward to the friends I made who were also from the USA, we planned to take a trip to the cities listed above. My favorite city overall would be Chania. The whole Island of Crete which apparently is pronounced Creet-ee and not like saying CreTe. We explored Heraklion and went to the Palace of Knossos, and then went on a 2-hour bus ride to the city of Chania. While we were there we went to a couple of beaches but one truly brought me to tears. I knew I wanted to go as soon as I researched Greece as a whole. It wasn’t even possible for me to go there because the bus routes weren’t fully running when we were there in April. So, my friends all surprised me and said that they booked a Taxi online and booked one back to the airport because this beach had no service and once there you need to have a plan to get back. The beach was called Seitan Limania and it was a trek to get to the bottom and getting back up was a whole other story. My friend took a couple of pics of me climbing it and we took rests because there were no safety ropes, a literal string was the guide to take the trail down the mountain correctly. I wouldn’t change a thing about the ways I traveled in Chania, the food I ate and the people I met. I was there for 5 days and during that time I got to eat fresh seafood and watch the sunsets on the beaches that were truly different from sunsets in Delaware. Every experience in Greece had me in awe of how Cretians wake up everyday and can go swimming in crystal clear waters. I live in Delaware where the closest beach is 2 hours away. I’d say my traveling experience while going to these cities showed me how to be more independent and gain more knowledge on how to properly pack a bag in 30 minutes when your group wants to go to Santorini when you have a final 2 hours before the flight. I really love the people I met, the Greek students I studied with and the local grocery store worker who weighed my kiwis and a single apple I got because I ate it on the way back home. I truly had a routine being in Greece and leaving there was bittersweet but that doesn’t mean I don’t love Delaware just as much. I truly love being here on campus and able to pursue another dream of mine which is graduating and being able to check another thing off my bucket list. I was so in love with the nature there and how their trees, grass, and animals look different. I did miss the campus squirrels because I saw zero while in Greece. My film camera weighed 10 lbs but in my heart, it weighs a ton with all the memories and nature that was captured. It is simply more precious to my heart when I use my film camera to capture a feeling and a specific point in time where my eyes light up to be able to see it in real life. It’s a reminder that studying abroad actually happened and that those places I visited will be a part of me. (Submitted on September 15,2024)

Submitted by Maxwell Poruban the 2024 Spring program in Granada, Spain…

This week is the final week of classes before finals of the Granada Spring 2024 study abroad program and it’s time to reflect on the academic side of my experience. This semester has been different for a number of reasons, but it has also been extremely successful. The entire program in Granada is immersive: the county and city, the program and homestay, and of course the coursework. At the University of Granada’s Center for Modern Languages, I’ve taken six courses covering the history, literature, sociology, and a philosophic seminar that covered all things Spain. It was hard. That’s the simple reflection. That is not to say that it wasn’t an enjoyable, enriching, and exceptional semester. I would repeat it without question and recommend it to anyone who wants to improve their Spanish and learn along the way. 

My favorite, and most challenging, class was the Granada Institute of International Studies seminar taught under the auspices of SPAN308: Contemporary Spain II. In this class we of course covered all aspects of contemporary Spain, but we delved into the topic in an interactive and hands-on manner. Through writing, multimedia projects, excursions, lectures, readings, and presentations from all manner of local intellectuals we worked through what Spain means today. In addition to my formal education, I also received a huge amount of language help and practice with my host family and simply living in the city of Granada. All of this has contributed to a truly excellent semester. (Submitted on May 23,2024)

Submitted by Maxwell Poruban the 2024 Spring program in Granada, Spain…

Día de la cruz or the Day of the Cross is one of the major festivals that marks the beginning of the festival season here in Granada. All across the city neighbors, clubs, teams, schools and other groups come together and compete in a contest that holds a prize and bragging rights. The contest is to create a cross made of flowers and then surround it with beautiful decorations that represent the theme the contestants have selected. The city is filled with women dressed in Sevillana dresses and men attired in fine suits as they migrate from cross to cross to view the culmination of a long period of work. The other attraction for the festival is that groups who mount crosses often also have bars and food to sell to visitors. It truly feels as if the city has come alive with color and energy to welcome in the Spring and fine weather. (Submitted on May 16,2024)

Submitted by Maxwell Poruban the 2024 Spring program in Granada, Spain…

Art, or at least baroque art, has always been a way for the well-endowed and well placed members of a society to demonstrate their power and prowess. This is exactly the case in a series of paintings by Francisco de Zurburán that I had the privilege of visiting with my program in Seville. Zurburán, and his studio based in Seville, was a master of color and light; in person his works are quite extraordinary. I am not much of an art buff; I don’t know much about eras or artists or what they mean. That said I do enjoy going to see art and attempting to learn more about it. The Museum of Fine Art in Seville houses Spain’s best collection of painting after the Golden Triangle of art in Madrid, consisting of the Prado, Reina Sofia and the Thyssen-Bornemisza. It also houses the Santas collection of Zurburán which demonstrates some of his best work and the catholic nature of Spain during the period. What I found most interesting about this series of paintings is the story behind their commissions and the models who posed for the painting. While each painting represents a martyred catholic saint, the women who posed as the models were the wealthy aristocrats who commissioned the painting. According to the resident fine art expert of the Granada Institute of International Studies this style of portrait painting was all the rage and was seen as a huge status symbol in the 17th century. Art will never be my strong suit, but this experience exemplified the social importance that art has and has had in human life. (Submitted on May 16,2024)

Submitted by Alexandra Evangelist the 2024 Spring program in Rome, Italy…

This is my last week abroad. It’s really emotional. I formed friendships that will last a lifetime. Along with saying goodbye to Rome and my friends, finals are all piling up. Packing all your clothes, new clothes, souvenirs, it’s also a struggle. Given the crazy time, I planned a day trip to Pisa and Cinque Terre where my friend and I stayed for one night. Pisa was so cool. The leaning tower was surreal. Cinque terre was also beautiful. It has 5 towns. I hiked through 3 of them and got a chance to see all of them by train as well. The food was delicious. They have great pesto in cinque terre. The last night is hitting and I find myself not wanting to leave. Studying abroad is a great experience all around. (Submitted on May 6,2024)

Submitted by Alexandra Evangelist the 2024 Spring program in Rome, Italy…

This weekend was my last big trip. I went with my roommates and my close friends I have been traveling with since the first week. Croatia is a great place. It was a little colder than expected. We stayed in Split, Croatia. We went to beaches, saw old churches, and took a bus to Krka waterfall which was beautiful. The food in Croatia was great. We went on a boat and saw different places and met people of many different backgrounds. Everyone in Croatia was friendly and welcoming. It was a great end to being abroad. (Submitted on May 6,2024)

Submitted by Samantha Jennings the 2024 Spring program in Copenhagen, Denmark…

The theme of this week’s blog entry is challenging and overcoming personal limits. As this is unfortunately the final week of my study abroad program in Copenhagen, Denmark, I think that this theme is very fitting for reflecting on all of the new experiences that I have had these past few months. On Sunday, I had the pleasure of acting as a cheerleader for my roommate and dear friend, Joe, as he participated in the Copenhagen Marathon. Joe absolutely loves to run. It is a passion and a hobby of his that he takes part in almost every day. However, Joe has never run a marathon before nor had he been training for this type of long distance trek. Nonetheless, Joe decided that there was no better way to celebrate his time in Copenhagen than to challenge himself farther than ever before and commit to running the marathon. He was nervous and excited. He had only ever run the distance of a half marathon before and was unsure of what more he could expect from this race. Joe showed up to the race on Sunday with mine and my roommate Abby’s support. When he left us for the starting post, Abby and I felt sad that he was leaving us and unsure of how the race would go for him, we knew that he would enjoy it but we were a tad bit worried about him pulling through to the finish line. Joe started off strong, for the first 25 km he kept a pace of 5.45 km/min. We were able to wave to him and cheer as he passed us along the 14 km mark. He seemed focused and determined. Although we were not able to see him during the longer stretch of the marathon, from about 23 km to 38 km, we were tracking him on the route and recording his pace. As he approached the distance of a half marathon, he began to slow down some. He was tired and hurting but he knew that stopping would only make it worse, after all he had a race to run. Joe told us afterwards that in this moment, the pain didn’t matter, this battle was one that he was fighting in his mind. We watched as Joe kept a slower, but steady pace until the 42 km. Abby and I wanted to watch him cross the finish line, so we met him around the 42 km mark. We were so proud of him we screamed so loud to try and capture his attention. When he looked at us, we could see all of the pain and tiredness flash across his face…but he was still running. Joe crossed the finish line after 4 hours and 12 minutes of nonstop running. We met him in the medical tent after the run. He was shivering and hungry but so incredibly proud of himself. After a few minutes of recovery he could not stop talking about all of the classmates and friends that he saw during the race who came to support him. This marathon was probably one of the hardest things that Joe has ever done yet he finished it with a pained smile on his face. Now that I have had the opportunity to reflect on the events of this weekend, I could not be more proud of Joe and the rest of my study abroad community for challenging themselves in new ways this semester. Studying abroad is a lot like running a marathon. In the beginning, we are all excited and nervous to embark on a new journey. We look forward to meeting new people and living in another country. At first, we find that life in other places is not that different from our own and we make ourselves a new home. However, once the honeymoon period expires, we find ourselves overwhelmed with school, life, and the unexpected. Oftentimes we feel like there is nowhere to turn and no escape, but we can see our friends and family in the distance supporting us, so we keep on running. Despite the pain and the stress, we keep pushing ourselves to make the most of our experiences because we know that there are people who love us and want to see us succeed. Although we think about giving up because of this fear and stress, we continue on to the finish line no matter what it takes. The end can be rough. Emotions run high. Relief, soreness, longing, nostalgia. Once we regain consciousness and stop shivering we realize just exactly what we did. We pushed ourselves farther than ever before and we couldn’t be anymore proud. We forget about the pain, the stress, the deadlines. We focus on the adventures and the friends we made along the way.

Though it was hard, we prevailed. It was a battle against our minds and we won. If you ask any study abroad student what their experience was like, they might say that it was the hardest thing they’ve ever done. And yet, they’d do it all over again in a heartbeat. (Submitted on May 6,2024)