Studying Abroad: It Can Be Overwhelming #HogsAbroad in Spain

Hi! My name is Caroline Jennings, I’m a senior studying Math with a concentration in Applied Math and English with a concentration in Creative Writing. I’m also studying Spanish as a minor, which is part of what led me to study abroad in Salamanca, Spain this past summer. With COVID still messing the world up, I wasn’t sure I would ever make it to Spain. Even when I was actually given the opportunity, I hesitated; I wondered if traveling abroad would be too stressful, considering the circumstances.

Was I wrong? Not entirely. But after six weeks of immersion into Spanish culture, I have zero regrets. In fact, after being home for two months, I’m just disappointed that I can’t remember every moment!

To be fair, not everything was perfect every single second. Living in a homestay, trying new foods, struggling with language, etc. can take a toll on a person—I don’t want to try to convince anybody that their study abroad experience will be 100% perfect. But, after experiencing it myself, hopefully I can give some tips that will help make your study abroad experience 100% worth it!

Too Much All at Once
My biggest problem throughout the six weeks was feeling overwhelmed. There wasn’t necessarily much that I disliked, it just felt like I was experiencing SO MUCH in such a short period of time. I couldn’t take any of it in. I would lay in my bed at night feeling like I blinked and missed it all, and I hated it. In an effort to remedy this issue, I called a friend and asked for advice.

Some people may tell you (as they told me) to simply “live in the moment.” Okay but…how? What does that even mean? I took my friends advice as the answer to that question. She told me that if I didn’t feel like I was able to absorb everything at once, then I needed to find ways to keep track of things so that I could check them out later.

Take Notes
One way she said to do this was to write every possible thing down. So, I bought a little journal. Even though I was busy, I tried to write something at the end of each day. I ended up writing down every single thing I ate, fun things that happened in class, and experiences with my host family. There were days that I chose sleep instead of notetaking, of course, but I did my best to catch up when I could.

Don’t just write down the literal stuff, keep your feelings in mind as well! When you’re in the middle of something overwhelmingly exciting (like a special excursion), try to take note of certain things. Do you feel hot? Cold? Scared? Shaky? Giddy? Latch onto those feelings and attach them to the memory.

Take Pics
Aside from that, my friend told me to keep visual reminders of everything I experienced. When I went on excursions, I took pictures of EVERYTHING, shamelessly. Yes, it’s good to put the phone down and look with your own eyes, of course, but I wanted to save memories in a physical place outside of my brain, and my phone camera allowed me to do that.

Don’t Underestimate Your Senses!
Another tiny but related tip she told me was to hang onto smells. Smell is an underrated sense when it comes to memory—a simple nostalgic sniff can bring you back to a memory you thought you had lost. Take advantage of this when you study abroad! I did my best to take note of any delicious foods I smelled in hopes that I could one day make something similar and end up (momentarily) back in Salamanca. It sounds crazy, but it’s possible!

The Bottom Line
It may be easier said than done, but try not to get too sad if you feel like you’re letting life fly past you while you’re abroad. Your brain will be trying to take in 5000 different things, so it’s perfectly reasonable to struggle with feeling present and engaged. All you can do is take note, take pics, take time to breathe, and have fun! That way, you’ll be able to spend time with all of the memories later.

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Math & English major Caroline Jennings spent the Summer 2021 term in Salamanca, Spain with AIFS with support from the Office of Study Abroad Scholarship.

You can start planning your adventure abroad today! Dive in to our Explore page at https://studyabroad.uark.edu/explore/index.php, and start your program search at http://studyabroad.uark.edu/search/

Take Hold of Opportunities #StudyAbroadDay #HogsAbroad

For the Fall 2020 semester at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea, it was an extremely difficult time to study abroad due to the COVID-19 pandemic but I was still able to experience all you can eat kbbq, a train to Busan, cafe culture, and much more even with restrictions. I learned to take hold of opportunities because there's so much I am capable of if I can make it happen.

In Hangzhou in Summer 2018, I was able to practice my Chinese language skills in a much more intensive and useful environment on topics like ordering food, having normal conversations with college students, etc. I was able to try the spiciest thing I've had in my life with Hot Pot in Chengdu, Sichuan.

--Kelvin Feng, class of 2021 (Mathematical Sciences), Summer 2018 in China and Fall 2020 in South Korea

Learn more about Kelvin's Faculty-Led: Intensive Mandarin language & culture program.

Learn more about Kelvin's USAC program in South Korea.

You can start planning your adventure abroad today! Dive in to our Explore page at https://studyabroad.uark.edu/explore/index.php, and start your program search at http://studyabroad.uark.edu/search/

Moscovian Spring #HogsAbroad in Russia

On April 6 the sun came out and the thermometer hit 50F: Moscovian spring had begun. It might seem odd that I remember the exact date, but after 2 and a half months of resembling a marshmallow, it was a miracle to walk around without a coat and only a long sleeve shirt. After class that day I set off for what turned out to be a 3 hour wander around Moscow; for the first time the streets were filled with people and I realized that yes, people actually live in this city. It was great to finally get out and explore while still being able to feel my face.

View over the river

For the next two months aimless walks became a regular for me and I gathered a much better sense of the city. In late April and May tourists started to crowd the streets and all types of vendors and performers set up shop on the Arbat (a large pedestrian street); it was great to see the city come to life.

Arbat street

New shops set up on Arbat street, waiting to open.

I've got to say, life was much more enjoyable during the springtime than in the winter; I never thought grass would make me so happy. The only downside to this whole warm weather thing is that the dorm didn't turn off our heat until mid-May so our rooms were always toasty. Holding out for a May snowstorm or what? Additionally, I thought the Russian natives would be the first to ditch their coats and I fully expected to see them wearing shorts at 60F. However, they always seemed to be bundled up; even in mid-May I saw people wearing light coats. Why? I myself was wishing I had brought shorts for the last couple weeks of the semester, but the weather was definitely still bearable in jeans.

Library of Lenin

Near the Kremlin

The spring went by so much more quickly than the winter but I suppose that happens everywhere. I'm really glad I was here in the spring as going from fall to winter would be pretty hard. Basically, if you're going to visit Russia, maybe do it when there isn't 2 feet of snow on the ground.

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Emily Gentles is spending the spring 2018 semester studying math in Moscow.

Read more from Emily at transcontinentalgen.wixsite.com

Don't miss your opportunity to study abroad! Start your search at http://studyabroad.uark.edu/search/.

Eating in Russia - the ongoing adventure #HogsAbroad in Russia #FoodieFriday

For a college student I think I'm fairly capable of cooking for myself; during the school year I have a meal plan but during the summers I cook all my meals. The funny thing about cooking for yourself in Russia is that, surprise, all the labels are in Russian. I recently tried to make mac & cheese and out of the 3 ingredients you need, I didn't actually know what two of them were. The cheese was cheap, the milk was cheap, but the exact specification were unknown. Even without the tools to grate the cheese it still turned out fine, but cooking in a foreign countries is essentially all about guessing correctly.

However, it's not just the language you have to work around, it's the stores themselves. There are three small grocery stores near our dorm and placement and stock of the goods seems to change randomly. One day I got yogurt, liked it, and went back a couple days later to find the store didn't have any. Not that it was all sold out, there simply wasn't a spot for it. Additionally, staple items like chicken stock and impossible to find. I don't know if they just don't have stocks in Russia or if I'm just looking in the wrong places in the larger grocery store, but it remains elusive. Other staple items like peanut butter are much more expensive and there's little variety. Here's some ~$9.00 peanut butter.

However, when you do find an ingredient that you've been searching for the joy is real. Here I am proudly holding broccoli.

There are lots of options if we don't want to cook all our meals, too. Lunches are offered at school and they usually consist of a grain + topping, soup, salad, a roll of some sort, and coffee, tea, or compote (a fruit drink). We get to choose what we want and don't want and overall it's fairly cheap, around 250 rubles. I usually go for the soup or grain + topping and coffee.

There are also cafes pretty close to school; students regularly visit a chain called MuMu (pronounced MooMoo) and Shake Shack. If you venture farther from school there's lots of affordable sushi, Asian food, KFC, and really anything else you could want.

I am also quite fond of dessert so I've had a lot of fun trying different things. If you go to bakeries later in the evening you can get cakes and pastries for ~$0.60! What a steal!

S'mores dip with weird whole grain crackers.

The traditional foods here are borscht, a beetroot soup, and cold salads made up of a variety of bell peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage, carrots, etc. Russians also love their dill!

Overall, the food situation is pretty good and I usually know what I'm eating, which hasn't always been the case in other countries. Wish me luck in my further culinary adventures!

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Emily Gentles is spending the spring 2018 semester studying math in Moscow.

Read more from Emily at transcontinentalgen.wixsite.com

Don't miss your opportunity to study abroad! Start your search at http://studyabroad.uark.edu/search/.

St. Petersburg Weekend Trip (3/3) #HogsAbroad in Russia

The morning of our final day in St. Petersburg mainly consisted of frantic packing, frantic power bank charging, and trying to consume as much caffeine as possible for the lowest price. We all stored our belongings in one room and then headed out with our new guide for the day. We took a bus for 40 rubles and were told by one of the girl helpers that if we could use mathematical operations to get the 6-digit number on our ticket to add to 100 then we were supposed to eat our ticket for good luck. I personally think she was pulling our leg (but I still kept my lucky ticket for a rainy day aka finals week). We got off at St. Issac's cathedral and went inside. Again, it was a massive church but with less mosaics and more paintings than the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood.

After exploring for a bit we bundled up and began a very long climb to the top. The countless stairs and the numb hands were worth it, though, as the view over St. Petersburg was remarkable.

After climbing back down we were all fairly hungry but didn't have time for a proper lunch. Instead our guide took us to the oldest baker in St. Petersburg. I wasn't sure what to expect but was pleasantly surprised by funnel cake type doughnuts for just 14 rubles a piece. For $1.75 I got four doughnuts and some coffee or, in other words, heaven.

With our insides warm and sugary, we headed back out into the cold to the Hermitage, a giant museum with over 3 million pieces in its collection. It was beautiful but actually had very little artwork by actual Russian artists. I have noticed, in the museum and throughout the palaces, there is a strong Roman influence. We even got to see an unfinished Michelangelo (notice the lack of toes/fingers and how rough the sculpture is).

We spent a while in the classical section before heading over to the more modern art. We got in for free with our student IDs and got to see some Faberge pieces and some Picasso pieces. After a while our feet were quite tired so we braved the Russian driving and went for dinner. Having eaten, we went back to the hostel, collected our belongings, and headed to the train station for another 9 hour sleeper ride. This time I traded my bottom bunk for an upper bunk and proceeded to not sleep at all. The car was so hot and I just couldn't get into a solid sleep. Eventually we got back to the Moscow train station and took the metro back to our dorm. I went back to bed for about an hour and then got up to start the school day.

Third impression of St. Petersburg: pastries on point, that stairwell wasn't very safe, more pasta please

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Emily Gentles is spending the spring 2018 semester studying math in Moscow.

Read more from Emily at transcontinentalgen.wixsite.com

Don't miss your opportunity to study abroad! Start your search at http://studyabroad.uark.edu/search/.

St. Petersburg Weekend Trip (2/3) #HogsAbroad in Russia

Day two started off with a visit to the sketchy co-ed shower room. Complete with shower curtains that covered ~2/3 of the stall opening and water that was either boiling or freezing, the experience was further dampened by my lack of shower shoes. However, I survived, and soon the other girls and I were sitting in a cafe for breakfast and I was eating a not-quite-cold ham and cheese omelet. After an unsatisfactory amount of coffee, we headed back to the hostel, met up with the rest of our group, and took a van outside of the city limits. Here we visited an old palace of the Russian nobility. The first thing you notice upon entering the rooms is the enormous amount of gilded decorations. The second thing you notice is just how bad their design taste was (at least by today's standards). The ceilings had paintings, the floors had intricate woodwork, and the walls were covered with an assortment of gold objects, paintings, mirrors, and pattered fabric. Don't get me wrong, it was beautiful, just far from subtle.

The scope of the palace was a bit mind boggling, how did people not get lost? After finishing our tour of the palace we stopped for lunch and then visited another palace, which had much of the same design choices and such. Once done, we got dropped back at our hostel. The other girls and I decided to almost immediately head back out to visit the Church of the Savior on Spilled blood; I'll let you read about it's history on your own. I saved 100 rubles on admission by showing my ISIC card, which was nice, but definitely would have paid full price. This was my favorite place of the entire trip. The church was absolutely massive with floor to ceiling hand-tiled mosaics depicting a variety of religious scenes; it was stunning.

We looked inside for a while and then left in search of food. After eating we took an Uber back to the hostel and let me tell you, riding with Russian drivers is quite an experience. Do lines on the road exist? Do blinkers exist? It's organized chaos. However, if you die in the Uber, at least it only cost you ~150 ruble. Back at the hostel we took a much needed nap, sought out some discounted pastries, and then headed out to a bar with the rest of our group. One lemon beer and some group bonding later and the night was over.

Second impressions of St. Petersburg: do you really need this many chairs? vegetables are great, driving on ice is a skill even Russians haven't mastered

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Emily Gentles is spending the spring 2018 semester studying math in Moscow.

Read more from Emily at transcontinentalgen.wixsite.com

Don't miss your opportunity to study abroad! Start your search at http://studyabroad.uark.edu/search/.

St. Petersburg Weekend Trip (1/3) #HogsAbroad in Russia

The Math in Moscow program offers a couple of extra excursions, one of which is a 3-day trip to Russia's old capital. On Thursday I, 5 other members of our group, and 2 'girl helpers' (young translators) left our dorm at midnight to head to the metro station and catch our train. Usually it's hard to capture the elegant decorations in the metro, but at half-past midnight the stations are fairly barren.

After a quick metro trip we arrived at the train station and boarded our sleeper train, scheduled to leave at 1:15am and arrive at 10am in St. Petersberg. On one side of the aisle were four bunks, top and bottom, facing each other and on the other side of the aisle were two bunks, one of top of the other. I got a bottom bunk in the set of four with someone from our program on both of the top bunks and an old man across from me on the bottom. Sheets, a pillow and pillow case were provided as well as a blanket that I didn't notice. Instead I used a blanket scarf that my friend Rubi gave to me as a going-away gift as an actual blanket; versatile! I slept pretty well although it was very warm inside. I woke up before the train go to the station and enjoyed watching the snowy countryside. We eventually arrived at the station and met our guide for the next couple days. We got onto a van and went to breakfast to get some much needed caffeine. My coffee came with the tiniest little milk container, which was adorable. After eating we went on a bus tour, stopping to see a couple monuments. My favorite part was seeing all of the frozen canals and the colorful buildings.

At this point my phone was hanging on to 3% so when we stopped at a historical museum I wasn't able to take pictures. They had us put on plastic slippers over our shoes, which was interesting, and told us about a bunch of old Russian politics and political murders. We then re-boarded the bus for another 1.5 hours of bus touring and displayed our keen ability to sleep soundly in moving vehicles. Finally we arrived at our hostel, the Hotel of the Puppet Theater. Our floor smelled like smoke but wasn't as bad as my sophomore year apartment, so it was bearable. I was in a room with the two other girls from our program and the room was nice, if questionably decorated. I immediately plugged in my phone and then we headed out in search of cheap pastries. The rest of the night was uneventful besides the wifi not working.

First impression of St. Petersburg: snowy, historic, no free coffee refills

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Emily Gentles is spending the spring 2018 semester studying math in Moscow.

Read more from Emily at transcontinentalgen.wixsite.com

Don't miss your opportunity to study abroad! Start your search at http://studyabroad.uark.edu/search/.