How will doctors treat me if I fall sick in China?” “How will my medical bills be handled?” “How will I communicate vital information such as allergies to the medical staff if I have an emergency?” These are questions that many foreign students, including me, often forget to consider upon their arrival to China.

I want to preface this post by saying that my host family here is fanfreakingtastic. I love them as if I were related to them, and I feel like an actual part of their family: an older sister, a cousin, a niece, a granddaughter. My host sister, Rosario (who would like everyone to know she’ll be six very soon), apparently threw her school psychologist for a loop when she started telling people she had an older sister from the United States. I’ve known Amparo, the two-year-old, for practically a quarter of her life. I will cry when I leave them, and I know my host mom will be right there with me. My mamita and tía (grandmother and aunt) have asked me when I’m coming back to Chile, and I haven’t even left yet.

UI Study Abroad will host a scholarship information session on Thursday, December 1, from 9:30 - 10:30 a.m. in International Commons, 1117 University Capitol Centre.

UI students who are interested in field-based research projects abroad are invited to attend an information session with SIT Study Abroad on Friday, December 2, from 10:30-11:30 a.m. in Room 2390 University Capitol Centre, featuring guest speaker Dr. Azim Khan, academic director at SIT. 

I’m so happy to be writing this because it’s about one of the highest of highlights from my experiences thus far: my first festival in Japan. More specifically, what happened during my first festival in Japan.

When you are in a foreign country, you walk around with wide eyes, comparing this and that between your host country and your home country, you realize the flaws of your host country and your home country, you defend your host and home country from the ridiculous stereotypes…  This election has been a roller coaster from the get go, and walking around the streets of Santiago on November 9th gave me that sort of nauseous feeling in the pit of my stomach.

The number of international students at the University of Iowa who study abroad has increased.

Having been in Nagoya for a little less than 2 months now, it’s safe to say I’ve gotten into the swing of things. Of course it’s taken a few weeks and a lot of mistakes, but I was expecting that.

Before coming to the university, I knew studying abroad was an experience I wanted to go through. Being the youngest child of immigrant parents, I was grateful for the opportunities I was given to achieve my goals. I was raised to make the most out of my opportunities and to appreciate different cultures and people. Once I came to China, it was eye opening.

Through violent storms, rigid oaks can undergo uprooting while flexible bamboos bend to survive. When moving to China, a student needs to imitate the bamboo by adopting the physical and psychological agility of Chinese pedestrians in crowded streets.

My name is Rita Guzmán, and I am a junior studying marketing, international business, and Portuguese. This past summer, I had the amazing opportunity to intern abroad in Dublin, Ireland. Being in Ireland for two months led to constant self-reflection and insight about my identity.

In the spring of 2016, I embarked on an amazing travel opportunity with Semester at Sea. Semester at Sea is a study abroad program sponsored by an American university that travels across oceans to multiple countries by ship. The ship is our home and the world our classroom. I traveled to Eastern Asia and areas of Africa. My itinerary included Japan, China, Vietnam, Myanmar, India, Mauritius, South Africa, Ghana, Morocco and then docking in Southampton, London. By the time I returned home, I had traveled to 17 different countries over the course of five months. Rather than cultural immersion, I experienced cultural comparison.