When I arrived at the IES Freiburg facility, the program director first greeted me and then asked if my other bags were outside. I explained that those two bags were all I brought. “Ah!” He said, pleased. “An experienced traveler!”

Before you leave for any study abroad program, you’ll be told continually about this thing called “Culture Shock”. Personally, I don’t like that phrase. It sounds like you are going to wake up suddenly in a foreign country and be “shocked” into a panic attack. But, that’s not really how it happens. It’s gradual.

We're excited to announce our Study Abroad Correspondents for the spring 2019 semester! These unique individuals were selected from a competitive pool of writers to tell the story of their destination and represent the voice of University of Iowa students while abroad. Throughout the semester, these students will share their experiences through writing and photography to be published weekly here on International Accents. 

I am now deep into my intensive Arabic language studies at the Noor Majan Training Institute (pronounced “Noor Magán”), so it’s about time I give a glimpse into academic life here in the sultanate.

It’s 4 a.m. Omani time and I just finished suhoor, a.k.a. pre-sunrise breakfast. With some encouragement from Muslim friends back in the U.S., I have dedicated myself to abstaining from eating or drinking from sun up to sun down, as the whole Muslim world does during the Ramadan holy month.

Some of the best experiences come out of nowhere—but you have to be there first.

After three days of orientation, 18 hours on planes, and two hours driving, I am finally in Ibri, Sultanate of Oman!  This summer, I will be studying intensive Arabic (both Modern Standard and Omani Dialect) at the Noor Majan Institute after  being awarded a Critical Language Scholarship through the U.S. State Department.

From a competitive pool of more than 100 applicants around the country, four UI students have been selected by IES Abroad to share their unique, first-hand study abroad experiences with the world as IES Correspondents for Summer 2018:

At home in Des Moines, I drive almost everywhere I go. In Iowa City, I walk more, but maybe only a few miles each day. While living in Prague, I walk around 7 miles every day, and always more when I travel on the weekends. My record in one day is sixteen miles in Paris! My feet do feel pretty destroyed after four months of this lifestyle, but the constant movement and exercise is so refreshing (and helps shed off some of that weekly gelato).

Travel can be stressful. Foreign languages can be stressful. Bus schedules can be stressful. New places can be stressful. This semester I’ve realized that traveling isn’t always the sunshine and rainbows that we see on social media or that people like to highlight. Sometimes it takes a couple mental breakdowns in a bathroom stall in an airport to get to that point. If you can’t tell, I speak from experience.

Knowing myself, I should have anticipated breaking my phone. When it happened, I really regretted bringing my old phone or an iPod touch so that I wouldn’t be without a device for a long period of time. Electronics are very expensive to buy in Uruguay and it is close to impossible to get electronics shipped here from the States. It would have been much easier if I had brought one just in case.

Coming to Uruguay, the only sort of background I had in Spanish was a few short Duolingo sessions on the plane ride there. I figured it would be a “learn as you go” type of experience. Needless to say, my first day in Uruguay was somewhat of a reality shock for me, when I attempted to greet my non-English speaking host family and could only smile and nod.