Oh, the Places You'll Go!

by Sarah Kohl | photos courtesy Katherine Vyborny

As the excitement of winter break wanes at the beginning of the new semester, many students start to get the itch to get out of town. A serious case of the winter blahs can plant ideas of getting as far from Athens, as far from the United States, or even as far from the western, civilized world as possible.

Enter the study abroad bug.

Classic symptoms of this common infection among University students include desires such as perfecting a newly acquired language, meeting and mingling among people from around the globe, and taking advantage of anything and everything out of their comfort zones.

Traditionally, study abroad hotspots have been places like the UK, Spain, Italy, France and Germany. Who can say that they have not drifted off in French class, smiling at the idea of how much more interesting this French lesson would be at a quaint Paris café, nibbling on a crepe while locals pass by the looming Eiffel Tower?

While many students follow through on this fantasy, a somewhat different dream has evolved. Travel does not always have to be about art museums and tourist-filled castles. For some, traditional tourism doesn't evoke the same elating thrills of trekking through the rainforest, giving help to people in need, and living in a place where there are no other Americans around. An "Indiana Jones" dream has emerged - complete with adventure and a taste for the less familiar. This new vision has taken University students to places well beyond the confines of Western Europe.

In recent years, a much wider range of options for going abroad during college have been made available to take students across Africa and throughout Asian countries, such as India or Thailand, or to destinations just south of the United States.

"Five years ago, you couldn't go to South and Central America," says Dr. David Gast, Director of the Study Abroad in Peru program.

Gast's trip, held during Maymester, gives participants 3 hours of Special Education credit. Just as the program's pamphlets, website and founder Gast advise, the trip is not for the faint of heart.

"These kinds of trips aren't for everyone," Gast says, recommending an "adventuresome spirit" for anyone who wishes to participate in the program.

The Study Abroad in Peru program is a study tour, complete with trips to historical and cultural sites throughout the country. The program also focuses on visiting various educational centers and social service agencies.

"[We are one of] the few that do anything with service learning projects," says Gast. This aspect of the trip motivates many to stay up to a month or longer after the program concludes to volunteer in many of the visited areas.

For those who are less interested in earning class credit abroad than gaining volunteer experience, there are many programs available that provide just that. The Foundation for Sustainable Development is one of these options. It provides internships with community development organizations in all corners of the globe, from India to Africa to Central and South America.

Kate Vyborny, a senior majoring in Economics and International Affairs, went to Ecuador with the program for a semester. She found the proactive experience so fulfilling that she became even more involved in the program after she left. She now works for the non-profit organization.

"You find out what the real world is like," Vyborny says. "You work with people so different from you."

The volunteer internships are designed on an individual basis, and everyone involved works on completely different projects. Past assignments range from mentoring to "school farms" that teach how to look after animals to installing new technology in buildings to aid the disabled. Volunteers work closely with the community to best create and meet their goals.

"Here [in Athens], you very rarely get to work cooperatively with people who are all very passionate about changing things," Vyborny says. "This is not something most experience as students."

Vyborny says that the homestay experience was vital to her involvement in the program. Not only was she completely immersed in the culture and able to become fluent in Spanish within four months, she also came to know the community on a much more intimate level.

"The host families take in volunteers as their own children," she says. "They are very protective."

Safety is a common concern students and their families face before leaving on study and volunteer abroad trips, particularly in developing world regions such as South America. However, Vyborny says that going on a trip like this is just as safe as a trip to Spain.

"It's not that much more severe than getting in your car every morning," she says. "The program does an excellent job making sure students are well prepared."

The safety issue becomes an even bigger concern when students travel to places where being American might be considered a liability, places like the Middle East and North Africa. Adam Sparks, a senior majoring in Drama and Political Science who studied for a Maymester in Marrakesh, Morocco, says that although he and his friends and family were worried before he left, he was well looked after and had no problems with safety or security.

"Mom was a little scared of me getting attacked because of my nationality," says the American student. However, once he arrived, Sparks found quite the opposite scenario. "Moroccans are extremely courteous and hospitable," he says. "It's hard for me to say, but they go beyond even traditional Southern hospitality!"

All the hospitality in the world cannot overcome the inevitable culture shock that comes with study abroad trips, however. "I had to learn how to eat, drink, cross the street all over again," Sparks says. Once he relearned the basics, according to Moroccan culture, he became much more comfortable and ready to cope with his new experiences.

Despite all the differences on the surface, Sparks found that the new culture he was in was not all that different from home. "If more Americans, and Moroccans, and Iraqis, and Saudis could just sit down and talk to one another, we'd have a lot less conflict and a lot more laughter," he says.

Finding similarities in a culture so opposite from their own is a major draw for some students wishing to travel, but rediscovering their roots motivates many to study or volunteer in the region that they, their parents, or their grandparents were born. A trip to Vietnam and Hong Kong was just what Tuquyen Mach, a senior majoring in Broadcast News, needed to reconnect with her heritage.

"My parents escaped from North Vietnam to Hong Kong and then the US after the war," Mach says. "I thought that combining these personal reasons with a volunteer project that would help me give back to [Vietnam] would be the best introduction to the country of my heritage."

Not only did the Vietnamese culture intrigue Mach, but the locals were very interested in her as well. "It isn't often that Vietnamese people have a Viet Kieu (foreign-born Vietnamese), a college educated one at that, come do volunteer work," she says.

Mach continued her trip to Hong Kong to study Cantonese and to meet members of her family for the first time. The communication barrier was a hard one for Mach to cross. However, her concerns about being able to relate to her family were only one of few worries she had about what turned out to be an amazing trip.

"It was beyond my wildest expectations," Mach says. Like most who do get the opportunity to go abroad, she left feeling like a resident of the country.

Her only regret? Not leaving herself enough time to travel around Vietnam and China.

In fact, the most common regret of most who study, volunteer, or intern abroad is not spending nearly as much time as they wanted in their host country. If this is the only thing these students regret, that's saying quite a lot about the study abroad experience.

"I wanted an adventure, something I could never do again," Sparks says of his Moroccan trip.

Sounds like most get the adventure they craved.