Leave me your thoughts in the comments below! I promise I have many many more posts yet to make, so stay tuned!

Service:
Part of American Culture is tipping one’s waiter or waitress for good service; tips are usually expected even if the service is below average. In Italy, waiters, waitresses, and bartenders do not work for a commission, so the quality of service they provide is not the same as one may expect in the United States. Although they are not rude, they are not as attentive and one should no expect them to just refill your water when half is gone. In addition, in Italy the glasses for non-alcoholic beverage are small and one must pay for extra refills.
Pace of Life:
As Floridians, we tend to be a lot more relaxed than our neighbors from up north. In perspective, Florentines have similar ideologies as Floridians. They like to savor their meals and drinks as well as talk and laugh with their company. Florentines stay longer than Floridians after they finish eating their meal, however, one has to ask their server for their check when they are ready. Otherwise, servers in Florence will not bring your check to you. You will be sitting at your table for a very long time! I know this from experience!!!

Once we stepped outside of the Qingdao Airport, we were deciding on getting a cab to our hotel and was approached by a shady older man. He offered to take us to our hotel and we knew better than to take the offer of a supposed taxi driver. My Chinese wasn’t that terrible so we can’t be fooled! Once we got to our hotel, it was smaller than anticipated but the price was super good for 2 nights. Though, once we checked into our rooms, it was so small! We struggled with getting internet and the teapot to brew hot water was smelling like vinegar.

We arrived during the day, we wanted to get our phones set up but a nap turned into a full on sleep, it is now 2 am and we are wide awake and hungry. XD

Momo མོག་མོག་

Homemade momos མོག་མོག་

Momos (མོག་མོག་) are a traditional Tibetan dumpling that can be found at just about every restaurant in Dharamsala.  The first set of pictures is all veggie momos from restaurants in Dharamsala and Manju Ka Tilla (the Tibetan colony in Delhi).  The second set of pictures is mutton momos that I made with my homestay family.  I never figured out how to fold them properly so my homestay dad commented that he could tell which ones were “Made in America!”

Thukpa & Shabalay

This is two more traditional Tibetan foods, both veggie (at least in this picture): Thukpa (noodle soup) and Shabalay (I call them Tibetan empanadas).

Thali: Basically a sampler of Indian food

Dhaba meals

Dhabas are small, roadside restaurants (usually) that have only a few selections.

Drinks from left to right, top to bottom: I think the first one speaks for itself; iced mint lemon tea; iced tea

Small chai places in McLeod

Surprisingly, McLeod has a lot of cafes with good coffee

All of those cafes have great desserts

Desserts from left to right: ice cream brownie sundae; homemade mango strawberry ice cream; variety of ice cream desserts

Breakfasts

Homesick foods from left to right: apple pie and coke; spinach and fruit salad at my favorite restaurant; coke float

More homesick food from left to right, top to bottom: pizza; tacos; Chinese hotpot

Dustin & Kalimpong Restaurant

The last picture has a monkey (we named him Dustin) at our guesthouse who somehow knew every time my roommate made a sandwich (he spent a lot of time outside our window) and the Kalimpong Restaurant (I never got around to trying this place but I like the picture).

Outside the Nechung Oracle's Temple

Our class had the oportunity to attend Nechung Monastery and see the Nechung Oracle, the State Oracle of Tibet.  Unlike Lamas who are reborn, the Nechung Oracle is present through a medium (currently Venerable Thupten Ngodrup).  Since the time of the 5th Dalai Lama, the Nechung Oracle has held an important position as the protector of Tibet and it’s government.  This Oracle has When the Dalai Lama was planning his escape from Tibet in 1959, the Nechung Oracle predicted a safe route to avoid being detected by the Chinese authorities.  Like many important Tibetan monasteries, Nechung Monastery has been rebuilt in exile and is now located in Dharamsala, near the Tibetan government-in-exile.

Inside the Nechung Oracle's Temple

View from our Apt

What stood out the most to me during my travels?

Some airports do not have free Wi-Fi. Even the Chicago airport, which is supposed to be one of the busiest in the USA, did not have free Wi-Fi. This becomes very inconvenient.

What I forgot to bring and wish I brought…

I definitely should have brought more clothes. At this time of year, Florence is still pretty chilly. In the morning, it is very cold. All of the local Italians were dressed in appropriate attire for the cool weather. Women are wearing boots and scarf, which I didn’t bring. I unfortunately only brought cardigans.

What is my advice so far?

Do not immediately use an adaptor with your laptop. Do some research!!! If your laptop was built 5 years ago or less, you most likely will only need to use a coveter. I made this mistake and burned my adaptor. Smoke was literary coming from the contraception. Thankfully, I unplugged it in time and my laptop is safe.

Also, I highly recommend that you learn at least a few common phases in Italian. The locals really appreciate it and if you get lost, as I already have done many times, it would make your life a lot easier.

Xoxo,

Rita

Hi Everyone,

My name is Grace Strattan. I am a junior BFA Studio Art major with a concentration in painting. I am studying abroad in Paris this summer with the School of Art and Art history. I chose this program for obvious reasons–I am an art major and I wanted to study abroad with a program that would value the arts and with people who understand what my goals are in traveling abroad.

While abroad I will be keeping two different blogs for two different obligations this one for the USF World Overseas Compass Scholarship and a co-written blog, on which I will post, at http://www.tumblr.com/blog/researchinartsscholarshipusf for the Office of Undergraduate Research, Research in the Arts Scholarship.

I hope to update this blog with photos of my sketchbook, museums, architecture, landscape, and people in Paris and I will also write down events and my thoughts about things that I see. I plan to update often but the frequency will depend on connectivity once I arrive in Paris, since I do not plan to bring a computer.

I am extremely excited for my trip and hope that you all will enjoy my blog when I arrive June 1st.

-Grace

I recently received a letter of rejection from the Yale School of Management Pre-MBA Global Leadership Program. When I applied I knew it would be a long-shot just like every other scholarship that I apply for. The main reason I didn’t believe I was going to get this particular scholarship was because the program seeks minorities. Although I am not African America, Hispanic, Native America, or Asian, I am a woman and women are underrepresented in MBA programs in the US and around the world. Maybe I should not have even applied in the first place, but I did anyways. To my surprise, I was asked for an interview. Unfortunately, every bad thing possible in the universe seemed to occur simultaneously during the days leading up to my interview.  Anyways, I blew the interview and received a rejection letter shortly after. Overall, I feel awful. I have lost many scholarships in the past but this rejection has left me feeling exceptionally low.

Although rejection hurts, the benefits associated with applying for scholarships far outweigh the costs. I believe that every mistake I make and every time I fail, I am one step closer to succeeding. I know that the Yale School of Management (SOM) Pre-MBA program would have been a great opportunity, but I learned a lot even though I got rejected. What I am trying to say is that even being rejected will have a great impact on me and my future. For example, prior to this interview I thought I was a decent public speaker. After my interview I realized that I need to improve my ability to express myself clearly and concisely. Learning these types of lesson early on will help me when I run for President or when I conquer the world, or become a CEO of a Fortune 500 Company, etc. In addition, the process of applying for scholarships is always a positive experience no matter the outcome because it gives me a moment to reflect. The essay questions for the Yale SOM Pre-MBA application included, “Who is your role model and why?” and “What do you hope to learn from the Yale SOM Pre-MBA Program?” These questions made me consider the possibility of getting an MBA which I had never considered before, which leads me to next benefit of applying for scholarships – exposure. Without a doubt, exposure to different environments, cultures, languages, histories, people, governments, food, etc., is what life is all about (at least while you’re young). Overall, I don’t regret anything. I plan on shaking off the rejection blues and moving on to my next scholarship. Well, actually this time it is an essay contest, the Frasier Institute Essay Contest.

To clarify, the Yale scholarship aforementioned was for a two week summer program sponsored by Goldman Sachs. I still intend on moving to France in the fall to complete my Masters in Economics from the Toulouse School of Economics.

Regarding my research work, my paper on women’s empowerment and Self-Help Groups (SHGs) in Punjab has been accepted by a conference at Stanford during July 12-15. The conference is being hosted by the International Association for Feminist Economists (IAFFE). Although I am not a feminist, I have to take every opportunity I can get. If you are wondering what happened to my paper on farmer suicide and debt in Punjab, I will tell you. I wrote that paper. The paper turned out to be horrible, boring, and overall uninformative. Basically, the paper was based off of my study of ten villages in Punjab. Unfortunately, most Punjabi people do not want to share information regarding how much debt they owe, especially with a foreigner! Overall, I don’t blame them. If I tried to do the same study in the US, it probably would have been a failure too. When I look back on the study, it wasn’t a complete failure because I learned so much about how to collect data and about Punjab in general.

About two months ago, I started researching SHGs and I noticed that a lot of papers on the topic assumed that SHGs and microfinance in general lead to women’s empowerment. However, not many papers confirmed an association between the two exists. The object of my current paper is to compare the development of empowerment amongst three different groups of women in Punjab. The groups include women receiving financial services from self-help groups (SHGs), women receiving financial services from banks, and a control group receiving no financial services. The variables used to measure the increase in empowerment include the respondent’s ability to make decisions, employment status, ownership of assets and land, position toward their daughters, and self-esteem levels. I plan on using an analysis of variance to compare the means of the different groups on those variables. I am still working out the details.

Regarding mini-vacations, I recently went on a five day trip to the Maldives with another Fulbright student, Tiffany Taylor. Here are some photos from the trip.

Regarding the True of False section of my last blog update, here are the much awaited answers:

(F)- Shah Jahan cut off the hands of the artisans who worked on the Taj Mahal so that no other future building could compare with the Taj’s beauty.

(T)- After the Mutiny of 1857, when several Indians revolted against the British in Agra, the British took revenge by chiseling out the precious stones inlayed in the marble walls of the Taj.

(F) – Due to erosion from the Yamuna River’s decreasing water level, the Taj Mahal’s structural foundation is weakening and the entire structure is expected to collapse within five years.

(T) – The air in Agra, India, was so polluted that the white marble exterior of the Taj Mahal became discolored provoking the government to inact the Taj Trapezium Zone (TTZ), a 4,000 sq mi area around the monument where strict emissions standards are in place.

I figured it would be best to begin this blog with the topic that is probably at the forefront of most study abroad students’ minds – budgeting. Before anyone can even begin to select programs and such, they of course have to consider how they will pay for it.

In all honesty, I have to tell you that even with scholarships you must be prepared to somehow pay for the entire cost of the program. Why is this? Three words – financial aid disbursement. This doesn’t happen until after the first couple weeks of school, as everyone knows. The rule does not change for study abroad. Most grants and scholarships award through the university to ensure the money is being spent in the way it was meant. So…find a family member/friend to help, get a loan at a credit union, or put it on a card.

Of course, this is a gamble. Everyone knows this going in. If you don’t have a good “set of cards” then I would advise carefully considering if you should play the game. If your gpa is low, you don’t have a unique situation, your parents are living and help pay your expenses, and you don’t work…then I would say you are facing an uphill battle. This is not to say that someone with these attributes do not receive aid. Of course they don’t. The point is that they have more hoops to jump through.

That said, the thing that helped me the most was creating undergraduate independent research projects that fit into my program’s free time. This will help me academically and professionally in the future, but it shows a seriousness to the committees awarding the scholarships that sets you apart from other applicants.

Also, for the sake of being genuine, let me tell you that I am also a first generation, high gpa double major college student who is dirt poor, and who lost both of her parents before the age of 17. Obviously, these factors were considered and weighed heavily. It also helped that I (not to sound cheeky or presumptuous, but…) write well and had my essays reviewed by several different people several different times.

Anywho, I received a $750 travel grant from the USF Office of Undergraduate Research. The application process was pretty painless. I highly recommend going down this avenue for your funding needs. Consider what you would like to research, how you would like to do it (quantitatively vs. qualitatively), make an appointment with your academic advisor to discuss possible research mentors in your department, and make it happen. The full details can be found here:http://lib.usf.edu/undergraduate-research/travel-funding/

Okay, let’s talk about the Gilman. This is the “big fish.” Only those receiving pell grants may apply, and it awards up to $5,000. I received $3,000.

First off … begin EARLY. I cannot stress this enough! There is a 7,000 character limit for each essay, which amounts to about 1 1/2-2 pages of single font text. Now, that’s not a huge amount, to be sure. However, you want to allow yourself ample time for revisions and peer/advisor reading. Take advantage of your education abroad/scholarship offices if you have them!!! People are being employed for the sole purpose of helping you! Use these resources. If there aren’t any such offices on your campus, look to your university library for writing center help, or ask friends (who write well, haha) to read your essays. I consider myself to be well-written, but even so…when you go through 10-15 revisions those words all start to blur together. Fresh eyes are definitely needed after about the 4th revision. There are two essays you need to write: a statement of purpose, and a follow-on service project.

While both are weighed about the same, I’d say the statement holds slightly more sway. This is because it is a platform for connection with the scholarship committee. While you certainly want to include relevant information about your study abroad program, financial aid (or in my case, lack thereof), and other necessaries, you also want to be a little more personal than you would in academic papers.

Make connections between your academic/career goals and the abroad program. Talk about your current studies, future goals, and the program all in one bundle, and make your case as eloquently as possible. You might mention challenges you face in going abroad (for instance: it’s been hard for me to fit in study abroad b/c I’ve been super busy with two majors and a full-time job).

Introduce your major, career goal, and program right away. DON’T be tempted to write a cutesy story! The readers at Gilman have thousands of essays to get through, so be kind and put the most relevant information first. Don’t waste their time with cheap anecdotes.

Tell them why you chose your program, and be extremely specific! Why this program? Whythis country? Will you get college credit during your trip? Where are you staying? Any excursions? Additional challenges? If you are studying a language, can you find total language immersion readily in your area? Difficult study abroad programs for your major? Have you ever known anyone who studied abroad? First generation college student? Significant financial difficulties? This is as much a “get to know you” essay as it is informative. Find the balance between the two. Also, if you face a lot of difficulties…do try to express them in a positive light, as something that you will overcome through hard work, academic merit, etc. Don’t beg! Writing a sob story is going to seem cheap. Nobody likes a beggar

Okay, so here the final version of my statement of purpose:

The impact that a single life can have on many others is an experience educators across the world are privileged to take part in, and this ability to positively influence students’ futures is why I have chosen to pursue dual degrees in both music education as well as literature at the University of South Florida. In the journey to fulfilling my passions of teaching and educative research, I have become aware of how very small our world really is. With the advent of impressively efficient technologies of communication, globalization has become less of an idea and more of a reality. For this reason, I feel it is my duty as an educator to become acquainted with as many different languages and cultures around our world as possible. This desire to be a well-rounded educator is what drew me to the USF in Russia: Intensive Language & Culture Program.

The study abroad program sponsored by my university suits both my academic and professional needs perfectly. I have been diligently working on both degrees so that I can readily be able to teach either discipline: music or literature. This dedication has made it difficult to find time to study abroad, as I’ve been involved with fulfilling requirements for both degrees during the academic year. The USF in Russia program takes place over the summer, which means it does not interfere with my strenuous academic commitments at USF. More importantly, the design of the program allows for an ideal “trifecta” directly related to my academic and career goals: critical language study, cultural immersion, and relevant, investigative research in music education.

The program features about twenty hours of intensive language study of Russian at Lomonosov Moscow State University, a highly respected academic institution both in the Russian Federation and abroad. There, I will be taking a six credit course in Intermediate Russian language. While Russian is offered at the classroom level at USF, there are no opportunities in my area for language immersion. Being able to travel to the Russian capital, where I will be taught by Russian professors in a small classroom setting, will allow me to take my foundational language study to a higher level that can then be confidently employed in my future classroom. Shrinking school budgets in our country that have led to language study cuts threaten students’ futures as well as national security when thought of in connection to our globalizing world. Even more, if a school is lucky enough to have a language department, non-western languages such as Russian are not likely to be offered. This foreign language deficit is highly unfair, and unsafe, in my opinion. Therefore, becoming fluent in as many languages as possible allows me to incorporate language study into my curriculum if it is not offered at my school.

The second benefit to the program is the valuable cultural study. Key historical and cultural sites of Moscow such as museums, churches, and parks will be visited and studied as part of a three credit course on Russian culture and civilization. Exceptional components of this study also involve a weekend excursion planned for St. Petersburg, and the witnessing of “Victory Day,” one of Russia’s most loved holidays, which celebrates the end of World War II in Europe and honors the fallen Russian soldiers. The opportunity to partake in direct cultural study of the religion, architecture, food, music, and history of a country that is still somewhat shrouded in mystery to the U.S. is critical to my academic and career goals of language acquisition and educative research, which will both be greatly enhanced by cultural immersion.

The last, and perhaps most important, reason the USF in Russia program is perfect for my goals concerns the independent undergraduate research that I intend to conduct. In addition to language and cultural study, I will also be involved in two related research projects. The first involves study of pre-service music education, and will measure the effect that different pedagogical practices have on the success of music education students. This study will be conducted both quantitatively and qualitatively, and was pioneered in part by my research mentor, Dr. Clint Randles. Dr. Randles collaborated with music education researchers in England and Finland, producing studies published in two respected international music education journals. Arrangement for the duplication of the quantitative data in Russia is already underway, and a qualitative study of the same ideas will take place when I go into a few of Moscow’s music schools, such as the Ippolitov-Ivanov State Musical and Pedagogical Institute, for firsthand observation of Russian music pedagogy. In addition, there is a smaller practical study I will take part in which will involve the researching of music education practices in a few of the Russian capital’s primary music schools, in order to investigate the parallels between similar arts crises here in the United States and in the Russian Federation. Both countries currently suffer from a dwindling presence of support for music education, and there is very little research that has been done to compare the problem the two countries share. I have built these research projects into my free time in Russia, and my research mentor and I feel very confident that the data will be relatively easy to collect. A great deal of pre-research will be done during the spring semester prior to the summer trip, and a USF Russian faculty member (Dr. Olga Oleynik) has agreed to help with my admittance to the various music schools while I am in Moscow.

Participation in this program comes at a high cost, and adds to the most difficult challenge I have faced as a student – the financial one. Working on two degrees will ultimately lead to my being a more informed educator, but has come at a great price that I have been struggling to keep pace with. Both of my parents passed away before I entered college, and so I have been financially independent for my entire university career. Even with federal loans and a Pell Grant, I have had to hold a full time job in order to pay for my living expenses and leftover costs of attending university. Because of this financial strain, I have had to sacrifice both personal time and pleasure for the greater good. My participation in the study abroad program will only add to this burden, and the Gilman Scholarship would greatly help to relieve some of the cost.

I foresee this study abroad experience having an immensely positive effect on not only my life, but the lives of my future students. The experience will help me to become a competitive applicant in the education job pool, but more importantly – it will directly aid in my dream of becoming a well-rounded educator who will be able to compassionately pass on knowledge and values to a new generation, preparing them to proudly represent the United States in the world conversation.

Okay, so you have your statement. Now all you need is to perfect your follow-on service project. This is where your creativity and marketing skills will be tested. The follow-on is, above all, an advertisement. It’s all about getting the word out about this amazing scholarship opportunity. A report on this project will be required within six months of your return to the US, so make sure it’s feasible. To convince the Gilman readers that your project can be carried out, use specifics. Dates, contact information, relevant research, etc.

Keep it personal by sticking to your interests and activities. Consider writing blogs, holding workshops, doing newspaper columns. Go to schools and speak to students. Speak at a conference. These are just examples, but the idea is to find something like them and then mold it into something unique that fits you as a person.

Provide as many details as possible! Think of this essay as a legitimate business proposal, and not a vague idea you’re just tossing around. Who is your target audience? Who do you think your project will reach? When will you carry out your ideas, and how many people will it reach, and it what amount of time? Where will you advertise? Consider the following departments that may be on your campus: Scholarship office, education abroad office, housing/residential, libraries, etc.

Again, here is what I did:

Receiving a Gilman scholarship can help finance a significant portion of my study abroad program, and so I want to have as much of an impact as possible when the time comes to give back. I would like to take advantage of the accessibility inherent in our technological world by creating an educative, informative blog detailing the Gilman Scholarship as well as my academic, research, and personal experiences while abroad. I intend to implement a marketing plan to ensure that my blog is seen by as many Gilman-eligible students as possible.

A significant portion of the blog will be constructed prior to my departure, and will continue to be maintained while I am abroad. I intend to highlight not only my sincere gratitude for the Gilman’s support, but also set aside a section entirely devoted to the process of applying for the scholarship. There are many brochures, flyers, videos, and the like which are offered by the Gilman but which not all colleges/universities may know about. Scans and links to these aids will be put on the blog. It is a sad fact that there are many colleges in my state (indeed, around the country!) which do not have a scholarship office. Or, if such assistance is available to students, many offices may not be familiar with the particulars of this generous scholarship. Therefore, I believe that a combination of detailed instructions about the application process, links to the Gilman Scholarship website, and personal anecdotes about my search for funding will prove to be a reliable source of information for students who were not as blessed as I was to have an informed scholarship office on campus. In addition to information concerning the Gilman Scholarship, I will also be providing information about my personal experiences while in Russia, updates on the research I will be conducting, and pictures of the trip.

As a native Floridian, I have chosen to target my home state with this blog. My goal is to provide access to the Gilman Scholarship to as many students as I possibly can. Therefore, I propose to send the link to my blog to the proper contacts/administrators of each and every college and university in my state. For a majority of higher education institutions, I will contact their study abroad advisors. In the event that there is no study abroad office, then scholarship advisors will be contacted next, followed by academic advisors and/or deans of student affairs if the college/university also lacks a scholarship office. I’ve already written an introductory email, which I will email along with the link to each higher education facility in Florida. A full list of colleges/universities in Florida is easily found on the internet through a search engine, all with links to official websites that lead to the needed contact information. I plan to send 10 emails a week starting in June after I return from Russia. Florida has 124 colleges/universities, which means this commitment will be accomplished in about twelve weeks, or mid-August 2013.

The reasoning for this endeavor is simple: while it may appear that one higher education facility is more privileged than another, the fact remains that there will always be at least one person there who is in need of the assistance that the Gilman scholarship provides. As a student at the eighth largest university in our nation, the University of South Florida, I myself could have easily slipped through the cracks without knowledge of the Gilman Scholarship had I not been proactively searching for a way to fund the cost of my program attendance. Many colleges/universities in Florida do not have an office specifically set aside for scholarships, or even a study abroad department. As it was, even at a university as large as USF, with as many resources as I had, I almost didn’t hear about the Gilman. I sincerely feel that each and every student should be privy to this scholarship opportunity, and the easiest and most efficient way to accomplish this task is through the most accessible and convenient vehicle to the modern student – the internet. I strongly feel that every student should not miss an opportunity to better themselves through an education abroad experience just because they lack the financial means to do so.

Of course, this success all relies on students’ willingness to read the information I will write in my blog. Therefore, I have specifically chosen to employ the user-friendly WordPress blog template. Large, successful companies and news media franchises like The New York Times, CNN, GM, Ebay, and Forbes all use WordPress for the same reason – it offers attractive, easily navigable websites. I can add pictures and share videos of my study abroad experience with ease, creating an intriguing and compelling blog that students will want to read through. Another sizable selling point of the WordPress blog tool is the fact that viewers can contact me by commenting and/or asking questions directly on the blog itself. If there should be any confusion about how to properly go about applying for a Gilman scholarship, I will be able to either answer their inquiries or put them in touch with someone who can.

I am of the solid opinion that change inspires change. Immersion in one of our world’s many cultures is an experience that I believe can alter an individual for the better. Students become aware of their part in the global experience, and learn of others’ involvement as well. I feel this enlightenment makes for more understanding that can spark change in our world for the better, even in the smallest way. To view of glimpse of the change that I envision, I have created a preliminary sample of my blog, which can be found at (and then I put my personal site address here).

So there you have it I would also like to add that the Gilman website itself offers a ton of essay help, including videos and webinars! Check it out!

http://www.iie.org/en/Programs/Gilman-Scholarship-Program

http://www.iie.org/Programs/Gilman-Scholarship-Program/Multimedia

Finally, I received a $2,500 Genshaft/Greenbaum Passport Scholarship. I got this scholarship by filling out the very use-friendly online application created by the Office of Study Abroad. You do one application and it is used for multiple scholarships. It is really easy! I simply recycled my ideas from the Gilman application You have to write a thank you letter to the sponsor(s) of the scholarship, and complete a follow on project. My project is the USF blog, which uses much of the same posts as my personal travel blog. The details about this scholarship and others can be found here: https://educationabroad.global.usf.edu/index.cfm?FuseAction=Abroad.ViewLink&Link_ID=AB58E997-26B9-564D-D66D7E80C4A0D776