Category Archives: Abroad Blogs of the Week

ABOW is a weekly series posted every Wednesday highlighting international bloggers around the world.

Abroad Blog of the Week: Fluent in 3 Months

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I came across Fluent in 3 Months this past week when a friend posted on his Facebook 29 Life Lesson in Traveling the World 8 Years Straight. The blogger, Benny, has been traversing the globe for (you guessed it!) 8 years and learning new languages along the way.  His blog is funny, insightful, and he brings in a variety of guest bloggers to spice it up.  I thoroughly enjoyed this Life Lessons list and think there is a lot to be appreciated from his experiences.  All 29 are pretty good but these were the ones that resonated with me the most:

1. Everyone everywhere basically wants the same thing

100% true

5. Seek out people with different beliefs and views of the world to yours and get to know their side of the story

It was actually at Emory University as a college student that I learned the value of this principle.  Having grown up in a sheltered suburb of Atlanta with little diversity, I started college incredibly closed-minded.  Surrounded and forced to interact with students who were of various faiths, sexual preferences, socio-economic statuses, and ethnicities, I finally was able to realized how really we are so similar and my role is to love, not judge.

15. Modern foreign culture does not have to satisfy your stereotypes

This one and number 5 go so hand-in-hand. I find it is so easy to stereotype other cultures and try to fit a whole county into a nice little box. Not only have I succumb to this abroad, but I’ve also been guilty here in the U.S. Think about the common stereotypes we have in the U.S.: people of certain ethnicities can’t drive; people from a certain country are here illegally; or this certain people group is lazy. If I take the time to get to know people, the likelihood that I will try to fit them into a box severely decreases. 

20. Wear sunscreen

Of course I have to agree with this one…my hubby is a dermatologist

23. Making new friends is easy and so is appreciating your current ones

This one reminded me of a recent experience.  I was at a wedding a few weeks ago by myself and the woman next to me befriended me.  We had little in common – I knew the bride, she knew the groom; we were probably 20 years apart in age; she’s a nurse, I’m a study abroad advisor; the list goes on.  But despite our differences, she saw a young woman on her own and decided to pull me in her circle. I cannot express how thankful I was. It made me really think about how I act when I am in the position of comfort.  Do I invite outsiders in, especially those of different cultures? I’m not as consistent as I would like…but I do hope to improve.

Abroad Blog of the Week: My Embassy Letters

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I love themes – theme parties, theme parks, and of course theme posts!  Since I can’t travel abroad right now, I enjoy living vicariously through others’ blogs as they galavant around the world.  Thus the theme – Abroad Blog of the Week!

Although I follow a good number of abroad blogs, not many have brought a smirk to my face like My Embassy Letters.  The blogger, Barbara, went to Jordan this past fall and though her blog is no longer active, it is still one of my favorites.  First, Barbara is extremely witty and brutally honest – both make her blog entertaining and worthy of being added to my Google Reader.  Second, I don’t know much about Jordan so I’ve learned a lot from reading My Embassy Letters and thoroughly enjoyed the stories of living with a Muslim Jordanian family.

But my favorite post is Barbara’s last with a list of thoughts on going home.  I connected with so many of these from my own study abroad experience, expect I think Barbara probably says them much more eloquently than I would have at age 21.  Anyway, here are some of my favorites:

  • You can’t run away from life.  Life follows you.  Sometimes you can put it on hold for a very short while, but it will still be there.

    This is not Barbara

  • In light of above, you can use struggle and hard times to get stronger.  Sometime you can feel yourself toughening up.
  • Maybe devices that save time and labor are not all they are cracked up to be.  There is a beauty in work.
  • Language is beautiful, and powerful.
  • All cultures have good and bad things about them; some should be loved, some should be scorned. America is not as bad as I thought it was when I left.
  • Sometimes I wonder if coming abroad teaches you more about a foreign place, or about the place you left.
  • There are too many problems to fix in the world, but we have to keep trying because there is no other option.

Thanks to Barbara and My Embassy Letters!