Writers in Residence

By: Peter Mate, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Vancouver Campus, winner of the 2017 Stories from Abroad Scholarship and a member of the BC Study Abroad Writer in Residence Team.

Plane tires touch down on worn tarmac. The jolt of the wheels shocks you into consciousness. Wiping the cake surrounding your eyes, you realize it’s noon. You’re under slept and underfed. Perhaps it wasn’t a good idea to pack last minute – perhaps it was unwise to spend all night studying. It doesn’t matter anymore – you’ve come for a conference already underway. Eventually, the plane taxis into the terminal, and you’ve managed to pass customs. Apprehension builds as you realize that you’ll have to carry conversation after being awake for 24 hours. Situations similar to my predicament in Taiwan ar...

By Janna Wale, Thompson Rivers University, winner of the 2017 Stories from Abroad Scholarship and a member of the BC Study Abroad Writer in Residence Team.

If you are anything like me (poor university student), budgeting is your best friend. This becomes especially important when travelling. The more places you want to see, the more things you want to experience, the better you have to be about keeping track of your money. Luckily, I picked up a few tips about travelling on a budget, even in a more expensive country like Spain.

The first thing I would recommend is to learn the conversion factor from your currency to the currency of the country that you are thinking of travelling in. Spain functions on the euro, and having a conversion app on my phone helped me to de...

By: Peter Mate, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Vancouver Campus, winner of the 2017 Stories from Abroad Scholarship and a member of the BC Study Abroad Writer in Residence Team.

You’re bags are stowed – your plane is cruising through the sky. Thoughts swirl in your mind about travel and adventure. Most importantly, you’re looking forward to escapades in new cities, and excitement in untraveled streets. Perhaps these thoughts are padded with vivid images and written accounts from travelers online. Their exploits – whether cultural or spiritual – create an expectation of your destination. However, upon landing, you discover that your dreams don’t match reality. Perhaps the buildings weren’t as ornate, the people less polite, and the food less gastromic. These small disappoi...

By Janna Wale, Thompson Rivers University, winner of the 2017 Stories from Abroad Scholarship and a member of the BC Study Abroad Writer in Residence Team.

You might be abroad right now feeling like you have just made the biggest mistake of your life. Why did you ever think exchange was a good idea? You clearly did not understand how hard this experience was going to be.

If you are feeling this way and are miles away from everything you love and know, I can promise you, you are not alone in feeling this way. Society today has become very fearful of the uncomfortable and the unknown.

In particular, North American society has set up residence within the familiar and the secure. To go anywhere the least bit different from the culture most of us have lived in our...