Student Blog

By Peter Mate, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Vancouver Campus, winner of the 2017 Stories from Abroad Scholarship.

I’m nervous – my hands tremble. I fly home bearing more questions than I can answer. 

My semester, academically, is a success – I have a basic grasp of refugee law and contemporary citizenship; I’ve walked along the Danube, Siene and Thames; I’ve marched to Hungary’s parliament and climbed the Buda Hills; I’ve sat in wonderment at the Big Ben and the Eiffel tower. Yet, I’m restless. 

By Janna Wale, Thompson Rivers University, winner of the 2017 Stories from Abroad Scholarship.

It’s another quiet evening in the house that has become my home over the months of my exchange in Inverness, Scotland. My host mother is probably downstairs obsessively cleaning something or spoiling her ‘wee dog’ Millie, while my host father watches the documentary channel while taking trips to the kitchen for chocolate. Even though I am so far away from my family, studying abroad has taught me that ‘home’ is more than the house you are living in.

By Kathleen Megan Harfman, College of New Caledonia, winner of the 2017 Stories from Abroad Scholarship.

By Gigi Lin, Simon Fraser University, winner of the 2017 Stories from Abroad Scholarship.

Where do I even begin? It seems that the last breath I took was at the airport, waiting for my flight information to appear, directing me to my gate. When I look down at my feet now, I think about the different cities I have been to, the many restaurants where I’ve reveled in a new cuisine, and the never-ending list of monuments I’ve had the opportunity to see. 

By Gigi Lin, Simon Fraser University, winner of the 2017 Stories from Abroad Scholarship.

By Peter Mate, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Vancouver Campus, winner of the 2017 Stories from Abroad Scholarship.

Living away from home reorients outward perspectives: friendships blossom, the world changes colour, and ideas change. By reorienting perspectives the world shrinks: dialects between regions are now recognizable; cultures between cities become evident; you recognize ideologies that engulf countries. These differences create a tapestry of beliefs and cultures that you – the explorer – observe.

By Janna Wale, Thompson Rivers University, winner of the 2017 Stories from Abroad Scholarship.

Have you ever had something you really wanted to do on your bucket list for such a long amount of time, that when you are actually accomplishing it you keep having moments of “Am I really here right now?” This is the kind of surrealism that overwhelmed me when I made it to the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland.

It felt wonderful.

By Janna Wale, Thompson Rivers University, winner of the 2017 Stories from Abroad Scholarship.

Click here to see Part One of this blog entry.

By Janna Wale, Thompson Rivers University, winner of the 2017 Stories from Abroad Scholarship.

Another day coming to a close. I’ll try and keep from letting the sound of rain hitting the roof distract me. That’s one thing that I’ve been loving since I moved to Inverness, Scotland. I just really like the calm feeling that rain brings when the sun has gone down and you can just sit with a hot tea and listen, maybe reading another chapter or two of that book. Or finishing that essay that needs to be started…hmm..

By: Matthew Hoogwoud, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, winner of the 2017 Stories from Abroad Scholarship.

“I’m terrified. I have never done something like this before!”

These were the thoughts that were rolling around in my mind during the twelve-hour flight to my exchange destination, Kyoto, Japan. It felt like the longest twelve hours that I have experienced in recent years as I sat nervously in my seat watching the on-screen map move incrementally towards Japan. I don’t even know how to cook properly, I thought.