My Experience Abroad

Back in 2009, when I first came to the United States, I had a terrifying experience. I just finished taking a shower when I suddenly felt out of breath and my heart was pounding fast. With my nursing background, I had to keep calm, drank water and sat down judging that it would soon be over. However, moments later, the symptoms still persisted. I did not exhibit any chest pain, but I knew something was amiss. Without delay, I phoned my aunt who was a critical care nurse and was told to go to ED right away. We dashed to the ED, with me struggling to walk because I had an extreme feeling of doom. Everything around me was a blur. I was so scared. My husband was in Baltimore. I was with my relatives visiting in North Carolina and my three kids were still in the Philippines. I felt like my life flashed before me. It was the most horrifying experience I have ever run into.

Adapting to a new environment is challenging for most people who first go abroad to study, so a person must be resourceful and resilient. When encountering numerous challenges, you should find some solutions to overcome it rather than give up. There is nothing quite like being on your own in a foreign country. You might find that studying abroad really brings out your independent nature. Students who study abroad become explorers of their new nation and really discover the curiosity and excitement that they harbor. A benefit to studying abroad is the opportunity to discover yourself while gaining an understanding of a different culture. Being in a new place by yourself can be overwhelming at times, and it tests your ability to adapt to diverse situations while being able to solve the problems. I believe studying abroad bring me a lot. It not only makes me improve my English but also make me how to solve the problems when I

The day I stepped off the plane and landed in America, I knew that I’d have to face a great challenge. Being a first generation immigrant from Vietnam, I would have to learn English as quickly as possible. Although I’ve arduously prepared for this transition by learning basic vocabulary and grammar in my native country, I quickly realized that my practical aspect of using the language such as listening, conversing, pronunciation to be insufficient. By immersing myself in an English-speaking world, I finally addressed my lingual deficiency within a year.

My American ExperienceAmerica is home to millions of people. I have lived my life in America my entire sixteen years on this world, and have cherished every second of it. Through these sixteen years, I have been able to establish my own thoughts and feelings on what the American experience is about to me. I may have my own opinions, though others may disagree with them. I cannot live the life of the millions of people living in America, nor can I explain the American experience on their behalf through their experiences. My own interpretation is a product all the experiences I have gone through growing up in America. As a child I was in the process of developing my own character and learning new things. I grew up with the impression that You can do anything you want if you put your mind to it. That is what America is all about the land of dreams and opportunity. If I wanted to become a doctor, I could become one. There s nothing stopping me from becoming president or anything else I want to be. But you don t become president like that. It takes hard work and determination to accomplish anything, hence the phrase if you put your mind to it. The path to success may not be an easy one, but only through hard work and education can it be obtained. Some say we are slaves to society forced to spend our worthless lives working nonstop. Perhaps one can make that case when referring to a country such as Russia, where the people work for the success of the country with a communist

Throwing oneself into an entirely different culture for a few weeks a year, is one of the most intellectually gratifying things I have come to experience. It exposed me to the fact that there is more to life than meets the eye. Accepting its complexity is almost as important as understanding what makes it complex. My visits to Poland have opened my one dimensional mindset, and allowed for more complicated reasoning. Traveling also forces an individual into strange situations they are unaccustomed to, and shows that not everything can be learned in a classroom. It teaches politics, economy, history, geography and less general things such as the ability to explore, grow, and make mistakes. They are left with the satisfaction of doing things they never knew they could

Studying Abroad will give me the opportunity to study in a foreign nation and take in the allure and the culture of a new land, learning about my major in a different context as well as learning another nation's culture and

Trying to find memories is like looking for treasure. You look at the surface and see something mediocre, but you dig deep and find something cool, pretty, and meaningful. It took a while to think of a fond memory, but once I thought of some, it was hard to choose a favorite. Growing up I have had many great experiences in the form of vacations. Between going to Disney World, owning a vacation home, hanging out with my grandparents in Arizona, traveling to Canada and more. They all make amazing memories that I will forever cherish. The vacation spot we go to the most, though, is Wisconsin Dells. A few times I have been allowed to invite friends to come with. When I am allowed to bring friends, it is always a ginormous amount of fun. We goof off in the hotel room, play in the arcades, and swim in the water parks.

Plus I feel that this experience abroad will teach me how to better adapt to those around me making it easier to make connections and working with others in the future when it comes to my career. I am also interested in experiencing a different way of living, because I have always heard that America is the land of over consumption, but this is merely a phrase to me and I think that seeing how other countries use their resources can help me create and develop new ideas as to how we can improve the environment in the United

Living abroad made me realize a lot of things lately, made me discover who i truly am and what is my purpose, well kind of. It's hard leaving your birth place, leaving your family who took care of you all this time, who taught u precious lessons about life,friendships and love. Your friends, who always supported you, and criticize you as well. This is the treasure that u have to leave behind. But it comes a time when the

It was still dark out when I awoke, the sun would not be up for another half-hour. I could feel the relentless humidity on my face. I woke the other members of my team and we loaded the jeep with the equipment we had packed the night before. We arrived at the clinic just as the sun rose; people already in line. I was reminded of last summer’s mission to Cambodia. I greeted everyone with “buenos dias” and a smile as we unloaded the equipment and set everything up inside. Our first patient of the day was twelve year old Alejandro who was in need of inguinal hernia repair. We performed surgery after surgery and by sundown we had completed our goal for the week. After another week in Honduras we would conclude our mission for the year.

Living life overseas was remarkable, however, it brought along challenges. I have been fortunate enough to live overseas from a couple months old through the completion of 10th grade. School abroad was strenuous, much more so than what I have experienced in America. As I flew through the last two years of high school in the U.S., I assumed that I could do the same in college; I was terribly mistaken!

My experience of moving to the USA included a couple of steps such as preparing, arriving, and adopting. Moving to America was one of the most thrilling and exciting experiences I have ever had in my life. It all started after I graduated from high school. I had always dreamed of going to abroad to study in a better school to be successful in life. My dad was leaving me hints here and there that he was going to send me America for school, but I was sure that it wasn’t going to happen because getting a student visa was tough back then. However, that summer when I saw that letter in my mail from the immigration department of USA for an interview, I was speechless.

America is a little spotty. On the way here, I thought it was going to be the best experience that I’ve ever had. Now that I have made it from the revolting ship ride, I have come to realize that America is just a place that doesn’t like to accept new people. They have treated me like I’m absurd! One moment, I am on the ship- smelled like not just one, but thousands of cats had died on there, and people were crammed into this small little place under the boat which I was one of them. Being claustrophobic and dealing with that is torture. People were getting sick from low amount of food and water, not bathing, no medicine, etc. When I say the ship ride was awful, I really mean deplorable!

First and foremost, from personal angle, study abroad enables students to achieve high level of maturity and independence very quick. This is because they are being away from their support network like families. It may seem daunting but in the other hand it is actually a precious chance for the students to sharp their own skill and gain some independence. For instance, they have to buy the groceries by themselves which maybe it is their first time doing so. Students also have to deal with many problems when they study abroad like adapting to the new environments and lifestyle. So from here, they have learnt how to deal with problems. Apart from that, study abroad may also rapidly advance the student’s language skills especially English. Being surrounded with the native speaker and people that don’t speak the

The biggest culture shock experience I have ever had was when my mother, brother, boyfriend and I went to visit my family in Tucson, Arizona. We went to visit my moms brother, his wife and their son who had lived in Arizona for about ten years. I had visited Arizona many times before but it was when I was younger so I did not remember much about the setting or the people who lived there. I was not fully made aware of the lack of diversity surrounding us until my boyfriend, who is from El Salvador and my six-year-old brother, who is mixed white and black, pointed it out to me. I guess I never thought about it because I, myself am Caucasian so everything seemed normal to me…at first. Because Tucson is right on the boarder of Mexico, anyone who isn’t Caucasian is pretty much assumed to be illegal and ultimately Mexican, Maryland is such a diverse part of the country that when you step out of it you experience an immediate change in culture.