My contempt for studying abroad in Europe stems from my contempt for a group of AU kids who happened to study in Madrid. I won’t name them, but they know who they are.
Anyway Max, Goyo, Goggins, et al. vacationed en España for four months, yielding thousands of group photos at clubs and a few eating disorders based around something called a “churro.”
And while they raved, cruised and rarely went to school, I was thinking of reasons these flawed individuals had wasted their study abroad experience. Let me now use them as the vehicle by which to demonstrate why you shouldn’t study abroad in Europe.
First and foremost, everyone does it. Over 24,000 American students studied in Spain during the 2008-2009 school year, which made it the third most popular destination (behind the United Kingdom and Italy), according to the Institute of International Education.
If you study abroad for the same reasons I did — to make conversation at future parties, perhaps put it on your resume or gain a unique perspective — forget the Old Country.
In the School of Communication, we learn what makes stories newsworthy (seven times per class) and there’s nothing novel, unusual or significant about staying out until 5 a.m. drinking €1 wine. Few people care if water costs more. The clubs look a lot like those in D.C., especially with the presence of so many foreigners.
To put this in terms that may resonate with you, do you really want to be in your SIS class bragging about the same international experience as the rest of your peers? Or do you want to want to drop a country’s name that will shock your classmates into respecting you, if not your naïve, ignorant opinions on microfinance?
Besides missing out on the intangible benefit of feeling superior, if you study in Europe, you will also be missing out on the tangible benefit of affordable sustenance.
I once went broke in London in five days, while it took me a whole semester to go broke in Egypt.
If that anecdotal evidence doesn’t sway you, at the time of writing, the exchange rate was $1 to .63 British pounds or .72 Euros.
On the same day, that dollar could get six Egyptian pounds, which will get you lunch and dinner - provided, of course, that you like falafel. And don’t you dare Eagle Rant about €1 wine.
Onto my next point (that’s a transition right?), there are so many more awesome places to go.
While my nemeses in Spain were making memories they wouldn’t retain the next morning, people I like climbed the steps of Machu Picchu in Peru, rode horses through Petra in Jordan, journeyed through Kruger Park in South Africa and a thousand other things kids in Madrid can only read about.
Of course, those whom I despise are unapologetic about their time in Spain.
Shelby Krick, Madrid fall break veteran and a Lit major (apologies for the character slur), cites the ease of travel, the chance to learn a valuable language and the likelihood of gaining a second, possibly better, family at a home stay. She actually didn’t say that about her family, but you will agree those are pretty weak reasons for studying in Europe.
Krick, however, doesn’t agree. Viewing studying abroad as an invaluable experience that everyone should do, no matter if its Spain or Senegal or Singapore, she feels getting out of America for a semester will yield friends, perspectives and memories (even if those memories are as hazy as those club shots).
She believes in the it’s-not-where-you-study-but-what-you-do-there philosophy. I hope that wasn’t a crack about my four months spent eating falafels in the Egyptian desert.
edpage@theeagleonline.com
