Wednesday, October 14, 1998
School away from home
CULTURE: Studying abroad provides opportunities that many
students take advantage of, usually with positive resultsBy H.
Jayne Ahn
Daily Bruin Contributor
Jenni Alpert didn’t think something as simple as food would be
such a big problem when she went to Spain this summer
"I ended up becoming a coffee addict because I didn’t like the
food at all," the third-year ethnomusicology student said.
But she managed to adjust, just like many UCLA students have
done in the past and will continue to do.
Last year, about 300 students packed their suitcases and left to
study in countries across the world through the University of
California Education Abroad Program (EAP).
An additional 400 students traveled and worked overseas.
Often, relocating overseas is a challenge, even for college
students who want to be enlightened by the realities of the
world.
"Even when we send students to Washington D.C., it’s a culture
shock for some of them," said Dario Bravo, assistant director at
the Expo Center. "But when they go abroad, I think it’s a more
profound experience."
Nearly all student returnees profess that their experience
abroad was one of the most memorable and positive experiences they
have had in college.
Despite this, it wasn’t completely smooth sailing for
anyone.
"During the first few months, there was a lot of self-searching.
I was trying to figure out where my places were going be over
there," said Amanda Miller, a fourth- year communications student
who studied in Granada, Spain last year, and also traveled through
Europe and Africa.
"Sometimes I almost felt like it was a test on my own
self-discipline where I had to make a place in some world that I
didn’t really belong in," she added.
Cathy Tsang Feign, a family counselor, said that "most people
who move overseas expect to experience a mixture and series of
emotions, ranging from elation to depression, infatuation to
homesickness, commonly known as Å’culture shock.’"
Jessica van der Valk, administrative director at EAP, talked
about what students should anticipate when staying abroad.
"You can pretty much count on there being certain days of bumpy
spots when you feel alienated from the culture," she said.
The program offers a number of orientations and personal
counseling for students who are about to go abroad, including ones
on culture, packing and travel, health and financial aid.
The program also informs students about local customs, existing
stereotypes and general perceptions of Americans by foreigners
"Sometimes people at travel agencies or hotels would try to rip
us off. Hotels would charge a higher rate for us because we were
foreigners, and sometimes they tried to trick us," said Eddie Lo, a
fourth-year international economics student, who studied in Beijing
last year.
Although he had a fabulous time there, Lo admitted that the
changes in food and the general environment took some getting used
to.
"I had a hard time in the beginning because I couldn’t get used
to some of the environmental factors, such as the climate and the
pollution in the city," Lo said. "I would have trouble breathing
sometimes."
Getting used to the different kinds of food can be a common
problem for many expatriate students.
Deylan Clark,a fifth-year chemistry student, began to cook his
own food because he didn’t like the lamb, potatoes, and fish and
chips that are widely eaten in New Zealand.
Instead of eating the local food, he started making Mexican and
Chinese food for himself and his friends.
"I came back a better cook," Clark said.
Lo also tried cooking instead of relying on the dorm food that
was provided for him.
"Sometimes I had burgers at McDonald’s, which is considered a
luxury item there. Overall, I wasn’t getting enough nutrients the
way I did here in the States," he said.
Another challenge facing students studying abroad is the
communication that generally exists between foreigners and
travelling Americans.
"In the beginning, I was crying because I couldn’t express
myself. When it came time to eat, my stomach just wanted to die
 out of fear that I would have to eat something that I didn’t
like," Alpert said.
Bravo pointed out that many students travel under the false
assumption that everyone speaks English.
"Some students think we have a common language (English). But
even when you go to Hyde Park or London and hear people talking,
you don’t know what they are saying because of their heavy
accents," he said.
Indeed, Clark mentioned that he had some problems communicating
at first because of the slang and idiomatic expressions the New
Zealanders used.
"I couldn’t quite keep up with the slang some of the guys used.
I got teased a bit when I blurted out words without really knowing
what they meant," he said.
Despite the hassle associated with living abroad, most students
take advantages of being in an environment they normally don’t have
exposure to back home.
Travelling to sites of historical significance or immersing
themselves with local culture is a common spare-time activity for
many expatriate students.
For Clark, it meant doing things outdoors. Over the course of
the year, he learned how to fish, kayak, and went "tramping," or
hiking in the mountains for days.
Alpert sang at a Spanish bar and was interviewed and publicized
in a local newspaper.
Miller rode camels on the Sahara Desert and witnessed a
lamb-sacrificing ritual.
"When I went to Morocco, it was like travelling back in time a
hundred years," she said. "Women drape themselves with veils and
people carry twigs on their back."
While they were abroad, students also made comparisons between
the countries they visited and home environments, allowing them to
see aspects of their own countries in a different light.
Tsang-Feign called this "integration," or the final stage of
acculturation, where individuals learn to appreciate both their own
heritage and their new way of life.
"Now that I am back, I feel like this is one of the greatest
places I can choose to come home to. I started to really appreciate
the technology, efficiency and opportunities here at home and
UCLA," Miller said.
But she also thought that Spanish people have a much healthier
perspective on family life, and balancing work and relaxation.
"In Spain, it’s crazy to have a 30-minute lunch break with a
sandwich, sitting at your computer," Miller said.
Others learned to appreciate things they took for granted at
home.
Lo felt the service industry in China was rather inefficient and
inadequate compared to that of the United States.
"The waiters and waitresses at restaurants were very impatient
and sometimes rude," he said.
"Everything seems so orderly here compared to Spain," Miller
added, referring to the lack of regulations on smoking, drinking
and street parking in her host country.
Some students get homesick or consider returning home early when
unexpected problems arise while they are abroad. Officials at EAP
and EXPO said that most students stick through it, however.
Alpert became homesick in the middle of her trip because she had
"ups and downs" with her host family. She was frustrated when she
was trying to communicate with the family, who didn’t speak any
English.
"You are automatically thrown into a house with an entirely
different culture, language and value system," she said.
"I couldn’t explain to (my host mom) my food habit or my
opinions on things," she added. "I would laugh sometimes at the
dinner table when I couldn’t say something in Spanish and they
interpreted that I was laughing at them."
Bravo remembered a girl who was offended by the "macho"
attitudes many men in her host country held toward women, and by an
incident where one man got out of hand.
After several conversations with the counselor at Expo, however,
she decided to stick it out and later told Bravo that her stay
turned out to be "one of the best summers" she’d ever had.
Returning home after an extended stay abroad can be both
exciting and stressful at the same time.
"Fitting right in to the home circle and returning to the normal
life doesn’t happen overnight," Tsang-Feign wrote in her book,
"Living Abroad."
Alpert agreed, saying, "It didn’t take me too long to get
adjusted back here, but the missing of the other countries was kind
of a hard thing for me."
Others mentioned that the first quarter after they came back to
UCLA was more stressful because they had grown used to having less
commitments while they were abroad.
Bravo said some student returnees, after spending a whole year
in another country, want to return to their host countries.
However, the process of readjusting to home surroundings is not
really a problem for most students, since their stay doesn’t exceed
a year in most cases.
"As long as student returnees resolve that the experiences
they’ve had abroad will help them here (in America), I think it
becomes a lot easier for them," Bravo said.
"Through the process of going through a lot of transitions while
I was abroad, I became more confident about where I fit into the
whole world," Miller said.
"I realized you can really determine who you want to be
depending on the place you find yourself in by your own will," she
added.
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