*** I would like comments on how to cut down on word count by answering the questions succinctly. Other input would also be greatly appreciated.
*** I will return the favor.
- Briefly explain why you would like to participate in your first choice program.
- How does it fit into the scheme of your education?
- You may wish to comment on what you feel will be the most challenging (or most rewarding) about your selected location, or what skills (i.e., language) you hope to improve.
- Please elaborate on what advantages specific to your interests and enthusiasms come with studying a civilization on site.
Five days, four hundred units, three lectures and a math tutorial are all organized neatly to make my winter quarter schedule. The scheme of my education is currently mapped out without room for error and exploration. It is outlined by the plain black print of text books and the stark walls of the classroom which have always unfailingly left me dissatisfied, but I yearn to break out of this academic routine. Although I have always had a full course load, I have never been a full time student; a class syllabus only plans my education within a lecture hall. Studying abroad is like a 24 hour class without a syllabus and it has always been my plan to, well, learn without a plan. I possess this intellectual curiosity to seek answers to questions beyond what a formal education might supply.
In a city bursting with life like Barcelona, lessons will arrive as smells, sounds, textures, sights and flavors. The sound of grandmothers bargaining for the morning's catch will help me improve on my language skills as I'll try to decipher their rapid chatter. The flavors of paella will expand my picky palette. The smell of incense will draw me into the Catedral de Barcelona where I can delve into a religion that is not my own. The sight of the Barcelona skyline, a medley of acroterions, myriad domes, mosaics, and finials, will be the place where I fall effortlessly deeper in love with Catalan modernism.
My gaze will pay tribute to the unsung hero of modernisme architecture, Domčnech i Montaner. At the turn of the century, he seized the opportunity to usher in a new form of modern design, rampant as it was with neo-Gothic motifs that linked the Barcelona's industrialization to its rich medieval history. His creations captured the blend of civic pride and social rise of the time; the buildings still radiate these sentiments that I wish so much to feel as I learn about the people who lived in it hundreds of years ago. There is no other way or place where I can have such an experience where everything I eat, breathe, and live is connected to my education.
However, I am hesitant to venture down the cobble stone roads that lead to performances of the Flamenco and matches of bullfighting. Barcelona's vivacity will be sure to not only inspire novel ideas but also ignite questions that might be left unexpressed. I am fearful of having questions to be answered but not having the ability to ask them, but this concern will soon fade as I learn Barcelona pronunciation and new jargon.
Although I'll arrive with a heavy English accent, exposure to vulnerability and error is what makes growth possible. With growth, I will experience other ways of thinking and only then will I finally acquire a true education: an education that does not make an empty brain into one that is packed with information, but instead transforms it into an open mind.
-Thuy T.
*** I will return the favor.
- Briefly explain why you would like to participate in your first choice program.
- How does it fit into the scheme of your education?
- You may wish to comment on what you feel will be the most challenging (or most rewarding) about your selected location, or what skills (i.e., language) you hope to improve.
- Please elaborate on what advantages specific to your interests and enthusiasms come with studying a civilization on site.
Five days, four hundred units, three lectures and a math tutorial are all organized neatly to make my winter quarter schedule. The scheme of my education is currently mapped out without room for error and exploration. It is outlined by the plain black print of text books and the stark walls of the classroom which have always unfailingly left me dissatisfied, but I yearn to break out of this academic routine. Although I have always had a full course load, I have never been a full time student; a class syllabus only plans my education within a lecture hall. Studying abroad is like a 24 hour class without a syllabus and it has always been my plan to, well, learn without a plan. I possess this intellectual curiosity to seek answers to questions beyond what a formal education might supply.
In a city bursting with life like Barcelona, lessons will arrive as smells, sounds, textures, sights and flavors. The sound of grandmothers bargaining for the morning's catch will help me improve on my language skills as I'll try to decipher their rapid chatter. The flavors of paella will expand my picky palette. The smell of incense will draw me into the Catedral de Barcelona where I can delve into a religion that is not my own. The sight of the Barcelona skyline, a medley of acroterions, myriad domes, mosaics, and finials, will be the place where I fall effortlessly deeper in love with Catalan modernism.
My gaze will pay tribute to the unsung hero of modernisme architecture, Domčnech i Montaner. At the turn of the century, he seized the opportunity to usher in a new form of modern design, rampant as it was with neo-Gothic motifs that linked the Barcelona's industrialization to its rich medieval history. His creations captured the blend of civic pride and social rise of the time; the buildings still radiate these sentiments that I wish so much to feel as I learn about the people who lived in it hundreds of years ago. There is no other way or place where I can have such an experience where everything I eat, breathe, and live is connected to my education.
However, I am hesitant to venture down the cobble stone roads that lead to performances of the Flamenco and matches of bullfighting. Barcelona's vivacity will be sure to not only inspire novel ideas but also ignite questions that might be left unexpressed. I am fearful of having questions to be answered but not having the ability to ask them, but this concern will soon fade as I learn Barcelona pronunciation and new jargon.
Although I'll arrive with a heavy English accent, exposure to vulnerability and error is what makes growth possible. With growth, I will experience other ways of thinking and only then will I finally acquire a true education: an education that does not make an empty brain into one that is packed with information, but instead transforms it into an open mind.
-Thuy T.
