It had always been a dream of mine to
study abroad. During my years at the Community College I attended before
transferring to Rutgers, I tried numerous times to make it happen. I always
envisioned myself meandering around the streets of Rome practicing my Italian
with the locals, or tracing back the steps that Angels and Demons’ character,
Robert Langdon, would have followed trying to find the antimatter bomb planted
deep inside the Vatican’s catacombs. Worry not, Angels and Demons is a
fictional novel written by Dan Brown. I had a passion for the Italian language,
and studied it wishing to embrace that part of my heritage. After three
semesters of studying, the Dean told me that I would not be able to go… I had
already met my humanities and language requisites. My hopes of studying abroad
vanished.
Fast-forward to the spring of 2013, and
things were bound to surprise me. The department of Landscape Architecture (my
major at Rutgers), offers a summer abroad program in Germany. This happens
every other summer, and I was determined to go. I submitted my application, and
got accepted along with 14 other students. The only obstacle between me and
Germany was a financial void I could not close, and I was afraid about not
making enough money to make it by the end of May. Thank heavens the answer came
when I received some SEBS (School of Environmental and Biological Sciences)
scholarships that covered my tuition bill in full. Perhaps Italy was not meant
to happen after all. At least not before this unforeseen trip takes place in the very near future. Now I am just extremely excited about going to Germany and
taking all of that culture in. I will leave not knowing the language, or know what
to expect, but that is perfectly okay.
There are many things I must get done
before getting too excited about this. Not being an American citizen I must
apply for a Visa to enter the European Union. I also have to go renew my
Colombian passport, and complete all the requirements I must fulfill at
Rutgers. I know a lot must get done, but I hope that this will come through for
me, and that Germany becomes the first European country I set a foot in…
Hopefully next time you hear about me
will be right when I land in Germany!
No comments:
Post a Comment