A Word to the Wise

Watch your deadlines!!

Spring break is supposed to be a time to unwind a bit from the stress of the spring semester and recoup before that final run to the end, right? Apparently, not so much. For me, spring break is going to be paperwork time! When I first started planning this trip, I was given a list of paperwork deadlines, pre-departure assignments, and meeting dates. During break, I get to fill out forms for my student visa and housing, and I have to look up flight information and such.

Last night, we had a big pre-departure meeting with everyone who is going to be studying abroad next fall. Now, even though I had the list of due dates, it came as a bit of a surprise Monday afternoon, when I got the email reminder about the meeting, to find that the entire pre-departure assignment program (seven online chapters about study abroad--with quizzes) was due by the time of the meeting. Bailey and I got to stay up late and read about travelers’ diarrhea and pickpockets. Tons of fun! To be fair, it was all really important information, and I’m glad to have read it, but reading it all at once was kind of overwhelming….

So, the meeting last night went well, despite the stress of getting ready for it. We got to watch a Saturday Night Live skit (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egYIz1e84Vg) about why we shouldn’t go off with strange men, no matter what their accent sounds like. If they say poison, STAY AWAY!! We also got to hear a clinical psychologist sing opera in three different languages, and we got to hear from students who had studied abroad before. Apparently, Italians don't believe in peanut butter.

The highlight of the evening though, was when we got to play “The Anthropologist Game.” We were divided into two teams. The first team was the “tribe,” and the second team was the “anthropologists.” While the anthropologists went out into the hallway, the tribe was given a set of rules for communication: you stand shoulder to shoulder with your conversational partner and face opposite directions, and you must wait five seconds after the other person gets done speaking before you can talk. The point of the game was for the anthropologists to come in and figure out our rules without offending us, thereby demonstrating the frustration that can sometimes occur when you’re faced with a new culture with unknown social rules. I was a member of the tribe, and Bailey was an anthropologist. She came in and decided to be mean: she kept turning to face the same direction I did so I’d have to keep spinning in circles in order to obey the rules…. Fun though.

Moral of the story: Watch your deadlines! It makes life way easier!