May 19th, 2012

In early Fall quarter, I attended a IEO workshop and got fliers about studying abroad to post on my wall as reminders. . .

Then, I went to a study abroad fair and grabbed every piece of reading material that looked interesting and/or useful.

On May 19th from 9am to about noon, the IEO put on an orientation in the College 9/10 Multipurpose Room for students preparing to study abroad.

After checking in and meeting the volunteers, I picked up an info packet, a free t-shirt, and a name tag. There was a short PowerPoint presentation by two of the IEO advisers, then we were split off into discussion groups by which country we were going to. There were a little less than a dozen going to France in the next year. Each group’s discussion was led by someone who had gone to that country the previous year.

We got to learn all sorts of little things that we wouldn’t otherwise have had access to. For example, our group leader told us about traveling in groups and other ways not to encounter crime. Also, social tips like not to talking about religion or money with French people. I was kind of expecting there to be at least one or two other film or art majors there (since a couple of my friends in those majors were in the program I’m in last year), but it was definitely a very useful experience.