Student voices - SU Abroad

Travel SeminarWait, my plane ticket doesn’t say Strasbourg?!?Each semester kicks off with a unique travel seminar, allowing you andyour fellow students to see different parts of Europe through the lens of anacademic. In the fall, students concentrate on Eastern Europe, traveling tocountries such as Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic. In the spring,students generally see France, Belgium, The Netherlands, and Germany.Activities on these trips can include walking tours of various cities, hearinglocal and national politicians speak, and exploring museums with historical,social and political significance. Many national and local issues are broughtto the foreground that students with an American perspective may not befamiliar with, which allows them to better prepare for life in Europe.These seminars are a great way to kick off the semester. They allow students toget to know who they will be taking classes and become friends with for thenext semester. Many students come from different colleges & universities, aswell as SU. This interaction, which can be unique to abroad study, allows you toget to know your future classmates beyond a normal academicsetting.The travel seminars are anything but a vacation. You will constantly be learningabout things you have never discussed before. You will be waking up earlywith planned itineraries and readings. You won’t be seeing the typical touristsites, but ones that are less familiar. Keeping an open and optimistic mindsetare extremely important to making these seminars a successful and rewardingexperience. Despite all these factors, the seminar will be something you canlook back on and say “whoa.”The things students liked best about these seminars are that you get to see somuch in so little time, some of which you would have never ventured out tosee on your own. The itinerary is pretty much set in stone, so you don’t needto worry about finding things to do. Plus, instead of taking trains and planes,you have the luxury of napping in your very own tour bus, where you willinevitably be catching up on your sleep.However, if you are a music student, plans are slightly different. Though you flyin with everyone else, your commencing travel seminar is only five days long.But don’t fret, you are not being cheated out of an experience. The travelingseminar for you is at the end of the semester where you will run around Lepzig,Berlin, etc seeing the historical roots of music.20