Our Interview on Europe!

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Studying Abroad Excitement

Studying abroad is great experience and will change your life. Like what was mentioned in previous blogs, there is a lot things to do, experiences, and life changing activities. In this blog I will talk briefly about each of these activities.

When you do a study abroad you to do many things that you can’t do in the United States or things you would not normally do. Some the students in my management and marketing class that went on the Europe study abroad this semester

One of the experiences you get is working with people from different backgrounds. You get a first-hand task of how people do business in other parts of the country. You learn what other students do for school and for fun. There is many new foods you get to try.

There is many life changing experiences that goes with studying abroad. You meet a ton of new people that you may never have met before.  You get to see a lot of new sceneries.

-Brock

University of Antwerp

  During our stay in Antwerp, because we were studying the European Union, we were studying at the university.  This university was incredible to say the least.  We were studying at the university a week before the school actually opened for the other students.  We got to pretty much explored most of the campus and saw the classrooms and the two open areas where there were gardens and places for students to sit out and enjoy the day.  I always loved walking through there because it was so quiet and everyone seemed so relaxed.
  I loved the atmosphere of the university.  The teachers seemed really cool and knew what they were talking about.  The teacher we had for our European class was extremely helpful and spoke very good English.  After class we sometimes decided to stop by their gathering area called the "Augora" perhaps I spelled that wrong but it was basically a meeting area inside the university where you could get food or drinks and just relax.  The employees were always cheerful and happy to help you.  If I had another opportunity to go back and study there, probably would have to learn Flemish, I would without doubt go!
  For more information on visiting the University of Antwerp with the group I went with visit here
-Ben

Saving Money, Gaining Experience

While studying abroad one thing that you will discover very quickly is how fast your money goes. Yes the American dollar is weaker than most other currencies, but while abroad you just can't help but spend a little more. One great way to find a way to cut back on spending is with food. C'mon do you really need to try a Big Mac in every city you go to. In my experience I found that the way to get the most bang for your buck is save the going out to eat on dinners with friends where you can actually try the authentic food of where you are. For the meals that come in between those, a simple trip the the grocery store works wonders. (And not just with fixing your appetite.) Being Europe I was able to take full advantage of the low priced stores Aldi and Lidl when shopping for food. There style is very similar to any grocery store you're used to, but compared a little more closely to the Cosco or SamsClub style. Buying food this way will greatly cut back the expense that food brings to studying abroad, and will ensure that your fridge is always stocked so you never have to go starved. The other way that buying food from a grocery store can benefit you is in the long run. If you can manage to go into a food store and figure out what you need without being able to read the labels, you will have one more life skill that who knows when it may be needed, but when it is... You'll love yourself for being able to do so. Many things are identifiable such as beef or chicken (you'll hope) but sometimes thins in cartons or containers are difficult to fully understand. That is why it is nice to have a little bit of experience with words such as juice or milk before going in. Getting rid of the hunger, saving money, and gaining cultural experience... a one stop shop for all three at the local grocery store!
-Dan

Check Out What We Had To Eat!

  While in Europe we had many opportunities to try different foods.  The only problem for me is that I am a picky eater.  However, I am willing to try new things even if that involves eating new foods.  For the most part I pretty much liked what ever I was eating which was a surprise.  There were a few things that I didn't like to eat when I was over there.  A few of the things that I did like were the pastries that were sold all around Antwerp, the waffles that were sold all around Belgium and the "french" fries.  The only thing that I didn't want to try was Duck but that was because everyone who already had tried it said that it did not taste very good.

  The main meals that we had were mainly steaks, burgers or chicken.  For the most part there was nothing wrong but something always irritated me.  Everything was pretty expensive and proportions were kinda small.

 Now for my favorite part, the desert.  The first thing I had to eat was a creme brulee, it was a creamy pudding topped with hard brown colored sugar.  It was probably the one of the most delicious things that I had in Europe.  The next was an ice cream desert that we had at a Japanese style restaurant.  When they presented it, the ice cream was in a second cup that was placed into a larger cup.  At the bottom of the larger cup there was some dry ice making continuous cloud of fog spraying out between the two cups.  Not really sure if the description helps but the picture below might clarify a little.

   Overall the food over there was really good.  I would recommend to anyone who is thinking of going to Europe and is a picky eater to be willing to try new things.
-Ben

Meet new friends Studying Abroad

Study abroad is a great experience for many reasons but one of the best experiences is all the new people you meet. In this blog I will talk about the people you meet you go study abroad with and the people you meet while in the different countries.

With studying abroad for 5 to 6 weeks during either the semester or summer, you go with a group of students from school, with many of the students you never met before. Studying abroad makes people have to open up and it brings people together. The students you travel with will be experiencing the same things you will be so you will not feel lonely.

Studying abroad in a country for 5 to 6 weeks you have a great chance to meet a ton of new people from different backgrounds. The friendships you make with people within the country are very special because these friends are people that help you through one of the biggest experiences in your life. They helped you get around town without getting and help learn the language and culture of the area. With these new friends if you ever want to go back there one day you will know someone. 

-Brock

Benefits that CGI-NDSU Study Abroad has to Offer

  Besides the fact that it would be an amazing vacation to travel to the finest cities and countries in Europe, CGI at NDSU study abroad has many other benefits as told by those who have gone.  First of all many have noted on its impacts of personal growth. It is an experience that matures the mind and the personality.  The exposure to diverse new ways of living and thinking encourage independence and growth. 
  Secondly, it brings about new perspectives of other countries as well as one’s own.  Actually living in a different country and being exposed to the political, economical, and cultural issues of day to day make a better understanding of the “global” universe we live in.  It is most likely that those who return will have a more accurate and informed perspective of world affairs.  Lastly, studying abroad enhances one’s career opportunities, especially those in business and international affairs.  Many employers value a cross-cultured individual who has completed a study abroad program.  The opportunities for self-enhancement and enjoyment are endless with a study abroad program.

-Adam

Virtual Pub Crawl

  During my time studying abroad, I had a residency in Antwerpen, Belgium which was just a short walk away from the University of Antwerpen. Near the university there was a small market area designated for the students. Here there were different restaurants and stores, each with their own specialization, but the business with the most presence were the small pubs. In the Belgium culture any given afternoon will consist of meeting friends or co-workers at one of the numerous pubs for one of Belgium's world renown beers. Many are small with a maximum occupancy of about 20-30 people,  and are owned and operated by 1-3 employees. 

This is the area where students would gather to hangout during the day and at night.

  The Barracuda was a fun place to hangout. Many students would come to do a mid day study break or grab something to eat from the snack shop across the street.

  Den Buvee was my personal favorite bar. The owner was very friendly with us from the first day to the last. A fun nightlife atmosphere with current music , wide variety of drinks, and always good people to share a fun night with.

  De Shacht was a unique bar. The atmosphere can be summed up in the name, sort of like a secret fun spot that unless you've experienced it for yourself, one may not know about the potential times to be had here.

  These were my favorite pubs in Antwerpen, I talked about 4 of them but there were just as many in this same area that I didn't have the chance to get a full experience at. Outside of Antwerpen my next favorite pub city was Dublin, Ireland. Here they have world famous bars and pubs such as The Temple Bar all within the tourist area of Dublin. When you get your chance to visit Europe, take advantage of the social culture they have, but be careful because you don't want to spend all of your time and money at these establishments, as there is so much more to see and experience.

-Dan

What Would You Do?

  While on this trip we visited Interlaken, Switzerland.  While there we not only saw the very beautiful Swiss Alps and went to the "Top of Europe" but we also had about a half a day worth of free time.  I have been to the mountains in Colorado so my thoughts were that the Swiss Alps would look about the same.  I could not have been more wrong, it was breath taking.  As we entered the city, all around us were the mountains and in the middle was a lake in which the mountains around us reflected off of so perfectly.  We took a brief tour of the city and I learned that everything over there is very expensive.  We stayed in Interlaken for 2 days, on the second day we took a train to the "Top of Europe".  We were on the top of the Swiss Alps and it was awesome!  The only bad thing that I can think of was that all the activities that day were closed for some reason.  However, that did not have a real big impact on my experience there.

Like I said before we had about a half a day that we could do what ever we wanted to.  What would you do with your time?  Would you go skydiving, paragliding, shopping or hiking?  Well I chose to do something called Canyoning where you hike up the side of a canyon and the only way down is to ride the river.  You ride the river by sliding, rappelling, swimming, jumping, and climbing.  It was probably the most insane adventure I have ever been on in my life.  We were not allowed to take pictures however, I did buy a video that show me going down the canyon.  If I had the chance to do it again I would do it in a heart beat.

-Ben

Meet New Friends

Study abroad is a great experience for many reasons but one of the best experiences is all the new people you meet. In this blog I will talk about the people you meet you go study abroad with and the people you meet while in the different countries.

With studying abroad for 5 to 6 weeks during either the semester or summer, you go with a group of students from school, with many of the students you never met before. Studying abroad makes people have to open up and it brings people together. The students you travel with will be experiencing the same things you will be so you will not feel lonely.

Studying abroad in a country for 5 to 6 weeks you have a great chance to meet a ton of new people from different backgrounds. The friendships you make with people within the country are very special because these friends are people that help you through one of the biggest experiences in your life. They helped you get around town without getting and help learn the language and culture of the area. With these new friends if you ever want to go back there one day you will know someone.

 -Brock

New Europe Tour Guides

  On my adventures through the Old Continent I was fortunate enough to have knowledgeable tour guides through some of Europe's most famed cities. The tour company New Europe is a tourism company with a presence in cities ranging geographically from Jerusalem all the way up to Edinburgh. These tour guides are fun, well-knowledge history buffs who love to show tourists through their city they love. I was lucky enough to go on these tours 4 times in 3 cities (I'll explain that math later.) 

  Starting off was Paris, my personal favorite city to be in because our tour guide from New Europe made it my favorite tour. Arnoud (pronounced R-no) was the guide of Paris and he made the whole experience fun. Originally from the States (which was appreciated because it was the first native English I had heard in weeks) married a French lady and ended up moving to Paris and had plenty of facts to share about the city. Because he was originally from California, he was able to relate some of Paris' stories to our culture such as comparing the French king who loved to party to Charlie Sheen. While passing a bridge he then mentioned how this king had portraits of his friends made and plastered on a bridge, this as Arnoud described it was the original Facebook, friends party pictured posted on a wall and their names tagged. We then headed to the Louvre where after taking some fun pictures, our time with Arnoud was over. 

  The next city that we had a New Europe tour guide in was Dublin, Ireland. This tour guide was a young, fresh out of college history major who specialized in Irish history. This tour was fascinating in the sense of learning so much about the fight that Irish people had with getting away from England. Just like everyone else in Dublin, our tour guide was one of the most friendly people I encountered in Europe. My favorite story was of the most famous prank to ever go down in college history. A group of kids made a plaque and nailed it to the bridge of a legendary captain. After multiple years the city government finally found out about the plaque and had it removed, only to upset the entire city. After much disappointment the city actually put back this plaque of honor for a made-up captain.

  The third and final city of having a New Europe guide was Edinburgh. This is where I actually went on two different tours. The first was during the day and was a history of the city of Edinburgh walking up and down Princess Street and the Royal Mile. This was also a great tour with lots of fun facts about why Edinburgh is so haunted. Many murders have taken place in the city and it has lots of graveyards. In these graveyards is where J.K. Rowling got many of her names for characters in the famed Harry Potter novels. The day tour was fun, but couldn't compare to the night, the Ghost tour. This was a special tour which took us through the graveyards of Edinburgh at night. Edinburgh has some of the most ghost sites in the world and even though I'm not easily scared, it was spooky. 

    When you get your chance to go to Europe make sure you take advantage of this great company and get booked on with one of these tours!!
-Dan

Center of Global Initiatives at NDSU

  I feel very fortunate this year at NDSU to have participated in the College of Business.  Previously, I had pursued a degree in chemistry.  Nothing against chemistry or the department, but the College of Business has opened my eyes to the world rather than the local laboratory I called home.  A few of my classes include international students I have become friends with, and also some of my classmates have studied abroad through the Center for Global Initiatives at NDSU.  I wish I would have known of the opportunity before the semester began because it sounds and sounded like an extraordinary experience.  Our world is continuing to get smaller with technological advances rapidly evolving, and soon enough it is going to be common place to do any kind of business internationally.

  The CGI at NDSU is a great opportunity to learn of different business practices abroad, cultural differences in different countries, and can also serve as an enjoyable, and most likely needed, vacation from North Dakota.  The opportunities are endless, and so much more can be learned by actually observing different cultures and practices first hand.  Check out CGI at NDSU for an advancement of your education that will be a trip of a lifetime.

-Adam

Study Abroad Options

Have you ever wanted to go to another country and see how other student learn?  Studying abroad is great opportunity for students to grow and gain great experience. I have not done a study abroad but I have a couple of friends that have or will study abroad in different countries. I will like to talk about the places they visited, how much they enjoyed the experience, and give brief description of the areas.

-Europe-

Half my management and marketing class just got back from five weeks in Europe. All I have heard is great things about their trip. Some of the cities they visited were Brussels, Edinburgh, and Antwerpen.

Brussels, Belgium has grown significantly since it was founded in the 10^th century. It has now over 1.8 million in population. Brussels is the main center for international politics. Dutch and French are the main languages in Brussels. The weather in Brussels is similar to Seattle in that it rains a lot but rarely snows there. 

Edinburgh is the second largest city Scotland. Edinburgh is a historical centers of the Enlightenment. Edinburgh has large pubs, clubs and restaurants. They have wonderful shopping areas. Edinburgh also has a professional football (soccer) teams. So there is a lot of things for students to do when they study abroad.

-Spain-

One of my friends is going to Valencia, Spain next semester. She gets to spend the entire semester there living with a host family. Valencia has a history of being a romantic city. Valencia is the third largest city in Spain. Valencia also has many ancient buildings from the 13^th to 15^th century. Valencia has many other activities and sights to see for students.

These are some of the places students have an opportunity to study abroad at. 

 -Brock

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edinburgh

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brussels

Favorite Place in Europe

In this post I just wanted to outline my favorite place that we visited on this trip all thanks to @CGINDSU or ndsu-studyabroad.blogspot.com

  Journey through Edinburgh Scotland  

-Edinburgh is a city that really interested me because it has some dark and historic stories.  There are many stories about the criminals who practiced their crimes in the cities that were interesting.  Not to mention that J.K. Rowling starting writing the Harry Potter series at a cafe that we saw in the city.  It was interesting to see not only where see wrote the books but perhaps got some of the ideas for the characters names.  There was graveyard were the names of Thomas Riddell and William Mcgonagall:

-That was just one of the stops that we had during our excellent New Europe Tour of Edinburgh.  Another stop was the Edinburgh Castle which held some interesting stories during the times in which a lot of people were convicted of being witches.  The guide told us that there were three signs that they looked for when deciding whether or not you were a witch.  One was having orange hair, a mole, and a third nipple.  It was funny because Nick, who had orange hair and has a mole, was now the focus of the group.  Its okay though I don't believe he has a third nipple. But back when they would convict people of having both orange hair and a mole they would throw you into a lake that was filled with poop and see if you would float.  If you float you were a witch and if you didn't you were not.  Luckily for Nick, the lake has been filled and turned into a beautiful park.

-Some other interesting facts about Edinburgh was that there were a lot of famous people grew up in the city such as Sean Connery, Alexander Graham Bell and Tony Blair.  Another interesting fact was that because of the poor sewage system they had, the citizens were given a designated time that they could throw their sewage out the window.  This sewage was rounded up and put into the lake that I was talking about before.

-We did a night tour of the city which showed 3 different graveyards, creepy buildings and dark stories.  There were many creepy ghost stories about the people who were either hung or killed.  We found out that night that Edinburgh was a city that was host to many murders and dark stories.  During the end of the trip I read a book that talked about some of the different murder stories.  I will quickly talk about one story that I heard during the walk.  Starting in November 1827 two people by the name of Burke and Hare were in need of money.  During this time the need for dead bodies for medical research was in heavy demand, these two would kill people and sell their bodies.  The killings stopped in October 1828 with Burke being convicted and Hare getting immunity for testifying against Burke.  A detailed story can be found here.

So if you like creepy spooky places than Edinburgh Scotland is the place to go.  between it's day and night time activities you will be in for a great time!
-Bennett

A Quick Journey Through Europe

My trip to Europe in one word was awesome, wait... amazing, no wait... incredible. The experience was fulfilling in every aspect that I expected, and the only downside was that I eventually had to go home... to Fargo, ND. I'll be doing 4 different posts of different experiences, this week will just be a quick recap of the major cities I went to followed by..
- A virtual pub crawl of Europe
- A walk through of the different street art that I saw
- Yet to be determined...

So the first big city I experienced was Antwerpen, Belgium. A very industrial city with a major market for international business being it's a major port city and being within 45min.of Brussels. This is where my residence was and where I called home while I was there. The University of Antwerpen is where I took classes for a week and after about 5 days of being there the regular scheduled classes got started and the campus area was a VERY fun place to be. The major area was campus market area, which had a perimeter of different bars and restaurants, all student hotspots...

The next major city we toured was Brussels, Belgium. Another major city of business and politics due to the European Union HQ being located here. Grand Place is a magnificent area with many features. A little known fact is that Karl Marx wrote the "Communist Manifesto" there. Another major tourist spot in Brussels is Manneken Pis. If you ever tell someone you went to Brussels, they will ask what you're impression of Manneken Pis was, I won't post any pictures because words don't describe the experience.

Out of Belgium and onto Paris! Paris was my favorite city hands down. The atmosphere all around was most compatible to my personality. By day the scenery was incredible, oh and there's another tourist spot around every corner so it never gets old. By night I would highly recommend going on canal cruise on the Seine, every major spot is lit up at night and its amazing. Of course the major sports are Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and capitol buildings. Also, the nightlife is fun and when it's time to leave the clubs or bars, heading to the river to hang out with the 18-23 year olds playing music and living life. A fun time in itself just enjoying life...

Next and final spot on our tour is Dublin, Ireland. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me at this time so I can't post any picture. But Dublin is a fun city as well, the people are friendly and it's nice to get a dose of natural English speaking people as well. There's a part of the city which is focused on pubs and the atmosphere there is just what anyone would expect, Irish songs, Guiness beer, and cheery chaps. I recommend going to The Temple Bar. This is one of the oldest bars in Dublin and is packed on Saturday nights. Besides The Temple, there are other fun, well known bars to spend an evening with friends.

If I had to put together a perfect combination of Europe I would combine the Paris nightlife, Irish music, Dutch personalities, and Belgian beer, the best in the world.
-Dan