Life is weird. Here is some stuff to feel better about.
I’d never been homesick in my life before I heard Sweet Home Alabama three times in one night on Christmas Eve in Belgium. Maybe the Duvel had something to do with it. My Belgian amigos kept telling the DJ of wherever we were that they had a friend from Alabama that needed to hear the… Continue reading Sweet Home Alabama Hits Harder in Belgium
First off, they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in Portugal. So, the guy renting an apartment to me didn’t know it was a special day for me when he told me to get my stuff and find another place to live. I still had a couple months left in Portugal and this was a problem. Wait, I… Continue reading How I Got Evicted on Thanksgiving Day in Portugal
At the end of the week, the team prepared to return home. The experience left me with a healthy dose of perspective. It was the best thing I did while in Portugal. And I was better for it. It was beginning to sink in how fortunate I was and had always been. I lived a… Continue reading How the First Powered Wheelchair World Cup “Ruined” Study Abroad for Me
It was late afternoon by the time we had received both groups and sorted out the lost luggage. We finally loaded up to head back to Coimbra. Walking out of the terminal, I casually asked one of the caretakers how their flight had been. After answering my question, they commented that I spoke English quite… Continue reading The US Powered Wheelchair Delegation Arrives in Portugal!
When we left off, I was helping collect two groups of fellow Americans for the first World Cup of Powered Wheelchair Soccer from the airport in Lisbon, Portugal. Both groups had people that were not able to complete their connections in London and Paris, so it was to be a day of waiting for the… Continue reading Powered Wheelchairs in Portugal: Missed Flights and Lost Luggage
I got nervous when the international student office called. Being that all I had to do was pass language exams upon my return from Portugal, my class attendance was a bit on the inconsistent side. Instead they asked if I would help as a guide and translator for the United States team for the First… Continue reading The First World Cup of Powered Wheelchair Soccer
From day one, I was a bit of an anomaly. Being the only American in a program of hundreds of other international students will do that for you. Where we left off, wildfires surrounded the city, and I was beginning to make new friends. The international office set up nightly “coffee time” which took place… Continue reading Adventures Being the Only American in a Portuguese Study Abroad Program
I was on one of the last flights out of Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina hit in August of 2005. When I landed in Lisbon, Portugal I took a wrong bus, ended up at the Mall Vasco de Gama and spent a week’s food budget on a steak lunch overlooking… Continue reading New Orleans Hurricanes and Portuguese Wildfires
Let’s set the stage. I had just completed my last year at Ole Miss, with my thesis already written and accepted by my department. I had enough credits to graduate, and while I spent holidays studying abroad in Chile, Costa Rica and China, I had yet to spend the requisite semester abroad for my degree… Continue reading How Being the Only American in a European Study Abroad Program Changed Everything
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