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Month: September 2016

Caleb Zachary | Amsterdam, The Netherlands | Post 2

Caleb Zachary | Amsterdam, The Netherlands | Post 2

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If you were to ask a Dutch person what the most traditionally Dutch dish is, they’ll most likely say stamppot, a farmers’ meal consisting of potatoes and kale or cabbage cooked into a mash, with sliced kielbasa mixed in. The most Dutch you could get is if you used Onux brand sausage, hailed as the most popular throughout the Netherlands (imagine Kraft for meats). However, unless you’re out looking for traditionally Dutch cooking, you won’t encounter stamppot. What you will…

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Antigone Delton | Paris, France | Post 2

Antigone Delton | Paris, France | Post 2

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When in Paris, look up. Never mind that the fabled flâneurs of yore have been largely replaced by scowling professionals in navy speed-walking at breakneck pace—what lies above the sidewalks is too beautiful to miss. Take in the towering church facades, the French Renaissance grandeur, the monuments at every corner. Watch for the modest shutters on buildings untouched by Haussmann and the endless repetition of wrought-iron balconies framed by columns adorning those which constitute his legacy. This last image is…

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John Ammondson | Vietnam | Post 2

John Ammondson | Vietnam | Post 2

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When I heard that I had a window seat for my 14-hour flight from San Francisco to Taipei on my way to Vietnam, I could barely contain my excitement. I was going to get to see the sun reflect off the beautiful Pacific Ocean as I left the continent for the first time, maybe even spot Hawaii! My excitement wasn’t dimmed by darkness as we left San Francisco; the moon was beautiful, and a 14-hour flight would surely involve some…

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Claire Harper | New Delhi, India | Post 2

Claire Harper | New Delhi, India | Post 2

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Hello everyone! A few weeks ago we left New Delhi and started the next leg of our journey. We woke at 5 a.m. to catch the train to Mussoorie. The train was lovely, but once we got off it was stiflingly hot and crowded and smelled of car fumes. We took a wild ride up to 7,000 feet—I was exhausted afterwards from being so tense as we curved around cliffs and honking cars up and up narrow roads. Then we reached…

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Kayla Miron | Prague, Czech Republic | Post 1

Kayla Miron | Prague, Czech Republic | Post 1

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“It’s not much farther,” Nina promises me as we climb another centuries-old cobbled hill. Thirty minutes later my hands have begun to blister from my unforgiving Czech crutches. Nina is a Prague native and student at a local university, and she doesn’t notice the sweat beading on my forehead as she rants and rails about her “almost boyfriend.” I should have listened when my program director told us how much the Czech love to walk. We’re now on our way…

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Katie Hoots | Rome, Italy | Post 1

Katie Hoots | Rome, Italy | Post 1

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It had been over a year since I had last seen the Tiber river. To me, the Tiber felt like the only immutable aspect of the ancient city. Its water flows through Rome today just as it did in ancient times. In the Aeneid, Virgil describes its deep blue, watery depths while his contemporary, Horace, describes a yellowish, raging Tiber, cutting the Roman landscape. Passing by the ancient river on my way to get coffee or meet for class, I…

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Katie Nordstrom | Clifden, Ireland | Post 1

Katie Nordstrom | Clifden, Ireland | Post 1

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Hi! My name is Katie Nordstrom, and this fall semester I am participating in an Irish teaching internship. Jake Butter ’18 (another Vassar student) and I are living in a two-bedroom apartment above a gas station, which is common in Europe, in a very small, touristy town (population 2,609) in Western Ireland called Clifden. I am currently experiencing two firsts: Living in a country other than the United States as well as living in an apartment where I have to cook and…

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Anna Abrams | Yaoundé, Cameroon | Post 1

Anna Abrams | Yaoundé, Cameroon | Post 1

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As I packed up my suitcase for my semester in Cameroon, I tried to picture what it would be like there. I struggled to imagine what my host family would be like, how the food would taste, or even how I would adjust to a different climate. Now it’s been almost three weeks, and everything here is already starting to feel pretty routine. There are numerous stories I could share in this post, such as the man that tried to…

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John Ammondson | San Francisco, California | Post 1

John Ammondson | San Francisco, California | Post 1

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Reading through the adventures of my fellow JYA writers, I must confess I am pretty jealous of them, for actually being abroad! My program, which compares climate change issues in multiple countries around the world, has begun, but I have yet to leave the country. Before heading off to Vietnam, Morocco and Bolivia (in that order), we have two weeks of orientation in the lovely and currently quite cloudy city of San Francisco, California. Despite not actually being “abroad” yet,…

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Jennifer Williams | Cairo, Egypt | Post 1

Jennifer Williams | Cairo, Egypt | Post 1

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Before I made my new home in Egypt, I consistently received two reactions to my decision to study abroad at the American University in Cairo. One reaction was excitement for the pyramids using ancient Egyptian history as a symbolic feature of the supposed life in Cairo. The second reaction revolved around questions of safety, especially coming from my home community. Growing up in and around San Bernardino, California for almost my entire life before Vassar became an unswerving component when…

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