Before departure in my study abroad in London, England I thought what could be so different about the U.K. and the U.S.? They both speak English! The longer I was there, the more I noticed the subtle differences between the two. For the first most obvious one everyone probably knows, they drive on the opposite side of the road! They also heavily rely on public transportation. They have the tube, the famous double-decker buses, and trains. Don’t get me wrong, there is still a lot of cars on the road, but there are even more people using public transportation. Another big difference that I noticed is that their restaurants, stores, and pubs close far earlier than ours. On weekdays their stores will close around 9 p.m. or earlier, restaurants around 10 p.m., and pubs by midnight. Another big difference is the variety of cultures. We call America a melting pot, but London indeed is a melting pot. While in London, I only met two people who were actually from London! Also, when we would go out to eat, we would see our server once when we were ready to order, when we got our food, and then when we got our check. Where in America our servers would probably check on us 5-7 times or more!

For one of our projects, we had to go to the tube and compare the differences in the advertisements we saw in London versus the advertisements in America. Some of the main differences we noticed are that ads in the tube are very wordy. They will have nearly a whole paragraph on an ad. Where in America, we are short, sweet, and to the point. We also rely a lot on visual aids to draw attention. Another large difference is they do not focus on interactive advertising as much as we do. We try to get consumers involved and interacting with us and one another. Where in the tubes they mainly used only traditional media. Our main conclusion was that London is about 5-10 years behind America on effective advertising.

My point here is that I was expecting things to be so similar to American culture, which in a lot of ways they were, but the more I explored London, the more differences I saw.

I didn’t realize how much studying abroad had changed me until I got home. Traveling and being surrounded by other cultures has affected how I view life back home in many ways. Each place that I visited had something unique about the culture and some sort of signature piece to the city. Being back in Louisville has made me curious as to what Louisville, Kentucky has to offer. I have never had any interest in exploring Louisville until now. I can’t help but think “if I was abroad here, what would I do, where would I go, and what would I want to see?” These questions have been on my mind ever since I landed at SDF.

I think my biggest take away from this experience is to learn as much as you can, no matter where you are. Although Louisville has never been voted “the most exciting city in America,” it is still unique and a very important city to me. We have the Kentucky Derby, Thunder Over Louisville, 4^th Street Live, museums, and have been home to legends such as Muhammad Ali. Although these are all amazing things about Louisville, I have come to realize that what you find, wherever you are, will surprise you and be unexpected. There is more to this city that just the big-ticket items. I cannot wait to go explore Louisville and learn more about the culture that I have been surrounded by my entire life. I am excited to go see another side to Louisville and see what treasures I can find away from the main attractions.

• DO IT! This is most likely the only opportunity that you will have to travel with little responsibilities. Also, it is a great resume builder!
• Pack light. When you are going from airport to airport and train to train, having to carry a bunch of luggage can be very tiring and make your traveling experience less exciting.
• Travel around. Don’t just stay in the city you are studying in. Go experience other cultures and get a feel for how different parts of the world live.
• Take a relatively “easy” course load. You don’t want to spend every waking minute doing assignments, studying, and being in class. You need to have time to explore the city you’re in and travel around.
• On the other hand, go to class! It is just as important to learn in the classroom as it is to learn outside of it.
• Eat the local foods. Even if you are a picky eater, like myself, try something new! You will be surprised at how much you like new things.
• Call home, but not too often. Keep your friends and family updated on your well-being, but don’t make yourself homesick by always checking in. Life in Louisville will continue while you are away.
• Bring a small trinket from home. For those times if/when you do get homesick, having something from home can help you get past it.
• Have a budget. If you go without a budget, you will spend a TON of money. Budget out trips, food, housing etc., and try to stay with it.
• Have fun. This is an experience that will change how you view yourself, others, and the world. Learn all that you can and just have fun and enjoy it.

My name is Claire Gothard and I’m a junior Economics and Political Science major at UofL. I’m spending this fall semester in Morocco to work on my Arabic language skills and immerse myself into new experience. A little background on me, I’ve traveled to Morocco twice before to learn Arabic. Both of those visits were for about a month and I was living in Rabat, the capital city. Rabat is an international city, full of diplomats and other foreign workers. This semester, I am spending three months in the smaller, more traditional city of Meknes. In this entry, I’ll tell y’all a little about a couple of the many cities in Morocco.

This time, I am exploring the country with a group of amazing students from all across the States. My program through ISA has set up so many amazing opportunities for me to bond with both my fellow students, but also some local students. We all have varying levels of the languages spoken here: French, Modern Standard Arabic, and Darija (the Moroccan dialect). Navigating in each city is a trial of its own!

We started the journey in Casablanca, the New York City of Morocco. It’s big, loud, and industrial. It’s home to not only the largest mosque in Africa, but also the largest shopping mall (2 million square feet). The hallmark event of our short visit was a tour of the Hassan II Mosque. Typically, non-Muslims are not  allowed inside of mosques, especially during prayer time. We were lucky to be able to walk around the inside of the monumental building. Our group had time to explore the magnificent mosaics then hear a presentation on the internal décor and structure.

Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca

In front of an outdoor fountain at Hassan II Mosque, Casablanca

After being impressed by the enormity of Casablanca, we took a long bus ride to the red city, Marrakech. As the largest tourist destination in the country, Marrakech is full of both Western amenities (Starbucks and McDonalds) and traditional vibes. The red city, called such due to the red clay buildings, is most famous for the large square Jemaa el-Fna that is the entrance to the souq, the outdoor maze-like market. A group of us spent our first evening getting lost (purposefully and not-so-purposefully) in the never-ending alleys and corridors of the Marrakechi souq. We eventually ended up at a rooftop café with a gorgeous view of the souq. We ate traditional Moroccan tagine (stew) and mint tea. After those amazing, but all too short, adventures, we started the long journey to Meknes. I’ll save the wonderful descriptions of my home city for another time.

Jemaa al-Fna, Marrakechi square full of juice stands, snake charmers, and other vendors.

Governor’s Palace in Marrakech

Morocco is constantly surprising me – it’s an entirely new experience each time. Yesterday, I completed my first full month here. Time has honestly flown by! And while I can’t wait for all of the adventures to come, I don’t want them to go by too quickly. Until next time!

Paris—

Paris was on my ‘must-see’ list when abroad. After looking at all of my weekends and planning out which cities I would travel to and when, Paris landed on the shortest weekend, 3 days: two for travel, and one for sight-seeing. It seemed like a stretch, but there’s a reason why it’s called a ‘can’t-miss’ list. I booked my train ticket with a friend, and the two of us headed out to conquer Paris in a day. We arrived the Friday evening to a very busy train station. We were heavily warned about thieves and bag-slicers, so we held our bags close as we wandered through the station. We had done some previous research about metro passes (something everyone should do if you are looking to get around a city easily), and were able to find the machine to get them. Stepping out in to the street, well, it is not the Paris we expected. Wave after wave of stench hit our noses as we navigated to our Airbnb. We were a little shaken at the shock of what we thought Paris was going to be like vs. our first impressions. However, we dusted ourselves off, threw on some deodorant, and took a train to see the Eiffel Tower light up at 10pm. We found a shop that made cheesy baguettes stuffed with hot dogs, took them to-go, and found a nice spot on the lawn in front of the Tower. There, we had a nice time seeing the sun go down, the Tower light up, and the lights being to sparkle. It was quite a sight. The next day, we utilized the train and bus system to hit the Palace of Versailles, The Arc de Triomphe, Moulin Rouge, the outside of The Louvre, the Notre Dame, and a second visit to the Eiffel Tower. We walked from the Moulin Rouge to The Louvre, which totaled about 45 minutes. It was there that we got to see what we thought Paris ‘really’ looked like: triangular stone buildings and terraces with flowers growing out of them. It was beautiful. We realized that movies would only show the historical parts of Paris, not the modernized ones. By the end of the day, we were exhausted from the amount of traveling we did in a single day. Our wallets, however, were not. A cavet of t-tickets, meaning 10 travel passes on either the subways or buses, cost a mere 14 euros. The banana and Nutella crepes we had cost 5 euros. That was about the extent of our expenses, excluding the Airbnb. It is very easy to do Paris in a day, on a budget. I recommend visiting Paris at least once in your life, but it is not a city I would want to spend more than 2 or 3 days in, simply because it feels just a bit too large.

Rome—

I have visited Rome once before in high school, and knew I would be back again some day. The high school tour, however, was a bus tour, and all of our meals were set up and paid for. Traveling abroad with a friend is much different. We decided to see both Rome and Venice in a single 4 day weekend. Rome is a 13 hour train ride from our city in Austria, and only 7 hours from Venice. We found the perfect overnight train that would take us from Austria to Rome, and arrive at about 10am. A teacher on the program advised us that the two-tiered bus tours of the city are definitely worth the money if you can haggle it to a decent price. We arrived at the Roma Termini, one of Europe’s largest train stations, after a long night of barely sleeping on the train. After purchasing a metro pass to get from the main city to our Airbnb, we were approached by a man attempting to sell us passes for the Roma Big Bus City Tour. I was hesitating because I wanted to drop our stuff off at the Airbnb before touring Rome, but he lowered the price to only 20 euros, so it was impossible to refuse. We saw all of the ancient sights in a matter of an hour, and got off at St. Peter’s Basilica and did some souvenir shopping. With your student ID, you can get into the Sistine Chapel Museum for only 8 euro (so make sure to bring that cardinal card abroad!). Later, we got back on the bus and cruised around Rome some more. We made sure to stop at the Trevi Fountain to throw another coin into the water so that we will come back in the future. Ended the day with some more gelato and fresh grapes. The next day, we ran into some issues with the public transportation system…a ‘strike’ kind of issue. We decided we would just suck it up and walk the hour and a half to the train station rather than paying for a taxi. We got to see a different, non-touristy side to Rome so that was pretty cool. With the help of the train station staff, we were able to find our train to Venice with only 5 minutes to spare. Talk about a crazy way to end our time in Rome! Final thoughts: I love Rome with all of my heart and would love to live there some day. The history intermingled with daily life is truly unique, and if you get the chance to travel, Rome is a MUST.

Venice—

The issues with the strikes in Rome carried its way to Venice, because we struggled to find a way to our Airbnb from the train station, and we weren’t wanting to walk 2 hours to it. Eventually we gave in and found a taxi to take us. We were too tired to head back into the main city at 8pm, so we stayed nestled in our Airbnb and got some much needed sleep. In the morning, we found our way to the bus and got a ticket to the main islands. There, we just wandered Venice all day. This city isn’t one you typically learn about in history class, so we weren’t pressed to visit any main monuments or structures. Instead, we took pictures in the alleyways, crossed over bridges, and waved to the gondolas as they passed by. It was a very relaxing day, up until we made the mistake of passing through San Marco’s Square, where there seemed to be thousands of tourists packed into the small alleys. Once we got out of there, we grabbed some pasta at a restaurant along the river and enjoyed the last minutes of daylight in Venice. It was absolutely beautiful, and contrary to rumors, it did not smell in the slightest. Venice is an incredible city, and one that I would love to revisit someday.

Mandy Paganetto, ’17

B.S. in Marketing and Sport Administration