Study Abroad Programs Blog

Mexican Architecture

By Sue Lavene

The next time you go to Mexico, you might want to go see some of the many Mayan ruins found around the country. You can even plan your trip around this theme; there are lots of ruins. What has amazed me is that even though they seem the same, they are located in different surroundings which make each one a different experience.

The walled city of Tulum in Quintana Roo was especially memorable because of its majestic perch on top of a cliff over the Caribbean. Hilly Uxmal was once one of the largest Mayan cities in the Yucatan Peninsula. On the road to Palenque, the lush jungle-surrounded ruins in the state of Chiapas to the south, you must stop at the Misol-Ha and Agua Azul waterfalls and buy a coconut milk served right in the coconut.

Also located in the state of Yucatan are the ruins of Chichen Itza or "the sacred city of the Itza" in Maya, which were seen as among the most important site of the Mayan culture. Probably the most widely photographed building on this site is "El Castillo" or Kulkukan's Pyramid with its geometrical edges.

Considered by some to be the mother city of the Maya because of its long history is Dzibilchaltun, also located in the Yucatan, near Merida.

Go to the ruins at sunset and you'll be able to see a lights and sound show that will show an imprint on your mind forever.

Airfare Deals

By Beth Klemick

As a traveler, I have no patience for packing or spending hours trying to find the best airfare. For those of you who prefer to shop around, here are some general tips. To begin your research and get an idea of fares to your destination, hit all the big travel website: Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, Hotwire or Priceline to name a few. Once you find the airline(s) flying to your particular destination check out the airline's website. Best to search and book online if you decide to go with airline directly as you will likely find better rates or discounts online verse speaking with an agent. Check back to websites frequently as rates may change daily, even hourly. And please READ the fine print, some websites for online bookings charge extra fees and have hidden costs that in essence make the "deal" you found not so hot. If at all possible, be flexible, most often the best deals are ones with multiple connections and/or and atypical flight times/hours. Remember this is just some simple advice, I wish there was a science to finding great deals, but mostly it is hit or miss. So, take a deep breath, get comfortable, dive right in and happy airfare hunting.

Professional Development for Educators

By Elizabeth Gregory

In today's world, it can be tough to stay ahead in your field. This is especially true in occupations that interact with LEP (limited English proficiency) clients, students, etc. Many educators are finding themselves in classrooms around the country where some of their students are non-native English speakers. In particular, for them communicating with the parents of these students can be difficult. As a former ESL teacher, I can attest to that personally.

While many states require professional development credits, they do not always require what areas these credits are in. Educators need to choose their options not based on "what's easy" but rather "what's beneficial to me, my career, and my students?"

Many organizations are offering special workshops and courses for improving interaction with educator and LEP student. Others offer the opportunity for teachers to gain cultural insight into the minority students' backgrounds.

AmeriSpan is one such organization. We have broken our programs for educators into 2 areas. One is for Spanish teachers. These programs allow teachers to focus on sharing and improving their methods and methodology in the Spanish classroom. The other area is for teacher who do not teach Spanish be deal with students who speak Spanish as their native language and may not be strong English speakers. Educators in these areas will gain an understanding of the students' culture and language background. Information on our programs for educators can be found here on our website.

There are many workshops and programs which afford educators the opportunity to improve professionally in a beneficial way. Choose carefully when fulfilling professional development or CEU requirements.

Spring Break Travel

It's Spring Break time, and many students don't want the typical alcohol-soaked experience. So what can you do?

If you didn't give yourself enough time to find a volunteer placement, why not immerse yourself in language and culture? AmeriSpan offers language immersion programs that can last from a week to much longer. If your friends are going to Cancun to party, you could always go to Cancun too, only your experience might be much different. Travel sites for students like STA and Student Universe usually have great deals, so check them out and do something different on your Spring Break.

Swiss Chocolate

By Anne-Marie Dingemans

Why do the Swiss make such awesome chocolate? Or more interesting maybe, how? I am a chocolate-lover. A chocolate-snob even, according to some of my friends. Well, I can not possibly call a Mars Bar chocolate, and if that makes me a snob, well, so be it. Do a little taste-test yourself. Buy a bar of Lindt chocolate and any kind of average chocolate-containing snack. Cleanse your palate with some bread and water (yes, we do take this very seriously), then savor a sample of each. Do you taste the smoothness, the rich, creamy, silky-soft taste of the Swiss chocolate? Does it really compare to the grainy, sugary, slightly sour taste of the so-called chocolate? In my humble opinion it doesn't.

Now I wonder, how do they do that? Most of the ingredients have to be imported anyway (except for the milk, but both Belgium and Switzerland make great chocolate, and Belgium is mostly flat, so the Alpine milk of Swiss cows can't be the secret). Maybe it's a matter of demand. The Swiss are the biggest chocolate-eaters in the world! 10.5 kilos per person, per year! I'm sure that if you eat that much of it, you want it to be as agreeable as possible! Of course no chocolatier would ever give you his secret recipe, but a visit to the Nestlé Chocolate factory in Broc would at least give you a look into the process of making chocolate, with free samples of course.

And to make it a complete day out, why not take the Chocolate Train? It runs from Montreux to Broc every Monday, with a stop in the town of Gruyere, famous for its cheese. You can choose to ride a 1915 vintage Pullman car or in the Panorama-car with its (surprise!) panorama window.

The only disadvantage of being in Switzerland, visiting the factories, and doing some serious chocolate-sampling, is once you return home, you might just have turned in a chocolate-snob...

Italian Inventions

By Beth Klemick

During the closing ceremonies Winter Olympic ceremonies in Torino, Italy I learned through the commentary that confetti was originated/invented in Italy. This intrigued me and I decided to do a search to learn of more inventions. After further research here is a list of ordinary and not so ordinary Italian inventions we may use daily and their well-known and not so well known inventors.

Barometer, invented by Evangelista Torricelli in 1643
Cologne, invented by Johann Maria Farina in 1709
Eyeglasses, invented by Salvino Armati in 1280
Ice cream cone, invented by Italo Marcioni in 1896
Parachute, invented by Leonardo da Vinci in 1480
Telephone, invented by Antonio Meucci (A G Bell) in 1871
Thermometer, invented by Galileo Galilei in 1593
Zamboni, invented by Frank J. Zamboni in 1949