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MY STUDY ABROAD EXPERIENCE

          During the spring semester of my junior year, I had the amazing opportunity to study abroad in Bonn, Germany.  The Visualization department actually incorporates a "study away" semester into its four-year undergraduate degree plan specifically because past students loved and benefitted from the experience so much.  For my semester away, I chose to go to Bonn with about thirty other Viz majors. 

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          I stayed with a German host family for the duration of the semester and it was such a fantastic experience!  After several years of living on my own, I now had a lovely host mom that cooked meals for me, washed clothes for me, gave me a bedroom all to myself, and even let me cuddle with the pet cat, Elvis (yes, named after THE Elvis, who was stationed in Germany for a time while serving in the military).  My host siblings were equally as wonderful and would stop by for family dinner every so often.

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          My study abroad program partners with the Akademie für Internationale Bildung, or the Academy for International Education, or as we all called it, AIB.  AIB provided us with classroom and studio space and wonderful professors from all across Germany.  My fellow vizzers and I were able to take classes completely catered to our major - animation studios, videography, video editing, creative coding, and of course some German language classes too - taught by people in the German animation and film industry.  AIB also organized events and outings to give our group the full German experience.  We went to a Karneval parade, a Bundesliga soccer game, a prestigious European animation conference, and as far as Berlin and Amsterdam as an entire group - all thanks to our superstar program coordinator at AIB.  All of the employees and student workers of AIB were extremely helpful and enthusiastic about making sure that we had the best study abroad experience possible.

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          The weekends were free for personal travel.  The train system in Europe is absolutely amazing.  You can pick almost any destination city and find a train headed there.  Or you can book a round trip flight to Ireland for less than sixty euros if you feel so inclined.  And best of all, you can get to a whole new country in less time than it would take you to drive out of Texas.  I had the opportunity to go to so many unique and memorable places with some of my best friends.  I saw the Mona Lisa, Botticelli's "Birth of Venus", Michelangelo's "David", and the Sistine Chapel.  I climbed all 463 steps of the Duomo in Florence, slept in a hostel on the top of a snowy mountain in Switzerland, woke up and skied down the same mountain into Austria, took a gondola ride in Venice, hiked through the Black Forest, and explored 12th century castles throughout Europe.

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          My semester in Europe was absolutely unforgettable.  I loved all of the places I went and the people I met and the experiences I had.  It's kind of crazy leaving the US for four months with one giant suitcase and a backpack - that's a lot less than what I usually take to college for a semester - but it's completely worth it.  I would wholeheartedly recommend studying abroad while at A&M.  The planning process is quite streamlined (so many students have done it!), and what other time can you travel the world while getting course credit and not being tied down by a full time job?  It's definitely an experience that can't be replicated.

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