Spanish Professor Byron Barahona has studied in six countries and visited 40. Barahona has expanded his cultural horizons and learned new languages through his travels. Photo by Molly Solomon.

On a sunny afternoon, Byron Barahona, lecturer in Spanish at UC Santa Cruz, sat down with City on a Hill Press to share his extensive experience studying abroad. He spoke deliberately, choosing his answers with care while punctuating them often with easy laughs.

“If you follow your intuition, it may take you to interesting places — moments in your life and the discovery of experiences that you couldn’t imagine prior to that,” Barahona said.

Born in Guatemala, Barahona has studied in six different countries and visited 40. He spent most of his time abroad in Paris, studying and researching French literature.

Current students are completing their own study abroad applications as they plan what is one of the most unique experiences of their education, many through the UC’s Education Abroad Program. These applications are not to be taken lightly, as they determine where students may spend anywhere from a couple months to an entire year of time studying.

Barahona’s own experiences reflect the impact studying abroad can have on a student’s education.

After studying for a semester in Guatemala, Barahona began undergraduate studies at the University of Massachusetts in Boston for philosophy and for French literature.

“Boston was a pretty tough place, not very used to immigrants from Latin America,” Barahona said. “It was my first encounter with a language I barely knew.”

He credits the rapid progress he made learning English with his constant desire to be able to communicate and experience the cultures around him.

In 1987, Barahona left Boston to study for a year in Paris. As a cultural hub in Europe, Paris was the perfect place to study the French language and literature. However, studying at the Sorbonne University was only a part of the experience.

“There’s much more to French culture than its writers,” Barahona said with a nostalgic look on his face. “There’s the art, the food, there’s the joie de vivre, that attitude toward living a good life which, in many ways, influenced who I am, who I became.”

One way these aspects of culture influenced him was in his appreciation of food. Barahona laughed as he related how he had always liked eating, but it wasn’t until he went to Paris that he began paying attention to the pairing of flavors with each other and with wines.

“That was an amazing discovery, because it was a discovery of the senses in a way that I had not anticipated at all,” Barahona said. “In the end, it became a pretty good balance of that intellectual idealization I had of a life in Paris and the other areas which make us human.”

Though he was constantly learning about French culture, it was an experience that took time. Learning the language simultaneously helped in his understanding, and became quite an experience on its own.

“The progression of the language development in tandem with the life experience is something quite formidable, because it gradually opens up that culture to you,” Barahona said. “The realization that you can progress both in your understanding of the language and your understanding of the culture is simply quite amazing.”

Barahona said that an unexpected aspect of study in Paris was a developing interest in his own culture.

While traveling from Paris to other parts of Europe, Barahona encountered people who had “genuine and real questions [about Latin America] which they posted that I simply had not thought about. It made me realize that there was something in Latin American culture that was worth pursuing.”

At the end of his year in Paris, Barahona returned to Boston and added a third major, Latin American literature, to his philosophy and French literature studies.

He graduated at the age of 26 and went on to pursue his doctorate at UC Berkeley. There, he continued studying French and Latin American literature, and added Italian to the list as he worked toward a degree in Romance languages in literature.

As part of his studies, Barahona spent a summer in Florence, Italy and another in Lisbon, Portugal. He went back to France for a year and a half to do research, as well as traveling to Argentina and then back to Guatemala.

“Eventually, the road led back to it,” Barahona said.

If he could go back and spend more time somewhere he’s visited, he said, he would choose Germany. Barahona has visited almost all of Western Europe and spent some time in Germany with friends.

While much of his academic time abroad has been studying and researching, six years ago he taught in Singapore while working for Stanford University.

Of the many locales to which Barahona has not yet traveled, he said he would most like to see Japan.

“I’ve never engaged with any Asian language,” he said. “Linguistically speaking, I would be very open to the challenge of studying something radically different from what I know.”

Barahona has advice for anyone considering going abroad.

“Being immersed in a culture that is totally different from yours is quite a shock,” he said. “Students who have the courage to go somewhere shouldn’t be discouraged by that initial encounter. What’s on the other side is worth exploring.”

Illustration by Rachel Edelstein.

“What are you doing after you graduate?”

Whether fielding the dreaded question from curious friends, concerned parents, or well-meaning relatives — without a definite plan, giving an answer to this question is complicated. As over 2,300 UCSC seniors prepare for graduation in a little over a week, the topic on everyone’s minds is the future.

After graduation, students have the freedom to choose what to do with their lives, which is simultaneously liberating and disconcerting.  Graduation is right around the corner, along with a lot of uncertainty, but if there is ever a time to take risks and do something crazy, this is it. Many students are going abroad to take advantage of their newfound freedom in the attempt to avoid cubicle confinement for as long as possible.

Life After College

Stephanie Bouret, a fourth-year design major at UC Davis, has been spending the last couple of weeks researching and day dreaming about the future, when she admits she should be focusing on her final projects.  This is because, at the end of August, Bouret is embarking on a trip that will take her all of the way around the globe.

First, Bouret plans on spending ten days couch surfing in Zurich, Switzerland, before flying to Tanzania to volunteer in an orphanage for two and a half months.  Bouret always knew she wanted to go to Africa after graduation, and found a program through International Volunteer Headquarters (IVHQ), which places volunteers in any of 14 countries.

“I don’t even know where they are going to place me yet, I don’t really know what to expect, but that is kind of what interests me about it — not really knowing what I’m going to experience there, just a culture shock, more of a global perspective on things,” Bouret said.

Armed with her ‘round-the-world plane ticket and anti-malaria pills, Bouret is excited to travel by herself and become immersed in multiple different cultures.

Round-the-world plane tickets enable travelers to fly through up to 16 stops, including layovers, provided they visit at least two destinations in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres and don’t backtrack along their journey. After Tanzania, Bouret plans to travel for at least a couple more weeks, or as long as the money she has carefully saved will hold out.

“I’m done with everything being really sheltered, and I really want to have my own experience,” she said. “You just have to take some risks in traveling and in life, and we’ll just see what happens.”

Despite Bouret’s excitement about facing the unknown, for many, anxiety is often paired with the possibility of adventure.

Margarita Azmitia, Ph.D., is a professor of developmental psychology at UC Santa Cruz. Part of her research has focused on the ways individuals adjust to major life transitions, such as the transition to adulthood.

“[Graduation] causes anxiety for a variety of reasons,” Azmitia said. “Anytime you make a transition — whether it is to adulthood or whether it is to junior high, you are going to have anxiety, because it is a new context. … You have to make decisions about what adulthood is going to look like for you, what kind of jobs you are thinking about, what kind of relationships — all of that is a little bit unsettling.”

Students about to graduate can use this time as an opportunity to learn about themselves and use their new experiences to help them decide what directions to take in the future. According to Azmitia, the jump from college into the real world is made easier by being flexible and open to change.

“This is the time when you don’t have [many] responsibilities, you don’t have a family, you don’t have a job that you have to stay at, so this time is a great opportunity to see other things. You probably won’t have this kind of opportunity again in your life,” she said. “You just have to be open to new experiences, and let things also emerge so that you can see new things. Most people don’t end up doing what they planned, at least initially, and that’s OK.”

April Goral is no stranger to students who are apprehensive about the future. The UCSC career center advisor for arts, humanities, and life and health sciences estimates that more than half of the students she sees on a daily basis have no idea what career path they would like to pursue. Goral helps to guide these students by listening closely to their interests and giving information about the various opportunities open to them.

Goral said that many students do not choose to go to graduate school immediately, and that there are benefits to trying out different options before deciding what to do in the long run.

“Graduate schools are about specialization, and, if a student doesn’t know what it is that they want to specialize in, then they need to go into the world of work and explore and find it out for themselves,” Goral said. “Many of the MBA programs prefer students who have had at least three years of work experience before applying. They want them to bring something to the table.”

For graduates able to travel, this can be a perfect challenge, and a way to learn to be fully independent. Goral said college graduates can further their education in locales other than the classroom, and that their recently discovered capabilities could help them land their dream jobs.

“One of the main traits that employers are looking for are team players, and the team players are not all going to be from the same geographic location or have the same kind of mentality,” she said. “Being flexible, being adaptable, that willingness, and the interaction that they have with a greater diverse population are wonderful skills that they would be bringing to any kind of position or toward grad school.”

“If there is any opportunity to travel abroad,” Goral added, “I tell students, why not?”

Off the Beaten Path

In 2008, the UC Experience Survey questioned seniors about their plans following graduation. Of the graduating students at UCSC, 30 percent planned to go to graduate school, while another 32 percent had plans to get full-time jobs — but what about the rest? Taking time off during a ‘gap year’ is a well-established custom in countries like Great Britain, and now many recent graduates are attempting to make it a trend in America.

Traveling is one of the best ways to become immersed in different cultures and new experiences.  Professor Azmitia said those who are unsure of their abilities to survive in the real world can benefit by going abroad.

“For students that are able to do something completely different, whether it is through traveling or trying your hand at something you have never done before, it is a really good experience to just really … figure out who you really are and see if you can really make it,” Azmitia said.

The main obstacle faced by students who want to travel is the expense involved. However, the Internet is full of opportunities to work in exchange for food and a place to stay.

Workaway.info, the website created by David Milward, is one option for students looking to travel and gain unique work experience while spending as little money as possible.  A first visit to the website featured volunteering in return for accommodations at either a bed and breakfast in the Australian outback or a yoga retreat in the Andalusia region of Spain.

“Everyone should have the opportunity to travel,” Milward said. “It opens your eyes to different cultures and lifestyles, you learn so much, not only about other countries … but about yourself and who you really are.”

Other international networking websites, like couchsurfing.com, allow travelers to find people in other countries who are willing to let them crash on their couch for free. In addition to a free place to stay, these locals will often show their guests around and help them to avoid notorious tourist traps while taking them to places off the beaten path.

World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) is another organization based around the concept of work exchange.  With national WWOOF organizations in 50 countries, “WWOOFers” work with other eco-conscious locals on farms, in return for food and a place to stay.

Joshua Cowan, a fifth-year UCSC Oakes student, used WWOOF in New Zealand to get more out of his trip than the usual tourist experience.  For the last three months of his trip, Cowan traveled around New Zealand, sometimes staying at houses or hostels registered with the WWOOF network. His stays involved either helping in small, personal gardens or with various household projects.

“I saw it as a really cheap way to travel and also get to see what the Kiwi, or the New Zealand, culture was like,” Cowan said. “I saw it to really get that experience — what it’s actually like to live as a New Zealander.”

Embracing Culture Shock

Other recent graduates take the opportunity to visit or live in as many countries as possible, creating the new generation of global citizens. Some choose to teach English abroad as a way to live and work in different surroundings.  This enables the traveler to see a country from a much different perspective than they would gain from a short stay.

When Jordana Miller describes all of the places she has been, her enthusiasm for travel is infectious. She stayed in Costa Rica for a month with a friend who taught surfing for a living.  More recently, she returned from a trip to Mexico, and is leaving soon to travel to Israel through Taglit-Birthright Israel, a program that provides trips to Israel for Jewish young adults. After Israel, she plans on stopping off in Egypt before returning home.

After graduating from San Diego State in 2007 and finishing an internship, a friend convinced Miller to teach English in South Korea — she left a few weeks later. Miller originally committed to staying in South Korea for six months teaching students aged two to 14, but eventually decided to extend her stay to almost a year and a half.  Even though she said teaching was overwhelming at first, Miller learned a lot about herself in the process.

“The first week I felt like I couldn’t breathe because I was so overwhelmed – you literally just go and you figure it out,” Miller said. “The best  part of Korea were the people I met. Everyone that goes is a little bit crazy because you’ve gotta be a little bit crazy to just leave your life and go commit to living in Asia for a year.”

Now Miller can’t get enough of traveling. While teaching in South Korea, she was able to visit Japan, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. She loved her experience and wholeheartedly recommends teaching abroad as a way to see another country.

“I would say even if you are just thinking about it and entertaining the idea, just do it,” Miller said. “Absolutely 100 percent do it, just go with yes. I was bit by the travel bug before Korea, but after Korea, it’s like a drug, I need to leave the country.  Anything that involves my passport, I’m there.”

Photo by Rowan Byers.

Despite opposite seasons, (two) different oceans, and a different way of life, Cape Town — known as the ‘Mother City’ of Africa — still bears a resemblance to my home in Santa Cruz.  This series chronicles one banana slug’s attempt to make sense of life at the University of Cape Town.

The previous entry in this series is available here.

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Euphoria.  Irritation.  Understanding.  Acceptance.   These are the four stages of culture shock.  As many an EAP participant could probably tell you, myself included, these four words seem pretty silly and irrelevant when you’re sitting in your pre-departure orientation two months before you leave.  At this point, all you want to do is get on the plane, start your whirlwind life-changing semester, meet an incredibly exotic foreign boy (or girl) with a sexy accent, indulge in all your Travel Channel street-food fantasies, and finally receive the ‘real’ education you aren’t receiving from your over-priced UC.

And yes, I fully admit to scoffing at the idea of being in over my head, particularly as I’ve traveled quite extensively in my 20 years on this planet.  But today, six weeks since I arrived in the beautiful, dynamic city of Cape Town, I type in frustration.  I have reached stage two.  However, I write not with the frustration of being a traveler in a foreign land, but more specifically, being a college student in one.

The University of Cape Town, where I am currently enrolled, is an interesting institution.  As a columnist in the campus’ student-run newspaper, Varsity, so aptly put it, “UCT’s situation as a university offering ostensibly first-world education in a third-world country is delicate.”

Let me tell you, an institution with beautiful neo-classical buildings designed to look like the ‘Oxford of Africa’ and a ranking in the top 200 universities worldwide definitely does not mean that the wireless network is going to work when you need it to.  And don’t expect to be able to check your online-only assignments when you get home either, because internet access in South Africa is kind of like a house party in Santa Cruz — hard to find and always getting broken up.

Then there’s the Jammie.  Essentially the campus shuttle, these cute little powder blue buses are loved and loathed by students for being overcrowded and never on schedule.  Trouble is though, that unlike when you miss the Metro bus in Santa Cruz, hitching a ride in Cape Town is not such an intelligent way to get home.

In all seriousness, safety concerns are a major part of campus life at UCT, and probably the biggest challenge to international students like myself. Recently, UCT students gathered on campus to mourn the death of a student who was stabbed after a robbery attempt in the early morning hours of the weekend, after attending a party with friends.  In what was the biggest campus protest in 10 years, students and UCT representatives were demanding a stop to the violence that plagues the community.

It sounds sinister, and at times it is.  Crime in Cape Town is rampant and exacerbated by the stark and highly visible contrast between rich and poor in post-apartheid South Africa.  In response to gross inequality, many people use opportunistic crime and theft as the go-to method to get out of poverty.  As an American student used to the relative freedom and safety I have at home, it comes down to accepting a loss of independence; of considering the necessity of carrying things around daily that make me vulnerable (i.e. laptop, blackberry, ipod); and of never, ever letting my street smarts falter.

The words I write are not meant to be complaints.  I didn’t travel thousands of miles to have everything be exactly the same as it is at home.  The challenges, fears, and obstacles of living in and adjusting to life in South Africa are why I will undoubtedly view the world differently when I return home.  So, for now, I’m ready to move onto to stage three and hopefully (fingers crossed) find a decent internet connection.

Photo by Rowan Byers.

Despite opposite seasons, (two) different oceans, and a different way of life, Cape Town — known as the ‘Mother City’ of Africa — still bears a resemblance to my home in Santa Cruz.  This series chronicles one banana slug’s attempt to make sense of life at the University of Cape Town.

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Last month I traveled nearly 10,000 miles.  It took two flights totaling 22 hours, three crying babies, two viewings of “The Hangover,” and six sub-par meals to arrive in Cape Town, South Africa.  As my father reminded me before I left, I couldn’t have picked a further location to study abroad, even if I tried (EAP does not offer a program in Antarctica).

In preparing for my time abroad, I received many different responses when I divulged to friends, family, professors, and neighbors where I had chosen to study.  These reactions ranged from tones of envy to confusion, as well as concern for my well-being in crime-ridden Cape Town.  In fact, more than a few times during these conversations, I detected a look made up of equal parts skepticism and surprise.  A look that seemed to say, however silently, “they actually have universities in Africa?”

Indeed they do.  The University of Cape Town, where I am attending this semester, is the largest and most highly ranked university on the continent of Africa, with over 23,000 students.

Despite the odyssey-like journey it took to arrive, the similarities between UCSC and UCT are striking.  As is custom in the Redwood forest and beaches of Santa Cruz, shoes are entirely optional at UCT.  The hairstyles du-jour seem to include dreads as well as the “never have, never will own a hairbrush” look.  The weather can change faster than you can say “should I bring a sweater” and copious amounts of hills and stairs mean you’ll arrive to class looking like you just walked from Oakes to Merrill.

Lucky for me though, the panoramic view of the entire city of Cape Town serves as a more than adequate stand-in for Santa Cruz’s beautiful view of the Monterey bay.  And, just like at UCSC, laid-back students bypass the question of ‘should I go to class,’ and ask instead, ‘what beach should I go to instead of class?’

Despite these welcome similarities, there are a myriad of differences that I continue to negotiate.  Attempting to understand the many different kinds of accents and slang in South Africa — there are 11 official languages here — is no easy feat, and nothing makes you feel more like a ‘fresher’ (first year) than trying to decipher academic lingo.  Quick lesson: convener means professor, prac means lab, tut means section, meridian means lunch break, and Jammie can be loosely translated to the 16 Laurel bus route.

Interestingly though, some American students have even expressed disappointment that their experience and impression of Cape Town thus far has not measured up to the ‘authentic’ Africa they were expecting.  Well, if I’ve learned anything from past travel experiences and in the short time I’ve been here, it is that expectations will often lead you astray.  You can expect not to be mugged living in an all-white, affluent suburb, but you would be wrong.  You can expect that a major institution founded in 1829 would have implemented an online enrollment system by now, but three to five hours of ‘qeueing’ for paperwork to register for classes will tell you otherwise.  You can also expect to understand apartheid and the racial composition of Cape Town and South Africa by studying it before you arrive, but you will still be floored by the complexity of race relations demonstrated in all parts of life here.

As the University of California’s least diverse campus, UCSC could learn a thing or two from UCT, where diversity isn’t a concept or goal, but rather a way of life, good or bad.  This diversity certainly makes UCT and Cape Town as a whole a fascinating place.  A place where, each and every day, you’re sure to run into stark contrasts between rich and poor, black and white, incredibly friendly and frequently hostile.  My only expectation while I’m here is to learn more about it.

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Check out the SlugLife blog on Tuesday for Part 2 of Rosie’s Travel Log from Cape Town, South Africa.