Tag Archives: study

Student studies abroad three semesters, makes lifetime of memories

8 Feb

“Student studies abroad three semesters, makes lifetime of memories”

by Matthew McClure via “The Lamron”

Coming to Geneseo, I knew I wanted to study abroad for at least a year. I knew I wanted to go beyond my past linguistic and travel experience in Europe. This semester, I am returning from three semesters of studying abroad in Vietnam, Canada and Haiti. Study abroad has been an incredibly formative part of my undergraduate career—and my future plans—in both expected and unexpected ways.

The Global Service Learning Program in Borgne, Haiti proved to be a turning point for me. Through this program, I applied my interests in foreign language, intercultural competence and international education to connecting communities in Borgne and Geneseo. My experience in spring 2013 not only focused my academic interests, study abroad plans and career goals, but also had a lasting impact beyond that one semester. My service learning project became the design and organization of a Haitian Creole language preparation component for the course.

Immediately after the Global Service Learning Program, I knew I wanted to learn Haitian Creole and return to Borgne to help develop our program and relationship with the community. I traveled to Boston to attend the Haitian Creole Language and Culture Summer Institute, working with leading Haitian Creole scholars and collecting resources and teaching methods in order to help improve our Haitian Creole crash-course at Geneseo. As a result, I was selected to the Clinton Global Initiative University in 2015 to help support the first public library in Borgne.

In the fall of my junior year, I spent my first semester abroad in Vietnam. I went into the semester expecting a wildly new experience; one where I would learn an exotic new language. What I got was a semester where I was not only independent, but also the only native English speaker in my class. After learning Vietnamese, I could communicate with the locals and also speak to the internationals that spoke English. I met an extraordinary variety of people, both in Ho Chi Minh City and on my travels in Southeast Asia.

Perhaps the most surprising group I met in Vietnam was the Saigon Swing Cats. I had fallen in love with swing dance my freshman year, but I did not expect to find a club in Vietnam. It was a fascinating mix of locals and expatriates—mostly young professionals—gathering together to dance a vintage American dance. This is where I saw the overlap between my international interests and my dance interests. . . .

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Book Review: “Italy Travel Guide: Top 40 Beautiful Places You Can’t Miss! “

31 Mar

“Italy Travel Guide:

Top 40 Beautiful Places You Can’t Miss!”

by Manuel de Cortes

A handy tour guide gifted to visitors in Italy.

Manuel de Cortes’s recent book, “Italy Travel Guide: Top 40 Beautiful Places You Can’t Miss” is an resources for travelers or students interested in visiting Italy.  At 125 pages, the book is small but still contains quite a bit of useful information on locations worth checking out during your trip.

I’ve never been to Italy, so I cannot actually tell you if the places he recommends are truly the best. But I looked up some reviews and pictures of the spots, and I would definitely want to check them out if it were me. I’m planning my dream trip to Italy one day, and this book gave me some great ideas 🙂

There are seven Chapters, including the introduction and conclusion. He has divided the country into a general overview, North Italy, Central Italy, South Italy, and the Islands.  Each gets its own description and list of recommended locations.  In addition to brief descriptions, he also throws in the fun fact here and there  to spice up your trip.

The book is a little simple, and he doesn’t include directions or tell you how to reach these spots. And it’s usually recommending a larger area (this city, that pot), so specifics like where to find dinner or shop aren’t here.  That will be up to you. But it is a good place to find ideas if you want to get a good look at all the different areas in the country.

Writing style: Pretty good. Some of the writing could have been edited better, but I feel that with a decent editor it would read like a professional.  Mr. Cortes has written several other books, and is obviously familiar with the writing process.  The book is self-published, and you can tell in some places. But overall, I really liked the flow and all the information he includes. A lot of people seem to have really appreciated his use of pictures – he has one for almost all of the major locations. It certainly helps you find them on the streets. 

If you are planning a trip to Italy, I recommend checking his book out.  You can find it on Amazon as a cheap E-book ($2.99) so you can carry it with you as you tour 🙂

BUY ON AMAZON

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Random Fun: Test Your Vocabulary!

8 Jul

as

 

Fun new test, you can access at http://testyourvocab.com/!  I had over 33,000 words 🙂

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Bar Exam: MEE Review

26 Feb

MEE (9:00-12:00 & 1:30-4:45) on Day 3

Meh, mixed reviews here people.  

It started out the same way as before, they read us the rules and handed out the tests.  You had to have the white card especially today, since the NCBE # and your Applicant # had to go on the bubble answer sheets. We filled that out, and the process started.

You’re given 100 questions for both 3 hour tests, resulting in 200 questions over all. They are all multiple choice, and covered Property, Evidence, Criminal Law, Constitutional Law, Contracts, and Torts.  They were fairly well divided, although I though a lot of the questions were repeats of subjects (you know, repeat the same question in a different format?).  I think I did better on this portion.

The worst part was the tediousness–by question 80, I was bored out of my mind with those types of questions.  Reading the answers and questions over and over, you fall into a rut. Some people worked until the very end, but everyone in my row and the rows in front of me were done well ahead of time.  I finished 20 minutes ahead of time for the first portion and 30 minutes ahead of time for the second portion. Of course, I never gave it a second run-through.  I hate second guessing myself, I generally second guess wrong.  😛  I gave it my best shot the first time and then sat and tried to cool down.  

Best Method of Answering

Follow Barbri’s recommended method. Read the answers first, mark the ones you know are wrong. Next read the call of the question, can you check off anything else? Finally read through the facts.   The hardest part is falling into a rut and moving too quickly when you realize time is disappearing. It can be easy to start moving faster and missing things when you have this many questions. I try to stop and take a 1 minute break every hour. Sit back, breathe, and re-focus your mind, then tackle the next 34 questions.  

Ease Measure: Medium

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Bar Exam: MBE Review

25 Feb

MBE (1:30-4:45) on Day 2

Okay. . . this was MUCH worse than I had hoped.  We had one hour for lunch and then we went through the same intro process again.  FYI, to go to the restroom, you have to raise your hand, hide your test in Examsoft, put your files at the front, and go one at a time. Once again they give you all of the questions at once for the exam. All together you have 3 hours to do 6 essay questions.  They can cover any number of topics; the list is fairly broad. I was a little upset on this one–it seemed like almost everything showed up.  It seemed like most of the questions were on obscure subjects from the law.  Not my favorite exam; I definitely was prepared less for this than for the MPT.

I’ll go on the record with saying that I was unaware of the answer to the first 4 essays at all. I had to get to Question 5 before I recognized anything.  But it wasn’t that bad. If you read through the questions and think about what problem they are suggesting arises, you’ll hit quite a few points even if you lack the law. Think back to the original principles!

Best Method of Answering

Read all the questions (not the facts), and guess where the essay is going to fall. Then approach your best ones with 30 minutes each. Then hit up the harder ones with 20 minutes each. This leaves you time at the end to pick and choose which ones to flesh out. Honestly, you write a lot less than  you think from the practice exams. The questions are 1-1 & 1/2 pages, so reading can take a while.  Don’t bother with code sections; just run with what you have. If you don’t know the answer, go with common sense.  WATCH YOUR TIME

Ease Measure: Very Difficult

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Bar Exam: MPT Review

25 Feb

MPT (9:00-12:10) on Day 2

Definitely not as bad as I was afraid of.  We arrived for the morning section and filled out the little signature cards. The room opened at 8:30 for those with laptops, so I went ahead and set up.  They gave out the instructions and began; don’t forget that by the time they finish instructions, you will be starting a little late.

The MPT rules explain the many different ways that the exam can be structured; however there is a general format. Traditionally, there will be two parts–the file and the library. The file has the facts; the Library has the law.  This is just a test on your writing skills; can you write an intelligent, well-thought response to the question. The questions come in many forms, and often a rarer form is thrown in to trip you up.  But it seems from the state’s list of “percentage likelihood that something shows up” information that some form of brief or memorandum are the most common.  The law can contain cases or code sections; often one of each. Each document has something worth noticing.  The facts will have a short summary with the question, followed by supporting documents.

One came with instructions on the layout of the test, but the other did not. In general, I’d say remember to always add the To, From, Date, RE section.  DON’T FORGET THAT YOU DO NOT USE YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE LAW.  Any statutes will be provided; it is set in a fake jurisdiction.

Best Method of Answering

My recommendation is to start with the law.  Type it up verbatim on your computer along with citations.  Then read the call of the questions. Lay out the law out in the pattern of the issues raised in the questions.  Then fill it in with facts as you read about them. Save 5 minutes for smoothing out the sentences.

Easy Measure: Very Easy

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Bar Exam Review: Orientation

24 Feb

Woot! Day 1 of the Bar Exam is officially over!

As most of you already know, I’m taking the Iowa Bar Exam. It’s officially scheduled for the 24th through the 26th, but day one is just orientation. They required that we arrive by 12:45, and then orientation started at 1:00.  I kind of expected more of a meet & greet, but it was actually just rules and regulations.

I arrived a little early, and there was a lovely group of girls waiting around. We all chatted about the exam and our strengths/weaknesses. Amusingly, we were all dreading the essays, but on different subjects. I freely admit that BA is worrying me a bit. I rock at contracts, but BA is a little weaker right now.  Still, rumor has it that Family Law is the most common arrival, so I’ll be preparing extra for that one in review tonight. 

Upon entering the room, it was pretty packed. Apparently there is enough space for us all to be together taking the MBE, but I think it’ll be around 80-120 students?  I’m kind of a bad judge on that stuff.  

Upon arrival, they went through three different speakers. Two were mostly motivational speakers; telling us to eat and quit stressing. They only took up about 15 minutes. The third went over all of the rules–what to bring (pencils, highlighter, wallet); what not to bring (anything electronic; bags; purses; hoodies; mechanical pencils); when to arrive (30 minutes for laptopers; 15 for handwritten exams).  That took another 20 minutes, and really covered the material in the pamphlet sent to us in the mail.  Funny how they trust us to pass an exam, but not to read the directions.  

The worst & most tedious was registration.  They went row by row, and I was at the back, so I waiting another 30 minutes. You had to have 2 forms of identification, including one with a picture.  They handed each of us a small white post-card with a number on it. That is our ticket; required for each exam.  Apparently, tomorrow we’ll have to sign another card upon arrival and bring both into the room with us.

That really was the end. All in all, it took an hour and was pretty boring.  Still nice to meet people! Saw some from Florida and Minnesota getting their second bar licenses, and some 10 year grads just getting their first. 

 

 

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Bar Exam Arrival

24 Feb

Lafayette I am here!  I was a little worried about getting here in the first place, with all the snow that keeps dropping on us. I’m getting a little tired of promises for no snow and sunny skies, then 6 inches in a neat pile 😛  Anyway, we got a pretty strongly worded warning this past week about anyone who fails to arrive on the basis of weather excuses. Apparently if you miss due to weather, they “will in fact be reporting your absence to any other bar you attempt to take, and it will have negative connotations.”  I kid you not. . . They’re just lucky no one died trying to drive in dangerous conditions just to save their career. Surely there is liability somewhere in there?

Anyway, we arrived safely!  Apparently that was a godsend, since I found out where I arrived that the vehicle was “unfit” for driving!  Talk about a stressor; the mechanics failed to tighten the lug nuts last time they rotated the tires and it ruined 4 tires, a rim, and the sensor.  Not the happiest of moments 🙂 The wheels are so bad, that the new mechanic said it was technically illegal to drive on them.  Who knew there was a law about that?  This doesn’t bode well for the test! 😛

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Seoul Grand Park Zoo

23 Nov

Random photos from my trip to the Seoul’s Grand Park Zoo!  Great place to take your kids 🙂 Just make sure you have run and play clothes cause the kids like to hit the fountains, play areas, etc. 

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Subway Stop: Seoul Grand Park

Subway Directions: Take Line 4  to the Seoul Grand Park stop (i.e. toward Oido) and follow Exit 2.

 If you look at the subway map here, it is the 7th stop after crossing the river.

ONWARD TO THE ZOO!!

When you take Exit 2, you will see a long walkway in front of you. All you have to do is go straight  until you come to the big fountain and the building behind it that says zoo.

Exit from Subway
Entrance Building

There is a little ticket booth at the big building, where you buy a shuttle ticket for 1,000 Won.  Go through the gates and get on the shuttle; the zoo will be on your first stop.  Check out the map below for directions.

Shuttle
Yay! So Exciting 🙂
Hard to miss the big tiger at the entrance.

 

From there it’s all fun and games and pet-the-animals 🙂  After you enter the zoo grounds, there are red, yellow, blue, and green lines painted on the paths. Each one is a different route, and you can pick and chose which you want to follow via the maps.  I ran up the Blue and Green paths, which took me past the big wild animals (Bear, Tigers, Elephants, etc.), ocean/marine animals, and a few other odds and ends. Plus I got to hit the HUGE ski lift which carried me down the mountain over the tiger/cheetah/lion exhibits and some gardens; an amazing experience.  I am seriously going back there just to ride the ski lift again.  I also like it cause it gives the kids something fun to do on the way down without making them walk all the way back down the mountain when they’re tired.  With my undying distaste for anything snake related, I always avoid the reptiles and birds weren’t really high on my list; however that all available as well.  

Water Pond
I won this stare contest!
Stupid Cheetahs wouldn’t turn around.
But the lions were out to play
Roaring Lion
It was feeding time for these luck fellows
Come early enough to catch a show!
They spent most of their time in the bath
This is the kind of guy I was lucky enough to see in the wild in Japan-rare sighting.

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Japanese Flash Cards

17 Feb

Hello! 

   Since I’m headed to Japan this summer and I want to work in the area after graduation, I recently decided to begin working on learning a little bit of the language. Right now, I’m working with a couple of books, and I ended up putting together some flash card sets on Quizlet.  I’ll keep drawing the up with each lesson, but if anyone wants to practice with them too feel free!  Here’s the link: Quizlet

Word of the Day

Nippon = 日本 = Japan

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