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Author
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Topic: Where to go?
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leapinglemur14
Knowflake Posts: 438
From:
Registered: Apr 2009
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posted December 02, 2009 05:17 PM
 
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leapinglemur14
Knowflake Posts: 438
From:
Registered: Apr 2009
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posted December 02, 2009 05:19 PM
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Dervish
Knowflake Posts: 625
From:
Registered: May 2009
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posted December 02, 2009 09:29 PM
I'd think Madrid would be more to your liking then. Maybe Paris. After that, Berlin comes to mind. 'Course that assumes you can speak a little of the native language at least. I understand Amsterdam has a lot of English speakers. Surely Australia has some cities worthy of consideration, too. New Zealand is really laid back, but also very beautiful and might be worthy of consideration, too (even if they don't have the "vibrancy" of NYC). And anything wrong with Canada? Argentina sounds cool to me, academic wise, though their import taxes are utterly ridiculous. Those who learn to speak English there seem to speak it better than those of us in the USA, too. IP: Logged |
stopandstare
Knowflake Posts: 245
From:
Registered: May 2009
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posted December 03, 2009 08:09 PM
hi there, if london was your first choice, i think you should go with your first choice. i truly believe in experiencing things for yourself. just because your teacher doesn't think you'd like london because of this and this, that's their perception--not yours. you should go to london and see for yourself (if you've never been to london before that is). i've been to new york and london many, many times each and to me they're two totally different cities. similar maybe but so not the same. i feel like i've lived around the world and no city is the same or feels the same. london is close to many major cities in europe so you can visit those other european cities on the weekends or holidays. it also has many familiar stores and things that exist in america so your culture shock may be a bit softened. however, this is your decision and all the best in your study abroad wherever it is  IP: Logged |
katatonic
Knowflake Posts: 4685
From:
Registered: Apr 2009
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posted December 03, 2009 10:18 PM
leaping if you have to keep your dog with you be warned that 6 months is a LONG time in quarantine, that it will not be near london, so you will have to travel if you want to visit her...and the flight is probably even harder on her than the quarantine...but last i heard the channel tunnel was giving them cause to think about lifting the bans and finding another way to protect england from foreign animals...after all a rabid skunk could conceivably walk in from france now, or hitch a ride on the train. and i think rabies and foot-and-mouth or mad cow are their main fears in that area. there might be a way around the big Q?)a lot of americans find london (and england) and the english depressed and/or depressing. they are DIFFERENT for sure. their sense of humour is at one time more subtle and less polite than ours! and the eternally optimistic yank is the butt of a lot of their jokes! (kidding, kind of) but those of us who take the time to look a little deeper than surface hair often fall in love with them....and though it takes awhile to understand and be understood, at least MOST of the language is familiar!! despite the way they are depicted and fears of socialism i found most brits to be very little concerned with what the govt does or wants from them. they have seen too many come and go. they get on with it and self-refer to a remarkable extent, which i loved. i don't know that i would make my first landing in the winter though. it can be very grey in dec-march... i loved it. i fell in with some very bright creative people from the get-go and though i struggled to be understood sometimes, it took about 6 months to "get" that the cadence and rhythm of one's speech is more important than pronunciation or accent...after that i never got one of those "stupid yank" looks again, because my questions didn't sound like statements and vice versa... rome is a great city too, and doesn't suffer so much from the greys as london...but europe is not huge. you can get a rail pass of some kind and see a lot of it for next to nothing. IP: Logged |
leapinglemur14
Knowflake Posts: 438
From:
Registered: Apr 2009
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posted December 03, 2009 11:01 PM
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Dervish
Knowflake Posts: 625
From:
Registered: May 2009
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posted December 06, 2009 08:03 PM
If you know English & Greek, you might want to consider studying Russian, as you've got the background to learn it much easier than everyone else who doesn't speak a Slavic language. Though I'd understand if you weren't interested in going to Moscow or St. Petersburg given its corruption & violence (on both sides of the law), though at least it's not Vladivostok. Though Ulan Ude might still be a possibility (if you can handle Siberia in winter, of course, and being that it's on the small side, quiet, and friendly, it probably wouldn't feel anything like NYC  ). Novosibirsk is the best, IMO, for academic studies (and being a pretty peaceful city), but I think they focus only on the hard sciences (and sports, but that goes without saying). Still, Russia is well known (or should be) for supporting many of the arts, including ballet. A great many can speak passable English (and some are better speakers of it than we are), too. Which is good as I've yet to see a reliable lexicon on translating the 2 languages for each other. IP: Logged | |
Lindaland
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