This past semester I was awarded a grant by Davidson College and the Freeman Foundation to allow me to get an internship in East Asia. My parents insisted that I should go to the Philippines because it was familiar territory and I would know how to navigate the culture. Securing an internship was not even that much of a problem since my family knew some people within the information technology industry and I was almost guaranteed a position in this communication company, but I chose not to go to the Philippines.
Rather than living it up in Cebu city, I chose to go to Nepal. My parents were highly against the idea because they have no idea what Nepal is like. I mean, I don’t have have a clue either, but that is precisely why I chose Nepal instead of the Philippines. It is a new place and a new culture that I want to experience. If I went to the Philippines I would be seen as an “American” by the Filipino people but I would integrate within the community in no time because I was born and raised there. In Nepal, I would be in a completely unfamiliar environment. I would have to adapt to their culture and I experience life within the Nepalese country.
I want this to be my learning abroad experience because I will not be going abroad in the fall and so these two months in Nepal is where I’ll be scratching the abroad itch that my peers seem to get during sophomore year.
