2016 International Photo Contest Tournament: Round 1

It’s time once again for the SDSU International Photo contest, featuring student-submitted photos from around the world. This year we’re choosing our People’s Choice Award through a 32-photo tournament, with winners decided by online voting right here on the Be International blog. Voting is now open for Round 1 below, so pick your favorites! EDITOR’S NOTE: VOTING IS NOW CLOSED.

‘Seeing’ Through a Different Perspective

When traveling it is important to be open and willing to see something from a new perspective.  Other cultures can do the simplest things completely different.  For example, in Germany it is customary to sit and have heated discussions in the beer gardens whereas it might not be as widely accepted here in the United States.  The best part about traveling is seeing through a new lens.

Discovering Breathtaking Budapest

Budapest is breathtaking. Although, I must admit, upon arrival I felt a bit underwhelmed. The airport isn’t near the airport and I had to go through the outskirts for about 45 minutes until I saw a glimpse of the pastel colored old town Hungarian buildings.

BudaBEST Place Ever

As I sat waiting for my plane to Budapest I toggled back and forth between San Diego and Budapest on my I-phone weather application. San Diego was supposed to be 70 degrees and sunny (typical) and Budapest was said to be 25 degrees and snowy for my first week in Europe. My wimpy San Diego skin made me instantly think that this freezing cold weather would negatively alter my mindset and experiences traveling. I quickly found that I was naive to think such nonsense.

11 Lessons Learned While Studying Abroad

When discussing time spent abroad, phrases like “life changing” seem to get thrown around a lot. I knew when I boarded my flight that I was about to embark on a transformative journey, but I didn’t realize just how much of an impact my time abroad would have on me.

I’ve tried to pinpoint just a few of the lessons learned while I was abroad, but the amount of change I experienced is truly indescribable.

Plans Will Change — Embrace It!

I’ve had this post saved in my drafts for about two months now, and I’m revisiting it at a time when I personally need to take my own advice. Hopefully, other travelers out there can benefit from this as well.

No matter how many alarms you set or how many times you check that boarding pass, it’s inevitable that your plans, at some point, will fall through. This happened to me multiple times this semester, but ultimately, some of my favorite moments happened as the result of previous failures.

15 Apps and Websites to Help you Survive your Experience Abroad

Everyday

1. Offline dictionary

I’d say this has been even more important than Google Translate for me this semester. Hungarian is a very tough language to learn. It doesn’t share common roots with any other popular languages. I downloaded an English-Hungarian dictionary app that I could use offline. That helped immensely when I was without Internet and tried to see if what I was purchasing was yogurt or sour cream.

From Krakow to Buda-ful-pest

Sleep deprived and tired from lugging my heavy backpack around and through the train station, I think about the day before.

I imagined what it must have been like to be packed up as I was with my pack of clothes, necessities and special belongings, loaded onto a train with my family and friends in such a deceitful manner to later be unloaded to a horrible and terrifying death.