Stephan Brown, Study Abroad-Nicosia, Cyprus

“You got to lose yourself in order to find yourself” -Stephan Brown

Hello my name is Stephan Brown and I am a sophomore digital communications major at Albright College. I am currently studying abroad for a semester in Nicosia, Cyprus through Global Learning Semesters and attending the University of Nicosia. On campus, I am involved in Eco Club, member of the International student association and I play the guitar for the Albright Big Cat Jazz Band. I was born and raised in West Philadelphia and now it’s time to take on the world.

I have to say that this week has been one of the best weeks of my life. I took a plane for the first time, I left the country for the first time and I ultimately got to live for the first time. Everyone who traveled abroad and my international friends from back home always told me that in order to change the world, you have to experience the world and now I am starting to understand what they meant by that.  This week alone I met people from almost every part of the U.S, I met local Cypriots and I even became great friends with a guy from Venezuela!

(This is Miguel and he is from Venezuela!) #THUGLIFE

Well I will try my best to summarize the highlights of this week because I literally had an awesome adventure every day (Best orientation week ever!). My first adventure began when I boarded the plane for the very first time in New York. I almost missed my flight by 10 minutes because I was at the wrong terminal; my bag was overweight by over 10 pounds and I was terrified of flying (As I mentioned above this was my first time flying as well as going to an airport). Once I cleared everything with the airline, they let me on the plane where I met my first Global Learning Semesters friends, Meghan and Selma. Our first conversation felt like I known them for years and they helped me overcome my airplane fear. Thank god that they ended up flying with me for the rest of my flight!

(Meghan to right and Selma’s in the middle)

Once we arrived at our first Layover in London, we ended up at the wrong gate and had to run across the airport and take a train to get to the right gate (London Heathrow is a huge airport, I never would have imagined seeing a train inside an airport). As soon as we got there, we ran into more Global Learning Semesters students, Ashlee and Hogan, and once again our conversations felt like I’ve know them for a long time.  As soon as we arrived to our apartments and I opened the door, I was shocked at how nice my apartment was. The rooms are nice, the three balconies are amazing and overall the look is very modern.

After running around the apartment like a kid in a candy store, it hit me that I am actually here in Cyprus for four months and that I am really about to embark on the biggest adventure of my life (That feeling of realization was one of the greatest things I ever felt in my life!). Since there were still more students coming in the next day, we had a free day to do what we wanted so my new friends and I decided to eat at El Clasico(Our first Cypriot restaurant). I ordered a sandwich I cannot pronounce and a frappe and they both were really good. The weather was in the 60’s, the sun was shining, the air was fresh and the atmosphere was perfect for our first day in Nicosia.

From left to right: Meghan, Myself, Alana, Hogan and Ashlee

By the end of the night the majority of everyone else in the program came and we all met up to meet each other! I love how easy it was for everyone to bond; it really helped with making our experiences awesome.

(Miguel, Myself, Veronica, Hogan and Joey)

On day three we took our first group trip to old town were we got to go to the Museum of Cyprus,  go to the buffer zone and we did walking tour of old town.  It was really great learning about the history of Cyprus and discovering new places around town. There was so much to see and so much going on that I briefly lost my group, but I met an Egyptian….

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He pulled me in, then my friends in and then he asked if we could take a selfie with him…Yup he was pretty awesome to meet. By the end of our tour, a group of us decided to stay back in old town and we ended up eating at a random restaurant outside. While we all were trying to be cultured eating different Cypriot foods, one meal that caught everyone’s attention was the Pigeon that was on the menu. At first we all joked around about eating it but then Caleb ordered it…Then we all tried some it…It was actually pretty good…I still cannot believe I ate Pigeon.

On day four a group of decided to go on a walking adventure to find a park that we saw on the map. We saw some really awesome houses, lemon and orange trees and an amazing view of Nicosia.  We never found the park and we got lost but eventually we found ourselves (Throughout this semester get prepared to see that slogan a lot because I used it a million times already).

(Our walk was very successful in the terms of finding ourselves☺)

Later that night the whole GLS gang got to try a Meze (A collection of food) we all got pretty fancy and the food that was served was very filling. The rounds of food kept coming and by the end of the night I am pretty sure my belt buckle was going to pop. Halloumi cheese is also in the list of my favorite Cypriot foods, every bite is amazing and you feel really sad when it’s gone!

(GLS BROS MEZE TIME)

We also got a chance to check out the Kykkos Monastery Gardens which is filled with beautiful sights that takes your breath away instantly when you look around.  When you climb to the top the monastery you can see most of Nicosia and even into the north side.

 

On our last trip of the week, we decided to travel to Kyrenia which is in the northern side of Cyprus. This trip was my favorite adventure so far because you really notice the change of atmosphere once you arrive on the other side. I personally thought that most of the people here are a lot more welcoming and everyone talks to you. The view of the ocean was beautiful and blue, the Castle of Kyrenia was amazing to see and the food was perfect…..Oh yeah let me not forget to mention that Miguel slipped into the ocean while trying to take a picture of it and ended up breaking both his cellphones…It was also his birthday as well and it took us a good twenty minutes to search for cheap clothing but in the end it was a memorable experience that we all enjoyed.

Kyrenia Harbor

It’s crazy how over a week ago I didn’t know anyone in this program and now it feels like I’ve known everyone for a very long time. Thanks to everyone in the Global Semesters program for making my first week of studying abroad one of the best weeks of my life and cheers to many more awesome memories over the next 4 months!

Ask me any questions on my email and follow me on Instagram through my journey here!

stephanbrown15@gmail.com Instagram: epic_steff

P.S. Get ready for the global semester’s album coming soon, it’s going to be the most fire study abroad album of 2015

Shout out to Caleb Kissiah for all the awesome photography this week as well! And for being an awesome roommate! His photography is perfect.

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Victoria Sweeney, Internship – Fromm Electric

Hey All! My name is Tori and I am a senior here at Albright College Business Administration with a track in Management. You might remember me from my past posts while I was studying abroad in Germany, but now I decided to switch it up a little bit. For my last semester here at Albright I decided to pick up an internship for a little more experience before I graduate and go out in this big old “real world” that everyone talks about.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, my internship is at Fromm Electric, specifically at their corporate office here in Reading. At Fromm I am a General Business Administration Intern. With that title being, well, general, it means that I will be rotating through different departments of the company during my time there. I start out in the Accounting department for a few weeks, then move to Marketing, and from there Human Resources. After that we haven’t exactly figured it out, but we have some time until then!

Last week was my first week at Fromm. I am there on Tuesdays and Thursdays for most of the day. I spent the morning of Day 1 in orientation learning about different policies that I will have to follow and some administrative things like that. After orientation I was sent to my cubicle in the accounting department. I received my login information for their computer system and was put right to work. I ran and printed various reports to help with their end of the money activities. With those reports I had to search for check numbers and dates of the corresponding activities. After finding all the numbers I then had to go and find the invoices and copies of the checks that matched the reports. This doesn’t sound like the most glorious type of work, but I knew going into this department that I would be matching invoices with reports. A lot of accounting is matching and making sure it is correct, and this is just one step in the process! There were other little things given to me throughout the day, but that pretty much sums it up! The toughest part of the day was trying not to mix up all the numbers that I had in front of me and trying to focus my eyes on everything!

My second day there was more about learning how the whole system works. I observed the Financial Analyst in what she does. She showed me a few things including how she makes general ledgers, journal entries, and how to figure out where a mistake could be in the event that numbers do not match up. After watching her I was able to input numerous journal entries into the computer (and crossed my fingers I didn’t type the wrong number!)

While all of this doesn’t sound too exciting to people outside of Accounting, I am glad that I can understand their terminology and how the whole process works. That is kind of the point of this “General Business” internship, to learn the processes of each department!

I hope you all had a great first week of the semester and stay updated on future posts!

Returning from an Amazing Winter Break

Punting down the river Cam in Cambridge

Hey everyone,

Wow it has been a month or so since I blogged last, due to the Holiday break. This break was filled with adventures I could never have imagined. Some plans changed while others came out of no where, but they would make the break so exciting. I’ll try to refrain from going into too much detail because you would be here forever reading this blog haha, but it’ll be hard because so much happened.

The break had begun when I finished my exams on December 10th. On the 11th I flew to Derry, Northern Ireland, to visit my cousins and their kids. My cousin had married a Northern Irish girl in New York but as of a year ago they moved to Northern Ireland to be close to her family for a bit. So for about five days my cousins showed me all there was to see in Derry, like the awesome old fort walls that have been there since the 16oos, a few museums, the Irish side of the family’s old home, and much more. To end my time there I went out with my Irish cousin’s nieces who took me to some popular pubs and clubs. Then on the 15th the long train ride to Belfast in order to then change to a bus to Newry, Northern Ireland, which is close to the border with the Republic of Ireland along the East coast. The train ride from Derry to Belfast goes along the Northern coast of Ireland and it was the most scenic view and landscape I had ever seen in my life, nothing I have ever seen has been more beautiful. The bus ride from Belfast to Newry was also beautiful as it contained a lot of farms and loads of sheep haha. I arrived in Newry in order to get picked up by my old friend, David Heatley. He is a native of Northern Ireland and studied at Queen’s University in Belfast, but he came to study abroad at Albright College for a year during my Freshman year there. From that year we became really good friends and I had vowed to come visit him one day. From Newry we went to his home in Warrenpoint, which is just North of the Republic and is separated by a small gulf; we went for a nature hike up the highest mountains there, and we ate great food to prepare us for the day in Belfast. On the 16th we woke up bright and early, got into Belfast, checked out Queen’s University, we took a bus tour, David gave me his own tour of the city, and we checked out some key museums as well. It was a power packed day, but I had an awesome time. That night we met up with a mutual friend Cathy Lavery. She studied for a year at Albright College during my sophomore year and we became friends, and David had known her because they were from the same home town. So we met up with her and caught up. Then David introduced me to all his university friends and we all went out that night for a night club the old Irish way haha. We returned to our hotel in Belfast that night and the next morning of the 17th of December I left for Edinburgh.

I remained there till the 22nd and then took a flight to London, Stansted airport where my flat mate, Oscar Newlands, picked me up and took me to his family’s home in Suffolk, England. I would spend the next 2 and a half weeks there, experiencing an awesome English Christmas and New Years. His family truly made me feel at home. We went to see fox hunts, went to the Duxford Imperial War museum, we went out to see movies at the movie theater like Woman in Black 2 and the Hobbit, Oscar took me to some scenic villages around the Suffolk county area, we toured the city of Cambridge and all of its old colleges, and we punted (boated like gondoliers) down the river Cam that cuts through Cambridge, and I also was able to just relax, feel at home, and recuperate from a semester of college. On the 3rd of January, Oscar and I went to London and checked out the Imperial War Museum of London, and the National Portrait gallery. Then he left for home and I took a train to greater London to stay at my friend, Lauren Strickland’s house. The next day, her and I traveled back into London and she showed me so many cool nooks and crannies of the city. That night we went out to a club called Fabric with her friend who goes to King’s College in the city, and later that night we both slept over at her accommodation to spare us some accommodation fees. The day of the 5th I went out on my own to do touristy things and later that day I traveled back to my flat mate’s place in Suffolk.

On the 8th of January I flew to Amsterdam where I met up with my three friends who were all coming from different places. Lauren, who I spoke about earlier, flew from London, my friend Jamie McLaren from Edinburgh, and my friend Migual Benitez from Southern Spain. We all met up at our booked Hostel, and for the next few days we had beautiful adventures through the city, soaking up every essence of Amsterdam as we could. We saw more museum, had great coffee, went to bars, went to Cafes (wink wink haha), saw the sights, went to the famous Tulip Market, went on a canal tour, and much more. Then on the 11th we all took a flight to Glasgow where Jamie’s mother picked us up too drive us back to our accommodations in Edinburgh to prepare for the next semester.

So this break may have only been a month long, but it felt like a lifetime and it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life that I will never forget. Alright so goodbye for now until my next blog!

The old fort walls of Derry, Northern Ireland

Me and my friend David Heatley on our Nature hike up a mountain in his hometown of Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland.

With my English family on Christmas

Near Tower Bridge in London

On a bridge over one of the many canals in Amsterdam

Cheers, Alexio