Study Abroad

Helloooo again,

Woah, the last time I blogged must have been sometime in the Spring of 2012! Well, I am Lee Drahl, a SENIOR Speech-language Pathology major and I welcome you to the ride! Loads have happened since Spring 2012! By loads, I mean an absurd amount of changes, new experiences, new decisions, new options, and a new school year!

Since the Spring, I have officially changed year status to SENIOR!! It does not feel right, like, college flew by and swept me up in the whirlwind! Now that I’m 22, I still feel like that 19 year old freshman girl who came to Fontbonne even though a lot of changes have occurred.

In May, I travelled and studied abroad in Berlin, Germany and surrounding areas with a Fontbonne group! We had one head professor, Prof. Gilleo, another Professor accompanying as a “chaperone/husband of a student” (two spouses), and eight students. A few students were traditional students and a few were older non-traditional students. We all had this great opportunity to study abroad in Germany for one month! For me, that was long enough, in hindsight I would have enjoyed a longer visit but at the time, I was ready for home! [Side note: I went home for a little less than a week between school letting out and flying out of St.L the next week]. From the beginning of the Spring semester to flying out for Germany, I had only been home for a combined two weeks. That might not seem like a short amount of time, but I am from Texas, and I do not get to go home every weekend like some students do who live in St. Louis or the surrounding areas or states. (But the upside is my parents cant make any unexpected visits! My sister went to school seven hours away from home and my parents still made unexpected visits!)

We visited many cities within Germany and a few of us traveled onto Prague for a weekend. Over the course of a month, we learned a few phrases in German, learned about ancient German history (composers/musicians/religions/royalty/wars galore!), the German people, and the German Government (The Reichstag was definitely the coolest government building both outside and inside–we ventured onto the glass dome on roof). It is important to look beyond World War I and II and see what all Germany was before and what all they are afterwards! It is pretty incredible!

After a blissful month abroad, I came back home (Texas) and began planning the summer of doom. Which contained registering/studying/taking the GRE (wooo Grad School), registering/taking a summer school class, and mentally preparing for my last summer of Undergrad! So technically, I had been in school for the past seven (7) months!! I didnt like that so I focused on the task at hand!

School started real quickly after that, and now its a myriad of class, studying, clinic (SLP student clinician, right here!!) and tests!! It has never hit so hard this fast! Looking back, I guess I would say I have changed a great deal from that 19 year old freshman girl, even though the Galleria Mall Security think that I look seventeen (17, really? I havent looked 17 since I was 14! I act mature for my age, or so people tell me). Unfortunately, this semester I will probably be writing about the tests I have survived and how I managed to stay sane through out it! But, lucky for you, I will probably develop tricks and quips along the way!

Tagged as: SLP, Student Clinician, Study Abroad, Summer School, Texas

{ 0 comments }