Everything you need to know about using your iPhone abroad

study abroad iphone pic 283x300 The Study Abroad Students Guide To Using The iPhone AbroadI’ve written in the past, both here on the blog and in The Ultimate Study Abroad Guide, about the big role communication plays in the study abroad experience. I’m now realizing it’s more like “the big role the iPhone plays in the study abroad experience”. However, due to Apple’s tight restrictions, using the calling, messaging, and data features on the iPhone when you’re abroad can come with some hefty international roaming charges.  I created this guide to help you navigate your options for using those features when you’re no longer in America. Read the rest of this entry

An experience no amount of House Hunters could prepare you for

P1030378 w600 h600 300x225 Finding My First Apartment Abroad

Apartment hunting in Beijing? Your chariot awaits you

Way back in November, when I decided I was going to keep studying abroad in Beijing for an indefinite amount of time, I made a list of 3 major things I needed to get done in order to stay/survive here: get accepted into a Chinese Language Program for the Spring semester, find a place to live, and make some sort of income. I ended up adding “get a Bank of China bank account” to the list (different story for a different day), and I’m still working on the income thing, so you could say I’m about 83% of the way to a stable life. For the benefit of anyone studying abroad here in the future, or those looking to be amused, I figured I’d share my experience with #2 on the list – finding my first apartment abroad.
Read the rest of this entry

Everything study abroad for the week of January 15 – ish, 2012

The Study Abroad Blog Study Abroad Sense 2 Your Study Abroad Sense – Back To School (Almost)This week’s edition of Your Study Abroad Sense happens to be a middle-of-the-weeker. Like I said in last week’s Study Abroad Sense, it may be every week, every other week, or who knows when – stay on your toes. I still have about 3 weeks until I start classes at Beijing University, so not much happening on my academic front. There was definitely some cool news this week in the world of Study Abroad (Cuba decided to get in on the action) which you can check out along with a new Post From The Past, some study abroad resources, and some cool/exciting news about something that’s going to be happening very soon on The Study Abroad Blog.
Read the rest of this entry

My CET final oral exam on freedom of the internet

P1030294 w600 h600 225x300 Al Gore And Communism Helped Me Ace My FinalI made it a known fact in my post “China Decided To Give Me A Little Graduation Gift ” that I was almost positive I owned my final oral exam – a 10 minute oral presentation of an 800 character essay we had to write earlier the previous week. I assume most people haven’t seen an essay written in Chinese, either in characters or pinyin, and I thought it would be cool to post that essay on the blog – in characters, pinyin, and of course English. After considering the dangers of publishing a post on internet freedom in the middle of China, I decided it was too good of an opportunity to pass up. So here it is, how Al Gore and Communism helped me ace my study abroad final.
Read the rest of this entry

Everything study abroad for the week of January 8, 2012

LegitStudyAbroadSensePic 257x300 Your Study Abroad Sense   The First Of 2012I recently realized that it’s not easy to give out specific study abroad advice in my usual posts, so I’ve decided that I’m going to attempt to write a sort of weekly/biweekly “study abroad summary” if you will, called “Study Abroad Sense”. It could take the form of “what happened this week in Study Abroad”, it will almost definitely include helpful links and articles, and who knows what else. My goal here is to provide useful study abroad specific help, which means if it happened in the “world of study abroad”, but will in no way shape or form directly affect you, I won’t make you read about it.
Read the rest of this entry

  
Feel like making a difference? Visit JustGive.org and give a little to the charity of your choice.