Please laugh at my joke, it’s all I have going right now. Okay well that’s not true because I’m in Mombasa! (Or as my family likes to say, Mufasa. Can you see where my sense of humour comes from?). Before I say anything else, can we collectively marvel at the view from my apartment? Sigh. Okay, now that that’s done, down to business. 3 flights, … Continue reading Ken-ya feel the excitement?
Prior to my arrival in South Africa, I was concerned my fluency in only one of the country’s 11 national languages, English, would limit my ability to communicate with locals. Turns out, I am not even fluent in English – at least not South African English. On my first day in Johannesburg I had to ask for directions. The conversation went as follows: Me: “Hello, … Continue reading Two Weeks – Two Cities – Arrival in South Africa
Last Friday evening, I arrived in Beirut, Lebanon. Tired and sore from 15 hours of travel, I was anxious to pick up my luggage, get through customs, and find World Learning’s (the INGO I am interning with) Security Manager who was waiting with a driver to take me to my new home. As we drove from the airport to the apartment, I stared out the … Continue reading Ahla wa sahla! Welcome to Beirut!
Jambooooo! (‘Hello’ in Kiswahili). Moving into a new country always has its up’s and downs. On one hand, you get to experience a new culture, meet a new set of people, explore a new city or town, but on the other end, you also make a lot of mistakes while starting over in a new country. I did make some highly expensive mistakes when I … Continue reading The Beginning In Nairobi
I say “long-awaited” because I know that the internship is what everyone really wants to know about. To be honest, I postponed writing anything about the internship for a while…because I didn’t have one. It’s only been in the last month or so that things really fell into place, and in just one week I’ll be heading to Uganda! I’ll be based in Kampala, working … Continue reading A Long Awaited Internship Post
So I told you to be on the lookout for a sappy end of year post and here it is… This is it! Final papers and projects are submitted (well, don’t talk to those of us in Dr. GK’s curriculum class) and on Saturday, many of us paraded through the Palestra in our caps and gowns to receive our diplomas. And by diplomas, I mean … Continue reading (Almost) The End
The matchmaking is over. After hundreds of emails, interviews, and general running around, the IEDP internships are about to begin! The 2017-18 cohort will be all over the map – from right here in the USA, down to Peru, over onto the African continent (Senegal, South Africa, Malawi, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia), through the Middle East (Jordan and Lebanon), and into Asia (India, Cambodia, China and … Continue reading Ready, set, go!
So in the next few weeks, expect a sentimental, end-of-year sappy wrap-up post. And then get ready for internship updates! But there is one (unrelated) post I wanted to get out first. When I was shopping for classes, I kept hearing one piece of advice over and over again: take classes outside of GSE. (In fact, I think I gave you the same advice earlier … Continue reading Branching Out of GSE: Courses in Other Schools
We have another guest post this week! Xuning Zhang is an IEDP student, originally from Beijing, who completed her undergraduate degree at Vanderbilt last year. Xuning is interested in early childhood development. If you are a regular reader of the IEDP blog, you’ll know how close our cohort is. Not only do we take classes together, we also explore restaurants, go to on-campus events, and … Continue reading Guest Post: Life Outside IEDP
This week’s guest post is by current IEDP student Lisha Almeida. Lisha is from Mumbai, and before coming to IEDP she was a Teach for India fellow and worked in teacher training. With the Philly weather still being unseasonably chilly this past month, we were all ready for Mexico’s warm, warm welcome. As Arianna mentioned in her previous post, the Comparative and International Education Society … Continue reading Guest Post: CIES – A Whirlwind of Networking, Nopales and Knowledge for a Lifetime
The International Educational Development Program 