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cre: The Big Rule – Socialize At The Airport In my previous blog, I shared some “solo travel” tips and described my experiences at the airport. However, I ended it a bit abruptly without describing my first meeting with colleagues. And that first meeting is what will set the stage for the central topic of discussion today. Therefore, picking up from where I left in the previous post, I finished my breakfast at McDonald’s and enthusiastically left for the assembly point, fifteen minutes before the scheduled time. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting a lot of people, but surprisingly I saw a lot of students at the UST assigned boarding gate. Since I had absolutely no prior information about any of my coworkers or roommates, I had simply planned to strike up a conversation with a random group or person. And the first person I noticed was a tall Austrian guy named David. David turned out to be an extremely soft-spoken person who had been on vacation with his friends since July. Coincidental...

cre: Top 5 story writing tips from bestselling authors Writing is more than a click on a laptop keyboard. As a writer, you need to have a plan and strategy in place before you start writing work. Here are some of the best writing tips from successful authors. There are many things that can make your writing stand out. It could be your ideas, underlying themes, style / tone of writing, use of words, etc. Writing stories, however, involves a more natural flow that expresses your true writing style. The stories are also written in a holistic way so that they can be understood by most people. Each story has five basic elements: character, setting, plot, conflict, and theme. But what really makes or breaks a story is beyond these five elements. We’ll walk you through some of the best tips from bestselling book authors on how to strengthen your writing style. 1. Train your cognitive thinking Cal Newport wrote Deep Work, a Wall Street Journal bestseller where he says the ability to focus...

cre: The Challenge of Language Barriers When I decided to go to Italy, of course I understood that they spoke Italian – but what I didn’t really think about was that there would be real language barriers that could prevent an understanding. between me and a Roman. When I first went to Rome two summers ago, I encountered no linguistic difficulties that prevented me from understanding. My roommates and I walked to Giardino degli Aranci, which results in the garden of oranges. Trying to find our way was difficult so we had to try to ask for directions which luckily worked. When I arrived in Rome to start my semester, I tried to order a sandwich from a small store near the school. I greeted the older man by saying “Ciao! And then after that, I didn’t know what to say and how to ask what something was. I ended up pointing at one of the sandwiches, then he started speaking in Italian. I think I looked like a deer in the headlights, because the other barista came over and started s...

cre: Visit to Victoria Medical Centre What I love most about the classes at FIE London is the fact that our teachers use the City of London as a learning tool! We are able to take field trips that relate to our classroom topics while exploring our temporary home. Recently, in my course on health policy, we visited the Victoria Medical Center, a health care practice in Westminster. The UK has universal healthcare which means all of its citizens are medically covered by the government. The National Health Service (NHS) is the health system used and occupies many affiliated health care practices, Victoria Medical Center being one of them. Victoria Medical Center is a “surgery” here in the UK, which we call “primary care” in the US. The Victoria Medical Center serves 16,000 patients each year. Patients can make a free appointment with a general practitioner or nurse, depending on their health care needs. Our visit was unique, as we were able to sit down and observe a monthly lunch ...

cre: Provisional Certificate | 5 things to know about this document Are you a recent graduate waiting to graduate? If this is the case, you can present a provisional certificate as proof of obtaining a graduate degree or working until the original certificate is issued. If you want to know how to request it, keep scrolling. We discussed everything here! Recent graduates may experience delays in obtaining their university leaving certificate. If you are one of them, you probably know that it can limit your prospects for higher education and work. This is the sole reason why almost all colleges offer you the option of receiving a provisional certificate while you wait for your final degree. If you are wondering what an interim certificate is, then read ahead. We’ve listed 5 important things you need to know about it. 1. What is a provisional certificate? This temporary document acts as proof of your degree from a university / college. First, it is a temporary document that pro...

cre: Mendoza: Land of Sorpresa Our first long weekend meant a trip to the bodegas of Mendoza (this translates to “cellar” on Google, but for our purposes a better translation is cellar). Why a long weekend you will say to me? Argentina loves to party, especially when it revolves around San Martin which is basically considered a god in these regions. Saint Martin’s death fell last Thursday, which meant Monday was a national holiday, and for us it meant our first adventure in Mendoza. Mendoza (according to Google) is 13 hours and 2 minutes from the city of Buenos Aires (I mention this because it is wrong unless you are driving a car without stopping or traffic). Seven of us made it to the Retiro bus station on Friday evening with far too much time to waste as the buses are announced 20 minutes before they leave. Don’t be fooled, however, as the buses leave quickly. While on the topic of buses, I just have to say it was the most comfortable travel experience I have ever had. The bus r...

cre: A Look at Academic Life in Seville When most people think about studying abroad, they start by thinking about exploring new places, traveling every weekend, and learning about foreign contexts. While these are all amazing opportunities, sometimes it seems like a lot of people overlook one of the most important study abroad concepts – study! Since arriving to study in Seville a month ago, I have found that every aspect of my trip has only been enriched and deepened by my academic courses. Here is a glimpse of my student life for this semester. I am in the ‘International Business’ program in Seville, Spain, which means my classes are split between two different institutions. I take most of my classes at the CEA Center in the heart of town, but I can also travel just outside of town to attend a class at a local Spanish university called Universidad Pablo de Olavide (or UPO for short) . The CEA Center hosts courses for all the programs offered by the organization in Seville. At ...