Month: January 2015

As a college freshman, the financial obligations associated with higher education are still, and will likely long be, at the front of my mind. So naturally, when I heard that all of Germany officially got rid of all tuition fees for universities, I was really excited. This policy extends to international students, including us Americans. The justification that most politicians gave for doing away with tuition was that tuition discouraged students from families in which members did not typically go to college from getting a higher education. I think this justification is totally valid and the same argument could likely be true in the United States as well. Finances were a huge part of the reason that I chose to come to the University of Oklahoma (although OU has tons of other great attributes that I’ve been able to take advantage of). As I’ve said before on this blog, I plan to go to Germany for my long-term study abroad experience, so we’ll see how this change affects my expenses.

This policy seems to be all sunshine and rainbows at first. Free higher education? That’s the ideal, right? In a perfect world, totally. But alas, we do not. And someone has to pay for the costs of education. I read a Forbes article by Christopher Denhart that explains some of the consequences of tuition-free universities, linked below.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ccap/2014/10/03/there-is-not-such-thing-as-a-free-college-education/

In the article, Denhart states that as taxes go up to pay for the universities, the best educated and highest earning Germans will leave the country for places with a lower cost of living. As Germany is already having a population crisis, this would be the opposite of constructive. The German population is aging significantly, and the country was already going to need to rely on immigration of foreigners to keep up. Compounded with this new expense issue, Germany is looking down the barrel of a population crisis.

This is not to say that Germany will not recover and rejuvenate its population. German engineering will figure this out, I’m sure. But it is interesting to think about the unanticipated side effects of a move such as the banning of university tuition. Personally, I think it is a step in the right direction, but it will have some logistical issues with which it will have to contend.

 

In November, I officially decided that I will be studying abroad in Turkey this summer (!!!). From May 18th to June 8th, I’ll be traveling all over the country with the Journey to Turkey, from Ankara to Istanbul and from the beach to hotels in caves. I’ll also get 6 upper division gen-ed credits, so this program is perfect. With this in mind, it gives me the perfect opportunity to answer this next prompt:

“Look up either a few of the staple foods or dishes or the traditional music of a country you want to visit, and describe why they are or aren’t appealing.”

When speaking with one of the professors accompanying the students on the trip, he raved about the food we’d get to eat. (He also promised that we wouldn’t gain any weight; we might even loose some.) With these high expectations in mind, I definitely wanted to see just what this trip’s dining had in store.

As the geography across the country varies, naturally the cuisine does as well. The coast along the Black Sea uses fish extensively. The Western part of the country relies on olive oil as a cooking staple. This trip should be jam-packed with different and interesting cuisine.

One thing I noticed in my research on Turkish food (mostly its Wikipedia page) is that they rely on more savory flavors. Americans are often used to sweet breakfast pastries and foods, like pancakes and syrup and fruit. However, Turkish breakfast often has olives and tomatoes and cheese. It will be interesting to have foods that I typically associate with lunch or dinner first thing in the morning. They also apparently have various soups that they eat for breakfast, which scares me a little bit, but I look forward to the new experiences.

One fast food staple in Turkey is the Döner kebap. Interestingly, as there are many Turkish immigrants in Germany (Berlin has the 2nd highest Turkish population of any city in the world, including those in Turkey), I’ve actually had the German-ized form of this dish. And it is absolutely delicious. The one I ate in Berlin is pictured below.

 

I hope to be able to eat an authentic Turkish döner once I’m in Turkey though. It’s likely that the one I had in Germany was made from veal or chicken instead of the traditional lamb, so I’d like to see how it’s different. The Turkish version can either be served on a pita like this one, or as a sandwich. I love bread, so I’m hoping to try the latter in Turkey. The only part of the original that scares me it that it sometimes comes with chili, and I’m a pretty big baby about spicy things.

Rice pilaf often comes with a side to traditional dishes in Turkey. In America, I usually only eat rice if it’s part of the Chinese food or sushi I’m eating, or if I cook a meal at home. All things grain are good in my book, so again, this is something I’m looking forward to. Carbs are my favorite.

Most people associate baklava with Greece, but it’s actually a Turkish dessert. Baklava consists of filo dough, nuts, and syrup or honey. Delicious. To say I’m excited for real baklava is an understatement.

I’m sure that at some point, I’ll encounter food I don’t like. It happened to me in Germany (a traditional Spreewald dish and I did not get along). However, keeping an open mind and trying everything is the best way to experience a culture, so that is what I intend to do.

The thing I didn’t really expect about college was the amount of freedom I had when selecting my classes. Coming in with 45 credits (the AP system, while flawed, has proven itself very useful), I was already done with a majority of my gen-eds. That gave me a lot of freedom for my first year before I got into the classes immediately pertinent to my major. On a recommendation from a friend, I decided to take a University College course called “Lead Your Way.” It focuses on how to become an effective leader and how to network oneself.  This leads me into my first response post for Global Engagement (I have to do at least 10), which is:

“Think about a class you’re taking that doesn’t seem to have anything to do with ‘global engagement.’ How might increased multicultural or international understanding impact what you’re learning there? How can you apply what you’re learning about the world to that topic?”

So at first glance, it doesn’t seem like this class would have a lot to do with global engagement. And honestly, it seems pretty self-oriented in its description. But I’ve realized that the leadership aspect is more referring to learning how to effectively communicating with others in order to be productive, rather than learning how to have power. And in that respect, it actually has more international applications than one might think.

One thing I’ve learned in my limited instruction on people of the world is that people in different values when it comes to success. In Western cultures, we tend to focus on success of the individual. We put emphasis on individuality, as well as on the details. However, in Eastern cultures, people and organizations focus on the good of the collective. This difference plays into leadership in a massive way. Were I to lead a team of Americans, for example, it might be more effective to address each individual’s progress and what each can contribute to a group. But to a more international audience, a bigger emphasis on what the group as a whole needs to improve on could make more improvements.

In the opposite direction, information I learn in this class can end up helping me in international situations. To me, part of being a leader is being able to function in stressful situations. I’m assuming that when I go abroad, there will be times when there is a language barrier or otherwise challenging conflict. Hopefully, with the knowledge I gain about being an effective leader, I’ll be able to handle such scenarios safely and efficiently.