Category Archives: Education Abroad Stories

Stories from the Education Abroad & Away at St. Cloud State University.

Food you NEED to Try in Malaysia

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By Cassidy Ng 

Malaysia is a small country sandwiched between Thailand and Singapore and is full of diversity, various cultures, languages and not to mention, the FOOD! We have 3 different main races – Malay, Chinese and Indian. As a Malaysian student studying abroad, the things I miss most about home is, well, obviously my family and the FOOD! If I get a dollar every time I say food when people ask me about Malaysia, I would be a billionaire by now. So here we are, starting our Malaysia To-Do list with FOOD!

  1. Malay
    Gosh, where do I even start? There are so many options! As we have 3 different races in Malaysia, we get to try each culture’s food! Starting with our National dish – Nasi Lemak! You have to try this when you are there because you didn’t travel to Malaysia if you didn’t try it out! Nasi Lemak is a Malay cuisine – rice cooked with coconut milk, served with ‘sambal’, toasted peanuts, cucumber and fried anchovies, egg and is fully customizable. Some people like to add curry or fried chicken, squid sambal, or beef rendang onto it to add more flavors. My personal favorite is with the squid sambal, it’s a little spicy so I like to eat them with the rice to reduce the kick haha

    Nasi Lemak


    Best Place to get Nasi Lemak:     Village Park Restaurant
    What to Order: Nasi Lemak with Fried chicken
    Malaysians rave about this restaurant and there is always a crowd during lunch/ dinner time so go early before their fried chicken is out!

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Croatia: Reflections 4 years later

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By: Logan Kludt

I studied abroad on the Croatia Biology program in Rijeka, Croatia during the summer of 2017. While overseas, I primarily studied immunology with my classmates and graduate students from SCSU at the University of Rijeka. The primary reason I was able to study abroad, was because the opportunity allowed me to graduate a semester early. As someone who relied heavily on scholarships and financial aid, this was an important detail in my decision to study abroad.

Photo taken at Plitvice National Park. Photo shows (from L to R) Logan Kludt Lawrence, SCSU 17′ Alumna; Ana Mihatovic, University of Rijeka Alumna; Andrea Majstorovic, University of Rijeka Alumna.

While it’s been a handful of years since this endeavor, I reflect fondly over the experience. One of the most valuable experiences I had was being able to complete group work with a mixture of American and Croatian students, where everyone was motivated to do efficient and quality work, with the primary purpose to learn. I still stay in contact with the individuals I closely worked with, and it was a fantastic way to build friendships.

Photo taken in Smiljan, Croatia at Nikoli Tesla’s birthplace. Photo shows (L to R) Logan Kludt Lawrence (SCSU ’17), Erica Rehnblom (SCSU ’18), Dee Yang (SCSU ’17), and Katherine Schimnich (SCUS ’18).

In addition, Croatia is an absolutely beautiful and remarkable country. The SCSU faculty leader that led this program, Dr. Marina Cetkovic-Cvrlje, grew up in Croatia; she was an outstanding host and teacher while visiting. My favorite non-academic excursions were visiting Nikoli Tesla’s birthplace and exploring Plitvice National Park.

Logan participated in the Croatia Biology Summer program.

Landmarks.

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Landmarks.

By: Jack Newman

Why should you use landmarks?

Whether you plan to travel on foot or by car, using landmarks is a great way to not get lost. When I traveled around England and Scotland I mostly walked to my destinations. I did not have an international plan on my phone so I tried to use my data wisely as it was quite expensive to turn on. I was able to make my way around by using landmarks around the city. These can be both large and small structures – the key is to find something that helps you remember your path. I use large structures to get a sense of where I am in the city or town.

Jack studied abroad to St. Cloud State at Alnwick during the Spring 2020 semester.

For example: Edinburgh Castle. In Edinburgh, it is very easy to see Edinburgh Castle from wherever you are. Just look up! You should see the castle in the city center. From there, I could roughly see where I was in the city. In the case of Edinburgh, the train station is very close to the castle so following it will lead you to transportation.

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HMoob (Hmong) around the World Part 3: Lost in Malaysia

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HMoob (Hmong) around the World Part 3: Lost in Malaysia

By: Kevin Phoojywg Xiong

Kevin in Vientiane, Laos (Winter Break 2018)

Hi! My name is Kevin Phoojywg Xiong and I went on the Laos, Thailand, Malaysia (LTM) Winter Break 2018 study abroad program. Every year, I would be encouraged to go by friends who had gone before. In 2018, it was my 4th year at SCSU and I felt it was my time. Some main reasons I wanted to participate on the LTM experience was because I had grown to love making curry and this was an opportunity to eat authentic curry in other countries. Also, my parents and grandparents were born in Laos and Thailand. Although times have changed, I was interested in speaking with other Hmong kids my age who grew up in a different culture, and who were born in another country.

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HMoob (Hmong) around the World Part 2: Testing Boundaries

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By: Larsa Yang (Class of 2016 & 2019) and James Yang (Class of 2020)

Korea University, South Korea, Fall 2019 (James Yang – Left) and Akita International University, Japan, Fall 2017 (Larsa Yang – right)

Larsa’s Story:

Hey, my name is Larsa and I studied abroad in Japan for a full year and participated on the short-term program to Laos, Thailand and Malaysia. I wanted to study abroad because I was really tired of the everyday life in Minnesota. Minnesota is cool, but I think there are so many other things you can learn by learning from others outside of Minnesota and even the US. Study abroad encouraged me to think culturally about a lot of things that would’ve never occurred to me if I never traveled abroad. I purposefully took a leave of absence from my graduate program to study in Japan as an undergrad. Do I regret it? Not at all, I loved my experience. If anything I wanted to push myself to become a better person, and that’s exactly what happened. I wouldn’t trade it for anything else.

Check out some of Larsa’s education abroad photos:

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HMoob (Hmong) around the World Part 1: A Whole New Perspective

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HMoob (Hmong) around the World Part 1: A Whole New Perspective

By: Kameiko Vue (Class of 2020) and Tonny Yang (Class of 2017 & 2019)

Kameiko Vue in Vientiane, Laos (left) & Tonny Yang in Penang, Malaysia (right)

Kameiko’s Story

I took part in the South East Asia (SEA) study abroad program in the winter of 2017-2018. This study abroad trip included going to Laos, Thailand and Malaysia. I wanted to be a part of this trip because I wanted to explore the world and enrich myself in the culture, people and food. Because of this trip, I experienced riding on an airplane and traveling out of the country for the first time ever. Not to mention, I built ever lasting friendships with individuals that I will cherish forever.   

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HMoob (Hmong) around the World: Series Introduction

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HMoob (Hmong) around the World: Series Introduction

By: Sabrina Nkauj Nag Yang, Education Abroad Graduate Assistant

I began graduate school in the middle of a pandemic and saw the devastating effects COVID-19 wreaked upon the Hmong student population at St. Cloud State. COVID-19 has waged its wrath through many different aspects of normal everyday life. In this place, right here in the now, higher education has been greatly impacted.

Opportunities in higher education that were created to foster academic growth and leadership opportunities were cancelled. Departments, like Education Abroad, lost the opportunity to engage and interact with students. Students have lost their sense of belonging at universities due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they hardly know their professors, and they barely recognize various departments that can be utilized to support higher education success. This especially holds true for many of the Hmong students struggling to stay afloat in their undergraduate career.

HMoob (Hmong) around the World was brought to life to inspire, to ignite, and to reimagine the hope of education abroad opportunities for students in the near future. I hope you find courage, I hope you find strength, and I hope you study abroad. HMoob (Hmong) around the World will showcase a series of testimonials from HMoob alum who look like you, speak the same language as you, and may have experienced similar things as HMoob (Hmong) American college students. These are their education abroad stories.

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My Fav Photo App to Use Abroad

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By: Spencer Rojas

Pictures are worth a 1000 words – but I think they are worth even more when you are studying abroad. My biggest issue was finding a fun way to capture these memories and live in the moment. I was able to make these moments even more memorable by using a cool app that is a little retro. Disposable is a free app that allows you to take pictures but does not let you see them until 9:00 am the next day. The photos have that disposable camera look and just give off a cool vibe. I used this app a lot because it was fun to take pictures without having to worry about how the pictures would turn out. It allowed me to live more in the moment. It was fun to relive the moments when the photos would show up at 9:00 am the next day. Now that I am back in the US, it is fun to remember all the good times I had in The Netherlands.

Check out some of my favorite photos taken using the Disposable app:

 

About the Author: Spencer is a Global Mentor in the Education Abroad office at St. Cloud State University. He studied abroad to HAN University – Netherlands and the Greece & Netherlands Political Science short-term program.

 

Novel Ideas for Your Next International Flight (or Quarantine)

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By: Jacob Mercer

Once on a flight from Seoul to Honolulu, I sat next to a young couple who opened matching blue backpacks and pulled out matching editions of The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings. It was one of those “Now in Theaters” book jackets, same as the movie poster: George Clooney sitting at a bar, looking over his shoulder at his kids on the beach with this melancholy, indie-film kind of expression. “How’s the book?” I asked.

The man made a face. “Bad,” he said.

“But we love George Clooney,” the woman said.

“Did you see the movie?” I asked.

“We’re reading the book first.”

“Did you know the book was set in Hawaii?” I asked.

“Of course,” the man said. “We always read books about the place we’re traveling to.”

“Me too!” I said, taking out my copy of Hotel Honolulu—and then we all gave each other high-fives. (Or maybe we didn’t, but that’s how I like to remember it.)

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My Favorite South African Proverbs

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By: Karen Ortiz

Cultures all around the world have sets of proverbs they use which help shape their worldviews. So what is a proverb? A proverb is a short sentence that can be used to express some sort of valuable truth or life lesson.

During my time in South Africa I managed to hear a couple proverbs from some of my professors. I never fully grasped the meaning of these proverbs until I did more research. Lucky for me, through my research I found many more that resonated with me. I now try to put these into practice as much as I can. Here they are:

You cannot beat a drum with one finger
You cannot drink medicine on behalf of a sick person
When a bird builds its nest it uses the feathers of other birds

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