The Azusa Pacific Blog » Study Abroad

The South African Experience

Jon Wallace — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 02:56:39 +0000

It's early morning here at the APU South African campus in Pietermaritzburg. I'm sitting in the main lodge that serves as the dinner hall. The lodge sits high on the property overlooking a lush green valley.

Why Am I Even Here in Spain?!

McKenzie — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 16:33:24 +0000

“The Lord has become my fortress, and my God is the rock in whom I take refuge.” Psalm 94:22

So I’ve finished my first week of school in Spain and I can’t believe how different it is. All my classes are taught in Spanish and we don’t speak English at all, which can be quite overwhelming. I’ve reached the point that I knew would come. The initial awe and wonder of this amazing city is beginning to wear off now that we have started school. Those feelings have now been replaced with shock, stress and usually a big headache after only using Spanish for hours straight. The other day I started questioning, “Why am I even here?” When people tell you studying abroad is the best experience you’ll ever have, they forget to tell you that you’ll also face some of the hardest times. They don’t tell you how you’ll get homesick and want to fly back despite the dreadfully long flight. They forget to tell you how scary or stressful it can be, especially when you realize things about yourself you never knew. For those that don’t go abroad to learn a foreign language, you typically don’t have the shock factor of realizing despite the years in the classroom, nothing could have prepared you for this experience.

Semester in Spain: The Beginning

McKenzie — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 16:37:36 +0000

As you are all arriving to APU, either for the firs time or back for another great year, I am just now settling into my new home in Seville, Spain. I’m so excited to begin this journey with all of you! Hola, my name is McKenzie and I just flew 6,000 miles from LAX to Seville, Spain to study abroad for the semester. I’m taking this first blogging opportunity so that you can all get to know a little about me, where I am going, and what I am doing.

Currently I am about to start my senior year at APU, but instead of spending my last year on APU campus, I decided to study abroad for the fall. I’m a Business Administration major, with a minor in Spanish and dreams of going to law school. Instead of just passing my Spanish classes, I wanted to really learn the language so I decided I had to fully immerse myself in a Spanish-speaking country for an entire semester. I have come to learn and believe that this is the only way to really learn a language, but I’ll go into that more another day. I chose to go to Seville, Spain through Trinity Christian College (located in Chicago, IL). With the Semester in Spain program, I live with a host family, get to travel around Spain, take ONLY Spanish classes, have “siesta” time, and become completely and fully immersed in Spanish culture.

San Francisco Art Trip for High Sierra!

JP Park — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:45:17 +0000

Hey guys! Sorry I haven’t blogged in two weeks! I have so much catching up to do with you guys, and so much to tell you all! As everyone keeps saying again and again, college is super busy and time flies by so fast. I feel like it was just last week when I flew on a plane from Virginia to California to start college, when in reality, I’m already almost done with my first semester.

A couple weeks ago, me and the rest of the students here went to San Francisco for an Art trip, where we visited numerous museums and cathedrals. We visited the New St. Mary’s cathedral, Old St. Mary’s cathedral, the Mission Delores Basilica, the Grace Cathedral, the Legion of Honors museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the De Young Museum. It was so amazing!!! When I walked inside each of the cathedrals, I could feel God’s presence and aura all around me. We also took part in a Catholic mass, and that was pretty cool, too. The museums were all extraordinary. I saw art pieces of modern artists and famous ones like Picasso and Chigall(sp?).

Halloween Adventures at High Sierra!!!

JP Park — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:41:30 +0000

HAPPY BELATED HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!!!!!!! Halloween was a couple days ago, but I didn’t get a chance to blog since it was so busy!!(In a good way, of course)

Well, I woke up on Halloween pretty late, around 11 AM. I got some lunch, and then I had to get ready for Halloween Badmitten Doubles! You basically pair up with a partner, dress up as a famous couple, and then you play Badmitten against another team, and the winning couple wins a prize. It was so fun! I paired up with my good friend Naomi, and I dressed up as Barney(haha), and she dressed up as a little Kindergartner. It was single elimination with about 10 or more teams, and unfortunately, we lost our first game against our professors, Dave Williams and Rob Simpson. Here are some pictures from Halloween Badmitten!

HOMECOMING WEEKEND= Best Weekend Ever!!!!!

JP Park — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:30:13 +0000

Hey there readers, J.P here again! It’s about 11:00 PM right now, and I just came back from the APU Men’s Soccer game against Fresno Pacific University in Fresno, California, which is only about an hour away from the High Sierra campus, which is in Bass Lake for those who don’t already know. Our soccer guys did amazing and we won 2-0!!!

The crowd was obviously full of Fresno students, but me and the other 7-9 High Sierra students still did some APU cheers like “You wish you were a Cougar! Azu!! Za!!! Azu!!! Za!!!” We got a couple of stares from the Fresno students, but we didn’t care. We love our college!

Midterms! Ahh!!! I want my social life back!

JP Park — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 05:45:13 +0000

Hey fellow APU people! So, as you can tell, I have mid terms this week! Oh no! Mid terms are basically like exams you take in the middle of your semester, and then you have final exams at the end of the semester. I just had my Aesthetics(Art) mid term, and even though it wasn’t that hard, it was still pretty challenging. I have another mid term tomorrow for Philosophy, and I think it’s going to be pretty difficult. Plato just confuses me sometimes….., and I am just not good at philosophical thinking. I’m more creative and visual, which is why I’m majoring in Theatre Arts..

pumpkins and papers.

Ellie Kipps — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:29:19 +0000

My favorite season is fall, or at least it was in NorCal (where I’m from). I love when the leaves turn red and flutter down to the ground, and I love the crisp rain that speaks of hot cocoa and fireplaces and good books, but most of all, I love pumpkins: pumpkin soup, pumpkin bread, pumpkin ice cream, and most of all: pumpkin pie. This morning I woke up missing that fall feeling from home, and decided to make pumpkin bread with real pumpkin and a special blend of spices that my family uses. Now my apartment is filled with the smell of baking bread, and I’m feeling pretty homesick.

Tuesdays are the new Mondays! :(

JP Park — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:03:14 +0000

Hello there folks, J.P here again with another blog. As you can tell by the topic, I think Tuesdays are the new Mondays. In high school, we all hated Mondays because that was the day we went back to school, which meant our weekend finally came to an end. Well, for me, in college, I dread Tuesdays! I have a majority of my classes Tuesdays. Let me give you guys a run down of my schedule on Tuesdays so you guys can feel my pain. haha.

7:30 AM- I wake up. I take a shower, brush my teeth, the usual morning stuff. But, I am not a morning person at all, so waking up this early is basically torture for me. I usually go to bed early on Monday night since I have no classes.

Finished with Pre-View Weekend, now back to College!

JP Park — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:32:50 +0000

Hey guys, J.P here again. A few days ago, I posted a blog about pre-view weekend at High Sierra, and now it’s unfortunately over. The students that all came up from the main campus from Azusa Pacific went back to campus Sunday morning. Pre-view weekend was so much fun. It’s a breath of fresh air when the student numbers here raise from 22 to 60+. I met some really cool and down to earth students during pre-view weekend, but I’ll be able to see them all next semester when I’m finished with High Sierra on the main campus at Azusa. Some of the students that came to pre-view weekend loved it (I think everyone loved it) and a handful of them are planning on coming Spring semester this year, which is a shame because I’ll be back on campus so I won’t be able to see them!