A Blog about Education Abroad

Category: Independent Summer School

  • Aldi in Malta

    Aldi in Malta

    Off the Beaten Track

    It all starts with a dream, and then it changes into a mission and at last a reality. This is to me the very basic elements of my field school in Malta. I always dreamt of taking what I study and applying it to a real life situation. And so it happened!

    It all started with looking for a scholarship online when I came across Off The Beaten Track – Applied Anthropology Field School. I looked into it and it seemed legit, I started the application process and before I knew it I had my final letter of acceptance into the program. But this is just a simplification of it al. Such adventures, including exchange programmes, takes a lot of time and effort. Firstly, you most of the time have a full academic schedule to follow and of course a social life to keep up with and then comes along the admin and preparation for your journey.

    Aldi (Right) and Friends
    Aldi (Right) and Friends

    Firstly, the admin, yes it does take time and sometimes can be frustrating but keep calm and carry on. Make a checklist of what you must do and take it step for step. It will all come together with a bit of perseverance. I also had to learn these lessons with my trip. The next big hurdle in the preparation process is flights and visas. Now here I can and will say get a good travel agent to help you and make sure that you get your dates right. I nearly had my flights booked 2 weeks to late, which would have been a disaster!

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  • James Merron in Europe

    Pre-departure and background

    In June of 2012 I was awarded a travel bursary from the Postgraduate and International Office and Stellenbosch University which was used to fund my travel and flight costs for a summer school in Switzerland. Key to the success of this trip was early preparation like ensuring that my travel documentation and logistics (such as flights and accommodation) were in place well in advance. The Postgraduate and International Office was my primary access point for this, and besides the capital to finance the trip I also received transportation to the Department of Home Affairs in Bellville to gather visa documentation. The next move I made was establishing communication with the Swiss representative at the embassy in South Africa who advised me about what to expect in terms of the application process and fees. I also found it very helpful to go through a travel agent at Maties Travel, who extremely helpful in terms of arranging the flight as well as a hotel for a 10 hour lay-over in Doha.

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  • Sam Rolland at Bard College, New York

    Sam Rolland at Bard College, New York

     Pre-trip:

    The biggest part of the pre-trip for me was the booking of my ticket. Before the travel bursary was paid into my account, I began to compare flights to New York. New York has three main airports, La Guardia, Newark (in neighbouring New Jersey), and JFK. JFK is the biggest and you will probably find all the majority of cheap flights go to JFK. I used Travelstart (www.travelstart.co.za) to compare flights before booking the flights through the websites themselves. Bear in mind the prices of the flights fluctuate on an hourly basis, and there is almost no way to know if the price will drop or increase if you wait longer. My advice would be to settle on a price you are comfortable paying and book your ticket. In the end, after booking my ticket, the prices went up by about R3000, so luckily I booked it when I did! There is also a trade-off to consider when flying to New York, namely, the travel time vs. the cost. If cost is not an issue, then the most comfortable way of travelling would be to take a direct flight from Cape Town or Johannesburg to JFK, which is a longer time flying non-stop, but you will arrive earlier. As a student, cost constraints factored into my calculations, so I chose Turkish Airways, which was cheapest by some margin. The downside to this was a very long transit time, which included stops in Johannesburg and Istanbul, but then again, I did save a lot more money.

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