By ALLI SHIEBER, Features Editor
Being away from home is never easy but traveling abroad for 6 months may be worth it.
Senior social work major April Schultz from Alva, Ok got the chance to do just that.
Schultz spent the last 6 months in Wales attending Swansea University. She attended three classes there, two which were philosophy classes, and one was a domestic abuse class.
“It’s hard to live in such a small little space for six months and not have a home,” Schultz said. “There was a lot of things that were unfamiliar, there was lots of days that I would leave the building and not know what I was doing.”
Schultz took public transportation or walked while she was there.
Scultz said for the first month when she got back to Alva she was walking instead of getting her tags and everything updated. Just because she was used to walking in Wale.
So, grocery shopping took her about three hours there.
“I had to take a bus to a bus station, to the grocery store, carry them all back up a hill, it was a whole ordeal,” Schultz said.
While in Wales Schultz also had the opportunity to meet people with all sorts of backgrounds. Schultz met people from all over the world.
She met other people from Oklahoma since the Brad Henrey scholarship goes to other Oklahoma schools as well, so Schultz met people from Enid.
“I came across a lot of really well traveled people,” Schultz said. “It was really interesting because a lot of peoples perspective on America is very different than what America is.”
Schultz met a girl who grew up in Colorado until she was five then moved to Hong Kong and then Ireland and ultimately ended up going to college in Wales. Schultz also met a lot of people that were Muslim and enjoyed learning about Ramada and why they celebrate it.
Schultz also met a friend that was Indian and would cook for her often and make Naan bread right in front of her.
While there Schultz also tried tons of different food, though she missed American food.
Wales has a sugar tax so soda was more expensive if it wasn’t sugar-free.
Schultz got the chance to go to Dublin, Ireland, while there, becase it is cheaper to travel once you get over there.
She loved the food there and her favorite was Beef and Guinness Stew.
Schultz also spent a lot of time at the beach since her university was right on the beach.
The night life was also different than in Alva. Schultz said campus was like it’s own little city.
The university had bars and pubs on campus since the legal drinking age in Wales is 18.
They also listened to different music than the United States, they listened to more techno and alternative music.
However, most of the bars played older songs from 2016 such as Cherleader by Omi and popular Jason Derulo songs.
Schultz’s advice for people that want to do something like this would be to save up money for it.
When she first got there, it was cold but by the last month it was warmer, and she did not have the clothes for it.
So she would also advise people to keep in mind how long six months really is.
Schultz encourages others that want to study abroad to do so.
Though not anytime soon Schultz said she can see her self traveling abroad more in the future.
