The Southern

Issue date: 9/5/08 Section: News

Courtesy of Sarah Hartsfield Florida Southern students pose on the top of El Castillo de Santa Barbara in Alicante, Spain, where the group lived with host families for the month of May. The castle was one of many historical monuments that the students visited while they traveled the east coast of Spain.

154 students participated in the 2008 study abroad program, which offered expeditions to China, Tibet, Vietnam, England, France, Jamaica, and Spain. There were many experiences learned and memories never to be forgotten.

The 30 students who visited China in May experienced a massive 9.5 magnitude earthquake. None of the Florida Southern students were injured, but nearly 10,000 people died.
Jacqueline Mitchell, junior, attended the China and Tibet trip.  She said there was a three minute moment of silence and a cease of all traffic to mourn the people that died.

"Just imagine New York city on steroids," Mitchell said.  "[Then] everybody in the whole city just stopped."

The students who went to China stayed in lavish hotels as they traveled to several different cities around China.
The language barrier in China presented a few problems for the students. 

Mitchell said it was harder because the group was there for a digital photography class, and the Chinese only knew "simple phrase English."

The students were still able to take in the Chinese cultur,e and they observed how they were treated differently because they were not Chinese.

"You were like a celebrity to them," Mitchell said. "They would take pictures of us."

The students who went on the England trip had to be more careful with their money than other FSC travelers. The pound is worth about twice as much as the American dollar, so everything was double the price it would have been in America.

"I had to cut everything in half," Tashoy Walters, a senior who went on the England trip said. "It was terrible."

Walters said she really appreciated the European fashion because "they dressed to the tee and even bums had on gator shoes."

She said she was fortunate to discover a popular department store in England called Primark, where she could buy fashionable clothes at a more reasonable price.

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