Photo courtesy of Angela Pastor
J-Terms Around the Globe
Washington, D.C., United States by Angela Ortega Pastor Founded in 2012, NYU Washington, D.C., is a fairly young site in NYU’s Global Network. Students ...
Jan 25, 2014
Washington, D.C., United States
by Angela Ortega Pastor
Founded in 2012, NYU Washington, D.C., is a fairly young site in NYU’s Global Network. Students live and attend class at the Constance Milstein and Family Global Academic Center, which is just blocks from the White House as well as several Smithsonian museums and the World Bank. NYUDC hosted two classes for January Term 2014 – Protecting the World’s Health and Nation Building.
Protecting the World’s Health explored several epidemics such as HIV/AIDS and measures to facilitate their prevention and expedite their eradication, while the Nation Building class focused on strategies for building up the capacity in weak states.
Outside of the academics, students made full use of the unlimited metro cards to capitalize on the J-term experience. There were several field trips to prominent government institutions, such as Congress, as well as to notable museums. Since NYUDC does not have its own dining hall, students also had the opportunity to cook for themselves.
The proximity to the Capitol and other monuments, small class sizes and great faculty made this a very memorable J-term.
Florence, ITALY
by Khadeeja Farooqui
Spending January Term in Florence, as trite as it sounds, was like a dream come true for many students. From stumbling upon street-corners that look more like paintings than reality to finding deserted bicycles in hidden alleys, to casually walking through the ruins of the Renaissance, this has been a wonderful month.
With three horrendously tough and incredibly diverse classes underway, Idea of the Renaissance in Modern Thought, Introduction to Imaging Spectroscopy in the Study of Old Master Paintings and Introduction to Machiavelli, the students had field trips to Galileo Museo, Palazoo Vecchio, Uffizi, Machiavelli's House, La Pietra, Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, Santa Croce and Duomo Di Firenze. On weekends, students explored the city of Florence with its red rooftops and stunning bridges. A few students went on day trips to Rome, Venice, Lucca, Siena and Pisa.
It was a wonderful opportunity to explore Italian culture and to cross off numerous items on the bucket list. Pizza in Italy? Check. Red wine tasting in Toscana? Check. Italian pasta? Check. Trip to Venice? Check. Take a picture with the Leaning Tower of Pisa? Check. Thank you, NYUAD, for a gorgeous European escapade.
Berlin, Germany
by Sebastián Rojas Cabal
Although it sounds paradoxical, the city is a museum of living history; every corner has a story to tell. Be it in a memorial, a historical building, graffiti on a wall or the Ampelmann, East Berlin’s distinctive pedestrian streetlight, Berlin brazenly exposes the scars of its past, inviting us to consider the pieces of our own history we would rather forget.
Every time I came across an old man or woman in the subway, I wondered if these people had lived through the times of the Berlin Wall, separating East and West Berlin from 1961 to 1989. I always wondered at how the street I was walking through would have looked scarcely 20 or 30 years ago. I was amazed at how a city that was destroyed twice before the 1950s is now one of Europe’s cultural and historical hubs.
Regardless of your interest, be it history, engineering, music or Currywurst, there is something in Berlin to catch your eye.
Shanghai, China
by Tessa Ayson
The streets of Shanghai are sense-pummeling; a wonderful, chaotic mélange of rickety food carts and their steaming noodle broth, laundry flapping from tottering stacks of apartments, the shrieks of street vendors, honking of car horns and sizzling of deep-fried scallion pancakes and roasting peanuts. All are ensconced in the cold wind that beats a path through the tiny rabbit-warren of Shanghai’s residential backstreets, forcing scarves tighter around faces and jackets buttoned closer to chests.
Amid this sensory overload, three NYU Abu Dhabi January Term classes were taking place in the centrally heated warmth of East China Normal University’s classrooms. Some classes were lecture-based, while some were more hands-on, their students whisked around the city with outings to Shanghai’s idyllic Bund and Old Town to observe public interactions.
Making sense of the city was bewildering at times; navigating the masses of street vendors selling “real leather” Louis Vuitton handbags and the shouts of “Massage! Massage!” at every corner made for an interesting experience. But Shanghai’s eclectic charm and surprises at every turn made for a truly unique, engaging and satisfying J-Term. Daily hot bubble tea and street noodles for a grand total of 7 dirhams — Shanghai, I’ll be back.
Stone Town, Zanzibar
by Nino Cricco
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