This post may turn out to be a bit of a rant, so hear me out please. I know that you guys have been asking whether I would still be able to go on the Study Abroad trip due to the recent Coronavirus outbreaks in the United States. I have not been able to answer your questions as solidly as I would have liked to over the past couple of weeks. We all seemed to be in the dark about what would happen, and I was relying on a hope that nothing regarding the Study Abroad trip would change. This was admittedly wishful thinking. This past week, study abroad students (including myself), received an email with a link to a poll discussing whether to postpone the trip until August, or to cancel the trip altogether. If I am completely honest, receiving this email broke my heart. There are reasons behind my sadness. For one, I have never traveled out of the country. I've hardly traveled anywhere within the country, let alone going overseas. I want to live this dream which I have already put time and effort(the sole reason I'm in this class is to get credit to go on the trip), (not to mention the time that pre-departure meetings and planning and getting a passport take), into. Another reason I am upset is regarding the cost of this trip. I have put quite a bit of money into this trip. See details below.
Rant mode (worst-case scenario is the trip gets cancelled and this happens): I took out my very FIRST college loan out in order to go on this trip. I have never taken out a loan before in my twenty years of living. I went through all of my freshman year and both semesters of my sophomore year without taking out loans and I plan to continue to do so for the remaining two years of college. But, the ONE loan I took out now might all be for nothing. The sole reason I took out a loan for this trip is because I didn't have enough saved to pay for the semester AND the trip. Now, a $6,000 loan may potentially go down the drain and I will still have to pay it back. Now I know what you're thinking, won't I get refunded if the trip gets cancelled? I will get about a third of that $6,000 back as a refund. To be exact, I will get $2,144 back should the trip get cancelled. They say it is a 50% refund but that does not include any of the flights or the CSC fees which are non-refundable. That means almost $4,000 potentially goes down the drain. However, there is still hope that it won't get cancelled. This is the worst-case scenario, keep that in mind. If the trip does not get cancelled (which I'm praying that it doesn't), it will be postponed until August. This is a brighter side to this whole scenario. There is a possibility that COVID-19 will be over and done with by the time August comes around. An upside to going in August is that I will have more time to plan for the trip, and the weather will be better in London and Dublin around that time as opposed to May weather. A downside to going in August is that I will have to look into altering my ILP to fit into the allotted time for this class, and I will have to complete the supplemental assignments somehow while the semester is still going rather than doing them while I am on the trip (I think). I don't know all of the details of how this will work out. I will be talking to Dr. Cox about altering my ILP this coming week so please be patient and stay tuned while I figure this all out. If you have any more questions regarding this, comment below and I'll reply as soon as I can. As always, thanks for reading, and enjoy the pictures of England and Ireland in August below :).
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I have never been one to get into listening to podcasts or watching vlogs. However, my dad listens to podcast after podcast, specifically on sports or politics. He also listens to the old radio show "Gun Smoke." Currently he is renovating our bathroom and our days are filled with the sound of his podcasts and "Gun Smoke" until he goes to bed around 8:30pm. I don't mind listening to "Gun Smoke." I much prefer it over politics and sports. That's just my persona preference. I also went to high school with two girls who tried to start a vlog. It wasn't exactly successful because their lives were not terribly interesting to others. Most of their videos consisted of goofing off with friends and not presenting any interesting information to the viewers. As opposed to unsuccessful vlogs, I have watched some vlogs, not knowing that that's what they were. Specifically, I used to enjoy watching youtubers Liza Koshy and David Dobrik's (First photo) vlogs when they were still together. I was actually even a little sad when they split up. I still occasionally watch both of their videos when I feel like laughing (Middle Photo). Another less-famous but very hilarious vlogger that I was obsessed with was Mike "Camike" Fox (Bottom Photo). I watched his videos when I was thirteen or fourteen. The British vlogger had lots to say about what happened to him, as well as doing hilarious commentaries on other people's videos. I always considered him to be a comedic vlogger. My sister and I spent hours binging his archived videos when we were younger. Many of our inside jokes came from his videos. Other vloggers that I have watched or at least heard of include Jenna Marbles, Shane, and Markiplier. While I've been more inclined to watch vlogs as opposed to listening to podcasts, if I had to make one or the other, I would choose to make a podcast. I hate the idea of my voice being recorded, but even more so the idea of adding my face to the mess. If I could choose among blogs, vlogs, or podcasts, I would choose blogging every time. I am also someone who enjoys reading, so lengthy texts don't bother me as much as they do others. As mentioned above, I have heard of some podcasters from my dad as well as from my friends. Some of these include Joe Rogan, Ben Shapiro, Eddie Murphy, Rush Limbaugh, Old Time Radio, and Sean Hannity.
After reading some articles and looking at more vlogs and podcasts this week, I feel like I understand the differences among them more deeply. Blogs are mainly visual and they include text and pictures, vlogs are visual and auditory, and podcasts are auditory. Before my phone decided to die on me, I was going to post several saved pictures in my phone to the new travel Instagram account. I have them all ready to post, but unfortunately I did not beat the clock when I was trying to get them uploaded. The pictures I plan on putting on the account include past trips. I will most-likely organize the Instagram account so that I post about the smaller trips that I make frequently like trips to the sandhills, camping trips, and significant trips from home back to college. Then, I will post about trips that I take less frequently, but that are still smaller trips in the state or just outside of the state like weekend vacations with friends. Finally, I will post about trips that were fairly large in my books. These posts will include the Florida and Chicago band trips that I went on in high school. Finally, once I get to go on the study abroad trip to London and Dublin, I will make posts concerning the trip and the sights, as well as what I work on in class and how the trip is going to be enhancing my education. In between these posts, I will make supplemental posts about my packing process, planning, airport tasks and other outside details. I can't wait to be able to share these pictures with everyone and the stories that go along with them. I will be updating this post with better, more extensive backstories than what the Instagram account with have. If you are interested in any of the stories and would like to know more, let me know and I'd be happy to talk to you about it. UPDATE 3/24/2020 I just finished uploading my previous travels posts on Instagram, please go check them out if you are interested at all. The most recent post is about Jenny's Gulch in South Dakota, the next is about Chicago, then one is about Florida. Then I described some traditions in my family such as my cousins' and sister's my trips, family reunions, and trips to college every fall with my dad. Finally, the very first post I made to the account is about the love of my life: the Nebraska Sandhills. That is the longest post because I have been there so often and have made more memories than I can count there. If you like stories, DM me or comment on my post and ask about a trip! I'd be happy to tell the entire story. The captions on each Instagram post are brief summaries of each corresponding trip. Below is a screenshot of my Instagram travel account. Go add me! @daria.dartboard_traveledition Tonight I read some articles on digital storytelling and even watched a few examples of digital stories, but if I am completely honest, prior to reading the articles and watching the videos, I assumed digital storytelling was something we had already been doing through our blogs for this class all semester. Boy was I wrong. I really thought that digital storytelling was nothing but writing about your life online in some form. I am sure you can see why I thought we were doing this by blogging. Now that I have been informed; however, I know that there is a lot more to digital storytelling than meets the eye. In a sense It could be similar to blogging, but through a video blog or a "vlog" as many call it. I do feel that it is about more important things than every-day experiences though. Even after I read the articles I could not quite grasp exactly what it was. That is when the examples really came into play. Seeing a visual example of digital storytelling really cleared it up for me. From what I understand now, digital storytelling is a short video made up of images with a voiceover in the background describing how the images tell a true, personal story about the person narrating. It is an interaction between a voice and images. I found that it is important for the voice to contain inflection and enthusiasm in order to keep the viewer interested. Otherwise, it was difficult for me to stay interested in a video with a mundane voiceover. The artist in me also noticed that one digital story in particular contained older music and special effects to make the voice and music sound like an old TV show. A retro soundtrack if you will. Then, the creator used old imagery and put special effects in the video to make it look retro. These types of effects draw the viewer/listener in. Some digital stories were very obviously directed at a certain audience while others were meant for everyone to see and hear them. Now I know that Dr. Cox invited us to make our own, but I was not terribly comfortable yet with sharing my own voice with the world. I do love telling stories specifically about things I am passionate about. Many of my blogs on this site are even extensive with stories about personal feelings. There will be many more stories to come especially when we travel abroad. I may even play around with digital storytelling while I am on the trip if I feel like exploring the digital world outside of my comfort zone. It could be an interesting addition to my Instagram account and my blog. I could tell of my travels while also providing the pictures I take from my travels with my own voice in the background. There is also a possibility that I will wait until we finish traveling and then I will just make one video that covers the entire trip along with photos. Who knows what I will do? Stay tuned for updates on my playing around with this idea! To those of you who are waiting for me to finally post my Instagram handle...the time is finally here! it is @daria.dartboard_traveledition. Now, I have not posted anything yet, but I have a profile picture, a bio, and a link to my website (here) on it. I am slowly but steadily making progress. I appreciate everyone's patience with me as I continue to work on this Independent learning project. I have also finally purchased a travel journal. I bought a plain journal that allows for me to write, draw, and tape things into it. I decorated the cover with some stickers, and I have decorative tape so I can tape down the corners of the pictures I plan to put in it. I have an old scrapbook that I might dig out and look through for ideas on making my journal visually interesting. I made this scrapbook when I was in fourth grade so quite a while ago, but I am confident that my ten-year-old self had at least some idea of what she was doing and how to do it. This coming week (spring break) I plan to do a little more with the journal, maybe write some stuff in it and get some feeling for the voice I want to project in it. I will also begin posting pictures to the travel Instagram account of my past trips, even the small camping trips. I already have several ideas on stories I might tell in the travel journal so make sure to stay updated. I plan on posting the photos from last week's blog to the travel Instagram account as well, so you all will get to see them again and get a better backstory on what all went down on those trips. I may copy all of the writing I do in the travel journal to this blog so that you are all able to read my stories more easily if you are interested in my travels. Right now I am blogging away from home, but as soon as I get home, I will post pictures of my journal and a screenshot of my Instagram account after I post to it a little. Soon, I will be asking for suggestions on what to put on my packing list, I might even write your name beside your ideas if you would all like that. I know it does not seem like it yet, but each one of my classmates including you all especially, are influencing my life and my decisions for this trip. Because this is my first time going out of the country, I am very open to suggestions and recommendations. If anyone has ever been to London or Dublin before and wants to let me know of some sights to see in either place definitely let me know! I will welcome all suggestions and recommendations. Please comment on this post and any of the following posts with suggestions and recommendations. It will be greatly appreciated. I hope you guys feel that you can live vicariously through me on this trip and feel the experiences I am feeling. Pictures coming soon!
I explored the free ds106 course and looked through several of the daily create assignments this week. The Daily Create is a way for people to freely express themselves through new and semi-spontaneous creations. They are available through ds106 which is a free, open, online course for anyone to take to hone their skills in different areas and to try new things. The Daily Creates are designed for people to just taste-test an activity rather than diving deep into a topic right away. The assignments are very short and can each be completed in just a few minutes. It is amazing that the course is online and accessible to all people for free. It advocates and supports the idea of really living and learning rather than wasting your time and life on pointless activities. It encourages people to get up for the day and learn at least one new thing every day. It opens up possibilities and opportunities for people to discover new hobbies and even career paths. It facilitates creative thinking and problem-solving. Trying to explore and read through the ds106 course itself was a little confusing at first. I did not understand the setup very well and the instructions were a little difficult to follow. It was a little difficult to figure out how to get to the daily creates. It was also hard for me to choose just four to do for the week. Many of them looked really fun and creative and I am excited to do more in the next few weeks. There were so many interesting options available. No one assignment is the same as the others. I was a little bit anxious to try out the daily creates before I really read the descriptions and found out that they are easy for the most part. Before I read the descriptions of the assignments and looked at the examples, I expected them to take much more time and go more into depth. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they are brief. I was also surprised at how many of the assignments were photography assignments. When I challenged myself to do two of the photography creates I expected them to be much more difficult than they really were. My biggest takeaway from the ds106 course is that it is life-changing to try something new every day. It can totally change a person's perspective on how much opportunity is available in life. There is so much more to do than sitting at home and watching the TV. Above you will see the four daily creates I did this week. It was difficult to choose only four, but I know I will have many more opportunities to do more in the weeks that lay ahead. I am excited to see what other challenges I will face with this. I did a "Serious Face" assignment, an "Abstract" assignment, a "poem" assignment, and an "abbreviation w/ initials" assignment.
This week I found myself struggling to keep up on homework. Unfortunately, the time spent on my ILP suffered a little bit until today. I wanted to do a lot more with it than I actually got done, but sometimes that's how life goes. This week I focused on catching up on the pre-departure meetings. Because I am an online student, I am not required to go to the meetings in-person, but I still have to watch them via a recording to stay up-to-date on our tasks leading up to leaving. I have been slacking on this task a little until this week. I watched the first two meetings today. They provided a lot of useful info. I took some notes for each meeting which will be included in my journal. I am making an Instagram account which I will begin posting to as soon as I actually start writing in my journal. I may even start my journal this coming week just to get the ball rolling. Be prepared for lots of stories about camping trips, family reunions, and church youth-group trips. I have already started picking out pictures from past trips to include in my journal. I plan to set up my journal so that my past trips will be like a quick precursor or "hook" that will show my readers what to expect from me when I write during my trip to London and Dublin. After I provide information and photos from past trips, I will write the notes I have been taking in the pre-departure meetings in the journal as well as my packing list, websites I use to help me prepare, and photos of the progress of my journal. Finally, I will continue writing in my journal during the trip to London and Dublin. I will be sketching, taking pictures, and of course, writing. I can't wait to delve into the world of story-telling. Below is a picture of the notes I have taken so far. I have included travel into my topics for my Personal Learning Network as well. I follow some travel blogs that give me tips on what to pack and how to pack it, as well as sights to see. While many people despise packing, I tend to get excited about packing. I am a sucker for organizing. Some might even say I show tendencies of someone with OCD though I have never gone and gotten diagnosed. Because of this, I am great at packing a lot of stuff into a small space. I am excited to plan outfits for the trip to London and Dublin. I have been known to get so excited to leave that I packed two weeks in advance! While airport/airplane regulations might make it difficult to pack everything I might want to, i will still find a way to sort out the necessities and just things I would like to take. One thing I may struggle with regarding packing is shampoo and conditioner. If you have ever seen me in person, you know I have a massive amount of hair and little travel bottles of shampoo and conditioner are certainly not going to suffice. I may just have to buy some shampoo and conditioner when I get there. When I do start packing, feel free to make recommendations as to what I should take and what i should leave. I would absolutely appreciate your thoughts and reccomendations. These are just the things I have thought of so far. I am counting down the weeks and days until we get to go! I really can't wait. I hope everyone stays up to date and hangs in there with me while I sort my life out! Thanks for reading!
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