We’ve got a new record holder on The Study Abroadcast! Lila Dedvukaj, pending an illness or national catastrophe, will have studied abroad a grand total of five times before wrapping up graduate school. The previous record was a respectable four.
These aren’t summer trips, either. The @oaklundu grad student spent 300 days in India during her first trip, so I wouldn’t necessarily use the word ‘timid’ to describe her. 300 days anywhere is impressive, but 300 days in India? Forget about it.
After India came Israel, where she studied abroad thee times, and the next frontier is China, where she plans to do an exchange next summer.
(let me take a breath)
In this interview we learn about common misconceptions about India, get a crash course on archaeology, and find out why Israel is the perfect place to go if you want to find some artifacts.
“I travel not to go anywhere, but to go; travel for the sake of travel. The great affair is to move.”— Robert Louis Stevenson
SHOW NOTES
- What made Lila interested in study abroad 🤔[2:46]
- Rotary International [3:50]
- India bound for 300 days 🇮🇳 [4:34]
- A day in the life in Gujarat and Surat [6:50]
- Seeing the rest of India 🇮🇳 [7:50]
- More on Rotary International [9:08]
- “I’m not supposed to talk about this” [10:41]
- What it was really like to live in India 🇮🇳 [11:57]
- Indian food (see videos below) 🥙 [13:04]
- Why Lila wanted to go to Israel, next 🇮🇱 [14:51]
- Finding an experience that matched with her major and sister school 🏫 [16:04]
- A hands on archaeology experience 🗿 [16:42]
- The Kibbutz [19:07]
- ISRAEL 🇮🇱 [20:18]
- “There’s was only one shower!” 🛀 [22:12]
- Why Lila didn’t have to pay for any of her Israel trips 💸 [24:12]
- Sustaining an injury abroad 👩⚕️ [26:09]
- ‘Chilling out in the bomb shelter’ 💣 [28:58] (Lila has since sent me an email and assured me that she felt safe the entire time she was there)
- Knafe and Israeli salads 🥗 [30:05]
- Next stop: China 🌏 [31:28]
- Great advice: Getting a book that is set in where you’re traveling 📖 [33:02]
- Podcastle and Drabblecast 🎙 [35:07]
- Why you should study abroad and advice for when you actually do (from a scientist) 📝 [35:07]