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As you prepare to leave your host site/country, can you reflect on how you have fulfilled the role of either Allegheny College ambassador, or American ambassador, or both? What did this entail, and what were some of the challenges of fulfilling this role. Again, specific examples are always an interesting read :)
I think as studying abroad in England, because of the location – I was able to fulfill both the roles as American and Allegheny College ambassador. The people I got to know the best were my flat mates. It was neat to always be around them and they soon began to see me as just another flat mate, even if the conversation of how we say things differently and how the school systems are so much different between here and there came up every single day, I still became much more a member of the flat than a member of their country. I say this because, I began to feel very comfortable in the flat, almost like a family, whereas in other things I did with the university I was always the “American” or the international student or some talk was made about when I am heading home and if I miss it and if I like their country. Whereas those who I became closest too began to look past this. So, in that instance I feel that I have succeeded in being an Allegheny ambassador, because my fellow classmates then saw me as a student as well – there to study and not just talk about the differences and similarities between England and America. Even though I definitely thoroughly enjoyed these conversations.
As for fulfilling the role as an American ambassador, I believe that I started to. In my European Culture class, the class was about ½ English, the rest from some European country and then me, from America. My teacher was German and since the first day she told me how excited she was that there was an American in the class. Here I got to hold down the points that not everyone eats a burger a day, we all don’t sit and watch TV and waste all the energy of the world, not necessarily everyone washes their dishes in the same manner, we don’t all shower everyday or some of us, even every other. The other students in the class really liked these American contributions and viewpoints I was able to put forth as the voice of America in that class, needless to say, that was pretty cool!