{"id":3332,"date":"2015-01-06T07:43:50","date_gmt":"2015-01-05T19:43:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auip.wordpress.com\/?p=3332"},"modified":"2015-01-06T07:43:50","modified_gmt":"2015-01-05T19:43:50","slug":"student-perspective-student-steps-out-of-comfort-zone-to-head-to-fiji","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/student-perspective-student-steps-out-of-comfort-zone-to-head-to-fiji\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Perspective: Student steps out of comfort zone to head to Fiji"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Victoria Robertson, 2014-15 Fiji International Tourism for Development student blogger, writes:<\/p>\n<p>Ever need to get away? To prove to yourself you can be independent in an environment foreign to you? Ever want to immerse yourself in a new culture completely?<\/p>\n<p>I know I had all of these feelings when I first applied to study abroad in Fiji. And if I\u2019m being completely honest, all I knew about Fiji was that it tends to be a fairly popular vacation destination. Oh, and it hosted Survivor one year.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3333\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/en\/2\/21\/Survivor_fiji_logo.png\" target=\"_blank\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-0\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3333\" class=\"wp-image-3333 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/survivor_fiji_logo.png?w=300\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"181\" srcset=\"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/survivor_fiji_logo.png 325w, https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/survivor_fiji_logo-300x180.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3333\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo Source: Wikimedia<\/p><\/div>\n<p>But in further research and multiple excited reviews of my program\u2019s itinerary, I learned that it is so much more than that. Fiji offers an abundance of plant and animal life to be explored, the undeniable beauty of the South Pacific Ocean to absorb, and diverse customs and culture foreign to my own from which to learn.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3334\" style=\"width: 235px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/auip.com\/programs\/fiji\/sustainability\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3334\" class=\"wp-image-3334 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/yasawa-islands-fiji.jpg?w=225\" alt=\"Yasawa Islands, Fiji\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/yasawa-islands-fiji.jpg 422w, https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/yasawa-islands-fiji-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3334\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">I can\u2019t wait until I can take pictures this beautiful of my own!<\/p><\/div>\n<p>And hey, isn\u2019t that exactly what studying abroad is all about?<\/p>\n<p>When I first submitted my study abroad application, I didn\u2019t think I had a chance. I didn\u2019t think an English major belonged on a program focused on studying tourism and its impacts. I couldn\u2019t have been more wrong and am thrilled that I ignored this thought and applied anyway.<\/p>\n<p>The bottom line: study abroad is all about taking in something new. You step out of your comfort zone and experience what the world has to offer as you never have before. And that\u2019s exactly what I plan on doing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Victoria Robertson, 2014-15 Fiji International Tourism for Development student blogger, writes: Ever need to get away? To prove to yourself you can be independent in an environment foreign to you? Ever want to immerse yourself in a new culture completely? I know I had all of these feelings when I first applied to study abroad in Fiji. And if I\u2019m&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,6],"tags":[99,75],"class_list":["post-3332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2014-15-student-blogs","category-fiji","tag-fiji","tag-tourism"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3332\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}