If you are thinking about going abroad, I say go for it. Studying abroad, along with graduating, is one of the best things that you could choose to do while at Washington University. There are many benefits. For instance, it’s great to be able to tell people that you’ve been abroad. People are always impressed when you tell them that you’ve lived in another country, and the more time you spent there, the more they are impressed. International students can use this to their advantage by telling people, for example, that they studied abroad in Nepal for 26 semesters.

Studying abroad is not just fun; I think it should be mandatory fun. The school should require all students to spend at least one semester in a different country. This is a good precedent to set among universities. Eventually we would be known as a progressive university whose students are polylingual and knowledgeable of global events-basically we would be like high school students from other countries. We’d send overseas the most ignorant students first, the ones sometimes heard asking questions like, “Just who is this Coffee Annan?”

Requiring students to spend time abroad would free up some space in terms of housing. Apparently, the school has been turning some doubles into forced triples. Having lived in a triple myself freshman year, I can say that it is an unpleasant experience, with potential problems such as the doubling of the daily probability of coming back from class and being met with a sock on the doorknob; this is not only inconvenient, but also rather unhygienic.

Instead of forcing students to live under such ridiculous conditions, we should send a number of them to Japan and Ghana. Then we can accept more incoming students and thus, lower tuition for everyone. We’ll make going abroad sound attractive, such as by saying it is an enriching and educational experience, etc.

However, students should not have to wait until they are forced to go abroad to do it. I have been abroad twice now (three times if you count the 16 semesters I spent in Vietnam) and let me tell you, they have been some of the most enriching and educational experiences of my life-even beating all those informative episodes of Destinos that beginning Spanish students are required to watch. I went to Spain for a period of time that can only be described as “!incre¡ble!”

So there I was in Seville during the middle of the heat wave, probably the only non-tourist Asian present. I tried to blend in, but the neighborhood where I lived was not a tourist area, so whenever I wandered around-weak from hunger because I was vegetarian and Spain’s national vegetable is the squid-old women would stare and small children would point. Then the old women would stare at the children to let them know that it was rude to point at the lost Chinese man. However, during my time there, I met some really nice people, observed some comparatively fascinating customs, and vastly improved my Spanish.

Going abroad really gives you a chance to see how things are different from where you live. In Seville, for example, college students go home to take a nap in the afternoon; whereas here, we settle for the convenience of lecture halls. In Seville, the dogs are really friendly and personable. An American dog might bite you if it is in a good mood, and file a lawsuit if it is in a bad mood.

One of the nice people I met overseas was a bar owner, Juan, who had a lazy eye, and who offered me jam¢n, or ham, every time I sat down at his bar. He invited me once to his place for a lunch of delivered Chinese food. When his friends arrived, they looked rather perplexed. After we had gotten drunk enough on wine, they revealed that they thought Juan was crazy for inviting the food delivery guy to lunch. We had a great laugh, and they came to better appreciate us Chinese people. This is the type of stuff you can only learn abroad.

So if you’re thinking about going abroad, just do it. Do it for your own enrichment and for your classmates who like clean doorknobs. If you go to Seville, tell Juan I say hi. If you’re vegetarian or vegan, let him know, and he’ll offer you some squid on the house.

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