Finding other people who have done what you’re about to do helps with preparation, but you have to be careful to put what you read into context. I was reading a message board with lots of good information but, like all message boards, there are a few idiots among the posters. One of the threads was Getting Sent Home Early, where a boy said he got sent home from Denmark because “I rarely went to school,” with some friends “wrote a rather hilarious but extremely blasphemous book,” had “severe problems” with the host Rotary club, and then was “ostracized” from the sponsoring club after he got home. But he wasn’t too upset because he has “anarchist leanings” and “hanging around with an group of wealthy, generally older men who get together to make themselves feel better and manifest business ties isn’t that delightful is not always my idea of a great time.” [toss a few sics in that last quote – I’m not sure exactly where they should go]
After being raised Catholic and after a lot of personal study, I am not religious, but I respect anyone’s right to believe in whatever helps get them through the night as long as they leave me out of it. I finished my undergraduate work at Pacific Lutheran University because of a specific minor offered there. Some students on campus complained about the Christian overtones to the school. If you don’t want to read about Jesus in the campus newspaper, don’t go to a school with a name where Lutheran functions as an adjective to University. Likewise, if you have strong moral objections to mostly white guys in the business of capitalism, don’t accept their generous offer to send you abroad to study for a year.
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