Javier Casillas `00, who is also in Spain this spring, was particularly intrigued by the way many Spaniards perceive Americans.

"[One of the things] I found most interesting [is] what I can learn from people's opinions of Americans," Casillas writes. "Basically they are seen as crass, uncultured, imperialistic, materialistic and puritanical. However, they are also perceived as independent, hard-working and competent."

A Different Kind of Classroom

Whether they were navigating rain-forests in Australia or winding their way down 17th century staircases at Pantheon Sorbonne in Paris, all of the students who studied abroad were affected by their exposure to a very different kind of academic environment.

While many felt the rigor and involvement of Harvard academics was not replicated abroad, most were struck by how a change in the way they were learning complemented their Harvard experience.

Beck says instruction in Paris came from a different angle than at Harvard. "[Classes] were very doctrinaire. There was very little reading and tons of discussions and lectures," she says.

"It was very difficult to adjust in the beginning because I was comparing everything to Harvard standards, but after a while I saw the merits of both," Beck adds.

It seems the academic ball and chain was often unshackled on foreign shores.

"While this may sound awful, the teachers [at the London School of Economics] don't always feel the need to keep a flame under visiting students," Cowherd says. "They know that, for the most part, we're here to have fun and get away from home."

But if the torrent of tests, reading and papers at Harvard was reduced to a more manageable stream abroad, it may well have been because of a natural shift away from the classroom for students who studied abroad.

For Alexandra S. Mandelbaum '99, who took the unusual step of studying for credit over the summer in Cuba, this was certainly the case.

"[Classroom learning] wasn't the primary experience," Mandelbaum says. "I have a new perspective on poverty, the results of the cold war and American foreign policy, but it didn't change my classroom experience in any way."

Mandelbaum was only allowed to stay in Cuba for three weeks due to government regulations.

"The Cuban experience is very different because there is no acclimation," she says. "You're always a foreigner, and you'll always have lots of money."

David W. Lerch '99, an Environmental Science and Public Policy concentrator, stressed that time abroad is particu- larly important for students in certainconcentrations. The rainforests that Lerch studiedin Australia could not be replicated in Harvardlabs.

"The experience of living in the rainforest andlearning about ecology and plant species andtaking hikes was a lot different than sitting in aclassroom and looking at books," he says.