Everyone talks about jumping on the chance to study abroad during college, and after doing so, I
\wholeheartedly agree. This is an experience that I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to go through again. For
context, the dialogue I went on was for Graphic Design 2 and Typography 2 in Basel, Switzerland (did you
get the pun in the title?). Funnystory, I had not yet completed Graphic Design 1 or Typography 1 before
going on this trip, which were the classes of the dialogue that I originally applied for, but because the
second one needed more people to be able to run, that is what I ended up switching too. My lack of
experience, I’d only taken one college design course before this, was definitely a point of stress before
heading off. Once there however, I didn’t feel that behind especially because everyone was at different
places, especially with the adobe software. I was also nervous about being an underclassman as most of
the people on the dialogue were older but I’d say we had quite a range. We had those who were freshly
into the summer of their first year all the way up to one who had already graduated and was finishing
out his last semester requirements.
The best way I can describe this experience is that it was like a dream. Something me and my dialogue
cohort would joke about was that we really had nothing to complain about over there. Yes this dialogue
was rare in terms of how intense the workload was, I vividly remember everyone in it together grinding
out their design pieces in the hotel lobby late into the night and waking up early in the morning to
commute to class via the tram, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
That first week was essentially our adjustment to and exploration of Basel, Switzerland. When I say I’ve
never walked more in my life than in that first week, I mean it. We started off by touring and learning
about Basel’s school of design, including a special poster tour in their archives, which is where we had
our classes. The weeksafter that were primarily filled with classes on the weekdays and day trips on the
weekends. We visited a variety of different museums, such as the Kuntsmuseum, Cartoon Museum,
Paper Museum, and Tingley Museum, as well as nature spots such as the mountains of Lucerne. Now
because Basel is within the region of Switzerland that borders both Germany and France, we had
opportunities to do international trips. I remember the awe that we had when we wanted to find a
dinner spot and ended up going to France, then Germany and back to Switzerland in one evening. One of
my favorite parts about a dialogue experience as opposed to a traditional study abroad is how little
planning I had todo myself. Pretty much all the excursions were delineated by the program.
The majority of my time however, was spent in classes at the Basel School of Design. The way our
program was run was that one of the classes was taught by a Northeastern professor (Typography 2) and
the other class was taught by two professors from the Basel school of design (Graphic Design 2). It was
nice to have a mix because it broke up our day; we were in the same classroom the entire day, which was
essentially the schedule of a 9-5. Additionally, we got to experience the teaching methods of Swiss
higher education in design. Despite not taking the prerequisites, I would say I had enough background
and support to succeed and keep up with what the class was doing. Because our projects were mainly
independent, class served most of the time as a studio space. This is something I missed from my high
school art classes. I think that through this experience, I got a glimpse of what my courses may have looked
like if I decided to go to an art school instead. Outside of independent work, there were technical
tutorials (such as the adobe suite and physical studies) and critiques sprinkled throughout our class days.
Swiss cuisine is not the type of food I typically go for. I am neither a fan of cheese nor meat, which are
traditional Swiss staples. I am a fan of bread and chocolate though. Another aspect I enjoyed of the food
there was the quality of their ingredients. For the most part, everything tasted fresher compared to here.
Our lunches on class days were free reign as long as we were back by the next class time. Often, we’d go
to the super market (named coop, which we NU students all referred to as co-op). I had my go-to
pre-prepared coop meals: poke bowls, onigiri, and mediterranean salads. I’ll be honest, there were
definitely some struggle meals sprinkled in, but overall I made it out without making too big a dent in my
bank account. One of the most affordable yet delicious options was Döner. I would also take advantage
of the included hotel breakfast buffet, which was actually one of the best I’ve eaten at, and take some
left overs for lunches and snacks. My roommate and I also took full advantage of the complimentary
hotel tea. There was a machine in the breakfast area that remained open until the evening which had all
different types of coffee but also hot water and hot milk. This meant unlimited hot tea and hot
chocolate. We also had weekly “family” dinners, courtesy of our professor, at this one traditional Swiss
restaurant. For the most part, the food was enjoyable, however as someone who grew up eating a lot of
spice, there was only so much authentically European food I could take. For example, one of these
dinners was traditional Swiss fondue. The entire course was just a large pot of cheese and bread to dip.
That was it. Now the bread was pretty good, but that was all I ate that night, oh and a pickle.
To end the experience, we had a farewell dinner and cruise on the Rhine which is the river that runs all
throughout Basel. It was a celebration of our design work and the experience as a whole. We invited the
Swiss professors as well which was nice because both of them were truly so kind. I’m glad we had this
official farewell because we all grew pretty close to one another during the experience. Because it was a
smaller batch of us, in fact so small it almost didn’t run, everyone was able to get to know each other,
grind out our projects together and plan things to do all together. We would have game nights at the
hotel, explore restaurants around the area, attend karaoke bar nights, peruse the weekend outdoor thrift
shops, and go out to see movies at the theatre. I believe that what made this experience so enjoyable for
me were the people, professor and program assistant included! Even post-dialogue, we planned a couple
get-togethers and mini reunions. Since most were upperclassmen, they are off to bigger and better
things now, but I am so glad to have met them.
All of this is to say, I highly recommend a dialogue experience – it’s something that has left me with so
many fond memories, stories, and relationships that I’ll reminisce about for years to come. It is a time
capsule in my life that I will never forget.