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Feb Photo Challenge Winner: Around the World in 28 Days

WHAT IS THE #BAPHOTOCHALLENGE? Photo challenge participants get a prompt emailed to them at the beginning of the month, and follow-up emails periodically in the following weeks. They then share their best photos that follow along with the theme that month. The goal is to share captivating images online, with meaningful captions, in order to promote cross-cultural understanding in a fun, simple way. FEBRUARY’S PHOTO CHALLENGE: In February we challenged you to connect with bloggers all around the world. Participants used their own personalized hashtag to travel ‘around the world’ without leaving the comforts of their home. Reaching 18 different countries we were able to follow their journeys around the world. From the shores of Ghana to dancing in Indonesia we were able to see landscapes, people, and cultural exchange from all across the globe. This month was about connecting people across the world who are all passionate about travel and cultural exchange. In the end we had one winner, let’s look at her journey across the world! Check out her personal cross cultural journey on instagram or on her blog www.movingwrightalong.com A post shared by «–« k r y s t a l »–» (@movingwrightalong) on Feb 2, 2017 at 8:13am PST Thank you to all the participants this month! Be sure to join us with the next photo challenge to get an all new prompt on the 1st of the month!...

New Years 2017 Blog Challenge - bridging cultures through blogging
2017 Blog Challenge BONUS Round Up BONUS: Hospitality
Our final prompt of the 2017 New Years challenge has officially passed, however, we did issue a bonus prompt. A few intrepid bloggers took us up on the additional challenge, which we will share with you here.

The Prompt: Hospitality

Peace Corps Week is coming up at the end of February and they're celebrating with the theme: Highlighting Hospitality. So we took the opportunity to support that effort, as an optional Blog Challenge prompt. Although not everyone in the Blogging Abroad community are Peace Corps Volunteers, this theme applies to anyone with a host community overseas. PCV or not, this was an opportunity to share traditions of hospitality and inspiring stories of how our host community welcomes us and others. [caption id="attachment_423" align="alignright" width="227"]pinboard
New Years 2017 Blog Challenge - bridging cultures through blogging
New Years 2017 Blog Challenge Round Up #4: HOPE
Welcome to the Week Four Blog Challenge recap! This is officially our final prompt of the 2017 New Years challenge, however, there is a bonus prompt in the pipeline for those who want to continue their blogging challenge beyond January.

The Prompt: Hope & Change

For many of us, our worlds are going through some major changes and sometimes it's easy to lose hope. So we're focusing our blogging efforts on Hope and Change. Where do we draw hope from? And how do we create positive change?

Highlights

This week's responses were especially encouraging to me. It was clear that many bloggers have been "feeling the weight of the world" and yet, they're able to find hope, find ways to move forward, and encourage others. It's not an easy thing to published a balance of positives and negatives, or to keep yourself in check when emotions are running high. Here are just a few examples of great posts from the past week with a cool spin on the theme:
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New Years 2017 Blog Challenge - bridging cultures through blogging
New Years 2017 Blog Challenge Round Up #3
Welcome to the Week Three Blog Challenge recap! This January, bloggers living around the world are taking the challenge to start the year off with weekly blog posts on meaningful topics. Over the past week, blog posts on the new prompt have been pouring out into the blogosphere and we've rounded them up for you here.

The Prompt: Cultural Differences

The point of this prompt was not really to draw attention to how big the differences are between cultures, but actually to realize how we're all heavily influenced by the underlying, unspoken "rules" of culture. Understanding why people behave the way they do and empathizing with the values that inform their decisions is an important skill. This week, we used some social science and cultural communication resources, like the 10 variables of culture differences, to inspire our blog posts.

Highlights

It's not hard to find stand out blog posts among this community of passionate bloggers! Here are just a few examples of great posts from the past week, with a few notes about how you can apply their strategies, too:
  • Here's a great example of sharing life lessons from abroad with folks who might follow in your footsteps. Also, a good reminder to always link back to your previous blog posts that relate to the new topic! (Liz, Mozambique)
  • This is a fun, photo-centric post from the perspective of a village dog as a way to share cultural differences about pets. (Morgan, South Africa)
  • The focus on one topic and the composition of this post, with super-sized quotes, super-short paragraphs to highlight ideas, bolded headings, plenty of space, etc. make this page really attractive. (Olivia, Madagascar)
  • A "10 Things" tribute list with supporting stories and pictures is a great way to share why you'll miss your host country. (Mark, Kyrgyzstan)
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New Years 2017 Blog Challenge - bridging cultures through blogging
New Years 2017 Blog Challenge Responses Round Up #2

Welcome to Week Two of our second annual Blog Challenge!

This January, bloggers living around the world are taking the challenge to start the year off with weekly blog posts on meaningful topics. We now have over 90 folks living in about 30 different countries signed up, with more joining every day! One week ago, participants received the following prompt via e-mail:

The Prompt: The Danger of a Single Story

This week's prompt is based on a popular TED talk by author Chimamanda Adichie (see below). In it, she warns that if we only hear a single story about a person, country or issue, we risk great misunderstanding.

“The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.”

 

Along with the prompt, Challenge participants also received some blog tips and a number of creative ideas to approach their response. Over the past week, their posts have been pouring out into the blogosphere and we've rounded them up for you here.

Highlights

Once again, there was so many impressive, thoughtful posts this week! Our highlights today focus on the note-worthy formats and techniques that certain bloggers have used in their responses:   [caption id="attachment_423" align="alignright" width="227"]pinboard
New Years 2017 Blog Challenge - bridging cultures through blogging
New Years 2017 Blog Challenge Responses Round Up #1

Our second annual Blog Challenge begins!

This January, bloggers living around the world are taking the challenge to start the year off with weekly blog posts on meaningful topics. We have over 80 folks living in about 30 different countries signed up, with more joining every day! Roughly one week ago, the first prompt was sent to them via e-mail.

The Prompt: Global Citizenship

Along with the prompt, Challenge participants also received some blog tips and a number of creative ideas to approach their response. Over the past week, their posts have been pouring out into the blogosphere and we've rounded them up for you here.

Highlights

These bloggers have impressed us! There was so many great, thoughtful posts this week. There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to reflecting on Global Citizenship, so we'd like to focus more on the formats and techniques a few bloggers used.
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December Photo Challenge Highlights: #Celebrate

What is the #baphotochallenge?

Photo challenge participants get a prompt emailed to them at the beginning of the month, and follow-up emails periodically in the following weeks. They then share their best photos that follow along with the theme that month. This month’s theme was “Celebrate”. The goal is to share captivating images online, with meaningful captions, in order to promote cross-cultural understanding in a fun, simple way.

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December's Photo Challenge

December’s challenge was about all things celebratory. Participants used #celebrate to tag their pictures of celebrations from all over the world. Participants were also challenged to invite friends to join the challenge by tagging people in the caption of their picture. This month’s journey included German holiday cuisine, African wedding festivities, and Christmas tree decorating in Moldova, to name a few. We saw holiday filled landscapes, celebrations of faith, celebrations of change, and celebrations of life. This month was all about challenging bloggers and social media followers to expand their definition of ‘The Holiday Season’ outside their own cultural traditions, holidays, and festivities. Let’s review the Top 5 photos of December’s ‘Celebrate’ Challenge: 5. Christmas Tree Decorating in Moldova
Best Cross-Culture Posts of 2016 | Blogging Abroad
Best Cross-Culture Posts of 2016 World-Wide

Our mission at Blogging Abroad is to inspire and equip people living abroad to promote cross-cultural understanding through blogging and social media. This year, we've seen so many fantastic examples of cultural exchange online, we decided to round up the best of the best.

 

What makes a great cultural blog post?

  Here are some of the top things we considered when composing our list:
  • Well-written, easy to read text
  • A positive, respectful outlook and promotion of cross-cultural understanding
  • A cohesive theme, rather than a running diary entry
  • A unique perspective or creative post format
  • Engaging, quality images
  • Interesting titles and headings
  • Responsible crediting of outside sources (including image credits)
  • Appropriate post length - not too long or rambling
  We applaud each of our finalists for their excellent blog posts. And above all, we hope these examples will spark ideas and encourage more bloggers to join in the meaningful work of unofficial cultural ambassadorship!

Still need more blog post ideas? Check out our Tools & Resources page.


Top Cross-Culture Posts

  We narrowed our list down to thirteen front runners, each with their own particular strengths and merit. Here they are, in no particular order:

Take a Quick 5-Minute Trip to Moldova by Sara Hoy | SaraJoy (Moldova)

Friends and family can't always come visit while you're abroad. Why not take them on a virtual tour?
Simple steps to deepen your cross-cultural experience abroad and plan for a more meaningful travel blog that promotes cross-cultural understanding | Blogging Abroad
How to Plan for a Meaningful Culture Blog

You’ve got a big vacation planned, or maybe you’ve decided that you want to live and work abroad. You’ve decided that you want to share your experiences online with the rest of the world, either through a blog or even just on your personal social media profiles. But, you don’t just want it to be a travelogue or a diary, you really want to share the culture of the place you’re going. It can be hard to dive into the culture of a place once you get there, and after you leave, sometimes you don’t feel like you learned enough to really share cross-cultural understanding. You may get to the end of your time abroad and realize that you aren’t sure how to meaningfully talk about what your destination is really like. It becomes really easy to fall back on sharing pretty pictures and writing a travel guide instead of diving deeper. But, if you start out your adventure with a little extra planning, it’ll make finding those cultural experiences that much easier, and sharing them more meaningful. Here are four things to include in your plans for your time abroad to make sharing culture a breeze. Festivals and Holidays The Dance of the Terrifying Deities is one of the main dances of the Thimphu Teschu in Bhutan. Teschus are major religious festivals that take place around the country that involved masked dances performed by monks who enter full meditation during the performance. Check your calendar and the calendar of where you are going and see...

Featured Blogger: Gloria of La Pateperro

Every blogger has a unique journey and style to share with the world. It's our hope that Blogging Abroad can be a safe place for online story-tellers to exchange ideas, hone their craft, and support each other in promoting cross-cultural understanding online. In today's post, we'd like to introduce you to a blogger from our community who just started her Peace Corps blog five months ago. We interviewed her about her perspective on the challenges and lessons learned so far - maybe you can relate...