After a long week full of lab reports and looming exams, I needed a vacation. Luckily, that's just what I got, with a long weekend spent in Canberra, the capital of Australia. You may be wondering why I didn't venture into one of Australia's more well known cities, say, Sydney or Melbourne. This is because I went to Canberra for a very specific reason, to celebrate my cousin's 21st birthday. I had thought that, because by 21 in Australia you have already been legal to drink for 3 years, this birthday would not be as big a milestone as in the US. I thought wrong. For Australians the 21st is like a sweet 16th, obligating a huge party complete with family and speeches. This was a stoke of luck for me, as I rarely get to see my Australian family (whom I love dearly), and to have them all in the same place at one time offered a great opportunity to see everybody.
I flew for Berra very early Friday morning, a 4am wakeup almost made up for by the smooth flights that took me from Auckland, through Sydney to Canberra. While I have spent a fair bit of time in Melbourne, where my family is based, I have never visited the capital city. I was in for a treat, Canberra was a tight-knit college town with beautiful galleries and museums, specifically the National Gallery and War Memorial, which I had a great time touring. I also got a look at the Parliament House, an architecturally striking building and the meeting place for the Australian Parliament. The weather was unfortunately gloomy, and a good 20 degrees colder than Auckland, a fact I had not bargained for. New Zealand's small size as an island keeps temperatures stable, with summers in the high 70's and winters in the 60's. Meanwhile, Canberra is in the center of a large continent and experiences real seasons, with summers upwards of 100 and winters down in the 40's.
The weather didn't stop us from having a great celebration of my cousin Adela's 21st, and I had the best night dancing, drinking and having conversations that inevitably devolved into American politics. After an evening of reconnecting with the family I so rarely see, and reminiscing about the years past, us college kids made our way to the local dive Mooseheads. The joint is such a staple of the city, that the man I sat next to on the plane ride back, after hearing I was coming from Canberra, asked only "did you go to Mooseheads?". The next day was sunny and felt more like the country I knew, and was spent watching Adela play footie before I had to board a plane ride back home. All in all it was an excellent trip, and I hope I can make it down under sometime soon in the upcoming years.
A lot has happened since I wrote my last blog. In fact, this current blog is not even from "abroad", as I have officially returned back to the United States. Leaving Paris has been a whirlwind, one in which different feelings have all swirled together into one that is indescribable: I am grateful yet at the same time heartbroken, I am excited yet at the same time fearful. In the days leading up to my flight home, I felt at times content with the idea of leaving Europe, of rejoining my friends and family back home and reflecting on my meaningful experience. Yet, sometimes only a few minutes later I would feel devastated that my childhood dream has been terminated, that my time living in Paris has come to a close, and that I would have to say goodbye to a place that I had just gotten accustomed to living in.
Leaving Paris was more than coming back home after a long trip. In fact, when I was sixteen I spent five weeks travelling throughout Israel, so I believed that I would be used to the idea of leaving a place even if I had been there for a long time. However, this was different. It did not exactly feel like I was leaving to come home, because over the past three and a half months, Paris did in fact become my home. I went to school there, ate meals with my family, had my own bedroom, did my own laundry, and grocery shopped: all in Paris. I took trips throughout Europe and Africa, and returned to Paris. This was something that I had not expected would be so hard about leaving my sight of study abroad: it did not feel like my trip was over, but that my current life was being taken away from me.
Now that I am back and separated from Paris, I feel more of a sense of clarity. In this moment, I can reflect on my experience rather than dwell on what I lost. It has been interesting to reconnect with friends and see the life that I put on hold while I was studying abroad. It is interesting to see how people have changed and the things in society that have progressed. To me, it feels like I hit "resume", when in fact everyone else has been in "play".
Today I expected to be writing about my spectacular tramp across the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, a 9-hour climb that is by all accounts one of the best in the country. But things don't always work out as expected. Here's how things went down: on Saturday I packed my tramping bag with everything I would need for the climb, including a hat, gloves, jackets and enough food to last me a full day. Accompanied by my best tramping friend Morgan I went down to the Auckland City car rental, and we were soon on our way to Tongariro National Park. After 4 hours of driving we arrived at Howard's Lodge, a small but comfortable hostel where we spent the night with 8 other trampers in bunk beds. In the morning we woke up at the crack of dawn, early enough to catch one of the few shuttles to the base of the mountain. This was where our adventure began, but not the one we expected.
Upon dropping our key off at reception, the worn-out looking receptionist greeted us with, "you do know the shuttles are cancelled for today, right?". We did not. Apparently there was a blizzard on the mountain, and the shuttle service had decided that morning not to let anyone climb for the day. With that we packed all our alpine tramping gear into the rental car, and sat deliberating on what to do next. We had come all this way, and were determined to make the most of our time. So, with that in mind, we headed North to Lake Taupo. The fog was so thick on the winding roads down we had to pull over a few times to let it clear, as we could barely see the road in front of us. However, when we made it to Taupo the fog evaporated altogether, leaving clear and sunny skies.
With newfound energy we hiked up Huka falls, glacial rapids the icy blue color we had become familiar with during our South Island trip. It was a short but beautiful hike, and yielded some great views of the waterfall, engorged from a night of heavy rain. After that, we used the money we had been refunded from our shuttle to Tongariro to book a boat out to see the Maori cliff carvings. I had fairly low expectations for this, which were completely surpassed by the carvings, which stretched high into the cliffs surrounding Lake Taupo. The boat we took out was a gorgeous little catamaran, which gave us plenty of time to soak up the sun while admiring the carvings.
Just four weeks left. I cannot believe that my program and time abroad is coming to an end. I am not entirely sure how I feel about it. In these past two months, I have definitely “settled-in”. We have had less and less program commitments on the weekends. I have had the chance to spend more time with local and program friends. The most frustrating part of the situation is that I wish that this “settling in” sensation occurred mid-way through the semester, as opposed to happening right before I left. The benefit of having this feeling now it that it helps with the pain of leaving Botswana.
In terms of preparing for re-entry into the US, I am just trying to make the most of the connections I have in Botswana. Spending more time with my local and program friends helps to manage any sadness I feel about leaving soon. What really helps is the fact that my local friends no longer treat me as a “tourist”. They no longer take me to the super touristy or “must-see” places in town. We have reached a level where being bored but in each other’s company, is enough. For friends back in the states, I have to somehow find a way to recount my entire experience abroad. Do I just word vomit everything that has occurred over the last 120 days? Do I have them read my journal? Do I make a presentation for them? We have talked throughout the semester, mainly about my experience and the challenges I have faced. Talking in person would be a whole different story. You are going to be more vulnerable and expressions will be easily understood in a face to face conversation. Not that I could ever butcher the retelling of my semester, I just really want to portray Botswana is the accurate way.
What I’m really scared about the most is possibly seeing a change in my life once reoriented in the states. I mean, I know I have further developed my ability to adapt. But, what if I cannot cope with the reverse culture shock and immediately become disgusted by American values and stereotypes that I tried so hard to dismantle while abroad. The worst part is, I probably will not be the first to the notice the little changes in my life. It will probably be my friends and family who will see the changes first. I am saying that the changes will be bad. They may even enhance my personality. I think the key to coping with changes and reverse culture shock is to remain open-minded and give yourself time to process reorientation into the states. There is no perfect timeline for how the whole situation is supposed to unfold.
One of my friends who went on an exchange program once told me, “Nothing lasts forever, especially, study abroad.” And how true have her words been! It feels like it was just yesterday when I landed in Changi on a hot and humid January morning (something, I never thought I would be able to say in the same sentence). Now, I am expected to pack up and fly back to New Delhi on a hot and humid May morning. Even though I have been prepared to go back home, I am whiplashed by how quickly the semester went by. More importantly, though, I am amazed at how much I have learned and changed over the last few months.
So, what have I learned from study abroad?
1. It is okay to feel like a fish out of water
In some aspects, coming to Singapore has not been a culture shock to me simply because the Indian culture is an important part of Singaporean culture itself. However, I have still felt like a fish out of water many times here and especially during my travels through Southeast Asia.
One of the first times that I felt completely out of sync was when I tried to order my first cup of tea at a local hawker center. I was extremely confused by local names such as ‘Teh, Tea O, Tea C etc.’ and ended up ordering iced milk tea, instead of the hot one that I wanted.
The first final that I took in Singapore, also baffled me. First and foremost, it was held in a huge sports hall. Even though my class was small with only 10 students, we took our exams with nearly 400 other students in the same space. The local students put away their bags in the corner of the huge hall and walked to their assigned seat numbers with complete ease. One of my local friends had to actually guide me through the entire process. ...continue reading "Lessons and Letters: My final blog on Singapore"
It was a sunny day when my plane was descending from an eight hour flight from Doha International Airport into Singapore's Changi International Airport. As I looked out the left window, I could see the famous boat like structure on top of Marina Bay Sands, the Singapore Flyer Ferris Wheel, and even the Supertrees. When the plane finally touched the ground and came to a stop, my first thought was "This is it. I'm actually here".
I didn't think that these past five months would have gone by as quickly as they did. There were certainly dull times throughout the semester where the days went by and all I had done was stay in my room and do some work. However, as I have to come to learn, studying abroad doesn't necessarily mean doing something new every moment. Often times people studying abroad say they have been enlightened or have changed as a person. While I can't necessarily say that I have changed, I have learned a lot more about the world through the lens of the locals in Singapore and the countries I have visited. I have enjoyed having meaningful conversations with my fellow exchangers about their home countries and how their culture is similar and different from my own.
Looking back on my semester, I don't have many, if any, regrets. There are some things that I wish I had known before coming to Singapore. These things include basic things like sunscreen (it costs so much here!), an umbrella (despite all of the sun, it rains at any given moment in Singapore), and also general assumptions such as spending. While the food in Singapore is cheap, I have found myself being constantly low in cash. Singapore is mostly a cash based economy. The country is moving towards being cashless by encouraging people to pay with NETS, the Network for Electronic Transfers. NETs is a national electronic payment system that is owned by banks in Singapore including DBS, OCBC, and UOB.
Before I head home this week, I have one more adventure to tackle here in Iceland: my glacial geology field work trip! For five days, my forty classmates and I are traveling with our professor and some graduate students around South and West Iceland to observe glaciers and the landforms they leave behind. Here is a recap of our trip, probably the most epic field trip I have been on.
Saturday (May 12th)
Saturday was our first day of field work and consisted of three primary stops: the Ancient Forest, Gígjökull, and Steimsholtjökull. The Ancient Forest is a patch of dried tree stumps which were killed in a flood. This flood was caused by a sub-glacial eruption from Katla volcano which is under the Mýrasjökull glacier. By dating the trees, scientists concluded that all of the trees died at the same time around 823 CE. This site was only revealed 15 years ago by another flood, which is why it’s a hotspot for glacial-flood related research now. Both Gígjökull and Steimsholtjökull are glaciers further inland from the ancient forest. These glacial tongues extend down from Eyjafjallajökull, the famous subglacier volcano which erupted in 2010. Both of these glaciers have released giant floods as a result of eruptions and other events, similar to the one which killed the ancient forest. Being able to predict flood events as a result of the interactions between glaciers and volcanoes is very important in Iceland because these massive flood destroy property and infrastructure, and have the potential to change the physical landscape and kill people.
Excavating a dead tree in the ancient forest
Gígjökull extending down from Eyjafjallajökull
Steimsholtjökull in the top right corner extending down and its proglacial lake (the lake of meltwater in front of warmer glaciers).
Sunday (May 13th)
On Tuesday, we spent the entire day at Solheimajökull, another glacial tongue extending from Mýrasjökull. In the morning, we walked around the outwash plain of the glacier (the flat flood zone in front of the glacier) and observed different landforms (in layman’s terms, different types of gravel piles) from different time periods. For example, further away from the glacier we see features which date back to the Neo-Glacial era (2,000-3,000 years ago), as well as the Little Ice Age (600-800 years ago). Most notably, we see the moraines (linear mounds) which mark the end of the glacier at different points in time. Starting from the moraine from 1995, we can follow the retreat of the glacier as a result of climate change until now.
For the latter half of the day, we hiked on the actual glacier and practiced drilling into the ice using a steam drill. Basically, to operate a steam drill, you have a boiler filled with water which is heated using camping fuel. When the water boils, it releases steam through a hose which is connected to a hollow spike. The steam warms and escapes the spike through a small hole at the point. By facing the spike vertically downwards, the stream of steam will heat the ice below and slowly bore a hole down. These types of drills can be used to take measurements below the ice.
Solheimajökull from the outwash plain below.
Me and my friends Andrew (Canadien), Chris (Norwegian), and Nellie (Norweigian) on top of Solheimajökull. We used crampons to hike across the ice.
A professor boring a hole with the steam drill.
Monday (May 14th)
On Monday we spent our entire day at Sveinafellsjökull and Skeiđarárjökull, outlet glaciers of Vatnajökull, the largest glacier in Europe. We started the day by hiking around the ice margin and proglacial lake of Sveinafellsjökull. One of the PhD students who was accompanying out trip talked a bit about her research with ice cores. In general, ice cores can be used to measure changes in the temperature. This is done by measuring the concentrations of different water isotopes in the annual layers of ice. Essentially, if there is a warmer year, there will less “light” water isotopes because they evaporate out more quickly. In her project, the PhD student was looking at how volcanic eruptions in the area change the regional temperature and how that effects the concentration of different water isotopes.
The second part of the day was spent walking around the outwash plain of Skeiđarárjökull. This particular glacier in the largest outlet glacier from Vatnajökull. It is also a surging glacier, which means that it does not have the same annual growth and retreat as normal glaciers. Instead, it experiences periods of very fast flow which cause it to expand quickly (maybe every few years). After it surges, it leave behind lots of “dead ice” – ice disconnected from the main glacier.
In front of Sveinafellsjökull – all of the black sediment coming from the glacier is ash from former eruptions below Vatnajökull
These slopes mark where Skeiđarárjökull stopped during the Little Ice Age, coach bus for scale.
A kettlehole, formed by dead ice melting underneath – students for scale.
Tuesday (May 15th)
On Tuesday, we continued our trip in the morning by heading east to Veiđarsandur. This sandy area is another outwash plain filled with sediments from the volcano, Katla. Eurptions from Katla melt the overlying glacier, Mýrasjökull, and cause it to flood and transport volcanic ash to the area down below. In 1918, there was a giant flood caused by a Katla eruption which carried enough sediment downstream to extend the surrounding coastline out 4 kilometers into the sea. This eruption actually connected an isolated island to the Icelandic mainland. Some of the Icelandic coastline is dependent on regular floods of glacier melt and volcanic ash to maintain the land. Currently, the small town of Vik is facing problems with coastal erosion since Katla has not erupted in 100 years to provide to sediments to the coast.
Later, we continued our journey to an older glacial landscape, named Völlur, closer to Reykjavik. Here we saw geological remnants from the Last Glacial Maximum 14,000 years ago. At this point, our group of fifty early-mid 20-somethings began to mentally devolve to kindergartners after spending 4 long days together. So here, there were lots of people tumbling boulders down hills and tumbling around in the moss.
Taking off our boots to wade through a freezing river
Hiking across an old glacial moraine
Wednesday (May 16th)
Wednesday was our final day on the trip, and we focused on glaciomarine environments (where glaciers meet the ocean). During the Last Glacial Maximum, Iceland was completely covered by glaciers which extended into the Atlantic. The glaciers were so heavy that they caused the island to sink nearly 60 meters into the ocean. Once the retreated, the island rose again. This phenomena is known as isostatic rebound. Because of this, there are specimens of marine interactions available for us to see on land.
Most of our day was spent at some sea cliffs about an hour north of Reykjavik studying the structural geology of the cliff. Essentially, we were tracing different layers of sediment along the shoreline to see which layers were deformed during which glacial time period. A local farm dog decided to join our walk along the beach and probably had the best time of all of us receiving pats from every student.
Sea Cliffs with the geolo-dog in training.
Sea Cliffs with the geolo-dog in training.
This blog post is the final one for my exchange here in Iceland. It has been a really great semester, and this field trip really rounded it out well. Of course, it is always bittersweet to say goodbye to my friends, but I hope to see them again in the future. It’s been a semester full of bizarre and interesting experiences and has been truly worthwhile.
-Emily
P.S. Here are some pictures of me snorkeling last week in Silfra, a crevasse in Þingvallavatn – my bucket list activity for my last free days in Iceland.
Greetings from Salzburg, Austria! While my program does not end til mid July, for other students this is their final week studying abroad, thus making this my last blog post. To be frank, I am only halfway through my program and have spent majority of my time outside of Freiburg, so I do not have the privilege of looking back on my experience and communicating it to you all, which was essentially what I was chosen to do. So, I will attempt to summarize my time here and give you a little insight into IES Freiburg - Environmental Studies.
For starters, most abroad programs start promptly after Winter Break in mid to late January at the latest. For better or for worse, this particular program starts late February - as in February 27th, which is basically March at that point - and goes til July 7th. This is primarily due to Germany’s semester structure and is similar to the Australia program. As a result, you have around 2 months at home after finishing up fall semester finals at GW before your program and about a month before you start school back in the States in August. I personally love spending time with my family and the extra month was perfect for my timetable, but it is important to note that it took my out of internship season in the summer. On the other hand to play devil’s advocate, spring and summer in Freiburg is the best time to live or travel in the city.
Which brings me to my next topic - Freiburg as a city. Freiburg is a university city and is primarily comprised of students, professors, and the elderly. That being said, when school is not in session, there is absolutely no one - and I mean no one - in town. During the first three weeks I was in Freiburg, school was not in session and it was still winter. Needless to say, it was rather depressing and isolating. As time went by and school resumed, the city changed over night and suddenly everyone was outside walking around, laying on the grass, eating at a cafe, and just enjoying the local culture. So if you do go on this program or are considering it, keep this in mind that it gets better. In addition, Freiburg is situated right near the French and Swiss borders, thus making Basel or Frankfurt the closest airport. The airport is only a 3-4 hour bus/train ride away, but it does make traveling more expensive. I pay from 5—70 Euros just to get to the airport (sometimes total, other times one way), thus increasing the cost of my weekend travel. If small towns in the middle of nowhere are your thing, then Freiburg is perfect, but if you are looking for a National airport type situation like DC, you will not find that here....continue reading "IES Freiburg – Environmental Studies Summarized"
One of the really unique aspects about doing an SIT Program is that they all have a one month attached independent study project (ISP) to culminate the end of the semester. During the ISP, you are allowed to travel to anywhere that is relevant to the program focus and given free range to research any topic of your interest. I only have one week left of my ISP time, but it has been one of the most eye opening and educational experiences of my life. I decided to go to Dharamsala, the “capital” of Tibetans in exile. I’ve spent the last three weeks apprenticing a local small business clothing company to learn more about how emerging Tibetan designers use traditional clothing as inspiration for their contemporary designs. I’ve been going into the workshop and working with the tailors to make clothes. I even got to design a few garments. I set out to gain some perspective on what Tibetan clothing means for a group of people that have evolve in exile, and I’m walking away from a deeper understanding of how nuanced this idea of fashion, especially in the context of identity, can be. This experience has given me so much first-hand knowledge about the livelihoods of those who seek to creative and to do so with integrity to their identity.
Getting to do an ISP in India is also really cool because it is like I get to study abroad in two countries. Despite being in majority Tibetan communities in Nepal and India, Dharamsala has been really unique from my experience in Nepal. In my few weeks here, I’ve reunited myself with a variety of food that doesn’t include dal bhat, explored little Israel, and walked a lot of hills. I even met the Dalai Lama and got to attend a teaching by him. It’s my last week in Dharamsala before I head back to Nepal for the final week of study abroad, so I’m trying to soak up all of the beauty in Dharamsala before I leave.
This week was my last week of classes, leading up to a month-long exam break, during which I only have three exams. Preparing for a good deal of free time, I decided to kick off this month by doing the Tongariro Northern Circuit, a gruelling 4-day hike spanning almost 50km and rising almost 2,000m in elevation. The track promised spectacular views of the Northern volcanic landscape, and I was thrilled to be going with a large group of avid young trampers like myself. I had attempted to do the shorter version of this hike at the beginning of the month, then again the previous week, each time having my plans cancelled due to the highly changeable alpine weather. As luck would have it, it was the day before the hike was set to begin that I got the news: there had been an avalanche warning on the mountain, meaning that our trip had to be cancelled. This was consequently not the first, or the second, but the third time I had tried and failed to complete this tramp, and left me with a solid four day gap in my otherwise thoroughly planned schedule. So, disappointed but determined to make the best of the situation, I went about planning four days of activity in Auckland.
Since, at this point, I have spent a fair amount of time in Auckland, I sometimes settle into the mindset that I have to travel somewhere else to do something interesting. This past weekend has entirely disproved that theory, with my real introduction to underground Auckland. The city is such an international hub, home to the only international airport in the country and eternally bustling with tourists like myself, that it can take some work to get to the heart of the people that really define the area. Over the weekend I ate at small Kiwi-owned bistros, shopped around local craftsmen shops, and explored neglected boroughs. However, a breakthrough moment for me in my endeavor to really know the city happened when i discovered Auckland's underground theatre scene. Looking for something to do on a Saturday night, branching out from our usual pub spots, my friend suggested to me that we try and see a play. As it happened, that night was the closing night of "Cult Show", a breakout feminist manifesto at The Basement Theatre. The venue was a blackbox theatre space inside a bar, filled with the tattooed, pierced, bearded millenial crowd baby boomers love to mock. I felt right at home.
The play itself was the kind of avante-guard contemporary work that I love, making men out of fruit and throwing water at the audience, all the while engaging in a real, thought-provoking dialogue about modern feminism. Because Cult Show was produced by the theatre, it was a real New Zealand play, taking a deep dive into the NZ Women's Archives and introducing me to historical women I'd never heard of before. I was really intrigued by the debates on Maori oppression, the closest New Zealand parallel to the struggle of African American women towards intersectional feminism, something I'd barely heard discussed in the touristy museums I'd been visiting. It did what good theatre should do, challenge the viewer, and left me really questioning the history of this country I'd been readily accepting. Ultimately, the underground theatre scene of Auckland yielded a better look at Kiwi culture than all the museums claiming to do just that, proving that it takes more than a few months to truly understand the character of a city.
