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By juliaraewagner

After some 30+ hours of travel and 4 flights, IHP Cities has arrived in Dakar, Senegal! We've spent the past week getting acquainted with out new city, meeting the people, seeing the sites, and tasting this country's delicious food.

With warm weather, fresh air, and a constant, refreshing sea breeze, there's a lot to love about Dakar, but my favorite element so far has been the Senegalese attention to people. One of the first things our country coordinator told us is that Senegal has a people-centric, people-first culture, and that has been continuously reinforced in the classroom and my home-stay.

This week, we've learned how to greet people we meet, an act that is extremely important here. To not greet a person is to not acknowledge his humanity and so to ask someone to do something for you without greeting him first is one of the biggest offenses in the book. That must be why the Senegalese greet in not one, not two, but three different languages before getting down to what they wanted to discuss. So in the past week, I've learned how to say, "Hey, how are you?" in Arabic, French, and Wolof, the most prominent ethnic language.

Sometimes, this attention to the person means that things take longer than they would in our time-centric Western society. People are often late to meetings because they stopped to talk to a friend on the sidewalk or were busy checking in on their family. Our Senegalese country facilitator has joked that this loose attention to time is called WAIT, or West African Internal Time. Time here is all about giving people the time of day.

In my home-stay  I've also seen manifestations of the people-centric culture. Random family members and neighbors are constantly wandering into each other's homes and spending the night or the afternoon. Each house is home to a large extended family. I'm pretty sure that my household consists of about 12 people from three generations, though I'm still very unclear of who actually lives here and who simply spends their time here. Even more confusing is who is the child of whom and who is married to whom. The whole family gathers around the same tray for dinner every night, but we always seem to be adding new members.

Speaking of food, my home-stay roommate and I helped the women of the family prepare a huge feast today for their monthly family meeting.  Every month, all of the people of the same age within the family meet to talk and spend time together. Our house, which is usually bustling with about 20 people at any given time had about 40 people this afternoon. We spent the whole afternoon cooking for the event, but cleanup was super easy with so many hands to help out!

By juliaraewagner

This week, we started working on our country case studies. As the sustainability nerd on board, I immediately signed up to examine the urban environment of Ahmedabad.

While Ahmedabad has a long legacy of industry, in 1992, the city opened up to capitalism in a big way, inviting in foreign industries to settle down by doling out incentives. Soon enough, indsutrial estates sprouted up all over the city, most of which continue to grow today. My group and I decided that we couldn't examine the urban environment without understanding the disposal of waste and pollution.

Our faculty advisors partnered us with some local environmental institutions, and they connected us to some industries around the city. One thing that surprised me about our visits was that all of these factory owners and public officials were open to meeting with us, even on short notice. It may have been the Gujarati tradition of hospitality or simply the fact that the industry barons simply did not feel threatened by a bunch of college students. Whatever the reason, we couldn't help but notice that we were given access to the behind-the-scenes that we would never have experienced in the United States.

First we toured the chemical waste treatment center of the city where all of the industries send their effluent. The city has built a massive pipeline to transport it. Next we traveled to a dye factory where we saw the water going through its primary treatment; the end product, a frothy liquid with an orange hue, certainly didn't seem to be too clean. Finally, we visited the discharge point where all of the water is released into the river. This site as definitely the most striking as the thick, black water exiting the pipes did not serve to convince us that the water was at all fit to drink. Most striking were the agricultural fields sitting on the other side of the river.

It's easy to point fingers and make claims that India simply does not do enough to keep its natural resources safe. What is harder to recognize is that these problems occur all over the world, even in the US. We quickly forget about all of the Superfund sites and chemical spills like the one that happened in West Virginia recently. American industries might be more stealthy about how they handle waste, but our country too has a long legacy of pollution.

By juliaraewagner

One of the best reasons to study abroad is that you learn how to roll with the punches. In the past few months,  I've experienced more than my fair share of situations that would typically drive me (and my type A personality) bonkers. Living in countries where the unexpected is always the expected, however, has forced me to lighten up a little and enjoy the ride.

I was reminded of this lesson last night when my girlfriends and I decided to catch a classical Indian music show. My roommate Allie and I had planned to meet up with a friend before heading to the show. We had never been to her house before, but we figured the pick-up would be seamless as we'd discovered that she lived in the same neighborhood.  We hopped into a rickshaw,  the infamous 3-wheeled Indian taxi, and gave him our friend's address: the house behind the store in the alley next to the gas station behind the gold coin building. These instructions may as well have been jibberish to us, but seeing as most of Ahmedabad runs like this, we had faith that our "ricky" driver would have no problem locating the house.

Unfortunately,  he was just as clueless as we were.

So, we started the standard process of asking random people on the street if they had any idea of where we were going. Usually, we get a solid answer on the first try, but last night, we were having a lot of trouble. We asked 5 different people where to go,  and they all had different ideas about how to get there. We finally reached our friend's house 45 minutes later after a neighbor escorted our rickshaw to the house on his motorcycle. We realized then, that our friend lived only two blocks away.

With our friend finally in tow, we set off to our show with high spirits, hoping that we would not get lost again. We had her host mom give the driver explicit instructions to the music hall just to be safe. Unfortunately,  they weren't quite right, and we had to start the question process all over again. Five people and one trip to the gas station later, we made it to the music hall. We all clapped and cheered before we realized that the show had already ended! We rushed back outside to find our driver stretching after this two hour slog through the city. There was definitely a look of dread when we asked him to take us back home.

Luckily,  we made it home without any other issues. Normally, I would consider missing the show a huge inconvenience,  but I realized as we laughed our way home that the crazy rickshaw ride was the highlight of my night. Living here is not so much about patience as it is about keeping a sense of humor and a sense of adventure,  no matter where you're headed.

By juliaraewagner

As I write this post, I am sitting on a Qatar Airways flight to Ahmedabad, India, the first leg of the IHP Cities trip. All 33 of us have made it onto the flight and are excited for our newest adventure. It will begin after about 40 hours of travel. I, however, cannot complain as Qatar Airways has treated me very well. We only took off twenty minutes ago, and I've already received free candy and a hand towel. I can't imagine the amenities in First Class!

Aside from taking advantage of this awesome movie selection, I plan to use the time to reflect a bit, and of course...catch up on some much needed sleep! The Cities staff and faculty have been led us through an action packed final week in New York City. We spoke to a number of different professionals in the field of urbanism and held multiple discussions based on our observations. One of my favorite aspects about studying urbanism in cities is that the classroom is literally all around you. I can study just by sitting on the Subway on my way to class. Additionally, I can walk out the door after a lecture and witness our textbook examples everywhere.

This week, we had a speaker come in from an intercity organization called the Interboro Partners to talk to us about his work around NYC. He has focused on creating community oriented spaces around the city. His designs have transformed many empty lots into community parks or gardens, immediately increasing their worth to people who live and work in the neighborhood. His most recent project was for PS1, a satellite museum of MoMa located in Long Island City, Queens. Many say that the area is rapidly gentrifying, and PS1 stands as the epitome of this process, so the speaker from Interboro decided to create an outdoor project for the museum that would give back to the surrounding community.

He located nearby businesses and organizations and asked them what they needed most. After compiling an assorted list from trees to ping pong tables to ballet mirrors, he began to craft an innovative design, which would integrate all of these components. He pitched his project to PS1 with the agreement that the museum would donate all of the structure's components to their local counterparts after the exhibition ended. With their approval, he got to work creating his structure, which served as the outdoor exhibition at PS1 for one summer. Each object within the exhibition was labeled to acknowledge its purpose within the community, and after the summer's end, the museum donated all of the necessary objects to the community organizations strengthening their connection with the neighborhood outside the museum walls.

The architect's project in part inspired my focus for my semester-long research project, a mainstay in the IHP curriculum. I will be making a comparative analysis on the use of abandoned spaces in Ahmedabad, Dakar, and Buenos Aires. I plan to examine how these spaces are re-purposed to better serve the surrounding communities. I'm excited to begin my observations! One of my favorite parts of my stay in Buenos Aires last semester was the assortment of open air markets that were held in different neighborhoods all over the city. Re-purposing these streets, parks, and plazas allowed local artisans to make a living and enhance the rich artist culture in Argentina's biggest city. I hope that my research will lead me to discover even more interesting spaces this next semester!

By juliaraewagner

Today concludes the end of my first full week with the IHP Cities program. We have been prepping for our 3 month journey through India, Senegal, and Argentina with an orientation in New York City. We have already hit the ground running, examining the biggest questions in urban planning happening in our country's most vibrant city.

This week, most of our work was based out of the Chelsea neighborhood, which is home to one of the most diverse communities in New York City. An old manufacturing neighborhood, Chelsea has transformed into a mecca of art galleries and new urban design. Starting in the 1990's, it became the home of NYC's gay community. Today, it is one of the most trendy spots for the wealthy to settle into their multi-million dollar town homes. Meanwhile, Chelsea serves as a home to the older manufacturing communities and residents of the long-standing public housing facilities on 26th Street. Thus, the nieghborhood is a bustling mish mash of  personalities and privalege.

Meanwhile, our group has been living at a hostel in Long Island City, Queens, a world away from our classroom in Chelsea. The site is also an old manufacturing center, but has not yet been touched by development or gentrification. Many believe, however, that the neighborhood is set to change in the coming years. MoMa has already established a satellite museum here, and a developer has recently kicked out longstanding graffiti cultural center, Five Pointz, as he prepares to develop and sell the space. Change is most definitely on the horizon for LIC.

We have also used New York to help us prepare for our travels in the coming months. Earlier this week, we tested out Indian, Senegalese, and Argentine restaurants so that we could have an idea of the foods we would be experiencing later on. I ordered the baked fish at the Senegalese restaurant and recieved a plate piled high with a huge fish, head and tail and all. Its going to be an interesting semester! It is truly amazing that this diverse city has been able  supply us with such a rich backdrop in urban planning in the world today. As we continue to study how cities work across the world, I look forward to comparing these cities with New York and DC back at home.

By juliaraewagner

As I sit here, I am one day away from departing on a tri-part adventure to India, Senegal, and Argentina to study urban planning with the SIT-International Honors Program, and to be honest, I have yet to start packing. Its not that I'm a disorganized person or not excited to set off; I've been working on getting my visas in order for the past six months. My unpreparedness stems from the fact that I simply do not know what to expect! 

I spent last summer and fall semesters abroad in Costa Rica and Argentina with GW Latin America, I know better than to set expectations. Its not that my experiences fell short of my expectations (quite the opposite in fact), but rather the experiences were far from what I could have imagined. Sure, I expected to go hiking in Costa Rica; I had not anticipated gliding above its forests on a zipline. I expected to go to some tango performances in Argentina; I did not know that I would participate in the country's interactive entertainment. 

In fact, one of the first tidbits of advice our Argentine program director imparted on us was to immediately drop all expectations. The Argentines do not hold expectations, he explained, not the way Americans do. In a country that as only escaped from the grasp of authoritarian rule in the past 30 years, where the currency's value is constantly in question, and where industry depends upon foreign investment, the Argentine people do not dump all of their hopes into expectations. Instead, they focus on the joys of the present and remain unflummoxed when all does not go as planned.  Essentially, the Argentines have a penchant for making the most of the unexpected.

I like to think that I have adopted a bit of this open Argentine ability to roll with the punches. Some of my most beautiful experiences abroad thus far have been the result of a wrong turn or a missed bus, and I would not trade them for any of the expectations I had at the beginning.

Argentina and Costa Rica were not the countries I had imagined before arriving. In fact, they were so much more complex than I could have ever conceived, full of cultural subtlties and unspoken norms. Thus, I learned studying abroad what I could have never picked up in a classroom. I cannot wait to learn from more experiences. Maybe this notion is the only expectation that I'll carry with me this semester.

And so I'm off! I've got my backpack and open mind in tow, but I've left the expectations back at home.