Camel trekking through the Sahara Desert was an amazing and fulfilling experience. My friends and I were excited to begin this journey. We each had the choice to select a camel for the trip. After we made ourselves as comfortable as we could be on the camels, we began our journey straight to the dunes. Within 15 minutes, the view of the city was replaced with endless sights of the dunes. That was the moment I realized we were officially in the middle of “nowhere” and we had to truly rely on each other.
It’s been several months since my return from my trip to Hong Kong, although it doesn’t quite feel like it has been that long. During those very brief – yet intensive – two weeks of my stay there, I learned more about the public policy process and its dynamics than anything else. Before going to Hong Kong, I was not exactly an enthusiast of the policy-making process or politics, not even in the slightest bit. Nonetheless after my experience in the “Pearl of the Orient,” I started to care and pay more close attention to the events in my own local community as well as the national 2016 presidential race. In other words, I put on my critical thinking cap and I became more invested as an engaged, civic-minded citizen.
It feels as though just yesterday I was on a plane headed to San Paolo. Looking back I am very grateful for the experience and knowledge I’ve gained and feel very privileged to have been a part of such an amazing experience with the best group of people.
Amongst the many situations and encounters I experienced during this trip, I’ve learned the most from meeting the Ministerio publico and the BRT system’s representatives. In addition, I found the indigenous people’s sustainable lifestyle very enlightening and I was able to learn a lot by observing them. I try to incorporate what I’ve learned from this trip into my life today. What I’ve found most challenging is the difficulty of replicating their sustainable lifestyle back in the United States. Life here is much more consumer driven and as a result much harder to stay both competitive and sustainable.
It is crazy to think that almost an entire semester and summer has gone by since my study abroad program in Guatemala! The trip was truly a life-changing experience. I had done and seen things I had never done before. Life in Guatemala, their values, norms and beliefs, are so much different than in the United States. It is a true gift to have this type of perspective on a whole other culture. So often I feel I take for granted such basic things like a nice home, food security and good health. I feel so fortunate to get to live my life and have these experiences that really help me grow as an individual. After Guatemala, and seeing what life is like in other parts of the world, I feel there is really no reason not to be happy and appreciate the problems that I am presented with.
As I reflect on my overall experiences abroad, I have found that sustainability is slowly, but surely, becoming a prominent subject within my school and extracurricular activities. More and more it seems as though conservation scientists and biologists are being connected with sustainability. When there is a comparison, we tend to find that each tends to compliment each other in areas that are lacking. For example, conservation, at least in the context I am learning through my ASU classes, is primarily wildlife biology and ecology. How can we protect and preserve the environment and its natural cycles, and what mechanisms can we use to do this?
It has been almost five months since arriving home from Brazil. My trip was an adventure and even challenging at times but the opportunities and rewards of traveling abroad with such an incredible group of students is still what triumphs. I am glad I chose Brazil as my destination even to this day because of how prominent the country is in international discussion and because of its uniqueness in culture and landscape.
Sustainable A positive image of sustainable development was captured on May 26 on our Rabat tramway excursion. The tram is a great public transportation option for Moroccans and tourists to get around the city. Most importantly, the tram has social and environmental benefits. Based off the picture, the tram is heavily utilized by people. There was not one time we entered the tram and it was empty. On the social aspect, people are able to strike up conversations with familiar friends and create new friends. As Moroccans are fairly warm people, they interact with each other a whole lot more. Conversations can be heard on various parts of the tram. As the tram is a non-polluting transport system, it has an environmental benefit. Overall, the tram was easy to use. We were able to purchase our tickets and insert it in the machine to validate it. With the validation, you are good to go on your trip. However, a mistake of not validating the ticket will cost approximately 50 Dirhams on the spot. This is a decent fine when compared to the fine of $50 – $500 on the Phoenix light rail. Overall, the tram seems to promote sustainable development in the public transportation sector.
There hasn’t been a day since boarding the international flight back to the states from Barcelona that stories from my trip haven’t been brought up in conversation. From talking about food and culture with friends, to discussing engineering topics in my classes, I always find myself relating everything I do to the experiences I obtained in Morocco and Spain. I am pretty sure all friends, family and colleagues around me know exactly what I did this summer since they’ve been hearing about it since I got back.
Have you ever traveled anywhere? I have visited almost every state in the country and I have seen Canada and Mexico. But none of those places compared to Hong Kong and the experience which I shared there with my fellow students.
My time in Brazil has been difficult to process. While the three weeks I spent there were impactful, it was not in a way that I was expecting. Before leaving I had a vision in my head of returning home as a changed person, intensely influenced and motivated to act in ways I hadn’t before, with my perspective of the world significantly skewed. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t feel that this opportunity was for naught. I only feel a sense of underwhelm in a program that I felt would have been just as poignant as going to somewhere like Detroit or Milwaukee. Going abroad made it glaringly clear to me that we face issues just as important and pressing as those on other continents, sometimes more so. We see the effects of globalization in developing corners of the world and we panic because we don’t want their culture marred by unnecessary conveniences. Yet, we haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of healing our own psychology in relation to our overconsumption. How can we expect those who look to us as an example of progress to not want what we have?
