Energy efficiency and sustainability issues compared between world cities

By Alexandra Novak

Cities across the world are in the midst of competing to meet energy efficiency and carbon reduction goals. As I readjust to being in the Chicago area, I’ve been learning what this means for the city as well as other cities in the Great Lakes region. The Hong Kong study abroad program was a great jumping-off point for learning about urban sustainability and specifically the importance of building energy efficiency, which accounts for the majority of urban energy needs. Buildings are an essential gateway to reducing carbon emissions, a topic I researched and focused on in a workshop at the University of Illinois at Chicago, called the Summer Institute on Sustainability and Energy (SISE).

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Discovering Culture Shock

By Alexandra Novak

I never understood the phrase culture shock. Actually, I understood the definition, but I never felt it or realized that I felt it. Every new cultural experience I went into, I opened up my mind and knew that there would be vast differences. After traveling around Western Europe for two months last summer, I still felt comfortable about this. It wasn’t until I got back from my 3-week whirlwind trip to Asia this summer that I finally felt and realized what culture shock meant to me. It was the little things that made me feel out of place, like I was a foreigner; mostly driving, biking, even walking on a certain side of the road. All of that was a blur to me, since it was opposite in Hong Kong (and also in Japan, where I traveled for a week afterwards). I questioned multiple times when I got home whether I was on the correct side of the road or not.

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As JennyBot would say, “over and out”

By Alexandra Novak

The last week of our joint university study abroad program was a whirlwind of group work, lectures and constructive criticism. While indeed stressful and time-consuming, the groups worked and re-worked the research projects for a successful finish to the course. This year the program did not have a transportation group, and rather had two separate groups for land use and housing. We were still fortunate to have transportation experts come talk to our class, which was really interesting to hear in the context of an extremely efficient public transit system.

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Learning outside of the classroom

By Alexandra Novak

Study abroad programs are all about getting outside of a normal classroom, and generally out of your comfort zone, to learn new things that simply can’t be taught in a classroom setting. For example, you could be told how much recycled materials a city processes, or you could visit a recycling center and see stacked up bales of sorted materials probably 20 feet high, and overflowing bags at least four feet high of bottle pumps (like from a soap bottle) of every color.

The reality that field trips bring to sustainability education is an essential component of preparing yourself for finding solutions to these problems, or at least to better equip you for research, presentations and conversations about topics like waste. Many of these facilities are in our own backyards (even in the Phoenix area), for example the Hong Kong Wetland Park we visited just outside the city, is open to the public daily. You can literally see the divergence in land use as the residential skyscrapers loom in the background, while many plant and animals species thrive here, just miles away.

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Hong Kong (A parallel universe to New York City)

By Alexandra Novak

First Impressions of the City

Dense, hot, crowded, loud, colorful, cultural, urban wonderland; some of the thoughts I had in the first few hours of exploring Hong Kong. This vertical city is no joke, and although most signs are translated to English, it is a real challenge to find what you’re looking for amidst the density. Besides the hundreds of shop and street signs to visually sort through, the sidewalks are always filled with pedestrians and the crosswalks are seriously dangerous if you’re not paying attention to oncoming traffic.
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// Pre-departure // Great Expectations

By Alexandra Novak

For those of us traveling to a country we’ve only seen photos of, there are many expectations and predetermined notions we have going into the trip. Each of us has our own vision of stepping into a new country for the first time, and ideas of what activities we will do there. I had some of my program peers express these expectations on a sign that says, “While in Hong Kong, I am going to…” with a fill-in-the-blank at the end. While there was a trend of food-related activities discussed (as you would expect for a well-known seafood hub and Asian culture in general), it seems like everyone is motivated to embrace the change of environment and do something different.

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