Goodbye Europe

gracie-strasser

Goodbye Europe

I am writing this in the Portland airport after my 11 hour flight from Frankfurt and am sitting in the airport café still trying to process the last six weeks. I am starting to realize that everything that I have done in these last two months won’t truly settle in for a long time…

Being the youngest student on this study abroad trip, I was worried that I may not have had the capacity to be able to perform on this trip adequately, but this research has allowed me to feel more confident in myself and my abilities. I feel already that I have grown so much on this trip in my academia, compassion and in my world views. All of the experiences that I have had and the initiatives that I have made have enabled me to mature in these areas.

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Exeter and Bristol

gracie-strasser

Exeter and Bristol

Greetings! We have been in Bristol for about 2 days now, and before that we were in Exeter. Exeter was the busiest of all of the places we have been. We went into the allotments within the city with two days to collect data and got 180 surveys! That is amazing! We took all the data from the surveys and compiled it into a presentation for our stakeholder, Dan. Dan oversees all of the allotments in the town of Exeter (they actually call him Dan the Allotment Man) and he was very interested in what we had to say about the data collected, recommendations that we had and the people in the allotments. He thanked us for our presentation and case brief that we provided him with afterwards and then we packed to leave for Bristol!

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Aarhus

gracie-strasser

Aarhus

Our group has been in Aarhus now for about a week and a half. To get here we took a four hour bus ride over the North Sea from Copenhagen. We are staying in Aarhus University guesthouse accommodations and are meeting all kinds of new people. I have made many friends from all over, people studying anywhere from Harvard University to a university in Istanbul, Turkey!

I have been so busy with research since I have been here. Every day is a new adventure and I come home every night ready for sleep! I have been traveling to all different types of urban gardens and allotments, meeting people that manage and work in them. I have also been meeting with different architects, artists and professors for my independent research project. I cannot get over how much I am learning. So much information that I would never be able to learn in a classroom.

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Full of Knowledge…and Food

gracie-strasser

Full of Knowledge…and Food

By Gracie Strasser

Since the beginning of our study abroad trip, we have been going nonstop. The first few days were filled with a few tourist-type activities. On the first day, we went on a food tour of Torvehallerne, a large food market in the city center. I tasted the best foods of Copenhagen all in two hours! I left very full of knowledge…and food. Every day we have been walking a ton – up to nine miles a day. My feet hurt but for good reasons. After becoming more familiar with the city, I have been able to do some exploring on my own. My friends and I have found cool little spots to swim in the canal, good restaurants, and most importantly, amazing gardens!

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