jessie goes abroad

jessie / college student studying climate science and education / my study away journey in San Francisco, Vietnam, Morocco, and Bolivia

[jessiegoesabroad]

the retreat and the bittersweet end > Los Yungas, Bolivia

Welcome to the last post on the blog documenting my study abroad journey! This was written at a couple different times, and it clearly took a while... my bad!

I cannot believe that we have finally reached the end. Right now I am on my flight from Bogotá, Colombia to New York and the sense of finality has somewhat hit me. But what has NOT hit me yet is how cold it is going to be! I am NOT ready!!!! (spoiler alert from 2nd jan when i am posting this: i was NOT ready!!!!! it is very cold!!)

We spent the last 5 days of our program in a retreat on the border of the Amazon rainforest in Los Yungas, Bolivia. Los Yungas are in the Department of La Paz - Departments in Bolivia are kinda like states - about 4 hours from La Paz. Driving there definitely threw my body and my brain for a loop. La Paz is at about 12,000 feet above sea level, and to get to Los Yungas you drive up through a section of the Andes and the views we saw were totally bonkers. I was fairly out of it due to the migraines I get at high altitude, but they were definitely the most breathtaking mountains I have ever seen. Huge cliffs shrouded in misty clouds, some with terrace agriculture, were outside the window of our little van most of the way before it gave way to the rainforest. The highest point we passed through was, get this, 16,000 feet above sea level! On our way back from Los Yungas to La Paz to catch our plane home it snowed, and it is summer in Bolivia! The mountains are wild!

Getting to bask in the warmth and mind-blowing biodiversity of the Amazon for a few days was a huge gift. You wouldn’t believe the number of fruiting banana plants I saw! We had finished our final presentations, essays, and exams before we left Cochabamba, so the work we did during our retreat was about reentry, program evaluations, and synthesis. Our wonderfully amazing program director Nico came down for the retreat, which was so much fun! Nico specializes in political ecology and experiential education amongst many other things, and I have learned so, so much from him this semester. Nico played a big role, whether he knows it or not, in me deciding that I want to go into education. Having a great role model like him helped me make that decision!

A lot of the synthesis we did involved looking back on all of the countries we visited, and seeing what aspects played more crucially into our learning. Getting to look back retrospectively at our site visits, guest lectures, assignments, and places we visited right after finishing my finals led me to spend a lot of the retreat just thinking. having group discussions about our learning process felt like good closure for me. especially because i don’t think we ever had a discussion that is wholly positive or negative; the whole time we spoke our truths together and looked back holistically at our experiences. 

this program came at an incredibly crucial time of my life, personally and academically. i feel this in the big decisions i made about my future, what i want to do, and how i want to do it, and who i spent my time with. traveling with a big group and our staff wasn’t always easy, but it completely made the experience for me. winding down together at the retreat was so nice - when we weren’t in class we were making bracelets, relaxing in the hammocks, listening to the river, going on the waterslides, and spending time together soaking in each other’s presence before we parted ways.

I think at a surface value I could list the biggest things that happened this semester. I turned 18, I conquered illness a bunch of times, I wrote the longest research paper I have ever written (that will likely become a big part of my life’s work), I traveled to 4 countries, 16 cities, and across 32,000 miles but those are not the things that I necessarily thought about every day. The biggest things for me are the absolutely off the charts incredible people who have become some of my closest friends and role models, I have emotionally and mentally committed to a career that I am extremely filled-to-the-brim passionate about, I made strides in my personal self confidence and self-sustainability, and I gave my all to the best of my ability every day. I feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude and joy for all of the experiences that I have been gifted over the course of the whole semester.

Getting excited for my future and for going into education is something that gives me more joy than I can articulate. Ending this semester with that feeling of readiness, preparation, and dedication feels just right. For so long I have felt so complicatedly about my education. Often, discomfort, lack of self confidence, immense stress, and hurt have been themes of parts of my education in my past. I think there are gaping systemic inequities and a drastic lack of quality in parts of the New York education system that need to be fixed, and of course, it isn’t going to happen overnight. something that I feel deep in my heart is that the pain that I and many people that I know have felt in this school system is absolutely unacceptable. At the same time, I have been gifted such incredible amounts of knowledge and know how at some points of my education. It is difficult to hold that balance and know that my passion for change doesn’t just come from a place of hurt, but a place of love. I love this education system so much! It wants to be so good, and it needs to be so good, and it has done so much good! But I think that is why I feel the need to enact change - because I love it so much.

there have been so many people that have played integral parts in my experience this semester and hold very special places in my heart. To my program staff - namely John, our resilient teacher, Phuong, Jawad, Rayan, Ismael and Krish and the other members of their superstar country teams, and of course Zufan and Nico, I forever have for you un montón de gratitud. The joy, passion, and compassion that you all have imparted to me is immeasurable. I have been made a better, stronger, and wiser student and person because of your presences. This semester was completely made by all of your hard work. Needless to say, the amount that I have learned from you all truly has no equal. Please know that! I truly cannot put into words the impact that you have left on me, but please know that it is great and it will never leave me, and that is for the BETTER! I am more equipped and stronger because of your hard work and dedication to my education. Because of you I have role models on what good teachers and leaders look like. Hopefully I can make it up to you all some day. For now - know that I am going back off into my life with you all in my heart, and I will work tirelessly towards the goals we all have spoken about within climate and education justice. And you all always have a home in New York!

To my classmates - wow! I am stunned, shocked, and blown away by all of your depths of knowledge and passion for what you all do. It is unmatched. We all come from different backgrounds, identities, and schools of thought but man when we get together we sure have some good discussions. Just by being all of you, I have learned more than I ever thought I would in and out of the classroom. The experience of interdisciplinary experiential learning, as we all know, is invaluable in all forms of education. I have seen this every day in our program because of how much I am always learning from you all. This happens all the time - reading your class responses, listening to class discussion, and debriefing after guest lecturers and site visits with you. All of those moments that I have had individually with you all and in a group will stay with me forever. They are priceless to me. Thank you for standing by me through some difficult moments, and a whole lot of joyous ones too. In no other group of college students do I think I would have ever felt as accepted and loved in spite of my age as with you all. That was something I was really nervous for, being the youngest one! But it hardly even crossed my mind, and for that I thank you. So many times my anxieties and stresses were diminished by your smiles, your kindness, and your open minds and hearts. That is so special to me. You all are so special to me!

Overall, it is hard for me to put into words succinctly how I feel about this semester and leaving it. Of course, I am heartbroken to leave my people and the places we have visited. But of course, just like we say at the end of camp every summer, that is part of the beauty of it, right? It’s temporary. Now I can tuck those memories away in my heart and pull em out when I need em. Just like when I need to FaceTime and talk about bay model memes with my classmates, I can! And truly the things that I have learned, for better or for worse, will never leave me. That’s pretty tight.

But what I really wanna do with these feelings and memories is put them to action. I need to remember how passionate I feel and even in moments when I feel weak or exhausted, take time to recharge, and then get back at it. If I’ve learned one thing about the climate justice movement, is that it is about hard work and community, and you need to put in the time and effort to work on things like communication and building solutions to the current issues in order to get anywhere. I believe this is possible - however optimistic it seems.

I really have been looking forward to going abroad since I learned what studying abroad was, and my expectations were exceeded beyond my wildest dreams. It is really good to be home - go out and get a dunkin’ coffee, see dear friends and family, and sleep in and take my time doing the things that are good for my heart. But I feel lucky beyond belief to have had this experience, met the people I did, and be equipped with the passion for action that I am now and will always be. Love you IHP! Let’s beat climate change!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

all my love, in warmth and compassion, and a happy happy new year,

jessie

up in the Andes on our way to Los Yungas in the Amazon

hammocking by the river - featuring my AMAZING teva tan! - part 1

hammocking part 2 :)

Cooper and Alison and I on our last night! my group threw me a prom cause I never had one! 

me in my element - wearing yellow, flower in my hair, with plenty of pineapple :)

[jessiegoesabroad]

flowers and education research in the siempre primavera city > Cochabamba and my homestay, Bolivia

This is coming to you way late because of lack of service and wifi at the end of the program! We were in Cochabamba for the longest out of any other stop on the program - 3 whole weeks! Felt like a lot longer and a lot shorter at the same time. Cochabamba is the 4th biggest city in Bolivia and it is fondly referred to as having a “siempre primavera”, or a “forever spring”. It is in a rain shadow, which means that because of mountains nearby its climate is fairly dry, but it never gets too hot and it is fairly stable year round. Overall, the weather was really great! When we were there it was the month leading up to the summer solstice, and you could feel it, but it still felt really good. I keep saying that it felt like Florida but less humid. There were flowers everywhere - all over our house’s yard and down the streets. Even though it’s a busy place with a lot of cars there is still a lot beautiful greenery, if you look closely.

I totally lucked out and had an incredible homestay. I lived with my friend from the program, Sharlaine, my homestay mom, and one of her daughters, Fulvia. Our mom is a mom of 4 grown kids who also have their own kids and getting to share in the happiness of their big family was so special! We met two of her other kids and their spouses as well, and they are all so incredible. Our mom spends a lot of time listening to music and with her grandkids, and practicing her English with her and speaking Spanish with her was so awesome. She is so kind and giving, and from day 1 we really felt like her children. Fulvia, our sister, is literally the #1 MVP!!! She is a professional singer, teacher, and small business owner and is such a badass. Doing homework at our house often consisted of me at my computer listening to her voice from downstairs, cause how could I not! She is so talented and it was like having a private concert all the time, really. She is so sweet and caring and was SO much fun to be around!

Every day for class we would be at our amazing-beyond-words country coordinator, Ismael’s house. That was SUCH a treat. Ismael’s got a beautiful garden, which you walk through to get up to the house, and we had class in his dojo. It sounds as cool as it was! He seemed to have nearly every species of tropical AND arid plant ever in his garden. It was so special to have class in his home every day. It felt so good to have a home base and when school stuff got more stressful as we progressed in and through finals to be in a comfy space.

Ismael and his team are truly incredible. He is a documentary filmmaker who has been a pilot and lawyer, and an activist for a really long time. Learning about Bolivia from his perspective was very special. he would keep us grounded with meditations, incredible dad jokes, and hugs! He also ran the program with his partner, Lupe, and of course his amazing daughter, Krishna, or Krish. Lupe practices reiki and when I get struck with altitude sickness for a large portion of my time in Bolivia she would always offer up help and be ready with calming words and a much needed motherly presence. and Krish! She is totally the bomb! Krish did a lot of the logistics of the program and spearheaded much of the organization. She is SO funny and so kind, and became a great friend of mine. through all of my moments where I was hurting, she always gave the best advice and is someone I can really rely on. She felt like a big sister to me the whole time, and she and her whole family really feels like a second family to me. They are truly some of the most amazing people I have ever met.

Not only was my altitude sickness pretty bad, but my migraines got a lot worse while we were in Bolivia. I think it was really just a combination of being run down from traveling, the altitude, and stress, but I would get them a lot more often and with a higher intensity pretty much the whole time. It weighed heavily on my conscience because I had to miss some classes and eventually a few of my classmates’ final presentations, which made me pretty upset. I had one pretty bad episode, which had never happened to me before, where I lost vision and hearing for about 10 minutes and passed out for a few minutes from a migraine. That was pretty scary. And is also kinda the reason I am coming back to the states next semester! The doctors think that because my medication doesn’t work, I have been getting them more frequently and worse, and they’re hard to predict that I shouldn’t leave the country and go back out into the field again without treatment and medication. I was pretty gutted at first to not be able to go to Panama next semester but I know in my heart and my head that this is for the best. Don’t worry, please, because I am just fine! Doctors are good and the rest and relaxation from being at home has been very good to me. My body already feels better. and I really am looking forward to going back to the Rock next semester. I am SO excited to plan my thesis, and I am SOOO excited for my classes and to see everyone again! Between my professors, the staff, and of course my incredible friends, I am more excited than ever to return home to my school community. The time is right.

Cochabamba is such an incredible city and by the time our 3 weeks there was up I felt so at home! I love being able to go on walks and not use google maps, which was an achievement in whatever city we went to. Between the weather, the people, and the food, I felt like I fit right in. My Spanish is great and it felt awesome to use that and to connect with that part of who I am in a new context. The people are so kind and welcoming and excited to talk about Bolivia, which I love! Some of the most rewarding learning we did was about Bolivian politics, and important events like the Water Wars of 2000 in Cochabamba. I even talked about this with my extended family at our Christmas celebration this past week. Everyone is so passionate about it, and in very different ways. Right now in Bolivia there is a lot of contention within the political climate and what is best for Bolivia, and getting to even learn a little taste of it was so interesting. One of the best parts of this program has been getting to learn about climate issues and for me especially, issues of education, within the different political contexts. Vietnam, Morocco, and Bolivia are all SO different and even though Bolivia’s political system is closer to the US’s than Vietnam or Morocco’s, they have such a unique situation right now because of their history and current issues and that made for the most interesting learning environment. And of course, if anyone is headed to Bolivia, you must go to Cochabamba. What a beautiful place to be in. Not just to walk around and see, but to live in too.

but really what I spent most of my time in Cochabamba doing was my final research project. It feels really good to say that I am really proud of my work and  I cannot wait to continue working on it in the future. The research that I clocked in this semester feels so significant and important and part of something bigger, which is tight. I have found a place for my passion in education and education justice, which makes my heart nearly burst with happiness and excitement! I wrote a 20 page paper and did a 20 minute presentation on my work on global education systems and how they do, or often don’t, teach climate change for finals and again, I remain excited about it! This feels like the gateway to a lot of much longer studies and more work in the future, but in the best way. As my thesis approaches and grad school becomes something more tangible in my mind, I get nervous, but also excited (nercited), and this kind of thing just makes me feel ready. Part of me thinks I’ll never really feel ready, and that’s plausible, but doing work that just feels right makes me think that I am doing something right and I am on the right track.

all my love,

jessie

the group at a site visit on a farm outside Cochabamba!

my INCREDIBLE homestay sister, Fulvia!

cow in a school’s community garden on a site visit in Cochabama

the always busy Avenida America - on my walk home from a cafe

friends walking home for lunch from class at Ismael’s!

my dear friend Emily and I walking home after studying :)

[jessiegoesabroad]

way up in the andes, a big lake, and lots of reflection! > La Paz & Lake Titicaca, Bolivia

Greetings from beautiful sunny Cochabamba! Right now I am in my country coordinator, Ismael’s house, which is where we have class every day. We have been in Bolivia for 3ish weeks now, and it has been awesome! I have been thriving speaking Spanish and getting to eat some of my favorite foods that you can only find in Latin America. Shoutout to manjar, Pil peach yogurt, and rocklets de maní!!

We spent about 6 days starting our time in Bolivia in beautiful La Paz. La Paz, contrary to popular belief, isn’t really the capital of Bolivia. Sucre is! But La Paz is where the president, Evo Morales, lives and conducts most of his business.

I didn’t get to see a whole lot of the city in my spare time as I got pretty bad altitude sickness! La Paz is situated at about 3,600 meters, so roughly 12,000 feet and around the same altitude as Lhasa, Tibet. Being in the Andes has some sick views! Luckily, I have a ton of great support here between in in-country team and my program staff in general, and so I have been taken great care of and got all the help I needed. Ended up watching some Harry Potter, too!

One of my favorite parts about being in La Paz was definitely the public transportation system. It is called Mi Teleférico, and it is a cable car system that takes you high above the city! Taking it at both nighttime and during the day was a total treat. La Paz slopes over the sides of hills and the mountain range that it is situated within, and it was breathtaking to be over the city looking down at colorful rooftops with snowcapped Illimani, the huge mountain outside of the city, in the near distance.

Amongst having some classes and lectures in La Paz, we got to visit one of the most famous artists in Bolivia, Mamani Mamani, in his studio in another part of the city. He is an indigenous artist who paints and creates pieces with Pachamama, or Mother Earth, as the theme. Seeing his work itself was absolutely incredible, let alone getting to hear him talk about his work and his philosophy of art and Pachamama. You should look up his work - it is really amazing! I don’t really have the vocabulary to discuss art in an academic way, but he uses so many different colors and mediums in his work and it is super beautiful.

After being in La Paz for a little while we got to go to Lake Titicaca and spend some time on a couple islands there! Lake Titicaca is partly in Bolivia and partly in Peru, and it was super cool to be on boats going across the lake and see parts of Peru pretty nearby. We stayed on Isla de la Luna, a small island with about 60 people on it, in people’s homes they generously opened up to us. A lot of the islands on the lake are part of ecotourism ventures, and use homestay models to host travelers and school groups like us. Being totally without service or wifi for a few days was really great - we talked about our research projects a lot and just hung around outside. It felt pretty good to settle into a new country that way.

Something very interesting we got to hear from one of our lecturers, an authority figure in the Bolivian government. He spoke about how the US and Bolivia are very different, but namely in that the US is many states and one nation, while Bolivia is many nations and one state. When thinking about the social and political history of a country, it is important to think about the social identities of the groups and how the politics treats those issues. I definitely see that in how Bolivia celebrates their multiethnic identity, and more soberingly, in how the United States often stifles ours. Although I think that just means more cause to be proud of individuality and multicultural backgrounds. The US wouldn’t be the US without that.

I can’t believe we only have 2 weeks left in our program. You know how when change happens so quickly you just have to adjust to it, and don’t really have that much time to think about it? That’s how I feel about my learning experiences and educational process of this program. My mind has been expanded so much and my point of view changed and my perspective totally altered by so many people and individual experiences that I don’t know how to fully synthesize my thoughts! I feel really good heading into another semester at Simon’s Rock with my new perspectives and field experiences under my belt. Because of some health and logistical reasons, I am not studying away again next semester and am instead really looking forward to getting back to campus and taking some great classes! I also have to start preparing for my senior thesis, and doing that on campus will make a lot more sense. I am completely ecstatic thinking about my awesome committee, and how challenging and exciting it is going to be next year working on it. I’ve had my thesis idea in the works since my first year, although it has changed a lot since then! My research project that I have been working on this entire semester across all four countries, including the US, is a comparative study of global education systems and their policy on climate change education and a lot of that research is going to go to my thesis, too.

We’ve had a little more free time here in Cochabamba with our homestay families - more on them in the next post! - and a lot of the reflecting I have been doing has been on this semester, but also what I am going to do going forward. We discuss that a lot in class, too. Our whole program is about climate change and what climate justice really means, and this topic changes literally every day. So what are we all going to do with the knowledge and experience we have been gifted? What does action mean to each of us, and how are we going to pay it forward? Lemme tell you, I don’t really know! But that’s the beauty of learning, too. As a student but also someone who isn’t very spontaneous, not having a completely figured out plan all the time is definitely a challenge for me. But this program has helped give me some perspective on pretty big things. Like, I definitely want to teach. I can’t imagine my future without educational justice - and kids! - in it. Every time I do research it ends up bringing me back to that, and I’m not mad about it.

Looking forward to catching up with you all back in the US of A. And to my Simon’s Rock family - I can’t wait to see you all in January!

agapé,

jessie

1. me with some yogurt on our first day in La Paz after 50 hours of traveling!

2. beautiful La Paz from a vista! the partially cloud covered mountain on the left is Illimani. super cool!

3. La Paz at night from the Teleférico :-)

4. Cooper and I at Tiwanaku - ancient ruins outside of La Paz (note the elevation - almost 3900 meters!!)

5. lavender sunset over Lake Titicaca from Isla de la Luna

6. that’s a llama alright! eat your heart out, Simon’s Rock! #coolestmascotever #SRCpride

[jessiegoesabroad]

permaculture, solar power, and personal growth > Ouarzazate & Marrakech, Morocco

Welcome to my last Morocco post! Wifi in Bolivia has been suuuuper spotty, so this is coming to you way late!

This month has been really, really challenging for me. I guess people talk about study abroad all the time as being really formative and a changing time for everyone, and it really has been for me although not always in the way that I would think. Sometimes I don’t want to go too in depth in these posts because I want to make sure everyone at home knows I am having a good time and that I am safe and well - and I am, I promise! - but that doesn’t mean I have to exclude my more challenging and emotionally trying moments. I have really been pushing myself to put my best foot forward all the time, even when I am tired and far out of my comfort zone. Harder than it sounds! I found myself using my skills and values from camp a lot - positive attitude changes everything, agapé, and calling on my healing tactics and skills. I have been listening to a LOT of music and podcasts and audiobooks!! (Talk to me about my dungeons and dragons podcast that I listen to! And harry styles!! Also my friend Jack has gotten me into Ariana Grande and Oasis, so that has been exciting)

sometimes my challenges are hard to put into words because I know how lucky I am to be here, and I try my very best to remind myself of that every day. But I think one of the important parts about studying abroad and also my personal experience is not excluding the stuff that is more challenging and more formative. I have a bad habit of just highlighting the positives in my work to present my best attitude at all times, and I am definitely working on getting better at looking at my experience more holistically. working through my anxiety abroad has definitely been a challenge - learning your limits without your comforts and usual tactics at home can be hard! However, my friends on this program have helped me heal and lift me up which has been amazing beyond belief.

In Marrakech I got a lot of time to walk around the city and think, whether it was by myself or out loud with a friend. It definitely hit me in the last few days we spent in Morocco how much I had learned that month and how much I had just taken in from my surroundings! A lot of that was due to my amazing country team, I think. Jawad is our country coordinator, and when he isn’t leading us around he is running an engineering company. He is one of the most well-networked and hardworking people I have ever met. We had a lot of conversations about the Moroccan education system and how deeply entrenched in corruption and lack of quality it is, and every time I was shocked by how passionate and invested he was! for my research project I have been talking to our country teams, who have all grown up in the countries that we go to, about their education experience and how that changed over time. Hearing from Jawad about his time growing up in the Moroccan education system and now his kids’ time in the system really taught me a lot. He spoke a lot about not abandoning where you’re from just because it doesn’t measure up just how you want it to. That gave me a lot of perspective. Not only is he incredibly smart, but so kind and compassionate. I can’t imagine what it must be like running this program and having his job - but he does it extremely well! We are so, so blessed with our country teams and program staff - program manager and director (more to come on them in my first Bolivia post!). SIT really hits it out of the park on that one.

Our last week and a half or so of programming were SO fun, too! We visited the biggest solar plant in the world that uses multiple technologies in Ouarzazate, which was pretty mind blowing. It’s super efficient, too! Much more efficient than any other power plant than I have been to. Whenever we go to a renewable energy facility (which seems to be pretty often - I am amazed by this program) we always ask the questions about what people were affected in the making of the plant, how the land was acquired, and how people are currently being affected by the project. This definitely led to some interesting discussions in Ouarazazate, and we had a guest lecture on it too. I also got to see my REACH (leader in training program at my camp) leader, Brittany, in Ouarzazate! It was so nice to see a familiar face in the middle of my program, and she also knew where to find the best chicken nuggets in town.

Marrakech is definitely more western in some parts of it than other cities in Morocco, which for some of my friends was a comfort - Starbucks! McDonalds! Supermarkets!!!!! I definitely got well acquainted with a frozen yogurt shop and a grocery store with good yogurt near where we were staying. You know, only the essentials (yogurt)!!

We had an incredible site visit while we were in Marrakech - probably my favorite in all of Morocco. We visited with Omar and Kenza, the heads of Marrakech Organics, a permaculture farm and education center outside the city. Omar and I had awesome conversations about botanical polycultures, natural pesticides, and the prickly pear cactus blight in Morocco. Omar showed me so much about how he makes different types of compost at their farm, and teaches others his practices. Within the next 5 years, Omar and Kenza will be drought-proof AND more profitable than the commercial farms in the surrounding area. In Morocco, which is extremely vulnerable to rising levels of aridity and drought/increasing sparse bouts of frequent rainfall, thinking about the future is absolutely necessary for farms. Omar and Kenza seek to teach others sustainable practice, but also share positive values and learn from others. Getting the chance to interact with someone who I was learning so much from but also wanted to learn from me was incredibly heartwarming and special for me. I will never forget that day!

We also did our mid semester presentations in Marrakech, and I felt really good about how it went. We had class in a tent on the roof of our hotel and in the evenings I would go up and sit outside the tent and read. Talk about good self care! Listening to traffic reminds me of home, too. It’s the little things, right?

Ending our time in Morocco with two days in Casablanca was definitely made by all the time I spent decompressing from some stress of the program with my friends and taking walks and preparing for our huge travel leg to Bolivia. One of my best friends, Cooper, and I were two of the student leaders for our ~50 hour travel time from Morocco to Bolivia which left us in charge of the snacks. Let’s just say we spent 670 dirham, or $67, on good good snacks! mine and Cooper’s last names are next to each other in the alphabet so we are often next to each other on planes, and you can often find us listening to our dungeons and dragons podcast and/or doing face masks. We had 4 flights from Morocco to Bolivia which was a doozy! Casablanca to Paris (with an overnight layover in beautiful France), Paris to Miami (8 hours of layover in the US of A! You best believe I drank a huge Dunkin coffee - ultimate comfort), Miami to Santa Cruz, Bolivia and Santa Cruz to La Paz. I made it through with lots of caffeine, face masks, and more caffeine. More to come on hermosa La Paz soon, though!

All in all - my blog posts can’t do Morocco justice. I can’t put into words how lucky I feel to have spent a month there. It feels unreal. From the site visits to guest lecturers to our outstanding local team, I am left feeling more blessed than ever, and excited to do them all justice by educating about climate change in my future.

Sending all my love from La Paz! I love you, Morocco! I cannot believe I only have a month left of this program - it feels like 5 years but also 5 minutes.

in warmth and compassion,

agapé,

Jessie

1. NOOR 1 solar plant in Ouarzazate!

2. the boys chowing down on tajine 

3. the amazing Omar and his compost! featuring the amazing Jawad on the left 

4. our group and our field assistant Rayan at the airport! 

5. me and Coop getting ready to take off to Paris!

[jessiegoesabroad]

new friends at a university, and LOTS of different landscapes! > Ben Smim & Atlas Mtns, Morocco

My group got to spend almost a week in the middle Atlas Mountains recently, in a little village called Ben Smim. It was the perfect break from being in the city to spend some time outside and in fresh air. It took up about 4 hours to drive from Rabat up into the mountains, through Meknes and into Ifrane Province. This has definitely been one of my highlights so far in Morocco. We spent some of our week in the guesthouse having class and guest lecturers, but mainly outside doing site visits and learning from a lot of different people throughout the whole region. Ben Smim is nice and cold - it felt like good ol fall weather! - and in a bit of a valley in the mountains. Driving in the out of Ben Smim to other parts of the province we got to see the whole valley from the top of the nearby mountains, often at sunset - super awesome.

One of my highlights of this past week was when we got the chance to visit the Al-Akhawayn University in Ifrane. Al-Akhawayn is the only university in Morocco that has a traditional American liberal arts structure in everything from its grading and semester schedule to classes and how everything is taught in English. We got tours of the campus, and had a presentation from a few of the students who run the Islam and Art club. It was really fascinating to get to learn about religion from kids our age who practice and want to share about it. they were really open to discussing their feelings about it, and afterwards I had a great conversation with the students about social justice and activism in their local communities. It was so cool! We have really only been interacting with adults on this trip in our academic settings, and getting to learn from other students and in turn, share with them, was really great. They wanted to know how I felt about living in Trump’s America and how a lot of the youth is dealing with it and trying to progress. I told them a lot about the rise of younger people in sharing voices and how the numbers of atrocities are rising, and in turn how important democracy really is. Even though truly, it looks like our democracy has become an oligarchy because of cycles of corruption and lack of people to power communication. Speaking with them gave me a lot of perspective on how their government works too; they often feel voiceless under the king’s regime and the lack of representation of a lot of sects of society to the government really is staggering.

We also got the chance to visit a local farm outside the nearby city of Azrou and talk to Jawad Mamou, a farmer. His farm has been suffering a lot in the past 8 years due to climate change effects and lack of aid from the government and it is kind of staggering how little the government is giving their people in this time of stress. Especially since there is so much market pressure on the farmers of Morocco to plant fruit trees like they have been since the French introduced them int eh 1920s, although many climates in Morocco are not as suited for them as they used to be. The illiteracy rate is so high in Morocco (some statistical reports say 1 in 2 people but I believe that it is more around 42% of the population, so take this stats with a grain of salt) that farmers do not have the same access to resource as a lot of farmers in say, the US or Europe do. Jawad the farmer spent 26 years in the US doing software engineering and has a great grasp on English and doing research, so he can utilize the internet to his gain, but this is not true for the majority of the farmers in his region and around Morocco. This past week (I am writing this on 9 November, a little later from the 21-26 Oct we spent in ben smim whoops) the king gave a speech bashing Maroc Vert and saying he would give 1 million hectares of land to smaller farmers all around the country. Plan Maroc Vert was introduced a few years ago as a government plan to help farmers and production and really turn around the not so good farming scene in Morocco, but it really just “made everything so much worse” according to all of our guest lectures. So, things might be looking up for farmers in Morocco - we’ll see!

Getting to drive around and just watch the landscape has been a real treat for me. Immediately when I stepped off the bus when we first got to Ben Smim it felt great! Being in so many cities all over the world has been a really cool learning experience; they are all so different from what I am used to and it is always a good chance to see how the day to day social interactions work and how people communicate. But getting the chance to meet some of the people who function off the land and live in the mountains is really cool, too. Not to mention the air quality was a lot better! Driving from site visit to site visit and seeing all the different landscapes really was cool, too. I think our group needed some more down time to just hang out and be together, and we got that, too. We spent a lot of evenings cuddled under blankets and doing work together, watching shows on our laptops and playing cards. Ben Smim got pretty cold - I was not ready!!

Being in a country with so many different landscapes and weather patterns pretty much everywhere we go is totally crazy and so, so cool. Over the mid semester break I went with my family (yay! My parents and my brother visited for 5 days) from Rabat to Midelt to Merzouga to Tinghir to Ouarzazate which is all around the middle Atlas, into Erg Chebbi and kind of the Sahara, and into the more southern part of Morocco before Western Sahara. I feel like I went through like 5 countries or 10 states or something because every couple hours of driving it felt like a totally different place. For my geography-geology-hydrology loving heart, it was total bliss!

Well, I am leaving Morocco this weekend, and will send out my Ouarzazate and Marrakech blog post very soon. Get excited for Bolivia, my friends! I am I just can’t believe it is happening so soon!!

all my love,

jessie

fig 1. alison and me eating the best apples EVER at Jawad’s farm!

fig 2. friends by some water at sunset in ben smim! 

fig 3. sunset in ben smim

fig 4. my wonderful close friend race and i at our last night in the homestays before break! 

fig 5. my family and me in the desert over break!

[jessiegoesabroad]

bread, bread, and more bread! > Rabat and my homestay, Morocco

Welcome to the Morocco section of my blog! My 2ish weeks here so far have been nothing short of very surprising, very perspective-changing, and SUPER delicious! If you can relate to the Oprah commercial where she famously says “I LOVE bread”, then Morocco is your place! I think I have tried 45 different kinds of bread and I can confidently say they are all totally yummy. Cause, I mean, come on, it’s bread!! We’ve been eating a lot of tajine, a traditional dish cooked in a ceramic pot also called a tajine! My homestay family and I made one together one night, and it is one of the most flavorful things I have ever tasted. Eating in Morocco is a group experience - in traditional meals you all sit down together around the dish, or often the tajine, and all eat together from the dish. And of course, you use *bread* as your utensil! Delicious!!

Rabat is the capital city of Morocco, which is a constitutional monarchy as of 2011. Before that, the king had a lot more direct control and now, legally, there is more power split between him and the parliament. However, we have learned that more power lies in the king’s hands than it appears legally, and a very large portion of every major GDP contributing industry in Morocco is owned by the king or his inner circle. This means a ton of the phosphate industry - Morocco is the largest producer of phosphate in the world - goes right into the king’s pocket, as well as a lot of the renewable energy sector as well. our lectures have been really eye-opening to a lot of the agricultural and ecological issues in Morocco, but also the political struggles that the citizens go through in order to advocate for their rights.

All of my group’s homestays were in the Medina, which is the old walled part of the city. the Rabat Medina is very close to the coast, and has a great souk (market) and lots of winding streets with vendors selling everything from snail soup to shawarma to caftans to yogurt and cookies. As some of you may be able to guess, the yogurt is definitely a highlight for me. There are little general stores vendors stuffed into sections of storefronts and buildings selling a little bit of everything, and 9 out of 10 times they sell yogurt. Perfect!!!

I lived on the fourth/terrace level of an old building in the Medina with a really wonderful family of three people. Jen, one of my dear friends from my program, and I were welcomed into Hosni, Fouzia, and Habib’s home with open arms and tons of mint tea! Mama, Fouzia, worked at a mall on the other side of the city and when she wasn’t working, was either cooking, bringing Habib (more on that little rascal later) to and from school, or telling us to “kuli kuli!!”, or “eat, eat!!”. Mama worked so, so hard and was so good to us. Not to mention, she made, hands down, the most delicious and perfect mint tea I have ever had. Mint tea is a staple in Moroccan cuisine, and it sometimes is had with every meal, but no matter how many cafe and restaurant’s teas I have tried, hers is still definitely the supreme tea! Mama didn’t speak a whole lot of English and lord knows my Moroccan Arabic needs some work, so we mainly communicated through my broken French and lots of body language, smiles, and cheek kisses.

Baba, or Hosni (or “Mr. Rabat” as we called him) is maybe one of the most popular people I have ever met. He took Jen and I, as well as Riley and Cooper (two of my close friends who lived in a homestay with Baba’s parents!) on walks all the time, whether it was to the beach to watch the sunset and play soccer (or rather, attempt to play soccer but just have Baba beat us every time) or walk around the souk together. Whenever we walked with Baba we stopped every couple minutes or so to say hello to one of his friends! The feeling of community and family that Morocco has, and especially in the Medina, is really special. this is true outside the home and inside, for sure. Sitting down together and eating meals together as a family every night was always a highlight of my day. Getting the chance to meet his friends, who were everyone from his co-workers at the market to film producers to chefs, and share tea together over a lot of laughs was always so much fun. When Baba wasn’t leading us around, he was *always* cracking a joke and making us laugh.

Now, Habib was my 9ish year old troublemaking little brother! This truly is the semester of me living my dream of being a big sister with my little homestay brothers. Habib is super energetic, feisty, killer at soccer, and has the attention span to color with crayons for hours and hours. I say this out of experience! On the first weekend in the homestay I spent the majority of a day with Habib cozied up on the couch coloring together and putting the crayons Riley gave him to good use. Having little siblings in my homestay gives me so much joy - that part of the experience really is priceless.

Something not so positive about this experience has been the street harassment. Women are targets of a lot of catcalling and unwanted attention in Morocco, from everyone from younger boys to older men. Tourists, students, and locals experience this alike, and it has not been easy. Walking alone, or without a man, increases the chances of being harassed and it has made me pretty tense. Growing up in New York I always experienced catcalling from a young age, although it never really was on this scale. Learning from women like my homestay mother and our female lecturers on this subject has been so personal and sometimes emotional. This is part of the everyday life that is definitely normalized and not often questioned, but the women of Morocco put up with a lot and having the honor to learn from them, within their healing and their individualism, especially on the subject of street and sexual harassment, as been a true privilege.

Getting to spend time with our family in the Medina was the perfect way to start off our time in Morocco. We spent our school days at the CCCL - Center for Cross Cultural Learning - in the Medina, where we had our classes and guest lectures and lunches. Having the chance to learn at such a wonderful institution was totally awesome! Learning in Rabat and in my homestay was super different from anything else I’ve ever done, and I am happy to share that my heart is even more full because of it.

love and hugs and agapé,

jessie

fig 1. Baba and us at the beach, from left to right: Riley, Race, me, Jen, Cooper, Damien

fig 2. waves on the coast of Rabat!

fig 3. the whole group in our class room at the CCCL!

[jessiegoesabroad]

waste management in a world heritage site and bubble tea on every corner > Hoi An & Ho Chi Minh, Viet Nam

coming to you live from a cafe in the old Medina of Rabat, Morocco! forgive me for this being a little late, but here we are cause i just could not delay my sharing my excitement about how much i love love love Viet Nam any longer!

for our last couple stops in Viet Nam we were in Hoi An for about 4 days and HCM city for about 3. Hoi An is a UNESCO World Heritage site on a river delta on the central coast of VN. We stayed along one of the rivers, which always became filled with lanterns at night. Being in the central part of VN and then the south near the delta was veeeery warm, but just spectacular!

One of the most memorable moments I had was an interview I conducted for my term-long research project with the daughter of two of our guest speakers, Clara. My term project, a comparative study of the education systems in all of the countries I visit (including the US), was perfect to discuss with Clara. She has spent many years in the Vietnamese public school system in multiple cities before going to her international school in Hoi An. She had many criticisms of the general education system, but showed me a more holistic view of what the curriculum actually is like, and how it is applied with the students. I learned about some really surprising similarities between the VN and US school systems, like the emphasis on math, but the differences in how that is implemented. Clara showed me more evidence to something that I had already suspected; that the government’s ideals and what they want for their children not only determine their immediate school experience, but transitively also their futures. This is only a little terrifying, as I look back to home to see my corrupt and oligarchical government back home in the US. However, it also gives me hope, because (and I say this veeeery optimistically) with good policy and government representatives looking to progressive sustainable education systems, we can give our kids the better future they deserve. Clara and I talked about this, and her powerful views on what makes a healthy classroom, a lot.

In addition to spending time in the classroom in Hoi An, our incredible country coordinator Phuong set up an awesome site visit for us where we got the chance to discuss waste management with one of the leaders in the sanitation sector in Hoi An. We visited a wonderful organic farm amidst rice paddies and some temples outside the main city area of Hoi An. They support the local economy, supply locals with fresh produce, and make their own safe pesticides with a mix of teas and vinegar! The waste management director showed us all around, and even had us go on a little boat ride near the farm. With the director we talked about how Hoi An is really setting a positive example for the rest of VN by getting communities involved in practices like composing and recycling, which in turn benefits a lot of the agricultural land that surrounds the immediate city. A lot of what our group talked about was the implications of why this happens - to benefit the tourists and bring in more revenue? For simply the good of the city and its people? A lot of my group members thought the former, but the perspective of the waste management director came seemed to come from the latter. Either way, seeing communities come together for a cause is heartwarming and does indeed set a great example for the rest of the world. Sustainability is realistic and very possible!

Not going to lie, I didn’t get to see a whole lot of HCM City while we were here for a few days. I got pretty ill and was resting a lot of the time. Rest assured, the excellent health care and abundance of love and care I received from Phuong got me better super quick. I feel all better now! Pro tip - if you are ever struck down by a stomach infection AND period cramps, fast food pho and mint tea will be a perfect cure :) however, I did go on plenty of walks especially in the evenings when I was feeling more up to it, and would walk all around the plazas and the river we were situated near and got a little taste of the city. HCM city, the former Saigon, is the most populated city in VN and it certainly feels like it! In a way, it felt like my own little slice of heaven because bubble tea is easier to acquire than ever as there’s one on nearly every corner, it feels like! Our last day, one of my close friends Riley and I managed to find some of the most amazing coconut coffee in the world before we hopped on our plane to Dubai, then Casablanca.

I could not possibly finish my last VN blog post without talking about Phuong! The amount that I have learned from her, in and out of the classroom, is definitely more than I can express. Phuong has spent time in both the VN and USA school systems, with a history in a lot of civil society programs in VN. Currently she works as in education freelance and also as a professional photographer! She traveled with us every single place we went in Viet Nam, and organized everything from where we stayed and how we got there to every single guest speaker and professor and site visit. We would not have had nearly the same program with anyone else. This past month has been nothing short of life changing and that has definitely been made by Phuong! Not to mention, she took me to the clinic every time I had to go to the doctor! I am in awe of how committed she was to our group - all with the utmost inspiring compassion, dedication, and thoughtfulness. Everyone back at the Rock, don’t worry, I am in good hands!!

All in all, (and y’all who know me know I am sappy as heck so let this last bit come as no surprise) everything about being here feels just right. Being abroad feels just wonderful. I feel like so much of my education has been building to this and I feel liberated by how much I am learning and how open and happy I feel. I definitely am living in my yellow zone all the time, and learning and pushing myself a ton because of it, but man am I feeling good and feeling lucky to be here. I am learning about what I am passionate about, and getting the chance to learn from people who have really changed my life and my perspective. Viet Nam is just amazing - my vocabulary isn’t big enough to express my love for this country! I know I will find my way back here. :)

Get ready to hear all about my incredible Moroccan homestay and the wonders of being in the desert!!!

agapé, hugs,

jessie 

outside a temple in the middle of some rice paddies in Hoi An

my friend Jack and I at the organic farm in Hoi An! he is the biggest Oasis fan ever!

in traditional boats on the river in Hoi An!

Riley and his INSANE coconut coffee! a local delicacy!!

my friend Maggie on the plaza in beautiful HCM!

[jessiegoesabroad]

homestay in a beach town, what could be better! > Da Nang, Vietnam

Please forgive me! This is soooo delayed! Turns out school can really catch up to you sometimes :)

Look out for a post on Hoi An and Ho Chi Minh City coming real soon (I am currently in the latter). But for now, let’s dive into the second stop of my time in Vietnam as well as my homestay experience!

I really cannot express enough of the love and joy I experienced living in my homestay. My sweet mother Hoai took excellent care of the 4 of us that she welcomed in with open arms - as well as our dad, our grandma (from here on referred to as Gma) and our two little siblings, Ngoc (12 yo) and Tu (6 yo). We lived in a quieter part of Da Nang, which is the 6th biggest city in the country and is situated on the Central Coast. We lived about a 5 minute walk from the beach, and needless to say I was totally spoiled.

A typical day in the homestay would entail waking up before 7am to have breakfast with my mom and Gma. We’d eat noodles, rice, soup, morning glory greens, and a little meat, as well as very strong coffee and lots of fresh fruit. Ngoc’s favorite fruit is dragonfruit, and lucky us, we had it every morning! From there I’d hug them goodbye and leave Gma watching the news on the couch with the barely one month old puppy they acquired in the middle of our time there. I’d then hop on the back of a motorbike to school! There is a service in VN called Grab, which is essentially Uber (but better for its drivers) and is for both cars and motorbikes, which is the predominant form of transportation in the country. The streets of Da Nang are bustling with motorbikes and cars and trucks alike at all times of day, but I especially always enjoyed my morning commute. Being whisked through the city around corners and over edges of sidewalks and across the famous Dragon Bridge every morning certainly woke me up, no need for coffee!

Then we’d have class in a room at Duy Tan University, a busy school in another, you guessed it, busy part of town. Our incredible guest lecturers included everything from scientific perspectives on the climate types in the Central areas of Vietnam to how meditating with groups of very different people can lead to communities solving grassroots problems and how the hydropower dam has increasingly negative effects on populations and ecosystems all across the country. All of the different perspectives we got; from people closely affiliated with the government to organic farmers to ecologists gave us the once in a lifetime chance to really hear what it is like in Vietnam with climate change affecting them every day. I wrote my research proposal for my big paper this semester in Da Nang, as well as my first essay for Econ on climate change in a capitalistic world and how I’d propose to change our political system in order to better address our environmental problems globally. Not an easy prompt, but certainly one I had fun messing around with. 

I’d Grab bike home back across the river and to our neighborhood after school, and do homework or readings on the beach or at a cafe and then go home and play with my little brother, Tu, for hours! I’d also help my little sister practice English, and we’d talk about how her day was and what she is learning in school. With Tu we’d mostly just run around together until we exhausted each other. Being in a homestay with little siblings gave me endless amounts of joy. I wish everywhere I lived was like that! Just running around and playing with Tu and his friends made me feel so grounded and centered amongst everything else going on. Dinner with the fam was always SOOO delicious and tons of fun! Dad would come home from work and we would all gather around the table and eat tons of rice, tofu, eggs, morning glory greens, meat, and fruit. We’d always finish off the meal with peanuts that Gma had roasted and grown herself. 

Living in Da Nang was like a little slice of paradise. I got so comfortable in the city life, and the people were so unbelievably generous to me and all my friends. Between going on walks with my mom, doing my homework listening to the waves crash and throwing my little brother up in the air and catching him, I lived the dream! 

Vietnam is incredible and surprises me more every day with giving me joy, love, and teaching me new things all the time. Next post will come to you very soon, as I am actually leaving for Morocco tomorrow night! But for now, enjoy some snapshots of my time in the homestay and on the Central Coast.

agapé, hugs as always,

jessie

my little brother Tu and me :)

the reservoir of the Dak Mi 4 hydropower dam in Quang Nam province - displaced whole communities of ethnic groups and is also having incredibly drastic negative effects on the geomorphology of VN. in some surveys, hydropower is not considered sustainable renewable energy in VN because of many of its wildly horrible effects on the land and the people. 

dinner w the homestay fam! mom took the pic, but here’s me, my 3 buddies from my program (Summer in front on the left and Emily in the back on the left with Emma next to me) and Gma at the head of the table and the wonderful studious Ngoc right up front on the left!

the picturesque beach of Da Nang around 5.45pm. perfect reading spot :)

me and the little man up to our usual after dinner antics!

Gma and me enjoying some pink dragonfruit! She can’t speak any English and I am still working on my Vietnamese, so we mostly communicate through laughter and smiles and sometimes she blows me a kiss across the dinner table.

all of us with mom before we said a teary goodbye! Hoai is a true superwoman. we just adore her :)

[jessiegoesabroad]

my plans for the spring!

just a lil thing to say I am honored to have been recently accepted to the SIT Study Abroad Panama: Tropical Ecology, Marine Ecosystems, Biodiversity Conservation program for Spring 2019 next semester!

I am ecstatic to be continuing my international academic journey my junior year with SIT. They already within this first month have made a huge impact on my existence with their incredibly hardworking staff (my trustees fellow, traveling professor, local faculty, country coordinators, and program director), the unique opportunities in which we have been given to learn from locals and our homestay families in the field, and not to mention my out of this world fellow students. I already feel closely bonded to them, and feel so much gratitude for their presence in my life.

I could not have gotten more lucky with this life-changing semester, and I am feeling as excited as ever to continue on with SIT for another semester.

peace n love!! ❤️ Jessie

[jessiegoesabroad]

A monsoon rolled in! Or, it kind of just rained for a while > Hanoi, Vietnam

Okay, so the title of this post is partially true - first, not a monsoon but a typhoon (more on that later - but I am currently in a monsoon climate!) I am currently in Da Nang on the Central Coast of Vietnam, but we just recently left Hanoi after almost two weeks there!

Being our first international stop, we were all ecstatic to finally be ~abroad~ and get to know a new city.

Our schedule, hectic as always, was jam-packed with guest lectures on everything from land governance to renewable energy policies to the indigenous ethnic groups in Vietnam to how Vietnam is one of the 5 countries that are the most vulnerable to climate change in the world. 

Not to mention nearly every morning we had Survival Vietnamese taught by the determined Ms. Linh who made always made us smile, laughed at me when I accidentally said I was 100 instead of 18 when trying my hand at Vietnamese numbers, and taught us the most important phrase I will ever know in this language. “rất ngon” - very delicious! (For everything I say “cảm ơn”, thank you, and any food or drink is definitely “rất ngon”!!) My hard work in those classes means I now am skilled at saying my name, where I am from, my age, that I like to listen to music, how many people are in my family and who they are, and how to ask for coffee with ice and milk (another contender for the most important phrase I know).

Hanoi is very busy!! Our incredible country coordinator, Phuong, has a t-shirt that says “Vietnam traffic laws” and depicts a traffic light - by the green it says “I can go”, by the yellow light it says “I can still go”, and by the red light it says “I can still go!”. This is a great way of summing up the fact that if there are traffic lights, they rarely mean anything, and crossing the road is more of a choose-your-own-adventure type of deal. I’ve gotten pretty good at dodging motorbikes and honking trucks while remaining calm! It is often cloudy, and very hot this time of year. Every day it was probably about 30 C and very humid. 

Not to say that we didn’t do a lot of exploring, though! My friends and I made sure to try as many smoothies as we could in our near vicinity - which meant walks during our lunch break and on the weekends all around the city, especially in the Old Quarter and around the Hoan Kiem Lake. And don’t even get me started on the coffee - my order is cà phê sữa đá, coffee with milk and ice - it is by far the most heavenly thing I have ever tasted. I have been heavily caffeinated throughout my time so far in Vietnam, don’t worry! Other yummy highlights have been bánh mì, legendary sandwiches, bánh cuốn, rice sheet rolls, and fried lotus rhizome. 

Learning about climate change in the context of Vietnam and its passionate pursuits in the cause of environmental sustainability has been completely perspective changing. My big research paper for this semester is going to be focused on looking into the state regulated/public education curriculums in all of the countries we are visiting, including the US, in order to see how they teach climate change and climate science - if at all. One of our lecturers noted that students hear about climate change so much in many schools that by the end of their secondary education, they are tired of it! That is certainly a moment I will never forget. Students learning too much about climate change that they tire of it?! I hadn’t even gotten a good, formal biology education until I got to college - let alone a formal education on climate change and climate science. This will no doubt be a contentious topic for me to study, and I am very much looking forward to conducting my research and learning more about the educational systems in the places we are visiting, and how they spin the global issue that is climate change in their own local and relevant way. 

As for the title of this post, Typhoon Mangkhut hit SE Asia around Hong Kong and parts of Vietnam and we were supposed to be really hit by it although no worries - just an afternoon of rain!

I’ll leave you with a hint to my next post - being in my first homestay of three on this trip ROCKS! 

As usual, signing off with love and warm hugs and some photos!

agapé,

jessie

lanterns about a market at night on our last night in Hanoi!

my group and I - a good portion of all 32 of us! - at an organic farm run by the Muong ethnic group about an hour outside of Hanoi. 

Trấn Quốc Pagoda - the oldest one in Hanoi, a neat spot on our first day in the city!

my friend Riley and I (he refuses to smile in photos, only smolder) trying coconut ice cream! ~*PURE HEAVEN*~ !!!

[jessiegoesabroad]

one chapter is done! or, leaving san francisco

Greetings from the floor of San Francisco International Airport! My group and I are at our gate and waiting to aboard our 13 hour flight to Taipei, where we will transfer to get to Hanoi, Vietnam. Our plane has Hello Kitties all over it!

Man, these two weeks have rocked! Our jam-packed schedule since my birthday has included everything from me getting sick (I am all better!!), a trip across the bay to Sausalito to see the Bay Model, talks from experts on the local fight against the big oil industry, and lots of walking around and getting to know the city in our spare time. 

One of my favorite days so far was when our group took a trip out to Richmond to speak to a local expert and non-profit worker named Andres about the history of the local area, changes in demographic, and how the Chevron oil refinery is poisoning the land and the people. Richmond is across the bay from San Francisco and is north of Oakland and Berkeley. Andres showed us around after giving us a very informative presentation about the history of Richmond and how different demographics of people, from groups of African Americans to the current majority population of Latinx folks have suffered under the lack of care of the government of California, and have turned to elect their own officials. 

Additionally, the Chevron oil refinery is right in town, which has exposed pipes transporting crude oil right next to highways and produces high volumes of greenhouse gases every day. Jerry Brown, the governor of California, has been a general advocate for progressive environmental policies in the state but has made several handshake agreements to allow big oil companies to not have to disclose amounts of greenhouse gases that they emit, amongst other issues. This clearly affects the population in many ways - not only in Richmond, but kids all over California and other big oil states have increasing numbers of respiratory issues; what with their schools often being right next to refineries and breathing in highly polluted air constantly. Learning about these issues that have been entrenched in their society since the oil industry set its roots in California and other states has been beyond shocking. 

Not to mention, the increasing horrifying amounts of fracking in California and other states is detrimentally affecting populations - whether in their contaminated gardens, collapsing ground, lack of water, or sick kids and elderly. It’s hard not to be inspired to dedicate my life to bringing down oil tycoons and striving for equity for the citizens that are having their lives ruled by the oil industry every day. 

In our spare time when not discussing class and site visits, I have tried my best to spear head the self care time. Some of my close friends and I have been watching romantic comedies in the evening (after doing readings and homework, of course), painting each other’s nails, and getting milkshakes in the slightly later hours from a diner across the street. I brought some embroidery floss with me, and I have taught many of my classmates how to make friendship bracelets! This has been super fun and a great stress reliever. 

The weather in SF has been totally gorgeous, and walking everywhere has allowed us to really get to know the city and its green spaces (and coffee shops - ask me for recommendations!) before we depart tonight. I even got to spend our free day yesterday with Valeria again, and we got to spend some quality time together getting some phenomenal vegan Mexican brunch in the Mission district (everyone go eat at Gracias Madre!), seeing a movie, and walking around amongst the Climate March together. 

Well, I’d better sign off so I can fit in a quick nap before the flight - wish me luck! I am definitely going to do a face mask and catch up on my reading (Eliza I PROMISE I am reading Priceless!!), so I think it’ll be a good time. 

The next time you receive an update, it’ll be straight from the tropics in Hanoi, Vietnam! Catch y’all on the flip side!

agapé,

jessie

view of the Chevron oil refinery in Richmond from a nearby park. they say all those emissions are steam, but this is not true, and they are also not mandated to release emissions reports that are not set by themselves (so, totally biased)!

walking down Fort Mason with my friends Cooper, Lilli, and Alison with (not pictured) Jack and Riley walking beside me! 

me with my duffel on my back and my backpack on my front - ready for Vietnam!

[jessiegoesabroad]

my birthday in san fran! or, week 1 so far

Helllooooo my friends!

I am alive and well and thriving in San Francisco, CA! The first few days of the program (we are currently winding down day four) have gone so swimmingly. I really love my group members - all 31 of them - and my leader, program director and coordinator, and traveling faculty all totally rock. We have gotten along great so far, and even traveling together as a pack on the BART (public transport system) in SF has worked just fine!

It was my birthday yesterday - okay, flex on em - and I am no longer a minor and happily loving adulthood so far. 18 feels great and celebrating with all my new friends was a total blast. We had some community building and then class in the morning (research methods, actually super interesting) and then traveled for lunch and a tour to a community garden and food justice organization called Phat Beets in Oakland. Afterwards, we hit up a local POC-run bakery called It’s All Good (10/10 would recommend the German chocolate cake, 4 of my friends and I split a huge slice yum yum) and headed back to our wonderful hostel, rested for an hour, and then went out to dinner with some alums of our program in past years. 

We have had a lot of guest lecturers and visitors so far come talk to us amongst other community building and launch items on our agenda. We have been in a meeting room in the Womens’ Building in the Mission, which is an incredible completely mural-decorated building honoring powerful Hispanic women. It is so vibrant and beautiful, and also a beacon of hope for the neighborhood. The guest lecturers have ranged from a spoken word performer who performed about the stolen Ohlone tribe land that is San Francisco, a Black Panther named Erica Huggins, a housing rights worker, a queer justice advocate, and even a skype call today from Kandi Mossett who is an incredible member of the IEN, Indigenous Environmental Network who told us all about the horrifying effects of the oil industry in North Dakota on the indigenous population. Every single one of them has been life-altering and an absolute privilege to be in their presence and learn their story, or the stories they told. 

Yesterday at Phat Beets we learned about how the Healthy Hearts Garden in Oakland supports the whole neighborhood with fresh produce, greens, and spices free of charge. They also employ youth and get them involved in this food justice program. We also learned about the complicated history of political conflict between the city of Oakland and this garden - how they have gone to every length to try and shut the garden down or call them out on the smallest of things (it is considered felony vandalism to graft a tree branch onto another tree to help it produce fruit). Learning from Max, the man who manages the garden and gave us the tour, as well as a wonderful 9 year old who accompanied us along the way was a blessing. The garden has brought issues forward like how to beautify and bring green space in order to help a struggling community while evading gentrification of a neighborhood, which has been fascinating to learn and definitely a difficult journey to wrap my head around possible solutions. 

While eating a delicious lunch of fresh produce and cooked food at Phat Beets, my group sang happy birthday to me for the second time that day and my launch coordinator, Sarah, brought ice cream for me and the whole group to share! The ice cream was from a local ice creamery, Bi-Rite, as pictured below. Scrumptious!! 

The dinner with the alums was also a total blast. Two alums who participated in our program 2 falls ago in 2016 took 7 of my friends and I out to dinner at a Moroccan restaurant near the hostel. Rye and Tyler were so knowledgable and kind and we had great conversations about practicing self care in a crazy packed program like ours and taking adventures in all of the places that we get to go. Tyler, who works for an energy company in the Bay Area, told the staff that it was my birthday and the waiter put a fez hat on my head and brought us all baklava! One of my friends, Jen, who speaks Arabic sang happy birthday to me in Arabic which was a real treat. Not to mention, Tyler and Rye didn’t know this when picking the restaurant but there was bellydancing! We were all recruited and got to dance together, which was definitely living in my yellow zone. 

Getting back to the hostel after having an amazing dinner, my leader Camille (have I mentioned I ADORE them?! Cause I do!!) sidetracked me in the lobby and managed to distract me for a good 20 minutes until I did a double take outside the lobby of the hostel and saw one of my best friends in the whole world, Valeria, right outside! I gasped and ran out into her arms, definitely near tears. Turns out she had coordinated with my mom, my program staff, and my friends in my program to get our schedule that day and come surprise me! It made my heart happy beyond belief. Valeria came all the way from her new home in San Jose to come surprise me for an hour that evening, and it was the perfect way to end my 18th birthday after not seeing my best friend for 9 months. 

I can’t wrap up this blog post without emphasizing how incredible the guests have been while working with our group and educating us about incredibly important issues in San Francisco, how wildly rich and diverse the city is, and how astonishingly thoughtful and caring my program staff and classmates are. We all click so well, and they all totally went out of their way and made my birthday just amazing. I couldn’t’ve asked for a better time! 

I hope you are all well - greetings from sunny CA! 

agapé, jessie xoxoxox

[jessiegoesabroad]

welcome! and, what my trip actually is

Welcome to my blog! This fall I am entering my junior year of college, and I am participating in a program for college credit with the School for International Training - SIT - titled Climate Change: the Politics of Food, Water, and Energy. (you can find the specifics like my super cool program director, the classes I'll be taking, and the places I'll be going right here!) I am traveling with 31 other students in my program and a couple traveling faculty and our group leader. It is a homestay based program with a lot of field work and meeting with locals, with classes run wherever we are by our traveling faculty and faculty based in each country.

The itinerary for where I'll be going all 115 days this fall is pretty daunting! I leave this coming Monday, the 27th, and we start in San Francisco for two weeks doing orientation and beginning classes, and then head off to Vietnam on September 11th. Not to mention, my birthday is on Wednesday! In Vietnam, we'll be in four different cities from Hanoi down to Ho Chi Minh City and then head out to Morocco in the middle of October. Spending most of our time between Rabat and Marrakesh while we're there (complete with some time in the Atlas Mountains!) we will spend a month there and then travel to Bolivia by the middle of November. From there, I head home on December 19th.

Here is where I'll log some of the stuff I get up to - whether it is something I want to bring from one of my classes to you all, an interesting place I visit or some awesome people I meet. And photos, I promise! I am humbled to have this experience, and am ecstatic to take you all along with me. SIT is reputably life changing and very challenging, and I can't wait to push myself to live in my "yellow zone", to quote my friend G, and prepare myself to work on my senior thesis next year.

As of right now, I am home in Brooklyn and anxiously scrambling to get everything ready for my departure. As some of you know, I got home from my favorite place in the world, my summer camp, almost a week ago. Amidst unpacking from being there since June 1st, I have been catching up with my family and friends from home and and packing for this next adventure! I've officially gotten all my shots (take that, rabies, yellow fever, and typhoid!), checked off everything on my shopping list, and packing is well underway. Well, I hope so. It's hard to know if I am remembering everything, although the packing list is sparse (I'm talking 5 t-shirts for over 3 months, y'all). Some important essentials that are coming in my backpack and duffel are my cuticle cream (thank you Eliza!!!), my game of Set, my journal, my Hydro flask, and superhero band aids.

Well, I fly out of JFK in NYC at 7am on Monday morning, so stay tuned for more once I turn a new age in San Fran!

with my backpack on my front, and my duffel on my back! i am ready!