#sit study abroad

[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!

[fairykids]

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[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]

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]

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*~ !!!

[wingardiumswagiosabitch]

So I think I'm going to India to study abroad.

Has anyone ever done this here? Thoughts? Difference between southern and northern India? The best semester to do it?