A Pre-Departure Note

Dear Future Abroad Student, 


Everyone’s always telling me how the world is my oyster. But I’m vegan. I don’t like eating things that are alive, or things that are now dead that once were living. Who am I to eat another form of life? I wouldn’t want someone to eat me, and I feel like this must be a universal sentiment across the animal kingdom. 

But, in one of my climate classes I learned that oysters don’t have a central nervous system—meaning they don’t experience pain or fear, which leads some vegans to justify eating these slimy, salty drops of goo out of a shell. 

So I decided to try them on a grey afternoon at a restaurant on the coast. I liked that they broke the rules of what it means to be vegan on some random technicality. And I was somewhat shocked to find that this intimidating combination of flavors and textures (or lack thereof) was actually quite yummy. I ended up splitting a half dozen of them that day.

I decided to reintegrate my firm rejection of the world being compared to an oyster–let alone an oyster that I would be consuming. If oysters could be non-vegan, maybe the world could also be an oyster. And so my mindset shifted. If the world could be my very own oyster, I want to slurp up all the brine I possibly could. 

When I opened my mind to the possibilities that each oyster presents, I couldn’t resist eating each one of them that I came across. So, when the time came to decide if I were to leave the comfy confines of my small, liberal arts college in the Northeast, where I’ve lived my whole life, to study abroad in a place I’ve never been, I knew I had to take the chance on this oyster and see if I liked the taste. 

The time finally came to commit to a specific program for my semester abroad. I felt a calling to Berlin because of its uniquely palpable connection to its tumultuous past with a simultaneous commitment to sustainability. Berlin looks forward and backwards at the same time, and asks the question: can we learn from our past while creating a future that’s better for all of us? As a half-jewish environmentalist, these sorts of questions feel distinctively important in both my academic journey and my personal relationship with the globe as a whole. 

There’s so much I’m excited to learn about Berlin while I’m there. Do they even have oysters in Berlin? I think they might only have sausage–I mean wurst. While I’m not sure particularly what the study-abroad oyster is going to taste like, I know I made the right decision to at least give it a try.

I can’t wait to share more of my reflections abroad with this blog and I hope you find it helpful! Feel free to reach out to me with any questions at siena.rose37@gmail.com about Berlin, study abroad, or IES Abroad! I would love to hear from you!