The most common sound is Amsterdam is without a doubt the crisp ding ding of a bicycle bell, warning walkers and other bikers to make room. And for good reason. Our tour guide told us there are more bicycles than people in the city. We took this to heart and tried to stay out of the way, though there were a few frightening near-collisions with bikes zipping by.
For this post, I’d like to share with you what my daily life is like living in Rabat.
It’s the last week of classes at Trinity College Dublin. This is the final week of Hilary Term. This doesn’t make sense to me. How on earth did this happen? Surely I haven’t been here that long! But even though I can hardly believe it, it’s still true. This is week twelve, and starting next week, Trinity Term begins.
Studying at EARTH wasn’t all hard work and cold showers. The university is on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica in the province of Limon, so we were able to travel to some pretty awesome beaches on our weekends off. I had never been to the Caribbean, so I especially enjoyed our time with the brilliant blue waters and sandy beaches. We were able to visit Puerto Viejo and Cahuita. Puerto Viejo is definitely more of party-surfer beach town and a destination for study abroad students.
One of the great things about studying at EARTH University was the experiential aspect of the classes. Not only were we able to participate in work experience on Wednesdays, but we were also able to take many field trips to see the tenets of sustainable development in practice. Here is a list and description of some of the places were were able to travel during our time at EARTH (and pictures too!).
Corsicana Organic Pineapple Farm:
In France, the term “spring break” is synonymous with crazy Hollywood movies depicting alcohol, drugs, and over-the-top parties. If I ever slipped up and said to a French friend that I had my spring break planned for Greece, Rome, and Dublin, I always received a look of shock and sheer wonder. “You’re going on a Spring Break?!?!” So if you plan on taking part in the wonderful opportunity of studying abroad in France, be sure to utilize the words “spring vacation” or “holidays” unless you want to receive some strange looks and questions.
The group has just completed it’s second module at Universidad EARTH in Limon, Costa Rica. The experience was quite different from life in Santo Domingo. During each week at the university, we took a different course related to the concept of sustainable development. The first week was entrepreneurship, the second sustainable agriculture, the third waste management, and the fourth community development. I have been quite busy! Throughout the weeks our group was able to discuss and come back to the theme of what it means to be sustainable.
IES provides various excursion trips to their students. Some are free while others require a co-pay but all give you access to popular sites just outside of Paris. This past weekend, the majority of the students in the program took an overnight trip to Normandy. We hopped on the bus Friday morning at 8am and headed northwest towards Caen. Our first stop was the memorial of Caen, a museum dedicated to telling the history of World War II.