Off-Campus Studies @ COW
Blue Bench
Cara Stoddard ‘08
IES: Christchurch, New Zealand
While studying in New Zealand, my program took a trip to Tonga to experience a drastically different culture. This photo of the blue bench was taken on the dock of a small island called Pangiomoto, a ten-minute ferry ride from the capital of Tonga, Nuku’alofa. It was an escape from the stifling Tongan dress code, forbidding women to reveal their knees, and a chance for us Americans to lounge around in our bikinis without offending anyone. This photo I thought captured the vibrancy of that day on the beach. That day was the epitome of everything we expected of Tonga. We snorkeled around a sunken ship and saw neon-blue fish. And we climbed a coconut tree and picked our own coconuts that a nice Tongan woman punctured and gave us bendy straws to drink the milk. It was from this bench you could see the smoke from burning trash in Nuku’alofa. And it was on this dock we redressed ourselves to catch the ferry back to the reality of sweaty pit-stains and the drastically different.
Blue Bench
Cara Stoddard ‘08
IES: Christchurch, New Zealand
While studying in New Zealand, my program took a trip to Tonga to experience a drastically different culture. This photo of the blue bench was taken on the dock of a small island called Pangiomoto, a ten-minute ferry ride from the capital of Tonga, Nuku’alofa. It was an escape from the stifling Tongan dress code, forbidding women to reveal their knees, and a chance for us Americans to lounge around in our bikinis without offending anyone. This photo I thought captured the vibrancy of that day on the beach. That day was the epitome of everything we expected of Tonga. We snorkeled around a sunken ship and saw neon-blue fish. And we climbed a coconut tree and picked our own coconuts that a nice Tongan woman punctured and gave us bendy straws to drink the milk. It was from this bench you could see the smoke from burning trash in Nuku’alofa. And it was on this dock we redressed ourselves to catch the ferry back to the reality of sweaty pit-stains and the drastically different.