Costa Rica Churches
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What do I wear? How much clothes do I bring? Here is a packing list to help answer some of your questions.
For the nine students who made the 21-day trip in January 2017, the scarcity and simplicity of life in Cuba – from the 1950s cars to the empty supermarket shelves to the limited Internet service - challenged every convention of their lives back home.
The study abroad trip combined two classes: Journeys through Latin America: Contemporary Cuba, taught by Murillo, and Health, Culture and Elder Care in Cuba, taught by Kirby Veevers, an adjunct professor of Health Professions who specializes in palliative care, aging and long-term care.
Name: William McKenzie
Class year: 2017
Trip title: Photography in Cuba
One of the last sunsets we saw before we headed back to Eckerd.
Students and faculty traveled to Ethiopia over spring break for a blend of cultural and academic experiences in the East African nation. There, they visited historic locations and met with high-level officials at the U.S. Embassy, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Oxfam, and the African Union.
Cairo, Egypt
Winner, DU Students Abroad category
Taken by Brie Gilbreath
"A weekend trip to Cairo with some fellow Pioneers led to an incredible experience, which allowed us to see one of the Seven Wonders of the World, the Giza Pyramids. We rode our camels to a small hill in the Sahara Desert that overlooked the pyramids, where we were able to see the amazing architecture of the Egyptians, which now makes up some of the world’s oldest standing structures."
2017 Go Abroad Photo Contest
1st Place – People, Culture and Lifestyles
It was taken in Nepal when I went for a trek of Annapurna circuit. The local woman, at rural Manang district of Nepal in the photo, gave her real smiling face to my camera. It can be seen that "True Happiness lies within our own state of mind, and so too do the primary obstacles to that happiness.” – Dalai Lama
If you live in Uruguay, you drink mate. Yerba mate is a traditional drink prepared by filling a small cup with yerba tea leaves, pouring in hot water, steeping for a few minutes, and slurping up the bitter tea with a metal straw. You can’t buy it at a coffeeshop, but you acquire a mate cup, straw, and yerba, and put on your teakettle. As I worked through the checklist, everyone around me was excited I was trying it, but warned me that I wouldn’t like it until the sixth time I tried it--and even then it would be a battle. Believe me, I was ready for the fight. If THIS is what is means to be Uruguayan, to enjoy mate, I would CERTAINLY give it my best shot. The problem was that I actually hated mate. It’s like drinking a quarter cup of water that steeped in a cup of green tea leaves for an hour, and burning your mouth on the metal straw in the process. And it made my hands jittery with caffeine. It was bitter. My stomach hurt, and it turned my spit green. But for a while I was like “Yep! I’m just on the road to liking mate. I’ll get there someday.” After mate no. 7 I began to doubt my progress. I’d learned how to drink the tea without burning myself, but I was still having physical reactions that made me antsy. A Uruguayan friend finally looked at me and said “Just give it up. Don’t force yourself to try to do something that has proved itself to be bad for yourself, just to fit into the culture you want to embrace.” I needed these words. I needed someone to acknowledge the gymnastics I was ALERADY doing as a study abroad student functioning in my second language. I needed someone to give me permission to see a culture, admire it, and be okay leaving looking a heck of a lot still like ME. I needed someone to tell me that even if drinking mate was one of the biggest parts of Uruguayan culture, not every Uruguayan loves it, and it’s okay if I don’t either. When we travel I think we can adopt a mindset that we have to love EVERYTHING about the place that we’re at…otherwise we’re doing it wrong. What my friend helped me see is that even if we see something that is good and beautiful, it’s okay to acknowledge it and move on, without having to bend over backwards to adopt that into our life. I love the idea of mate, but I don’t think I’ll ever love mate itself. I’ll come home with the cup and the straw, and I’ll brew a cup of English Breakfast and sip it while I’m working on a paper. Is that a culture clash waiting to happen? Absolutely. But is that my best next step, to remember, and to partake on my terms? Absolutely. I’m a global citizen…but I’m still myself.