Husain ends his trip to Argentina

The last week in Argentina has been great. We went to Tigre, a city north of Buenos Aires with beatiful river tributaries. We were able to talk to members of the Buenos Aires Rowing Club, and also toured the river by boat. There were many beautiful houses lining the river bank along with lots of shrubbery and trees.
We were also able to experience walking the streets of the Once neighborhood, which was lined with clothing stores and busy people. I also got to spend some time with my host father, talking about all sorts of topics. He has helped me very much in settling in the country and in learning the language. It has also been very fun to joke with him, as he has a lot of good humor. I will certainly miss living with the Carroll family; living with them has made this trip a wonderful experience.
Tomorrow will be the last day of classes, and will be a day full of goodbyes. Looking back, we've learned several things about Argentina's history, culture, and language that has enriched our knowledge. I'm glad to have completed this course and experience, and hope that future students in this program have a great experience as well.

A Geneva Getaway

During my freshman year as a physics major at UTD, I had taken an honors mechanics course with a fantastic professor named Dr. Joe Izen. Two weeks after spring semester ended, he left for Geneva, Switzerland on a year-long sabbatical. He worked on a project at CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research and world-famous location of the Large Hadron Collider, a particle accelerator and a theoretical physicist’s dream laboratory. However, we kept in contact through e-mail, talking about bicycle lane projects on the UT Dallas campus he would eventually come back to and my progress as a physics major. He even wrote the main professor’s recommendation for my successful Udall Scholarship application, all the way from Europe. However, perhaps the most exciting message came approximately a week after I arrived for my ten-week internship in the Netherlands:
“Well, you’re not too far away now and staying the entire summer! Would you be interested in coming to visit us at Geneva for a weekend?”
Opportunity’s knock drummed in my ears as I immediately logged onto easyjet.com and searched for a flight between Amsterdam and Geneva. Ninety dollars. It was almost too good to believe, only $90 between me, and CERN, and Switzerland.
My trip? Absolutely fantastic. A lot of school tours visit CERN, and students can walk through halls of old particle accelerators and see the progress of modern computing before their eyes. Did you know that the CERN campus was the birthplace of the World Wide Web? Nowadays, they have a direct working relationship with Intel and often beta-test their newest computer technology before it hits the market. And the second day, the tiny environmentalist inside me was completely captivated by the sight of Mer de Glace, a glacier in the French Alps. I was even more excited when I got to climb down to the icy wonderland and walk and jump all over it, taking photos as evidence that will be mere memories in 30 years’ time.
There was a small issue with locating the glacier at first, since it’s been receding for the past few decades and the original “view point” when you first cross the mountain ridge doesn’t provide much of a view anymore:
[donde esta glacier? Photo]
But ultimately, we were successful and another “Whoosh” site was found, right next to a deep crevasse.
[Whoosh! Glacier photo]

But I really don’t want this article to focus too much on the small, sight-seeing details of this trip. Although it was entirely unrelated to my internship, it fit perfectly according to my interests as a physics student and climate change researcher. I could spend my whole summer—and beyond—exploring every last nook and cranny and hydroengineering feature in the Netherlands, but then I would have missed out on this incredible opportunity to visit CERN and Mer de Glace. What I’m trying to recommend is, don’t get bogged down in the big picture of planning your whole semester and summer down to the wire, so that your eyes are shut to small, but significant opportunities like these. Take a leap and see what you make of it! At the very least, I hope this encourages you to strike up a conversation with (or e-mail) your honors mechanics (or equivalent) professor, and see how they’re doing.

Argetina group thoughts

Jessica H---
Meals have been one of my favorite parts of Argentina, and not just because my host mom is a great cook! Meals are always an interesting mix of Spanish and English (and sometimes even French, since I took it in high school) in order for me to accomplish basic communication. The first week, dinner took about 3 hours every night. We started around 9pm and finished close to 12am, when our host mom, Mama Catalina as she has us call her, finally shoos us out of the kitchen when we try to do the dishes yet again.

Mama Catalina, Jess, Prisha, and I have had some really fun nights. One of my favorite memories is the time I mixed up wedding and deer, and no one could stop laughing long enough to explain what had happened! I have learned so much about Argentine culture around our dinner table and I think that our family dinners will be memories I cherish the most when I leave here

Husain M --
The Buenos Aires experience so far has had a myriad of meaningful sights, sounds, and smells. A walk in the Plaza de Mayo has shown us the Casa Rosada, the Cathedral, and buildings of varying architecture. We saw the Madres de Mayo (mother's of victims of the Dirty War) in their weekly demonstrations as well. Visits to the Parque de la Memoria and the ESMA (a former detention center) have also helped us understand the dark details of the war.
A day trip to an estancia (a ranch for Argentine gauchos) has given us another view on the culture here. The environment was serene, with a vast blue sky and a wide expanse of flat, green land. Riding horses, eating asado (barbequed) beef, and talking with the gauchos made this a memorable day.
Other great places include the Buenos Aires Zoo, the Botanical Garden, and the Teatro Colon. Daily life on the streets has been fun with perusing through markets, eating pastries at confiterias/panaderias, and appreciating the ubiquitous street art.
A full weekend at Puerto Iguazu was incredible with viewing the waterfalls at the National Park. A raft ride through the falls got us all soaked, but we were able to dry off on the sun-exposed beach of Isla de San Martin. The next day we went to the Iguazu Forest to do rappelling and canopying. We were also able to visit Tres Frenteras, the point from which we could see Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina all at once!

Prisha G--
Although the thought of living with a complete stranger was initially daunting, I am very fortunate to have “Mama Catalina” as my host mother. With her kindness and generosity, she has made it possible for my roommates and I to feel right at home in her 10th floor apartment in the middle of Buenos Aires. Though we were strangers to her just three short weeks ago, Mama Catalina has embraced us with kindness and dotes on us all of the time.
While we are busy during the day and spend most of our time far from the house, all of us look forward to returning just in time for the nightly dinner and the hilarious conversations that ensue. Spending time with her and other families has enabled me to realize that this is the way of life in Argentina. Families are of the foremost importance, and the people here cherish spending hours at the dinner table sharing stories of misadventures and even day-to-day occurrences.
Through Spanish, English, and a little bit of gesturing, I have learned about the importance of family to the people of this country, and it’s a lesson I want to take back home with me.

Liz reflect on time in Brazil

So it took me a long time to write this post. I spent the holidays back in the states, worked for a semester in D.C., and now have finally returned to campus in Dallas, and my experience in Brazil has clearly shaped the way I look at the world and my place in it. I suppose this blog has taken such a long time to complete because in many ways, I am still not done processing how my experience abroad has affected my life. I think I brought back a piece of Brazil with me, imbedded deep within my character and thoughts, and it continues to play a role in my development as a nearly-graduated college student/soon-to-be professional adult.
As a country, Brazil has been truly blessed with great natural beauty, both in terms of landscape and people. The geography varies greatly from region to region, but almost all the country is permeated with a sense of wonder and respect for the wealth of nature it possesses—be it beaches or forests or anything in between. The people in general are large-hearted, excited to be exposed to new people and ideas, and eager to share their culture and opinions and views on life.
The economy and the country as a whole are experiencing a period of newfound stability and prosperity that results in an almost tangible energy in the attitudes and outlooks of the people. They seem genuinely excited for what the future holds in store; I have certainly never been faced with such widespread optimism here in the U.S. during my life thus far—a time which has largely been characterized by terrorism, unending military conflicts, and economic troubles. There are lessons to be learned from that optimism, and I can only hope that my still-developing understanding of it will continue to guide me as I figure out how to contribute to a brighter future for the U.S. in an increasingly interconnected world.
All in all, my experiences in Brazil were extremely valuable on both a personal and professional level. I am much more aware of the forces of globalization and economic improvement, but also much more aware of how I fit into the equation and what I may be capable of achieving in the coming years. Thank you, Brazil and all those I met there, for reinvigorating and refining my earlier dreams of helping enact up-to-date and meaningful economic change in the U.S. and in the world.

Dionna Explores Europe

Check out Dionna's adventures at her blog: dionnabudd.blogspot.com