One moment I was taking in the beautiful national park around me, the next moment I could not stop thinking about the bone chilling cold and my soaked clothing. My landscape sociology class concluded with an amazing (besides the cold) trip to the bohemian paradise which is a beautiful national park in the Czech Republic. Never before had I taken a class about landscape sociology let alone taken a 3 day school trip where we spent days hiking in 40 degree weather and the nights sharing beers and stories with our professor. This trip was a perfect illustration of a different type of education, culture, and ultimately way of life I discovered while abroad.
It was a beautiful landscape until we reached the cafe and souvenir shop. Tourism on the one hand brings protection to beautiful landscapes thus helping maintain their beauty. On the other hand tourism is also responsible for the cafes, souvenir shops and degradation of the landscape. Seeing this in person made me understand the pros and cons of tourism better than any in class PowerPoint. Our professor simply decided that he would organize this trip so we could experience landscape first hand. Everything was not perfectly planned out and we were often cold and miserable yet it was a great trip that provided examples of many of the theoretical aspects we had been learning in class. We didn’t fill out a million release forms either. The point I’m making is that this would never have been done in the US. Although this is a generalization they most likely would have cancelled the trip because of the rain and freezing weather. Instead our spry 65 year old professor made us all look like babies as we complained during the walk. Europe and the Czech Republic have a different way of life than in the US. Each has its pros and cons but what became most important to me was learning about the different ways of life that exist. This is because the contrast they create leads to questioning. As you experience more and more, some things that seemed so certain such as a path to law school or med school for example suddenly become very uncertain. Until you have that contrast you never know to question. Now I constantly ask myself if what I am doing is what I (emphasis on I and not others) want to be doing. This is because I spent a good amount of time traveling alone and experiencing completely new cultures surrounded by foreign people and a foreign environment. It’s hard to explain but when you are surrounded by something that is completely foreign you start reading your own book and begin to learn more about what’s going on in your own head. Gone is the routine of back home that keeps you distracted. This is what I learned while studying abroad.
This summer I will be heading to Jordan and Egypt to backpack around. Is it crazy and will it be unbearably hot? Most definitely. But these previously crazy ideas don’t seem so crazy or scary anymore which is why my summer backpacking trip will include Egypt. This is because my time abroad normalized uncertainty. Study abroad is when you learn about completely new subjects such as communism and a completely new language such as Czech. You visit exotic places and meet all kinds of people. At the end of the day, life will not seem so linear anymore.