Reedies Abroad: Tales From Beyond the Bubble, Week Two
Dashiell Allen (he/him) - Spanish senior - CIEE Liberal Arts - Buenos Aires, Argentina
What did you do/study?
I studied literature, gender and sexuality, and visual art.
Why did you decide to go abroad?
I wanted to spend time in a Latin American country and had heard lots of great things about Argentina. I also took an Argentine literature class the semester before.
How has studying abroad played into your Reed experience?
It has played an immense role! I just started writing my thesis on a political organization from the 70s that I learned about in Buenos Aires, which I never would have encountered otherwise. I also just generally have a more positive outlook on life, both socially and academically.
Studying in Buenos Aires has also made me think critically about the privilege that comes with studying at a college in the United States, and has made me value, immensely, public education and equity. In Argentina, although there are private institutions of higher education, public university is free and open to all.
Do you have a cool tidbit (place, person, story, project)?
There are so many tidbits I could share! Making sushi with my host mom, getting to see my favorite singer Julieta Venegas live, watching my classmate's theater group perform monologues dressed as animals! I don't even know where to begin.
One of the most intense parts of this program is that it allows us students to directly enroll in Argentine universities. You enter a room full of people you don't know, in a country you are unfamiliar with, in a building with neither heating nor air conditioning — nor toilet paper in the bathrooms — and take classes in Latin American literature with incredible professors who are incredibly invested in the value of public teaching. You also make great friends.
What else do you want to share?
Study abroad is really what you make of it. I learned a lot about myself while abroad, and am hoping to take back a lot of my knowledge with me to the US.
Tess Buchannan (she/her) - Anthropology junior - SFS Center for Amazon Studies - Peru
What did you do/study?
I studied conservation science, tropical ecology, and regional political ecology while living on a research base in the Amazon Rainforest.
Why did you decide to go abroad?
When else am I going to get to travel on someone else's dime? Also, my advisor told me to. Also, it was a chance to do hands-on fieldwork in disciplines I don't get to participate in because they are outside of my major.
How has studying abroad played into your Reed experience?
Studying abroad gave me a nice 'reset' for my brain, which prepared me to come back and tackle my junior year. It also gave me practical knowledge and experience to bring up in my classes and a direction to take my thesis next year.
Do you have a cool tidbit (place, person, story, project)?
I spent a month walking between the houses of Campesino elders, interviewing them about their thoughts on a government reforestation project. At the end of one interview, my interviewee tried to sell me his farm.
Kyle Nash (he/him) - Classics junior - College Year Athens - Athens, Greece
What did you do/study?
Ancient Greek monuments in Athens, visiting lots of sites throughout Greece. Studied the Classics.
Why did you decide to go abroad?
I wanted to spend a semester away from Reed, and it's highly recommended for Classics majors to study a semester abroad.
How do you feel the experience has played into your Reed experience?
I got to study the field of my major, in person, which has driven a lot of my future desires for future studying in my major. It was great to get a chance to experience the stuff I was talking about, in person.
Do you have a cool tidbit (place, person, story, project)?
I got to go inside of the Athenian Acropolis as part of one of my classes, which is a really rare experience nowadays! It was super cool to get to stand in the middle of the columns and see the inside myself.
What else do you want to share?
Studying abroad was a really great experience to see everything in person!
Aidan Walker (he/him) - History-Literature junior - CUPA - Paris, France
What did you do/study?
French history, poetry, literature stuff.
Why did you decide to go abroad?
I wanted another experience, something else to think about and base my feelings and ideas on.
How has studying abroad played into your Reed experience?
It's given me more perspective and made me see what in Reed is bullshit and what is beautiful and unique more clearly than before.
Do you have a cool tidbit (place, person, story, project)?
I got a part-time job working as a babysitter for a French kid whose parents were art dealers. The parents had a booth at this art show in the basement of the Louvre, and they asked me to watch their kid while they worked. The art show was pretty much a place for people from around the world to talk to fine arts dealers and buy paintings and sculptures. The cheapest thing there was ten thousand euros. Not realizing the nature of this event, I was terribly under-dressed, and my job was to supervise a very bored and restless eight-year-old who did not get the point of the entire art fair. The situation devolved. He had very low-blood-sugar, and I ended up chasing him through this black-tie fine arts market, trying to rein in his energy, while all these very rich old people shot us judgmental glares. He found this hilarious. At last, next to the refreshments counter lounge area, I diverted him with a display of how static electricity worked, which he'd had no idea existed, and got him to sit still. I ended up buying him an orange juice – and me a glass of wine – and talking about Pokemon in French, as I often had to. Then, this woman came up, said she'd heard my accent, and asked if I was American. I said yes, and she introduced herself: she was an American art dealer from New York – the granddaughter of Paul Rosenberg, who famously was Matisse and Picasso's art dealer and evacuated a lot of precious art from Europe during [World War II] – and we talked all about her family history and her business, which to me was fascinating, but to the French boy very boring, and the whole time he just wanted to go home.
What else do you want to share?
All's good abroad!