Global Experiences

After the second week I began to find my way around Munich with the little German I knew. I found some good restaurants as well as the shops that weren’t outrageously expensive from tourism.

Our study abroad experience took place in the city of Innsbruck, Austria, which is nestled in a valley in the Austrian Alps. Immediately after arriving, we realized we were entering a completely different environment.

Arriving in a foreign country can be an overwhelming experience in many ways: from the weight of my thirty-nine pound travel backpack packed for three and a half weeks on my back, from the exhaustion from sleeping only a couple of hours on the plane the night before, and from being in a new place…

For many college students, the week after graduation signals an opportunity to travel. For a lucky few, that might even include a trip abroad. For a group of Department of Nuclear Engineering students, it means both a chance to head to Europe and the opportunity of a lifetime.

The trip to Prague included short layovers, long layovers, many countries, lots of time, and some tight quarters (word of warning for fellow tall travelers-planes are not exactly the roomiest mode of transportation). All in all, the trip from the United States to Europe worked out and provided some bonding moments between the professors and…

For Spring Break 2014, I took a trip to Mandeville, Jamaica, with a number of fellow UT students and Judith Mallory, our trip organizer and leader. We went to experience the culture, learn about the way of life of another group of people, and build a new restroom for some school children in the community.…

When my friends heard I was travelling to Jamaica for spring break, so many of them replied with, “Wow! I’m so jealous! It’s beautiful there; you’ll have so much fun!” I understood what they meant—they were picturing warm sandy beaches and the cool turquoise ocean on the edges of the island. However, that wasn’t the…

By the second day, we had already adjusted to the lifestyle. We were fed another huge meal and shipped off to work. Percy quickly gave us tasks, calling us by our appearance (beard guy, blonde girl) in an accent that only a few of us could understand. The trenches for the bathroom foundation had already…

Joining students on the project from as far away as Germany, Israel, Denmark, and Austria, the group set about the construction of a bathroom (known in Jamaica as an “Ablutions Block”) at the Richmond Primary school, established in the 1850s, to replace an aging and dangerous pit latrine system.

When I first heard that I was going to Jamaica to do some construction work, I had little idea what to expect. I expected there to be construction work, and I expected there to be Jamaicans, but everything else was shrouded in mystery.