I am back from Ecuador and am missing the jungle every day I am not there! Personally, I experienced more culture shock when returning back to the USA than I did when first arriving in South America. Upon reflection, it has changed my day to day and how I see the world we are living in. Studying abroad is so different than learning in a classroom because of the realness…
We have had some great and definitely new foods for me on this trip! While in the Amazon jungle, we went fishing one afternoon. When we went fishing, one of the members of our group caught a piranha… which we ate for dinner! It was not my favorite meal, but it was super cool to see in person. I am also glad I got to get out of my comfort…
My days here in Ecuador are so vastly different than my day to day back in Charleston. My days usually started at 5am from a rooster call (which was annoying at first… but honestly, I kind of enjoy it now) with a fresh fruit breakfast and amazing coffee. When then go on some sort of excursion or hike looking for birds, monkeys, or caymans, depending on the day. Something I…
You could definitely say we were immersed during our time in Chile. Contemporary Chilean history is all around Santiago and the University. We would often pass by La Moneda, the president’s building and the site of the military coup in 1973. I lived very close to Plaza de la Dignidad (formerly Plaza Italia) where a lot of the city comes together. Historically this has been a place of convergence for…
My study abroad experience in Santiago, Chile has taught me a lot about the Chilean culture as well as their history and how it affects them today. I think that this experience will help me in my future career in understanding people from different Spanish speaking countries and the difference in native speakers of the language. In my time there, I learned a lot more about the Spanish language and…
In mid-October, as I was finally adjusting to my new life here in Chile, a mass movement of protests began. These protests first began by a group of high-school students, due to the rise of the metro prices, which was labelled as “Evade”. However, this was only the spark that lit the fire. These protests have now become a national movement for social change. These manifestations have been conducted all…
One of my favorite excursions from the trip was our weekend outing to the town of Boquete. To get to Boquete, we took a boat from Bocas del Toro, the island where ITEC is located, to a van that drove us four hours through the mountains. As we drove through the mountains to Boquete, we were able to watch the climate change from a tropical rainforest to dry forest. This…
My favorite day so far consisted of a data collection lab in which we measured the diversity of echinoderms in a coral reef. The specific echinoderms we were searching for included sea urchins, sea stars, and sea cucumbers. Using tape and flags, we marked off a section of the reef and counted each species of echinoderms that we saw with underwater paper. It was exciting to use new methods and…
We only have a few days left until we head back to the city. So far, living here in the rainforest has been quite an adjustment. The experience overall has been very nice, but there have been times where it gets hard. Panama is currently experiencing a drought that has been ongoing for 8 weeks. Pete, the guy in charge of the ITEC center here, says that this has been…
The Institution of Tropical Ecology and Conservation (ITEC) is a remote and off grid lab where the CofC Panama students and I stayed for 2 weeks. ITEC powers themselves through solar energy and a generator which is used sparingly. Every morning the generator was turned on for 30 minutes in order to make coffee. Every night it was turned on so that we could have our lecture. Since Panama is…
