Edward visits Kata Tjuta

Edward Jenner is an Honors College student majoring in chemical engineering in the College of Engineering and in physics through the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. He traveled to Australia last Spring and attended classes at the The University of Newcastle, Australia.

Since my last update, I’ve finished my studies, traveled the country, and took a lovely 15 hour flight home. I’ve been back for nearly three weeks and am still adjusting to being home.  So immediately after my last blog post was the last week of class before the semester break. I spent that time working incessantly to finish my assignments on schedule and learning a very valuable lesson in storing homework on only one flash drive.  Shortly thereafter, I was on a flight to Cairns. Cairns is a northern Australian city in Queensland that couldn’t decide if it wanted to be known for its amazing tropical forests or its beautiful seaside location, so it chose both.

The Cairns Rainforest

My first day in Cairns I spent exploring the forests surrounding the area and covering the mountains. I had scheduled to go with a guide, in which an Italian family would also be joining me, but they backed out the morning of the tour, thus giving me my own personal guide for an entire eight hours. Along the way I went swimming in natural springs, climbed across (and fell off) large rock formations, and had the luxury of seeing a wide array of vegetation and wildlife. I came across a very lovely vine with barbs along the spine which hook into the skin, and since that isn’t enough, they also have unnecessarily sharp needles down the leaves.

After the voyage into the wild, I left on Tuesday morning for a 36 hour scuba diving trip at the Great Barrier Reef. It was a five hour trip to the actual reef, in which I made great friends with the crew and the only other passenger who spoke English. Unfortunately, the other 10 or so tourists were all French and didn’t seem too enthusiastic about making conversation with anyone else. Aside from that (and a bout of seasickness on the voyage out) the first day was amazing. We arrived at the reef at around 3 p.m. and after a quick scuba instruction were in the water. Because none of the tourists were certified divers, there had to be one instructor for every two divers, but fortunately, none of the French wanted to dive so we didn’t have to take turns in the water. After gearing up in a very flatteringly tight wet suit and donning the 80 lbs. of scuba gear, I took the plunge. I had trouble getting comfortable with being submerged and was very unnerved being in the water. After the first 30 minutes though I was completely at ease underwater, and was absolutely consumed by the reef.

We stayed anchored at the reef overnight, hours away from any visible land. Around 10:00, there was a scheduled night dive at the reef. I ended up being the only one interested in going into the water after dark, and almost backed out myself. The whole ocean was completely pitch-black and the moon was blocked from heavy cloud cover. I ended up finding the nerves to go in, and was well rewarded for it. When we jumped in, there was actually a decent amount of light underwater, and visibility wasn’t a problem. Also, I had the luck of startling an octopus on my way down to the bottom, which inked me and the dive instructor. What I didn’t know though is in low amounts of light, the octopus’s ink appears vibrant neon blue. Scuba diving at the Great Barrier Reef was unarguably the most amazing single experience of my entire trip in Australia. The finale of the night dive was sitting on the ocean bed and flailing my hands through a group of plankton, which on contact, would flash bright pink and dart off.

I spent the rest of my break in Sydney with a friend enjoying the large city uneventfully. After which, I was straight back to class. The remainder of my semester was pretty uneventful. Aside from hours spent in the library studying, nothing of real interest happened, until finals came. Nothing actually interesting happened during the finals, but how they were conducted was pretty interesting and worth noting.

First off, the proctors for the exams were outsourced to non-university staff. The reasoning is that professors might be tempted to help students during the exam to boost their grades, which I understand, but I don’t think it’s a legitimate enough problem to warrant the funding and effort required. Also, the professors were not allowed to be in the same building when the exam was conducted. Thus, if there was a problem on an exam i.e. something being mislabeled or a badly worded question, the student would have to leave the room with a proctor, and make a monitored phone call to the professor and hope it would be something that could be answered over the phone. Secondly, a decent portion of the exams were held off campus. Three of my four exams took place on the other side of the city, at a horse track. It was a lovely building, and very comfortable, but was a bit strange to say the least. Last, multiple courses would be taking exams in the same room, and they didn’t always start or stop at the same time. I took my 2^nd exam in a room with 2 other courses, both of which started and stopped their exams at different times. After my exams, I stayed in Newcastle for three more days before leaving to do a bit of traveling.

Venus, Mars, and Jupiter over the Australian Outback

From Newcastle, I left for twelve days of traveling through different parts of the country. I spent three days in Brisbane, in which I did nothing in particular. I’d walk around through the city and go to museums and parks I came across, which was a lot more fun than it probably sounds. From Brisbane, I went on a four day guided tour through the outback in the Uluru national park area. The first day we visited King’s Canyon for a three hour hike through the rock formations and gorges. The canyon area used to be hunting grounds for the Aboriginal people, but unfortunately the majority of animals had been overhunted when European settlers came into the area. The first night we had a lovely introduction to the local wildlife. The nights drop down to around 0 ^oC, and mice would run towards us because of our food and warmth. We couldn’t leave any food sitting out or a mouse would make its way into it. We also had to sleep in what are called “swags” which are basically large leather sleeping bags. We’d place our own sleeping bags inside the swag, and then zip up the swag. We’d have to close it up entirely, or mice would crawl into the swag with us to get closer to our body heat. It took some time to get asleep since the mice would crawl on and around us in the swags. From there, we went on to visit two more rock formations, Kata Tjuta and Uluru.

After my brief travels into the outback, I flew back to Sydney for my last three days in Australia. I stayed in the same hostel from the beginning of my trip, and did a bit of souvenir shopping for family back home. Aside from that, I spent my last few days visiting my favorite places of Sydney; King’s Cross, Hyde Park, the Botanical Gardens, Darling Harbor, and the Opera house.

Mark (far left) and his classmates take a pit-stop on their Mediterranean Excursion

Mark Haney is an Honors College student majoring in management in the Sam M. Walton College of Business and music through the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. He traveled to Greece and Spain this summer to study  e-commerce and global business modeling.

In the last two months, I’ve seen more incredible sights than I’ve ever seen in so short a time. My adventure to Greece began in Amsterdam, and ended in Barcelona—in the middle, I saw and learned so much about the political, economic, and social environment of Greece, and traveled all around the country. I travelled alone, but Drs. Cronan and Douglas of the Walton College led our group classes and excursions in Greece. I appreciate these professors for their dedication to the program and for organizing all of our excursions so well. And I am infinitely grateful to the Honors College Fellowship and everyone who helped approve me for funding to be able to travel to Greece. It was certainly one of the greatest, most fascinating months of my life.

A Newspaper Stand in Athens

The excitement began during my 8-hour layover in Amsterdam, during which I hopped on the train into town and meandered through the endless labyrinth of bridges and canals, stopping only at a few particularly beautiful churches, museums, and one very delicious café where I enjoyed a bagel and tea before wandering on. Then I returned to the airport and flew the rest of the way to Athens, where Dr. Cronan greeted me and took me back to my new residence, Palmyra Beach Hotel.

After everyone in the group arrived, we had lunch at Zaxos, which we thereafter frequented the rest of the trip. They had delicious, cheap gyros, souvlaki, greek salad, and fries, and served fairly quickly. Every morning, we went to class in the classrooms on the top floor of our hotel (the hotel is used as a hotel management school throughout most of the year, so it had fully equipped classrooms, in addition to being an ordinary, well-run hotel). Dr. Cronan taught his class on e-commerce, and Dr. Douglas taught on global business modeling, with an emphasis on building Microsoft Excel skills. Both classes were very engaging, discussion-oriented, and useful for completing the final project—the theoretical creation of a B2C e-commerce company located in Greece. In a group with two others, we created an entirely new business to be located in several major Greek cities, and presented our Business Prospectus and financial Pro-Forma statements to “potential investors” (our classmates) as our final presentation. It was a valuable learning experience, and I gained a lot of skills that will be helpful as I finish my business degree. Besides attending class, we also went on several group visits to important sites and museums, and I also travelled some on my own.

In the first week, we took a bus to the small town of Souneo, the southernmost tip of Greece, where we visited the Temple of Poseidon and enjoyed the incredible view of the Aegean Sea. In Athens, we visited the Parthenon/Acropolis, the Plaka District, Lykavittos Hill, Monastiraki District, the Cycladic Art Museum, and Syntagma Square, just to name a few. On most afternoons and weekends, I explored the city more, and visited countless museums and ruins. I even had the chance to meet up with my sister, who was visiting from India, and with friends on the Classics in Greece study abroad program. It was a reminder of how small the world really is to see them in Athens. I also took an overnight ferry to Chania, Crete one weekend to explore the old port town and to hike the Samaria Gorge in Samaria, Crete.

Chania, Crete

I had no idea how important Crete has been throughout world history, and learned a lot about its significance as I visited the Archeological Museum, Maritime Museum, Folklore Museum, and Byzantine Museum, all in Chania. Hiking the Samaria Gorge was also an extraordinary experience—I was even able to walk through the ancient Samarian village where people lived for thousands of years. The history of Crete was incredible, and I strongly recommend future students of this Greece program to visit Crete. To conclude our stay in Greece, our group spent a few nights on the beautiful, peaceful island of Santorini. The tranquility of the island was a nice contrast to the bustle of Athens, and it was an appropriate end to our trip.

A Spanish Market

On the way home, I flew through Barcelona Spain, and stayed for three nights to explore the city on my own. One of my sisters, Alice, had just spent the last spring semester studying in Barcelona, so she gave me a thorough list of the most important things to do during my short visit. With her help, I was able to see the best of the city in a short time. I strolled through Parc Laborinto D’Horta, Parc Guell, Ciutadella Parc, and the port of Barceloneta. I am in awe of the architect Antonio Gaudi after seeing his Casa Batllo and La Sagrada Familia—two stunning pieces of architecture, the former a previously occupied house and the latter an unfinished but breathtaking basilica unlike any basilica I have ever seen in any other part of the world. I also visited the Picasso Museum, and several churches in the gothic quarters. Those three days in Barcelona were a whirlwind of beautiful sights, and my short stay was a fantastic end to the previous month in Greece.

A View of the Acropolis

I have tried to be concise, but it is difficult to adequately describe the value of my experiences without sharing lots of detail. I highly recommend this program to any student interested in learning more about Greek culture, global business modeling, e-commerce, and the economic environment of the Euro zone. It was a highly valuable experience for me, and I am very grateful to have been a part of it.

Rachel in the Mediterranean

Rachel Story is an honors anthropology, history, and Spanish student in Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. She spent last spring studying the language and culture of Spain in Málaga – and learned a little about herself along the way. 

Indescribable. That’s how I would “describe” my study abroad experience on the Costa del Sol (the sun coast), in Málaga, Spain. To sum up my semester abroad in a blog post would not only fail to do it justice, it would be impossible. But I’ll just promise to do my absolute best, and you can just promise me you’ll understand that there is oh-so-much more that I couldn’t include. Now, as it is called study abroad, I may as well start with the academic component. I had heard contradicting things from past study abroad students before arriving in Spain: the classes are so easy you’ll never have to go, it’s actually very hard because your whole grade will be based on one test, you can’t understand your teachers, etc. Now perhaps I just got completely blessed, but my experiences in Málaga’s classrooms were just about as ideal as they could get. I tested into the advanced Spanish level, and took five classes, four of them in the Spanish language. These four were Advanced Grammar, Spanish Women in the 21^st Century, History of Art in Spain, and Spanish Culture. My fifth class taught in English was Christians, Jews, and Muslims in Spain. My teachers were seriously amazing – helpful, charismatic, entertaining, and truly interested in their subjects. They spoke quickly but clearly, and I think it was in the classroom setting that my Spanish listening skills truly accelerated. One thing that I loved most of all, was the amount of material. Certainly we covered a lot of information each day, but it was focused information. What I mean is, coming from majors such as history and anthropology, many of my classes cram a truly insane amount of information into one semester: hundreds of pages of reading each week, multiple books over the semester, at least 7 pages of notes taken during each 50 minute lecture, and so on. While I understand the difficulty in narrowing down the material for a history class, it’s my opinion (and experience) that it is just entirely impossible to remember all of that information when it is covered in such a hurried and frantic manner. If you asked me a specific fact or detail about ancient Rome, even though I took an entire class on Rome last fall, odds are I won’t remember it. But if you asked me any detail about any of the information covered in the classes I took in Spain, I am confident I will remember it all. We didn’t just go over material quickly and move on, we discussed it, questioned it, and truly learned it. And THAT I love: actually learning and absorbing the material I’ve been given in a class. There were really only two or three hectic weeks during the semester, when either midterms, class projects, or final tests took place. And yes, as you may have been told, those major projects or tests really do constitute your whole grade. But as I mentioned, my professors were all extremely helpful and willing to work with us students to ensure we achieved the grades that we desired.

As a whole, I honestly did not feel very affected by the culture shock. I’ve grown up my entire life in Portland, Oregon and then came to the University of Arkansas for college, so I already knew a little about adjusting to a new culture, and to being very far away from the only life, family, and friends that I had known before. The language was of course the biggest shock; remembering to use Spanish wasn’t hard for the obvious things (such as talking to a professor, or to my host family), but took a little while to get used to for the habitual things (such as apologizing after accidently bumping into someone). Another adjustment was living with a host family that I had never met before. I lived with a Malagueñan couple in their sixties, who spoke absolutely no English. This was a wonderful opportunity for me to practice my Spanish, and I know it helped me a great deal to improve my speaking skills over the semester. But of course, it’s a whole new world living in someone else’s house and under someone else’s rules: no showers after 10:30 pm, keep my room tidy (we found out the first week our standards of tidy were very different), showers under 10 minutes, etc. But trust me, the adjustment was absolutely nothing to the benefit of eating home-cooked Spanish meals, having practice speaking Spanish all the time, getting to know more about Spanish, and specifically Malagueñan, culture from locals themselves, and being in an incredible location (I lived about a block from the Mediterranean). I would recommend a home stay over living in your own apartment to anyone who asks.

The food. Let me just say this first: to all of my friends who thought I would die in Spain because I can’t handle spicy food…there was nothing to worry about. Spanish food could not be further from Mexican food! Now that I’ve blown your mind with my own personal myth buster, I’ll explain more. Spanish food is more about letting out the natural flavor of whatever the dish is. Some would (and did) call it plain or flavorless, but they didn’t have my host mom as a cook. Spanish food is delicious! Since I lived in Málaga, right on the southern coast of Spain, a lot of what we ate was seafood. Shrimp and oh-so-many types of fish were staples in our house, prepared baked, fried, breaded, in paella, and more, always in some delicious sauce that would only have one or two ingredients (like tomato and garlic) but tasted so extravagant. We also ate a lot of chorizo (a sausage type of meat that is extremely flavorful) and a LOT of eggs. To us Americans, it was hilariously quirky that the Spanish put fried eggs on top of everything – rice, sandwiches, as  a side on a plate accompanying salad and a piece of fish, and so much more. Interesting…but good! When I think of Spanish food, I just think fresh, natural ingredients…they don’t cut corners with mixes and boxed foods. They make the real deal, and you can really tell when you taste it. Two of my favorite dishes were gazpachuelo and pisto…I won’t bore you with a list of ingredients in them, but look them up if you’re interested. They’re wonderful!

Thinking about daily life in Málaga just makes me smile. It’s a relaxed way of life, but somehow it never got boring. It just felt…content. Weekdays I got up around 7:30 for my morning classes, took the bus to the university (which is about a 25 bus ride from where I lived near the city center), and had my first three classes at 8:30, 9:30, and 10:30. Then I had a break from 11:30 to 12:30. During this break three friends and I would generally walk the 2 blocks to the beach, and sit and talk, lay out in the sun, nap, and debate for at least 5 minutes if we could really make ourselves get up and go to our 12:30 class (I promise, we always did). I can’t even tell you how many days I walked to class with sand all over myself and my notebook…what a life! The days when it was cold or rainy (not many), during that break we would walk across the street to Café Aguacate and get tea or coffee from our favorite waiter in the world, who had a long ponytail down to his lower back. He knew us so well that one day when one of us didn’t have money, he told us we could pay him tomorrow. Man, do I miss him! Then from 12:30 to 1:30 I had my final Spanish class of the day, and at 1:30 I’d take the bus back home for lunch with my host family. In Spain, no one takes sack lunches anywhere. Meals are a time to be home with family, and eat real food, not food that can fit in a paper sack. I love that. After lunch I then had to go back to the university for my one class taught in English. Instead of riding the bus again however, I walked. It was about an hour walk to and from class from my host family’s house, and the entire hour was along the breathtaking Mediterranean coast. The hours I spent walking are definitely among my favorite memories of my study abroad experience, and are generally what my mind goes to when I am asked about Málaga. After this final class I would go to a café with friends, hang out on the beach, do some homework, read, walk around the center, or just relax until 9pm which was dinner time with my host family. On Tuesdays and Thursdays after dinner, I went out with friends (a couple other Americans from my group, and then a group of Spaniards we had made friends with) to a salsa bar where we took lessons and practiced salsa in the least touristy, most authentic feeling Spanish place I went to in all of Malaga. The few of us Americans were the only foreigners there, and these dancers were incredible – memories from those salsa nights will stay with me forever. Of course, it would have been nicer if the salsa nights were on weekends since we would get home around two or three in the morning and still have to get up for class at 7:30 the next day. But “no pasa nada” as the Malagueñans love to say, a phrase literally translating to “nothing happens” but that is used in Málaga to say “it’s no big deal.” As you can tell from the portrayal of my daily life in Malaga, “no pasa nada” really describes the entire way of life. Life is more relaxed, slowed down, and focused on enjoyment rather than school, work, or staying busy. I gathered quickly that success there was based more upon happiness than accomplishments. And this was just a description of my daily life during the week – weekends were either more relaxed (sleeping in, beach time, going out dancing), or full of travels (I went to Ireland, Germany, France, Italy, Morocco on my spring break, and Greece after my program ended). Either way, I kept the Malagueñan lifestyle close to heart. I’ll never forget what my host dad told my roommate one night when she was stressed about a class. I’ll translate it for you: “If you have a problem that has a solution, then why worry? And if you have a problem that does not have a solution…why would you worry, you can’t change it.” Málaga.

Now I could go on for just about ever discussing all that I learned about Málaga, Spain, and myself while I was abroad (and it seems I’ve already gone on just about that long!). From history to political system to pop stars to dancing to food to way of life, to my own growth and understanding of who I am, I feel confident in saying that I learned more in this one semester than I have in my entire college experience thus far. The things that I missed about home (laying on my couch, watching TV, Mexican food – very difficult to find in Spain!, playing with my dog, actually having friends over – in Spain you always go out, and of course seeing friends and family) simply paled in comparison to what I now miss about Málaga. I made friends there that I will have for the rest of my life. I got to learn more about myself by travelling to a place where I literally knew no one in the entire country, and as the people who I met got to know me, I got to know myself better as well (and yes, I recognize just how cheesy that sounds). I got to spend the majority of each day speaking and thinking in a different language, and feeling a sense of accomplishment with each day as I could respond more rapidly to questions, learn more advanced vocabulary, use slang phrases in the right setting, and so on. And, let’s face it, I lived about a block from the beach in one of the most beautiful areas of the world I have ever seen. So I guess along with “indescribable,” I’d like to add grateful to my list of how I would explain my experience abroad. I am just so extremely blessed and grateful to have experienced all that I was able to, and to have gotten the taste of what else is out there in our world. I’m grateful to be home now, writing this to you all, and I’m grateful for the confidence that one day soon, I’ll return to my other home in Málaga, España. Te echo de menos, Malaga!

Annie Fulton recently graduated with a B.S. in architectural studies with minors in environmental, soil and water science and geography. For her honors thesis Annie studied the redevelopment of two industrial shipping sites in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her research was supported by two Honors College research grants and an Honors College research travel grant. She details her experiences below.

For my senior honors thesis, I analyzed two waterfront redevelopments which were former industrial shipping sites, Piers 1 1/2, 3, and 5 in San Francisco and Jack London Square in Oakland. Transitioning former industrial sites to recreational urban waterfronts has been common in much of the United States, and by analyzing two specific sites, I was able to identify priorities and points of action in successfully creating a distinct sense of place for urban waterfronts.

The project was researched and written over 3 semesters, with the bulk of it in this final semester. Part of my data collection was through interviewing. I had difficulty contacting all of the parties that I would have liked to interview which made San Francisco have more interviews than Oakland, creating lopsided data. It did not make the two cities comparable from a methodology point of view. I had to employ more research through public documents and published speeches. It was also difficult to fully immerse myself in the two projects’ environments since I was limited in my time spent in the Bay Area. Luckily, the internet and databases have limitless resources and information.

I learned so much about writing, but even more about editing. My thesis was supposed to be 60-70 pages long. Mine ended up being 103, but that also includes numerous figures and significant citations. The most difficult task for me, as a scholarly writer, was to determine when to input my own theories, observations, or conclusions, and when to simply state the facts. I feared that making my own assertions was not credible, but I learned that I can infer as much as I like, as long as I adequately back them up with the facts.

Upon graduation, I will have a job at an architecture firm. I will be pursuing a career in sustainable development, and I will need to go to graduate school to make that possible. Writing this thesis has been extremely challenging, but rewarding. Fortunately, the funding of much of my research from the Honors College has substantially helped in my motivation and the realization of the thesis. The thesis and the grant will be beneficial for my graduate school applications. Another goal of mine is to obtain a PhD and teach at the collegiate level and this has been a great introduction to academic and grant writing, both things that will be invaluable.