Overall, it was such a great trip. I learned about a whole new culture by being embraced completely in it! I loved the challenge of this as well, from handling conversations with waiters, learning how to use pesos, or even the slow pace of the country! These were all thi bf s i completely didn’t…
Tag: Plus3 2026
Postcards from Morocco: Farewells, Connections, & Intuition
Days 12 and 13 in Morocco flew by fast! Day 12 started off bright and early with a trip to women’s cooperative! Rather than a traditional site visit, however, we were enlightened with a cooking class! After some tea and biscuits and learning about the women’s cooperative, we got straight to business. We got to…
Postcards from Morocco: Trailblazers in Rabat
Day 11 in Morocco! We began with a site visit to ANDD (Association for National Digital Development)! This being my site visit, I was excited to get the ball rolling today! The site visit itself was incredible. It was unique, being able to hear directly from the students that ANDD has impacted how they have…
Day 11: Not enough olive branches seen
We have made it to the final day of the trip and my final blog. On this final day we stopped in the political district of the Netherlands, The Hague. Unlike America where the capital is also where all the politicians are, the Netherlands separates the two in order to keep influence balanced…
Day 10: Roof Salad
Day 10 was a secondary day to our delta works visit on day 9 and a visit to the dakahker rooftop farm in the city of Rotterdam. The rooftop farm utilized many tactics to make it an extremely sustainable building and a blueprint for future similar projects. To make the farm…
Day 9: Change in works (Delta works)
Day 9 was our big visit to the delta works and honestly I had a great time. In 1953 in the southern part of the Netherlands there was a huge flood that broke their dikes at the time and killed over 1800 people. After that the country decided to make the delta plan…
Day 8: When cows… float?
Day 8 was composed of some of my favorite site visits, I think everytime I think a site visit is my favorite they just keep getting better. We started out at a floating farm that had some cows and a farm underneath it. The whole farm is supported on a big piece…
Day 7: Churches everywhere!
Day 7 was the big day for history. We essentially spent the whole day in Munster. The town of Munster is one of the older towns in Germany so we got to enjoy a little bit of old story. One of the churches we saw stood out to me in particular because of…
Day 5: Grids and Bids
Today was my personal favorite day of the trip. We started with a short introduction to windmills which explained to us some of the math and the workings of a common windmill. Afterwards we then went to a huge windmill farm and got a really in depth tour of…
Day 4: Engineering and Environment at Twente
Day 4 was our main day of transportation to the university of Twente. We took a bus over to the town of Enschede. Upon arrival we were given a tour of the campus and shown some of the sustainable aspects of the campus. For instance, one of the buildings has a glass…
Adiós Costa Rica
I cannot believe that this trip is already coming to an end. Sitting in this airport right now feels impossible, as it feel like yesterday we were standing in the hour long immigration line and meeting Pino for the first time. Over the past two weeks, I have learned so much about sustainability, business, Costa…
Saying Goodbye to Beautiful Costa Rica!
As I am sitting in the airport and reflecting on my trip, I can’t help but be sad. Looking back at the past two weeks I realized how much fun I had and how much I learned. Before arriving here, I viewed sustainability as a corporate buzzword. Watching Costa Rican entrepreneurs treat the rainforest not…
I Montever-don’t want to leave Monteverde
I started my first, and almost the last, morning in Monteverde by waking up to a full rainbow outside of my hotel balcony. After admiring that, we visited and took a 2 hour long hike around the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. We later attended a lecture at the Monteverde Institute, where we first learned some…
A Walk Through the Cloud Forest!
Today we visited the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. We got to walk around the forest and see animals and plants. We saw birds, a monkey, and lots of plants. The monkey was swinging in the trees above us and it was really cool. After that we were able to get lunch on our own in…
Farmer for the day
Today, we said goodbye to Montaña De Fuego, our hotel in La Fortuna, and made the treacherous four hour bus ride to Monteverde. On our way, we made brief stops at the wind turbines, where Professor Teeter educated us on how they provide energy to Costa Rican cities. After our stops, we arrived in Monteverde,…
Night Hike with Lots of Bugs!!
Today we left La Fortuna and bussed to Monteverde. It was a very long bus ride and the first half I didn’t have my phone because it was dead and had water in it so I couldn’t charge it. It made the bus trip feel even longer. We stopped at windmills on the top of…
Day 10 ~ The Night of The Tango
Today we spent the day in Austral university listening to lectures. We spoke to Dra. Diana Farina who worked with the ministries of health. She described the challenge of sexual health illiteracy in young girls. In 2019, 1 in 4 women pregnant in Argentina were under the age of 18. In order to combat this…
Day 9 ~ feliz cumpleaños 🎉
Today is my birthday and I am so glad I get to spend it in Argentina!! We spent most of the afternoon at Austral university listening to lectures. My most favorite lecture was about a nonprofit called AMENTA. They go to the indigenous rural areas of Argentina and provide public healthcare to the tribes. The…
Birmingham Day 9: Stratford and Shakespeare
Today I rode on a train for the first time. Me and my group walked for about 20 minutes to the station and then took the train to Stratford Upon Avon, the birth place of William Shakespeare. The train ride was nice, I took a short nap and woke up to see fields with tons…
Pool Time Today!
Today we visited a local La Fortuna tourism company. We got to learn about how they differentiate themselves from competitors. They ran through the basic ideas of what running an ecotourism company in Costa Rica looks like. I got some free time in the afternoon and went to the pool and worked on my group…