Wow! I can’t believe my summer study abroad is over already! After Spain we went to Berlin for a week, Munich for a week and Freiburg for two weeks. Things got really intense in Germany. We had stories due every week for Transition Magazine, and 3 papers due the last week of the program. Our days started early and we were never done before 8 or 9pm. But boy, did we have fun! Berlin was beautiful, warm and full of art and culture. A week was not enough. That week we had many meetings, but my favorite was a walking tour with the Institute for Creative Sustainability. We walked around Berlin to see co-housing apartments, community and art centers, urban gardens and children’s farms that bring citizens together. We learned that many Berliners are making efforts to create a community based on social sustainability. My favorite stop was at “Tipi Land”, a public property that was transformed into an area for alternative living. Today there are about 20 people living in the property with no more than two people from the same nation. The tipis were made completely out of recycled material such as advertisement banners.
Munich was a blur; we had meetings everyday from 9am until at least 6pm. After that we went back to the hostel to write our stories and papers. I barely got to see Munich because I was so exhausted and had so many assignments due. Not to mention about 10 of us got sick that week. But after Munich we went to Freiburg and had a blast! We worked a lot but I just loved that city. It was the most sustainable city I’ve ever seen. It has many energy efficiency policies and it provides the right motivation for its citizens to reduce their carbon footprint by meshing walking and biking with other forms of public transportation. I never saw any traffic in the city and interviewed many residents who told us they prefer walking and biking than driving. A lot of people in Freiburg don’t even own cars because they don’t need one! The city has a tram system that runs all day. We bought a month long pass that we could use on the trams, buses and trains! After spending 6 weeks studying renewable energy, policies, sustainability and analyzing the walkability and bikeability of European cities, my peers and I are coming back to the U.S full of ideas on how to improve American cities that have been designed for cars instead of people. I’m sad to leave, but I feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to see everything I saw on this trip. I’m looking forward to what senior year has to offer and hopefully I can start planning my next trip abroad soon!
I spent my last day in Spain contemplating nature and talking about our interconnectedness with the environment with five of my peers and Jordi, a professor from the University of Navarra. Jordi offered to take us to his favorite places around Pamplona. We drove around, went to different small towns, ate lunch at a typical Spanish restaurant, and went to a mountain to simply admire the landscape and to reflect on our experiences thus far. It’s been hard finding time to reflect. I’ve been living with 20 other UNC students. We spend all day together going to meetings, learning about renewable energy policies in Spain and doing work together afterwards. I’ve already forgotten what it means to have privacy. So taking a day to just enjoy the mountains and to reflect on everything I’ve learned was refreshing to say the least.
So here’s my advice:
Take time for yourself. Take time to reflect on what you’ve done so far and what you still want to do. We are lucky to have the opportunity to travel, so let’s enjoy it and cherish it.
This summer I’m studying renewable energy and sustainability in Spain and Germany with the Burch Program from UNC.
I left JFK on Friday May 15th at 11:59 pm. I had an 8 hour layover in London so I decided to go into the city to explore. I met up with a friend who goes to school there. We had a lovely day doing all of the tourist things and then we sat at a park, ate baguettes and drank coffee. I left London at 8pm on Saturday and arrived in Madrid, Spain around midnight. I went straight to the hotel to meet up with everyone from the Burch program. We left Madrid to go to Pamplona on Sunday May 17th. I slept most of the bus ride but I was so glad I woke up to see the mountains, the wild flowers and the houses made out of rocks on the way. There was not a single cloud in the sky. On the way we also saw many solar panels and windmills. We made it to Pamplona after about four hours on the bus. That night I went to dinner with some people from the program. We immediately realized how much in common we had.
On Monday May 18th, we visited the University of Navarra. We heard from many professors about their projects and the programs they offer at the university. I particularly enjoyed hearing about our interconnectedness with nature. I believe that the first step for us to move forward and towards a more sustainable future is to understand our connection with nature. We need a change in consciousness to promote changes in our current system.
On Tuesday we visited the eco-city Sarriguren. The day was cloudy and windy. The city had a dystopian feeling to it. The buildings all looked the same and there were not that many stores and or people walking around. We did our first interviews there and realized that many of the residents did not really understand why living in an eco city was so important and interesting to us. We concluded through our interviews that living in that city was an economic decision rather than an environmentally conscious or sustainable one. In addition, many of the people interviewed (the majority white women), were aware of climate change but did not believe that it affects their lives. When asked about climate change, many of the interviewees were confused and said they have noticed minor weather changes. I wonder if our experience would have been different if we had been there on a sunny day. Although I don’t think so because everything felt so manmade, so planned. It lacked life and nature.
On Wednesday we went to San Sebastian. My favorite place so far on this trip. We were dropped off at a plaza that faced a palace and the beach. The sun was shining bright. The city was breathtaking. We were lucky to catch some sun light because not long after, it started raining and did not stop for the rest of the day. The city was so beautiful that the rain did not even bother us. We ate the most delicious tapas and drank Sangria. After that we hiked up a mountain to get to the church of San Sebastian. The view was incredible and I remember feeling so lucky and grateful to be there. I enjoyed the city because we could walk everywhere. In fact some of the roads were pedestrian only. The buildings were all different from one another. There were tons of people walking around, shopping, eating and drinking outside. We left the city reluctantly to go to a small town in France. The town was by the beach as well but it was a lot smaller and it did not make me feel as welcomed as San Sebastian did.
On Thursday with met with someone that works for the government of Navarra(region in Spain where we stayed). He explained how renewable energies can help the Spanish economy out of the crisis because it generates many jobs. I thought his presentation was a little dry but it got me thinking about relocalization of economies. I believe that if small areas are granted more autonomy in the U.S, they might want to partake in projects such as renewable energy, to help strengthen their local economies.
On Friday morning we had a talk with Javier, a man who invested in renewable energy but is now losing money because the government cut the subsidies they promised to give. I had to translate a lot of it but it ended up being the best talk so far. We learned about how the utilities work in Spain. There’s a lot of fishy government-corporations relations that benefit the 5 big utility companies in Spain. That day we also had to turn in our first assignments. I wrote about decreasing meat consumption in Germany as a way to change our lifestyles to prevent climate change from reaching a point of no return. This was also when I finally understood how the grid works and why even if you produce your own energy you need to sell it to the grid before using it. In the end, it’s all about making sure corporations get what they want; maximized profits.
On Saturday we had a long but fun day in Zaragoza. In the morning we went to a sustainable neighborhood. We had a tour through the facility that controls the neighborhood. It was super interesting learning about techniques they used to build the city in the most sustainable way. From the use of rain water to conserve water, to the underground trash pick up system… The town looked a little more lively than Sarriguren but it also had a little bit of a dystopian feeling to it because all of the buildings were the same height. They were built that way to better utilize the sun light. We interviewed one couple there and although they seemed very well educated, they made us think that a lot of the residents do not really think about climate change that much. In the afternoon we went into the actual city and got to ride bikes around the river and then we had a guided tour by feet. The tour was dry but the city was beautiful. And once again, it was a very walkable city. I enjoyed biking a lot.
On Sunday we took the day off. Since it was Caroline’s birthday, Sara Kiley, Jess and I went grocery shopping and came back and prepared brunch for everyone. It was the perfect start to our day. After a long brunch we went to the fort that’s located in the center of Pamplona. Some of us played soccer while others laid out in the sun listening to music and chatting. In a week together, we have been able to get to know each other and we are becoming very close friends.
The Carolina-Duke Global Leadership Institute 