World travel, cooking, and learning about other cultures are my most important interests and I created this blog to share my experiences as I travel. After studying International Politics and minoring in Japanese I graduated from Texas A&M University in May 2013. Two short months later I moved to Japan to be an English teacher on the JET program, I now live on the Noto peninsula in the Ishikawa prefecture.
The original title of this blog is "My Time In Tokyo," because I did an internship with Toshiba at their headquarters in Tokyo during the summer of 2012. The title has remained because those incredible ten weeks I spent in Japan were the inspiration and reason for my decision to move to and work in Japan. Upon returning to America for my senior year of college I began exploring options and found the JET program, and here I am....
Quick insight into my previous travels:
Guatemala
My freshman year of college I spent spring break in Guatemala on a service trip with my student organization. This trip gave me the traveling bug. After spending that one week abroad, that was it- I knew I would spend the rest of my life traveling the world.
While in Guatemala I volunteered with native farmers working on their agricultural projects sponsored by the Borlaug Institute (the Borlaug Institute is an organization from Texas A&M University that designs and implements self-sustainable agricultural developments in developing countries around the world). My group spent a day on a mountain digging up dirt to use as potting soil for the greenhouse flowers a village raises and sells to fund their well, supplied by the Borlaug Institute. Before the well was installed the village women and children had to trek down the mountain to the nearest fresh water source, then go back up carrying jugs of water for cooking and drinking, every single day. The children of this village previously could not go to school because obviously helping the family survive took higher priority than going to school. The Borlaug Institute installed the well on the mountain and helped the villagers set up the greenhouse in order to be self-sufficient and maintain the cost of operating the well on their own. This well only cost around three dollars a month to operate. Spending time with these villagers was the most impactful and eye opening experience of my life to date.
Qatar
Spring break of my junior year was spent on an exchange trip with the Texas A&M University Qatar campus. A group of thirteen students from Qatar were selected to spend their spring break at main campus and thirteen students from Texas were selected to spend our spring break (the following week) at the Qatar campus. It was an amazing two week experience in which friendships were forged that have still lasted even now. Although each group of students were raised in wildly different cultural backgrounds we shared the connection of our school and from that built shared experiences and memories that, for me at least, shaped the way I view my friendships. After spending two weeks together, we felt like we had known each other for years. With a sorrowful goodbye, I thought I would never see those friends again. I am so glad I was wrong. The following year several of the members of this trip returned to main campus for study abroad or senior project presentations. I was so excited to have the chance to catch up and hang out with my friends again! This taught me, no matter where you met your friends- even if you live half a world apart- it is entirely possible to be reunited again. The world can be small, if you just reach out.
4 and counting...
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