Walking through Belgrade, it is impossible not to notice the political graffiti. The messages are huge (see the last picture for scale), aggressive, and displayed prominently all over the city. They are in countless high-traffic areas, including the bus stop I used for class. The graffiti conveys a dangerous message of nationalism and militarism. They […]
Month: December 2023
Final Blog: Reflections
As my time in Aix-en-Provence draws to a close, I find myself taking longer walks, staring at anything and everything, in an attempt to capture every nook and cranny of the city in my mind. I inhale deeper each morning when I leave the house, trying to imprint the smell of lemon and olive trees […]
8: Final Reflections
It really is too warm at home, much warmer than it was in the UK! Way warmer than it has been in the past. The earth is a lot more dry now, and I can hear airplanes, birds, wind, squirrels, and cars from the road. The trees are pretty bare, so no rustling leaves, except […]
Nature, it makes her feel safe.
Everytime I write one of these blogs it gets harder. It’s not as easy to find things to write about as it was at the beginning of the year. On the one hand that’s a good thing. It means that I’ve settled in here, that my surroundings aren’t as foreign to me as they used […]
7: Back Home
My sit spot this week is a little bit different – I am not longer in the UK, but back home, in the Midwest. Although I can’t describe the change in my sit spot, I can describe the change between my sit spot at Worcester and the sit spot I am using back home. It […]
4: 5,320 Miles from Home
The flight from San Francisco International Airport to London Heathrow is about 10 hours and covers about 5,320 miles (or 8,561 kilometers, if you’re not American). On the way back, the headwinds add an extra hour and an additional 0.1 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. My flight into London has already emitted 1.72 metric […]
What I have learned from my time in Spain
In Portage, Michigan (my hometown) the first snow fell in October. Here in Córdoba, I don’t think there has been a day below 50℉. It’s funny to see the trees with all of their leaves, still green and soaking up the late November sun. It feels more like spring than fall or winter, and yet […]
6: Art, Literature, & Media
I ended up climbing a tree while my friends were visiting – a tree perfect for climbing, horizontal and with a trunk almost flat over the water. My friend ended up climbing way high into the tree, while I stayed back, looking at the roots and the water pooling around the edge. I started to […]
4: Environmental Justice
Environmental activism is uncommon in Serbia. Most discourse seems to revolve around issues of politics – autocratization, corruption, EU membership, the wars of the 90s, Kosovo’s independence, migrants, recent school shootings … the list goes on and on. There are protests against environmental issues, uncommon as they are. Air pollution is the most unifying topic. […]
Prompt #7: The Nation & Climate Change
Something that I’ve noticed recently is that flowering bushes and trees have begun to lose/have lost their flowers. It’s probably due to the Mediterranean climate; the dry summer has come to an end, and we’ve been seeing rain since the start of the wet winter season. The flowers will come back soon with wildflower season, […]