Dunedin is such an interesting city to me in terms of its “naturalness”: it is definitely a college town where its buildings are plentiful and there is no shortage of concrete structures. On the other hand, the river runs through the city, and there are pockets of nature that are hidden within the city. For […]
Month: March 2025
Tessie Taxies and Carbon Emissions
Living in the most bikeable city in the world…I am ashamed to admit I have not invested in that culture so far. (Fun fact: it’s actually faster to bike than use the car or bus in Copenhagen!) However, even with public transportation…Denmark is truly ahead of its time. I just spent the past week in […]
Aixploring the community around me
Today the air vaguely smells of crepes. Perhaps someone is making lunch on this cloudy afternoon. It’s a bit chilly here, but the birds are singing and in the distance, children sing and a seagull squawks. There are birds everywhere here, and they are surely the most audible, if not visible members of this community. […]
Water in Morocco- From the Bouregreg to Ouled Ali
The Bouregreg river splits the cities of Rabat and Salé. It is not huge, but is certainly substantial. From the Chellah, a Middle Ages necropolis and mosque built on top of a Roman city, you can look out over the river and the bit of marshy land separating it from the city, where right now […]
Water and what it means here
#2: 3/6/25 Sit spot: Backyard garden behind my flat 3:30pm New Zealand’s indigenous peoples, or Māori people, consider water to be the foundation of all life. At a museum I was at a few weeks ago, there was an exhibit about those who fought in the New Zealand wars. At the end of the exhibit, […]
suspicious sustainable systems serving seemingly surreptitious styles
Hello again! Though I haven’t sat in my usual sit spot this week, I have spent quite a bit of time enjoying other natural spots around me. I didn’t quite *sit* in them, though, because of how wet it’s been! This week was an uncharacteristically rainy one here in Andalusia, which although wonderful for the […]
My Unsustainable US Roots
My feet rest on the bumpy, moist ground. It has rained here a lot the past few days, much more than is typical for sunny Andalucía – people are torn between despair (at the incessant, dismal, wet gloom) and joy (that their drought-ridden land is finally blessed by some water). My “roots” encounter almost entirely […]
(3) Nam Chun EcoVillage
Last weekend, I had the opportunity to go with a group of HKU students to the Nam Chun Ecovillage up near the Startling Inlet and the border to Shenzhen. This surrounding area actually has 55 local villages, with all but one settled by the local indigenous Hakka peoples. Similar to the last blog post’s theme […]
Cold Plunges and Windy Energy oh my!
Living on a literal cluster of islands, Denmark is quite proud of their water and energy sources! For instance, most Danes drink out of the sink because tap water goes through strict safety controls before even touching into homes. (Tip#1 If you don’t want to pay for water at restaurants…bring a water bottle! (Tip #2) […]
Energy can be found in unexpected places (in medieval graveyards, even!)
This week, I found myself sitting in front of a different medieval stone church in Oxford—the church of St Giles, first built in 1120—and seated in front of graves. I am writing from a little cluster of benches in the church cemetery, a place that could not be more opposite from the hushed, grim, and […]