China and Laos: I Can't Believe I was There

It’s been a week since I've gotten back from my study abroad trip to China and Laos. I have finally learned what jet lag means as my body continues to struggle with determining proper times for eating and sleeping. I didn’t have this problem when we got to China but apparently it doesn't work the same way coming back. I never once imagined that I would see China or Laos in my lifetime. My freshman year I learned that Trinity had a summer program going to China. While I was interested in taking part, my advisor suggested that I would have a better appreciation of the program if I took more urban studies courses. Seeing this as good advice, I did just that. When it came time to apply for the 2013 Water and Development in Kunming, China program, I didn't waste any time.

We left the States on June 3^rd and flew to Shanghai where we spent a couple days. After Shanghai, we traveled to Kunming and Dali in the Yunnan Province. We headed to Laos to spend some time in Vientiane and Luang Prabang. We left Laos to go back to China to catch our flight home on June 20^th. While we were there, we visited museums, attended lectures and other cultural events, took two boat rides, had group dinners, water sampled and otherwise got to play tourists.

Here are a few things I learned from my trip:

·         In China, I learned how to use chopsticks only to go back to spoons and forks in Laos.

·         While I don’t speak Chinese or the Lao language, I learned a few helpful words like how to say no when people were trying to sell me things and I didn't want to buy anything.

·         I was very surprised by the amount of trees and green space I saw in Shanghai and Kunming. Most of the time when thinking about big cities, I see them lacking trees and only having some green in the parks that are purposely created for this purpose.

·         The food in China and Laos is fantastic! I fell in love with duck but also some of the greens they always served. In Laos, I was delighted to learn that they eat some of the same foods that we eat in Congo. We eat some of the same fish and vegetables such as a smaller and greener eggplant.

·         While the trip was fun and I enjoyed some aspects of being tourist, I was shocked by the level of poverty and the slow level of development taking place in Laos. The roads there were unpaved and bumpy. We took a 30 minute flight from Vientiane to Luang Prabang to avoid the terrible conditions of the roads. With the poverty, I would see very nice houses probably going back to when the French were around followed by houses made out of mud and other material that people had easy access to it. For my final paper, I am writing on poverty and conservation in China and Laos to find out more about the relationship between poverty and sustainability.

·         One thing I want to highlight about Laos is that the people are very friendly and welcoming. In China, people were curious about my skin and hair and wanted to take pictures with those who were persons of color. While their demands for pictures could have been seen as curiosity and eagerness to meet people like us, people in Laos were very relaxed and no one wanted to take pictures with us.  

·         Finally, we met a lot of people during the trip who kept reminding us of how lucky we were to have such an opportunity to travel to China and Laos. One professor talked about how she has to teach her students about places that they’ll never get a chance to visit. Her students have to learn through her experiences. I don’t know if this just relates just to Trinity or other places but sometimes professors and other students talk as if we all have opportunities to see the world. We are all encouraged to travel and begin to understand how this world works. While I definitely agree with people about traveling, I also know that not everyone has the chance to drop whatever they are doing to go see the rest of the world. In my case, I can only begin to thank Trinity for the generous grant they offered me to make a learning opportunity like this happen