Hunger Games Jr., President Crawford's haircut experience, acid trips and all the other headlines you need to know about.
"Planes, Trains, Automobiles and COVID-19" is the fourth episode of the semester of The Miami Student's podcast, Behind the Brick, which is released bi-weekly on Fridays. In this episode your host Anna McDougall discusses the ins and outs of studying abroad pre-pandemic and during a pandemic. She is joined by her friend, Connor Osmond as well as Miami’s Global Programs Coordinator Annalee Jones and Miami’s Global Learning Coordinator Dave McAvoy.
This year, Miami was named a top-producer for Fulbright, a program that sends its grant recipients to study and work abroad in foreign countries. Miami currently touts five alumni, all ETAs, abroad on Fulbright grants for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Copenhangen, Denmark has long been my dream city to visit, live in, and experience. This will not come as a surprise to my closest friends; in fact, it may be met with an eye roll because I talk about the subject so frequently. But who could blame me? How could I not be fascinated by a country that consistently tops the list as one of the happiest and most sustainable in the world?
I put time and effort into my airport outfits. I always have. The night before my flight, I lay it out down to the socks and underwear at the foot of my bed like I did on nights before field trips in elementary school.
Taking advantage of online classes, some Miamians are leaving Oxford behind in favor of traveling around the country this year.
My 2019 trek to Everest Base Camp was very eye-opening to the startlingly real environmental problems that the Himalayan region faces. I reached base camp in Nepal in the beginning of June of last year. The trek took a total of eight days to reach base camp from Lukla, Nepal, and three days to return. Since I hiked on the Nepali side, I was in the Khumbu region, which is home to three of the top ten tallest mountains in the world: Mt. Everest at number one, Lhtose at number four, and Annapurna which ranks at number ten.
Similar to most people, COVID-19 impacted the plans I had for the summer. I found myself at home, bored, and baking way too much banana bread for my own good. So when my dad, a high school teacher, suggested we go on a camping road trip, I was already halfway out of the door. On July 1, we hit the road in our trusty old Dodge Caravan with a stack of U.S. maps and an open schedule. There is no better place to socially distance than the great outdoors; we were armed with masks, sanitizer, and even a pop-up shower to stay safe during the pandemic.
All photos courtesy of Annie Lalonde
All photos courtesy of Sammy Harris
The entrance to the indigenous Bribri Village. Photo courtesy of Ryan Yanchar.
My parents and I had flown into Costa Rica for a family vacation the night before and spent the night in a hotel close to the airport. Today was the first of three stops of our trip: a bed and breakfast called Casa Rural — Aroma de Campo (Country House — Smell of the Land).
“Tiene hambre?” Are you hungry? I snapped back to reality after spacing out as I watched a group of four and five-year-olds jump rope. “Sí, claro,” I said offhandedly. Of course I was hungry, all I’d had for breakfast was pancito — bread, made cuter with a -cito tacked on the end — with strawberry jam. And it was nearly 1 p.m. Juan opened his camouflage lunch box and rummaged around for a moment before he found what he was looking for. He handed me a mango, first inspecting it to make sure the small dent in its skin hadn’t damaged the inside of the fruit. Suddenly, I felt the need to hold back tears.