56. Discuss how your travel experiences have affected you as a student and a citizen of the world.
Entering into a hot humid sulfuric stinky atmosphere at midnight, I enter into a new and unknown world. The next morning I am stuffed into a car sitting next to our luggage. The next 8 to 10 hours seem to be unending; the continuous bums and turns on a dusty 'two' lane road along a murky green river with nothing to see but shrubs and fields. Occationally we pass a little shop contructed of bamboo poles and cheap plastic tarp and men dressed in orange cloth seeming to be on some religious pilgrimage. We enter into a 'city' that is lined with buildings of cement and moss. There seems to be no organization anywhere. The homeless are begging, cars are continuously honking, and cows are walking the streets. Set with an open mind, I absorbed the new environment.
Now after living in India for almost three years, I am coming to realize the impact that my life abroad has changed me and my view of the world. Going to the top international school of India on the foothills of the Himalayas and living in the country with my family, has shown me the vast world of culture, people, and beliefs. I see for the first time the definition of true poverty, experience life in a third world country, and learn about different countries and their cultures from the people themselves. I have come to realize the bubble I had been living in had a very narrow view point and did not fully understand the world. As a student, I am challenged to think broader and deeper in my classes and to take in full world view on an issue. The issues that I find important in my life may not even have the slightest recognition to someone else on the other side of the world. Today I am more open-minded and aware of the whole world around me as there is so much to learn and experience that is so different from my own.
Entering into a hot humid sulfuric stinky atmosphere at midnight, I enter into a new and unknown world. The next morning I am stuffed into a car sitting next to our luggage. The next 8 to 10 hours seem to be unending; the continuous bums and turns on a dusty 'two' lane road along a murky green river with nothing to see but shrubs and fields. Occationally we pass a little shop contructed of bamboo poles and cheap plastic tarp and men dressed in orange cloth seeming to be on some religious pilgrimage. We enter into a 'city' that is lined with buildings of cement and moss. There seems to be no organization anywhere. The homeless are begging, cars are continuously honking, and cows are walking the streets. Set with an open mind, I absorbed the new environment.
Now after living in India for almost three years, I am coming to realize the impact that my life abroad has changed me and my view of the world. Going to the top international school of India on the foothills of the Himalayas and living in the country with my family, has shown me the vast world of culture, people, and beliefs. I see for the first time the definition of true poverty, experience life in a third world country, and learn about different countries and their cultures from the people themselves. I have come to realize the bubble I had been living in had a very narrow view point and did not fully understand the world. As a student, I am challenged to think broader and deeper in my classes and to take in full world view on an issue. The issues that I find important in my life may not even have the slightest recognition to someone else on the other side of the world. Today I am more open-minded and aware of the whole world around me as there is so much to learn and experience that is so different from my own.
