Special Academic Travel Section
Academic Travel
What happens when you tell a professor to take 30 students on a two-week field trip to anywhere from Australia to Zambia ? Academic Travel, of course!
Academic Travel is a tradition that makes Franklin College unique amongst liberal arts colleges around the world. To my knowledge, no other college actually requires students to travel as a part of the curriculum, and to give them credit for doing so. At most schools, students complain about the long lines at registration time. Here, it's more like, “Aw man! I didn't get on Venezuela , so I'm stuck going to Croatia instead!” We are a lucky bunch.
The travel component was originally intended to be an extension of coursework, but it has far surpassed that ideal. Academic travel has evolved into the focal point of each semester.
For some, it is the motivating factor for choosing Franklin . For others, it is just a nice bonus, a 2-week long party. Many students make business connections, friendships, or find their calling on Academic Travel. But for all of us, it is an experience that we will remember for the rest of our lives. It creates memories we will look back on in 20 years and call “the good ole days.”
In this section, the Enlightenment is pleased to share students' stories and pictures from the Fall 2005 Academic Travel Programs.
Is Black Culture Fashionable?
Dancehall riddims, jerk chicken seasoning, Black Hair magazines, crumping competitions and sushi? Yes, I said sushi.
Naturally I paused for a second, and asked myself “where am I?” I was suddenly removed from this homogeneous society called Japan and placed into my native city of Washington , DC.
A Lonely Tourist
Picture a stretch of five Italian towns nestled precariously between the rocky hills of Liguria and the foaming sea below. Picture those fertile hills, facing the afternoon sun, planted with vines heavy from ripening grapes. Picture a collective of old Italian men, working daily in that hot sun to tend their vineyards, and imagine for yourself the quaint towns they return to when a day's work is done.
You'll Never Win Bargaining with Moroccans
Shopkeepers in Morocco are known for chasing people down the street, making them cry, and always coming out ahead on a deal. Moroccans believe that while ‘Westerners' may be sophisticated, they are all just plain stupid. It's a warning that all travelers should heed, but I feel like I am better than the average tourist. I study up on the places I'm going, I pack conservative clothes to respect the culture, and I always learn a few stock phrases in French and Arabic.
Articles
1000 Cranes
Two-year-old Sadako didn't know about the war. But this didn't matter at 8:15a.m. on August 6 , 1945, because the bomb dropped on her city anyway. Sadako Sasaki survived the initial blast that leveled most of Hiroshima , but her fate was sealed. At age 11 Sadako was an active child who loved to run, but she soon started getting dizzy spells. In 1955 Sadako was diagnosed with Leukemia, "the atom bomb" disease.
The Call To Dinner
The pedestrian street of Taksim Square was mostly empty, while Istanbul 's other city streets were full of buses, cars and taxis taking people home after the work day. As the sun got lower and lower, the kitchen staffs of empty restaurants cooked faster and faster in anticipation of the call for prayer that would indicate the day's fasting was over. It was almost 6:24, and at 6:25 the restaurants and cafes would be full. Unless you had a reservation or were lined up at the door, chances were there was no table for you for another hour.
Humans Everywhere
Chukyo University in Nagoya , Japan is full of humans. Now this may seem like an obvious statement, but it is actually quite an amazing realization. When traveling to a foreign country where everything is different, from the language to the bathrooms, one begins to expect everything is different including those who live there. It is almost like one can not comprehend that someone who is so different is in essence the exact same as you. On Oct. 20 th a few lucky Franklin College students got to find out first hand that the foreign people all around them were not so foreign after all.
Alone in the Crowd
Flashy Osaka , one night after ramen noodles. A businessman neatly dressed, cell phone in one hand, briefcase in the other lying on the ground with his mouth open, sleeping. Prof. Schuchardt doesn't make much of it; I follow the herd and remain an observer of this interesting different culture.
After roaming the nearest 100-yen shop alone I go back, just to make sure the guy really is alive and perhaps try to communicate with some Japanese to see if it's normal or if we should call somebody. A guy and a girl, dressed up for the night loyal only to Japanese fashion imperatives, are standing next to him calling someone on the phone. I assume it's the police and I keep munching on my 100-yen cookies, which are not as good as the 200-yen ones.
Not Your Average Mosque
The Hassan II Mosque is an architectural jewel located on the coast of Casablanca , Morocco . The edifice partially extends into the waters of the Atlantic Ocean . The English-speaking tour guide explained that it was inspired by the Quranic verse, “The throne of God was on the water.” The architecture of the mosque has evolved from Islam as a religious, social, political, and cultural phenomenon. It combines tradition and modernity, and like a typical mosque the inside is more lavish and decorative than the façade.
