“Want to grab a meal?” I can’t tell you how many times a week I hear this question. It is probably one of the most common questions thrown around here at Princeton. Since everyone needs to eat, grabbing a meal is one of the easiest ways to chat with people. Whether you recently met someone and want to get to know them better, or you want to catch up with an old friend, a meal is always a good option.

If you were to ask a Princeton student on average how long he or she spends in a dining hall in a given week, I bet the number would surprise you. This is largely because the conversations in a dining hall are special. Time tends to stop and one becomes immersed in the conversation.  Sure, there are those days that you have to grab a quick meal in between class, but on average, Princeton students tend to spend their mealtime enjoying the company of others and having intellectual conversations.

I think this is because students enjoy engaging with one another. You never know what interesting thing someone is going to mention that launches into a long discussion. It could be politics, something one just learned in class, an interesting tidbit about one’s past or even what food is being served that day. It doesn’t really matter what the conversation starts with. It just matters where it goes.

Additionally, there are many lectures and conversations with faculty that occur over meal times that further add to the opportunities for interesting discussion over food. For example, over the past two weeks, I have attended a lecture about zebras in Kenya, a pre-vet guidance session, a Spanish table (where students in Spanish classes get together to practice their Spanish), a Hebrew learning session, as well as meetings for various clubs and departments I am part of.

When I was looking at colleges, it was my dinner conversation with my host at Princeton that made me realize Princeton was the school for me. We must have sat in the dining hall for almost two hours going through everything from research opportunities to campus sport culture. My conversation with my host made me realize how incredible people are at Princeton, and how much I wanted to engage with them all. I wanted more meaningful discussions, and I can honestly say now after being on campus for three years, that is exactly what I have gotten. I am still friends with my host today (I actually just got a meal with her last week), and I am constantly making new friends over meals.

So next time you’re looking to make some new friends or catch up with old ones, you know you can always rely on the handy phrase “want to get a meal?”

After shopping for some classes my first-year fall, I decided to add “Chinese Politics” to my very standard engineering curriculum. Although physics, math, a writing seminar, Mandarin and Chinese politics can sound like an unusual combination, that first semester really started a trend for me.  Ever since then my semesters have been, for the most part, a similar combination of mechanical and aerospace engineering and East Asian studies classes. Although, two years ago, I would have not imagined myself following two academic interests so different from one another, I am now used to switching between writing an essay about Zheng He’s expeditions in the 15th century and doing my space flight problem set in the same evening.

I actually did not come into Princeton knowing that I would like to pursue a humanities certificate along with my engineering major. However, after sitting in on my first “Chinese Politics” lecture, with it explaining so much of my own experience in China during Bridge Year, I realized that it was important for me to also explore other personal interests in an academic setting. Since then I have not only taken language, history, comparative literature and politics courses in the East Asian Studies Department, but I have also been able to further explore my interest in China’s political reality by working as a research analyst with Prof. Truex in the Department of Politics. It is exciting for me to see how I quietly sat in on that first “Chinese Politics” class two years ago amazed at how little I knew, and how I now write scripts for a YouTube Channel to empower public discourse on Chinese politics as part of an initiative through the National Committee on U.S. - China relations. I still find myself lost often as I try to write scripts on whether China is still communist, or what the latest Party Congress can tell us about the future of the Chinese Communist Party. But I know that being lost, confused and outside of my comfort zone is part of the learning process that can make such different interests compatible. Now, I just need to convince my “China’s Frontiers” professor that space exploration has a lot to do with frontier expansion!

If you had told me my first year that I would choose to study abroad, I would have thought you were crazy. Why on earth would I want to leave a place like Princeton? After all, hadn’t I worked hard my whole life to attend this school? Why would I want to willingly leave such an amazing school to go study elsewhere? However, after spending the past three months in Panama, I can honestly say that studying abroad was one of the best decisions I ever made at Princeton.

Living in another country gave me the chance to learn about a new culture, meet new people and find new places to explore. I improved my Spanish and learned what it means to do field research. Most importantly though, I learned how to live in the moment and appreciate the small things.

I have been living at Princeton for more than two and a half years now. I know the ins and outs of the school. I know the dirt paths that I can take to cut 30 seconds off my commute from up campus to down campus. I know where to find late night snacks and cookies. I know in which study spots I am most productive. I know how to run from volleyball practice to bio review sessions strategically so that I am not missing more than 5 minutes of either. I’ve become so used to campus that I am constantly moving from one thing to another, never stopping to smell the flowers. In Panama, apart from literally stopping to smell (and count and watch for hours) every single flower in my transect (see my previous blog post here), I took the time to stop and admire everything since it was all new to me.

I would look at every billboard on the side of the road, trying to translate it from Spanish to English. I would "oooh" and "ahhh" at the beautiful trees and flowers we saw on our walks through the forest. I would make smoothies from the mangos that fell from the tree outside our schoolhouse. I would look for dolphins every time the ocean was in view. I wanted to see everything and not miss out on any experience or opportunity that presented itself to me.

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Now that I’m back on campus, I have a new set of eyes. Everything that was once common is new once again. The beautiful architecture of Blair Arch causes me to pause as I walk by. The buildings that were remodeled while I was gone entice me to enter and visit. Even the posters on the lamp posts that I always used to walk by cause me to stop and see what is happening on campus. I’m spending time to look all around me and appreciate the beauty that Princeton is.

Studying abroad opened my eyes to the world around me. This is a lesson that I don’t believe I could have learned in the classroom. It required exposing myself to a new situation filled with new people and new experiences. I am so grateful for the opportunity I had. If there were one piece of advice I can offer to younger students considering studying abroad, it would be to GO! Go out into the world and experience life. Find some place that excites you. It is 100% worth it. Study abroad was one of the most formative experiences, and I know I will carry the lessons I learned in Panama with me for the rest of my life.  

The bloggers share their favorite classes they've taken at Princeton!

Cochabamba is a city in Bolivia known for its water. Ever since the 2001 Water War, the struggle for fair access to water enveloped the city in a brutal back and forth between national police and citizen brigades. In fact, Cochabamba’s Water War is one of the only examples of a united populace forcing the de-privatization of a public good since the 1980s, when global institutions started enforcing neoliberal policies in developing countries. Fundación Abril, an organization that fights for water and sanitization for all, was both birthed from the Water War and named for it — Abril meaning April as that was the last month of fighting in 2001 before the water was given back to the people. Oscar Olivera founded the Fundación after serving as the face and voice of the popular revolt. This context has been key to my experience volunteering for Oscar and Fundación Abril.

Fundación Abril’s main goals are to increase access to clean water as a common good and to collectively support labor and community. This mission takes many shapes, from rainwater catchment in schools without running water to urban gardens and workshops on organic farming. As a volunteer, I have been lucky enough to work on a variety of the small projects that make up the Fundación’s larger vision: I have helped students harvest vegetables in their own school garden, poured cement for water tank construction and translated grant applications from Spanish to English. No day is average; I enjoy running around to different parts of the city. I have been able to meet incredible people and discover a new set of passions because I have such a diverse portfolio of responsibilities. I think the breadth of Fundación Abril’s vision comes from its origins. After the Water War, how could one separate a community’s connection to the land from their resistance to foreign corporate interest? The Water War brought seemingly disparate issues into scope as part of the same wider conflict.

Having studied the Water War, working with Oscar has felt like working alongside a piece of history. But the vibe in our office has always been one of equal partnership. I am just a volunteer, but the staff at Fundación Abril has made me feel included from the beginning. On my first day, I walked in on a meeting with Fundación’s leadership,  so I asked if I should sit outside until it was over. They told me to pull up a chair and listen. Everyone there understands that we need to work side by side in order to achieve the organization’s ambitious goals.

My time at Fundación Abril has taught me that the mission and intention of who I work for is more important than organizational resources or size. It’s a question of values, and I finally understand where my values lie. I will always choose listening before speaking, local activists before foreign NGOs, and on-the-ground solutions before worldwide plans. I guess I can add that to the long list of things I am taking away from my Bridge Year experience. At Princeton, I will be sure to incorporate what I learned from Oscar and Fundación Abril into what I choose to study and pursue.

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