Off Campus Study

Off-Campus Study Photo Exhibit: Fall 2007

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Dana Meyer, '09 SIT: Culture & Development, Fall 2007 Bolivia This photo, and three others included in this exhibit, was taken during my five-day rural home stay in Bolivia. You might expect a child growing up surrounded by landscapes like this one to be immune by their beauty, but on more than one occasion I saw the children gazing off in the distance. Carmen is sitting on a wall constructed to protect the family's newly planted apple trees from stray animals. In the distance, you can see the potato fields where her father works. Potatoes are one of the few crops, along with peas and that can be grown in the cold, and often dry Andean climate.	Dustin Meltzer, '09 Institute for the International Education of Students: Delhi, Fall '07 Butcher Boy This young man was a frequent vendor at the Thursday Night Market that took place near my group residence. I frequently attended the market with my camera, and this young man was always eager for me to photograph him. We became friendly acquaintances and would try our best to communicate, he in broken English and me in broken Hindi.	Jacqueline Newman, '09 Institute for the International Education of Students: Delhi, Fall'07 Goa, India One thing I will always remember about India is the incredible resourcefulness of its people. In a country of exceptional needs and mostly basic tools to resolve those needs, the concept of functional fixedness is seemingly non-existent as most of their devices are regularly used for a huge variety of tasks. This picture of an alternative baby carrier, taken in Goa, a small but lively city on the southwestern edge of the country, always reminds me of this quality that seems to be shared by Indians throughout the entire country.	Brittany Jackson, '09 Arcadia CEA: Goldsmiths College, Fall '07 United Kingdom I took this photo of Big Ben while sightseeing with a bunch of friends toward the end of the semester. I was beginning to feel rushed, and that I needed to capture everything I loved about the city before I left. This was one of many photos I took of the city that night.
Allison Hardy, '09 Arcadia CEA: Queen Mary College, Fall '07 United Kingdom Part of my orientation for Arcadia in London was a three-day home stay with a family outside of London. I went to Peterborough, a small town north of London. When walking into town, I saw this adorable cottage surrounded by gardens.	Meghan Damico, '09 DIS: Communication & Mass Media, Copenhagen, Fall '07 London, England My core communication class traveled to both Paris and London. This picture was taken on our way to the musical "We Will Rock You." My friends and I had just finished dinner and were crossing the Waterloo Bridge when we noticed the spectacular sunset over the horizon. We stopped for about twenty minutes, taking photos of us just being silly and having fun. In this picture you can see the London Eye in the background, as well as a statue of Queen Elizabeth greeting the oncoming and passing cars. It felt so amazing to be in such a historical city and see this beautiful sunset. Standing there in awe of London and its surroundings is something I will never forget.	Dana Meyer, '09 SIT: Culture & Development, Fall '07 Bolivia The family had a very close relationship with the neighbors and would often work together to care for the children. This picture shows a 19-year-old neighbor and her one-year-old son. Her husband is currently working in Argentina and hasn't seen his son for six months. I printed off copies of some pictures I took of him and sent them to her so she could show them to her husband.	Dustin Meltzer, '09 Institute for the International Education of Students: Delhi, Fall '07 Repair Man Every Thursday night, in the neighborhood closest to our group residence, the Thursday Night Market took place. The market attracted vendors who sold everything and anything that you could possibly need--from fresh vegetables to winter coats--it was all there. This man had a permanent shop along the street where, I assume, he repaired electronics.
Mary Grandinetti, '10 Arcadia CEA: Victoria University of Wellington, Fall '07 New Zealand Rugby is a way of life for Kiwis--they are so passionate about the sport. The crowd was just filling up the stadium at this Hurricanes Super 14 home rugby game when I took this photograph. It was amazing to see the turn out to the regular season game. Extra buses had been re-routed to the stadium to help with the rugby crowds. I loved that a storm was rolling over the stadium; it seemed like a good omen for the Hurricanes.	Jacqueline Newman, '09 Institute for the International Education of Students: Delhi, Fall '07 Kerala, India One day, while walking down a street in Kerala, a South Indian city, I noticed this man riding his bicycle as his small son gripped tightly to his hips. If I had seen this within my first couple weeks in India, I may have been shocked by this rather unsafe method of child transportation. However, given that this photo was taken several months into my trip, I believe I was ultimately more shocked that I nearly walked by without taking a picture. When I first arrived in India and witnessed instances identical to this, a slew of thoughts came to mind, such as: What about helmets? And shouldn't the son be on his own bike...with training wheels? Or at least the child should be nestled in front instead of hanging on for dear life on the back. But one of the great lessons I learned while away, partially through sights like this, is that everyone has their own understanding of the "right way" of doing things, and India is no exception. In America this man might be flagged down by concerned onlookers, but if a father and son rode through India on separate bikes, the son's bike outfitted with shiny training wheels, and each rider equipped with a helmet, Indian locals would be equally astounded by the scene. When I almost walked by this pair, I realized that I had truly come to appreciate cultural differences as simply differences and done away with the notion that there is one "right way" of doing things.	Allison Hardy, '09 Arcadia CEA: Queen Mary College, Fall '07 Rome, Italy In the middle of October, I met my family for the weekend in Rome. I had not seen them since I left the United States. This was our view while eating breakfast at our hotel. We spent four days in Rome before returning to London where they stayed for five days. Having my family come visit was probably one of my best memories because I was able to show them around London, where I was living, and how much I loved being abroad.	Brittany Jackson, '09 Arcadia CEA: Goldsmiths College, Fall '07 London, England While wandering London alone one night toward the end of the semester, I decided to grab my camera and ipod and venture out into the city. I stumbled upon this winter carnival, and while I didn't ride any of the rides, I did have a lot of fun photographing them.
Jacqueline Newman, '09 Institute for the International Education of Students: Delhi, Fall '07 Jaipur, India Elaborately decorated with intricate carvings, precious stones and thousands of glass fragments, Amber fort (the location of this picture) is a popular tourist attraction in Jaipur, India. By the end of my trip, feeling like more of a member of the community than a tourist myself, I wandered into a small tower and watched in awe as locals led brightly painted elephants, toting excited visitors up the hill to the palace gates. Feeling somewhat conflicted about the entire endeavor, I watched in amazement and partial embarrassment at the frantically flashing cameras of loud tourists anxious to capture the view. After a minute or so of standing, I looked down and noticed a young boy also watching in wonder at the parade below. We both stood there, equally bemused by the scene for about 10 minutes and eventually parted ways; him to his mother, balancing a bowl of cement mix on her head as she worked to restore the fort, and me to my father (who had come to share the final 2 weeks of my trip), video camera in hand, preparing to record the tour guide rattle off statistics about the materials used in the fort's construction.	Christina Kufel, '09 Arcadia CEA: Athens, Fall '07 Greece After being stranded on the Greek Island Paros for three days due to bad weather, a group of ten of us decided to go for a hike on the Byzantine Route. We climbed up the rocky hills to find a place of great serenity. I have to admit I'm incredibly afraid of heights, but I was eventually convinced to walk out onto the ledge where this picture was taken. The view from this spot was absolutely gorgeous. You could even see the wind dancing on the ocean's surface. Although most of the weekend was spent trying to keep warm and to find a ferry back to Athens, I wouldn't change anything based solely on this day spent admiring Greece's beauty with an amazing group of people.	Dana Meyer, '09 SIT: Culture & Development, Fall '07 Bolivia After school, the older girls, Carmen (9) and Enely (10) are responsible for taking the cattle to graze. While the cattle are left to wander where they like, the girls play games. They pick flowers and string them on sticks, plant their own pretend potato fields, and build houses out of rocks. When they get cold, they do jumping jacks and other aerobics they have learned during physical education classes in school. Here, Carmen leads the two bulls to a new part of the mountain to graze.	Dustin Meltzer, '09 Institute for the International Education of Students: Delhi, Fall '07 Believer I was walking around Delhi with my camera and found myself a few blocks away from the group residence, beneath the highway overpass. I saw this man, probably homeless, hunched over and praying in front of the shrine I assume he had constructed. It was such a powerful sight to me that I had to capture an image of it.
Dustin Meltzer, '09 Institute for the International Education of Students: Delhi, Fall '07 India I took this photo one night at India Gate, Delhi's most well-known national monument. It is a hub of activity at night with vendors of all kinds. By shooting this photo through balloons displayed in a vendor's stand, I was able to draw attention to the vendors and capture a new perspective on a frequently photographed place.	Dana Meyer, '09 SIT: Culture & Development, Fall '07 Bolivia This photo shows Zamir (3) and Carmen (5) playing with the family's baby chicks just outside their home. I was amazed at the freedom the children were given in the countryside. Carmen helped peel potatoes with large knives and Zamir was left largely unsupervised. They loved playing with the chicks and kittens that roamed the property, but did not treat them like pets. One minute they were being pet and held, the next they were chased out of the kitchen with sticks.