There is a lot that I want to accomplish in a short amount of time. So, laying my goals out and how I could accomplish will be beneficial in achieving those goals.

Going abroad, one of the biggest personal goals for me is to become more independent. I feel a mixture of excitement and being incredibly terrified. I don’t really know the people I will be working with, and they don’t know me well either outside of a CV and a couple of Skype interviews. So, I want to meet new people and develop relationships with them that will last longer than the nine weeks that I will be in Switzerland. I want to be travel-savvy and learn how to be a little more street smart. I grew up in a very safe and sheltered neighborhood. Even at Rice University, we are protected by the tall hedges. Going abroad would be the perfect opportunity for me to learn how to live independently and alone.

There are a few methodologies that I hope to learn to understand virulence gene expression under dynamic, physiologically-relevant conditions. One of these methodologies is microscopic analysis fluorescent reporters on microfluidic devices. I hope to learn single cell analysis because there is phenotypic variation in virulence gene expression. I will learn microscopy, microfluidic, and image analysis techniques to complete this project. Another professional goal is to learn how to work with people of diverse backgrounds. Switzerland is actually a very diverse country. Due to its peaceful nature and intellectual pursuits, many academics come to Switzerland from around Europe and even around the world to do research here. Besides just working with people of different nationalities, I hope to also work with and communicate with people of different training backgrounds as well. The laboratory I will be in not only has biochemists and biologists but scholars with different training backgrounds as well. Working with people of different cultural and training backgrounds will be incredibly beneficial for me in the future as science and research is becoming increasingly globalized.

One of the biggest challenges living abroad will be communication. Switzerland has four national languages: French, German, Italian, and Romansh. Unfortunately, at most, I can say “hello” and “goodbye” in two of these languages. Zürich is located in one of the German-speaking cantons of Switzerland. Language barriers will not be too much of an issue within the laboratory because English is the common language that the lab members speak because it is such an international lab. Outside of the laboratory, there may be more difficulties communicating with people.

I am a little worried about transportation. Since English is not an official language of Switzerland, I don’t know if train/bus/other transportation information will be in English or not. It will be important for me to do a lot of research beforehand on the transportation system in Switzerland and settle into my routine as quickly as possible.

Food is also something I’m worried about. I don’t know where the nearest grocery store is. I will also be living in a shared apartment complex of scholars doing research in Zürich. I have never cooked abroad before, but I also can’t eat out every day. It’s important to me to eat nutritious meals every day. I think for these issues, I will have to talk to the people who have been living there for a while and ask what their experiences have been traveling around and getting food. I also hope to get close to my lab members so that I don’t have to travel alone around Europe if I choose to do that.

Even though getting to know the new people around me is important, it is also essential for me to connect with people back at home. Being in a foreign country alone can be lonely, and I believe that it would be helpful for my emotional and mental well-being to continue that connection with people back at home who know me and know what my limits are and know what my capabilities are.

Thanks for reading! 🙂

Recently, I read “The Mindful Traveler” by Richard Slimbach, an article that describes the positive and negative impacts of international travel and what I as a student-traveler can do to minimize the negative and maximize the positive.

“St. Augustine of Hippo once wrote, ‘The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page (75).’” Traveling to a different country can open one’s mind to the many wonders of the world and learn about and from the people native to that area.

Slimbach explains that the world is becoming increasingly intertwined. Thus, another benefit for the international traveler is to embrace the fact that we are all connected. It generates fresh insights and unforgettable memories. International travel can help preserve the cultural and natural heritage of sites, increased understanding for travelers, and building relationships with the people there. To truly understand the world and all the connections we have, international travel can be the platform from which we learn.

This summer, I will be traveling to Zürich, Switzerland for nine weeks to do research in Dr. Martin Ackermann’s laboratory at ETH Zürich on the genetic virulence of Salmonella enterica. As excited I am to step forward and dive into research, I need to also be mindful of and reflect on what my presence and actions as a non-national can have on the people around me and the environment.

To be mindful is to consider the “why, how, and with effect with everything we do (74).”

Although the article mainly draws the negative impacts of international travels from the framework of a privileged American visiting a developing country, the article is still very informative and there are a lot of take-aways that I can implement in my own understanding of international travel.

A negative of international travel is that it confirms the elite or privileged and is sometimes used as a break from the mundane of life. Travel can mean something completely different depending on the place that is visited; it can depend on how affluent the natives are and their accessibility to travel. The thought that many travelers have that escaping the developed world for an “authentic” and “simple” experience can offend the natives living there. There is an arrogance in assuming that those in developing countries chose that lifestyle instead of their situation being a reflection of international dynamics. The privileged could also be the only ones taking and gaining from trips abroad. For example, service trips could be considered a type of consumerism in which the volunteer takes a collection of service experiences as a commodity. Being unaware of our privilege can lead to arrogance and assumptions that could be insulting to our own attempt to understand and learn about the world. Even though my trip to Switzerland, a developed country in Europe, may be termed as educational travel, I need to still consider what my expectations are and what my consumption practices are.

Cross-cultural travel negative impacts may not be completely erased, but the negative impacts can be minimized and the positive impacts can be emphasized. An important part of my international travel is to manage my expectations. I should not have romanticized views of what Switzerland would be like based on popular media and based on what I read in history textbooks. I can manage my expectations by learning about the area’s political history, current events, religions, and customs. It is important for me to remind myself to make the trip about the environment I’m in and the people I’m with rather than about myself. I should set myself up in the framework that I am working with people there who have different backgrounds as me and always be thankful for the opportunity I have to learn from them. I should understand that I may be helpful and hopefully contribute to the research done, but I also have limitations as a learner. By being socially mindful, I could acknowledge what privileges I have to travel so far from my home. I realize that Americans are generally more wasteful than the citizens of other countries around the world. I hope to be ecologically mindful by being aware of my carbon footprint in a different country and to retain what eco-sense I learned traveling to Switzerland.

Reflecting upon how I can be mindful of my presence and learning process in a foreign country, I realize that I have so much to learn. I hope that throughout this learning process, I can continue to be mindful and enthusiastic about my trip and education.

Thanks for reading! 🙂

Richard Slimbach, “The Mindful Traveler,” Becoming World Wise: The Guide to Global Learning (Stylus 2010): 71-96.