Week 2

I apologize for posting this blog a few days late. It has been a busy week, and I wanted to get a few more days in so I could have a thorough reflection. Last weekend I walked around Eugene by myself for around 5 hours since I don't have a car. I wanted to just take in the beautiful cascades mountains surrounding Eugene since it wasn't raining and it basically rains everyday here. Upon this 5 hour walk of mine I started to reflect and came to some sobering conclusions. Before I left, I had romanticized this idea that Oregon was going to be this divine place that would help me find all the answers and solve all my problems. I thought everyone was going to love me because I was a new student, and I would be exotic and fascinating. I realized obviously that these were extremely naive thoughts without complexity or a sense of awareness. While people are politically different, dress differently, and carry themselves differently, people are largely the same everywhere. It reminded me of a twilight zone episode I watched a couple years back titled "people are alike all over" which depicted some human astronauts landing on mars only to be manipulated by Martians (identically resembling humans physically) for pecuniary gain. The message of this post isn't to be that people are shitty everywhere in the world, it is just the reality is we are all humans with largely the same interests no matter what the externality may initially infer. Nonetheless, I have still been enjoying it very much here, and I feel almost completely adjusted already just 26 days in. I miss my family and my friends, but I'm thankful for some of the people I'm getting to meet here. I got extremely cheap tickets for the Trailblazers Warriors game on February 13th due to me being a National Exchange Student, and I plan to post pictures for my blog during that week. I'm excited for more learning experiences in the future and sharing them with you guys. I plan on posting early next week since I posted so late this week. Until next time,


Ben.

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