Foreign Land, Aggie Land
Note: I would recommend that you try to segment this blog when you read it while it may seem very long it doesn't capture even 10% of my experience so don't rob yourself and skim through it.
Ever since I came to Qatar, I was told that it is recommended and almost required that every Aggie visit main campus at least once. Well at first, I was very skeptical since the prices seemed too high, especially for the short visits and as somebody who doesn't like to travel a lot, I thought that I wouldn't find much use in it, and I would be better off to just focus on my academics. But I couldn't be further from wrong, and this blog will document the activities that I have done during my trip on ASLE during the winter break and I hope to encourage others to try and apply for any study abroad program through my experience.
Day 1: On the first day after the flight just landed we didn't have much time to rest before we needed to go for the Midnight Yell. Well, I was exhausted after what felt like a flight that lasted 5 days and did not want to participate in any activities right away Well, I was very drowsy I got to see and participate in the spirit of the 12th man. While the crowd never died, I was about to from exhaustion and just when my eyes were going to slumber, boom!!! They fired the cannon which was very effective at waking me up better than any energy drink that money can buy. This allowed me to take in the scene again and I felt a weird sense of excitement here is a football team that I never cared about just practicing their drills for tomorrow's game, but I was still excited, and they wanted to be part of the show. The cheering and practice continued as we sang the Aggie war hymn. Just when I thought it was finally over and that I could go back home to get some well-deserved rest the cannon proceeded to fire twice more to end the ceremony.
Day 2: This day was mostly dedicated to us for us well there wasn't much going on, we were able to go shopping so we won't have any trouble with common household items that we needed during our stay. Well, I couldn't go to the game especially since I don't like being around alcohol I was allowed to not attend the game, so I was mostly free for the day. Well, I didn't do anything about this day other than prepare for the next days, my friends who went to the game were telling me stories about how we won against Florida and I've heard of a dream the dream of a 12 - 0 football season for the Aggies. And I feel like it was a really missed opportunity for me since I didn't do much and I wasn't able to apply what I learned in the previous day but other than this day I feel like I can go on and on about everything that I experienced during the trip.
Day 3: On this day we went to the hidden treasure of Aggieland, challenge works. While the person who told me that it was a hidden treasure was biased since he worked there, I feel like he couldn't be more honest with me. His name was Art and along with Bill and Frank, they guided us through challengeworks. While we would assign team leaders from the start this is the first day when they started to have a bigger impact on the group. While we were in challengeworks, we first started the day by doing some warmup activities to enhance our hand eye coordination mostly in preparation for what came after. After this we separated into the group that we were assigned to at the start of the trip for the first time and started to tackle great adventures. We were assigned with the best person that challenged where it could provide, and my favorite out of this trio, bill. The first activity was to work on our team communication by juggling several items between our team members we had to develop strategies to complete this activity as efficiently as possible. The second activity was for us to touch numbers in sequence in the shortest amount of time possible. And I know these don't seem like the most exhilarating activities, but they helped us communicate better especially since I have not met with most of my group members before. The next activity was more physically demanding by the team members as we had to swing through a rope and get everybody to the other side while carrying a water bucket which seemed impossible at first. But our team managed to pull through, since the rope was out of reach, we needed to have a member hold on to the other team members while extending the Rams to reach it. Next, once they made it to the other side their responsibility was now to safeguard the water bucket as well as give the row back to the other members for ease of access. This strategy worked perfectly, and we were able to finish in record time. Now comes the fun part, we had to scale a 20m high pole then walk on a course that proved to be very challenging especially since most of us had no experience climbing before. And now this was my favorite part as the entire team worked together to operate the ballet so that the climber could safely complete the climb.
Day 4 – 5: I'm going to combine a few days to not bore the reader to death but on these days, we helped feed the children's families as well as the elderly by volunteering for the Brazos food bank. I still have the thank you letters and the gifts that the food bank gave us for our excellent efforts even though we lacked some coordination sometimes but in total we were able to donate 1440 backpacks for children's 360 senior bags 214 mobile pantry boxes which summed up to a total of 8000 lbs of food 480 volunteering hours and we donated $8400 in total. The people were very friendly in the food bank and in some cases able to exceed their expectations as we were able to finish the tasks that were supposed to take an entire shift in about an hour. By this time our teamwork was great, and we were also having fun in menial tasks since we were doing them together and we felt a very strong sense of community. Furthermore, we also had other activities to help us relax, we went to top golf uh what do we got to compete against each other and while the competition was fierce, I was still able to win two games out of three.
Day 6: On this final day we saw the fruits of our labor at the Brazos Valley Food Bank, for this day we had only half a shift but what was more important to us is the tour that we had at the end. The kind people over at the food bank showed us their different facilities. We first started at the garden, well it didn't seem that important, they showed us that they use these to teach people how to grow their own crops. Next uh we moved on to the storage facilities where they showed us the trucks that they packed the food into for distribution as well as the walk-in fridge and freezer where they preserve most perishable foods. We concluded the tour by grand celebration of our achievements, and we suddenly had to say bye to the Brazos Valley food bank. Later in the day we had two stops we first stopped to get a tour in the museum by the corps cadets that showed us more Aggie as well as some historical pieces. Furthermore, we met up with the yell leaders that were present during the midnight yell during our first day in College Station and they taught us even more valuable information about college spirit. One of the two was the previous handler for Ms. Reveille and shared this experience with us. Later we had a dinner with main campus Aggies as well as some professors and one of the vice presidents, I was also pleasantly surprised to see a friend of mine who was doing a study abroad semester at the time. We got to chat and catch up and enjoy the few laughs before we headed to the soccer game that was held on the same day for the Aggies and the Tigers soccer teams. I usually do not like watching football since I feel like it has become a commodity nowadays where most people only watch it for the entertainment value or because they're tangled up with their favorite team which is something I could never understand especially since I enjoyed playing the game instead. But for me this game was different, it didn't have the biggest crowd, it didn't feel cross claustrophobic and more importantly the players seemed that they were passionate about playing soccer. And that passion showed through and through, since both parties we're trying their hardest to score against the other team. I was lucky enough to catch one of the T-shirts that they threw around during the game as a souvenir. Of course, the Texas Aggies once again what can I say except we have the best sports teams you know like campuses. I also got to talk with some of the locals about uh soccer and how it was underappreciated and they seemed very friendly when I was talking to them, we had a good laugh here and there, but the fun had to end. While not the most appealing destinations I was able to visit the target before I had to go back to the hotel, but I enjoyed every moment of it since I was with one of the new friends that I made during the trip who also happened to be my roommate in the hotel.
Day 7: Well, this was the final day and while we have a saying that translates to "he who lives among people for 40 days becomes one of them", But I felt that I was enamored with these people since the first day since they haven't showed me anything but kindness. For this final day we mostly bid our time well heading down to the airport we got to say goodbye to everybody we met, and they also got to meet one of my old professors whose name is JD Kim. He volunteered his time to come and visit us and he made his visit memorable He brought us doughnuts, a staple of his during our exams, and had nothing but sweet words to say. Finally this is the last part of my story before I depart it while I was going through the TSA, I had forgotten that I brought with me a Monster Energy drink and so the agents told me that they cannot take it with me but I can try to drink the can before I passed by the checkpoint. As I was drinking the monster they were cheering me on and they were very supportive I believe one of them was saying" chug it, chug its" repeatedly with a lot of excitement while the other one was clapping for me when I finished it in one sip.
Well, every person's experience with abroad programs is unique I have never heard somebody regret it, I didn't regret it and you want so please while you still have the opportunity today and visit Aggieland, what seems like a foreign land may not be so distant after all.