Going into this study abroad trip, I had absolutely no idea what to expect. As someone who has never been out of the country before Portugal, traveling overseas with a bunch of random people I don?t know felt like it would be both the most exciting yet terrifying experience of my life and it was exactly that. Over the past week, I have already learned so much about a world outside of the US while meeting so many new people and being in such a beautiful country that I can?t wait to see what else is in store for the rest of this trip. From the beginning, I really wanted to be able to gain a new perspective on the way the world works and be able to understand more about why other countries do things differently than in America and already through the few company visits we have done so far I have been able to experience this and so much more. For instance, something interesting about Portugal is that they are all about conserving energy as much as possible, and in agriculture, they try to use practices that focus on the natural lifecycle and the environment. While America can also be like this at times, Portugal takes things to the next level with things such as fertilizer limits for agriculture and limiting light usage in hotels by requiring your hotel card to turn on the lights that way you are sure to turn them off when you leave since you need your card. Already, from just visiting Lisbon for a week I have been able to see first hand how there is so much about our world that we don?t know about and I really hope that during this trip I will be able to learn even more about the world we live in while making some amazing memories.
