By Umid Abdullaev, Uzbekistan
It is 4 a.m., the 27th of June. ITD vans are waiting for us outside of Amherst College dorms to take us to the airport. Weather is mild and lovely. I am so excited and full of emotion regardless of waking up so early. The sky is covered with gray clouds, and drizzling steadily. Air is fresh, gives energy and optimism. Birds are singing, giving extra joy as we are flying to the west of the USA, to explore a mysterious Arizona.
When I was a kid, I was curious about American lifestyle, history, movies, holidays and literature. Even though it was hard to learn English back then, because of my strong enthusiasm and inspiration I have learned a lot, read a lot and eventually it has paved me a path to visit the US with the help of the Department of State and US Embassy of Tashkent.
During the first three weeks of my stay, I gained valuable knowledge about US educational policy, social life, culture, contemporary issues, eyewitnessed overwhelming architecture and mind-blowing views, especially at the top of the World Trade Center.
Everyday is unique in terms of getting new information, new perspectives, new ideas, and diverse viewpoints. Throughout my stay, so far, I have seen the beauty of diversity, power of different approaches and for sure, I am a different person than I used to be 3 weeks ago. I have developed in my ability to understand new perspectives and to be more collaborative towards opinions and lifestyles different than mine.
A core part of the trip was the stay in Arizona. We arrived at the Airport, waiting for boarding to Chicago and from there to Tucson. Special thanks for Edgardo, Mark, Catherine and Bruce as they helped with transportation, luggage, check-in and accompanied us until the passport control. They are wonderful, always polite, pleasant and willing to help. We landed, got on vans and headed towards the city to have lunch, time to taste Arizonian food!
Tucson reminded me of my hometown Uzun, in some places except gigantic cactuses, but we have only small ones, and the climate hot and dry – what I missed after a long humidity. Luckily I am well adjusted to this climate, but the others will have some difficulty, I am afraid.
After the hotel check-in and lunch, we had a session about environmental sustainability, urban developments and landscape engineering by Christian Aguilar. She shared her project about using rainwaters effectively, recycling waste and natural composting, to create a better landscape for people, to raise awareness and consciousness planting non-invasive and local trees to provide long-term nature preservation. It was quite an informative and useful lesson for us while the world is suffering from global warming and climate change.
Furthermore, we were offered an extraordinary opportunity to visit the house of Christian Aguilar, where she and her environmentalist husband showed the implementation of their ideas in practice and answered questions about ecological challenges of the region.
Overall, the day was fantastic, full of impressions, new perspectives and meeting new people. Arizona ITD staff members Raleigh and Jesus are simply super, full of enthusiasm, energy and eager to help on everything, literally everything.
My stay in Arizona surpassed my expectations, and I am truly delightful to #SUSI and #ITDAmherst for organizing such a wide range of programs that my understanding about the USA is expanding day by day. Tomorrow is going to be a great day as we are going to the US – Mexican border to see and to feel the real scenario of migrants crossing the border under harsh conditions. The story about the topic will be continued by my fellow participant.
All opinions expressed by the program participants are their own and do not represent nor reflect official views from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State, or of the Institute for Training and Development, Inc.
