A half a world away from the urban landscape of Hartford, 圣信誉最好的网投十大平台23岁的学生约书亚·雅各维斯(Joshua Jacoves)在山区度过了2022年秋季学期, jungles, farms of Nepal, learning the Tibetan language and studying elephant tourism.
Jacoves—an anthropology major from Tinton Falls, New Jersey, with minors in community action, Jewish studies, religious studies在选择通过信誉最好的网投十大平台开始这段经历之前，我一点藏语都不懂 Office of Study Away.
He learned about the School for International Training’s ‘Tibetan and Himalayan Peoples’ program in Nepal, 其中包括三个月的课堂指导和一个月的研究, while he was looking into social science field schools. “I knew Nepal had Mt. 珠穆朗玛峰和喜马拉雅山脉，但除此之外，我知道的不多. 这听起来像是一个很酷的地方，在我生命中的任何其他时候，可能很难花四个月的时间去探索,” said Jacoves. “Plus, I like cold weather.”
Jacoves shared memories of his time in Nepal:
Where did you stay during your semester in the Nepal program?
我在加德满都的一个西藏寄宿家庭住了一段时间，这个家庭也是尼泊尔人. I had a host grandmother, mother, sister, brother. The brother and sister both spoke English and Tibetan fluently. I had to learn some Tibetan really fast, 既然我回到了信誉最好的网投十大平台，我就在努力学习语言. I lived in the Boudha area, 靠近美丽的佛教纪念碑和联合国教科文组织世界遗产——佛塔. I also spent two weeks in Ladakh, India, right by the Chinese border, 在尼泊尔北部的朗塘国家公园待两周. In the final month, I did an independent study on elephant tourism in Sauraha, a small jungle village in Nepal, 我一个人住在一间平房里，在奇旺国家公园和大象一起工作.
What kind of research did you do with the elephants?
我决定研究大象旅游，因为我觉得这是一个极度缺乏研究的领域. In recent years, 新闻头条提到了潜在的动物权利侵犯，并将责任归咎于驯兽师. I went to study if this was actually the case, 发现这是一个极其复杂的问题，新闻报道得很差, which was the point of the paper I wrote following the project. 一般来说，大象旅游是尼泊尔奇旺国家公园的主要卖点, 虽然人们对动物权利问题有所认识, 主要的感觉是，它只是当地经济的另一个工具, in the same way owning a Jeep for safari tours is.
I studied interactions between elephants, their trainers, the network that allows elephant tourism to happen. 在尼泊尔，大象要么是政府所有，要么是野生的，要么是私人拥有的，用于旅游. 我通过在旅游业工作的人和大象本身来研究旅游业. It was kind of a multispecies ethnography project. I spent every other day for a month at different elephant camps, working with their owners and trainers, walking in the jungle with the elephants, helping them get food, which takes up about 40 percent of their day.
What classes did you take?
在我的项目中，有14名美国学生、一名南非学生和两名尼泊尔当地学生. 头三个月，我们在加德满都有一个项目中心. 半天是藏语教学，然后是老师和客座讲师的课程. We learned about religion in the area; since Nepal is sandwiched between India and China, we were looking at Buddhism, Hinduism, the indigenous system Bön. Another class was in geopolitics, talking about Tibetan exiles and about Nepal being in between two superpowers. There was also a general research methods course.
Where else did you go on excursions?
We stayed in the Changtang Valley, a nomadic yak-herding region in Ladakh, at about 18,000 feet elevation. We spent a week with yak herders, up in the mountains, where we could see the Karakoram mountain range and K2, which was incredible. We crossed one of the highest motorable roads in the world, zig-zagging up these Himalayan peaks in a little Jeep. 我们花了很多时间研究这个地区的气候变化，那里所有的水都来自冰川. With climate change and the high elevation, 喜马拉雅山变暖的速度是世界其他地区的三倍, so they’re facing some serious water issues. 我们参观了三个不同的村庄，看看旅游业是如何影响村庄的建设的, we looked at the recovery from the 2015 earthquake.
What was a typical day like for you?
In Kathmandu, I’d be woken up at 6 a.m. 不是被街对面寺院里念经的僧侣，就是被隔壁公寓里的山羊. I didn’t need an alarm clock. After breakfast with the host family, 我会按照佛教仪式绕佛塔走三圈. 我在那里花了足够的时间，与佛塔周围的当地店主建立了关系, 所以我可以喝杯茶，他们可以练习英语，而我可以练习藏语. At the program center, I’d have classes, then in the afternoon get coffee with friends, do some homework, or help my host family brother study for his school exams, which were in English.
When living in the jungle village, 我找到了一家卖印度版玉米片的小店，可以坐在门廊上吃早餐. Every other day, 我骑着摩托车前往我正在工作的一个大象营地. I made food for the elephants with the trainers, 我们会把大象带到丛林里，如果它们需要的话，我们会砍树来帮助它们获取食物. In the afternoon, I could help out the neighbors who were beekeepers and farmers, then make dinner and eat with them.
What were some of your favorite memories or experiences?
People ask me mostly about the elephants, 但真正影响最大的部分，也是我最怀念的是和寄宿家庭住在一起. 当我需要理发时，我9岁的寄宿哥哥带我去他理发的地方. I had to completely trust him to tell the barber what I wanted, afterwards I took him to buy bubble tea. 我喜欢做饭，所以我花了很多时间通过我的寄宿家庭学习西藏或尼泊尔的食谱. I still keep in touch with them. And I’m a big hiker—I do Quest 所以能够攀登喜马拉雅山脉是我的一大亮点. The mountain we summited, 尼泊尔的Ama Yangri[见本页顶部的照片], wasn’t technical, just a trekking climb.
Was there anything that surprised you?
I learned a lot. 我明白在美国买到加工或准备好的食物是多么容易, but I didn’t realize the extent of that until I got to Nepal. I think that was the thing that shocked all Americans. 我提到的另一件事是，在美国，我们享有水资源的特权. 如果我想在家里吃苹果，我可能会擦掉蜡，然后直接吃苹果. In Kathmandu, their tap water isn’t really safe to drink. You had to wash an apple with tap water and soap, rinse it with bottled purified water, let it dry completely, peel it, then you could eat it. 我们很幸运，在家里我们可以去水槽取一杯水.
这学期你对自己和世界学到了什么?
My thesis at Trinity is in religious anthropology. Before I went to Nepal, I just assumed I’d do a Ph.D. with research that is religious-focused. Being in Nepal changed that, 花时间和人和大象在一起，研究人类与野生动物的冲突. 现在我在重新考虑我读研究生的目的，这是件好事. On the personal side, I’ve hiked, camped, backpacked most of my life, 但我知道我现在有能力去某个地方解决问题. It’s okay to just show up somewhere; you might butcher the language, but you should still try to use it. 即使在看似遥远的地方，与我们所知道的生命相去甚远, there’s a lot that’s still the same on the base level. We’re all human at the end of the day.
