After nearly four months, juniors Hadley Larson — returning from Chile — and Eliza Low — returning from Maine — came together to discuss their semesters away. As the pair sat at a table overlooking the quad from the library viewpoint, they discussed their respective trips, as well as their return to the Menlo community. Low and Larson give us a snapshot into what a fully immersive, hands-on, learning experience can look like.
The following has been pared and edited for clarity.
CoA: So, what initially drew you to your respective programs?
Low: I was at a program called Chiwonke on the Maine coast. It was really strong in environmental science and field studies. That’s kind of where my excitement came from, because that’s something I want to pursue long term.
Larson: I went to this program Alzar. After the fall semester in Idaho, you go to Patagonia in Southern Chile. That’s what drew me to it. Alzar just looked like such a cool opportunity and I always heard how beautiful Patagonia was, so I just really wanted to go explore it.
CoA: How do you think the place that you were in impacted your experience?
Larson: I’ve never been really far away from home, and it was 30 hours of travel to get to Patagonia. That made it feel much more secluded from my regular life. I also have never spoken Spanish before, so there was definitely a language barrier there. What about you, Eliza?
Low: For me, it was the first time I actually got to experience all of the seasons. Our classes were based on the land we were living on.
CoA: What social aspects of your respective programs were different from Menlo?
Low: I feel like everything. It would be hard to imagine a more different culture than what I experienced for the last three months, which is making for an interesting transition back. There are certainly elements of Menlo that I really love, like the great people, but I would say it was definitely a different culture; you live in cabins without running water or heat. We heated our own cabins using wood that past semester students had chopped. I feel like, honestly, it was just a much closer community because it was so small. Hadley, would you agree?
Larson: Yeah, completely. Alzar was pretty different from Menlo. It was just like a really close group. And I would say one thing that I missed about Menlo was the spirit, but I ended up planning a spirit week there.
CoA: What’s a moment that really stood out as a “culture shock” for either of you?
Low: People came from really different backgrounds, which was fantastic and made it so much more interesting, but it was just interesting to realize that I had such different frames of reference than most of the people there. Like, one of my really close friends runs a farm in Costa Rica. It was really interesting to discover that everyone had a unique passion that they really spent a lot of their time and energy on. I don’t know if that would be a culture shock, because I found that sort of lovely, but it was certainly a change. There was a lot less of an emphasis on sports and spirit, and a lot more on farming of ecology or something like that. What about you, Hadley?
Larson: One day a week, we would go to this woman’s house. She didn’t speak any English — and I didn’t really speak Spanish — but she would teach us how to make empanadas. Trying to communicate without spoken language was really cool.
CoA: What questions do you guys have for each other?
Low: What was your favorite part, Hadley?
Larson: Definitely all the moments with my friends and meeting friends — for life, really. But also, when we would go on these expeditions, we would go backpacking in the most beautiful places ever, very remote, and you would have no stress in the world. It was just the best feeling. What about you?
Low: I would definitely say the people as well, and then also I had a chance to do a solo, which is 48 hours in the woods by yourself.
Larson: Did anything crazy happen during that?
Low: No, it was remarkably chill, and I feel like that was something in itself.
