Hello everyone, welcome to my blog/website for CE499: Sustainability Mobility in the Netherlands!

So, I'm a student at OSU (like many of you), and this trip will mark the end of my fourth year here. Though I've lived here in Corvallis for the last four years, originally, I'm from Taos, New Mexico, where I was born and raised. In general for most of my life I've been more of an "artsy" kid, with playing the violin, drawing, and writing being my main things. It was only towards the end of high school where I switched to a focus on science and math, and I eventually found an interest in civil engineering in my freshman year of college. That said, art is still a vital part of my life, hence my choice to pursue a second major in creative writing. 

I first heard about this course from the OSU weekly email and Dr. Bertini himself, who I met first through my job working as a lab assistant for the Department of CCE. As someone who's never been off the continent, I immediately found an interest in the course for the trip aspect alone. The fact that the content focuses on sustainable mobility, an aspect of civil engineering that I have a lot of passion for, just added to my desire to take this class. And after talking about it with some of my peers (a couple of whom are also part of the class), I decided that this would be a great experience to explore the world and a learn a lot. 

As for goals, I'm not sure I have anything super specific. The most important thing, to me, is just to try my best to really seep into the culture and country of the Netherlands as much as I can over the two weeks. I honestly still can't believe that I'll be travelling so far, even with the flight less than a week away now. I am tremendously excited for this trip in all ways, and I can't way to experience what the Netherlands and TU Delft have to offer!