Travels, Tales Beyond Tourism
On Oct. 3rd LSU hosted an event called Travels, Tales Beyond Tourism which is one of the events the chapter held during Hispanic heritage month. The point of this event was to encourage students to consider a study abroad experience.
The ability to travel around the world is a luxury most college students end up going without, whether because of lack of time or funds actual worldly experiences seem to be ignored during a time when students are supposed to make the most of their own education. This is why the LSU Latino Fraternity at RIT decided to inform students how important it is to travel and how the cost to do so may not be as steep as most people think.
The room in the Campus Center was filled, about 30 people in attendance. As the hosts got everyone to settle down, LSU’s Vice President, Tomas Sosa, asked everyone what came to mind when thinking about Spanish culture. Some said the names of dance styles like salsa but most answers were about Spanish cuisine.
Next on stage came LSU’s charismatic President, Hector Terrero, who showed slides with pictures of Spain and talked about the origins of Spanish culture. While engaging the audience with questions he maintained the lighthearted mood in the room with jokes to keep the history lesson from getting stale.
While the slides were rolling there were beautiful pictures of Spanish vistas and detailed shots of various landmarks. What made these images really stand out was the fact that all of the footage shown were taken by the speakers during a trip abroad, Terrero stated “We are our own photographers; we are our own journalists.”
After the history lesson camea food break. The break marked the event’s halfway point and when it was time to start the second half, the audience size decreased by about five people with the rest of the audience sticking around due to genuine interest in the hosts and their experience abroad.
Marlon Izaguirre, whohad visited Dubai with the group last summer shared some highlights of his experience abroad. “If you’ve seen Star Trek and take away the flying cars you have Dubai”. A statement by Marlon to describe how impressed they were by the city. They then told everyone the cost of the trip, keep in mind they went to Dubai, Spain, and Istanbul with ladder cut short to keep under the two-hour mark for the event. The cost… $1500 per person! This included living accommodations and flight costs but not money spent on food and activities on location. This feat was achieved using sites like Airbnb for rooms, Hopper and Kayak for flights, and Groupon for their activities abroad, one of which included riding ATV’s across the desert for only $85. They also gave some travel tips like hidden flights which are smaller flights that cost less than $100 to get to specific cities in Europe where you then drive to your actual destination.
The event that started out as a history lesson ended up holding plenty of valuable information for the people who chose to stay after the freebies. Tempest Sampson said “I like how they incorporated a history lesson on culture and how to actually make it happen.”
