The concept of a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” may sound like a cliché. Yet going to the United States for the 14th Transatlantic Symposium has certainly been so. A group of students, who prior to the trip had never been to the US, and their department professor Dr Tomasz Basiuk, embarked on a journey which they will…
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Mission San Diego de Alcalá
The first stop in San Diego, and the very first encounter of many further contrasting narratives we have encountered, was Mission San Diego de Alcalá. California’s first mission was founded in 1769 by a Franciscan priest, Junípero Serra. The story of the San Diego Mission, which was handed out to us in the form of…
Chicano Park
Next, we headed to the one of San Diego’s streets to look at murals created by the Chicano community as a form of their protest. The “street art gallery” of Chicano resistance is a 7.9 acre park located beneath the San Diego-Coronado Bridge in Barrio Logan, which is a predominantly Mexican American and Mexican-immigrant community in…
Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve
Another crucial element of our trip was experiencing the American flora and fauna, and the first location was Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve. Located within San Diego city limits, Torrey Pines remains one of the wildest stretches of land on the Southern California coast. Through the efforts of the people in this area, 2,000 acres…
Salton Sea
On our way to Palm Springs we stopped at the shore of Salton Sea, a shallow rift lake located predominately in California’s Coachella and Imperial valleys, whose increased salinity resulted in a massive die-out of fish. The biggest eradication of sea life in the Salton Sea was in the late 1990s, when something like over 7…
Living Desert
Palm Desert, California. When you think about a desert, you might have an image of a depopulated space filled with sand. The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens is a perfect place to break with those assumptions. It is a spatial machine which will transport you right onto the desert, for it is a zoo and botanic…
Palm Canyon
On our second day in sunny Palm Springs, we went hiking to the Palm Canyon in the Agua Caliente Indian Reservation, home of the Cahuilla Indian tribe. A 15 miles long beautiful natural reserve with the abundance of indigenous California Fan Palms, cacti, and other breathtaking flora. Our first stop was the Trading Post where we…
Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians Tribal Administration Plaza
We visited the headquarters of the Cahuilla tribe in Palm Springs where we met and had a discussion with Kate Anderson, who is the Director of Public Relations there. Shortly after we introduced and identified ourselves, Kate opened up and wholeheartedly told us all about the Agua Caliente Reservation and its structures, about how the…
The Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance
The Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance (MOT) in Los Angeles was an important stop on our journey. Its famous Holocaust section surely did live up to our expectations – it was truly an experience, both in terms of how it looked/felt and the information provided. Other than Holocaust, the MOT’s focus is on racism…
La Brea Tar Pits
Our second visit in LA was La Brea Tar Pits, a registered National Natural Landmark, which is a group of tar pits around which Hancock Park was formed. Natural asphalt (also called brea in Spanish, therefore the name “La Brea” for the place) has seeped up from the ground in this area for tens of…
Eso Won Books
An African-American led bookstore in Leimert Park, a neighborhood in Los Angeles considered the center of modern African-American music, culture, and art. In its 25 years of existence, the bookstore has experienced and survived a range of changes in industry, earthquakes, civil unrests, recessions, and even re-locations. James Fugate and Tom Hamilton, co-proprietors, managed to…
Olvera Street
The beauty which can be seen in every corner of the City of Angels, is diversity. Diversity which creates the city, giving it the special character of social and cultural assemblage. Driving through Korean, Ethiopian, Jewish, Chinese, and lots of other districts, one can truly understand the immigrant-based nature of the United States. Multitude of…
14th Transatlantic Students Symposium 