In my high school, our teachers would talk about our “Sandton bubble” and then I applied to Vassar College, and I started hearing about the “Vassar bubble”. With a beautiful campus, almost anything you could ever need within a mile radius and a lack of public transport, it’s pretty easy to stay in the vicinity of Vassar College for all four years of your education here – but I didn’t want to. When I found Field Experiences in the Hudson Valley, it was the perfect way to get out of the “bubble” before I ever got too comfortable in it.

My name is Caitlin Munchick, and yes, I do have an accent – it’s from South Africa. I’m from Johannesburg, which has around four to ten million people, depending on how you define it. So, coming to Poughkeepsie, with a fraction (of a fraction) of the people living here, has definitely been a change for me. Then, we went to Armenia, which was a fraction of the size of Poughkeepsie, and surprisingly I kind of liked it.

With one traffic light directing “traffic”, empty plots of land, scenic stops along the way and quaint, wooden houses completed by the American flag, raised up high – it was completely different to what I’m used to. It was charming, especially after finding a drive-in theatre and a store named “Antiques, A Loose Interpretation” that was “Open (more or less)(less than more)”. I could see why tired New Yorkers would retreat to towns like Armenia.

Although the farmer’s market was probably half the size we would have expected (at least), it compensated with a friendly vendors and great produce. With a professor who loves the word “selfie”, a class outing every Friday, and a good group of students, I’d say I’m feeling pretty good about this class so far.