PALs 2019-2020 Q&A with Catherine Parr, Wharton '21

Catherine Parr has participated in a range of global opportunities during her time at Penn including a semester abroad in Australia, a summer internship in India, and travel courses to Italy and Brazil. During the 2019-2020 academic year, Catherine is serving as a Penn Abroad Leader, which is Penn Abroad’s student advisory board focused on special projects and supporting fellow students interested in global experiences. We sat down with Catherine to discuss her favorite travel memories, the best dishes she has tried abroad, her packing essentials, and more.

So Catherine, you’ve done a lot with Penn Abroad! Could you tell me a little bit about your path through Penn?
At the end of my freshman spring I went to Italy with WIP (Wharton International Program). In Florence, Milan, Rome, and Venice we visited companies and universities and learned about the general business landscape in Italy. We spent about half the days visiting companies and doing Q&A’s, and half doing lectures at the universities. I actually ended up meeting some people from those universities during my semester abroad which was really cool. 

Then I did GRIP in India for two months. I worked in an eye hospital and wrote some blog posts in which you can read more details about what I did there. I worked on a project to improve their intern and volunteer management processes. It's a really prestigious hospital but I didn’t know that until I read about it in an article in the Harvard Business Review for one of my other classes, which was nice to see.

It was a little difficult given how foreign everything was, but I learned a lot about how to thrive in an uncomfortable environment. I went straight from there to Sydney, where I studied for the fall semester, which was sort of a crazy story.

Crazy story? Tell me about it.
So there were record-breaking monsoons that summer, literally monsoons so bad that trains had to stop because of the water. So that was happening and was delaying flights, including mine from Madurai to Singapore. I got an email the night before saying my flight was delayed three hours, and I was like “Whatever, I have a seven-hour layover in Singapore,” and wanted to explore the airport.

I showed up at the airport in Madurai and they told me that my flight was delayed again by another four and a half hours. I needed to figure out another option. They told me I needed to take a taxi two and a half hours away to another airport and catch a flight there, and I needed to decide right then because there was only one seat left that could be bought at any moment. I was also having trouble understanding exactly what they were saying (I wear hearing aids). 

Anyway, I took a taxi to the other airport. I got to the airport as the check-in closed in ten minutes. I checked-in my bags, which was also a struggle, and then ended up in a security line behind twenty-five guys. One of the security people told me that there was a separate line for women, so I got to the front and all three of my bags were selected for extra questioning! They were obviously confused by my full bag of mini hand sanitizers but let me through with it. I got on the flight and there was a guy reading over my shoulder the entire time and no less than three crying babies. That was honestly probably the least bothersome part of the entire experience. I had an hour and a half in Singapore, got to see the indoor waterfall, and then finally got to Sydney.

Wow. Alright, tell me a bit about that semester.
I was there for four months and got to travel a ton because my financial aid package was super generous. My classes were a lot less demanding than they were here. My schedule was convenient. The people I met were fantastic and I’m actively thinking about creative ways to move there again.

Do you have a favorite trip from your time there?
Oh that’s tough, so I’ll talk about a couple.

I went to Tasmania! That was really fun. It was right before my final exam and I was faced with either staying in Sydney and doing my schoolwork or managing my time well, understanding that my experiences are more important than my grades, and just going. So I took the leap and went for four days. I got to feed a kangaroo and go hiking. 

I snorkeled in the Great Barrier Reef.

Did you know Australia is as big as the US across? I went to Perth which is on the west coast. I went to Rottnest Island to see the quokkas, which are the little animals that are smiling all of the time, and biked the whole perimeter of the island. I met these ladies on the boat ride back who told me where to watch the sunset and have dinner, which was really nice.

Oh and definitely New Caledonia! I discovered it on a map while at my hostel in India and it looked like paradise when I googled it, so I had it in my plans to visit it when I was studying abroad in Australia. It was as pretty as the pictures and such a great getaway. I did an underwater spin class facing the ocean which was so beautiful.

I did a lot of travel by myself while there. It’s great to have that sort of freedom to do what you want to do, when you want to do it, and not as many things to coordinate!

What inspired you to go abroad to Sydney given you had already done some Penn Abroad programs?
I knew I wanted to go somewhere where people spoke English. I took Spanish in high school but I didn’t continue studying it at Penn, so that was a key qualification. I also thought there might not be another point in my life to spend four months in a place that is a 21-hour flight away. 

Did the Australian accent give you any trouble? Any favorite words they used?
I got used to it! I actually have a list of terms they use. They’re not too different but it's different enough that you notice. They say “keen” and “reckon” and “righty-o” a lot, “How are you going?” instead of “How are you doing?,” stuff like that. It was always funny when Australians would make fun of other Australians for having too posh of an accent.

Could you talk about your trip to Brazil? 
Yes, that was another Wharton class to São Paulo last January. It was a week-long trip in which we learned about emerging economies. We had guests come in and speak to us about their companies and the crazy financial situation in Brazil. They have massive economic shocks the size of the 2008 financial crisis happen every 12-18 months there, so multinational companies that are successful in places like the US can face unique difficulties there with such a volatile economy.

So you’ve been to a ton of places. What are your favorite cities that you’ve visited?
I went to Queenstown in New Zealand for four days on my way back from Sydney and left the day after Thanksgiving (where I made my friends turkey sandwiches because there wasn’t enough time to make a turkey). It was beautiful and I got to hike and bike and explore the city. I went to a fjord via boat on a very rainy day. The bus driver gave me his giant orange rain jacket because he thought I wasn’t dressed warm enough, which was super nice.

When I came back to Penn I was running on a treadmill one time in one of those simulated runs and felt like I recognized the scenery. I thought how lucky I was to have traveled to so many places that I can feel like I’ve been to this place I’ve never been to. I kept running and really started to recognize the place and all of a sudden was like “Wow that’s Queenstown! I had dinner on that balcony and saw a kid play saxophone right there.” It was crazy. Anyway, it was a super cute city with incredible views and really nice people. I definitely recommend it to anyone visiting New Zealand.

Also, Sydney, of course. It’s just so beautiful and surprisingly has a really small feeling. This is a little weird, but it also smells really good. I’m from New York so really any city will feel smaller and cleaner, but Sydney honestly smelled like perfume sometimes. If the police catch you jaywalking they fine you $50, which I thought was crazy. That’s pretty much the only downside I can think of.

Three favorite meals?
Chicken cheese appam in India is probably my favorite food, and steak in Brazil. This one restaurant we visited was beautiful, built around a fig tree and glass-ceilinged. Also when we visited Pondicherry we went to Auroville which is a city that’s designed to be a utopia. I had nutritional algae ice cream there, which I feel like encapsulates my personality pretty well.

Most essential thing you packed?
I’d probably say my journal. I’m a big journaler. I’ve been doing it every day for four years and I love being able to go back and see how I was really feeling in the moment and what was special even if it wasn’t the most memorable in the long run. Sunscreen is also on the list. When I was in Tasmania I was walking around on a cloudy, warm day and came back to my hostel with a horrible sunburn. I found out the next day that one of the only two major holes in the ozone is over Tasmania! I did wear sunscreen the rest of my time there.  

What’s next?
I want to move back to Sydney and am trying to figure out the most realistic way to do that! I would love to move there after I graduate whether it be for a job or grad school.