Tag Archives: global citizen

Maybe It Is Fate

China has been on my mind since I was in 9th grade.

I was 15 years old when my 9th grade history teacher proposed a question to our class. She asked if anyone would be interested in having a penpal from China. Being the social butterfly that I am, I decided that it would be awesome to have a Chinese penpal. Over the summer, my teacher coordinated details with a teacher in China and her students. When I came back to school as a 10th grader my penpal’s email address awaited me. Unfortunately, she was soon too busy with school work to keep in contact, but I still got to exchange emails with her for a few months. This was the first, but not last, of many exchanges I would have with people from China, and the more I heard about their culture, the more interested I became. And although I did not know this was part of the penpal deal when telling my teacher I was interested the previous school year, I somehow ended up being taught Chinese by a Penn State Graduate Student.

At first I considered stopping the whole penpal and learning Chinese thing because learning a completely new language was a little daunting. I was already learning German and was really interested in the language, but somehow Chinese stole my heart. This was one of the first times I remember being met with something so new and off my radar. I had to make this decision on my own and I am so glad I decided to stick with it. Learning Chinese helped me realize that trying something new and going outside of my comfort zone would help me grow and learn. I was taught Chinese by roughly six different teachers by the time I graduated from high school. It was a fun journey, but I knew I wasn’t done. I still wanted to travel to China at some point. I liked Chinese so much that I decided to take classes at Penn State in what seemed like yet again, another spur of the moment decision. I submitted my application last minute, and ended up taking Chinese during the summer for the next two years.

When I attended WEPO, an orientation program for freshman women engineering students, I learned of the opportunity to travel to China with Xinli through the ENGR 118 course. After being exposed to so many different learning environments, I had been taught about Chinese culture, I had participated in Chinese New Year activities, done paper cutting, and done calligraphy, but I wanted to see all of this first-hand. I was hooked the moment I found out it was possible to go to China and called my parents as quickly as I could to ask them what they thought. Luckily, they have been supportive of me and have encouraged me to find my way to China. I obviously won’t be experiencing Chinese New Year while in China, but I will probably be able to find paper cutting and calligraphy along the way.

I am all packed and ready to leave. I “packed,”

: First Pack

unpacked,

Unpacking before even leaving home

and re-packed

Packing is finished! Ready to take off.

and am still not confident that I did not leave something behind. Every time I leave my house, I end up running back inside 30 seconds later because I forgot something. So…we will see how this turns out.

I just drove to Pittsburgh and am catching a flight from Pittsburgh to Dallas on Sunday morning. From there I will be flying to Beijing, arriving Monday afternoon.

So yeah, you could say I have been unknowingly awaiting this trip my entire life. Fate or just a string of very well put together events?

Either way, I am going to China!!!!

Location: Pittsburgh, PA 15212

“Je Suis Charlie”

Not that I did it on purpose or that it happened due to a good thing, but I don’t think I could have come to Paris at a better time. This post is going to explore the Paris terror attacks and focus mainly on the results from it, so sorry if you are sick of hearing news updates about it, but this is the biggest thing that happened to Paris, and really France in general, since WWII. At certain parts, I apologize if my point of view comes across. Since I am an “outsider” and a writer for Penn State Education Abroad, I don’t want to influence my readers or push ideals on anyone.

Brief Recap of the Events

So, it all started with an attack on a satirical cartoon office named Charlie Hébdo. Two brothers went into the office and killed around 12 people. The reason seems to be that Charlie Hébdo published cartoons of the prophet Mohammed. In case you did not know, Muslims believe that the prophet Mohammed is NEVER supposed to be depicted and especially not in a way that makes fun of Islam. These brothers were found to be jihadists and trained in Syria, so it is possible that this attack meant a bit more than just the cartoons but that seems to be the apparent cause.

The next day, Thursday, 8 January 2015, a lone gunman kills a police woman and injures a man in Montrouge. At first, there was no suspicion of a connection between these two attacks; however, later on, police found that both attacks were connected.

The two brothers appeared later on as they robbed a petrol station and were followed by police. In a high speed chase with police, one of the brothers was hit by a bullet, forcing them to seek refuge in a print shop where both of the brothers were killed.

Meanwhile, police found the connection between the two brothers and the lone gunman. At this point, the lone gunman has taken people hostage in a Kosher grocery store in Paris. The lone gunman, Couliaby, said he was going to kill hostages unless the Kouachi brothers were set free. When Coulibaly knelt for his evening prayers, the French police force entered and killed Coulibaly; they found four hostages dead in the store.

There was also a female involved. She is supposedly married to Coulibaly and fleed to Turkey shortly after the events started. Police reports found that this woman made 500 calls to the wife of one of the Kouachi brothers.

I know I said a short recap but that honestly sums up the events in a small fashion. If you want more details, check out this BBC article entitled “Charlie Hebdo Attack: Three Days of Terror.” You can also search “Paris” on the BBC website and find a TON of articles about the events and aftermath. If you speak French, vous pouvez trouver beaucoup des articles dans “Le Mondee.” Suivez le ligne lemonde.fr.

The Aftermath

Just like 9/11, this event has become a national topic and it honestly affects everyone. The attack on Charlie Hebdo brings in the question of freedom of speech/press or in French, liberté de l’expression. A whole movement has surrounded it, but I will get to that later.

Furthermore, Paris, and France as a whole, has been placed on the highest possible threat level. That does not mean that France is going to get attacked again but that France and Paris in particular are going to have a larger presence of soldiers and policemen. As a student studying abroad, that brings me a lot of assurance because even if it is something as simple as a pickpocket or mugging (which is very simple compared to a terrorist situation), I now have a better chance of getting help. In State College, I get nervous when I hear any kind of siren, but here, I have captured the mentality that people are taking care of us. I am not sure if that is because of the recent events, that bad things should “never” happen in my home, that Paris is a large city and I would expect more sirens in New York than at home, or if it is because every Parisian seems to have a look of relief when a cop passes by.

Beyond the police force, there has also been an astounding international presence. There was a service for the Jewish people killed in the Kosher supermarket in Israel. Religious leaders all over are taking stances on the issue of freedom of speech, Pope Francis being quoted as saying even freedom of speech and press have boundaries. The cartoons of Charlie Hebdo have spread all around the world; however, there is a little backlash in muslim countries that believe the cartoons are not appropriate (but please keep in mind that none have found the murders of the innocents just).

Many international leaders also came to Paris in order to pay their respects to those who died and to support France in this act of terror. Notably missing from the crowd was Barack Obama.

Je Suis Charlie

This phrase is one of the most current and popular phrases and it is currently sparking a lot of debate right now. Over the four or five days that I have been in France, I have been purchasing a copy of “Le Monde” every day from les magasins “Tabac”. I have not had one copy of the paper without the words Charlie Hebdo or just Charlie in a title whether on la une or somehwere inside the paper.

Charlie Hebdo is a magazine/newspaper that prints satirical cartoons of EVERYTHING. I will not post or link any here because some of their topics are very taboo, but it is best to keep in mind that the magazine has published cartoons of the prophet Mohammed, the pope, as well as many other religious and political figures. Their company has no boundaries but they also have no biases or prejudices against one religion or one political party.

During the attack, the Kouachi brothers targeted specific people, whom I am assuming had a part to play in the making of the cartoon about Mohammed. Anyway, after the attacks, Charlie Hebdo became a representation of the right to freedom of speech and freedom of press. In order to support this belief, people wear, wave signs, spray paint/grafiti things, have phone covers and more that state “Je suis Charlie.” In English, this means “I am Charlie,” but right now it stands for a lot more than someone stating their name. These words are charged with political vigor and people of all races and religions (even Islam) are chanting these words.

I have noticed these words everywhere. On the metro, on the steps to the metro,phone cases, even on famous monuments (not spray painted but on banners and flags). This one phrase is bring the entire country together which after attacks, it is great to see a unity of all races, faiths, and backgrounds in France.

These words have also faced quite a bit of backlash. Many believe (possibly in France but I have not talked to anyone with this idea) that these words are empowering the mockery of people’s faith and government, since that is what Charlie Hebdo did, but it also is hypocritical. If you think about it, everyone in France is sporting “Je suis Charlie” but if someone tried to sport the name of one of the attackers, that person would not be looking good at the end of the day because people would probably attack him. While understandable after the previous events, this also goes against that persons freedom of speech, expression, and press.It is understandable that Charlie Hebdo has offended the muslim community but it is not like they have not offended other communities and they are not forcing anyone to read the magazine.

Conclusion

I hope that by reading this you now know a little more about what happened and Paris. As I said, this event was very tragic and has impacted Paris a lot. As of now, you are seeing Paris through my eyes and what I have found different in the newspapers and in the minds of the people. If anyone is interested in hearing how Paris has changed for a fellow Penn State student who studied here this fall semester bfore the attacks and will be studying this semester after the attacks, please comment below. If enough people are interested, I will interview her and let you know how it has changed for Americans that are abroad!

For now I head back to the beautiful neighbor that I live in; the 10e arrondissement. A bientôt!

Charlie Hebdo Funeral Article

Israel Funeral for Jewish Victims

What’s Happening in Paris

BBC Video from Supermarket Gunman (Before Shootings Happened)

Location: Belleville Paris, France

Weltmeister

Germany has done it! They can officially add a fourth star to their national jerseys and I was in the heart of Berlin to witness it. The only way I can explain the atmosphere is comparing it to a football weekend at Dear Old State:

-the atmosphere was electric (literally it was pouring rain with ridiculous thunder and lightning storms)

-every citizen of Berlin that I saw was decked out in black, red and gold

-facepaint, flags, banners, soccer scarves and the like were being sported everywhere I turned

-no one was in a bad mood, they were all too nervous to be

So it was exactly like a football weekend at Penn State, except this time, the entire world was watching and it was for national pride that the Germany team played.

Normally I try to include one or two pictures with a post to bring you all with me, but there was something about last night that didn’t permit pictures. No matter how excited everyone was, how crazy their outfits were or how many fire works were let off, no one was taking pictures. They were all simply there. So I followed suit and put down my phone and was just here in Berlin during the final game of the 2014 World Cup. I didn’t regret any of it. I got to talk to some Germans who were explaining the rules and intricacies of the game to me and people accepted the group of us that weren’t on our phones as one of their own, just being curious about the game.

This taught me something about passion. How many places do you go and you see people glued to their phone screens?: museums, sporting events, parties? I think an appropriate answer would be a great majority. What I felt last night wasn’t about being connected to the internet or any of my social media outlets, it was about connecting with the raging heartbeat that had arisen from Berlin. So this fall when I stand in Beaver Stadium for the final time as a student, I won’t be on my phone, I won’t be trying to capture the moment on camera, I will just be.

Until Next Time,

Casey R

Location: Berlin, Germany

An overdue post…

Halfway through this roller coaster ride and I’m getting the typical thought of “How is this almost over?” I really can’t believe how much has changed since I first arrived. The weather has gotten exponentially nicer, my Spanish has gotten exponentially better, and I’ve gotten exponentially closer with all of my new friends and family here. I absolutely miss everyone at home but I battled through a little homesickness when my real family came to visit and have a few trips ahead where I’ll get to see even more of the people that I miss from my real life.

Since my last post, I’ve taken two more trips to Granada, two trips to Cordoba, a day trip to Ronda, a weekend in Barcelona, and celebrated Carnaval in Cadiz. Wow, I love Spain. I’ve fallen in love with the free tapas of Granada, the amazing monuments of La Mezquita in Cordoba and La Alhambra in Granada, and I’ve seen more men than I could ever want to see dressed as drags in Cadiz for Carnaval. I’m incredibly, incredibly blessed to be here right now.

As I type, I’m fighting off the muscle memory of putting a “y” where an “and” should go and putting my hands through my Spanish sideburns that decided they would start growing in Europe (who knew?). The clock is winding down on my time here and I’m finally starting to realize how much I’m going to miss this place. Sure, the optional afternoon naps are great, but I’m going to miss the people and the culture most of all. My host family has been truly amazing and wonderful in every way and I’m really annoying when I describe them to people but I can’t help it. I’m waiting for my host sister to come home from Brussels so that we can go to my host family’s house in the Sierra Nevada to celebrate her birthday this weekend. As this will be my last weekend in Spain for a while, I’m glad that I’m going to be enjoying a peaceful one with them.

So where am I headed? This coming Thursday I depart for the Amalfi Coast of Italy with a helluva lot of my friends to kick-off Spring Break/Semana Santa where I’ll be off from classes 4/10 – 4/20. I will spend three days there before spending three more days in Rome. After Rome, I’m headed to Florence and then on to Venice for a day trip. I’m capping off the trip with an overnight stay in Pisa where I’ll be flying out on a cheap Ryan Air flight back to Seville to catch Easter in my city. After my final full week of classes (what?!), I’m headed to Lagos, Portugal with a bunch of my buddies here and my great friends, Chris and Kelsey, from school. Then, I will undertake some finals before heading off to my last trip to Munich, Germany for Springfest! I will return that following Sunday to spend my last five days here in Seville, enjoying Feria before flying home on May 9^th. I love life.

Hopefully I’ll be able to post a few more blogs before I head home. Hope everyone is healthy and well and cannot wait to talk your ear off with more stories when I get back! Hasta Luego hombres

P.S. I apologize there aren’t any pictures. It’s the biggest pain in the butt to upload any on the blog site I use. Check out my Facebook albums for more. If anyone reading this isn’t friends with me, feel free to friend Daniel Marr and I’d love to talk to you about Seville and show you some surreal pics.

Location: Seville, Spain

Batman, Captin Cook, and Doppelgangers

I have been really busy since my last post. Preparing for my finals is one of the things that has been keeping me busy. My finals at Leeds are all in essay format, so I have been spending some time organizing my research for those essays. I have also been spending time some time finalizing my Easter break plans. I will officially be going to Italy, Poland, Belgium, The Netherlands, Ireland, and Scotland! I can’t wait to start traveling!

On March 22st, I went to my first football (soccer) match in the UK! It was really fun, and Leeds United won the match! I’m going to continue where I left off in the last post, and talk about a couple other places I have visited while embarking on this study abroad journey!

The end of the match between Leeds and Millwall.

Nottingham

On March 1st, my friends and I went to Nottingham. Nottingham is the home of Robin Hood! While in Nottingham, we visited the Nottingham Castle. It was really interesting to see, and had very nice views of the city. Afterwards, we walked around for a bit before heading to Wollaton Park. This park is where we found the Wollaton Mansion (now a museum). This mansion is the exact mansion that used in the third Batman movie with Christian Bale! The mansion was beautiful, and the park was also very nice. Nottingham is a nice place to visit and has many other attractions for people to visit!

My friends and I outside the area of the Nottingham Castle.

The Wollaton Mansion!

Whitby

I visited Whitby, UK on March 15th with a few friends through the company Tour Outdoor. They are Leeds based touring company that takes people on tours of different places in the UK. Whitby is a beautiful coastal town, and famous for its association with Captain Cook. While in Whitby, we were given the opportunity to explore on our own before the organized tours. We decided to go to the Dracula Experience in Whitby. It is believed that Dracula is buried somewhere in Whitby! After walking around the beach and having lunch, we got a tour of the church and Whitby Abbey (located next to the church). Afterwards, we walked along the cliffs before heading to Robin Hood’s Bay. We were given a great ghost tour of Robin Hood’s Bay! It was funny and creepy at the same time. Look out for your doppelganger after visiting Robin Hood’s Bay! The tour was great and was a lot of fun. I actually wrote this entire post on the way to Lindisfarne and Bamburgh with the guys from Tour Outdoor and the rest of the tour group for their Offshore Special Tour!

Whitby, UK!

Whitby Abbey

Making Sandcastles on the beach!

I began my Easter break travels April 1st (tomorrow)! I will post about my second tour with Tour Outdoor when I return from Part 1 of my Easter break journey!

If anyone is in Leeds and interested, here is the link to Tour Outdoor!

http://www.touroutdoor.co.uk/

Cheers

~Jazmin

Location: Leeds, UK

Wandering through the City of Diamonds

This past weekend I traveled to Amsterdam in Holland. The one piece of advice I would tell anyone studying abroad in Europe is to visit Amsterdam. The whole city is a culture shock and the pulse there is beating quickly. When walking on the street, one will hear many different languages at any given time. The streets are crowded with lively tourists exploring along the rivers that cut through the city and between the modern buildings that seem to be slanting in a little.

Having packed our backpacks the night before, the five of us practically sprinted to the Marburg train station after our last class on Thursday. After an hour train ride to Frankfurt then a four hour train ride to Amsterdam, our crew arrived in the city by midnight. Being ecstatic about finally arriving, we wandered around the city for hours convinced we can just check into our cabins at 10 in the morning and be ok. This lasted until about 3 a.m. then it started raining…

Luckily we found a hostel and were able to bargain the price down from about 40 Euros to 20 Euros. After some sleep, we bought tram and bus passes for the weekend and made our way about 30 minutes out of the city to the cabin area. Our cabin had two bunk beds and one single bed. The beds did not have sheets so I slept in my jacket. The bathhouse located in the middle of the village had a few showers that cost a euro for six minutes of barely warm water that turns ice cold after about a minute. But the cabin was perfect for us.

After dropping our backpacks off we escaped into the city and explored for a bit then went to the Van Gogh Museum. If you really enjoy art the museum is pretty cool but crowded. On Saturday, we went to the Botanical Garden. The garden seemed magical. There was a beautiful caf� with high white brick ceilings and abstract paintings along the walls. There were outside gardens and four large greenhouse all connected by bridges. Each greenhouse had a different theme including African jungle, Asian jungle and desert.

That night we decided to walk along the Red Light District. This was a huge culture shock for me. The part of the Red Light District where someone could purchase a prostitute is a pretty grimy area. The river going through this area has very shallow, dirty water that smells. The women who are working are place in a small room with a glass door. They are normally in underwear (sometimes topless) and either sit and wait for someone to walk up or will actively wink and tap on the glass trying to get a customer. It is incredibly different from the United States. It’s raw and not hidden. The part that hit me the hardest emotionally is how the Red Light District is a tourist attraction. Majority of the people there were not there to have sex but to just stare at these women in their cages like animals at a zoo. It was uncanny.

Amsterdam was a wake up call about the na�ve feeling of safety I have. Marburg is a VERY safe city and I feel extremely comfortable here. But Amsterdam definitely possesses a different vibe. I held my bag closer to me and never let my guard down. My friend was almost pick pocketed during our trip. We the caught a man with his hand in her bag and luckily he did not take anything but the experience snapped us back to reality.

My favorite museum we went to was the Eye Film Institute Museum (https://www.eyefilm.nl/en). The museum is very small but it showed about five different types of films and a collection of pictures. The films are not traditional films but each made a statement about the world. The museum also has a caf�/ bar with high ceilings and windows that over looks a river. (Warning: the drinks are expensive but good and the museum only accepts credit cards, no cash.)

After this trip I have been thinking about whether Amsterdam is just an incredibly honest city or an exceptionally superficial city. Everything about the city is focused on pleasure: sex, drugs, food, art, beauty… it is all there completely available. But I do not know if this is exposing the truth of human beings and accepting how the species is or just letting people become obese on superficial happiness.

Location: Amsterdam, Holland

Coucou!

Salut tout le monde!

I know it has been awhile since I have blogged. It’s easy to get wrapped up in studying abroad. Traveling a lot, social events and the occasional exams you tend to loose track of time. I can’t believe it’s March 23rd! Since my last blog post I have done a lot and gone to a lot of places! Arles, Avignon, and Paris. As soon as I got back I was bombarded with four exams on one day and one the following week. The French don’t think is more convenient to mash all the exams together in one day… good idea.

Also I haven’t been too motivated to blog about my experience. I think I caught a little bit of culture shock. Living in France for 2 months you start to miss little things from home. For example going for a run and not getting weird looks like you’re from a different planet or being able to go the grocery store on Sundays. I really miss the grading structure of American Universities too. I like to be able to check my progress in classes. I miss you ANGEL! Right now I honestly have no idea how my grades are going to go… but that’s not what studying abroad is about. It’s about the experience! Before I came here I thought I would be speaking french all the time and I would be going to this amazing university built in the 1200’s where my professors would be helpful and excited to make our foreign experience a time to remeber. Unfortunately this is not the case. I speak English the majority of the time, the school is known for being one of the worst ones in Montpellier, and my teachers like to point out your faults and disregard your accomplishments. It’s quite obvious I get a better education in the states, but I do pay for it.

Even with all my unfortunate surprises, the hard days I face here in France and the fact that sometimes I just miss the comfort of America, I am so happy and grateful I have the opportunity to study in another country and experience a new life for a semester.

Stay tuned for separate blog posts of the places I’ve traveled and my experiences!

� tout!

Emily

Location: Montpellier, France

Settled in and ready to travel

Finally here is the second part of my first official post. The second and third week was a little less hectic than the first. I really started understanding where everything was in the town, which is a lot larger than I anticipated. After settling down and exploring Marburg, I started taking day trips to different areas. The school provides us with train tickets that make it free to travel within Hessen. (And with the student ticket grocery stores, some restaurants and museums all offer student discounts.)

A group of students and I traveled to Wartburg which was three train rides away and hiked up to the castle. The castle is where Martin Luther translated the bible into German and hid out from the Romans. We also went to Frankfurt for the day and Heidelberg. Although Frankfurt is not an extremely pretty city, it is fun to walk around and see the historic district. There is music playing everyway and farmers market selling cheese and bratwurst.

Heidelberg also has a castle but it is mostly in runes. Although it is a beautiful, lively city, I am happy just to visit because there is a lot of tourism. The streets were completely filled and I heard at least five different languages while I was there. With tons of shops, art galleries, restaurants, the city is also host to a university.

I have reached the part of the semester where all the course work piles up. I have six hours of classes each day and this includes a four-hour language course and a two-hour cultural course. Every Friday I have a test on the German language and I have four essays for the cultural course spread out until April 15. This is a lot more work than I expected; yet I do appreciate the intensity because I am finally starting to understand German.

Here are a few differences from the United States I noticed in the past few weeks:

Jay Walking: Germans don’t do it… at least not in Marburg. When waiting at a cross walk, the Germans will wait for the pedestrian light to turn green if there are cars coming or not. We talked with one of my teachers about this and she said that it is true. Whenever she is with Americans she gets left behind on the sidewalk because she waits for the light while the Americans just walk.

Smoking: I smell like an ashtray and I don’t smoke. People can smoke cigarettes almost anywhere and the people do. All my clothes reek of cigarette smoke constantly.

Well I have to go catch a train to Amsterdam!

Tschuss!

Location: Marburg, Germany

The past month: travel edition

Since it’s been some time since I’ve last posted I’m going to post two separate posts; one highlighting my travels since I last wrote, and another discussing my life in Leeds. This is my travel post:

Dublin, Ireland (Feb. 15 – 17): As all of my friends are flying to Dublin this current weekend, I opted out seeing as I went this weekend – the weekend of my birthday, to celebrate and visit a friend from home. Dublin was certainly not what I expected. I knew it was town of drinking, but to be honest I thought there would be more tourist attractions. We did the Guinness Tour (which included a free pint, overlooked Dublin, and was really interesting), as well as some of the other major attractions like Trinity College, but mostly we spent time in pubs.

I rang my birthday in at the Temple Bar, one of Dublin’s most well-known pubs, and it was really fun. The live band that was there played all of my favorite songs and everyone was so nice. The only problem I faced was flying back to Leeds the morning after. When I returned, however, my birthday was just as great. We went to our first afternoon tea since coming to England and then went out at night to a club we hadn’t been to before. All in all, turning 21 in Dublin (and also Leeds) was an experience I’ll remember forever.

York and Ilkley, England (Feb. 22 – 23): The following weekend was our attempt at staying in Leeds for a weekend the first time since arriving in January, but that didn’t really happen. Saturday, two friends and I went to York, which is under an hour away by bus and train. It’s a pretty town that has a man-made wall surrounding it. We walked the wall and visited some really interesting places. The Shambles is an area of York that still maintains its Old English buildings. So, when you’re shopping in the area it honestly feels like you’ve gone back in time. We also saw the birthplace of Guy Fawkes, which as a fan of history (and “V for Vendetta”) I found really interesting. The highlight of the day however came when we climbed to the top of the York Minster. It’s a beautiful building, but the stairs we climbed were treacherous. I think each of us at some point thought we were going to fall, especially since they were spiral, vertigo-inducing stairs. They warn you at the beginning it’s an intense hike upward, but we played it off until, of course, we were grasping the railing asking the person in front, “How much further?” Yet, reaching the top was really cool. You could see all of York, from a birds-eye-view. If only, they had an elevator to go back down.

After spending the night in Leeds, we travelled, also locally, to the Ilkley Moor. Ilkley is a spa town that highlights the English hillside. We hiked the moor for about an hour, stopping to enjoy the view and appreciate just how beautiful the English countryside truly is. Leeds is definitely beautiful and has its fair share of lush countryside, but when selecting to study here, the moor and its sheep were what I imagined England to be like.

Bath, England (Feb. 28 – March 2): This was a bit of brutal travel experience. We left Friday night around midnight after going to the Canal Mills night market in Leeds. We took a bus from Leeds to London, and then from London to Bath. But because it was a bus, I found it difficult to sleep, so when we got to Bath in the morning around 10 a.m., I was exhausted. But we had plans to attend to and no time for sleep. We checked into our hostel and explored a bit, before catching our tour bus to Stonehenge. The guide we had was great, he told really interesting stories about Jane Austen in Bath, as well as the history of Stonehenge (he was also really understanding when we passed out from lack of sleep on the bus ride to and from Stonehenge).

Stonehenge, itself, was really cool. We, of course, took a great deal of photos and marveled in its beauty. I also marveled in the immense amount of English sheep that were just grazing next to the rocks. It was surreal to me to see how Stonehenge is fairly close to a roadway. The juxtaposition of this ancient and historic landmark, next to a modern invention really brought things full circle for me. After that, our guide took us to Lacock, which was one of those trips we thought we’d do because it was included in our tour, but had no idea what it was. We were pleasantly surprised.

Lacock is this old-English town, where most of the residents are related to someone who lived there in the medieval days. In fact, in order to rent a home there, which everyone does (the trust of England owns the houses), you must be able to prove a blood-line and those who can get priority in living in the area. Lacock was also really cool because it is home to many filming locations for many movies. Because the town maintains it’s old English charm, it’s cheaper to film there than build a set. The most interesting film, in my opinion, was Harry Potter. The Lacock Abbey was home to many scenes from the film, including the scene with the Mirror of Erised and the classroom’s of Snape & Quirrell. Not to mention we saw Professor Slughorn’s home and the home of Lily and James Potter. As an HP fan, this was all very unexpected and exciting for me. Lacock was also a filming home to the BBC’s productions of “Cranford” and “Pride and Prejudice.” A church in Lacock was also where the royal wedding of Laura Parker Bowles and Harry Lopes occurred. So, basically the town is ripe with history.

Once, we returned to Bath we ate a fantastic dinner at Sally Lunn’s, the oldest house in Bath, which is famous for these buns. Naturally, they were incredibly good. After that we explored and had another excellent meal: a platter of desserts at a local pub. It was our intention to go out and explore the nightlife a bit more, but Bath isn’t really known for its great nightlife scene and we were extremely tired, so we ending up going back to the hostel fairly early that night. The following day we explored Bath, seeing the Roman Baths and taking a walking tour of the area. The Roman Baths were really cool and the museum that precedes entering it was enlightening. We got to taste the bath water too, which was not refreshing…at all. After the walking tour around Bath, which highlighted a lot of the area’s history, we went the Jane Austen museum, where we learned about how she used Bath to draw inspiration in her writing and we also went to the tea room there to have afternoon tea and taste the other popular bun of Bath: the Bath bun.

I personally believe Bath is a beautiful city that everyone should visit it once. All of the buildings have the same architecture and color-scheme, so it’s really unlike any city I’ve ever seen before. The architect also tried to mimic Rome, so there’s an area that is meant to look like the Coliseum.

Stratford-upon-Avon (March 8): The last of my excursions: a friend and I did a day-trip to Stratford-upon-Avon, or the birthplace of Shakespeare. As an English major and self-proclaimed Shakespeare fanatic, this was a trip I was looking forward to. The town itself was not what I expected, but I still enjoyed the day. We saw Shakespeare’s birthplace, his grave and the home of his daughter and her husband, as well as the site where Shakespeare lived before he died. All of it was really interesting and full of facts about the writer. His grave however, I thought would be tombstone outside…it was not. It was inside the Holy Trinity Church, the place he was baptized, and he was placed next to his wife, Anne. The New Place, or where Shakespeare lived before he died, had this really gorgeous garden, with sculptural representations of Shakespeare’s works. I could have honestly spent all day walking around it.

I ended up spending too much money on souvenirs and eating lunch in a place called “Othello’s,” but we also walked around and experienced the area’s beauty. It was certainly obvious that Shakespeare could find inspiration in an area such as Stratford.

Location: Leeds, England

Willkommen in Deutschland

Hallo! So I am finally in Germany! After almost two and half long months of waiting, I arrived at 5 a.m. on Monday February 24.

These past two weeks has been extremely overwhelming and much has happened so I decided to break my first official “I’m in Germany” blog post into two parts: one part about the first week and the second part about week two.

From the moment I arrived in the Frankfurt Airport, I’ve been on the go.

Right when we got off the plane and through immigration, the fellow Penn Stater and I grabbed a train into the heart of the city while lugging our huge suitcases (mine was 22 KG, one KG over the weight limit.) On the train we muttered apologizes in a mix of broken German and English (even some French) to the unfortunate people who had to deal with us blocking the isle.

Once in the center of Frankfurt, we grabbed coffee and watched the sunrise over the beautiful train station that puts Grand Central to shame. After wandering for an hour or two we figured out how to buy train tickets and headed to Marburg, which is about an hour North of Frankfurt.

Marburg has many faces. To my surprise the city is not small. I would not describe it as big but when I pictured Marburg three weeks ago it was a quaint, cobblestoned hill with a castle and medieval looking houses.

Although there is that, there is so much more.

The Oberstadt, which is the hill part of the city, possesses cobblestone streets, adorable buildings each completely unique and each probably older than the foundation of our country. There are also bars, restaurants, little shops, a Game Stop (this amuses many people) and a beautiful castle that overlooks the city. During the day the streets are filled with vendors and people shopping. Musicians play the piano, the violin, the accordion and the saxophone to Bob Marley songs.

Through this section of Marburg, there are aesthetics that correlate with the Brother Grimms Fairy Tales including a wolf waterspout, seven stone dwarfs along the walls and giant metal flies next to the clock tower.

The area of the city around the Oberstadt has a small-city feel with tons of restaurants, shops and movie theaters. The buildings are a mix between modern and medieval architecture. A river, where students can study and eat next to, breaks through the city and a giant church called Elisabathkirche serves as a focal point of the city and the university.

The school is spread out between these two areas with classes both in the castle, the giant Elizabethkirche and glass buildings through the streets. Within the past weeks I have managed to gets lost multiple times but never felt nervous or scared. It’s an adventure and I am learning my way around. Everyone I have encountered here is very friendly and willing to help.

I have hiked almost everyday without ever really pre planning it. Last Saturday, I climbed up a tower that inspired the story for Rapunzel. The other day, fellow study abroad-ers and I just started following paths and eventually crossed through forests and fields and found ourselves in residential areas. Every time this happens, we always eventually figure out where we are and make the trek back to a bus stop to go home.

Classes started on Thursday February 27 and will be everyday for the next six weeks. I have a four-hour language course then two-hour cultural course everyday. Admittedly I was a little shocked with the course load but I have come to appreciate it. Knowing German would help this experience a lot. Almost every German person I have encountered speaks English very well but I have noticed there is a certain amount of respected given to those who try to speak German. When I talked to a German man about this he said that many times the Germans would help you along if you try to speak the language.

The school held our hands through the whole student Visa paperwork and anything else that was required to be in the country. I thought this was extremely helpful and convenient since I heard other students in other programs had issues with this.