Tag Archives: club

Whilst in edgy England

12 hours of sleep – 3 nights. That’s what happens when you are a study abroad student. Well, at least, similar stories happen pretty often. There are two parts to the name “study abroad (travel travel fun travel fun fun) student (finals come and you have a slam load of papers)”. AKA, I’ve learned if you’re not doing some homework, errands, or traveling; you’re planning and booking your next week’s trip. Having booked our most recent London tickets I seem to have just believed the papers would somehow find a way to get done. Welp – they did…as I brought along one to London on my laptop. Allocating my time with sightseeing and walking during the day and then dedicating at least 4 hours a night to my paper, I had some sleepless nights showing up to my hostel room at 2 AM with laptop in tow.

But after turning that paper in on Friday, it was time to go to a club. Actually a club ranked the #2 and #1 best club in the entire world for four years. We made our way to Fabric, home to drum and bass DJ’s. We travelled between the three rooms to experience the stellar DJ’s playing and upon entering one room felt the feet shake beneath our feet – literally! The club has a vibrating dance floor attached to, “450 bass transducers which emit bass frequencies,” according to their website. The music was incredible and you could tell that people came here solely for the music.

The employees all wore shirts that said “Is your phone safe?” because apparently there is a high issue with phone thieves in all of London’s clubs. I always am very protective of my belongings (concealing a money belt and a purse in front of my body with my hand glued on the zipper), but it was interesting to see the clubs acknowledgement of the issue. We had so much fun and returned to the hostel by 2:30, slept for an hour, and were up at 3:30 AM to grab our train to the airport and fly home.

I’m now writing this blog on the bus ride home from the Basel, Switzerland airport – in my state of giggle exhaustion and subtle crankiness. But with our great price deals on our flights, you can’t always choose what time you want the plane to fly. A bus, train, plane, bus, tram later and we are home in Freiburg by 1 PM.

Whilst in England – the meat of our trip

“England isn’t known for their food” – true, but I was surprised to find a HUGE ethnic food variety and organic healthy options! We ate at

  1. Wagamama – a Japanese restaurant and noodle bar I have always heard about
  2. Pret a Manger – a favorite that I’ve had in NYC; a homemade natural food place similar to Panera Bread Co., but better
  3. fish and chips stand
  4. Brick Lane eatery – known as the street of Indian restaurants
  5. Borough Market (where we bought English tea!!!)

And it was all delicious, one of my favorite cities for food selection – I really miss having so many diverse and endless food options!

Wagamama

Wagamama Dinner!

The hostel we found via TripAdvisor was recently built and very hip – HIGHLY recommend it. The Wombat’s in London had gorgeous interior design, like a hotel, brand new facilities, helpful staff, secure private lockers in our rooms, and great lounge area to meet people. Writing my paper in the lobby for several nights, I really got to use the facilities and ultimately is my favorite hostel thus far.

Wombat's Lobby

Wombat’s London – hostel lobby

 

In all – Loved London: full of edgy, urban-hip and posh-dressed individuals; yummy food; and a great first exposure to Great Britain.


Location: London, England

Dance, dance, dance!

052.jpgToday was my first performance abroad, so I have made my international debut as a dancer, if you can even call me that. At Penn State, I was involved in PSIDE (Penn State International Dance Ensemble). I felt quite global and cultural doing dances from different lands, but dancing hip hop in Japan is a whole different track. It’s been a roller coaster ride of emotions, to be honest.
The dance club I’ve joined in Japan is called PRIME. Essentially, they are an all girl dance club with multiple groups within. I thought it wouldn’t be too hard core, just a fun extracurricular activity. Apparently speculation is not my strong suit.
We practiced twice a week for about 3-4 hours. Getting the choreography down was a challenge since the girls were clearly well versed in hip hop and didn’t really hold back for us poor international students. The rhythm was hard to understand and the delivery still baffles me even now. The moves are so fast and because of that, each move has to be crisp and neat. Most of the time I felt like I was just flailing limbs instead of hitting moves.
019-1.JPG Not only that, but the language barrier is still pretty high and thick for me, so a lot of the time I didn’t know where we were starting from or even where practice was. Luckily, everyone is so nice and patient that I never felt pressure from them because of my mistakes. Unfortunately, I am not so patient with myself. It’s one thing to not be able to speak since you can get away with having a shy personality. When you don’t understand, however, the other part gets involved and that`s when the guilt sets in. I know they feel pressure to just explain it in English, which they don’t have to, but they always try. 

025-.JPGLanguage aside, we managed and I think it all worked out. Of course I was nervous, but it did not take long for the atmosphere to take hold of me. I wanted to dance bigger and harder and before I knew it, the dance was over. In fact, compared to PSIDE, the routines were rather short–about 2 minutes for the one I was in. I really wanted to perform more, but alas my time was up. There are more performances, but today was the school festival, so it was kind of like being on our home base.
I’d like to thank Shiho for teaching us her dance and Mire for giving me some one on one training. Though it gets difficult and frustrating at times to dance and manage the whole Japanese thing, I’m glad to have such a well rounded opportunity while being surrounded by such lovely people.

051-1.JPG


Location: Showa-ku, Nagoya-shi, Aichi-ken, Japan

Nightlife in São Paulo: Neverending

   Just like New York City, S�o Paulo should also be called the city that never sleeps. There are a wide range of establishments that are open all night (although most of them close by midnight), but there is always somewhere you can go. There are dozens of bars and clubs catering to young people, the rich, dancers, music lovers, middle-aged, older crowds, gays and lesbians and everything else in between. I have been (so far) to a karaoke bar, a bar with a samba band, a bar atop a hotel with a stunning view, a club with American classics sung by a very enthusiastic woman, a “silent” bar (We wore headphones to listen to three music channels. Sounds weird, but it was actually a lot of fun), a large electronic club, a Latin club, and a club where there was entertainment for women in the form of the bartenders stripping down (only their shirts) as well as women dancing upon a pole. I would like to think that I have had a variety of experiences.

   Now, as I am not 21 yet, I cannot compare them to other bars in the U.S, so I’ll just go over a few observations. The prices here range. For women it is usually cheaper. For example, last night I went to a club called ShowBar. It cost 20 reais (the Brazilian currency) for women to get in, but it was consumable. This meant that I could buy drinks up to 20 reais and still only pay 20. It was 30 reais for the option of open bar. Most places I frequent are usually between 15-25 reais to get in, some consumable and others not. For guys it is usually 10-20 reais more to get in.

   What I have noticed in clubs and bars is that girls have to be REALLY assertive in saying no to guys. Many, not most, guys are very forward to girls, simply grabbing them and trying to kiss them while telling them pretty phrases in their ear the entire time. Another observation is that not as many girls “grind” with guys like in the U.S. They either simply dance, or make-out the entire time. Probably one of the largest differences between nightlife in S�o Paulo is the time the party gets started. Clubs will not open their doors until at least 11 at night. That being said, most people will not even step into a club until 1 in the morning. Most clubs close at around 6-8 in the morning. Sometimes even 10 in the morning. 

   I have only seen a handful of places; there are PLENTY of many other places to see. This weekend though I will not be focuses on clubbing in S�o Paulo because it is Carnaval!!!!! The craziest time in all of Brazil. I will be spending it on the beautiful island of Florianopolis for a full week with three other girls. We’ll see how it goes, but I know I will have a blast.

   Below is a picture of the electronic club called Clash Club and a picture of a bar with a live band playing in the background. The girl in the picture is Rachel, a fellow Penn Stater. At� logo!!

clash club.jpgLive music


Location: Home, Sao Paulo, Brazil

No homework?! Is this real life?

This week and next week are my trial periods for classes (or modules, as they call them here).  I came in knowing pretty much what I wanted to take, after talking to my business adviser.  My COMM adviser never really e-mails me back, so I’m just hoping that the class I am taking to count as a COMM credit does.  Otherwise, I was told to take two GAU’s (international classes for business……I think any class here should count for that, but we’ll see), a GH, and a GN. 

Module #1 (what I hope to count as a COMM class):  Sociology of Media Audiences.  I have previously taken sociology, as well as Cultural Studies of the Mass Media, and I found both topics to be incredibly interesting…..so that led me to this module.  The lecturer (they don’t call them professors…) is pretty awesome.  We have one assignment worth 45% of our grade and a project worth 55% of our grade.  Yay for no exams!  The only drawback:  It is at 9AM on Mondays and Fridays.  Yikes!  The good thing about is that she puts everything on Sulis (their version of Angel), so you don’t REALLY have to show up to lectures.  I believe this will sit pretty in my schedule.

Module #2 (what will almost definitely be a GN):  Geoscience.  I really struggled through my first geoscience module.  Our lecturer is rather monotone, and I think I took a micronap at one point in time.  I panicked and thought, “Oh no! I have to find another science class!”  I thought I’d try out Clean Technology just in case I liked it better.  I didn’t.  Geoscience it is!  The module grades purely on essays, so that could get interesting.

Module #3 (GH/GAU):  Irish Folklore.  This module is almost entirely international students, and the lecturer seems very nice.  Sticking with this one for sure.

Module #4 (GS?):  Social Psychology.  I’m not really sure if I need this module for anything, but the subject interests me, and the lecturer seems pretty solid.  In.

Module #5 (not sure if this counts for anything after just talking to my adviser…..which is unfortunate):  Historical/Cultural Geography of Ireland.  The module seems interesting, but the lecturer is a bit hard to understand.  If it doesn’t count for anything for me, I will not be taking it.

I am venturing to an Irish music/dance module today, and hopefully that will count as my other GAU.  If not…..then I’ll still probably take that over Module 5, just because it will be fun.  hah.

Other updates:

I went to my first club here on Tuesday night for my friend Danielle’s birthday.  It was called Trinity Rooms (which makes me think of church), and it was out of control. I felt old in there, though.  I’m guessing most were 18-19 year olds.  Drinks were very expensive, and it seemed no matter where I was dancing, there was always someone dancing all up on me.  I don’t think I’ll go back.  Pubs > Clubs.

I booked my first flight on RyanAir!  Heading to Belgium in two weeks! Yay!

The internet went down in our house on Wednesday night, and everyone freaked out (we literally don’t do anything late at night that isn’t on the internet).  Also, two random drunk Irish men wandered into our house that night.  Not sure how they got in, but that was weird.

Almost forgot!  Going to Galway this weekend 🙂

Can’t wait to plan more trips.  I want to go everywhere!

No photos this post, but there should be a ton on the next post from Galway!


Location: Limerick, Ireland