Tag Archives: traveling

Half-way point

Officially at the half way point now. But once again, it’s been ages since I’ve written anything. I feel like I’m always so busy here that its impossible to sit down long enough to write a blog that actually tells people anything! In my last blog I know I said I was going to Thailand this weekend, but unfortunately that didn’t happen 🙁 But there’s been lots to do anyway! After we got home from MT, it was a pretty normal week. My friends and I went bowling one night, and it was just as you’d expect. Normal bowling with a lane and ten pins (there weren’t any bumpers which I thought would be bad, but I still won – 129!) Bowling wasn’t something I thought I’d do in Korea, but it was still fun!

We took lots of pictures while we were bowling, but some Korean lady yelled at me… She told me we were “disturbing” her. Not in the disruptive loud way, the “you’re scaring me” way. She told me our group didn’t understand Korean bowling etiquette and if we couldn’t learn it we should probably leave the bowling alley. So instead we stopped taking pictures and just finished our game.

Later in the week some girl friends and I searched for the Hello Kitty Cafe. We found it in some scary alley, but the cafe itself is soooo super cute.

Everything inside is pink and if there is some sort of Hello Kitty appliance or picture or anything, this place has it. You can buy coffee and snacks here and all of that has Hello Kitty on it too. Even my coffee!

Everyone else in the dorms thought the Hello Kitty Cafe was so cool that they arranged a group coffee date there on a Friday night! Kinda funny to see all the boys getting excited about anything Hello Kitty related. After we were at the Hello Kitty gathering, we walked around Seoul a little bit. The weather is getting really nice out now, and last week the Cherry Blossoms were blooming, so we decided to see them while they were out. While we were walking we stopped at a street vendor to get a real meal (kind of) and there’s this really popular street vendor who makes chicken and people make huge lines by his stand. Its basically a chicken kebab, but he puts all sorts of sauce and cheese and stuff on it.

I’m sure its absolutely terrible for you but people here love it. There are four different flavors you can get, and they’re measured by spicy-ness.

I tried the level 1 🙁 still a little bit spicy. But it was pretty good! Most of my friends got the level 3, but one of my friends asked for the level 4 (the hottest one they make). The guy who was making the food tried to talk her out of it, but she kept telling him it was okay and that she liked spicy foods. Well she tried it, and was in so much pain she had to take a taxi home. So if you come to Seoul and are looking to try some street food, stay away from the number 4.

The cherry blossoms in Seoul are so so pretty, but unfortunately they’re only out for about a week or so, then the trees just look sorta like normal trees. Some friends of mine went to Osaka for the Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival – unfortunately I couldn’t go, but the trees in Seoul are just as pretty!

The cherry blossoms are everywhere, actually. I thought you’d have to go to one area to see them all, but they line the streets in some areas. Even my campus has them all over the place.

They’re so pretty, but like I said before they only last for about a week. They are already gone now, but at least that means summer is coming! The past week I spent a majority of my time studying and trying to get ready for mid-terms (starting Monday the 25th) and packing for my trip to Jeju Island – the Hawaii of Korea! 11 friends and I went to Jeju for the four day Easter break and we had such an amazing time. We left on Wednesday night and we got a flight to Jeju for only 17 dollars!!! Once we got there a little after 9pm, a friend of a friend met us at the airport and took us to the pension house we stayed at the first night. We had a good time talking and just relaxing that night. A couple of us walked around the island a little bit, but it was late and sorta chilly and it smelled pretty bad in some areas. We really wanted food, so we walked for at least two hours trying to find something to eat, and eventually we flagged down a cab to take us to a convenient store to get some things to take back to the house with us. We got in the cab and the driver asked where we were from, I told him America and he turned the light on and pointed to himself and said “Nelson Mandela”. He did look strangely like Mandela once he pointed it out.

The next day when it was nice out, we stopped at a small convenient store to get breakfast and it was right across the street from the ocean. Jeju Island is a volcanic island, so there’s lots of volcanic rock there. The north part doesn’t have very many beaches, but the coast still looks pretty!

We rented a 15 person van for the 12 people and all our luggage, and used that to drive around the island. So after breakfast we drove to the lava tunnels and on the way there we stopped at a small field of flowers. They were really pretty and there was nice white sand. I only got a couple pictures there, but it was just a place we stopped at on the way to the tunnel. Anyway once we got there we bought our tickets and went into the cave. The cave was formed by lava a long long long time ago, but its kinda hard to see anything inside, so I only got a few pictures. After the cave, we went to U-do, an island off the north coast of Jeju. We went there with the intention of riding scooters around the small island, but unfortunately a normal drivers license wasn’t enough to rent a scooter – you need an international drivers license – so instead we just rented bicycles and rode around the island. The weather was nice and the bikes were cheap, so it was a good way to get around the island. While we were riding bikes, we saw a group of older women sitting in the rocks on the coast, but we couldn’t figure out what they were doing.

We finally found out they were picking seaweed out of the rocks, and eventually they sell it in huge piles along the street. Sounds a little gross to me, but a lot of people do it so I guess its popular. It was really hard to take pictures while I was riding my bike, so most of the pictures look like this where they’re a little bit blurry, so most of them aren’t worth putting up. There’s another spot on the island that is a popular beach spot, but it was way too cold to swim. But the water there is so incredibly clear its hard to believe its ocean water.

After we went to U-do, we went back to the main island and got dinner. Black pig is a Jeju Island specialty (one of the only Jeju-foods that aren’t fish) and we ate it Korean bbq style. It was really really really good, and it was nice to have a full meal finally. Later that night we went to a place called Love Land. It was one of those things thats really difficult to explain, but it was definitely shocking. If you’re really interested, you can google it, but I think its best if I don’t post any of the pictures I have from there. After that, we were all exhausted so we went to our pension for the night and crashed. The next morning I made breakfast for everyone. We took our time getting ready because it rained all day so Friday turned into museum day. We went to a Teddy Bear Museum (cute, but not cute enough for $7.00) and Chocolate Land (has nothing on Hershey) and we also went to Jeongbong waterfall and Cheonjiyong waterfall. These were definitely my favorite parts of the trip.

At Jeongbong waterfall, trying not to slip and fall on the wet rocks.

Cheonjiyoung Waterfall. So so so pretty. This was definitely my favorite spot on the whole island. The area around the waterfall was so nice too. Just a beautiful place all around. Something you can see all around the island are these tiki-like statues. I’m not sure what they are called in Korean or what exactly they represent, but they’re all made out of volcanic rock from Jeju. I bought a tiny little one as a souvenir for my desk when I get home 🙂

Got a group picture at the waterfalls too!

As a finale to our museum day, we ended things at the OSulloc Jeju Green Tea Garden. It was raining and cold at this point, so we stayed outside long enough to take a picture of the tea field and then we ran inside to buy some hot tea to warm up.

After a really long day of sightseeing, we spent the night at a friend of a friend’s house in Jeju City. It was so nice of them to offer their house to 12 college students for the night and we had a really great time with them. Couldn’t have seen as much as we did without them!! The next day they took us to the Samyang Blacksand beach. The beach itself was really pretty, and the sand wasn’t actually black, but it was pretty dark (volcanic island). The boys all swam, but it was way way too cold to even think about swimming, so we sat in the sand and watched the boys freeze.

The day started late since we finally got to sleep at a house, so after the beach, we grabbed a quick lunch then went back to the house and slept for a little bit. We ended the day and the trip with a walk to the top of a mountain in Jeju City to watch the sunset. Sitting at the top of the mountain to see the coast and the ocean was so nice and relaxing. However I think we were some of the only people who were there to enjoy the sunset. At the top of the mountain there are all sorts of exercise machines… monkey bars and stretching posts and benches for crunches… its basically an outdoor gym. Anyway, we sat on a bench and just watched the sunset. Perfect end to a busy but exciting and fun trip!

Now I’m back in my dorm in Seoul – I keep calling it home! I know its not, but at least its starting to get more comfortable 🙂 I have midterms tomorrow, and I’ve done about as much as I possibly can to prolong studying, so now I’ll start studying for political development. Midterms done on Wednesday, then another long weekend 🙂 Hope this enormously long post makes up for the lack of posts the past few weeks!!! Miss and love all my family and friends! <3

Location: Jeju-do, South Korea

Bargaining Blues

After our stay in Napa Village, the group went to a small village called Lijiang. Its famous for its old city, which is decked out with traditional Chinese sceneries and architecture. The buildings were quaint and had curved roofs, little streams flowing underneath the stone brick walkways, bridges, and waterwheels. It was… cute. There were also a lot of touristy places to buy touristy souvenirs. This is where I did a lot of “bargaining”. I put in quotes because it’s debatable if I actually ended up getting the best possible price.

Since most of the items I purchased were gifts I shall be stingy with the details. Here are the things I bought:

3x animal souvenirs

4x decoration type souvenirs

1x slightly larger decoration type souvenir

3x expensive jade thingies

1x festive looking container

Ok, in my defense, Lijiang was a super touristy place so the price of goods are exponentially higher than they should be. In my experience, touristy places like this are no good for buying things. The reason why I bought multiple of most items was because I figured since it was gifts, it wouldn’t hurt to have extras and buying more than one would give me leverage to demand a lower price.

First the animals. I thought they were cool looking and pretty unique. They came in several sizes. Small, which was about the size of a half dollar, the mediums were about the size of small computer mouse, the large was about the size of a baseball and the extra large was freaking huge. Not wanting to be too conspicuous, but at the same time wanting to make sure my friends don’t feel shafted, I went for the medium. The lady told me that each one was 25 RMB each. I easily brought it down to 3 for 50 RMB, but according to my friends, I got ripped off pretty bad. I could’ve/should’ve gotten them for 10 RMB each. I hate my life.

Next I bought decoration type things. They were pretty cheap, and looked pretty cool. 3 for 10 RMB. However! I tried to haggled it down, or get another one for marginally cheaper. All I could do was 4 for 12 RMB, which in my opinion is total bullcrap. But! Its only 12 RMB, so I can live with that. And then! While I was walking down another alley, I saw identical items in a different stall, but this time it was 4 for 10 RMB! I hate my life.

Same for all the other stuff. It was astronomically expensive; I got it down to a semi-reasonable price, but then realize that it’s still severely overpriced. I have a shopping problem. I confess it. Someone save me. The fact that I justify relatively expensive goods with “Oh, but its actually not that expensive when you convert it to US prices” might be pretty bad too. Hopefully I won’t be too broke poor when I come back.

Location: Lijiang, China

The French don’t like American’s? Hm, what a surprise.

Hey everyone! Following up from the last message, here’s the picture of a delicious meal at Hummus Bros. I love this place so much!

I swear the time has switched into ultra fast gear over the past two weeks. Every Wednesday, the only class I have is a Historic London class and instead of meeting at the campus, we meet at different sites around London and walk around for our lecture. Last Wednesday, we went to Borough High Street/Borough Market. If you ever come to London and you want to go to a really cool market- go there! Even though it wasn’t fully opened (it wasn’t a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday) it was still really cool to see the set up and the variety of fresh food they offer.

Last weekend, I left Friday night for Paris! Again, we took the National Express (via Eurolines) coach there and back. This was my first time taking the coach across the ocean, so it was interesting! The first thing we encountered was when we had to stop at border patrol. The police came on the coach and took our passports and then we had to get out and to take all of our stuff inside a building for the customs officers to check our stuff. Once we were back on the coach, we had to drive to wait in line for the train to come. Apparently, we were taking a train through the tunnel (I didn’t know if we were taking a ferry or what). It was kind of weird because the coach drives into a train car that’s attached to the front of the train. After we’re positioned in the car, a metal wall closes the coach in so that it has its own car and then locks it in place.

It gets so stuffy inside the coach because it has to be shut off while the train is in motion. I almost freaked out at first because I could feel the train moving but I couldn’t see anything (I tend to get motion sickness); I didn’t like that part but I sucked it up and tried to fall asleep. The rest of the ride wasn’t bad at all. We got to the airport (where the coach was set to drop us off) and we found out we had to pay 9 Euros to get to the hostel. I didn’t like that part but oh well! After we dropped our bags off at the hostel, we walked to a nearby church. I just stood at the top of the steps looking over Paris and I couldn’t help but think “how did my life get like this?!” It really is insane; I can’t believe where I’m at and all that I’m doing here!

Our first day was a pretty dreary and rainy day in Paris. Most of the people I traveled to Paris with are very interested in museums, and well, I’d much rather walk around and see the city. Since I was with someone else who would rather walk around outside then in the Louvre, we did just that! We walked to the Louvre with everyone, and then split off to walk to The Eiffel Tower. We took side streets and what not so it took us probably 2 hours to get there but I loved just walking around and seeing little shops. There were so many bakeries!!
Unfortunately, I wasn’t impressed the first time I saw The Eiffel Tower. I think it’s because it was a really rainy grey day, but I kind of thought it was ugly. Right as we got there, it started pouring so we hid under a porch of a ticket booth. We tried to find a metro but walked around for 2 hours in the rain because no one would tell us how to get there (in English). I have always heard that the French could be not so friendly to Americans, but I didn’t know it was that bad! Literally, no one would talk to us in English even after we attempted to speak in French.

The second day we were there, it was cloudy but it luckily didn’t rain. It was Sunday, so the places that were open didn’t open until around 11am so I got to sleep in. That was nice because I didn’t want to be too run down for the day. We all went souvenir shopping and walked around the more expensive stretch of shops leading to the Arc de Triomphe.

When we were done wandering around, we went back to the Eiffel Tower. It was a little nicer when we went back that time, but I still am not a huge fan. My favorite part of the day was when I got a French Baguette — it was SO SO good! Our ride home was great (for me) because I literally slept the entire time; with the exception of border control. Tomorrow, I leave bright and early for Brussels, Belgium!

I’ve learned that when you travel, you can’t go into something with expectations. I expected so much of Paris – the glamour, high end fashion designers everywhere, and an overall clean city (Paris smells like “homeless pee”) – and I got none of them. It was definitely great to see Paris, but it’s just not the place for me! Hopefully Brussels will be a better trip.

Location: Paris, France

Not everyone dislikes Americans?!

Well, I went to Edinburgh this past weekend and it was AMAZING! But before that, I had a pretty fun day Friday as well. I went with one of my friends to a restaurant in London (Holborn, specifically) called Hummus Bros. and it was absolutely delicious! I was so excited because I could actually eat it and I love hummus. It was really cool how they arranged it too – it was a bowl with hummus shaped around it and then your “topping” inside. I just got chickpeas as the topping but it was still so good. The pita bread they give you is freshly made in the restaurant and is given on the side. I’ll definitely be going back so I’ll take a picture the next time I go. Afterwards, we went to Trafalgar Square. It was so cool, I got a picture at the fountain Russell Brand – confession: I love him – was at for Get Him to the Greek and we climbed the lions (super touristy thing to do but it’s still so cool).

We left Trafalgar Square after a lot of pictures and went to a building across St James’s Park from Buckingham palace. It just so happened that we got there in time to see an “inspection” of the guards.

We walked through a part of St James’s park and then up close to Buckingham Palace. We wanted to figure out where we could see the traditional guards on Buckingham Palace so the friend that I went with approached the guards that were standing at the main gate. Well it turns out that they no longer have the “traditional” guards in front! UGH, modern times.

That night, we were scheduled to leave for Edinburgh on the National Express Coach at 11pm.

Since I’m a college student with limited funds and an unlimited passion for traveling, I decided that I was going to take advantage of the extremely cheap coach transportation available (even if it means hours and hours on a bus)! Other study abroad students: I highly recommend this if you’re looking for a cheap way to travel and don’t mind it being on a coach. If you want any info just comment on the blog and let me know! J

Anyway, we got on the coach and began our 7 hour and 25 minute bus ride to Edinburgh. I had the joy of sitting behind a man that wasn’t giving off the best of aromas but I was able to spray my neck pillow with perfume and I fell asleep almost instantly! I did wake up a few times and one of the times it was because I could hear the wind outside and what sounded like rain. I was in a sleepy daze but I looked out the window to see what was going on outside and I literally thought we were driving through a hurricane. I’ve come to realize that speed limits have little meaning here because I am absolutely positive that we were going about 120mph, at least, in the rain. At the time, I thought it was pouring but when we stopped at the “services” soon after I contemplated the hurricane possibility, I realized it was only lightly raining (that’s how fast we were going). Somehow, we arrived safely in Edinburgh around 6:20am. We got inside the coach station and found someone to ask about getting to our hostel. She was so nice! The lady gave us a map and marked everything for us which really helped. It turns out that I picked a pretty good hostel – it was about a 10 minute walk from the station! I was really excited because this time, I was traveling with a backpack and a purse and that’s it!! It was lovely walking around and not having 100 pounds of luggage to carry around. We walked outside and it wasn’t raining so we were really excited. We began our walk to the hostel; just from what we saw on the walk, we realized how gorgeous Edinburgh is. When we arrived to the hostel, the guy working was incredibly entertaining! He was telling us about how much he drank the night before and he still had the open bottle of vodka on the table behind him! The hostel was absolutely amazing, not to mention it was literally across the road from the Castle. Once we regrouped, we decided to walk around for a bit and then head to the castle. On our walk, we found a farmers market. One of the vendors there was selling hot apple cider so I decided to get some. It was really good!

When we got to the castle, the view from the top was just unbelievable. I noticed that there was a “mountain” (quotations because it wasn’t all that big) not too far from where we were and I mentioned to everyone how I wanted to find it and climb it. Everyone laughed but I was being very serious! We got tickets to the castle and once we were inside, we walked around and explored the grounds and the different war museums inside. There was a gun firing exhibition at 1pm which was really cool to see.

Later on that afternoon, everyone was trying to decide where to go. It turns out that we all wanted to see different things around Edinburgh so I suggested that we split up and meet later for dinner. I mentioned the mountain climbing again and one other girl agreed to go with me! I was so excited, mainly because I wasn’t able to make it to the Highlands and I am really upset about that. This mountain was the closest thing I had to nature and mountain climbing! We set out after lunch to try and find the mountain. We ended up getting a little off course a few times (we couldn’t see it from where we were so we were just walking in the direction I thought it was in). Finally, we were walking to the end of a road and almost turned the opposite way when I glanced down the other side of the street and there was the mountain!!! I was so happy I wanted to run! We had to walk through a questionable part of town, up steps, down a muddy hill, and around half the mountain to get to the path to take us to the top. It was so completely worth it though – and hey, the journey is half the fun.

We climbed up the mountain and almost made it to the top but it was getting really dark and we didn’t want to put ourselves in an uncomfortable situation. I’ve never been to Edinburgh before, so I figured that 2 girls climbing a mountain in the dark and then coming back down and walking back to the hostel in the dark wasn’t the best idea. I was so glad that we made it so close to the top though, it was so incredibly breathtaking. Even though it was still in the city and not a big mountain by any means it gave me just enough of a reminder of what it’s like to be in the country. It was very refreshing and so much fun. Dinner that night was interesting. The waiter was really funny but kept picking on me! Most of the people I was with got bangers and mash and another got haggis. Apparently everything was delicious; however, I’ve come to the conclusion that people in Scotland don’t know what dairy is. But oh well, good thing I always think ahead and bring my own snacks.

The next day we spent the morning in the National Museum of Scotland. They had a “Shining Lights” exhibit celebrating the Bell Rock lighthouse that’s been around for 200 years and is the oldest remaining lighthouse that’s made of rock. The exhibit was really cool – I wish I could have visited a lighthouse while I was there. We got some souvenir shopping done and then we decided to take a break and go to the Fudge Kitchen. When we walked in, they had someone in the main area showing everyone how fudge is made. It was so cool because apparently they always make their fudge for everyone and anyone to see. I happened to glance at the menu and noticed that they had dairy free fudge! I couldn’t pass that up, so I bought a slice. It was literally amazing!!! I was so excited that I got to have dessert with everyone HAHA. Later that afternoon, we decided to do the Scottish Whiskey Experience tour near the castle. I highly recommend this! I now know that I truly don’t like whiskey but it was so interesting to learn how Scotch Whiskey is made and how to properly smell/drink it. We got to taste our whiskey of choice – I chose the Speyside one because it smelled fruity. It was not fruity at all and was incredibly strong! No wonder people get warm from drinking that stuff. We also got to see the biggest collection of Scotch Whiskey in the world which was ridiculously huge and included a lot of really different bottles.

When we were done with the tour, we still had about 5 hours left until our bus came. I saw another mountain/hill when we were on top of the mountain the night before so we all decided to venture there. It was definitely easier to find and had monuments on the top of it. It was dark again when we got to the top, but it was gorgeous nonetheless. The pictures that I took did the view no justice at all! It was very pretty and I had a lot of fun just walking around and looking over the city. I didn’t realize how separated the “old and new” of the city is; there is such a distinct separation between the two.

That night at 10pm, we headed back to London via National Express coach. This bus ride was incredibly uncomfortable. I think I slept a total of about 2 hours during the 8 � hour bus ride back. It wasn’t pleasant at all! But we did arrive home safely Monday morning around 7:30am. I loved Edinburgh so much; I am really hoping to get to visit the Highlands and the Isle of Skye someday in the future.

I was able to really take a lot out of this trip, especially since this was my first time out of England since being here. First and foremost, Scots do NOT like people from London but they love Americans. We were more afraid when people asked us where we were studying! We actually had bouncers and people we met respond to us with “London is shit” when we told them we were studying here. However, they were so very nice overall. The random people walking up and down the streets were all so nice and polite; I absolutely loved it.

Apparently, the Scottish cuisine (IE haggis and pretty much any kind of red meat with any and all parts of animals ground up and “mash” on the side) is really good. My advice, don’t ask what it is just try it. It wasn’t the easiest place to find food with my eating lifestyle but definitely possible if I tried hard enough. Traditional/folk Scottish music is amazing and is played on the streets! I heard a bagpiper both days we were there for most of the day and on Sunday, there was a folk band playing in the streets that was so good!

It should never just be about the destination, because the journey is just as important.

Location: Edinburgh, Scotland

“Just stay chipper”(pronounced chippa)

Hello again! Well, I’ve finally made it to the IES dorm and I couldn’t be happier.
I arrived in London Saturday night around 8:30 (London time); after getting my luggage together, I started on my two hour trek to my hostle. I quickly found out that I had no idea where I was headed. I walked about 5 minutes out of my way before realizing just that. Normally, I wouldn’t mind walking; however, i was carrying about 100lbs+ of luggage in an underground tunnel looking for the ticket purchasing kiosk. After purchasing a tube ticket, I hauled everything down the escalator and waited for the tube to arrive. It was about a 50 minute ride to my stop — this was a great time for me to try and relax my speeding mind (I had no idea how to get to the hostel after the tube). I must have looked pretty lost because after I got off of the tube and onto street level, a man that worked at the station came up to me and asked me where I was headed. I was pointed in the direction of the bus stop.
My next challenge was figuring out what each pence (change) was worth without looking like a mindless American. That took a while but I was finally able to get onto the correct bus. After 2 stops I was right in front of the hostel. I was so happy that I got myself there safely and for about 6 pounds total that I didn’t initially notice the 15 steps I had to climb with all of my luggage. Thankfully, there were 3 people walking into the hostle at the same time and they offered to carry my luggage up for me! I wanted to cry I was so happy.
This was my first time in a hostel so I truly had no clue what to expect. Looking back, it wouldn’t have been bad if I were traveling with a group of people. I was unsure of leaving all of my luggage out in the open with 11 other roommates that wouldn’t even attempt to be nice to me. My first night in London, I slept about 12 hours. I was physically and mentally exhausted from my day of intense traveling and I didn’t want to move from my bed Sunday morning. Finally, I decided that I should get out of bed. I went downstairs to the common room and the computer room. I was uncomfortable leaving the hostel since I was by myself; it was on an incredibly “shady” side street. I chose to relax and de-stress while watching TV and skyping. I was overjoyed when I was able to fall asleep because it meant I was closer to arriving at my dorm building. It took me a while to fall asleep and when I finally did, I woke up to the sound of drunken travelers at 2am. That was rather unpleasant.
I chose to wake up early and eat breakfast before my attempt to get to the dorms. I walked to the tube station because I didn’t know how to get a bus heading in that direction and then got a ticket to the correct station. After traveling 20 more minutes, I arrived at my station. This station was not equipped with an escalator or a lift which of course meant going up 2 flights of stairs with all of my luggage. By now you would think I was used to this but I was not. Finally, I got to the street level and decided I’ve had enough; I took a taxi the rest of the way. It was completely worth it — they dropped me off right in front of my dorm. I was ready to kiss the ground! I checked in and got my room key then headed up to my room. I was so happy to get here!! I got inside and started to unpack; it was amazing to finally be here. The view is really nice and even though the room is small, I really like the dorm.
After unpacking, a couple of us went on a short walking tour to the closest tube station. We all purchased phones and I stopped to get groceries. The prices truly weren’t bad! I was pleasantly surprised with the variety that was available for how small the stores were. The rest of the night was taken up with orientation and I can honestly say that I am exhausted! I can’t wait to sleep tonight.
Tomorrow morning a few of us are taking a bus ride to the nearest ASDA (UK WalMart) for some things that we need to stock up on.

I did not expect to be taken so off guard while trying to navigate around; however, I’ve learned more about traveling in 2 days then I ever have. Looking at the positives of everything so far is definitely the only way for me to learn from all of this. Well, that’s all for now! Goodnight everyone 🙂

PS- as soon as I can get my pictures to work I will upload some of the dorm room and view!

Location: London, England

Trapped in Austria

I came to Vienna, Austria last Sunday (Nov.28th) to visit one of my best friends from back home who is studying abroad here. I was supposed to fly home on Wednesday (Dec.1st) early and take a bus back to Leeds so that I could get back to class for Thursday and Friday. Well, I showed up at the airport in Vienna and my flight was completely canceled because Gatwick was closed due to snow. I started to stress a little, but got rebooked on a flight for that evening. An hour later, I’m on the phone with Bertie in London who informs me that the BBC just announced Gatwick would be closed all day and not reopen until Thursday morning.

So I go back to the window and there was no line (no one else had heard yet) and I got rebooked onto a flight for this morning (Thursday). I had no way to reach my friend, no cash, and was slightly panicked. More than slightly. Until the airline says they’ll put me in a hotel for the night. So they took my to the Hilton Vienna (SO NICE) where I had a suite to myself. I called my parents, Bertie, and wrote on my friend’s Facebook wall from the lobby computer. I fell asleep for a bit from stress exhaustion and when I woke up my friend showed up at my room. I went back with her to her apartment to use free internet and phone.

Anyway, I check my emails, Facebook, etc. I email my groups for my classes to let them know I can’t make it back. Then I decide to check my flight time again. Turns out, it was CANCELLED. Again. I start freaking out, get Bertie on Skype, and try to reschedule to the flight later on, but there were no seats available until Saturday, at the earliest, and even then I couldn’t book because the website was crashing from traffic. My friend got one of her friends who is here in Vienna on her Skype and he found me a flight out of Bratislava for tomorrow morning to Luton Airport rather than Gatwick. He also found me a bus from Vienna to Bratislava. I leave, in theory, tomorrow on a bus at 6:50 to Slovakia (this would be more exciting under different circumstances) and my flight should leave, in theory, at 10:40am back to London.

I applied for my refund from EasyJet, and to buy the other ticket on RyanAir it cost me about 45 euros more than I’d be getting back from my refund, but at least I have a better chance of getting back to the UK? Maybe? For now, I’m staying in the spare bedroom at my friend’s flat and hoping.

In summary: I’m stuck in Vienna (3 canceled flights so far) until further notice. At least I have a friend here.

Location: Vienna, Austria

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks!

Ok, so I have literally been running around Europe for the past 2 weeks or so (we have been on half term break)… As promised, let me start with some lovely photos from my Parisian adventure:

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tom, libby and I at a restaurant in Paris!

eiffel tower <3

perspective picture

shopping in Paris!

l’Arc de Triomphe

Elesa and I at the Louvre!

Now, the next exciting this to occur after Paris was the visit from my parents! My dad had a business meeting scheduled in London so my Mom flew along and they came down to Bognor to visit me! Thursday of that week I got the chance to show them around the town, the university and my homestay location. Then (almost) the entire group of CIRT students went out to lunch so that my parents could meet everyone! We went to Fox’s, a delicious pub near the university, and had an awesome time! That night, my parents and I went to dinner with my host family at a Spanish restaurant called “Sen”. We had a lovely tapas style dinner and enjoyed getting to know each others families!! That night, my parents and I drove to a hotel near the gatwick airport (brand new built right on the edge of a horse racing track) and got about 5 hours of sleep before we took a cab and plane the next morning to Edinburgh, Scotland!

We spent 3 days in Edinburgh, shopping, seeing the sights and spending time together. It was such a treat to get to see my parents while being abroad! We saw the Edinburgh Castle, the royal palace in Scotland, the pubs, the shopping strips, the old village, and many other tourist sites. We had wonderful meals (one night we went to a delicious Italian restaurant called “La Bruschetta” and ate one of the best meals I have ever had!) There were also plenty of Starbucks to keep me sane :). I had an extremely special treat as well, to meet up with two of my friends from middle school (The International School of Lausanne in Switzerland) who now both currently attend the University of Edinburgh. I met up with Bianca and Henri for dinner and reminiscing, where we spent most of the night in Henri’s bouncy castle (yes… he has a bouncy castle in his flat. it was incredible.) Overall, I think the trip with my parents was my favorite trip yet!

mom and dad in Edinburgh

me and mom!

me and dad!

all 3 of us!!!

me and mom at the castle in Edinburgh

Scottish Nittany Lion?? 🙂

I bid farewell to my parents, with the promises of seeing them in 2 short months for Christmas, and immediately began packing for my next adventure… a 6 day trip through Ireland and Scotland during half term. We left late Thursday night and arrived in Dublin, ready to begin a new adventure. The following day, my friend Jen and I met a soccer team from Italy, explored the town, and conveniently met up with the rest of the group to join in on a free tour of the city. Alas, the tour, we found out, was destined to be 3 hours long and realizing that the Gilligan’s Island tour was also the same length, some friends and I did not want to risk a similar fate, so we skipped out early. Jen, Heather and I explored the city more on our own, and ended up at the Guinness factory. We took a tour, tasted Guinness, realized how absolutely terrible it tasted, and continued on in hopes of finding our friends for dinner. We did, and spent the night listening to traditional Irish music in traditional Irish pubs. The next day, our large group of 14 split into 3 smaller groups. In my group was myself, Heather, and two of the Swedish boys, Isak and Erik. We rented a car in Dublin and once we picked up the “dream machine” we made the rash and spontaneous decision to drive clear to the northern coast of Ireland to see Giant’s Causeway, the northern shore, and torture Erik with about 11 hours total of driving in one day. That night, we stopped for Domino’s pizza and continued down toward Galway, where we spent the evening and the next day. Then we began out drive back toward Dublin, where we stopped along the way to see the Cliffs of Moher, some castles, and occasionally eat. The next night, we flew from Dublin to Glasgow on the smallest plane ever invented by man (I literally thought we were going down every time the plane moved… I was utterly petrified. At the start of the flight the stewardess asked a few rows of people to move to the back so the plane would be BALANCED :-O!!!) When we arrived in Glasgow, I began breathing again and we spent the next two days driving through the Highlands of Scotland, trecking through rain storms, and JUST missing about every single tourist site by no more than 5 minutes. We had quite an adventure and were very ready to return home and actually do some work for a change 🙂

isak, heather and I at the northern coast of Ireland

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me with an Italian soccer team!!!

the whole gang!

it rained one day…

i was a little nervous to do the roap bridge…

cool panoramic view!!

looking for Leprechauns

Guinness Factory!

me in Ireland!

ROOMIES! Heather and I at the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland near Galway!

Last night, we celebrated Heather (my roommate’s) 21st birthday at a Halloween Party in downtown Bognor. We went to our favorite pub, William Hardwicke (now called Willywicks for short), and I dressed up as a nerd. I ended up adding dance moves to my costume, and won a free dinner for 2 (plus dessert) for being best dressed!!!

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Now, being more than half way done with our term, I am sitting in my room thinking of all the exciting things I have done in a mere month and a half. I am sitting here (and don’t plan on moving for a while seeing as I took two classes at the gym this morning and seemed to have lost the ability to move my legs) realizing that the time goes by faster every day, and I am thrilled to have had the opportunities that I’ve had thus far. I have one more trip planned for a weekend (I will be traveling to Switzerland to reunite with some old friends) and I also plan on doing a few day trips into London and Oxford, but for the most part my traveling has calmed down and I can really start focusing on school. Until next blog, peace, love, and CIRT.

Location: Bognor Regis, United Kingdom

No more Leeds exchange? And trip to Dublin!!!

I learned yesterday that Penn State isn’t offering any spots to Leeds students next year, and apparently the only students able to come to Leeds from PSU are AE now. To say I find this incredibly absurd would be an understatement. I’m disappointed in the PSU study abroad team that they did not advocate Leeds more. So many students go to London, which is incredibly expensive, and Leeds is only a couple hours away by train and bus. Leeds is also a big, but student friendly, city. I just don’t understand why PSU hasn’t been advocating Leeds more strongly. Not to mention, the Leeds students I met who came to PSU last year had the time of their lives and are equally as disappointed that no one else can go. But I guess I have no control over any of it so I will just frown and carry on.

Anyway, I went to Dublin last weekend for four days! I went with a Canadian study abroad student who lives on the floor above me. We had a great time exploring Dublin without tours or tour guides and took a day trip to the coast at Howth to climb some cliffs.

Highlights include

Kilmainham Gaol:

Guiness Factory:

Jameson Distillery:

Palm trees in the park:

Irish pubs:

Beautiful countryside/coast:

Location: Dublin, Ireland

Back to America

After one last day at a beautiful beach in Zanzibar, I started my 40 hours of travel home on Friday morning.

We first took a ferry from Zanzibar back to Dar where we caught our 4:50pm flight to Dubai. The ferry pretty much sucked. We were going so fast and against the current so the boat was flying all over the place. We had 4 of our students get sick and about 5 more feeling like they were going to be sick. It wasn’t just us either. People all over the ferry were in rough shape. It was kind of amusing in a way but really it was just bad. To top it off, after being on the boat for 2 hours of rough riding we had to go straight to the airport – no showers or refreshment. I bet we all looked good!

The flight to Dubai was alot better than the flight in from Dubai. The plane was bigger and nicer. We had a couple hours of layover in Dubai. That airport is insane. Especially after spending my trip in the rural villages of Tanzania, the upscale, flashy ways of Dubai airport seemed ridiculous to me. We left Dubai for New York at 2:00 am – Dubai time. And after 14 hours of flight we landed in New York at 7:30am. From there I had a longer layover till my flight to Pittsburgh at 2pm.

I was a mix of emotions. Through all the travel I felt fine. Being in the crazy Dubai airport made me a bit uneasy – all that flashy stuff seems silly when you put it into perspective. Through the flights I felt good, focusing on the next leg of travel. My first episode came on the last flight from New York to Pittsburgh. As we were flying into the airport, I was looking out the window and noticed how huge some of the houses are, and how much open land we have. Add in my fatigue and travel-weariness and I was almost in tears. How lucky we are to live in America! My mood improved when I made it off the plane and into the airport. I was very excited to see my family, give gifts and tell all my stories.

The first evening passed by smoothly for me. I was content to be home and happy to be reunited with my family. The next few days however, I have been having a harder time. These new emotions have surprised me. I expected to have some culture shock and homesickness when arriving in Tanzania – but when arriving home? I never expected it to be harder to come home. And for me it has been harder. A lot harder. I felt pretty comfortable in Tanzania. I had a few moments of homesickness and discomfort here and there but I was never that bad. Being back in America has been hard. I know I shouldn’t feel guilty for the way I live but I do. At this point I don’t know how to look at our lives and not feel guilty or wasteful or ignorant. The differences between America and East Africa are bigger than me. The two places are two completely different worlds. Going from one world to another in a matter of days is hard to adjust to. I’m sure in a few days I will find it easier. The improvement between today and yesterday has already been extreme. I look forward to feeling comfortable again but at the same time, I don’t want to loose this outlook. I don’t want to go back to the way it was- spending money on useless things, being wasteful and secluding myself into work and school. Hopefully, with some thought and effort I will be able to integrate some of the Tanzanian qualities into my own life.

The study abroad trip was amazing. I can’t stop thinking about going back. I don’t know how or when but I am defiantly persistent in making my return to East Africa. The thought of spending my summers or years after graduation at home is really unappealing. I have the travel bug. I’ve seen another new place and now I want to see everything. The whole world lies out there – I’m itching to see it all!

I promised a photo blog entry and it will be coming soon. We all traded pictures so I literally have thousands to go through, transfer and edit. But soon enough I will post them. Expect a couple or entries too. I’ll try to post as I go through them, or else it would be a while for the whole group.

Location: Murrysville, Pennsylvania

The Pre-departure Plan

Somehow, summer flew by and now I’m finally able to focus on leaving the country. Two more days before I head off to Australia! The biggest challenge so far has been packing. It’s so hard to figure out what I will need or want for the next 5 months! Here’s the plan for the start of my trip:

My sister and I will be flying from State College to Sydney on Tuesday. We’ll get there on Thursday morning (this time change thing is realllly going to mess with me), and then the real adventure starts. We’re going to be staying in hostels in Sydney for a few days so we can explore the city, then we’re hoping to travel up north along the coast to the Gold Coast area (where a lot of surfing happens), and eventually the Great Barrier Reef. Hopefully it won’t be too cold to snorkel, dive, or surf! We’ll also be heading to the Blue Mountains to see that spectacular area. Then, 11 days later, I’ll be hopping a bus for Canberra and become a true student at ANU!!

Check back in a couple weeks to hear about the first leg of my adventure. I’m hoping to have pictures up too!

Until next time…

Location: State College, PA

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