Tag Archives: travel plans

Anticipazione…

Ciao!

My name is Sally Ostendorf and I am a fourth year in the 5-year Bachelors of Architecture program at Penn State! I’m from Providence, RI and I have an internship in Boston this summer.

As part of our program, we are required to study in Roma for a semester our fourth year (pain in the butt, right?! haha). I chose to go this coming fall with 18 (or so) of my classmates. We will be living in a former monastery in Trastevere, the neighborhood directly below the old Jewish area. I cannot wait to head over to Europe and soak in all the architectural history and rich culture Italy has to offer! I’ll be heading over a couple weeks early and traveling via Eurail pass through Italy, Switzerland, France, and Spain.

A presto!

Location: Providence, Rhode Island

Una Semana: One Week Until Puebla!

Hola! I’m Kelsey, an English/Spanish major here at Penn State, and I cannot believe that in one week I will be in Puebla, Mexico! It is so surreal. I mean, I’ve been intending on studying abroad during college since high school, but it still hasn’t really sunken in yet.

Skyline of Puebla, Mexico! Photo courtesy of Picture Ninja

I’m really looking forward to a lot of things on this trip, though! For one, I can’t wait to majorly improve my Spanish conversation skills! It will be an incredibly valuable skill to have, both academically and practically.

Admittedly, I am a little nervous about getting homesick. It’s going to be a long seven weeks without my friends, family, or the comforts of home, but I’m sure I’ll be able to beat any homesickness that may surface and become a more independent person for it. Plus, I’m excited to gain new friends and meet new people. For one, I can’t wait to meet my Mexican family! My host sister contacted me on Facebook a little while back, and she seems really sweet! I have host parents, my host sister and her older brother, and even a Chihuahua named Benny!

Also, is it strange that the one thing I’m really not that worried about is safety? When most people hear I’m studying abroad in Mexico, the first thing they tell me is to be really, really careful. However, I’ve been told multiple times that Puebla is a safe and beautiful place, and I truly believe that it will be.

I guess I’m simply too excited to immerse myself in Mexican culture and learn about its history. The sites we’re planning to visit seem fantastic, and I am simply cannot wait for that authentic Mexican cuisine! It’s going to be interesting to learn about the Mexican lifestyle. I think it’s important to get outside of the “American bubble”, and I can’t wait to gain knowledge about our southerly neighbor.

Well, that’s about it for now. Hopefully I’ll be able to update frequently about my travels and experiences in Mexico! It’s going to be an amazing journey for sure!

-Kelsey

Location: Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

No subject

First, the situation in Japan is absolutely horrific. During my senior year of high school I spent a little over a week living with a host family in Nakagawa-machi Bato in the Tochigi prefecture. It’s just south of Tokyo. So far I haven’t heard any news from my host family or my friends. Some of the friends I made over there have just started uni in places north east of Tokyo and they’ve been silent on email/facebook since the disaster. I’m hoping that it’s just because of the power crisis in Japan. Anyway, if you’re reading this please don’t do this “i’m thinking of you, japan!” or “i’m praying for japan!”, but actually give some help. They need aid, not thoughts. Go to places like the Red Cross (http://www.redcross.org/en/ – for the USA site) to donate.

In regards to studying abroad here in Leeds, it has been awesome still. A week ago I awarded myself a long weekend in London. I did some more touristy things like the Natural History Museum and the London Dungeon. I also had a great time in Camden town where I pocket a ladybug pocket watch and a coin belt for my belly dancing recital in a a few weeks. It was windy and cold, though.

In Leeds, life has been good. I wrote 3 essays this past weekend (I was incredibly productive) and that was the bulk of my midterm assignments. We break up for a month long spring break for April…so only 3 more weeks left until that! I have plans to go to Spain and Italy then and also to visit a friend in Cheddar, England. Apparently it’s where cheddar cheese came from.

Studying abroad has been the best year of my life so far. I’ve met the most wonderful people and have seen/done amazing things. For the first time in my life, I felt like I was where I needed to be. For the first time I’ve been having a worthwhile uni experience. I can’t wait to move over here next January after I graduate in December!

Location: Leeds, UK

OOO-Week.

This week has been amazingly busy due to O-Week or Orientation week. Every night the bars in town had different themed parties and they gave out free food and Waikato mechandise every day on campus. I went up to campus early a few times for free “brekkie” which consisted of an egg on bread. Yum.

Classes, or papers as they’re called here, went very well this week. Surprisingly, my monday 8am accounting paper turned out to be really interesting while my theatre class was pretty dull. I switched from my theatre paper to a New Zealand screen paper so I’m hoping to see some of Peter Jackson’s old horror movies. A lot of reading has already been assigned for classes and the workload seems to be more then PSU per class, but since a full workload in New Zealand consists of three papers, it probably evens out.

The sign for Uni that I see everyday ^

This weekend’s plans to go to The Mount again were folied by massive amounts of rain from Friday through Sunday, but we decided to go to a music festival in town and just get drenched while listening to all kinds of music which seemed like a good alternative. Thursday night in town was my favourite of O-Week as it was Fluro Party which basically entailed wearing the most lurid colours possible and dancing under blacklights.

Flatmates, friends and I before Fluro ^

We’ve started booking some weekend trips for March including Lake Taupo to bungy jump this coming weekend, and then the Tongariro crossing hike in two weekends! Very excited to bungy although I know I’ll be terrified at the time!

Cheers,

Karen

Location: Hamilton, New Zealand

Extreme tourist

Hello again! Time is passing by at an incredibly fast pace here and I don’t particularly like it. The past two weeks have been pretty eventful when looking at it as a whole. Two Saturday’s ago, I returned to Parliament Square with some friends. We decided to get off the bus in front of Westminster Cathedral (not to be confused with Westminster Abbey) and decided to start our exploration there. From there, we went to Westminster Abbey. We saw a little pedestrian path through an archway and decided to walk through and see what was on the other side. Apparently, part of it was a school and the other part was a back entrance to the Abbey. We went inside the back entrance and walked through the part that was open for viewing. We got to see where the King’s documents were once stored and very gorgeous views of the architecture. After leaving the Abbey, I wanted to cross the river and walk around on the other side of the Thames. While we were crossing, we saw the classic view of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. I can honestly say that at the very moment I was standing along the River Thames looking at Big Ben and Parliament; it hit me that I was in London. I had to stand there for a while just to take it all in and collect my thoughts. It is very incredible to actually think about the fact that I’m living in London, England right now; it continuously blows my mind.

After staring at this gorgeous view, we walked on without a destination in mind. As we were walking by the Eye, I realized how amazing of a view it must be. I definitely want to take a ride so that I could see the city from that angle.

Even though museums aren’t really my “cup of tea”, I decided to tag along when people went to the Victoria and Albert Museum the next day. I figured that since it’s free, what do I have to lose? We spent quite some time looking around the museum but I was pleased to find out that it wasn’t only paintings. I did enjoy this museum, mainly because it had a lot of artifacts as opposed to just paintings.

In the beginning of the week, I planned quite a few trips. I was able to book a day trip to Stratford-Upon-Avon and weekends to Paris, Slovakia, and Edinburgh. I spent a lot of time with one of my friends trying to figure out and organize the places we would like to travel. I’m rather excited to travel!

This week was the first real week of classes; for the most part, that is because tutorials began this week. My first of two tutorials was Intro to Criminology followed by Twenty-first century Political Changes. I was not sure what to expect, so I went into the tutorials with an open mind. One thing I learned: it’s true when people say Europeans don’t go to class. In my second tutorial, 25 out of 32 people didn’t show up! I was so shocked that the professor didn’t seem shocked at the small amount of people. Other than the lack of students present, I found the tutorials to be a less formal version of the lectures.

This was also the first week of our tours for my Historic London class. We did a “City Walk” which included half of the original City of London; today, this area is widely known as the Financial District of London. It was a very interesting tour and I was able to learn a lot about the history of the original/Roman London.

Since I don’t have class on Friday’s, I went for a run along the River Thames. It was an absolutely gorgeous day so my run was incredibly enjoyable. Afterwards, I walked around parts of London I’ve never been to and adventured by myself. From my perspective so far, I would say that the parts of London I’ve been to are pretty safe during the day which is why I was okay by myself. I really enjoyed walking everywhere and going where the path took me.

This past Saturday, a few of us took a day trip to Dover via National Express Coach. It was so much fun! It was rather rainy and foggy but it could have been much worse. We got to Dover around 10am and decided we would head towards the castle. Being that it is a castle, it is of course it is on a hill so we climbed all the way from the town up to the castle. It was really cool and really pretty; especially because we took a small path most of the way up the mountain through wooded areas. When we got to the castle, we got tickets and headed inside. The views and the secret medieval tunnels we went through were so interesting! We went on a tour of an underground hospital that was used during the Second World War and we walked all around the castle premises. We didn’t go out on the port to look directly at the White Cliffs because we could see parts of them from the top tower of the castle.

In the beginning of the week I went to watch the changing of the guards and found Abbey Road. We walked part of the way to Buckingham Palace and got a pretty good spot to watch them marching from St James’s Palace. We’re definitely going to go back again though because we really didn’t know where to stand. We found that a good area to begin is at St James’s Palace and then walk with them as they march along the street. If we go back a third time, we want to stand near the gates to the Palace to see what goes on behind there. Afterwards, we wanted to go to Abbey Road but didn’t know where it was. We asked the “annoying people” on the streets that were trying to promote gym memberships because no one else would give us the time of day. As it turns out, they were incredibly nice! They told us about places we have to see in Northern England so we could get a taste of the “real” English lifestyle. They were definitely the nicest random people I’ve met since I’ve been here. After about 20 minutes, they told us how to get there. When we got to the street, it was so cool to see the wall where everyone signs and Abbey Road Studios! I didn’t realize that Paul McCartney still lives around there so we want to go back and find his house. We also want to go back because we only had a pen to sign the wall and we have to retrace what we wrote in marker.

I’m now pretty comfortable with my classes and it’s really interesting to think of how different the system is. This week, I sat towards the back in all of my classes (which I NEVER do) just to observe how Europeans act in class. Honestly, it’s a lot like students at home: some people are paying attention and taking notes while others are talking and being rude.

I truly believe that walking around without a clear destination is the best way to really see a place. I found so many really interesting areas while I was walking around that I wouldn’t have otherwise found. Although I’ve spent a lot of time being incredibly touristy, I’ve seen some amazing places that I really enjoyed.

Location: Chelsea, London, England

“Ahh, Americans! So you must want hot dogs and hamburgers”

Hello there! So, back to where I left off. Last Saturday (January 8th) we had a free bus tour with IES around the surrounding areas of London. It was the most fantastic bus tour I have every been on! The whole thought behind this tour was not for us to explore on our own; it was so that we would have an idea of some places we wanted to come back to. Thankfully, I thought to bring a notebook. Our tour guides name was Owen; he told us a lot of really great information about living in London and discussed the history of the city in great detail. It was really interesting to be driving by the places we were learning about; I found it to be very effective and I actually learned a lot! I was really happy that I brought my notebook because I got to jot down the names of the places we drove through and the places Owen recommended we visit. Fortunately, they did stop the bus a few times for us to get out and take some pictures at Big Ben/Parliament Square, St. Paul’s Cathedral, The London Bridge, and Buckingham Palace. Something that I found super interesting was that “Big Ben” isn’t the structure but is the bell inside. I’m sure if I payed attention in grade school I would have known that; however, I did not. Here are some other pictures of the places we were able to get off the bus.

It’s still unbelievable to me that I’m in London! Our bus tour lasted about 3 hours that day and I am so glad that I went. The next day, IES planned a free trip to Windsor Castle for anyone who was interested. Not only was it a trip to take a tour of the oldest castle in England, but it was free so OF COURSE I went! It was really cool because our bus driver took the “scenic” route which let us see the (semi) countryside of London. We got to Windsor and took a small tour of the town before heading to the Castle. I couldn’t believe how huge this place is; no matter where we went in Windsor, we could see some part of the castle at all times. I was in complete shock. The coolest part for me was thinking about all of the history that happened there. It was built during the times of conquers and wars over the land and battles actually happened in Windsor at the castle where I was standing. I couldn’t even wrap my head around it. We took a break for lunch then entered into the Castle walls. I wish I could post every single picture I took there because it was just so incredible. We got a 2 hour tour of the publicly available areas (the space where the Queen/Royal family occupies when they’re there is not open to the public) and the rooms where the Queen still hosts “parties”. The detail in the rooms were out of this world and there were so many interesting stories behind even the smallest of things. I was so pleased with this trip – even more so because I didn’t have to pay!

The days that followed our great weekend was the start of class. Monday I don’t have any classes so I just hung out around the dorms trying to figure our travel plans. Words to the wise: travel planning for a group of people is stressful as ever. At least we got one success out of the whole day — we booked our hotel in Dublin for the St. Patrick’s Day festival! Now we just have to figure out how to get there. Tuesday was my first day of lecture; my classes that day were Intro to Criminology and The Performing Arts in London. I slowly caught on to their word usage throughout the class. The one difference I was not made aware of until this lecture is that they call lecture time lectures and tutorials are called class. It’s definitely going to be interesting trying to get used to the way the education system works here; good thing I like a challenge. Wednesday I only have one class, Historic London, and we only meet one more time on campus. Every other week we get to meet at different places throughout the city for our lectures. I’m really excited about that class because it isn’t just going to be us sitting in a room talking about the history of London — we actually get to go and explore the history! Thursday I had European Business Culture and Global Political Issues in the 21st Century. Unlike the rest of my classes, my first class was at 10am. I have about a 45 minute commute so I left at 8:45. Well, let me just start by saying that rush hour on the underground is much later then I would have expected. I had to wait for 2 trains to come and go before I even thought of trying to get on! I have never in my life witnessed so many people trying to squeeze onto a train. I now know why the majority of people here are not overweight, it’s because they wouldn’t be able to fit in any public transportation to get to work on time! I finally squeezed my way onto a train and managed to get to class 10 minutes early! That was a wonderful success. Both of the classes I had I think will be incredibly interesting.Oh, and another thing about college in Europe: syllabus week doesn’t exist.

We had a free dinner set up with IES on Friday at the National Art Gallery Rooftop Restaurant; the view was unreal. We had a rooftop view of St. Paul’s Cathedral, Big Ben, The London Eye, and many other buildings. The meal itself was pretty good, too.
This weekend we decided that we were going to explore around Parliament Square/Westminster Abbey a bit more. It was so much fun! We went into the back entrance of the Abbey and explored in there for a bit and then walked along the River Thames by Big Ben and crossed the river. It was so gorgeous. It truly hit me that I’m in London when I was looking at the Parliament buildings along the river. I was speechless.

There are so many things that I am learning about myself being here; and I’ve only been here 2 weeks. I’m excited to see what else I’ll be learning, but I’m trying to change my normal behavior and live in the moment as much as I possibly can.

Location: Chelsea, London

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