The time we got stuck in Belgium

For those of you in the program, you’ve probably heard this story a million times. So disregard this post. If you haven’t heard this story, here it goes!

It started out with a nice weekend in Amsterdam and Brussels. We spent all of Saturday in Amsterdam walking along canals, and visiting coffee shops, etc. My favorite thing that we did in Amsterdam though was see the Anne Frank house. It was actually unbelievable that I was standing in the annex. Amsterdam was one of my favorite cities I’ve been to.

The next day we arrived in Brussels and spent a lovely day there exploring the city but mostly just eating Belgian waffles and chocolate and drinking Belgian beer. After a long night of drinking the best beer on earth we headed over to the bus stop to take the long bus ride home (traveling by bus is kind of the worst).  While waiting for the bus one of my friends decided to go get fries (this isn’t that random, the fries are amazing). The bus eventually came and my friend was still no where to be found. We ran around looking for him frantically, shouting his name. But a little while passed and still no sign of him. Of course none of us have phones so we couldn’t try calling. After begging the bus driver to wait a few more minutes he refused and told us he was driving away. A quick decision was made and my other friend and I stayed behind to go find him.

Luckily we found him shortly after the bus left. But there we were stranded in Brussels with no way of getting home or any place to stay for the night. I thought there might be have been another megabus coming in a couple hours but I was wrong since it was already approaching 1am. We used the very little battery I had left on my phone and the wifi from a hostel to book new bus tickets for the next day at 2pm.  After dramatically struggling with that, we eventually had a way to get home but no where to stay for the night. The hostel that we used wifi did not have any open rooms so we wandered around Brussels until we found a hotel that had an open room for us. After the two guys got their cards declined at the hotel mine was saving grace that gave us a place to stay comfortably for the night. After lying in the bed with our bus tickets printed out I was able to relax after one of the most stressful nights of my life.  The next day we got on the bus with no problems and returned to London.

Amsterdam!

I’m writing this post a couple weeks after this trip happened. The past couple weeks I’ve been saying goodbye to London and my home away from home. Tomorrow I get on my flight back to Newark, New Jersey. I’m excited to see my friends and family but I’m not ready to go yet.

 

Things you have to be ok with to study abroad

While studying abroad is an amazing  experience that I would definitely recommend it is not for everyone.  It takes a certain type of person. A few things you have to be ok with to study abroad:

1. Never knowing what to expect. There is almost always a feeling of uncertainty when studying abroad. I had no idea what it was going to be like when I was over here and I’ve been pleasantly and unpleasantly surprised with how things ended up here.
2. Sharing a room with a complete stranger. I didn’t know who my roommate for four months was going to be until I showed up with all my luggage the first day. Luckily, things have been going great, but it’s weird sharing a room. I miss having my own room back at school.
3. Constantly getting lost. I end up going somewhere different every day and getting lost is almost a guarantee when you’re going somewhere new. It gets frustrating after a while but it’s something you have to get used to.
4. Not getting your way.  Over the semester there were so many times where things went wrong or didn’t go my way. You just get over the little things, like not getting ice with your drink or a flight not coming in time.
5. New things.  New food, new culture, new people, new friends, new school, new neighborhood, new everything.
6. Spending more money than you were willing to spend.  Studying abroad is so expensive because you have to live every day like it’s your last while you’re over here. I’m only in London for a short time so I make sure I go out and do things everyday. I spend money on weekend trips, day trips, shows, food, and drinks all the time but I’d regret it if I didn’t. Also, cities like London are WAY too expensive in every aspect.
7. Packing your entire life for 4 months into one suitcase.  I left so many things at home and I’ve had to just live with the necessities. I’ve also gotten really good at packing all my things for a weekend in a small backpack.
8. Not getting enough sleep. It’s almost impossible for me to sleep on a bus. And if a bus seat is the only bed you have all weekend, you’re just not getting much sleep for a few days.
9. Leaving friends and family behind. Not only did I leave all my friends, roommates, and family but I find it really difficult to stay in touch. The time difference doesn’t help. I can’t see them or call them and sometimes I feel like I’m not even a part of some of their lives anymore.
10. Not having a phone.  At the moment, I have no way of calling or texting anyone. I had a UK phone that I could use to contact people over here but it hasn’t been working since the beginning of February. I have a smartphone, but I can only use it for it’s internet capabilities if I have WiFi. It’s incredible how hard it is to get by without a constant ability to call someone, google something, or search for directions. We have to do everything the old fashioned way. Select meeting times and places if you want to see people and use actual maps or ask for directions when lost. I love how unattached to my phone I am now.

It’s not easy but I absolutely love it. It’s so sad to think that I’m going to be coming home in a couple weeks. I don’t want to leave!!

 

Getting lost

Spring Break in Spain and Portugal

It took me a while to decide what I wanted to write about for my spring break post (it was actually weeks ago). I had a wonderful time filled with amazing adventures, but I don’t want to bore you or brag too much.  What I think I got out the most from this trip was realizing that there is a big difference between vacationing and travelling.  Although I was gone for over a week, my spring break was not a vacation. It was a week filled with travelling, learning, and overcoming obstacles.  You travel to get something out of a new place and new experiences, not to relax or have fun.

With that said, spring break was actually one of the most fun weeks of my life. I’m so happy with my decision of locations. I decided to spend half of my time in Barcelona and the other half in Lisbon.  (Yes, this was my second time in Barcelona this semester). I went to Barcelona again for a couple of reasons but I do not regret going to the same place twice. Barcelona is one of my favorite cities in Europe so far and I am so lucky that I got to visit twice and was able to see the things I did not see the last time. I’m also glad we chose only two countries to travel to, more than that I think it would have felt too rushed.  We got to do everything we wanted to do in each city and we even had time to venture outside the cities.  There were times were we were able to just sit somewhere, take in the sights, and not have to worry about rushing to the next thing and that was really great.

In Barcelona I was able to see La Sagrada Familia in the daytime, climb another mountain with an amazing view (we took the tram up this time), visit the Picasso Museum, and drink absinthe for the first time. One of my favorite days was a relaxing visit to a beach right outside Barcelona. It was very quiet, because it is not usually a tourist spot, especially in the winter months. It was so beautiful and relaxing to just sit on the beach for hours and drink some sangria. Later we ended up finding a restaurant that had THE BEST gnocchi I’ve ever had in my life (it had cheese in the middle). The customers in the restaurant were giving us looks like “why are there americans here?”. I think that restaurant was one of the best finds in the trip along with the tapas restaurant in Barcelona that might have been the best dinner I’ve had in Europe so far.

Our first day in Lisbon was an interesting one. I woke up the first morning saying “so what should we do today?”. I had no idea what there was in Lisbon to do or see, due to poor planning on my part.  I think this was great though, I went into Lisbon not knowing what to expect and it was a real learning experience for me.  I didn’t even know a word of the language when I got there, and now I can say that I know a little about Portuguese culture. That first day we just wandered around and eventually found a map somewhere and we were able to find the Castle of St. Jorge and other cool things in the city. Throughout the week I was pleasantly surprised about how beautiful the city is and the beaches near Lisbon.  I learned a little about Portuguese cuisine and how they are really into canned fish, and also got to experience the traditional pastry at the best pastry shop in Lisbon. Along with food, we also really got into their alcohol.  The Vinho Verde is a Portugese wine that is so amazing and refreshing, I couldn’t get enough! Also the port wine from Porto is delicious.  We also took shots of ginja (cherry liquor) out of chocolate cups, which is apparently very traditional in Portugal.

What made my trip as great as it was though, was the people who I traveled with. It is always important to travel with people who you connect with, trust, and are always on the same page with.  We always wanted to do the same things and we never argued. They woke me up and got me going in the morning and because of them I had the best experience I could have had this spring break. After this trip I feel like we are becoming experts of traveling and i’m so exciting for the few trips I have left this semester. This trip made me realize that I need to get out and experience London more and do as much as I can do while I’m here.  I only have a short amount of time left and I need to take advantage of what I have here.  After reading what I wrote I may have ened up bragging a little but can you blame me?

 

8 reasons why I don’t miss the US

No offense.

If you were to ask me if I missed the US I would most likely say no. It’s not that I don’t miss my friends and family, it’s just that I really love it here and there are so many things about London that make me not miss home at all! I’ve made a list of all the main reasons:

1. The weather (surprisingly).  It’s not that cold here in London. The coldest it ever really gets in the winter in the 40s.  It does rain almost every day but it never snows! I’m getting quite used the the weather actually. I don’t seem to mind when it rains and I don’t ever bother to bring an umbrella.

2. Traveling is way easier over here. I’ve gone to three different countries this semester and I plan on going to three more by the end of my stay here in London.  If you book in advance, a flight to the continent can be very inexpensive.

3. Public transportation is very efficient. I can get anywhere on the tube and I don’t normally wait for more than two minutes for a train.

4. Food is not as processed and there are less preservatives and chemicals. Even the burger king tastes better over here.

5. The drinking age is 18 here.  It’s the way it should be.

6. Violence is much more rare. In Philly you have to worry about the chance of getting mugged. In London you have to worry about the chance of getting something pick-pocketed from you.  The cops here don’t even carry guns. They call in the guns when they feel as though they will need them. How brilliant is that?

7. There is much less censorship. I only love this because I believe censoring art is wrong in most cases. Because of this the advertising in the UK is more out there and they are more willing to take risks.

8. I never run out of things to do here. London is the best and every day I feel grateful that I get to live in such a great city.