Goodbye England.

So, this will be the last post that I make in this blog. I can't believe how fast 5 months went by. As of tomorrow (two hours from now) I will have only 11 days left in the UK. It's crazy how much I've learned. Unfortunately, as far as academics go, I have to say that I mainly perfected the skill of cramming last minute. That's just how it's set up here...one week of work, and zero work for 4 months. I was talking to an English guy who just got back from studying abroad in America, and he says we work way harder in the US. Go us! I guess we are better for something than McDonalds and obesity.

Kidding. I love America and being here has made me realize it so much. But, I will always have a really special place in my heart for England and all of the places I was blessed enough to visit while over here. Coming here has given me the need to visit so many more places in my life. I have a running list including Greece, Egypt, Japan, Morocco, and SYDNEY to visit Joanna. Something I've been reflecting on a lot in the past few days is what the most important things I have learned over here are. Even though I'm not sure who reads this anymore, I figured I would make this list for myself so that I can look back and appreciate these things. A lot of these things are simple things that I find myself learning, forgetting, and then relearning again in different stages of my life.

There is more to life than Rochester, New York.
I love my home and family and everything that has contributed to who I have become-- but I think that moving to a foreign country across the world for 5 months and living with people who come from cultures that do not particularly like America is a very testing experience. I did not exactly get what I bargained for in terms of flatmates. However, I don't regret that I ended up where I was. Living in this environment taught me that there really is a lot more to the world than I generally focus on in my day-to-day life, and that knowing about what is going on and being educated is a lot more important that I realized before. All of this may seem really self-explanatory, and I thought I had it all figured out before I came here. Meeting people from all over the world made me realize that there is so much to the world and so much to be explored.

I am 20 years old, not 90.
I realized (recently, actually) that sometimes I live if the rest of my life is to be lived in the next 5 years, not 70. Before I came here, I spent so much time analyzing the minute details of every aspect of my life, worrying, analyzing, and trying to micromanage and plan everything. I won't lie and say I've stopped doing this-- I will probably always do this. I will say that I have recognized more than I have before than all of this planning is somewhat fruitless. We have the rest of our lives to do so many great things, and I have really realized for myself that anything that prevents me from focusing on my goals and doing what I need to do for myself in this life is not something that I should spend time on.

I love Le Moyne college.
I have always loved Le Moyne, and I have developed the same kind of love for Essex. Essex has been an amazing home away from home to me, but Le Moyne is my home. Le Moyne is where I have really grown up into what I would consider (I guess my parents are the real test of this) a real adult. I walked into Dablon Hall freshman year on the first day of the semester as a complete baby. I had no idea, my head was up in the clouds and the world was so fresh and new and scary. I can honestly say, even after overlooking Paris from the top of the Eiffel at night, throwing a coin in the Trevi fountain in Rome, stumbling upon Big Ben by accident, and drinking a Guiness in the top of the Guiness factory in Dublin that I have had the best times of my life in Syracuse, New York. LMC is where I have made the best friends that I have ever had in my life and will ever have. I am absolutely dying to see anyone who has the link to this blog, so this all refers to you!! I by no means have any regrets about coming here, and I have loved everything about this place and the people I have met. However, with that said, I have realized that I would rather be no where else in the world for my senior year that at Le Moyne running around downtown with all of you guys.

No matter where you run, you're going to end up running into yourself.
My original intent for studying abroad was for a complete fresh start and a renewal. I can most definitely say that I got that here with a group of new faces of all different cultures, new campus, new country, new everything. However, as time goes on, fresh starts stop being fresh and you are left with the person that you were before you left your home. I wouldn't say this is a bad thing, because I would say that I'm proud of the person that I have become, no matter how many idiotic mistakes I have made. I guess I can say that coming here and realizing that you are the same person with the same past wherever you go was kind of refreshing to me in an odd way. This realization made me want to continue to work on being a better person in any way that I can as I progress onward to the next stages of my life.

Well, I am one exam, twelve days, and a lot of really sad goodbyes away from returning home and starting the next chapter.

Cheers England, I'll be seeing you.

REVISION

I think I am going to experience death by caffeine. Studying for finals is murderous.

America I'll see you in 27 days!

Who knew volcanos actually mattered?

The last time I consciously thought about volcanoes was 5th grade when we learned about them. Since then I am pretty sure that word has been 100% nonexistent in my vocabulary. Now I have developed a very strong dislike for them, seeing as the volcano in Iceland caused both my Greece and Barcelona trips to be canceled. Bummer of the century in my book. However, I did get to spend an amazing three days in Rome! We had to once again pull an all nighter to get to the airport in time for our 6:10 am flight. After arriving in Rome, we took an hour bus to the city center and walked for a while attempting to find our hostel. This was my favorite hostel yet. It actually was somewhat visually appealing, had really comfy beds, a hot shower, and friendly owners. I also enjoyed that they had candy out on the front desk all the time...not kidding I probably ate at least 20 jolly ranchers by the end of my stay, it was pretty much my breakfast every day. Our location was really great too. Rome is actually a very small city. We walked the entire time without taking the metro at all to save money. I actually found that walking was a better way to see all the little things that aren't on a map-- amazing gelato shops, tiny side streets filled with mopeds, and amazing architecture. I threw a total of four coins in the Trevi fountain during my stay...hopefully this will bring extra good luck. They say that if you throw a coin in, you are destined to come back to Rome. Here's hoping, because I am in love with this city. Part of me wishes I had studied abroad there, even though my Italian speaking ability is nonexistent.

The first day there we visited the Trevi, Spanish steps, and walked and saw lots of different monuments. One of my favorite places was the huge garden in the north of Rome. If you look at a map, it's actually shaped like a heart...of course, it's Rome, why wouldn't the gardens be shaped like hearts? In the middle of the park there was a small clearing with a fountain and some benches, and sitting there, it honestly felt like we were smack in the center of the universe. It was so quiet and amazing. The quiet was, however, ruined when a creepy man came up to us trying to sell us roses. When we declined he said, "No no! A gift!" So we all reluctantly took the roses he handed us...seconds later, "Now you give me some money for my sister?" When we refused to pay him, he tried to insult my friend Joanna by calling her Japanese...really, that's all you've got? That night we went back to the hostel and fell asleep at 6:30 pm because we were SO exhausted.

The other people staying in our room were all so nice and normal, which is a change! Two of the boys were American, one German (who looked like Jake from the Bachelor, seriously twins) and then an Italian businessman who was around 30, I would guess. He was SO nice and helpful, and circled everything we should see on our maps for us. The way he talked about Rome was amazing because he loves the city so much and has so much pride for Italy.

The next day we went on a guided tour of the Colosseum, Roman ruins, and the hill where Rome was founded. It was pretty surreal to be standing in the center of the place where so much history has happened. Later that night we attempted to find real Italian cuisine, but as our tour guide informed us, you can't get the real deal Italian food in Rome. For that you have to go outside of the city or to a place like Venice. The food was good, but I can honestly say I like my Dad's spaghetti and meatballs better.

Day three was supposed to be our last day in Rome and first night in Venice. We walked to the Vatican and took some pictures, and then said goodbye to Rome before heading back to our hostel. Just as we were gathering our things to go to the airport, Jelyse checked her email and found that our flight to Barcelona had been canceled due to the ash. We tried calling the airport with no luck and couldn't figure out what to do, so we decided to go to the airport and figure something out. After an hour ride, we waited in line for another three hours only to be told that there were no flights to Barcelona until Monday, which would have been pointless as our flight home from Barcelona was Tuesday. We decided the safest thing to do would be to fly back to England. In all honesty, we all shed some serious tears over this one. After booking our flight for the next day, we decided we were going to stay at the airport over night, but had to go get our luggage first. So we took the bus back and then had to sprint through the street to get to our hostel in time to make the last bus of the night. We unfortunately didn't make it in time, so we stayed in the hostel for another night and got on our plane in the morning.

SO, here I am, back to lots of studying and anxiously waiting for exams to be over (not until June 5), my trip to Germany June 8-10, the End on the 11 (big celebration party on campus), and summer ball the 12th. THEN I go home June 14!! One month from today, I can't wait to see everyone.

That's all for now, lots of love.

5 May 2010

Off to Rome for 3 days then Barcelona for 3! I'll make some wishes for everyone in the Trevi Fountain!

6 weeks to go.

So today is the official first day of summer term. I really don't get what the point of this term is. We basically have an entire month to study for finals with one revision class for each subject. I guess I'm not complaining, it's just weird!

In light of not being able to go to Greece because of the volcano, I went to London from Thursday until Sunday. Thursday night Liz and I went to the Kate Nash concert, which was amazing! It was at a really small venue, so we were literally 10 feet away from her. Friday Liz went to Beligum for the day with her family friends who were visiting, so I met up with Jelyse, Joanna, and Chris and we went to Hyde park and laid out for the day. Friday night Christie and her friend Sara and I went out to dinner at this AMAZING Italian place. Sara almost got mugged before we went into the restaurant and it was so scary. While she was at the ATM people came up waving around newspapers and yelling and then managed to try and withdraw 200 pounds from her account, but she took it and ran. Yikes. Friday night we somehow made it into one of the notoriously elite clubs in London...it was INSANE and not real life. One of the girls in Christie's program met these guys from Nigeria who like hanging out with Americans, so they took about 10 of us out for predrinks at a place where one small champagne glass of a drink was 11 pounds! So the equivalent of about 16 or 17 American dollars. We then went to this club called Runway, where you usually have to be on a guestlist and pay a ridiculous cover, but we all somehow got in without paying anything. We knew we were out of place when we had to do a fingerprint for the coat check. The place was really cool and fun, but I don't see why anyone would pay that much money to do the same thing you can do at any other normal club.
Saturday Liz and I went to Regents park and took a nap in the sun until dinner. For dinner we got Mexican, which was amazing also. All the restaurants in London are soooo good but so expensive!! My meal cost about 17 US dollars. And that's on the lower end in terms of cost. At night we met up with Thomas, Brendan, Michael, and some of there friends and went to a small pub for a few drinks. I've known those boys since kindergarten...who would have guessed in our St. Louis days that we would be in London together 15 years later? It's so weird how time flies and how small the world is.
On Sunday I was scheduled to leave London with a prepaid ticket at 12:20 pm. I left Liz's flat at 11 am...and didn't make it back to Essex until 5 pm. It should be a 50 minute train ride. Apparently my train was canceled because of construction, so I had to take a combination of 5 different buses and trains. The bus I took went through a terrible neighborhood and I was pretty scared. I have definitely gotten the hang of traveling by myself and figuring this stuff out on my own, but I definitely did not enjoy having no idea where I was going and just showing up at another station with no clue what train to get on next. After being away for the weekend, I always feel so relieved to get on the bus from the Colchester train station, going through town, passing Tesco, and seeing the towers in the distance. Colchester feels like home after running around big and busy cities.
I can't believe I'll be home in six weeks. I am SO EXCITED. This has no doubt been the best experience of my life, but I will be so ready to come home to the most amazing friends and family. I was going to try to surprise my parents by coming home a week early, but there are no flights for when I would want to go. And I think that my Dad might have had a heart attack if I showed up at the door unplanned. My Mom would probably just start laughing and crying but I really think my Dad would actually go into shock and possibly be mad that he didn't know I was flying across the Atlantic Ocean. I know that time is going to fly, and I have another trip planned for Rome and Barcelona! Should be a really good time. In the meantime, my thoughts are seriously always with everyone at home, and I cannot wait until I can see you all and hug you for hours.
LOTS of love from England

10 April 2010

"To find the balance you want, this is what you must become. You must keep your feet grounded so firmly on the earth that it's like you have 4 legs instead of 2. That way, you can stay in the world. But you must stop looking at the world through your head. You must look through your heart, instead."

Easter

I went to London on Sunday afternoon for Easter with Christie, which was a nice escape. After a two hour train ride to get there, we walked around Kensington Park for a while and enjoyed the sun. Before dinner we went and got the most amazing gelato, mmm. Then we made chicken for dinner and just hung out with her flatmates. Later that night we went out, which is definitely a first for Easter. The next day we went to the Victorian and Albert Museum and looked at some amazing photography, then went on to the Natural History Museum and saw the dinosaurs, rawr. It was actually really cool. I feel as I get older and have traveled more I have become a lot more interested in history and museums. I wish I could have been this interested when I was actually taking history classes and it mattered. I took the train back at 7 last night and it took me three hours to get home because of all the construction on the tube and railways.

I just did my taxes, hooray for not getting hunted down in England by the IRS! Today I am going to go for a run, take out some books for my sociology paper, attempt to pick out my Le Moyne fall classes, and then go to the reading room tonight and attempt to bang out this paper so it can be over with. GREECE two weeks from today, yay!