Coming Around

     Here it is. The final days of my time abroad. And I am feeling so ready to go home. I feel bad being this ready to go home, I know I should try to soak up as much from these last five days as possible, but I am just really ready to be back. It's not because of the people or the place, it's not because I can't handle my lifestyle here, but I'm just starting to miss pieces of home. I miss my parents. I miss my best friend. I miss Nashville. I  miss my room. It's been over four months since I've even seen my parents faces! I have been so good all semester about making the most of my time here. I really have no regrets. If bored I would walk around Glasgow and explore the city, I saw a lot of Scotland, I did a lot of European traveling, I truly tried to live in the moment every day. But right now I'm just longing for Friday. I feel that my time here is truly at an end and that I have done everything I can, everything I want to do. I'm going broke, and I'm tired and loosing my motivation to go out. I'm in a happy place right now with my study abroad experience and I will feel satisfied when I leave.
     Something in me this past week has changed. I can't really explain what it is, but something inside me has... settled, for lack of a better descriptor. I have done so much by myself over these past four months. I moved to a foreign country where I didn't know a single soul and I made it through the four months successfully. I met some great people along the way and made some great memories. I've been very happy here. But I don't want to be here forever. If more than anything, this experience has made me ready to go back home, back to Hendrix, complete my last year of university, and get that  diploma. The aimlessness inside of me has been settled for now. This experience has helped me to see where I belong in the world, in a physical sense, and I feel that I belong somewhere close to home.

     I will miss Scotland, though. For the rest of my life there will be a special place in my heart reserved for this county, as corny as that sounds. On Thursday and Friday I took a short trip to the Isle of Skye, the one other thing in Scotland I really wanted to see before I left. It was absolutely beautiful. It would have been a shame to be over here and not see it.  Driving through the Highlands on the bus was something I will never forget. It's strange, the mountains aren't even that pretty, taken on their own, they're brown and rocky, not lush and green like the countryside of some other European countries, but the grandness of them makes them beautiful, almost unreal looking. The mountains posses a presence that I want to be a part of. The most scenic places in the US can't compare to the Scottish Highlands. I will miss that. Leaving Scotland isn't goodbye, though. I hope that I make it back here someday, and maybe next time I come I'll be searching to settle again.

Isle of Skye, Scotland

Eurotrip Meets Day After Tomorrow

  Wow, so much has happened since my last post almost four weeks ago! These past four weeks have been some of the best weeks I have had while abroad. 
    
     I left Glasgow on April 4th for Brussels to meet up with my friends from Hendrix, Jordana and Rachel for two weeks of travelling. Jordana and Rachel are currently studying in Brussels so I met them and saw the city before we all left together. I really enjoyed Brussels. It reminds me a little of Glasgow, except it has a much more European feel. My favorite part of Brussels was all the food, obviously, after all, it is a big part of the cultural experience of Belgium. I ate several Belgian waffles and don't think I can eat an Eggo waffle ever again. Belgian beer put Tennant's, and dare I say, Strongbow, to shame. And the chocolate was just so damn good. 

  Early Wednesday morning backpacks and rolling suitcases in hand, me, Rachel and Jordana left Brussels for our first stop, Berlin, Germany. Berlin was by far my favorite city we visited. I felt like I just clicked with the city. It had a great vibe to it, and I never felt like an outsider. I do love Glasgow, but coming here I didn't even feel the immediate connection like I did in Berlin. I could envision myself living there. I would really like to go back some day and see more of Germany in general. Something I'll always remember about my time in this city was the first night we were in town and went into a residential neighbourhood. The neighbourhood was quaint and lively. Starving after a day of travel, we stopped to eat at a local restaurant. The weather was so that it was actually acceptable to eat outside. Coming from the UK I was soaking up the weather that allowed you to walk around outside without multiple layers of clothing or boots, and to actually see the sun uncovered by clouds. We had a great meal and then headed down the street to an English bookstore where European hipsters and intellects read selections from various books. Here we met the rest of the people we would be travelling with for two weeks. After the reading we went to a local bar with everyone. It was a great kick-off to the trip.  

 
     After Berlin we went to Prague, Czech Republic. I thought Prague was the most beautiful city we went to. Unlike Berlin where I could see myself living, Prague was a great city to be in for a few days just to see the city and its architecture. A few things I will always remember from this city: The great meal we had (does anyone else see where this is going? Obviously, food was an important part of the cultural experience for me) at a Micro Brew on our second night in town. Stuffing myself with numerous carbs such as dumplings, potatoes, and beer, I was a happy girl. There's something so great about eating a nice dinner after a day spent walking around an unfamiliar city. I always appreciate sitting down at a new restaurant, trying to decipher the non-English menu, and usually being pleasantly surprised at the meal served to me. I'll also remember the cathedral. It was so intricate and had so much stained glass. It's been my favorite European cathedral I've seen by far. And the view from the top of the hill where the cathedral was was as equally beautiful. 


     From Prague we went to Vienna. Something I should mention is that we took buses from Berlin to Prague and Prague to Vienna, Austria. I love bus rides. Most of the time I prefer bus to train. A nice, leisurely bus ride through the beautiful European countryside isn't such a bad way to spend your time. I liked Vienna, but not as much as I enjoyed the other cities we went to. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy it and it is a beautiful city, but not beautiful in the way the Prague is or a place I would want to live like Berlin. It was also raining the whole time we were there which did not make walking around the city great. Something I'll always remember about Vienna are the museums we went to. I'm really glad we went to the museums. We saw Klimt's "The Kiss", and went to another Klimt museum that also had work by Egon Schiele, and artist who I'd never heard of who was inspired by Klimt. I really liked Schiele's work, maybe even more so that Klimt's and seeing "The Kiss" in person is something I will always remember. And of course there was good food. Vienna is known for its coffeehouses so we made sure to go to several. One day instead of a real lunch we had a delicious snack of various coffee drinks and cakes. 

After Vienna we went to our last stop, Budapest, Hungary. We had heard bits and pieces of news of the volcano that irrupted in Iceland, but didn't realize how severe it was or how we would be affected until our flights back from Budapest to Brussels and Glasgow were cancelled. We found out on Friday when we got in that our flights were cancelled, so the only thing we could think to do was to go to the train station the next day and try to get tickets back to Brussels. Long story short, we basically had one full day in Budapest and spent most of it in the train station waiting in line to get tickets. We were actually quite lucky that we got tickets when we did and that we made it home on the day we were supposed to. We did have the evening to explore Budapest, which we spent walking around town in the amount of daylight that was left. Our hostel was in a very central location so it was easy to get around. Budapest was beautiful, not at ALL what I expected. I didn't really have any expectations of Budapest, but I didn't think I would like it as much as I did. It was so green and lush and had a lot of character. The weather was lovely and we were outside at the perfect time of day just as the sun was setting, my favorite time of day. We ate some great meals in Budapest. Hungary isn't on the Euro, and everything is very cheap. The first night we arrived we ate a three-course meal with a couple rounds of drinks for under 15 Euro. I would NEVER eat at a restaurant like the one we went to that night in Glasgow, not even in the U.S.


  The next morning we got up very early for our train. We were ready to embark on our 14-hour train ride and get it over with. The first train we got on was fine, we all had seats. The second train we took which was the one that went through most of Germany was hell on tracks. The train was overbooked and we didn't have reserved seats, so we had to stand the whole time. OK, I'm being dramatic, we did get to sit but it was on the floor with our legs in awkward positions with absolutely no personal space. There was no toilet paper in the bathroom (did I mention we were right outside of the bathroom and right by the train doors so people had to walk by us when they boarded or wanted to use the bathroom?) and a woman fainted. Every time we arrived at a train station and more passengers boarded everyone groaned but really couldn't help but laugh just because the amount of people on the train was ridiculous. There were a lot of British people on the train to Brussels. The Eurostar train has a stop in Brussels, so most people trying to get back to the UK went to Brussels with the hope they could get a spot on the Eurostar. For the most part people on the train were in good spirits. Even though I don't know a word of German people seemed to be very friendly, cracking jokes, making room for people to sit on the floor, giving up seats for people who needed them more. It could have been an even worse situation if people weren't friendly but the fact that everyone was in a good mood made it so much better. It was such an awful situation that acting unpleasant would have made it so much worse.  I wonder what Americans would be like in a situation like that. After we got off the second train we only had one more train to take until we arrived in Brussels. We had to stand on this one, too, but the train was under three hours and at that point standing for three hours felt like nothing. 
     

  Once we got to Brussels I found out I couldn't get back to Scotland until Friday (we got to Brussels Sunday night) unless I was willing to pay an additional 300 pounds. So I had a week to kill in Brussels. At first I was frustrated just because after travelling for two weeks, and packing enough clothes to only last me one week, I just wanted to get to my wardrobe, my bed, my own shower, and I hate to say it, my laptop. I realized that this was the ideal place to get stuck in though, I had a free place to stay with friends, I was safe, it was easier to get to the UK from Brussels than other places in Europe...so I chilled in Brussels until my train left on Friday. It just gave me more time to eat more chocolate, waffles, and drink more beer. I also took a day trip to the lovely town of Bruges, which I'm really glad I had the additional time to do. Finally, on Friday, I took a train through the English chunnel to London via the Eurostar and then took a 9-hour bus ride from London to Glasgow. It was an exhausting day but was so good to be back in Scotland. 
     Then on very early Tuesday morning I left for Ibiza, Spain with some of my friends from university here. Ibiza is an island off of  Spain and a very hot tourist spot for British vacationers. Almost everyone we ran into there was British, and all the restaurants were English style pubs. It was a lovely couple of days watching the sunset and laying out on the beach. It was good to see the sun and appreciate the warm weather. However, of corse the trip did not go as smoothly as planned when I was trying to leave and I nearly missed my flight back to Glasgow. That could be a whole other blog entry, in fact, I should start another blog about getting lost and missing flights and busses,  but the important part is that I made my flight and arrived back to Glasgow on time. 

      Now I am back in Glasgow. I have a little time to breathe until my next departure. Classes officially ended Friday, and finals start next week. Angela, my close friend from Hendrix and roommate of last semester, is coming to town on Sunday so of corse I am excited about that! We are meeting in Edinburgh and staying the night and doing sightseeing things on Monday. After Angela leaves I have a week of down time and a final to take, and then I go to Italy for a week! After Italy I have another final and only two weeks until I get back to Nashville. I will be staying in the UK for those last two weeks, soaking up the time I have left abroad. 
     This afternoon I walked around Glasgow when it began to hail and pour rain. I was so angry! I am just over this weather. Wet and defeated, I came back home and went back out a few hours later. It was 7pm but the sun was still out and shinning bright, and I realized that I could never be angry with Glasgow or my life here. I have become really used to the city. I finally know my way around town, I have the same grocery store I go to and I know what store is good for what, I know public transportation here, I have a cognitive map of the city,  I'm getting used to 24 hour time...It's all coming together after a full three months. I am not ready to leave yet but I will be ready to go home. Let's hope these last four weeks are as great as the previous four!

 Brussels. First Belgian Waffle

  Brussels

 Berlin. These bears were everywhere

 Berlin wall

Prague. The Cathedral

Prague. View from the top of the hill

 Vienna. Best coffee break ever. Of course I couldn't wait and took a bite out of the cake immediately after it was served.  

Vienna. Jordana, Rachel, and I in front of the Belvedere gardens, the museum where "The Kiss" is. 

 Budapest. Right before consumption of the best dinner ever. 

 Budapest sunset

 Bruges, Belgium

Bruges, Belgium

 Bruges, Belgium

 Ibiza sunset

Ibiza sunset

 Ibiza bay

An Easter to Remember

     Tomorrow I begin my two week vacation across Europe. Arriving in Brussels tomorrow will definitely be an Easter Sunday to remember. I am so ready for this break. It will be epic.  So goodbye Glasgow, goodbye Internet, goodbye being clean and at least trying to look nice, hello hostels, hello peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and hello Europe! Be back in a few weeks!  

Scotland hasn't stopped me from being a foodie

     Last semester I took a sociology class called "Food, Culture, and Nature". I was drawn to the class because of an initial interest in food production and origin. I read Fast Food Nation in high school and was struck. I never looked at food the same way after reading that book. So I had always had an interest in food, but I wasn't quite aware of how interested I really was until I took this class. This class helped me revisit a passion I had forgotten about. 

     Since I came to Scotland almost nine weeks ago (!) I've been noticing food here. How can you not notice food? We are food. There are a lot of difference in food here and that's just with basic groceries. For starters, food is way more expensive here. In class we learned how food in America seems cheap but it really isn't because the cost is hidden in the taxes we pay. Now, obviously I don't pay taxes here, but I better understand how this works. Here the costs aren't hidden in taxes. You pay for what you get on the spot. I don't want to elaborate as I don't know the situation that well and don't want to make uneducated generalizations, but it does seem that the government here doesn't give subsidies for certain foods like the U.S. does, say for example, with corn. I haven't seen corn syrup listed in the ingredients of ANYTHING here. It's so refreshing to buy granola bars that don't have high fructose corn syrup as a part of the ingredients. Another small difference I've noticed here is that calories are listed in plain sight on everything. On the front of every package the calories, sodium, fat, and sugar content are listed for every serving. There's really no way to live in denial about how many calories one is consuming when downing that traditional Scottish meat pie. You see the calorie content before you even open the package.  

     By far my favorite part about the food here is the dairy. The dairy-milk, cheese, yougrt- is down right delicious. I eat yougrt almost every day here, where at home I probably only eat it once a week, if that.The yougrt here doesn't have that artifical taste like it does at home. It taste like it's actually made with real fruit and pure ingredients.  I drink milk constantly here, at home I don't even buy it. At home milk upsets my stomache and makes me feel sick. Here I can handle it fine. I enjoy drinking milk. I will miss dairy when I get home.

Another interesting thing I've noticed is how eggs are sold and packaged. The eggs here are all brown, they don't even sell white eggs like they do in the U.S. The yolk is also much darker than it is from an egg you'd buy from Kroger. Something I thought was really cool though, was how all the eggs here are labeled. All eggs are stamped with a number sequence and each number stands for something. They label what farm the eggs came from and if the eggs are organic, cage, barn, or free range. You know exactly where your eggs have been.  

   

   

     In my food class the importance of local produce was constantly reinforced. If one tried to eat locally here they would have very limited options: potatoes, beets, radishes, cabbage, etc. Sometimes the produce can be pathetic looking, but sometimes you get a good batch and you'd think it was grown ten miles down the road. At home I would never even think of buying plumbs in February. Here you don't really have a choice. Since the produce is coming from places like Italy and Spain where fruit like that usually grows year round it's all the same. I don't feel bad buying summer fruit in winter. 

     Being here has also reinforced what a social gathering food can be. It can be so solitary, eating and cooking by one's self, but when done with other people can be so much fun. Several weeks ago I cooked dinner with a Scottish couple in their home with other international students. I was so grateful for the family to open their home to me and the other students. They said they've hosted 15 international students in five years! Crazy. We made crepes (not a traditional Scottish dish but made in honor of pancake day) with Scottish fillings and Scottish pancakes, which they eat for dessert here, not breakfast. The food was quite tasty and it was so nice to be in a home. 

   While I'm here I should share another good cultural experience I had yesterday. I have been feeling sick this past week and was patiently waiting for it to wear off. Well, yesterday I had enough and decided to go to the doctor. Of course this school doesn't have a nurse or clinic on campus so I had to go to the infirmary, which fortunately is right across the street from my residence. I can see it from my window. At the beginning of the semester I registered with the National Health Service and got assigned to a general practitioner. I called the infirmary to make an appointment with my GP, but couldn't get in until April 7th! I won't even be in Glasgow then. I found out that the only way I would be seen was to check in at the emergency room, seeing that apparently there are no walk in clinics in Glasgow. Apparently people walk into the ER to get looked at all the time. Fortunately it was a quiet day and I didn't have to wait long. I got in to see the doctor, he looked at me for about ten seconds, diagnosed me with a throat infection and handed me an antibiotic on the spot. "Uhhh, quick question", I said, "Do I need to check out or pay before I leave?", I asked. He stopped and looked at me for a second and said that I was good to go. I'm sure my accent cued him into the fact that I'm American and have no concept of free medical treatment.  So I walked out of the hospital with a free consultation and free medicine all because I registered with NHS. It sucks that I'm sick, but I'm kinda glad I got to see that happen. My mind is still blown. 

     I really like Scotland. There are a lot of difference between Scotland and the U.S., but the differences are good. They're manageable and haven't been too much of a culture shock. This country is a little quirky and  a little rough and I like it, but when it comes down to it I'm still loyal to the good ole' U.S.A., for better or worse. Even if we can't walk out of a hospital emergency room for free, and don't know where our food comes from, at the end of the day I'm American and wouldn't want to bitch about any other government. 

Halfway Home

    Yesterday marked the half way point of my study abroad experience. It's been two whole months and I only have two more to go! If the next two go by as fast as the last two did it seems I have no time left. It's not nearly enough time. It's so weird that this will be over come June 5th. I've been planning for this since freshman year! 
     Not much going on here. This past week was rough just because of things going on at home and it seemed to drag on. The next two weeks will mostly consists of getting my essays done, but once April gets here things will start to pick up. Most days seem pretty normal now, and usually consists of essay writing or future trip planning with running errands around town and attending classes thrown in. 
      Spring break plans are coming along swimmingly. The itenerary looks something like this: Brussels, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest. I'm excited! It'll be great to travel to all the different places and see so much of Europe. Then once I get back from spring break I'm hopefully going to Ireland, friends from Hendrix might come visit (!!), another weekend trip to Edinburgh, and I'm going to Italy for a week. Plus I have two finals to take in there. It should be an eventful and busy two months! 
   

I Want it All

     As I sit here staring at my computer I feel a lot of things. Sadness, desperation, loneliness, exhaustion, my body aches...yet in a strange way with everything that's going on, there's a part of me that is also very happy. Happy for the people I have in my life. Happy that I realize what an amazing family I have. Happy that I can just pick up the phone to call home and know that someone will be there. Happy that I am sad that I'm so far away from home. It would be bad if I wanted to stay here forever. So many times in my life I've been selfish, and jealous, and now I realize how life isn't about that. I guess it is still about me, but what's the point of living when you have no one to share living with? I've seen so many beautiful things here, so much breathtaking scenery that makes me sit back and think there must be a God, but so many times I've thought "I wish my family could see this with me".  I want to just turn around to someone and say "isn't this beautiful?". I'm still excited to be here, and I love Scotland, but I can picture myself on that graph they showed us so many times at study abroad meetings. I know I'm on the downhill, but I know I'll come back up. I just need some time. 
     Life can be a little bastard full of surprises. It'll punch you in the face and leave you on the ground. But it can also show us amazing things and sometimes we're lucky enough to see it reveal its true beauty. I guess you've got to accept the bad, just to know how good the good can be.  

From England to Poland

     What a crazy week. I began my journey early Wednesday morning when I took a bus from Glasgow to Machester, England. The bus ride was actually quite enjoyable as the Scottish and English countryside were beautiful. Once I got to Manchester I had to take a train to Chester where Michelle is living. Of course I got lost and couldn't find the train station. I tried to find it and aimlessly walked around Manchester for about an hour. Manchester seems to be a pretty cool city so I'm glad it was the city I got lost in. I wandered into a used book store and felt at home. While looking through their select selection of travel books I saw a Nashville and Memphis tour guide. I almost started crying. 
     I kept walking and the clock kept ticking so I knew I had to just bite the bullett and ask someone for directions. I saw two older women walking out of a store and asked them which direction the train station was. As I was getting ready to open up my backpack to pull out a pen and paper, they asked if I wanted a lift to the train station. I was shocked by their kindness, almost at a loss for words, and I gladly took them up on their offer. I got to the train station, successfully got on the train, and arrived in Chester about an hour later. I am so glad that Chester was the town in England I was able to visit. It was everything I thought an English town would be. The weather was absolutely beautiful during the several days that I was in town and I was so happy to be in such a nice, quaint town all the while in good company. 
    Very early Friday morning we left for Poland. The flight itself was an experience. Let's just say with Ryanair Airline you get what you pay for. Friday afternoon we arrived to our hostel, met up with everyone, and saw the city. It was so great to see friends from Hendrix, share some good laughs together, and to be called P-Hop again. I didn't really know what to expect of Krakow before getting there, but I was pleasantly surprised by the city. We walked to the top of the castle right as the sun was setting and the city looked beautiful. Saturday we walked around the city and stopped for lunch at a tradional Polish perogie resaurant. The perogies were everything I thought they would be, they were delicious. 
     That afternoon our plan was to go to Auschwitz. I had a lot of anxieties about seeing it. If just reading about it made me feel sick, I couldn't even imagine what it would be like to actually be there. I knew that it was something that I had to see, and something that I would never forget.To get to Auschwitz we had to take a 1.5 hour bus ride. The bus was weird, very narrow and cramped with blue lights illuminating the interior and soft rock hits playing in the background. When we got to the stop for Auschwitz I was surprised. It was in the middle of a neighbohood, restaurnts, homes, and hotels were all in the vacinity, people were walking their dogs past the camp. Being inside is something that is inexplainable, no words I write will be able to capture what it was to be there.  As we were walking out of Auschwitz to get back on the bus to go back to Krakow there was a sunset. Even though I wanted to say that the sunset was beautiful, it wasn't. I was in Auschwitz. I kept thinking of Ann Frank and how in her diary she says nature is a cure for all wounds. I really believe that it is, but this is a wound that can never be healed. How can something as beautiful as this sunset exist in a world that's so cruel? How can extreme beauty like this sunset even be seen in the same place as a place like Auschwitz? 

    
     Sunday morning we left Krakow for what I knew would be a long day of travel, but not as long as I was anticipating. Long story short, I missed my bus from Manchester to Glasgow because the name of the bus was different from the company I booked with. The worst part is is that I had been in Manchester for over 3 hours waiting! I had to take two trains to get back to Glasgow. I'm thankful I still got back on the night I was supposed to even though I was truly exhausted when I finally arrived to my flat.
     This weekend I came to a realization about what has changed in me since the six weeks that I have been here. For the first time in a long time (or maybe even ever) I haven't been worrying about the future. Thoughts of up coming plans and where I'll be when don't stress me out. I have absolutely nothing to be stressed out about here, and for once I'm soaking it all up. I fee like I'm truly living in the moment. It's a good way to live.  


***In other news unrelated to my Poland trip, last week I also went to a Scottish family's home to make dinner. Stay tuned for my next blog as I plan to discuss that experience and one of my life's passion: food!!***